football

Today on Stateside, we get a preview of the top priorities for Michigan lawmakers as they return to Lansing Tuesday for the fall legislative session. Plus, why the number of full-time librarians in Michigan schools is shrinking, and what that means for students. 

It’s game day in Denver.

Before the Broncos start playing football, players are announced as they sprint onto the field through a smoke-filled tunnel shaped like three wild, galloping horses.

This pregame ritual is only a couple minutes long, but for an NFL team, it’s a really big moment. 

“It is on a national stage a lot of times,” says Liz Coates, Game Entertainment Manager for the Broncos.

“It’s what TV uses when they’re rolling out … highlights,” she says. “A lot of that footage gets used.”

Americans have become obsessed with concussions, and with good reason. But for medical professionals, it’s a double-edged sword: people are interested, but they also have more misinformation.

For example, concussions last only a week or two, while smaller, more frequent hits can result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE – but the two are often lumped together.

Sports and politics entered a tense situation this weekend as the president denounced athletes who take a knee during the National Anthem to protest racial injustice.

At a rally in Alabama, the president said this to the crowd:

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out. He’s fired. He’s fired!”

The Next Idea

I confess that I love football. I played it in high school. Some of my teammates went on to the college gridiron, and one of them even had a long career in the NFL. That’s the dream, isn’t it? Big plays and big money on Sunday. Well apparently things are changing these days, and with good reason.

From a band kid growing up in Florida to a fearsome offensive tackle who played 18 seasons in the NFL, including 11 years with the Detroit Lions, Lomas Brown has a story to tell.

He was named to the Pro Bowl for seven straight seasons. And he got a Super Bowl ring with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Western Michigan University Coach P.J. Fleck has announced he’ll leave the Broncos for the Minnesota Golden Gophers next year.

Fleck led what John U. Bacon, Michigan Radio sports commentator, called a “dormant” team to a successful 13-1 season. The Broncos were the only team, other than Alabama, to enter the bowl games undefeated.

On Friday night, a football state championship will be on the line when Deckerville High School and Powers North Central square off. The game will be played in Greenville, which is just northeast of Grand Rapids, and for those in attendance it will seem like your average high school football game. Except that instead of 11 players on each side, there will only be eight.

A few years ago I had the chance to work out with the Michigan football team, for a six solid weeks. I lifted more weights than I any writer should, followed by an ungodly number of sit-ups, pushups and pull-downs.

Just 15 minutes into my first work out, I was sweating like a pig, and panting like a dog. You could have taken my pulse by touching my hair.

It wasn’t long before I was running to the trashcan to get rid of my breakfast.

Political writer George Will, a famously avid baseball fan, once said football combines the worst elements of American culture: violence, and committee meetings.

Football isn’t getting rid of the committee meetings, also known as huddles, but this week the Ivy League decided to reduce the violence.

2015 was a pretty good year for college football fans in the state – especially for fans of its two Big Ten schools.

The Michigan Wolverines finished their 2014 season in horrible shape, on and off the field.

After the students held a campus rally, hoping to get athletic director Dave Brandon fired, a popular website, MGoBlog, did the job for them. When MGoBlog published Brandon’s insulting emails to fans, including, “Quit drinking and go to bed,” Brandon had to resign.

As summer fades into fall, another season of high school football is set to begin.

Jai'Shaun Isom is a Junior at Detroit Community High in Brightmoor.

He's spent most of the summer practicing with his team in northwest Detroit.

When he wasn't on the football field, he was in school, learning how to make this radio story:

Right now it's baseball season, and hockey and basketball playoffs are underway.

It's also women's football season.

First of all, yes, if you didn't already know – women's football is at thing.

There’s the Legends Football League, aka the Lingerie Football League. Which is exactly what it sounds like: helmets, cleats, shoulder pads … and push-up bras and bikini bottoms.

Then, on the fully-clothed front, there appear to be two main leagues.

With so much buzz around Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh, Michigan Radio sports commentator John U. Bacon thought he'd recount the coach's beginnings at the university.

Harbaugh's father was a defensive backs coach under the leadership of Michigan's legendary Bo Schembechler, and during this time Harbaugh was a ball boy for the team.

After it was discovered that 11 of the 12 game balls used by the New England Patriots during their victory against the Indianapolis Colts were deflated, the media created a new-found obsession over the PSI of a football, in a scandal  dubbed "deflategate."