Gender Equality of the Future

By: Jimbo Brown

            I usually have an intro for you guys but today I had to get straight to the point. Over the weekend in the Alaska, a transgender teen was able to compete in the state championship track meet against the girls. Nattaphon Wangyot (have fun pronouncing that) who was born male and now identifies as a female was allowed to place 5^th in the 100m and 3^rd in the 200m dashes. The fact he didn’t dominate these races is the most disturbing. Back to the real problem is gender equality.

“I’m glad that this person is comfortable with who they are and they’re able to be happy in who they are, but I don’t think it’s competitively completely 100 percent fair,” Hutchison High School senior Saskia Harrison told a local CBS affiliate.

Gender equality has been a battle for our country since its birth in the yester years. Women are now seeing the success of their efforts throughout the history of sports. The battle is far from over. Over the years, we have added a new gender into the equation of life. The Transgendered. I have no problems with anyone who feels the need to change their gender. I believe one solution with solve this problem. For sports and in life we have to treat them as separate genders.

You will have Transgendered males and females. Requiring them to be recognized on official documents, exclusive restrooms and separate teams in sports. This will consider them independent and have the privacy of any male or female would have. This will keep the competitive advantages equal. Even though you may have the make-up of a male/female you have may have took hormones and PEDs given you another advantage that male/female get punished for.

The US government has to change their traditional ways of thinking and move into this new world we live in. The world has changed and if our mindset doesn’t change we will be doomed in the future. 

Culture Change for the Phins

          “We have to change the culture.” “We need to breed a culture of competitiveness, finish and intensity.” “We need to become a more aggressive front, team in general.” “You want to get the most out of them, you have to challenge them…they have to be pushed and they have to be worked.” “…we are going to scratch and claw and do whatever it takes to win your one on one.” “I want us pulling the trigger, I don’t want us playing conservative.”

These are direct quotes taken from Dan Campbell’s introductory press conference about two weeks ago. Dan Campbell, tight ends coach promoted to interim head coach after Joe Philbin was fired, talked the talk & definitely walked the walk. The Dolphins were pretty much sleep-walking through the first four games of the season, on to a 1-3 record. Everybody in South Florida had questions about why we were struggling and even performing worse than last season after all the moves that were made in the offseason. Campbell took over during the bye week & was like a 4 a.m. alarm clock and an ocean of freezing cold water in the Navy Seals that woke the players up.  From the 38-10 win against the Titans yesterday, the Dolphins appeared to be a completely different team & he implemented the culture change he kept stressing two weeks ago.

            Before Dan Campbell, the Dolphins were starting out slow, couldn’t run the ball, couldn’t score, couldn’t block, couldn’t set the tempo of the game, couldn’t stop the run, couldn’t get pressure on the quarterback, just couldn’t do anything right. After Dan Campbell, they scored their first touchdowns of the first quarter all season, we ran the ball and ran it successfully, pass & run blocking was improved, the game plan & play-calling was executed to the T, and the Titans were playing to catch up with us instead of the other way around. Lamar Miller got his feet back and looked like the running back that averaged 5 yards a carry last year. 

            Best of all was the defense, the constant pressure and the many big plays they made all game. The defensive line under Philbin was nonexistent and only had one sack coming into the game. Under Campbell, they totaled 6 sacks & Cameron Wake had 4 of them by himself. The whole d-line was getting after Mariota all game and he lost two fumbles & threw two picks. Linebackers held their own & the secondary was legendary, led by the huge pick-6 from Reshad Jones & the momentum-killing interception by Brent Grimes. All in all, the Titans finished the game with four turnovers, only 63 yards on the ground and only 4.6 yards a play. Not only did the Dolphins play an all-around solid game, but individually and as a unit, it was a great performance from everybody. Even the coaching staff had great moments. After what appeared to be an incomplete pass that nobody questioned from Mariota after he was pressured and hit, Darren Rizzi told Campbell to throw a red flag on the play. As it turns out, we got the ball back after it was reviewed to be a fumble. Even small decisions like being aggressive to try & score right before the half with under 2 minutes to go or when we were up by 14 points in the 4^th quarter, pinned down against our endzone inside the 5 and coming out the shotgun, Ryan Tannehill tossed a 38 yard bomb to Kenny Stills to get us out of that heat.

The season is still young and if the Dolphins continue to play like this, we might be able to salvage that 1-3 start and get ourselves back into the playoff picture. I was hesitant to get overly excited about Dan Campbell and his words in the press conference because I didn’t want to hear any more talking, I just wanted to see how they were going to come out and play. After one game, I saw the culture change, the intensity and the aggressiveness that he was talking about. Game ball definitely goes to Dan Campbell. But still, it’s only 1 game. Now we’ll see if they can follow up that performance with another win against the Texans.