That’s right, I’m opening the predictions door and stepping into a murky territory filled with parents, coaches and players waiting to bite my head off for “dissing” their team by predicting them to lose. Remember this, and I shall remind you every time I make predictions, that I don’t care at all who wins, that it’s just meant to have fun and most of all that it’s just a game.


BLOOPER REEL

So the other day I ran into my conscience and that little Devil guy on my shoulder.

I had this awesome/mildly funny video of a star athlete missing a wide open dunk. I’m not saying it rimmed out or bounced real high or anything like that. It was a straight rim rejection.

Now this certainly isn’t meant to poke fun or embarrass anybody – although I will leave his OR HER name out of the conversation and make you find it out yourself.

But the problem I ran into is whether it’s justifiable to post that clip on the site.

Here’s the conversation between the Devil and the Angel (picture me looking dumbfounded in between)

Devil: Oh my sweet JESUS, this clip is hilarious!
Angel: You can’t post that. It might hurt the kid’s feelings.
Devil: Oh come oooooon. It’s funny! Lighten up a little.
Angel: It’s not funny when something bad happens to somebody.
Devil: I disagree.
Angel: You would. Anyway, there isn’t any journalistic value to this.
Devil: But sometimes there is and anyway, people would definitely want to see it – even perhaps the kid – and we should give the people what they want.
Angel: You’re right, post it.

So I posted it. It was the first blooper I’ve posted since working at DigitalSports. It actually came down to the fact that the player who missed the dunk came back and had a huge game to lead his team to a win. So therefore, it kind of had some journalistic significance.

But it definitely opens up the question of whether it’s okay to post blooper videos.

I would NEVER, EVER, EVER want to offend anybody or hurt their feelings. But I don’t think bloopers are really like that. I mean does the baseball player who falls on his butt while backing up to catch an infield fly really feel upset about it? Are people laughing at him or with him?

I’m shading towards the laughing with him. There’s nothing wrong with a little blooper, and of course it’s not a blooper if it happens to lose the game or is really horrific or something. Then it’s just sad.

So, I’m going to start posting blooper videos, and I’ll make it clear with a label of “BLOOPER” at the start of the link so that way we all know this is to enjoy and not criticize. Alright?

Just for your brief entertainment, here are some bloopers I didn’t put up before I made this credo.

1)    Diver doing hardcore belly-flop … multiple clips.
2)    Basketball player not seeing pass coming at his head, leaving him woozy.
3)    Lacrosse player literally getting knocked out cold. This one sounds not like a blooper, but it was considering that he was the one trying to level the other guy and that after he came to I showed him the video on my camera and he thought it was awesome. So did his teammates.



My Co-Worker's Bogs:
T-Mac's Tuesday Take
Altered States
Murphy's Law
Ramblin' Man
The Paul Monitor