January 16, 2015 Bobcat Nation News

Daily News for
Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Mackenzie:
The exam bus route map has been posted in the café hallway and on the front page of the SWHS website. Please consult the map if you’ll need bus transportation home after midterm exams as these routes are modified.  Remember…morning buses will run on their regular schedules and regular routes during exams.

Isabel:
Yoga Club will meet tomorrow, Thursday, at 2:15pm in the Chorus Room.

Reminder to all seniors…creative ideas for the class of 2015 t-shirt – slogans or designs - should be submitted to Mrs. Mazzonna, Ms. Andrews, or one of the senior class advisors or officers.  Last day to submit ideas will be Friday!

Mackenzie:
Athletic News:
       -Winter sport athletes…don’t forget photos will be taken tomorrow beginning at 2pm.  Wear your home uniform and check with your coach for order forms.
       -There will be a girls’ tennis meeting today after school in Room 204.
       -The unified sports team defeated Windsor yesterday in basketball. It was an amazing game! We play again today at Simsbury.

For lunch today the cafeteria will be serving spicy chicken tenders, turkey grinders, baked potatoes, and pizza.

On this day in history in 1952 NBC’s Today Show premiered.

Today’s weather will be partly to mostly cloudy and 24 degrees. Tomorrow will be partly to mostly sunny and not quite as cold with a low of 13 degrees and high of 31 degrees.

Today’s news is sponsored by national dress up your pet day.

Spotify: For Fans Only?

The popular music app and website Spotify has admitted to paying artists only earn $.007 every time one of their songs is played.

Spotify gives fans an opportunity to listen to free music without illegally downloading the songs. Ads play, and only six skips are allowed per hour. Spotify gives people the option to pay $10 per month for premium service.

Spotify describes the premium service as “Music Without Limits.” The premium service allows users to play any song, anytime. It allows users to listen offline with no restrictions or ads.

In early November pop artist Taylor Swift made headlines by pulling all her music off Spotify. The reason? She was not paid enough. While streaming does offer the record labels money which is distributed to artists, the amounts are small in comparison to how much they make through iTunes and CD sales.

Cellist Zoe Keating released a document chronicling the money she made through various mediums, including Spotify. In the first quarter of 2012 she received only $132 from Spotify for streaming her music. This breaks down to about $.004 per stream. Keating explained that the service is not about the money for her. “I think Spotify is awesome as a listening platform. In my opinion, artists should view it as a discovery service rather than a source of income,” she said.

Not all artists see it this way. Adele was one of the first to take her music off Spotify after her attempt to make her songs only available to premium users. Other popular artists such as Coldplay and The Beatles do not have their music on the app.

Some believe that the record labels receive all the money from streaming but Mark Mulligan explains “That the artist streaming payout rate ($0.005) is actually 45% of the rights owner[ ‘s] payout rate ($0.0112), artists are earning nearly the same from streaming as the labels and publishers.”

The main debate is whether or not Spotify pays artists fairly for their work. Some musicians feel strongly that they are not being paid their share for their work while others believe that Spotify is simply an extension of their revenue.

Breaking Down the Elite QBs

Tuesday, January 27, 2015
 

By Joey Chaisson

@Joe_Chaisson

 

     

        In order to qualify as an elite quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) a standard must first be set.

Elite is defined as “a select part of a group that is superior to the rest in terms of abilities or qualities.” In terms of football, “group” refers to the 32 starting quarterbacks in the league. However, the hard part is breaking down the ending of that definition; “superior to the rest in terms of abilities or qualities.”

What makes a quarterback superior in abilities and qualities? Most analysts and fans would say it’s the amount of rings a quarterback has collected. Others argue that regular season statistics play a major part in determining if a quarterback is elite.

            In an article titled “Defining the Term: Elite” author Brandon Birkhead explains how many quarterbacks should be a part of the elite group. “In society, we crown the top 1% of money earners as the upper class or the elites of society,” he says. “For example, there are 32 starting QBs. Ten percent of that is 3.2, so there would be three elite QBs.”

            Since 2000, seven different quarterbacks have won a Super Bowl and three of them have multiple championships. The three men are Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, and Tom Brady. Of the three, Brady holds the most with three, while both Manning and Roethlisberger have two. Brady is also the current record holder for most Super Bowl appearances for a quarterback with six. He plays in Super Bowl XLIX in 5 days against the Seattle Seahawks.

Let’s not be mistaken, Tom Brady is not just Super Bowl famous. Brady has achieved many notable accomplishments and milestones in his career aside from the three rings and two Super Bowl MVP awards. In the regular season Brady has claimed two MVP awards, he is the quickest quarterback to reach 100 wins, the only other quarterback other than Peyton Manning to reach 50 touchdowns in a single season, and not a single team in the NFL has a winning record against him. The same years Brady won the MVP award (2007 and 2010) he also won the Offensive Player of the Year award. On top of that, Brady won the Comeback Player of the Year award in 2009 after missing all of the 2008 season. Brady has been to the Pro Bowl ten times in 12 seasons. Brady is easily a part of the NFL’s elite quarterback elite group.

In 15 years in the NFL, Brady has left his mark in history with the highest winning percentage for a QB ever, and the most Super Bowl appearances along with 3 rings.

           

Interestingly enough, both of Eli Manning’s Super Bowl victories came against Brady in the 2007 and 2011 season. Manning, a quarterback with more rings than his older brother Peyton, who has one ring in three appearances, has never been considered an elite quarterback. However, Peyton has been considered an elite quarterback and regular season statistics are the real reason why.

 Although Peyton Manning has only claimed one ring, he however does hold most of the biggest quarterback related NFL records regarding the regular season. Manning has the record for most touchdowns in a single season with 55, most passing yards in a season with 5,477, most consecutive seasons with 25 touchdowns or more with 15, and the biggest one of them all is that he is the NFL’s leading touchdown passer with 530 career touchdowns and counting. In addition, Manning has led the league in touchdowns five different times which is more than any quarterback in the NFL right now. He also won the MVP award a record setting five times and two Offensive Player of the Year awards.

Need I say more? Manning has a stacked resume and he isn’t done yet. At age 38, the 14-time Pro Bowler has shown no sign of weakness and looks like his path of destruction could go on for another ten years. There is no doubt that “the Sheriff” has earned a spot as one of the NFL’s elite quarterbacks. With two spots available, who else gets the title of being elite?

Peyton Manning holds some of the biggest records in the NFL for a QB while also owning a Super Bowl ring in 3 apperances.

 

Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are like ying and yang. While Brady has the rings, Manning has the records and statistics. Both men lead all other quarterbacks in NFL history with more 12 win seasons with Manning’s 11, and Brady’s nine. Both are shoe-ins for the Hall of Fame and will be remembered as the two best quarterbacks of the last decade.

 Assuming this idea of having three elite quarterbacks is the standard, who is the third and final member to join Brady and Manning?

        Three quarterbacks come to mind when thinking about Super Bowl and regular season dominance of the remaining 29 quarterbacks. First is the Steelers’ “Big” Ben Roethlisberger, the only other active quarterback with two rings. After the 2004 season, Roethlisberger recieved the Rookie of the Year award. However, in 10 seasons Roethlisberger has only made it to the Pro Bowl once and has also only had two complete 16 game seasons. Having two rings is not the only thing Big Ben and Eli Manning have in common. Roethlisberger is also a victim of the “Eli Manning curse” due to the fact that his regular season statistics are not incredibly gaudy, yet his two Super Bowl victories might be enough to put him in the Hall of Fame.

            Second is the Saints’ Drew Brees. Brees started his career in 2002 with the Chargers and was later traded to the New Orleans in 2006. Three years later, Brees took the Saints to the Super Bowl and claimed his first ring and Super Bowl MVP award after beating Peyton Manning and the Colts. Over the course of 13 seasons, Brees has led the league five times in yards and four times in touchdowns as well as going to the Pro Bowl eight times. In 2014 Brees extended his record of throwing for 4,000 yards or more for a ninth year in a row. Brees was named offensive player of the year in 2008 and 2012.

Last is Aaron Rodgers, the backup quarterback for Brett Favre until he started his first season in 2008 for the Packers. Two years later in 2010 Rodgers won his first Super Bowl and was named MVP. In 2011, Rodgers won his first regular season MVP award after finishing with a career high 45 touchdowns and 4,643 yards. In only seven years in the NFL as a starter Rodgers has already connected for 220 touchdowns and been to the Pro Bowl three times. At age 31 Rodgers has a promising career ahead of him and might already be an elite quarterback.

 Between Big Ben, Brees, and Rodgers who makes the cut? The answer: Drew Brees.

Although Roethlisberger has one more championship over Brees, Brees’ regular season statistics stand out much more than Big Ben’s. For example, although Brees has been in league two more years and Roethlisberger, Brees has 143 more touchdowns in his career than Big Ben. Brees has also thrown for an astonishing 16,904 more yards than Roethlisberger. Roethlisberger has never led the league leader in touchdowns, yards, or completion rating yet Brees has led the league in all three of those categories at least three times. In this case, Brees and Roethlisberger both have Super Bowl experience but Brees’ statistics trump Roethlisberger’s.

            But what about Aaron Rodgers? Well, there is another explanation. Both Rodgers and Brees has won a Super Bowl. Both men have had significant regular season numbers as well. The only difference? The experience.

Drew Brees began his NFL career in 2002 which means he has seven years over Aaron Rodgers. That being said, Brees’ regular season numbers are much higher than Rodgers’, due to the fact Brees has played in 93 more games. Brees has spent the last 13 years shaping his Hall of Fame career and has had to earn his way to being an elite quarterback. Of course there is no ignoring Rodgers’ stats because they truly are incredible for a guy who has only been in the league seven years. However, Brees deserves the title of an elite quarterback because he has proven he can stick around and produce consistent numbers.

Drew Brees has a lot of things on his resume that seal the envekope for being an elite QB. A ring, 5x leader in yards, and a 4x leader in TDs.

 

 So there it is, your three elite quarterbacks. All Super Bowl winners, all Hall of Famers, and all statistically dominating. Manning, Brady, and Brees will go down in NFL history as three of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game.