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By Emmanuel Williams

For a good while this blog and my attempts to upload my thoughts, creative ideas, and opinions had mixed with bursts of reporting. Today I feel like making more arguments and pursuing current events that are relevant and ongoing sources of information to report on.

I’m happy to report that I always have something to say when I’m enjoying a sporting event. That can only mean one thing to me: reporting sports.

Officially, I’ll be covering the events I have access to, with the only caveat being that I have to like the league, the sport, or the team on screen.

And oh am I going to go HAM when I really like a team or an athlete.

So along with my usual personal and political essays, the original fiction and poetry, I’m adding Sports Reporting & Opinion to Stick Fist.

I feel a responsibility to tell my regular readers and anyone looking for a definitive statement in the future about the leagues, teams, and events I will be willing to cover from this point on.

NFL. I am a hardcore, and longtime Denver Broncos fan, but I also follow our division, the AFC West, so I know how hard it’s going to be to win our division come playoff season. That means following the Kansas City Chiefs, San Diego Chargers, and completely ignoring the Las Vegas Raiders unless they are an actual threat in honor of a traditional rivalry between our two teams. I try not to be an agitator in this rivalry but maintain a healthy sportsmanlike respect for all NFL teams.

Outside of our division, there are legendary teams that I feel good or bad about and you will learn which as we go along. I have no patience for the Dallas Cowboys, Russell Wilson, or the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers are the fave team of an old childhood bully and neighborhood rival, so I will not be in their corner should they meet any team across the NFL.

NBA. I am a longtime Denver Nuggets fan. By now you may realize I live in Colorado, where I’ve lived since I was 5 years old. I’m now 37 and have seen ups, downs, and behavioral dynamics concerning all of our sports teams. I used to be a fan of baseball, to which I still follow the sport, but will not torture myself trying to support the Colorado Rockies, or rush to the games of other teams ( I do like the Yankees, the Cubs, and the Brewers) for my blog. I’d rather sit with a hot dog and enjoy rather than engage critically for my blog with so little of a stake in the MLB.

As for the hype factor with the NBA, I barely care for other teams than the Nuggets, I don’t have an NBA team I don’t see value in. No contentious rivalries I’m aware of. It really is a a game I can enjoy, critique well, and occasionally play more often than American Football as there are far more hoops in our neighborhood than there are fields.

WTA. In fact I will follow all major tennis tournaments. The US OPEN, Wimbledon, Australian Open, Roland-Garros/French Open. I’ve become a rather huge fan of Amanda Anisimova lately and am impressed with her mountain shifting performances so I’ll be following her aggressively. I can’t wait for the match where she finally beats Aryna Sabalenka.

I tend to focus on Ladies matches rather than Men’s matches. But I’ve been watching tennis since about 3 years before the Rafael Nadal/Roger Federer rivalry dissipated, a time when the Williams Sisters were in their prime. 

Since COVID I’ve quietly waited for Novak Djokovic to be dethroned over our difference of opinion on the necessity of vaccination. You may of may not recall that he refused vaccination in preference of staying sharp and its potential interference with his athletic health regimen. Even if, in my opinion, if everyone is getting vaccinated no matter the risk to their sharpness he would be the only one with the advantage he perceives which gave him an unfair advantage actually. I forget whether he was barred from playing very long if at all, but I was very pro-vaccination during the time and still am.

But he’s been a top notch player and it is still a pleasure to watch his matches. If there is a current threat to the reign of the Tennis Joker, it may be Carlos Alcaraz.

For Wimbledon I usually wear Ralph Lauren at my desk, they sponsor the court for this tournament and perhaps even the US Open.

WNBA. I followed Caitlin Clark from the year she stood out during March Madness around two years ago, and I’m always putting together a bracket in March so look forward to that too. But she electrified the game until the rest of the league started tearing apart the beast, which if you’re going to win, you’re pretty much obligated to do. So Clark sat out the majority of this last season, but should she come back I’ll pay more attention to the league. It goes without saying that I’m keeping track of the Indiana Fever and they may come up in future posts to Stick Fist.

I’m working on paying more attention to the Premier League and European Football (Soccer) at large, but that’s a work in progress involving waking up extremely early on weekends to catch matches. So I’ll keep you updated on that.

Ok, I think I’ve covered enough for now, but I’m going to be fair and look across each league for highlights worthy of history, records broken by phenomenal players and teams. I’ll be very active in the journey to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, and Tennis Majors, but I will also be extremely excited any year there are the Olympics. 

The world stage is the best stage. Some would say it is the only stage that matters.

Be well.