By Jason Bryden
Assistant Sports Info Director
Where has this year gone? It seems like only a few weeks ago when sports editor James Bedrock asked me to do articles for The Elm, consisting of the top five NFL games of the week.
Some weeks it was easy picking the top five, but other weeks were tougher, as there were a lot of good games. Cutting down to five was tough. I hope everybody enjoyed the top five. I learned a thing or two from it.
Partaking in the picks was fun, but being a fan of the Chicago Bears, I felt obligated to take Chicago each week. Some people gave me grief for it, but I would rather go down with my ship than jump ship.
In the spring semester, I got to write my first column for The Elm, and it was about how Peyton Manning delivered in the Colts to the Super Bowl and how Brett Favre cost the Vikings a shot to get to the Super Bowl. It sure looked like we were going to have a Favre-Manning Super Bowl until Favre foolishly threw across the grain where Tracy Porter of the Saints picked it off. The Saints would go on to beat Favre in the NFC Championship Game and the Colts two weeks later in the Super Bowl when Porter intercepted Manning late in the fourth quarter for the game-sealing touchdown.
With the NFL over, it was time to write about other things in the sports world. Fortunately, the Olympics were taking place, and ice hockey was my new writing emphasis for a couple of weeks. After doing a preview for the first week, the second one was about the possibility of the NHL not allowing its players to play in the 2014 Olympics in Russia. I said it then and I will say it again: Let the players play in 2014.
After I wrote a couple of articles on March Madness, I wrote probably my most satisfying article on Jimmie Foxx, the native of nearby Sudlersville who is enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Why was it the most satisfying to me? I was finally able to shine the light on one of the best baseball players of all-time who is pretty much forgotten. From my viewpoint, the two greatest first basemen to ever play the game are Foxx and Lou Gehrig.
I definitely look forward to contributing next year to The Elm.
Lastly, I want to wish the Class of 2010 the best. You all came in with me four years ago when I began my job as the assistant sports information director here at Washington College, but now you will be leaving for your next endeavors, and that is hard to believe. The four years have gone by fast. Best of luck to all of you.