Identity Magazine

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pause :23 Breakdown of NBA rules:25 NHL Conference Set up:27 Laws of NFL Free Agency

LEARN

MVP:39 Evgeni Malkin Leads Scoring Race

Woman of the Month:40 Pat Summit’s Best Year Yet

Honorable Mentions :42 Top Trends and Who to Follow on Twitter

FOLLOW

Food for the Game:46 March Madness Munchies:47 Easy tailgating meals

Beyond the Game:51 Endurance Boosters:53 Who’s wearing what

IMPROVE

KNOW

Rewind :7 Eli Manning does it again:10 Key MLB trades

Play :12 Peyton Manning’s future:14 NHL trade deadline

Fast Forward:16 Let’s Play Ball:18 Prior to the Madness

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TOP PLAYER PERFORMANCES, RGIII’S 40 YARD DASH AND OTHER HIGHLIGHTS THAT HAD THE SCOUTS TALKING.

:20BEST OF THE NFL COMBINE

JEREMY LIN TAKES THE STAGE FOR THE NEW YORK KNICKS STARTING A CRAZE IN THE NEW YORK NATION.

:35WHAT IS LINSANITY

PERHAPS THE MOST SURPRISING WIN IN ALL OF BASEBALL.

:56RYAN BRAUN APPEAL

NAWAL EL-MOUTAWAKEL AND OTHER WOMEN OF THE I.O.C. FIGHT FOR WOMEN IN THE OLYMPICS.

:67HURDLING OVER GENDER INEQUALITY

A PERFECT SCORE:48SHAUN WHITE HITS A PERFECT SCORE IN THE SUPERPIPE DURING THE WINTER X GAMES.

Photo Credit: Transworld Snowboarding

FEATURES

:3Identity

First career start vs FalconsHad below par passer rating and was benched in the second half in favor of Kurt Warner.

CAREER TIMELINE

li Manning proved he was an elite quarterback in 2011, but he must strive to be even greater in 2012

After garnering attention and disdain from media personalities and NFL fans alike with comments in an August radio interview with WEPN-AM 1050’s Michael Kay, in which Manning placed himself in the same class as Tom Brady, the New York Giants quarterback backed up all his talk with the greatest season by a Giants quarterback ever. The season culminated in Manning and the Giants’ second Super Bowl victory in five seasons.

For the first time in Manning’s career, he is drawing respect rather than scorn, but now is no time to settle for all that he has accomplished in his eight-year NFL career.

Surrounded by a team that can only get better and a front office always striving to do so, Manning’s greatness and the Giants’ success are perfectly timed. Certainly a season in which the Giants quarterback threw for 4,933.

ELI MANNING DOES IT AGAINand will take the next step in 2012

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A championship is a championship. Each one is special. Each one has special moments during the season and, obviously, different teammates.

“Eli Manning

The Ups and DownsThrew for 3,244 yards, 24 touchdowns, and 18 interceptions. Finished the season with a quarterback efficiency rating of 77.0 (18th in the league).

Named NYG Starting QBFinished among top 5 QB’s in both passing yards and TD passes as he brought the Giants to an NFC East title.

Change of HeartManning lead the Giants as a wildcard to the playoffs. After carrying the Gmen through 3 upsets, he showed his true resilency as he defeated the 17-0 Patriots and was named Super Bowl MVP.

Photo Credit: The MovieMind

1st overall pick by ChargersNYG created deal in which they would draft and trade Phillip Rivers and two draft picks for Eli Manning.

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March 2012

yards, 29 touchdowns with a career-best passer rating of 92.9 will be difficult to top, let alone replicate in 2012. But if there were a quarterback in the NFL able to do so, it’s Eli Manning.

Manning has made consistent progress over the course of his eight-year career. He is one of just two quarterbacks in the NFL with at least 3,000 yards passing and 20 touchdowns in the last seven seasons since 2005—his first full season as a starter for the New York Giants.

The two-time Super Bowl MVP has quickly become the greatest fourth-quarter quarterback in NFL history and he’s far from done. According to Cold Hard Football Facts,Manning is tied with Johnny Unitas for the most fourth-quarter comebacks in a quarterback’s first eight seasons with 21.Manning’s NFL-record 15 fourth-quarter touchdowns contributed to a record-tying seven fourth-quarter comebacks, lifting the Giants to seven of their nine regular season wins in 2011. His two game-winning drives in Super Bowl XLII and XLVI put him in comfortable company with the likes of Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw and future Hall of Famer Tom Brady.

Driven by his love for the game and his need to win, Manning will not settle for being an elite quarterback. He wants to be the elite quarterback; he wants to be the quarterback everyone is compared to.

Heading into the 2012 season, Manning will have the opportunity to place himself atop the pedestal while leading his Giants teammates on an optimistic path to defend their Super Bowl championship.

With unquestioned, undoubted poise and leadership at the quarterback position for the Giants, there is no reason to doubt him. Manning is better than he has ever been, focused and dedicated to being the very best that he can be.

Combined with an unmatched unit of talent including the likes of Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz and Ahmad Bradshaw, Manning is fully capable of becoming the sixth quarterback to pass for 5,000 yards in a single season.

More importantly, Manning is on a favorably-timed upswing to surpass the likes of Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees, three quarterbacks widely regarded as the very best in the NFL.

He has silenced his haters by accomplishing all that’s been doubted of him since the Giants’ controversial trade with the No. 1 draft pick in 2004.

He has proven to be a quarterback capable of winning the Super Bowl. He has proven he is elite. With a few more great seasons like he posted in 2011, Manning is almost a sure lock for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But in 2012, Manning will take the biggest leap of the career—becoming the best quarterback in the NFL.

And there’s not a single thing anyone can do to stop him.

In 2012, Manning must be even better.

And he will.

The Highs and LowsA career high year including 4,021 passing yards, 27 TD’s, 62.3 completion percentage rating and 93.1 passer rating. Yet the collapse in the second half of the season failed to bring the Giants to the postseason.

Not EnoughCareer high 31 TD passes, but also a career high 25 interceptions and 62.5 completion percentage. Giant’s 10-6 was not enough to make the playoffs.

De ja vuThis year a 9-7 record granted the Giants an NFC East title. Manning broke records with 21 4th quarter comebacks and 25 game-winning drives. He lead his team to a Super Bowl rematch with the New England Patriots. With a record breaking year, it is no surprise that Eli Manning was named MVP and a Super Bowl Champion with a team that was “all in.”

Unexpected EndingAfter being named NFC Offensive Player of the Month in November, and getting a ticket to the Pro Bowl, Manning lead the Giants to becoming the No. 1 seed in the NFC. Yet had a disappointing end to the season as they lost in the divisonal round to the rivaled Philadelphia Eagles.

2007 Eli Manning, MVP

2007 NYG Super Bowl Champs

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Rewind

When a player is fouled while in the motion of shooting.

If the basket is still made in spite of the foul, the player is granted one free throw attempt. If the basket is missed while being fouled, the player is granted the number of free throws relative to the attempted shot.

Contact that puts safety and health at risk is unnecessary and/or excessive contact.

If a technical foul is called, the opposing team is granted one free throw shot with no one around. The team who was fouled also gets possession of the ball.If the foul was excessively flagrant, this may result in ejection of the player.

BREAKD WN

Shooting Foul

Technical Foul

The NBA is a fast-paced game in which players must have a combination of acute skills and endurance. With each dribble, pass, and shot, the momentum of the game can change. Knowing the rules of the NBA is essential in keeping up with the pace of the game. As a fan, the more you know about the game, the better the experience. Pause right here as we breakdown the most significant rules of the NBA.

NBA Rules

March 2012

Continued on page 28

At the point in the game when the team reaches seven fouls, on the seventh foul the team is said to be in bonus. In bonus, a free throw is shot for each foul. If the first free throw is made, a second is attempted. If the first free throw is missed, the ball is considered live.

PenaltyWhen the team reaches ten fouls, they are said to go into penalty. The player who was fouled gets two free throws no matter where the player was on the court.

When a player steps without dribbling.

When receiving the ball, a player cannot take two steps before dribbling. They are allowed to pivot their feet, but cannot switch their pivot. If a player steps without first dribbling, it results in a loss of possession.

When a defensive player touches or blocks the ball as it is on its way down to the basket.

When the ball is shot, a defensive player can touch the ball on its way up or at the peak of the shot. If the ball is touched on its way down, goaltending is called. The basket is then counted and the ball is given to the defense as if the shot were made.

If a player stops dribbling, holding ball still in hand, then continues to dribble.

The moment you stop dribbling, a player has two steps to either pass or shoot the ball. If they dribble the ball after stopping, it results in a loss of possession.

Pause

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Double Dribbling

Traveling

Goaltending

Bonus

O!ensive RulesAn offensive player cannot stand in the lane for more than three

seconds. They must move outside the paint after three seconds or they lose possession.

:03 seconds

If an offensive player holds the ball for more than five seconds while

being guarded closely, then the ball is turned over.

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The offense has eight seconds to get the ball past halfline once

receiving possession or it will be turned over. Once the ball is past the halfline, it cannot go back.

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Traveling Signal

Photo Credit: BBC

Block Illegal contact that impedes

the progress of an opponent. Offense granted possession

from the spot of the foul.

Charge An offensive foul that occurs

when a player runs into a stationary defender who has

position. Defense granted possession from spot of the foul.

vs

|| Player Positions

PG

SGsF

DDefensive players mainly F & C for

rebound purposes

DDefensive

player primarily PG

( 1) Point GuardBall handler and distributerUsually the fastest on the team

(3) Small ForwardScores points via cuts in lane

Seeks rebounds & steals on defense

(2) Shooting GuardHigh volume of shots on offenseMainly long-rangedGuards best perimeter player

(4) Power ForwardPost playerDefends under the basket

(5) CenterUses height & size to score

Protects basket and rebounds

Based on average play

Defensive Player

OffensivePlayer

Continued from page 23

C pF

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Free Throw Set-Up

While Malkin isn’t quite on the same pace Crosby was last year (1.41 PPG versus Crosby’s otherworldly 1.61 PPG), what his work this year has in common with Crosby’s truncated 2010-11 is that it gives the Penguins, for a second straight season, the best player in the NHL.

“He looks like in 2009, when Sid went down he kind of took over and was playing unbelievable,” defenseman Kris Letang said of Malkin following Sunday’s 4-2 win over Tampa Bay. “His game is better than it was two years ago.”

“I think he’s playing great hockey, and it’s the first time I’ve seen him being that dominant.”This is the same Kris Letang who saw Malkin win the Art Ross and Conn Smythe Trophies in 2009, the second of two straight years in which Geno also finished as Hart Trophy runner-up to Alex Ovechkin.

Before tempering the excitement of the weekend’s 12-goal outburst with reminders that Winnipeg and Tampa Bay aren’t the ‘95 Devils, let’s agree that with all respect to Claude Giroux, Henrik Lundqvist and the rest of the NHL, no one is more deserving of the Hart Trophy at this point than Evgeni Malkin.

Malkin used a three-goal, eight-point weekend performance to dramatically push his Art Ross bid to an NHL-leading 69 points in 49 games, seven points more than Claude Giroux and Steven Stamkos, who place second and in fewer games than any of the NHL’s top-35 scorers.

“When Sid was going on his streak last year, it was kind of the same thing. It opens up ice for everybody else,” linemate Chris Kunitz said. “Every time [Geno’s] on the ice it feels like he’s got a great chance to score a goal or make a play.”

LEADS NHL SCORING RACE

MVP

continued on page 43March 2012

Photo Credit: The Breakaway

Malkin’s consistency has also helped Neal, a notorious first-half performer, to keep scoring. Neal has 19 points (8G,

11A) in his last 14 games (beginning with game 43, the first of the second half of the schedule).

Kunitz, too, is benefiting from Malkin’s clutch play. Together, the current top line has accounted for 12 game-winning goals—one fewer than the rest of the team combined.

All told, this is Malkin’s sixth year in the NHL. He’s set to lead the Penguins in scoring for a third time and capture the Art Ross Trophy for

a second time.

If that’s the case, there should be nothing to stop him from being league MVP for the first time in his

professional career.

In Spite of Games Missed With InjuryAs we mentioned earlier, Malkin has played fewer games than anyone in the top-35 of NHL scoring. That hasn’t prevented him from opening up a seven-point lead on current runners-up Giroux and Stamkos, who have played three and six more games than Malkin, respectively.

Malkin missed seven games early in the season while still experiencing discomfort in his recovery from knee surgery the previous spring. The time off hasn’t stopped him from hanging around the top of the league in most offensive categories.

His 32 goals trail only Stamkos’ 37 and his 37 assists are sixth in the NHL. Malkin is also fourth in the league with seven game-winning goals, a stat that does not take into account the shootout (since no shootout goal is considered a ‘goal,’ no game-winners can be awarded). Malkin is 7-for-9 (78% equivalent) in the shootout this season, an area in which his production was previously Steve McKenna-like.

Per game, this is the most productive Malkin has ever been.

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goals32

7 game-winning

goals

THROUGH FEBRUARYEvengi Malkin

Clutch Evgeni is ClutchNumbers aren’t the only determinant of value, and players with the most points or goals don’t always capture the MVP hardware.

Making big plays in big moments has been one of Malkin’s new tricks this season.

Malkin has also been the model of consistency, scoring 17 goals in his last 17 games and currently enjoying an 8-game home goal scoring streak, the Pens’ second of the season. Of the five 8-game home-scoring streaks since the lockout, two belong to the Penguins—Malkin and Neal—and both this season.

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March 2012:43Identity

March 2012

THIS

IS

Two questions.Who is this Jeremy Lin?

And where did he come from?

In a mere two weeks, New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin has gone from an unknown to the most

compelling story in sports. For basketball commentators, he’s been the gift that keeps on giving: turning in amazing

performances night after night since coming off the bench and propelling the Knicks to a seven-game winning streak. His

humble personal profile is in stark contrast to the over-the-top enthusiasm his play has generated, which goes by the buzzword

(perhaps you’ve heard?) Linsanity.

It all started back on February 4, when Lin, an overlooked, undrafted player from Harvard (not exactly a basketball powerhouse) was brought

in for a game against the New Jersey Nets. He scored 25 points in that game, and since then he’s been on an unprecedented tear. Not only is he

just the shot in the arm that the troubled Knicks franchise needed, he has also quickly become an Asian American icon, rare in sports and exceedingly rare in

the NBA. (Lin was born in California but his parents emigrated from Taiwan.)

During Lin’s improbable ascension, one word has been repeated over and over again: Linsanity. The first mention I’ve found is in hyphenated form, in a headline for

an online article on that fateful Feb. 4 game: “It’s Lin-sanity! Knicks score win over Nets” read the headline that night on Frank Isola’s report for the New York Daily News.

Linsanity was also a hit on Twitter, where it became a popular hashtag after dramatic Knick wins. (The NBA’s precursor for Linsanity, by the way, was Vinsanity, coined in1998

when Vince Carter played his phenomenal rookie season with the Toronto Raptors.)

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Linsanity has turned into such a popular buzzword that some opportunists have tried to get into the action. Yenchin Chang of Alhambra, California was the first to file a trademark application for the term. The domain name Linsanity.com has also been claimed, of course, selling T-shirts and other Lin gear. The owners of the site run the Twitter account @jeremylinshow, where they say, “We knew that Jeremy would blow up like this one day, and bought the URL Linsanity.com years ago.” The domain name was actually created on July 17, 2010. If it was really Jeremy Lin-inspired (and not, say, Lindsay Lohan-inspired), that would show remarkable foresight, since Lin signed his first NBA contract, with the Golden State Warriors, about a week after that.

Before this month, the word Linsanity had shown up in relation to a very different celebrity: the actress Lindsay Lohan. Gossip blogger Perez Hilton had used Linsanity to refer to Lohan and her erratic behavior since January 2009. Shortly thereafter he also began using Lindsanity, which ties Lindsay and insanity a bit more closely. There’s quite a big difference, of course, between the Lin(d)sanity of Lohan’s wacky personal life and the Linsanity that surrounds Jeremy Lin, a remarkably grounded young fellow. The Hollywood Gossip blog recently compared Lindsanity to Linsanity, and the results aren’t pretty for Ms. Lohan.

twittertrends

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March 2012

Photo Credit: Ibtimes

Photo Credit: USA Today

Lin’s last name, in its simplicity, has lent itself to all manner of eponymous puns beyond Linsanity. It certainly works better for creating eponyms than a long, difficult name like Blagojevich. As for Lin, most of the punny coinages fall into three general groups:

Lin + word beginning with in-: Linsanity, Linsane, Lincredible, Linspirational, Linvincible, Linternational Love, To Linfinity and Beyond

(Lin also combines with words beginning with im-, yielding both Lin-possible and Limpossible)

Lin + word beginning with Cin- or Cen- (where C is a consonant): Linderella, Super Lintendo, Linning, Linja assassin.Linsational

Lin + word ending with -lin’: chilLIN, kilLIN, styLINLin’s been asked about all of the plays on his name.

“I didn’t know that you can turn Lin into so many things,” he told the Daily News last week. “Me and my family were just laughing last night. I guess we underestimated how creative everybody can be.”

Creative variations have been on display on fans’ signs, both at home at Madison Square Garden and on road games. One sign changed the Knicks home arena into Madison Square Guard-Lin. Knicks color commentator Walt Frazier, who has a

penchant for rhyming combinations like slicing and dicing and swooping and hooping, introduced Linning and winning to his repertoire. Linning has proved popular on Twitter too, likely a callback to the #winning hashtag that Charlie Sheen’s antics inspired last year.

Gothamist has rounded up even more Lin puns, and if that’s not enough, there are now websites like The Jeremy Lin Word Generator and Linify It for the truly Linsatiable.China has also gotten into the act, since the Lin story is huge news there. As Victor Mair reports on Language Log, Linsanity was first translated into Mandarin Chinese as Línfngkuáng, though that actually works out to something like “Insane Lin,” which is a bit off-target. “It is not cute or clever the way Linsanity is,” Mair writes. “It is clumsy and clunky; just doesn’t sound right.” Fortunately, a better alternative has sprung up: Línláifengkuang, which Mair explains is a pun on the Chinese expression renlaifeng.

As I told Bloomberg News, Linsanity is emerging as an early contender for the American Dialect Society’s Word of the Year. Will its popularity, and that of other Lin-novations, die down as the basketball season progresses? Only time will tell, but I’m just glad that Linsanity has replaced Tebowing as the sports eponym of the moment.

March 2012Photo Credit: The League

March 2012

Photo Credit: Peace Players International

NAWAL EL-MOUTAWAKEL1984 HURDLES CHAMPION

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Photo Credit: Peace Players InternationalAre sports a human right? Is it a right to head out the door in running shoes or bare feet and work up a sweat; a rigaht to shoot on goal or drive to the basket in pursuit of personal fitness, fulfillment and, lest one forget, fun? The answer in much of the world appears to be a resounding “yes.” The health benefits of exercise are clear, even if professional sport can take a good thing too far and break down bodies instead. There are, of course, countries and communities where sports are a luxury, not a given; where the daily quest to survive takes precendence over balls and games. Then there are the places, fewer and fewer, where sports remain a given only for men.

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Saudi Arabia, a deeply conservative Islamic monarchy, is the most prominent holdout, which is causing quite a stir in this Olympic year. Human Rights Watch released a scathing report last month and called for the International Olympic Committee to force the issue by threatening sanctions. The I.O.C chose more subtle diplomacy, but the stir still seems to have contributed to change - both symbolic and perhaps more substative - as Saudi officials, after meetings with the I.O.C., are preparing to name their country’s first female Olympian. Most likely, she will compete in track and field, which has universality slots available that require no elite-level qualifying standard. Elite would be quite a stretch for Saudi women at this point in time. They lack physical education classes in public schools, lack an established competitive structure and, despite rising obesity rates, lack a mainstream culture that encourages women to exercise because of fears in some sectors that sports are a slippery slope to immoral behavior. “As far as we know, Saudi Arabia is indeed the only country where discrimination against women in sports is so systematic,” said Christoph Wilcke, principal author of the Human Rights Watch report. “There are poor countries in the world that don’t have the means. Saudi Arabia is not one of them.”

Gender balance is no guarantee of sporting virtue. East Germany’s women won championships and Olympic medals in abundance during the 1970’s and 1980’s but did so, as it turned out, with the help of a state-sponsored doping program that has left bitterness and health concerns in its wake. But the I.O.C. seems rightly ever more committed to the idea that its Games should put men and women on equal footing. This is quite a turnabout for an organization that was founded in 1894 and did not name its first female members until 1981, under the leadership of Juan Antonio. “Like many other organizations throughout the world, the I.O.C. was slow to recognize the importance of gender equality,” the current I.O.C. president, Jacques Rogge, wrote in an opinion piece the committee released this month. “Even so, we were ahead of our times by some measures. We opened doors for women long before most regions of the world accepted the idea of gender equality.” The I.O.C. still has only 20 women among its 106 members, but female members have been added at a rapid pace since 2006, and women are taking on increasingly prominent roles. Nawal el-Moutawakel, the 1984 Olympic hurdles champion from Morocco, is in charge of the oversight committee for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro after having headed the evaluation committees that examied candidates for the 2012 and 2016 games.

March 2012

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RIO WINS 2016 OLYMPICS CANDIDACY

Moutawakel, a potential successor to Rogge, remains a symbolic figure herself. She is the first woman from an Arab or predominantly Muslim country to win an Olympic title. Though she has lobbied for change in the Muslim world’s attitudes toward female athletes, she has avoided direct confrontation since her early support for a protest group, then called “Atlanta Plus,” that was pushing hard for nations to include female athletes in their teams at the 1996 Games. “When we brutalize things, brutalize people, the wound is very difficult to heal,” Moutawakel told me in 1996. “These people who come from these countries never imposed on the Occidental athletes to wear the veil when they run. Why should the Occidental world impose that they wear shorts to run?” In 1996, 26 nations sent only male athletes to the Olympics. In 2008, only three nations took that approach, and it looks likely to hit zero in London. A more aggressive I.O.C. tack might have accelerated that, but it also could have created a cultural backlash in the Muslim world. And there is no questioning the healthy trend.

The I.O.C. has also drawn criticism for dropping softball, a women’s sport, from the Games after 2008. But there has been undeniably steady growth in female participation at the Games. Women made up 20.7 percent of the athlete pool at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, 34 percent in 1992 in Barcelona and 42.4 percent in 2008 Beijing. Rogge expects the percentage to increase again this year in London, where women’s boxing will make its Olympic debut. It will be the first Summer Games where women will compete in all the same sports as the men. “While such parity is an important achievement, it should not be cause for complacency,” Rogge wrote. “Far too many women and girls continue to be denied opportunities to experience the joys and benefits of playing sports.” Rogge could have phrased that differently, of course. He could have written that far too many women and girls continue to be denied the right to experience the joys and benefits of sports.

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Photo Credit: NY Times