Clip of the Week

Well, The Red Cowboy may or may not have stolen my Clip of the Week this morning... he'll never know for sure what I intended to do here today, so I'll just let this public shaming make him feel bad about himself and proceed.

Luckily, I've always got a few tricks up my sleeve for this most cherished of weekly posting traditions, so I've got some options at my disposal. The cubed halfpipe is fantastic, but so is this awesome living music video from the people of Grand Rapids, MI--a big "eff you" response to the Newsweek writers who referred to Grand Rapids as a "dying city". Amazing coordination and a cool concept. I also considered posting this video about... good lord, what is that thing?... but, no.

Ultimately, I'm a big homer when it comes to sports (not as big as John Sterling, but pretty big), and it's not every day that the home team brings home a title. So while I may not be the biggest lacrosse fan in the world, and I'd trade 5 lacrosse championships for one College World Series title (the pursuit starts tomorrow), I have to give some recognition to the Virginia Lacrosse team for this most unexpected of national championships.



To say that the UVA lacrosse team has had a strange last 12 months would be an extreme understatement. After last May's murder of women's lacrosse player Yeardley Love--apparently at the hand of men's lacrosse player George Huguely--both programs were thrown into disarray.

The men's team put in place some fairly strict team rules--with the goal of rehabilitating its image and making sure nothing similar ever happened again--and then stood by those rules when two of the team's best players violated them, kicking them off the team. In doing so, the team immediately went from favorite to underdog, but did so knowing that it was placing team unity and solidarity above all else.

Apparently, their gamble paid off, and the team deserves a significant amount of credit for their actions. Many (or most) of the players on the team deserve no blame whatsoever for what happened last year between Huguely and Love, but they nevertheless recognized the need to step up and lay down the law.

It's fairly amazing to see the last 12 months of turmoil end in triumph, and I applaud the players who saw the value in doing things the right way, regardless of the likely outcomes. Congrats to them.