the 13th round
NEW OLYMPIC SPORT
In light of the accident that Dick Cheney had (I have my suspicions about the "accident" part), and the fact that we are in the middle of another Winter Olympics Season, I think that we should have a new Winter Olympic sport that will combine politics and the biathlon: the Politician Shoot! The difference in my sport and the biathlon is that things are a little reversed: instead of skiing to several posts and then stopping to shoot, the shooter stays in one place and the target (insert politician of your choice, hopefully from the present administration) gets to ski around and avoid being shot. Personally, I'd love to see the beady-eyed lil bastard, his VP, and the rest of his Motley Crue of a cabinet dodging bullets as they dance around in snowshoes, dodging bullets left and right. Do I hear Olympic Gold??? There's only one rule.....I'M FIRST!!
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Like an onion...the more you peel the more it stinks
Rick Tocchet is now being investigated for financing a gambling ring which, in the beginning, was said to possibly include one or two players. Then, we were told that the Great Wayne Gretzky's wife, Janet Jones, could possibly be implicated as well.
When the news hit, the media ran to Gretzky for a comment. He didn't have much to say, other than he knew nothing about what his wife was doing when it came to gambling. Seems to me a bit of a far cry from the when the cinema heros of yesteryear would protect the leading lady by demanding "Do what you want to me but leave the girl alone." Instead, Wayne was saying "Do what you want to the girl but leave me alone."
Now today we are told that not only did Gretzky know what was going on, but that the authorities have him on tape talking to Tocchet about how he was going to keep his wife out of it. As the old saying goes, "It's like an onion...the more layers you peel, the more it stinks."
And that is exactly what is going on here. Since day one this was a story about an assistant coach and possibly a couple of current NHL'ers. Now it has evolved into the coach, the team's owner, the owner's wife, and the threat of several more current players being thrown into the mix.
The NFL, which has many of the best league policies in professional American sports today, again has this issue nailed directly on the head: If you are found to be gambling on any sporting event, regardless of whether it's your sport or not, you will be banned from the league. No nonsense. No grey area.
That's exactly how this should be handled. The NHL sat out an entire season due to a labor dispute. Perhaps this subject was and has been overlooked for some time because they have had no problems with gambling in the game, well at least not until now.
If there is no policy in the league, one needs to be instituted toot suite. And the other leagues, if they don't have a policy directed towards this issue itself, should sit down with the unions and get an agreement worked out. It's the only way that the leagues as well as the players can show that they will not tolerate this type of behavior.
Ask Paul Hornung about being suspended from the league. If he had not been the adopted son of the greatest coach in any sport, Hornung would tell you that he would have never played pro football again.
I know that if I were a player, and I knew that the guy next to me liked to bet with bookies, I wouldn't feel very comfortable knowing that if he has a bad week of picking games, he may not play as hard as he should because he "owes" certain people a favor who have a vested interest in the outcome of the game we were playing.
If you won't tolerate a blemish on your sport, and you seriously want to do something about it, sit down and draw up a policy. That's the only way that the fans are going to believe that you want to rid the game of the disease.
When the news hit, the media ran to Gretzky for a comment. He didn't have much to say, other than he knew nothing about what his wife was doing when it came to gambling. Seems to me a bit of a far cry from the when the cinema heros of yesteryear would protect the leading lady by demanding "Do what you want to me but leave the girl alone." Instead, Wayne was saying "Do what you want to the girl but leave me alone."
Now today we are told that not only did Gretzky know what was going on, but that the authorities have him on tape talking to Tocchet about how he was going to keep his wife out of it. As the old saying goes, "It's like an onion...the more layers you peel, the more it stinks."
And that is exactly what is going on here. Since day one this was a story about an assistant coach and possibly a couple of current NHL'ers. Now it has evolved into the coach, the team's owner, the owner's wife, and the threat of several more current players being thrown into the mix.
The NFL, which has many of the best league policies in professional American sports today, again has this issue nailed directly on the head: If you are found to be gambling on any sporting event, regardless of whether it's your sport or not, you will be banned from the league. No nonsense. No grey area.
That's exactly how this should be handled. The NHL sat out an entire season due to a labor dispute. Perhaps this subject was and has been overlooked for some time because they have had no problems with gambling in the game, well at least not until now.
If there is no policy in the league, one needs to be instituted toot suite. And the other leagues, if they don't have a policy directed towards this issue itself, should sit down with the unions and get an agreement worked out. It's the only way that the leagues as well as the players can show that they will not tolerate this type of behavior.
Ask Paul Hornung about being suspended from the league. If he had not been the adopted son of the greatest coach in any sport, Hornung would tell you that he would have never played pro football again.
I know that if I were a player, and I knew that the guy next to me liked to bet with bookies, I wouldn't feel very comfortable knowing that if he has a bad week of picking games, he may not play as hard as he should because he "owes" certain people a favor who have a vested interest in the outcome of the game we were playing.
If you won't tolerate a blemish on your sport, and you seriously want to do something about it, sit down and draw up a policy. That's the only way that the fans are going to believe that you want to rid the game of the disease.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Not-So-Super Bowl?
So there we had it. After the NFL's Championship Sunday, we had two weeks of buildup to what was supposed to be the best Super Bowl of recent years. First there were the Seattle Seahawks, now of the NFC, making their first Super Bowl appearance in team history. It was not a huge surprise that the Seahawks were there; they were the #1 seed in the NFC with the best record. They had the NFL's Most Valuable Player, scored the most points in the conference, and had a solid defense. Representing the AFC were the Pittsburgh Steeelers. A lot of fuss made about a #6 seed making it to the big dance, but this was not your ordinary #6. This team was on a winning streak since November and they are known for being able to do the two thiings that it takes to win in the NFL: they can run the ball and they can stop the run. There were several storylines that endeared the Steelers to people that did not ordinarily don the black and gold. First, there was Jerome Bettis, a more likeable guy not to be found, retiring as the fifth best rusher in league history AND the Super Bowl being hosted in his hometown. Then there was Bill Cower, the coach that holds the longest current tenure as head coach for his team, who is revered as well as respected by many. Seattle, however, didn't bring that much to the table. There was Shaun Alexander, the league's top runner, and there was Mike Holmgren, taking his second team to the Super Bowl and his third appearance overall as a head coach. Finally the big game came. All the anticipation was over, and the game was on. I thought that the first half was a little tough to stomach, and at the close of the half a lot of fans were praying that the game was going to get better. For the most part, it lacked excitement, there were a lot of stalled drives, mistakes made, and very little scoring. Then the second half began. There was finally some excitement to the game, the idea of scoring was more of a possibility than a dream, and the fans seemed to wake up (maybe that was the Stones' doing). The mistakes, mostly by Seattle, were still there, however. The refs must have decided that Seattle wan't the only bunch in town that could botch the biggest game of the year, so not to be outdone, they jumped in so that they could get America talking about their (lack of) performance around the water coolers on Monday morning. None of the game's big stars were worth talking about. In fact, there was such a lack of a standout performer that when the game was over, I looked at my friend and asked, "So who's the MVP?" He didn't have an answer for me and he's a die-hard Steelers fan. If you look at some of the players that were expected to play a big part, it didn't happen. The Bus had 43 yards on the day. Roethlisberger had the worst QB rating of any winning QB in a Super Bowl: 22. You didn't hear Polamalu's or Joey Porter's names the entire game. Alexander didn't light up the board and Hasselbeck made too many mistakes, not to mention that they were on the losing team. So, as far as I'm concerned, this is not a game that's going to go into the annals and join the likes of Super Bowl III (Jets-Colts), either of the 49ers-Bengals Super Bowls, XXV (Giants-Buffalo), XXXIV (Rams-Titans), or XXXVI (Patriots-Rams). No, this Super Bowl will go down as one of the forgetables, like the first two that the Packers won, the two that Dallas wrecked Buffalo in, or when the 49ers beat Denver 55-10. Super Bowl? No, I would say that SB XL was more of a Snoozer Bowl.
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