Around The Horn

NFL- The Super Bowl is less then a week away and that means we should only be subjected to 6 days of updates on Dwight Freeney and his ankle. Apparently a ‘grade 3 lower basketball sprain’ in fact means torn ligament. That is a little deceptive. Being the second most impactive player on the Colts the focus on Freeney and his injury will be covered closer then a Brett Favre retirement watch... Certainly Freeney’s ankle is Freeney’s ankle, it is on TV more then Leave It To BEAVER....RE-RUNS

NBA- Sunday the Lakers played the Celtics in a possible NBA Finals Preview. The cam came down to 1 point in the dying seconds of the game. The Lakers wound up victorious. Any idea who took the last shot for the Lakers and made it for the winning basket?? Yeah, figured...it was Kobe....again. When will teams learn. You make the Luke Walton or the Jordan Farmar’s of the world beat you. You can’t keep letting arguably the greatest clutch shooter/player the league has ever seen keep beating you. Coaching 101...Rookie Mistake Doc.

NASCAR- The DAYTONA 500, "The Great American Race". 43 of the best stock car drivers in the world take center stage February 14, 2010 in NASCAR’s biggest, richest and most prestigious race. I love the sport and am a HUGE Jimmie Johnson fan but I do fear looking in the stands to the type of people who will be in the grandstands celebrating St. Valentines Day at the Speedway. The old V-chip in the TV might kick in for inappropriate content by inappropriate fans and viewer discretion may be advised. Hope it is on a delay and any nudity is brief and tasteful (and has a weight limit).

CFL - Congratulations you have a league that not once but twice drafted a deceased person on the entry draft. They have had 2 teams with the same name at the same time (Roughriders and Rough Riders) Now they have made things look even more on the up and up as the Toronto Argos are all set to be sold to BC Lions owner David Braley. It is nice that the team will have an owner and not be in fear of folding but to have an owner own 1 team in the East and 1 team in the West is sketchy at best.

MLB- The Minnesota Twins and catcher Joe Mauer have apparently agreed to terms on a 10-year contract extension. Mauer, who became just the second catcher in the last 33 years to be named the American league’s MVP this past season, is slated to earn $12.5 million this coming season and could have become a free agent at the end of the year. For a small market team who is known for allowing their best player move on when they become stars because they can’t afford them it is nice to see that they actually have made a commitment to the player and the player to the team. A nice change of pace. It probably was made more possible that Maur is also a native of St. Paul, Minnesota.

NHL- The trade between the Calgary Flames and New York Rangers reportedly involving Olli Jokinen, Brandon Prust to New York and Ales Kotalik and Chris Higgins to Calgary. that was supposed to go down on Monday didn’t. The Flames played with Jokinen in the lineup in Mondays game in one of the most odd situations involving a players transaction. Nothing says motivation like knowing that you may be gone 2 minutes after the conclusion of your game. That didn’t seem to help as the Flames were shut out.

Grey Cup 2009

Since it is Canada and it is Grey Cup time I will enter my prediction for the game.
Montreal is favoured by 9.5 points. I presume that they should be able to cover this with ease.
The only problem with that is that they always seem to play close games in the Grey Cup regardless of how big a miss match the game looks on paper. Montreal I think will still win but covering the 9.5 is not likely.

The game is in Calgary but the stands will be a sea of green and if anything it is a home game for the Roughriders. Why Montreal is always so good until the Finals then they struggle. Maybe it is that they never have any adversity during the regular season. The East is so bad they they have 1st wrapped up by Thanksgiving.

Either way enjoy this Canadian Tradition. It is the only game of the CFL that most people will watch and that isn't a bad thing.

LA Temptation DL - Niki Ghazian

The nights are getting colder and the days are getting shorter and that is the signal that football time is upon us. Now I know that some people will focus on the CFL but that doesn't count. There is the NFL but it is still a bit away. Some others will mention the debut of the Friday night games from the Lingerie Football League but probably for a different reason. Football is football and all three have that in common but each game bringsits own element of entertainment. All three can involve some fun extra elements to a viewer...gambling of course, mind out of the gutters people. So above is a gratuitous photo, just because.

Ok now to the real business, which was, ah....oh yeah football. Kickoff has taken place in the ranks of the NCAA as of this weekend and already there has been some do-in’s a transpiring. On Thursday in the Boise St. game a player from Oregon, LeGarrette Blount lost his mind and did his best to go all Ron Artest and sucker punched another player not during the game but after the game, He then took a shot at one of his own players and then looked to get into the stands before being held back and taken away. So what was the start to his teams season may and should mark the end of his own season.

Some early Highlights
~ Notre Dame needed to start strong just to save face, they did with a 35-0 win
~ Michigan, which had the worst season maybe ever in Ann Arbour last year, allegations of NCAA practice violations and a coach involved in a legal Real Estate situation also needed a big win did so with a 31-7 win
~ In a huge upset not only to the team but for Heiseman candidate Sam Bradford as Oklahoma lost 14-13 to BYU
~ The #1 Florida Gators led by the chosen one Tim Tebow held on in a tight one 62-3
~ Unfortunately Ohio St. held on to win in a tight one over Navy winning by 4. Stupid Buckeyes

If this is how the season is going to go it should prove to be very entertaining and full of story lines...and we havn’t even mentions the giant elephant in the room, yep thats it the dreaded BCS debate which will sure to show it’s dirty little head, probably sooner then we all may want and/or think.

Enjoy the Saturday pigskin action, maybe the only sport where each regular season game can make or break any hope of a title opportunity!

On The Rebound?

At one time Montreal could be considered a great sports city, can the same still be said? Some say yes some say no. The loss of both the F1 race as well as the demise of the Expos greatly hurt the overall standing.

Maybe a small comeback is perhaps now in progress. No there is no talk about a baseball rebirth, although it would probably be better supported now if there was some decent ownership in Montreal then in Washington (or Florida and Tampa for that matter). It couldn’t be too much worse. Too bad that the same issues are there that led to the team leaving in the first place.

It is reported that there is a tentative deal in place to get the F1 Grand Prix back to the MTL for the 2010 schedule. Montreal was dropped from the 2009 F1 calendar after negotiations with race organizers collapsed.
Bringing a true NASCAR Nationwide event is a huge deal and is well supported. The success of the Rogers Cup Tennis Championship that is currently being played is also a major event for the city. Rumor has it that the X-Games are also in talks to come and hold there premier event in the city sometimes in the near future as well.

The city still has its Canadiens, one of the most historic teams in all of pro sports. Sure it is like pulling teeth to have junior hockey supported in the city but it too is coming along with the Montreal Juniors in the QMJHL.

The MLS may also be on the horizon, not that that should matter - It has the Montreal Impact in some other "footy league" and neither should count as a plus for being a sports city. The Montreal Alouettes are as successful as one can be as a CFL football club.

On the whole Montreal is probably teetering as being a fairly big player in the sports world. It is good venue based just on the number of events, although some are at perhaps a 2nd or lower tier level.

The Pitfalls Of The Summer Lull

Now is the time of the year and things are about to become slow and it will be up to baseball to keep the sports interest intact. Boston playing New York in a series that actually counts is a good start but that is just 1 series. Sure there is NASCAR and the regular Canadian pass time- off season idol hockey speculation and for myself AVP Beach Volleyball. But as far as the games themselves there is a huge drop off at this time of year. The occasional tennis or golf tournament may happen to take the edge off but that is about it. NFL Camps are open now but until the games actually start for real and not the useless pre-season games where the real players play 1 series and then shut it down. Summer hockey camps are starting up but they arn't games and realy don't decide anything so that doesn't help things. Without any other distractions every day is now What will happen Dany Heatley? Also no good comes from that.

Canada Day is always a great day to be patriotic and celebrate living in a great country but sadly it also marked the kick off of the new CFL season. No good can come from this. Over coverage on TSN and overpower the airways with lack luster games with players we don’t know or don’t much care for. Even worse is the coverage that it will surely get from the local sports radio station Team 1200. The afternoon show right now that is almost on the verge of being unsustainable now with the move of the annoying and less then interesting hosts Glen Kulka and Lee Versage will become even worse with the increased addition of CFL chatter to go with the MMA talk. The CFL hour is a write-off in the afternoons as well. Almost as bad as having a soccer show in that slot, which they now have on Saturday mornings (The Team 1200 programing time on a Saturday morning is like a mule with a spinning wheel, he doesn't know how he got it and danged if he knows how to use it.

For a city who is still without a CFL team and not much news happening on that front there relay isn’t too much need for too much focus. We can start to care about the CFL late in the fall, playoff time and the Grey Cup...the only time it really matters.

The CFL - Is It Un-Canadian To Not Care Much About This?

The CFL is far from my favorite sports league. I know that it is not the NFL and never will be nor can it be viewed in the same way. I have been a season ticket holder in the past when the Renegades were still in Ottawa but even that didn’t make me a huge fan of the game. I enjoyed going to the games and the atmosphere more then the game itself.

I don’t agree and in some cases understand a bunch of the rules, some of the scoring, tactics and the way they operate the clock. It makes it very difficult to actually enjoy the game as being football. I know that the caliber of play won’t be as high but sometimes it looks like a CIS game would be played at a higher level. Just saying that sometime the execution of plays is severely lacking. I find the sport to be more interesting for 1 week a year and that is Grey Cup time in November. 1 game That’s about it.

In this league it seems like there is more turnover then any other league making it very hard to be a casual fan. So many players change teams or leave the league or come back to the league that it is hard to associate them with a team. Outside a few top line players there just aren’t any household names making it hard to root for them. That was made even more difficult this past week when they went retro. All the teams broke out the old style jerseys that was really more confusing then anything else. The Toronto Argo’s were the only team that had players names on the back. When you hardly know the players to begin with that is a big disservice to the viewers. When you do it so early in the season as well, even an avid fan won’t know a lot of the numbers and would be hard pressed to know who is who. Another sticking point to this is the fact that a lot of the uniforms were such a far cry from what they are now you would have no idea what 2 teams were playing. There were some logo’s that most people have never seen before. You wouldn’t know if it was Montreal or Calgary playing.

Sure they may go Retro to sell some more jerseys and merchandise but really, when was the last time you were walking down the street and saw someone wearing a CFL jersey? Unless you are in Edmonton or Saskatchewan chances are you won’t. A retro jersey is not going to motivate too many people to go "Cool, I gotta have me that sharp Alouettes throwback!!"

Entry Drafts Can Be A Crapshoot

I am a fan for the most part of Rookie or Entry drafts in most sports. The NHL is fun because there are players that we know from either the round the clock hockey coverage in Canada or because we have seen them play at the World Junior Championships. The NBA was more fun in the 90’s and early 2000’s when you actually knew the first 10-15 picks because of March Madness and all the hype around the Lottery. The NFL is the machine in every way from the games to the way it is cover to the fans. It is the total package. Their draft is no different. It was held last weekend and came out ahead of both the NHL Playoffs and the NBA playoffs...It was easily the most anticipated “sporting event” of the weekend. It was shortened up this year...thankfully but still had major coverage and a huge viewership.

This is not the case when it comes to the CFL. The players are not recognisable, the coverage isn’t very compelling and the level of players that are going to potentially make any of the teams aren’t overly impressive. You aren’t going to get too many standouts from the Ottawa Gee Gees or St Mary’s Huskies and if you do, nobody has ever heard of them. Only in a league like the CFL will you find that they have, in the past, drafted not just 1 but 2 deceased players. This occurred in the mid 90’s. If teams don’t even know about the players why should we take notice.

For those who don’t know here is a News release from the New York Post Back in 1996

Canadian Team Drafts Dead Man
AP: Published: Friday, March 15, 1996
For the second time in a year, a Canadian Football League team has drafted a dead player.The Montreal Alouettes selected defensive end James Eggink of Northern Illinois in the fifth round of the league's Canadian college draft today, only to learn a few hours later that Eggink died of cancer last December.Last April, the Ottawa Rough Riders sought defensive end Derrell Robertson, who had died on Dec. 5, 1994.With all that beings said congratulations to The Hamilton Tiger-Cats who selected offensive lineman Simeon Rottier with the first overall pick of the CFL Canadian College Draft today. Rottier was a standout at The University of Alberta.