This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in September 2018.

The Fordham football team went into this week hoping to put its 34-10 season-opening loss to Charlotte in the rear view mirror. The team wanted to do some things differently this week, and even the Rams’ travel plans (making part of the journey to Richmond by bus on Thursday night and completing the trip on Friday morning) seemed to indicate a desire to put the events of the fateful Charlotte trip behind them. The team arrived in Richmond, Virginia for Saturday’s game on a mission to get head coach Joe Conlin his first career win.

And then, at 6:07 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the Fordham Rams ran into a brick wall at full speed.

Fordham fell behind on the fourth drive of the night when quarterback Kevin Johnson punctuated a 13-play, 69-yard drive with an eight-yard touchdown scamper. Richmond went into the game as a heavy favorite, but at the end of the first quarter, the Rams were only down by a touchdown. Despite finishing the first quarter with zero first downs, Conlin’s team had to be happy to only be down seven after 15 minutes, particularly considering how poorly the offense fared.

The struggles would continue for Fordham into the second quarter, and a 55-yard bomb from Johnson to wide receiver Dejon Brissett about a minute into the second frame set up Johnson’s second rushing touchdown of the night, which made the score 14-0 in favor of the Spiders. Things improved slightly on the Rams’ next drive, but the team stalled at midfield and Andrew Mevis was forced to punt for the fifth time in under 20 minutes of game action. After a Richmond punt, Fordham and senior quarterback Luke Medlock put together their best drive of the game to date, with three first down passes, including two to senior Corey Caddle, who missed last week’s game for undisclosed reasons. Then, on a second-and-nine play from Richmond’s 26, Medlock was picked off by Dionte Austin; a drive that was filled with promise ended with a turnover. While it’s hard to find one turning point in a game that was decided by 45 points, the second-quarter Medlock pick was certainly one of the biggest ones on the night.

Richmond scored three more points before the end of the half and, in another deflating moment, Mevis pushed a 47-yard field goal attempt wide right with 24 seconds remaining in the half. The Spiders took a 17-0 lead into the locker room. You may be thinking that Richmond coasted to an easy win from that point forward. I am here to tell you that they did a lot more.

On the first play of the second half, Johnson and Brissett connected for their second huge pass play of the day, and this time, it went for a 75-yard touchdown. With a good deal of fans still away from their seats, Richmond took a commanding 24-0 lead. On the next drive, Medlock wound up to attempt a third-down pass but was strip sacked, and his fumble was recovered by Richmond’s Andrew Clyde. Three plays later, Richmond was back in the end zone with a touchdown pass to Cortrelle Simpson. The rout was on with the Spiders leading 31-0.

Medlock would turn it over twice more before the fourth quarter began, and he would be removed from the game in favor of freshman Tim DeMorat late in the frame. The score at the end of three? Richmond 52, Fordham 0.

DeMorat did provide a bright spot in the fourth quarter, and he was able to engineer the only touchdown drive of the game for Fordham. He finished 5-6 for 66 yards on the night and also rushed for a touchdown. Medlock’s night was not nearly as favorable; he completed 17 of 32 passes for 125 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions. The Rams also finished with a grand total of -3 rushing yards on the night, thanks in large part to junior D’Angelo Palladino and sophomore Zach Davis not playing. Note: NCAA statistics count sacks as negative rushing plays. Fordham quarterbacks endured five sacks on the evening.

Fordham has a three-game homestand coming up, and it will be spread over the course of four weeks. The team will take on Stony Brook University on Saturday, September 15 at 6:00 p.m., to be followed by a home game with Central Connecticut State the following week. The Rams have their bye week on Sept. 29 before conference play begins in the Bronx against Georgetown on Oct. 6.

Fordham could certainly use some home cooking after the last two games they’ve played. However, if they don’t turn things around soon, it may not matter where the Rams are playing their games.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in September 2018.

Fordham football coach Joe Conlin, 39, is technically new to this.

The 2002 graduate of Pittsburgh University is in his first year as a head coach in college football. You would think that he might be working out the kinks in his first rodeo as the captain of a collegiate ship. However, you wouldn’t know it by hearing him speak, as he has hit the ground running with clear goals in mind for the Rams.

“I want us to take steps to becoming a dominant defensive football team,” Conlin said, when asked about his goals for the team in 2018. “I want [us] to be a much more aggressive defensive football team, and I think coach [Paul] Rice and the defensive staff are doing a good job of it.”

To speak to Joe Conlin for any period of time is to meet a man who craves the process of building a good team. Conlin started at defensive tackle for three straight seasons at Pittsburgh, including back-to-back seven-win seasons in 2000 and 2001. After the end of his playing career, Conlin held assistant coaching jobs at West Virginia Tech, New Hampshire and Harvard from 2003 to 2011. In 2012, he jumped from Harvard to Yale to become the Bulldogs’ offensive line coach.

In 2014, he got his big break when he became Yale’s associate head coach and offensive coordinator. His first season in charge of the offense went swimmingly, as the team led all of FCS in total offense en route to an 8-2 record. However, an offense that averaged over 570 yards per contest in 2014 was barely clearing the mark of 300 per game two years later. As he has done throughout his career, Conlin rebuilt the offense into one of the best in the nation, and the 2017 Bulldogs ranked in the Football Championship Subdivision’s top 12 in total offense en route to its first Ivy League title in 37 years. The process of becoming a head coach officially ended in late December, when Conlin was named the Rams’ next head coach.

“As soon as Coach Conlin walked in the room…we knew that he was the kind of guy we were looking for,” Fordham Athletic Director Dave Roach said. “I always say, ‘it’s the X-factor,’ and I can’t necessarily explain it, but you can feel it, and it’s somebody who obviously knows the game, has great experience, can motivate student-athletes and be a great recruiter, and I just think Coach Conlin has the personality that can lead young men to do great things.”

The Conlin era at Fordham is still in its infancy, and as the new head coach says, the team is focused on big-picture goals instead of wins and losses.
“We want to play harder than any other team that we play against,” says Conlin. “[We want to] just play an inspirational brand of football in terms of how we play, how we prepare, the respect we show opponents and how much fun we have celebrating together.”

That’s right: fun. Joe Conlin is a serious coach who demands excellence from his players both on the field and in the classroom, but he wants his team to have fun, too. It’s a lesson he’s learned throughout his life-long love affair with the sport.

“We’d play in the backyard in our neighborhood, and it was a lot of fun,” Conlin opines. “I was the guy with an older brother three years older than me, so I had his friends basically knocking the heck out of me all the time. It taught me some hard lessons early on, but it’s a great game.”

Family is another very important thing to Coach Conlin; in addition to his family growing up, the Rams’ coach now has a wife, Karen, and two young daughters, Hannah and Katie. His daughters were visibly present when Conlin was introduced to the Fordham community at a meet-and-greet in January. While some coaches may become consumed by their job, Conlin keeps things in perspective.

“No matter what is going on after the worst loss, when your daughter runs up to you and gives you a big hug, it erases everything. They’re the absolute joy of my life. I feel like I have ninety little brothers, and I have two girls that are my angels.”

Football isn’t everything to Joe Conlin, but it has been his livelihood ever since graduating college. Over 15 years after receiving his degree from Pittsburgh, Conlin is the new sideline general in the Bronx. He’ll look to put a tough start to the season behind him, as the team has started 2018 with back-to-back losses. Conlin, though, will be most concerned with the team’s energy, physicality and execution. He’ll try to build the Rams into a force to be reckoned with in a methodical way and on a day-to-day basis, as only a detail-oriented, process-loving head coach can.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in September 2018.

“Short answer: everything.”

That’s what Fordham Football head coach Joe Conlin said when asked about what the team needs to improve on in advance of next week’s game against Richmond. The Rams dropped their season opener against the University of North Carolina at Charlotte 49ers. That quote could also apply to everything that went wrong for the Rams from the moment they left Fordham’s campus en route to North Carolina.

The team’s flight, which was scheduled to leave at 2:35 p.m. on Friday afternoon, missed that mark completely. After leaving shortly after 4:00, American Airlines Flight 1893 was unable to land in Charlotte due to weather concerns and was forced to land in Raleigh and refuel. After departing Raleigh in what can best be described as not exactly the shortest order, the plane landed at Charlotte Douglas International Airport around 9:00, only to get stuck on the runway for another hour because no gates were available to allow passengers to get off. The experience was a fatiguing one for the Rams, and it would not be the only delay they suffered in their brief time in the Queen City.

Kickoff between Fordham and Charlotte was scheduled for 6:04 p.m. In case you haven’t yet noticed the theme, that did not happen. The game did not start until 7:14 due to lightning within an eight-mile radius of Jerry Richardson Stadium. Once the game did start, both offenses struggled, and three of the first four drives of the night ended in punts. The only one that didn’t was Fordham’s first possession, which advanced to the Charlotte 32-yard line. On fourth down and seven, Conlin, in his first career game as a college football head coach, decided to go for it. The move did not pay off, as senior quarterback Luke Medlock failed to connect with junior wideout Joe Ferraro.

After two more punts, the 49ers broke through with the first big play of the evening, as running back Benny LeMay took a short pass for 71 yards and would have scored, were it not for a touchdown-saving open-field tackle by senior Dylan Mabin. That tackle turned out to be worth four points for the Rams, as Charlotte ended up having to settle for a Jonathan Cruz 24-yard field goal. After another Fordham punt by sophomoe Andrew Mevis, Charlotte kept the momentum going with a 10-play, 30-yard drive that started from their own 48. However, they were once more forced to settle for a Cruz field goal; this one, which was converted from 39 yards out, gave the 49ers a 6-0 lead early in the second quarter.

Fordham’s next drive came down to a third-and-five on its own 30-yard line. Medlock dropped back and completed a rainbow deep ball to senior receiver Austin Longi for a 70-yard touchdown to put the Rams in front. Longi stepped up in a big way for a Rams team that was missing fellow senior wide receiver Corey Caddle, who was out for the game for undisclosed reasons. Longi finished the night with eight catches and 113 of the team’s 296 receiving yards.

For a Rams team that had question marks on offense, however, Longi’s long score would be the team’s only trip to the end zone.

Charlotte followed up Fordham’s score with a big play of their own, as LeMay broke off a 58-yard run to Fordham’s two-yard line before punching it in to make it a 13-7 game. Three more punts ensued before Charlotte went on a 10-play, 75-yard drive that lasted the better part of five minutes. When they stalled ten yards short of pay dirt, though, Cruz missed what appeared to be a relatively easy 28-yard field goal. Fordham’s attempt to muster a late first-half score went by the wayside, and the 49ers’ kept their 13-7 lead heading into the locker room.

And then the lightning returned.

Shortly before both teams were supposed to restart the game, a fairly stationary thunderstorm planted its roots just outside of Jerry Richardson Stadium. The delay that ensued lasted for nearly another hour. It was after 10:00 before both teams were allowed to come out of their respective locker rooms. The game, which had been scheduled to start shortly after 6 p.m., had entered its fourth hour with only 30 minutes of game action having elapsed.

Once the teams finally did reach the field, the 49ers put a thumping on Conlin’s squad.

The Rams were given a golden opportunity to take the lead after recovering a muffed punt at Charlotte’s 19-yard line at the beginning of the second half. But the offense only mustered four yards on three plays and the Rams were forced to cut their losses and trim the lead in half on a 32-yard field goal by Mevis. After dodging the bullet, Charlotte took full advantage with LeMay’s second rushing touchdown of the evening, which came after a 60-yard pass from quarterback Chris Reynolds to wide receiver Victor Tucker. (Interesting side note: Charlotte and head coach Brad Lambert did not announce their starting quarterback until the start of the game.)

With the score now 20-10, Fordham was forced to send out Mevis for his sixth punt of the night, which led a backbreaking drive from Charlotte.

The 49ers were able to push past an excellent punt from Mevis that pinned them inside their own five, drive 97 yards down the field for a touchdown and take over eight minutes off the clock in the process. The 14-play drive ended with a 12-yard touchdown by Tucker, and Charlotte grabbed a 27-10 lead early in the fourth quarter that essentially put the game out of reach.

The game of wacky occurrences seemed to be complete. The operative word in that sentence is “seemed.”

Shortly after Tucker’s touchdown, the lights behind Fordham’s sideline went out. What seemed to be the only mishap that had not yet occurred was coming to fruition, but despite the possible dangers of playing in the dark, there were no delays and the game went on as planned.

The 49ers would get one more score before the end of the night, when Juwan Foggie picked off Luke Medlock with 4:34 to play and took it to the house. That was where the game would end, with the hosts from Conference USA matching their 2017 win total and starting the season with a 34-10 victory.

One would think that the American Airlines and weather mishaps would have hindered Fordham’s ability to play at a high level. Conlin is not making that excuse.

“They had the same delays we had,” he said. “We didn’t execute, [we] shot ourselves in the foot too often, we made some big plays, we had some opportunities… the attention to detail wasn’t anywhere close to where it needs to be for us to win football games.”

The team struggled with its blocking all evening, as Medlock was sacked four times and running backs Zach Davis and D’Angelo Palladino combined for just 29 rushing yards in ten attempts. Luke Medlock had a productive but efficient night, going 22-47 for 296 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Fordham’s offense was a far cry from the days of Chase Edmonds and Kevin Anderson, and the Rams’ defense was on the field for over 37 minutes on the night, which almost certainly contributed to that unit’s struggles in the second half. All in all, it was a frustrating Saturday evening for the Rams, and it wasn’t just because of their poor performance; Dylan Mabin left the game in the fourth quarter with a right knee injury and missed the rest of the night. It remains to be seen what Mabin’s status will be for Saturday evening’s game against Richmond.

The Rams haven’t gotten off to a great start in 2018. They’ll get to Richmond by bus, which means that there will be no runway snafus or delays to find a gate. But if the team’s opener taught us anything, it’s that the unexpected is only a motion away. The Rams can’t change the cards they’re given, but they’ll spend this week working on how they can play their hand, regardless of lighting or lightning.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in May 2018.

The Fordham Men’s Golf team finished in seventh place at the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament at the Grand Cypress Golf Club in Orlando, Fla. this past weekend.

Once again, the star for the Rams over the three-day tournament was senior James Mongey, who shot a three-day total of 225 to finish 10th overall among individual players. When asked about his impressive weekend, Mongey pointed to his experience on the course as the biggest reason for his success.

“I think having played the course my sophomore year helped a lot,” he said. “I got a feel for how the course plays. It is very difficult and tough to shoot low. You are going to make bogeys and par is always a great score, but I hit the ball great. I think if my short game was a little better, I might have won.” Instead, he finished seven strokes behind tournament champion Mike Blasey of Davidson College. Davidson also won the team tournament by shooting a three-day total of 891; Fordham finished 28 strokes behind that figure with a 919, which placed them seventh out of 11 teams.

Senior Joseph Trim and sophomore Tomas Nieves were also impressive for the Rams, as both finished tied for 24th place on the individual leaderboard with a three-day total of 231; Nieves shot a two-under 70 in his final round on Sunday. Senior Matt Schiller shot a 19-over 235 over the three days and junior Josh Madarang finished at 28-over with a 244.

Despite finishing seventh in the Atlantic 10 yesterday, this was a historically good Rams team. Schiller and Trim finished their Fordham careers with an 18-hole scoring average of 75.5, which ties both of them for first all-time among Rams golfers. Mongey’s career ended with a 76.6 average, which puts him in third on the all-time list. Out of the three, Trim played the most career rounds with 95, with Mongey and Schiller close behind with 91 and 88, respectively.

“I will look back on my time at Fordham with a lot of great memories,” Mongey said. “I will miss playing for coach (Paul) Dillon. I feel so grateful to have shared these experiences with him. I’ve formed great friendships as well, along the way.”

The Rams will lose Mongey, Schiller and Trim to graduation next season and will have to pick up the slack in the absence of, statistically, the three best golfers in the history of the school. Players such as junior Tommy Hayes, freshman Mithran Denbow, Nieves and junior Tommy Hayes, all of whom appeared in minor roles this year, will have to combine to fill the shoes of the departing seniors. Mongey, Schiller and Trim leave an outstanding legacy and their absence will be difficult for the Rams to overcome next season as head coach Paul Dillon heads into his 23rd year at the helm of the program.

Even though replacing the departing players will be difficult for the Rams next season, coach Dillon has proven that he develop young talent and will need to do so again if the Rams wish to replicate their success from this season. The improvement of the returning players will be key to Fordham’s success next season and beyond.
As for the year that just finished, though, the Rams have no complaints. “I think my game has improved every year,” Mongey said. “I’m optimistic my best is yet to come.”

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in May 2018.

For some, baseball’s minor leagues are a tune-up for a long and successful professional career. For others, it is a constant struggle to be noticed by big-league scouts. And for the rest, the minors are the last stop in a player’s professional career.
But they are not, apparently, a lucrative enterprise.

A new bill passed in Congress just over a month ago, that includes a provision ironically called the “Save America’s Pastime Act” exempts minor league baseball players from federal labor laws.

This means a couple of simple things:

1. Players don’t need to be paid minimum wage.

2. Players don’t need to be compensated for potential overtime wages.

You may be thinking that Major League Baseball can’t afford to pay its players adequate wages. After all, many say that the sport is “dying” and things that are supposedly on life support don’t pull in a lot of revenue.

I am here to tell you that this argument is a load of garbage.

Here’s why: last season, the sport whose audience is dying and whose games are way too long, set a record for annual revenue with over $10 billion made last season alone. The sport, at least on a financial level, is growing at a meteoric rate; the league has increased its revenue by roughly $500 million since 2015, and MLB recently sold part of BAMtech, a derivative of its highly-successful MLB Advanced Media venture, for $1.58 billion. If you want an indication of how lucrative the sport is, retired outfielder Bobby Bonilla will rake in $1 million from the Mets every July 1 until 2035. Bobby Bonilla last played for the Mets in 1999.

An investigation by Sporting News found that single-A players will be making $1,160 per month this season. Even when spread out over 12 months, that figure comes out to $13,920 per year, which is sub-optimal to say the least. However, full season players only get paid during the year, which lasts only five-and-a-half months. The deal is even worse for short-season single-A players, who only play for three months, at the most. The math works out as follows: full season players get $6,380 per year while short-season players get $3,480. Players make more money if they get to AA and AAA, but the Sporting News investigation found that a AAA player’s minimum salary per year is just $11,825 per year. Of course, you may think that this isn’t too bad because minor league players get free housing along with their subpar contracts. Unfortunately, I have news for you: they don’t.

Some players get signing bonuses when they are drafted or sign with a team out of high school, college or the international market. However, there are many players who don’t, and those people are the reason why baseball should take care of its own and pay its players a livable wage. It’s not just me saying this, either: a 2014 article by Sports Illustrated’s Michael McCann showed that minor league baseball players make less than half the yearly income of fast-food workers. With the amount of money, or lack thereof, that players make, many of them likely need to get offseason jobs just to pay for everyday expenses. This is to say nothing of their offseason training programs and participation in fall and winter leagues. Players are already too busy with these things to have time for other jobs, and they shouldn’t have to take a minimum wage job at a CVS because a multi-billion dollar franchise doesn’t want to pay them living wages.

And while we’re on that subject, can we please talk about how exploitative this entire arrangement is? Major League Baseball is awash in money and can absolutely afford to pay the less privileged amongst them the money to get by while they are still in the minor leagues. Rob Manfred is not exactly running a makeshift operation on Park Avenue; if the Marlins can pay Giancarlo Stanton $3 million per year to play against them, there is no reason why the sport can’t pick up the tab to make sure blue-collar minor league players can afford to live a decent life in the minors.

Besides all of this, though, why haven’t we decided that paying people a livable wage is a decent idea? There are some small businesses who are short on cash and have to pay employees as little as possible. Despite that, the vast majority of these businesses are ethical and follow the United States’ labor laws on a budget that is approximately 0.0000001 percent that of Major League Baseball’s. That being said, we should seriously evaluate whether or not the sport has the best interests of its least affluent players in mind, as the rich have gotten richer at the highest levels of the game but minor leaguers have not seen any trickle-down effects from baseball’s sustained wealth.

The decision should not be hard for Major League Baseball. They should pay livable, lawful and ethical wages to its minor league players. After all, it’s not like they can’t afford to do it.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in April 2018.

Fordham Men’s Golf has had a long week.

After last week’s Wildcat Invitational on Monday and Tuesday, in which the Rams finished ninth, Fordham traveled to New Haven, Conn. to participate in the one-day, 36-hole Yale Spring Invitational. Fordham struggled at the same course in the fall, finishing twelfth of 14 teams at the Macdonald Invitational from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1.

The Rams would fare slightly better on Saturday, but not nearly well enough to compete for a victory.

Under evolving, dampening and deteriorating conditions, Fordham finished ninth out of 16 teams on Saturday at the Course at Yale. The Rams started off the day strong and were tied for sixth after 18 holes with a 15-over 295 team round. The leaders in the clubhouse after one round were seniors James Mongey and Joseph Trim, who shot 73 and 70, respectively. Also competing for Fordham were senior Matt Schiller and sophomore Tomas Nieves, both of whom shot a 76 in the first round. Also playing individually for the Rams were juniors Josh Madarang, who shot a first-round 77, and Tommy Hayes, who shot an 80. The Rams were playing solid golf after round one, but could they sustain their solid start?

The answer was no.

Fordham fell off in round two and pulled in with a tied-for-ninth finish. Trim struggled in his final 18 holes, and his 70 was followed by an eight-over 78. Mongey shot a second-round 75 and Schiller fired an 81. The only Ram competing on the team level to improve on his round one performance was Nieves, who finished the tournament at ten-over after shooting a 74 in the final round. Madarang and Hayes shot 85 and 82, respectively. Tennessee University ultimately won the tournament; the Volunteers took the championship by 11 strokes over second-place and host school Yale University.

Next, the Rams moved on to the Rhode Island Invitational on Monday and Tuesday. Monday’s round was cancelled due to the day’s generally wicked weather, and the tournament was reduced to 36 holes on Tuesday. This time, Fordham got off to a slow start but improved in the second round. The team shot a 304 in the first round, and Schiller found himself second on the individual leaderboard with a first-round 72. “I went back to the basics this week,” Schiller said. “I had a rough weekend at Yale, so I just made sure I was getting set up correctly before shots and putts. It made a world of difference.” Trim and Madarang both shot 78s, while Mongey finished his first round with a 76. Nieves and Hayes competed as individuals; the former shot a 79 while the latter shot a 78. In the second round, the team fared slightly better.
Schiller finished his strong 36-hole showing with a 74, and his two-round 146 tied him for 5th on the individual leaderboard. Trim followed his 78 with a 73, Madarang shot 75 and Mongey finished his day with a 79. Nieves shot 76 and Hayes fired a 75 as individuals. Fordham finished the Rhode Island Invitational in seventh place and Rhode Island University, the host school, tied for the tournament victory with Rollins College. Fordham finished 17 strokes off the leaders.

Fordham’s regular season is now complete; they will compete at the Atlantic 10 Championships in Orlando, Florida from April 27 to 29. “The best way for us to succeed is to just go for it,” Schiller said. “We’ve been a little underrated in the projected finishes over the past few years, and we take a lot of motivation from that. We’re also a group of guys that weren’t heavily recruited either, so that underdog mentality can really drive our play. We don’t have anything to lose, so I think we can really shock some people in a couple weeks.”

Fordham finished seventh among the 11 teams that competed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament last season. The Rams are looking to do better than that this season, but they will need to improve upon their performances from this weekend if they want to make serious noise in Orlando.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in April 2018.

The Fordham men’s golf team competed in its second event of the spring season and finished in 9th place out of 19 teams at the Wildcat Invitational, which was hosted by Villanova University in Malvern, Pa. on Monday and Tuesday.

The Rams were in fourth place after the first round of the tournament on Monday. Senior Matt Schiller fired a first-round 70 to lead all Fordham players. Senior Joseph Trim, sophomore Tomas Nieves and junior Josh Madarang all shot a 74 in their first rounds of play, and they were accompanied by a first-round 75 from senior James Mongey. Things looked good for Fordham after 18 holes; they were in fourth places and ten strokes behind Drexel for first.

However, they were unable to sustain their hot start during play on Tuesday.

Trim, consistent as ever, led all Rams players with a 73 on Tuesday. Mongey shot another 75 on Tuesday, and both players either matched or bettered their first-round scores. No other Rams could say the same of their day two performances.
Schiller followed up a first-round 70 with a 78 in his final 18 holes. Nieves shot a 76 in round two after doing two strokes better on Monday, and Madarang finished his tournament with a 78.

“We did not play our best these last two days. I can speak for myself in that I was a little off in all facets of my game,” Mongey said. The Rams ultimately finished ninth at the tournament behind Binghamton University, Lehigh University, Delaware University, St. Peter’s University, Iona College, St. John’s University, Rhode Island University and the eventual tournament winner, Drexel University. This is the second event of the spring for Fordham; they finished in 6th at the Albarta Coca-Cola Lehigh Valley Collegiate Invite on Easter Sunday last week.

Also competing at the Wildcat Invitational were Siena College, Rider University, Wagner College, Bucknell University, Monmouth University, Villanova University (the host school), Le Moyne College, Lafayette College, La Salle University and Colgate University.

Freshman Mithran Denbow competed for the Rams as an individual and shot rounds of 76 and 83. The highest individual finisher for Fordham was Trim, who tied for 23rd place with a 147 over both days. Schiller finished tied for 29th, Mongey and Nieves both tied for 43rd and Madarang finished in 58th.

Next up for Fordham is the Yale Spring Invitational on Saturday, which will be a one-day, 36-hole tournament. After that, they have the 54-hole Rhode Island Invitational next Monday and Tuesday before the Atlantic 10 Tournament April 27-29.

“I think because the spring season is so quick and after a long winter, we are all trying to find our game leading into the A-10 Tournament,” Mongey said. “Hopefully, we will all peak then.”

The Rams need to get things going in the last two tournaments of the season as they head into the Atlantic 10 Tournament. If they do, they will be peaking at the right time, just like Mongey and the rest of the Rams hope to.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in April 2018.

On Monday, the President of the United States described an FBI raid as “an attack on our country.” Sadly, no one batted an eyelash.
Those words are appropriate for terrorist attacks, mass shootings and acts of war that take place on American soil. On Monday afternoon, the FBI raided the office of Michael Cohen, the president’s lead attorney, in relation to his business records related to porn star Stormy Daniels. Daniels is suing the president over a non-disclosure agreement that he didn’t sign after the two supposedly had an “intimate” relationship after Trump married his current wife, Melania.

The FBI also wanted documents relating to Russia’s potential meddling in the 2016 presidential election. And, most importantly, the agency obtained a warrant when it did all of these things Monday. That’s not an attack on our country. That’s the FBI doing its job.
Sadly, our president’s comments (which also included another public rebuke of his own attorney general) are emblematic of a larger problem in America. Our politics — and more specifically, our discussions of them — are toxic. Actually, they can more accurately be described as a cesspool.

We disavow friends and even family members if they have different beliefs than we do. We don’t listen to each other. We yell at each other without even understanding what the other person’s position is.

And, worst of all, we listen to respond and offer a rebuttal to our interlocutors instead of listening to understand where they come from and why they think the way they do. This problem is not a Democrat or Republican one. It’s an American problem.

Unfortunately, our elections have also become about who can yell the loudest and who can lob the best insults at the other side. No longer do we elect leaders based on their intelligence and fitness for their jobs.

There is human proof of this trend in the White House, and chances are he’s in the residence watching cable television right now. If you really think that Trump was elected because he was the best person out of 320 million Americans to be our president, then I offer you these words he actually tweeted after his unprecedented 2016 election victory:

“China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters – rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act.”

This tweet shows that we do not value intelligence, contemplation and nuance in American society any longer.

Here’s a fun exercise: watch CNN for ten minutes on any weeknight. There will likely be a panel discussion the size of the last supper, and many of the panelists will scream at each other at the same time. But, most importantly, there will likely be one conservative voice on that panel, and that individual will likely be struck down very quickly. This person will not have a chance to further extrapolate his or her points beyond an initial statement, and if said analyst is a Trump supporter, then he or she is really in deep trouble.

Of course, if you turn on Fox News and you see a liberal, chances are that person is engaged in a shouting match with Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity or the woman who told LeBron James to “shut up and dribble.”

Here’s another problem with what is going on today: in addition to choosing their own sides, people now choose their own facts, as well.

If you decide to watch Fox News as a respite from the garbage being thrown around on other networks, you will find multiple segments devoted to a “deep state” within our government that is somehow serving to undermine President Trump. This, of course, is not true; there is an entirely legitimate FBI investigation going on right now as to whether a foreign country compromised our elections, to say nothing of a porn star suing the president. The left is not innocent here, either; many on that side have a predetermined outcome in mind for that investigation, which does not appear close to a conclusion.

I say all of this not as an elitist snob, but as an independent, concerned citizen living in the greatest country in the world. We, as a nation, have gone to the zoo of believing what we want to believe and pointing blind vitriol at the other side, regardless of what they are actually saying. We need to put our own opinions aside and listen to others, regardless of whether or not they share our beliefs. This is a legitimate problem for obvious reasons, and it also opens the door for unqualified people to reach positions of power like Donald Trump did in the 2016 presidential election.

Of course, social media has exacerbated this problem as well. We can call people we don’t even know every insult in the book without having to face any real-world consequences from doing so.

This problem is something we need to figure out, not just for the 2018 Midterm elections, but also moving forward. As a famous TV president once said, “Decisions are made by those who show up.” Let’s show up in seven months. Let’s be smart. And let’s not blindly cast a vote for an inexperienced, unqualified individual because he or she happens to be on our side of the issues.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in April 2018.

While this may come as a surprising development to some people, football is a sport that features a lot of violence.

It is no secret, then, that playing the sport for an extended period of time can lead to serious brain injuries and irreversible brain damage. Just last summer, a study of 111 brains of deceased football players found that 110 of them had at least some traces of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, otherwise known as CTE. CTE is a brain disease that can open the door to a variety of terrifying symptoms, namely depression, memory loss and anxiety. The disease was found in players such as Dave Duerson, Junior Seau, Paul Oliver and Terry Long, just to name a few. The common thread among all of these men is that they ended their lives by committing suicide. Just two weeks ago, Super Bowl-winning quarterback Mark Rypien opened up about his attempt to kill himself by consuming copious amounts of alcohol combined with prescription medicine. As we have seen, football is a sport that is quite literally and frighteningly forcing its former players to lose their minds.

The NFL is trying something radically different to change that.

On March 27, the league announced several new rules aimed at protecting players from concussions. The main eye-opener was a new rule, entitled “Playing Rule Article 8,” that states the following:
“It is a foul if a player lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent. The player may be disqualified. Applies to any player anywhere on the field. The player may be disqualified.”

On the surface, this addition is similar to college football’s “targeting” rule that allows players to be ejected for initiating contact on a defenseless player; however, that rule mainly applies to defenseless players with the ball in their hands and is rarely enforced outside of such players unless the foul is glaringly obvious. The thing that differentiates this new rule from the targeting rule is that it will supposedly apply to players away from the ball as well. This is where a serious question and potential problem comes into the equation for the NFL: How can you possibly enforce this regulation?

To prove that point, USA Today reviewed the first half of a Monday Night Football game between the Steelers and Bengals in week 13 of last season; in fairness to the NFL, that game featured 20 combined penalties and more shots to the head than any of Martin Scorsese’s movies ever could. In its review of that game, though, USA Today found that the referees could have called, and you may want to be sitting down for this, 39 penalties in the first half alone. The game, which is oftentimes a difficult product to consume in the present moment, would become unwatchable with that amount of penalties in that short of a time. While the onus will be on players to adjust to the new rules, fans may need to suffer through years of abhorrent football until those adjustments are made.

Competition Committee Chairman and Falcons CEO Rich McKay has said that referees will be instructed to enforce the new rules in the trenches as well. If they do that, the league has just slid down one of the most slippery slopes in the history of the world, as helmet-to-helmet contact takes place all the time and referees could call a penalty on literally every single play. That would be a problem for obvious reasons, and even though the league is making a noble effort to take the helmet out of the game, it will be very hard to actually see this happening without seriously affecting the way football is played.

To be clear, I am as much against brain damage as anyone could be and the NFL’s recent rule changes have good intentions and could be a step in the right direction with proper enforcement. However, these changes will also force players, particularly offensive and defensive linemen, to completely re-learn everything they have previously learned about playing their positions. While these changes are probably necessary and good for the game in the long run, the long term benefits don’t mean that there won’t be serious consequences to the game in the short term that could make many fans turn away.

That assertion goes back to why fans actually watch the game: entertainment and violence. For example, when I watched the Super Bowl, I didn’t think of the potentially life-altering impact of Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins’ hit on Patriots wide receiver Brandin Cooks. My first thought was that it should have been a penalty. That attitude needs to change. While we have gotten better at realizing what happens to players after they retire, we need to come to the realization that every single play features some sort of violence that can create or add to a player’s mental health problems after his football career. But Americans like entertainment, and they also like violence, which is why Conor McGregor was trending on Twitter last week for attacking a group of MMA fighters and their entourages. The mass attraction wasn’t because his act was sophisticated, organized or sportsmanlike. We watched because McGregor was captivating and abusive, and many were enthralled by his actions.

This is to say that as long as the NFL is a violent sport, people will tune in to watch it.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in April 2018.

The Fordham men’s golf team finished in a tie for sixth place at the Albarta Coca-Cola Lehigh Valley Collegiate Invite on Easter Sunday. The event was the first of the spring season for the Rams after a fall season that saw the team win one tournament and finish in the top three in two others.

The event was originally scheduled for Sunday and Monday, but Monday’s snow storm forced all 36 holes of the tournament to be moved up to Sunday.

Leading the way for the Rams over the weekend was senior Matt Schiller, who finished with a 75 and a 72; his 147 finish over two rounds gave him the Rams’ best individual score and tied him for 11th on the Tournament leaderboard. “I was really proud of the way I stayed patient,” Schiller said. “The course was tough because it was coming fresh off a lot of melted snow, so guys caught a lot of bad breaks out there, especially on the greens. I knew that if I stayed in it and even had a sense of humor about the conditions, I would continue to play well.”
The next best player for the Rams on Sunday was junior Josh Madarang, who entered the clubhouse with a 149 after shooting rounds of 74 and 75. The performance of the Chester Springs, Pennsylvania native is particularly promising for Fordham because Madarang was a full two strokes below his 18-hole fall semester average of 76.5. His finish was the other top-20 showing for Fordham on the day, as he tied for 19th among individual players.

Also competing for the Rams on Sunday was senior James Mongey, who finished with a final-round 74 after a 79 in his first 18 holes. Sophomore and Miami native Tomas Nieves shot rounds of 76 and 78, respectively and senior Joseph Trim shot a 155 with rounds of 78 and 77 on Sunday. Finally, freshman Mithran Denbow competed as an individual and had rounds of 77 and 83; those figures did not count towards Fordham’s team figure on the afternoon.

As a team, the Rams came in sixth at the Lehigh Valley Collegiate Invite. The tournament was won by Rhode Island University, who won the event by two strokes over second-place finisher and host school Lehigh. Also playing at the invitational were the following schools, listed in the order in which they finished: Robert Morris University, Connecticut University, Villanova University, College of the Holy Cross, Ottawa University, Binghamton University, Siena College, Bryant University, Monmouth University, Lafayette College, Rider University, Hofstra University and Niagara University.

Next up for the Fordham men’s golf team is the Wildcat Invitational April 9-10 in Malvern, Pennsylvania; the event will be hosted by Villanova. After that, the team travels to New Haven, Connecticut to take part in the Yale Invitational on April 14. The Rams last played on the course at Yale in October, when they finished 12th out of 14 teams at the MacDonald Invitational on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 of 2017. After that, Fordham has a quick turnaround and takes part in the Rhode Island Invitational on April 16-17. With all that, the Rams are set to play 90 holes of golf in just four days. Fordham finished third in the Rhode Island Invitational a season ago.
“Our mental toughness drives how far we can go as a team,” Schiller said. “We all hit great shots, we can all make putts and we all can post red numbers on any given day. If we build on the conditions we faced this week and just have that same mentality of grinding through whatever the day throws at us, we’ll be a really tough team to beat the rest of the season.”