The Innocence of Sports and Youth

By Jared Trexler

We at The Phanatic encourage our readers to express their opinions in an open and honest manner, creating a discourse that is both informative and passionate. When our articles strike the cord of YOU, our readers, feel free to email us at the designated address below our work or at the "Staff" link on the right side of the screen.

Our writers have received several emails since this site's inception in March, but none hit a home run more than an email I received tonight in reference to our column found on this very page Monday morning, titled GameDay Observations.

I basically tore the Giants a new one, justly deserved, after some of them acted like a bunch of babies throughout a very-winnable 23-20 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Other emails may have used bigger words, validated points with concrete numbers and possibly even told me where I should spend the rest of eternity, but none demonstrated the passion between sports and youth like this one.

The following is an unedited email (and an attached picture) I received from 14-year-old Henry of Brick, New Jersey:

"The OC and Tiki Barber story was pretty good, and the big Ben bash thing. But I saw the Giants stink article, and frankly, I'm neither amused nor in high spirits about some expressions that you used. The reason Plaxico Burress and Jeremy Shockey are waving there hands when they're open is because they're trying to make the most plays as possible. When missing the Giants all time receptions leader (Amani Toomer), Plaxico and Shockey are going to be flailing their arms. And try playing with a Tim Carter and David Tyree. When you said Jeremy Shockey is going to seem like a hero because he played with a SEVERELY sprained ankle, he pretty much was! He gives the emotion to the New York Giants offense, and the rest of the players thrive off of it. He's the Michael Strahan of the offense. When he broke like 4 tackles and lost his helmet, any other player would just go down and not care about the first down, but Shockey kept going for more and got the first down for the Giants. Eli Manning isn't that great (and I'll admit that) but he's 10 times the man Ben Rothlisburger is. The only people Eli has to throw to is Tiki, Shockey, and Plaxico. Eli goes through so much criticism about not being Peyton and how he's never going to be as him. But I have to admit, you are a good writer."

Couldn't you sense the passion with every word. Great stuff, and hey, I wasn't published at 14 years old. The greatness of sports is today's youth -- our next generation's players, writers and fans.

Feel free to chime in on our comments section or email one of our writers if you have any article ideas, disagree/idea with our points or just want to conversate about sports.

By the way, thanks for the compliment at the end. It softened the blow.