“Is it my imagination, or does Tom Brady look more stylish 20 minutes after a football game than the rest of us looked on our wedding days?”
I don’t know what’s more annoying: the mancrush on Brady or the repeated baseball references in a football column.
Lost in the runup to the Patriots’ Sweet 16 party was any talk of the first undefeated team in pro football history.
No, not them. The other one.
From the “learn something new every day” department: This article from Australia, bemoaning the depature of Brazilian soccer player Fred, who went from Melbourne Victory of the A-League to DC United of MLS last spring. Apparently his old club isn’t doing so well without him, but the passage that caught my eye was this:
“That Victory has gone from a premiership-championship double to fighting to avoid the wooden spoon is due to more than Fred not being in the navy blue shirt he wore for 20 of 24 games last season.”
I’ve heard of the Old Oaken Bucket. I’ve heard of Paul Bunyan’s Axe and the Monon Bell. I’d never heard of the “wooden spoon” before, but it turns out I’m behind the times. The wooden spoon is something you don’t want to get, as it historically goes to someone finishing last in a competition. Apparently the Aussies use the term quite a bit (woe to St. Kilda’s, 26-time “winner” of the wooden spoon in the AFL), but we don’t. Maybe we should.
“(NFL) Network spokesman Seth Palansky says there’s ‘zero chance’ of anything happening. He also paraphrases lyrics from singer Carrie Underwood, saying there’s as much chance of anything being changed as there is of ‘raindrops going back into clouds.’”
“We have taken this extraordinary step because it is in the best interest of our fans,” commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement after the league announced it was reversing course. “What we have seen for the past year is a very strong consumer demand for NFL Network. We appreciate CBS and NBC delivering the NFL Network telecast on Saturday night to the broad audience that deserves to see this potentially historic game. Our commitment to the NFL Network is stronger than ever.”
NFL Network spokesman Seth Palansky said officials would have no further comment Wednesday.”
Enjoy the game.
When we last left my APBA simulation of the 1953 World Series, the Yankees had won the first two games at home (10-1 and 6-2). But the Dodgers were coming home to Ebbets Field (right), where they had gone 60-17 during the regular season on the way to a franchise-best 105 wins. In the actual 1953 series, New York took the first two games at Yankee Stadium, but the Dodgers rebounded at home. Would they be able to do the same on my kitchen table?
Nothing, unfortunately, because the longtime sportscaster (perhaps best known to some of you as the announcer in the Rocky movies, best known to me from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) passed away Wednesday at the age of 81. The guy was still on TV in LA at the age of 73! That’s amazing (as is his career arc, if you read the obit linked above). Fast Times is a classic, and so was Stu. May he rest in peace.
Oh, come on, like that’s not the first thing you thought of when you heard that former MLS player Onandi Lowe had been caught with…um…a bit of ganja in his car.
Well, maybe not the first thing. The first thing was probably, “42 joints?” and the second thing was probably, “That’s illegal in Jamaica?”
Since leaving MLS after playing 13 games for the Kansas City Wizards in 2001, Lowe had turned out for the wonderfully-named Rushden & Diamonds and with Coventry City in England and was most recently with Portmore United in his home country.
The former Jamaican international also had charges that he tried to smuggle crack cocaine out of England dismissed in 2005 for lack of evidence.
MLSNet.com is so much fun.
Actual headline: “Beckham begins training with Arsenal.”
Actual quote from Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger inside actual story: “There’s a good chance that he will come in January, but it’s not decided.”