Take that, scoreboard! (Courtesy: HSBC Arena)
On November 19, 1996, only a month after the building opened, the scoreboard at Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo said “no mas.”
Call it a eight-sided revolt. Frankly, that season, the Sabres couldn’t score much anyway. But that night, the game between Buffalo and the Boston Bruins was postponed because the arena’s JumboTron fell over 100 feet and crashed into center ice.
The information displayed on every scoreboard in every arena or stadium worldwide is vital. We’re not challenging that; how else would we know if our team was winning or losing…or tied?
(Donovan McNabb and the post-lockout NHL need not apply for that last one.)
It’s so easy, though, to get tied up in the numbers. Certainly, we all agonize over box scores, win-loss records and individual feats on a daily basis. When you obsess too much over the raw numbers, though, you miss the beauty and drama of sport in the raw.
That’s why we’re here.
Beyond The Scoreboard isn’t just an ironic name – it’s what the seven of us consider our philosophy on covering sports. Part of each of us is a stathead; it’s not as if RISP and yards per carry won’t find their way into articles on this site.
What we promise, though, is that we will never base all of our coverage on what you can see in little black and white type in your morning…actually…does anyone still check scores in the newspaper anymore?
Check that – we will never base our coverage on what you can just as easily get from another web site. Beyond The Scoreboard is about not just what takes place between the lines, but rather why something happened, plenty of historical precedent and how sports impacts athletes, executives, coaches and fans in their everyday lives.
And, considering the incredible talent and wit of each of the writers here on Beyond The Scoreboard, expect some zingers.
The most unique thing about this site will be the diversity of viewpoints and backgrounds we bring. We’ve got writers who have their roots in Washington, D.C., Arizona, Indiana, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, California and Atlanta. Find me another site with that much collective knowledge. We cover America. Literally.
Stick around. Browse through our writer bios and decide which one would win a Dougie dance-off. Follow us on Twitter. Be our fan on Facebook. We promise to not waste your time, to make you think, to engage you in conversation and to make you fall out of your chair laughing.
We won’t be crashing scoreboards into the ice, though. Hopefully, we’ll make you less reliant on them.
totally remember that…