Brian Becker is a junior majoring in computer engineering. Brian can be reached at brian.becker@tufts.edu.
To many of us, CDs and records are relics of the past. While they were once collected by our parents and grandparents to access music, the widespread use of the internet has given birth to digital media. The size of one’s collection slowly gave way to the strength of one’s internet connection as the primary measure of music accessibility.
Ask anyone who has been to a professional sports game in this country and they’re bound to give you a strongly worded opinion on the sights and sounds that occur within both the stadium and arena experience. Many diehards will be quick to scold the corny music played during play, asserting that it takes away from the gameday product and the “game’s gone” because of it. Other fans, however, will be quick to laud and praise the gameday experience, pointing to the Red Sox’s “Sweet Caroline” or the Bruins’ “Livin’ on a Prayer” as mainstays within fan culture.
It is quite a rare occurrence for a player to be hated by their own club for so long. The tale of Kai Havertz is certainly interesting, but it just makes sense. When you score a club defining goal, you become a club defining player, regardless of what happened before the moment. Havertz turned contenders into champions and anxious fans into content ones.
Antonio Brown. That guy? Oh, yeah, how’s he doing? The man who became a social media trend in 2021 for angrily throwing his jersey into the stands at MetLife Stadium in a game between the New York Jets and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and who is now under a bevy of legal trouble, has a reputation as one of the most controversial, yet talked about players in the NFL — for all the wrong reasons.
He’s a box office superstar talent, bringing fans through the turnstiles. Pundits might even argue he’s the most watchable player in the NBA with his shifty step-backs and silky smooth layups, moves that he practiced growing up in his West Orange home without a backboard square. While fans are left in awe from his on-court craftsmanship, his off-court controversy has ruffled at least a few feathers and even prevented him from showing up to work.
Mark Knopfler’s song “Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero” provides Newcastle United fans with a sense of local pride. While not as mainstream as Premier League football, Tufts host communities of the Medford/Somerville area — and beyond — provide plenty of intense rivalries from the professional stage down to the local community. All of which, in the eyes of some fans, define the true meaning of a ‘local hero.’ In the same spirit, I’ve compiled a guide of the greatest local sports games happening within the local area fit for Tufts students, as well as Medford, Somerville and Arlington residents alike, to attend.
When the New Jersey Devils Fanatics Instagram page graced my feed last night, crying out to the world that there was only one more week left until hockey returns to Newark’s Prudential Center, I knew I had to write about the NHL, and about one player in particular. This player — a clear locker room presence, cheapshotting players left and right, blowing up group chats by angering opposing fans and, yes, a back-to-back Stanley Cup Champion — has certainly been a complete thrill to watch as a neutral fan.
Ayahuasca sipper and podcast activist. Turn on “Sunday Night Football” between 2014–21, and you’re bound to hear the words, “Aaron Rodgers throws to Davante Adams for 6.
Sports are defined by moments. Moments captivate us, anger us and most importantly, entertain us. With the rise in short-form content, such moments are only increasingly consumed by the masses all over social media. Moments in sports are critical to defining our fandoms, and our opinions formed from them define our views of the players.
While April is the month of spring showers, we are truly blossoming into the greatest month of the professional sports calendar year: the NBA playoffs. Big names like Jayson Tatum, Nikola Jokić and, of course, Lebron James generate box office numbers for weeks on end. However, I encourage you to turn to a league which has arguably leapfrogged the NBA in two major categories.
