Rob Watson
Bio
I love writing, and I love sport. So many of my stories will be about sport. But I also love writing fiction too, so there will be short stories, extracts from novels and maybe some scripts and even some poems too.
Stories (36/0)
Getting it Done When it Matters
A constant debate in sport is about how much Champions are born or made. Some people believe that it’s virtually all down to natural talents that you are born with, whereas others, including myself, believe that hard and smart work can go an awfully long way. Often players who give the impression of being outrageously gifted are actually just showing off the results of thousands of hours of hard work. Michael Jordan the Basketball legend who most experts still class as the best of all time, would at first glance appear to be a good case study of evidence for those in the natural talent camp. Not only was he exceptional at all the basic basketball skills and made them look so easy, he also had that extra factor of being able to do physical things that no other players could, namely his magical ability to hang in the air and change direction whilst off the ground. Anybody making that argument would be ignoring an incredible work ethic that would put most humans to shame. Most people see an all-time great like Jordan and assume that everything has always been easy for him and that’s he’s always been outstanding. In this particular case the fact that Jordan got dropped from his high school basketball team completely flies in the face of that assumption. Successful people aren’t people who have never failed, they are people who have responded well to failure. Jordan himself is more than aware of this, he is quoted as saying: ‘I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.’
By Rob Watson2 years ago in Cleats
NFL in London
Have you ever had something that you told yourself you would do ‘one day’? The older you get the quicker those days turns into weeks, months, years and even decades. Finally, for me one of those ‘one day’ moments became today. After following the sport for almost forty years, and saying since the first London game fourteen years ago that I will go to one of them, I witnessed an NFL game live in the flesh for the first time.
By Rob Watson2 years ago in Unbalanced
Getting it Done When it Matters
Ben Hogan mastered the art of ball striking better, Seve Ballesteros had more magic and flair about him, Bobby Jones played with more style and grace, Tiger Woods had a greater ability to dominate a field when playing his best and in every technical aspect of the game you can find better exponents of them than Nicklaus in the history of the game, but when it came to getting it done when it mattered, no player did it better than Jack. The ‘Golden Bear’ has 18 victories in professional major championships, four more than Woods and seven more than anyone else.
By Rob Watson3 years ago in Unbalanced
NFL Week 2 Review
This was a week of unbelievable drama. I am referring of course to my Fantasy team. I had made a couple of changes to my winning team from week one. I had brought in Eli Mitchell from the 49ers as a running back, once I heard that because of injuries to others he was their primary running back. The way the 49ers scheme up running plays and block as a whole team, I would back myself to make a few yards playing running back for them, so I thought he would be a good one to add to the squad on a waiver for a few weeks at least. I thrust him straight into the starting line up as one of three running backs, along with Mixon and Edwards-Helaire. That meant dropping one of my wide receivers to the bench, I chose Woods from the Rams, who had been steady in week one but unspectacular. So my only receivers were Tyler Lockett and Sterling Shepard – who got my team off to a solid start by scoring seventeen and a half points in the Thursday night game against Washington. The other big call I made was swapping my quarterbacks over, bringing Herbert off the bench to start instead of Tannehill. That was partly because Herbert had been the more impressive of the two in week one, but also because he was playing Dallas at home, whilst Tannehill was travelling to Seattle.
By Rob Watson3 years ago in Unbalanced
Fairy Tale in White
Fairy Tale in White I’m sitting in my pristine white dress, heart racing, butterflies in my stomach, my big day has finally arrived. As I wait to be told that it’s time to make the walk I can’t help but look back on my life. It’s a walk I’ve dreamed of making so many times, in fact no matter how far I think back, I can’t remember dreaming of anything else.
By Rob Watson3 years ago in Fiction
Fans view of NFL Week 1
As has become a modern tradition, if there is such a thing, the season started with a Thursday night game involving the reigning champions. Tampa Bay hosted Dallas and were expected to get their title defence of to a winning start. It is easy to see why the Buccaneers are one of the favourites for the title this year, they became the first team in a long time to be able to keep hold of all twenty-two starters that won the Superbowl for them. Personnel wise they almost have the look of one of those star studded teams in San Francisco or Dallas in the early nineties, the days before the salary cap. Brady has three exceptional wide receivers to throw to in Evans, Brown and Goodwin, along with maybe the best tight end ever in his good friend Gronkowski, in the backfield they have an elite level running back in Fournette. Defensively they are almost as loaded with star players and importantly both lines are exceptional.
By Rob Watson3 years ago in Unbalanced
The Other Cheek
Justin was finishing drying himself after a shower when he heard a knock on the door to his apartment. He hastily put on some shorts and a T-shirt and took a towel with him, still drying his hair as he got to the door. As soon as he opened the door the man doing the knocking walked into the apartment, pushing past Justin.
By Rob Watson3 years ago in Fiction
Draft day in NFL Fantasy
I have been following the NFL from England since it was first shown over here. The Superbowl at the end of this upcoming season will be my fortieth Superbowl. I have decided to chronicle my following of this season by way of written articles. Some will be weekly updates on how the season is going, others will be my thoughts on the Sport and there will be some stories ‘from the ’vault’ as well as I relive past seasons and write about some of my favourite players, teams, coaches and stories from the NFL. This article is about my experience of drafting my NFL Fantasy team.
By Rob Watson3 years ago in Unbalanced