1. The Value of Passion
If there is one thing we at On Fire believe in the innermost regions of our hearts it is this: never apologize for passion.
Many have condemned Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall for his actions this weekend. After beginning a play by pre-emptively tackling the wide receiver whom he was covering, Hall proceeded to argue with the referees over the penalty assessed to him, going so far as to take off his helmet. Eventually, Hall was restrained by teammates before being ejected from the game. Hall faces likely suspension for next week as well.
This incident immediately calls to mind, at least for your On Fire correspondent, the Charlie Sheen situation of almost two years ago, one moment from that saga in particular. When asked by an interview about his anger issues, Sheen interrupts her in the middle of the question to correct her: "Not my anger ... My passion."
This is a mistake often made, both by the best among us and by your On Fire correspondent. Anger and passion are two emotions very easy to confuse, but very important to differentiate between. Anger implies irrationality. Passion implies that you care so much, you just cannot help yourself.
When asked how he would respond to his detractors, Sheen replied that he would do so "With love and violent hatred." Something similar can be seen in Hall's response.
His love is a love for the game. Can he help it is he loves football so much that he wants to tackle his opponent before he has received the ball? Can he help it if his passion is so great that it leads to violent hatred of the officials who try to keep him in check?
Do we at On Fire support Hall's actions? We certainly admire his passion – passion is one thing which is lacking from society in these times. Hall has that fire in his belly which can leads either to greatness or to utter destruction.
However, the only thing we at On Fire value more highly than passion is following the rules. Keep your head in the game DeAngelo Hall.
2. World Series
A salute from all of us here at On Fire to the San Francisco Giants for their World Series victory. We can honestly say that we never thought they would do it.
It has been a crazy ride through this baseball post-season. Things got off to a bit of a kooky start with the additional Wild Card, with people worried that undeserving teams would reach the Fall Classic.
Those fears proved groundless, and the next controversy to emerge was that of Alex Rodriguez, otherwise known as A-Fraud, who was benched for poor performance. We feel that Kobe Bryant summed up the situation best: "The difference [between us] is that sometimes he forgets he's the best ... Where I don't."
This is an incredibly eloquent summary of an extremely complex situation. Kobe was always known for having a way with words. Word on the street is he is going to go into spoken word poetry after retirement from the NBA. From all of us here at On Fire, here's hoping.
And then we came to the World Series. The Tigers were led by Miguel Cabrera, the first winner of the Triple Crown in 45 years (good trivia for parties: the last winner, Carl Yastrzemski in 1967, won with a .301 batting average, which is the lowest average to ever win a batting title) and Justin Verlander, one of only 24 pitchers to win the MVP award and the lucky boyfriend of SI Swimsuit edition cover-model Kate Upton.
The Giants, on the other hand, featured, in the words of Yahoo! Sports, a 'cast of characters.' We are not entirely sure what that means, but we are certain that not a single one of those characters is dating a swimsuit model.
But the World Series is not about how rare a feat you have accomplished or how hot your girlfriend is (in reference to the latter, it must be acknowledged that there are more important things in life than winning the World Series).
It is about which team is the first to win four games. And the Giants were that team. In fact, they were the only team in this series to win a single game.
And what was the last pitch of this series? An 89 mph fastball down the middle of the plate to Triple Crown-winner Miguel Cabrera. The bat did not leave his shoulder as he watched his season end.
Hats off to the Giants.
