This. Is. Awful. Shuffling through various essays written throughout my college career, I came across an essay I wrote freshman year. The class was Sociology 379: Sports Politics, and Society. It was an Upper-Level Writing Requirement, which my advisor had assured me that I could handle (as a first semester freshman, while also taking my First Year Writing Requirement, the notorious Great Books). Fresh out of 12th grade English, it was common practice for me to complete the entirety of the essay the night before. The essay focused on masculinity in American football (okay, logical)... with some application of Talcott Parsons pattern variables (who?)... and was tied together with an opening line where I quoted Gary Johnson in his infamous “What is Aleppo?” comment (I literally have no idea). Extremely rough, incomplete, and an example of my love for grounding common aspects of life (such as sports) in theory - this piece seemed perfect for my origin piece.

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For the first experiment, I choose to do an Op-Ed. I spend countless hours on the New York Times Op-Ed page, digging, trying to the perfect one to share on facebook for the ideal amount of love reacts from my college friends and empty scrolls from my high-school friends who use facebook predominantly for dog memes and Yummly videos. Op-Eds are typically timely to the current events of the period in which they were written, and with all of the controversy going on it American football right now, I thought it would be really cool to write a piece on Colin Kaepernick and the NFL protests. Maybe I could tie in some of the fancy sociological theory in my origin piece to help make sense of the protests for a wider range of people? Unfortunately, though, this is such a broad topic and I was never able to fully ground my thoughts in a thesis. Ideal in theory, my Op-Ed dream would not be realized in Writing 220.

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After a bit of research on Colin Kaepernick, I realized that I could not bring anything new to the discussion without direct access to him. Articles had been written by his colleagues, friends, and established investigative reporters. From Ann Arbor, my work would not be much more than a compilation of completed everyone else’s thoughts. I had to bring a new angle to the discussion, and I had recently read an article comparing Muhammad Ali to Colin Kaepernick. This sparked my thinking of their legacies: Ali was just pardoned (unnecessarily, I might add) by a president who condemns Kaepernick on all accounts.I decided to do a feature article comparing Kaepernick and Ali. How similar are the two? What makes them different? What makes their protests different? How does cultural context play into public reception of the two? I finally felt that familiar *ting* of excitement in my gut that usually accompanies the beginning of something great. Like that special period of 30 minute or so, about 45 minutes (or so depending on one’s bodily composition) after finishing your coffee, when the buzz is in full swing, or at least you tell yourself it is. I was ready to pursue the final project.

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In my third experiment, I really tried to push myself out of my comfort zone. I chose to explore a photo essay, despite my minimal experience with photography. Content wise, I pushed myself even further: my photo essay would focus on the Legends Football League, previously known as the Lingerie Football League. This lack of experience proved to be more of an issue than I anticipated, and the plan became to find pictures online and compile them, instead of taking pictures myself. I liked the idea of shedding light on this league that many people have never heard of. I thought I had found my niche, the hole in the market that my analysis would fill. My first dive into this area, however, completely took a turn away from the photo essay, and by the sample I found myself in the middle of writing an Op-Ed. Oops. I found myself back in square one - I did not feel like I could push discussion around this topic without genuine, on-the-ground research, of which one month in Ann Arbor would not allow me to.

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For the final project, I have pursued the exploration of the lives and legacies of Colin Kaepernick and Muhammad Ali. Instead of a singular feature, however, the website is styled as a sort of news blog. The articles featured include: biographies of both Kaepernick and Ali, a timeline of the years wherein the two were the most controversial (2016 and 1967, respectively), and analysis of public reception of the two figures. In this way, my Op-Ed dreams can be fused with a deep dive into the two cultural icons. Though I have my own predictions, I hope that readers are prompted to come to their own conclusions: What will Americans think about the protests in 50 years? Who appears to be on the “wrong” side of history? Is there a wrong side of history?