Weekend bits: Deck the brawls

Here's what you might have missed while figuring that 9-2 scoreline was just an office party-induced hallucinatory hangover:

Numerical string to ponder: 37.6, 39.0, 50.6. Give up? Too easy, I know, the last one was a dead giveaway. They're the Raptors' defensive FG numbers for the past three games, all W's, and yesterday's W over the GS Nellies included six Bargnani blocks. He's coming along, and so are they. Meantime, Jose Calderon was stretchered off with a back injury and wasn't on the plane to Phoenix where the Raps open their final pre-Christmas road trip.

Another great weekend for millionaire bozo jocks losing touch with their emotions and reality. The Knicks and Nuggets spilled their slapping and backpeddling into the baseline seats in NY Saturday (video here, although who knows how long it'll stay up), the former blaming the latter for actually playing the game out. The nerve. Suspensions may come down today, with original Raptor turned Knick-killer Isiah Thomas one of the focuses:

The league is certain to punish Anthony, its leading scorer and one of its brightest young stars, for throwing a punch at Collins. As for Thomas, a Hall of Fame guard who is now fighting to hold on to his job, the situation is unusual because there is no known precedent for a team’s coach, let alone its president, to be punished for instigating a fight.

Raptors coach Sam Mitchell, missing the point entirely: "We can't fight. We can wrestle. But we've got a better chance of scratching each other than fighting each other where we actually (land) a punch. ... So why is it such a black eye when these guys lose their temper?" Sam, fighting might be a part of hockey - if they penalized NHL coaches for instigating fights, the bench would be a pretty lonely place many nights - but it's not in the NBA, and when it moves into the expensive seats, it's a puffy shiner for all the world to see.

Oh, and this long-running idiot (the one on the right) spat in the face of an opponent, which means it'll probably show up as an option on the next NFL Blitz game. Meantime, there was Chicago Bear Tank Johnson's weekend: arrested for the third time in 18 months, then 12 hours later out partying with a friend who was shot to death.

Back to the playing fields: Agent Zero drops 60 on the Lakers (Kobe's held to 45).

This is not sports, but it's definitely seasonal: Boss drinks lots of vodka at Christmas lunch party and passes out - on the train tracks, his head on the rail, causing a four-hour delay during London rush hour (nice basket catch by The Morning News).

What I learned from the BBC's 100 things we didn't know this time last year: Jose Mourinho says he's only been in an English pub once, and that was to buy his wife some fags, as they're known over there (so there's 101 things - I didn't know the Special Wife smoked).

Jason Williams' line from Miami's game Saturday night stopped me: 26 minutes, 0 shots from the field or the line, seven assists. Hey, all hail White Carob.

One game away from the midpoint of the Premier League season - and now into the holiday match crunch, as David James notes in his Guardian blog - Chelsea's just two points back of Man United. And in Spain, a bad weekend for Barcelona - losing the yawnworthy Club World Cup to Brazilian side Internacional, and falling out of first place in La Liga.

Australia beats the Poms, reclaims the Ashes.

And still Down Under, a world record-breaking bungee jump.

Into the weekend: Talking and carolling

A quote, and a little rant to start off, riffing off Wednesday's postgame in Cleveland:

"All in all, we played well. I look at it as a positive thing. We're growing as a team; we're getting better. Three weeks ago, we couldn't have come here and played that well."

And a week before this night and its four-point defeat, the Raptors were eight points better than the same Cavs - so what's up with that, coach? But I'm not picking on Sam here. He's just spinning, like all coaches do. It's more about this North American sportswriting addiction to the locker-room quote, these bromides and warmed-over cliches that we hustle down to get, wait around for, chicken-scratch into our notebooks or transcribe dutifully off the recorder. I did it for years.

Thanks to TV and now the Internet, though, pretty much everyone who cares knows what happened last night. Listening to some player or coach distill it into these little bits of nothing adds - nothing. More interesting is why it happened and how, but rarely is that explored in any depth. Even though it can be a bit pretentious, overall, I'll take the quoteless, British style of match reporting. Will Leitch said it best: access is overrated. And along these lines, here's one for you - via Kottke, former major league pitcher Don Carman's list of stock locker-room answers, favourites (and a few I've written down and banged into the keyboard) including:

7 If we stay healthy we should be right there
12 This team seems ready to gel
14 That All-Star voting is a joke
20 We've got to have fun
26 That's why they pay him _ million dollars

One last appeal. A little while back there was some fun here with the 50 Worst Things to Happen to Sports countdown. Now it's time to put together the answer list: The _ Best Things to Happen to Pro Sports. Any and all submissions appreciated. I've got nearly 20 on my own, but need more.

One last e-mailed Christmas carol. Nice work by Glenn from Arizona on this one:

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true Leafs sent to me
Twelve wingers in need of a drumming,
Eleven players and a Glenn Healy piping,
Ten forwards a-diving
Nine wankin' penalties
Eight goals a-milking,
Seven games a floundering,
Six players a-standing
A fiiiiiivvve game losing streak
Four yapping call ups
Three strung out forwards
Two blind defensemen,
And a broken hockey stick from an ash tree!

One last vidgame "think piece". Newsflash: video games like Madden NFL have enhanced kids' understanding of sports. And here we thought all it did was make them fat (Related: Toronto hosts Canada's NFL Madden finals, Jan. 20 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre).

One - make that two - last BCS bits. Usually I avoid US college football, but these are too good to pass up: Slate's Chris Suellentrop on Who's #2? and blog fave Neate Sager has his Top 5 Pointless Bowl Matchups, including the Whatchamacallit Bowl here in Toronto sometime in January, I forget when, I'll let Neate tell you:

5. INTERNATIONAL BOWL: WESTERN MICHIGAN vs. CINCINNATI, Jan. 6, Toronto There's nothing wrong with playing a bowl game in Toronto. It's just that a game that ranks below the Meineke Car Care Bowl in the NCAA pecking order should not be held just two days before the national championship game. If this game was held on Boxing Day where it belongs, no problem.

One last interview. Alanah at VCOE got her press pass from the Canucks, and thus was able to get some of those locker-room quotes (see - there's a theme here!):

Alanah: You strike me as a player that enjoys playing to the fans and this bad luck might be getting to you in a personal way.
Alex Burrows: Yeah, a little bit for sure. I haven’t scored a goal in 28 games, but you’ve just got to keep working. Like I said, the bounces aren’t going our way right now.

Alanah, go back to Don Carman's list right now! I believe this one is No. 13. Or maybe 17.

Sports around town. Woodbine's closing day goes Sunday out at the Rexdale plant, with a first post of 12:40 p.m. And here's your Sovereign Award finalists.

Watching. Arsenal at Chelsea, 11 a.m., Sunday, Fox Sports. They're both through to the Champions League knockout round - nice try there, Gooners - but it's the postgame press conference, Wenger vs Mourinho, that might be the better matchup.

Pooch punts. Jinks the Vizsla is back. Went 3-2 last week, and the tail is wagging but good this time around. Actually, it's always wagging when it's kibble or cookie time:

DETROIT (-1 1/2) over Minnesota
NY JETS (-4) over Buffalo
WASHINGTON (+1 1/2) over Philadelphia
New England (-3 1/2) over MIAMI
Denver (+7 1/2) over SAN DIEGO

Weekend bits: Evolution to elephants

Some things you may have missed this weekend in Maple Syrup Nation:

ESPN's Scott Burnside on the maturation - okay, let's call it the evolution of Darcy Tucker:

"You have to remember how much the game's changed in three to four years. There were so many more scrums in the game of hockey, whether it was during the play and after, and Darcy always found a way to be in the middle of those things," (Paul) Maurice said. "So, as a spectator, it maybe distracts you from watching the other things that he did offensively. Now, with the power play that we have and the way he plays the game, you start to realize that he has a really good sense of timing of when to bring it to the net and when not to. There's a lot more game offensively."

Toronto's Jonathan de Guzman scored the winner to salvage something out of a terrible week for Holland's Feyenoord Rotterdam.

Still on Euro footy in Holland, check out Dutch photographer Hans van der Meer's European Fields photo essay - fantastic (great catch by SportsFilter).

One more from over there: Thierry Henry says he's out for a month with a nerve problem, and perhaps there's more to the story.

The New York Times' Harry Hurt gets in touch with his inner George Plimpton, going under centre for three plays with the Jets:

The offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer waved me to the sidelines for a final dress rehearsal. Nick Mangold, a 6-foot-4, 300-pound rookie center, crouched over to deliver my first practice snaps. I was mortally afraid Nick would hike the ball so hard my hands would break. But he laid it in my palms like a pigskin pillow.
My second fear was that I’d suffer a 54-year-old’s senior moment, and forget how to call my three plays. I actually blurted the correct words, but my voice was so loud it could be heard out on the adjacent turnpike. “Keep your voice down in the huddle,” the starting quarterback Chad Pennington admonished, “like you’re having a conversation.”

For the video, which although a little long is quite well done and very much in the spirit of the dear departed Plimpton, go here.

Haile Gebreselassie, already among the all-time greats of distance running, cruises to his second marathon win in four months, taking the famed Fukuoka in Japan.

The Times Online gets up close and personal with elephant polo, while activists mount campaigns to end it and Scotland beats Sweden for the world title.

And finally, here's How to Say Nothing, as Hockey Night in Canada's Kelly Hrudey sets up Saturday night's Colorado at Vancouver tilt:

"This is hugely important but I don't want people to read too much into this, or make more of it than there really is. It's the first part of December, obviously, and although these are big points and you need them right now, you can make up ground later in the season."

Into the weekend: Long bombs to short putts

With winter arriving today, JABS Mansion is into full and festive mukluks-and-corn-starch mode, having sacrificed a perfectly good golf umbrella to the wind this morning and getting soaked to the skin, only The National's Abel blaring in the ears to ward off the chill. We're leaving early, in other words, to get outta these wet clothes and into a dry martini.

But first, a quick look around the week's bits, and to put another Canadian football season to bed, let's start with Sean Smith at sportsBabel, who along with Rod Murray wrote The Narrative of Long Bombs, a provocative, thoughtful look at football's military connection. Here's a taste, but read it all:

. . . What is ironic is that this sponsorship comes at a time when the Canadian military has waived its requirement of a minimum fitness level to join the service. While this is clearly one sign among many that the Forces are on a desperate mission to increase their numbers, apparently general recruitment has little to do with requiring fit bodies. The thrust to recruit soldiers via football suggests that there must be some congruency between military and sport cultures.
(snip)
Of course, the choice of an athlete, or any Canadian, to enlist in our armed forces is a deeply personal one that should be respected. But when the business of sports intersects so dramatically with the decisions of our political and military leaders, we should take pause. Canada should support its soldiers, but if war is a continuation of politics by other means, that support should begin before they are sent off to fight. In other words, when the slick marketing campaign is pulled back, are the right questions being asked? And if so, are the right answers being given?
Pat Tillman's family doesn’t think so.

One last e-mail. Wade Tomlin figures the notion of a Sam Mitchell watch in the media is vastly overrated - at least in the Toronto sports media (the Raptors are en fuego, as they say on the sports broadcasts, zooming up to 5-10 on November since Wade wrote this early in the week):

To me firing Mitchell is as straightforward a situation for Bryan Colangelo as you see in sports. You have a team that everyone seems to accept has improved its roster, yet the team is off to forget about a slow start, but a similar one to the horrible start a year ago (1-11, 3-9, there is no real difference) and you have a coach who is now on the verge of his third losing season, who has no previous track record of success as a NBA head coach, who just last year was voted the worst coach in the N.B.A. by league players.
It is getting embarrassing as a fan to hear this idea that the Raptors have some form of excuse for this sorry start, there called standards and the Raptors organization, and many of the people surrounding the team (the announce team, sportswriters following the team), seem to have none when it comes to winning. Fire Mitchell now or this team will continue with its mantle as the new Los Angeles Clippers.

DICK LOEK/Toronto Star file photo

Ballard warms up for '75 Latvia finals.

One last "Is on fire! Let's NBA!" I don't know who did this, but some wicked wit who goes by the handle of Lockdown on the RealGM board has a pretty take in Sam Mitchell: The Graphic Novel. (Just in: Part II.)

One last invitation. To journalists covering next spring's world hockey championships, from the International Table Hockey Federation (via Babelfish, I presume. Either that or Borat):

"Also it is significant that this tournament will be restored in Riga, Latvia. Latvia is not only famous with their noisy and ice hockey loving fans, but Latvia is the first country in the world where table hockey is recognized by country officials as sport."

Table hockey as sport? Now that's a country.

One last Official Golfer of JABS update. That'd be Miguel Angel Jimenez, he of the lobster arms, ruddy ponytail and pot belly, who headed out for nine holes with GolfMagic and demonstrated admirable sponsor loyalty:

AMY SANCETTA/Associated Press

Jimenez: Give me Ping or give me death.

As we crouched down to read a tricky putt on the penultimate green he was intrigued by the shape of the Elmer M1 putter I was reviewing for Golfmagic. But he refused to handle it.
"No, no I cannot be photographed with another putter. That would be wrong, it would be disloyal to Ping. I've been with them for 15 years. Besides they would kill me!"

Sports around town. One of the more intense college rivalries in the neighbourhood gets renewed this weekend as Humber Hawks hosts Sheridan Bruins at 7 p.m. tonight.

Watching. Super Dogs and Horse Relay (3 p.m., Saturday, TSN). Frankly, I was hoping to take in some Elephant Polo this weekend, but I guess this will have to do. Super Dogs? Are they wearing capes? Do they rescue the horses from a burning building?

Pooch Punts. From Super Dogs to Jinks the Viszla, who promises to go at least 1-4 with his kibbles-or-cookies picks this week and thereby keep pace with the other public handicappers:

CHICAGO (-9) over Minnesota
Tampa Bay (+7) over PITTSBURGH
NEW ORLEANS (-7) over San Francisco
GREEN BAY (+1) over NY Jets
Seattle (+4) over DENVER

The Never-Ending Story

In this here today, gone tomorrow business, it's heartening to find a story that can truly be called timeless - a story that, like Santa Claus, Wiarton Willie and Britney's adventures in exposure, can be impressive simply for the fact that it remains. And so it was this week when incoming NFL commissioner Roger Goodell etched his name into the books with his first pronouncement on the NFL in Toronto: Go on, pull the other one story:

Within the next decade, one of those cities -- most likely Mexico City or Toronto -- could be host to a National Football League franchise, he added.
"We can envision that," Goodell said of expansion outside the United States, in response to a question. "I don't know if it will become a reality, but it's certainly a possibility.
"The closer to the border, probably the more likely from a geographic standpoint; but I don't think in today's world that's a hurdle to overcome," he added.

According to the time-honoured script, it was followed by this one:

"The stories made it look more significant than it was," said NFL spokesperson Greg Aiello. "He wasn't announcing anything, he was responding to a question specifically about expanding internationally and he didn't rule it out."

International expansion to where? Selling the NFL in just about every part of the world is like taking herringbone tweed to the desert. They've tried Europe, and apart from finding an excuse for a handful of disaffected Eurogoths to play dressup during the real footy off-season, it really hasn't made a dent. And no wonder. American football is America, as intoxicating as Vegas in its blend of bone-crunching danger, cheesecake and making real estate deals. It's Glengarry Glen Ross, with the end zone standing in for the steak knives (hey, Al Pacino starred as Al Davis in GGR and Any Given Sunday). George Will put it best: "Football incorporates the two worst elements of American society: violence punctuated by committee meetings."

But well played, Your Highness Rog Mr. Goodell.  You are now firmly on board, alongside Santa, Willie, Britney and your illustrious predecessors. Long may you obfuscate reign.

 

Weekend bits: Video hits and misses

Some flakes here in case you missed 'em while shivering through the Vanier Cup:

Video replay: Sepp Blatter doesn't believe in it - "We have to help referees and have correct control but we must never stop the match with videos or monitors to look at what has happened" - but Ronaldinho surely does after this wonder goal.

It's ski season, John Kucera and Manuel Osborne-Paradis enjoying career best weekends at Lake Louise. But in Europe it's situation critical: No snow.

New word of the day, courtesy of Pistons GM Joe Dumars: Paradocrity.

Their trumpets confiscated, their complaints lampooned, their team humiliated at the "Gabbatoir" - life's rough for a travelling England cricket fan.

The case of the vanishing basket. Courtesy of emailer Andrew Kwong, Here's the video evidence (wait a minute; where were the referees in all of this nonsense?)

One I missed when (too hastily) putting together Friday's post on the gay Leaf movie, so I'll put it up here now: Life in the NHL Closet.

Into the weekend: More Raptor numbers

Wrapping it up for another week, and this one is almost worth its own post, but let’s just make this a little longer than usual thanks to an email gem from Michael Brandon:

I looked back at your Nov. 21 blog entry, referencing 82games.com, a site I appreciate.
Also, I was looking at the stats of minutes played by players that are either rookies or new to their teams, and comparing them to the Raps. Of all the teams the Raps have played this year, new players to the team have accounted for an average of 19% of the playing time, and rookies have only accounted for 5% of total minutes.
In the case of the Raps, 63% of their minutes are played by players new to the team, of which 16% of total minutes are played by true rookies. Anthony Parker, who has not played an NBA minute in years accounts for 13% of team minutes.
No other team the Raps have played come close in new player minutes (Hawks 33%, Bucks 35%).

To me, that underlines the subjective notion expressed here and elsewhere that lack of familiarity is part of this whole debate. But there’s more from Michael:

I also looked at the W/L records of the league for further insight.
As near as I can tell, the East only is winning 28% of their games against the West (in part because the lower-ranked teams by W/L record have been West loaded early), and they only win 54% of their home games against any opposition.
The Raps have won 60% of their home games (3-2), and probably should have won one out west, maybe two if the stars were aligned (or California fell into the ocean).
So, we have people screaming for the head of Sam Mitchell, because a team with 62% of their minutes eaten up by new players, is one game behind the average this early in the season. I thought that consensus was for the Raps to be average this year (41 wins) or less (30-40 wins).
I don't want to quibble with the numbers on 82games.com. There is nothing to quibble about. However, there is more to the story.

Good points. Thanks, Michael.

Early pre-vegetarian pie-eating contest.

One more email. Regular Tim Farrell weighs in with another Raptor-related observation:

Garbajosa suddenly can't shoot . . . could it be . . . the curse of Vince Carter's jersey??

Not only that, Tim, but T.J. Ford is wearing Rafer Alston’s old number and Chris Bosh has Vincenzo Esposito's. You may be on to something.

One more helping. Here’s a sport where expansion is not only encouraged, but inevitable – until this year, that is, the world pie-eating championships, gone from a marathon to a sprint and now including a vegetarian option (from Times Online):

"They’ve taken things too far this year - pies are supposed to be meat and potato and anything else just isn’t normal," said Dave Smyth, 48, a painter from Hindley, who won the first contest in 1992 when he ate an impressive four pies in three minutes.

One more question. Is this the future of newspapers – making ballplayers even richer? Jon Friedman spells it out in DJI's Market Watch (thanks to DD for the linkage):

Your newspaper operations are a mess and your baseball team is a disaster. So, what do you do? Why, invest heavily in the baseball team, of course.
On Monday, Tribune confirmed that it would pay free-agent slugger Alfonso Soriano $136 million over eight years. It's spending more than $200 million total on many players this off-season, as well as hiring a new manager, veteran Lou Piniella.
As the late, great Cubs announcer Harry Caray might shout in disbelief: Holy cow!

One more press release. Don’t know how this was overlooked, but the Detroit Red Wings have been disbanded. VCOE has the release the world missed.

Sports around town. Look no further than the Air Canada Centre Tuesday, and the Metro Hoops Showcase (6:30 p.m. tipoff), apparently the first-ever high school basketball doubleheader to be played on the hallowed, history-laden hardcourt where Negele Knight once trod. Seriously, they'll put on a better show than many of the recent hoop nights the place has seen.

Watching. The Vanier Cup, live from Saskatoon (Saturday, 3:30 p.m., The Score). Saskatchewan vs Laval, and it should be a hooly. And as is the custom around here, Neate Sager’s got the preview (including the weather forecast - cold, very cold).

Pooch punts. Yup, he’s back, tail between his legs after a piddling 0-5 record that puts him squarely in the league of many of the world's best public handicappers – it’s Jinks the Vizsla, scarfing down another set of kibble-or-cookie plays of the week:

Jacksonville –3 over BUFFALO
New Orleans +3 over ATLANTA
Chicago +3 over NEW ENGLAND
Philadelphia +9 over INDY
SEATTLE –9 1/2 over Green Bay

A pitch: Flutie to Argos

What you might have missed while  trying to stay awake during the Grey Cup:

Lame and lamer. As in, what was more mystifying: That "Santa believes in the Ottawa Renegades" sign that trailed the Grey Cup to the sidelines, or Jim Popp, limp-wristing a replay challenge in the closing minutes that was his last chance at breathing some into the Als cadaver. As for the sign, any ideas are welcome. As it turned out, it held together better than the Coupe.

I was going to wrap up more of the pigskin freakout weekend, but Damien kinda covered that off. Good on him for it, too, because it's that TSN Top 50 CFL list that came out Friday night that you might have missed. Specifically, Doug Flutie. With the other news going in that Pinball Clemons would indeed be back to coach the Argos - and the tone of his comments sure sounded like a guy planning to give it just one more season, then retire to a life of being president and Mr. Argo - how about this pitch: Flutie to the Argos, taking over the vacant offensive co-ord job as a prelude to head coach in '08?

If ever any game looked like it could use a do-over, it was OSU-Michigan.

Vanier Cup: Saskatchewan comes home, meets Laval.

Those York Yeo- Lions swept Saturday's pajama-night high jinks.

TomKat nuptials: Beckham a no-show (David, that is).

And from across the pond, a red-card outbreak has reopened the debate on introducing video replay. I have a feeling Jim Popp would say no.

Into the weekend: Grey Cup libations

Lots to ponder as we head into a strenuous weekend of armchair sports, chief among it this proposition up on the JABS odds board: Kobe Bryant's points tonight vs. Frank Thomas's RBIs next season vs audience for the MLS expansion draft live on ESPN4.

Shot of beer nuts? Check.

It's the Friday roundup. But you knew that already. And while you mull over that last bet, which is almost lifelike, a little treat arrived in the email basket this week: The Gibson's Kicker, billed as the official cocktail of the Grey Cup: "Part smoke and part fire with a hint of fresh lime and paired with a shot of beer nuts". Sounds a bit like a Flaming Mo. I'll pair it with the fish sticks and get back to you.

Meantime, better make do with that Kobe vs Hurt vs. MLS expansion draft prop, because the government gambling shop has done it again. The Grey Cup line is B.C. -7 1/2 in the books, a little light according to my original reckoning. But folllowing along with the theme of almost lifelike, you won't be able to play it on Pro-Line's Point Spread game. Biggest game of the year, one that even casual fans notice, and there's no betting against the line. They're looking out for us. Everybody, now, raise your Flaming Mo or your Kicker or your Champale and toast 'em. Toast 'em good.

One last read. From the Guardian's Sports Blog, the best thing I've read on world footy since all those Zizou rumours. It's Marcela Mora y Araujo (no relation to Haffa, I presume), hanging with Boca's la Doce:

The thrill of the terraces and the beauty of the display of affection hardcore fans offer their team is not unique to Boca, nor indeed to Argentina. But it has an intensity there that has few equals. I once met a Malvinas war veteran in the Boca terraces and asked him if he thought there was a connection between the intoxication and loss of self of the terraces, and the atmosphere of a battlefield. No, he said. "Nobody hates war more than a soldier," he explained, before surveying the scenes on the terraces and concluding: "This is about love."
Later that same day, after Boca had lost 2-0 to River Plate, two River fans were shot dead. Around the city the following graffiti appeared: River 2-2 Boca.

One last piece of blogosphere news. Congratulations and good luck to Raptorblog ringmaster and footstool regular Scott Carefoot, on the move to Sympatico MSN's Sports Channel. That means, of course, that he'll have access to a press pass, poor guy.

One last curling update. George at the Curling News sends along this on those blog-favourite rockin' Norbergs.

One last view. This has been around a bit, but if you've missed it: Aries Spears does Mike and Shaq. (And if you liked that, check out this one sent over from TBJ.)

One last James Bond namedrop. Not much time for Bond. But I do like this.

One (two) last sponsorship deal. An English footy club has signed a marketing deal with Motorhead which includes an all-black uniform with the skull logo (which is just a cheap excuse, really, to revisit this QT-friendly video). And a link to Tom Benjamin for exposing this new NHL award for the runny nose that it is: "Is there anything Bettman won't do to squeeze out a few extra dollars?"

One last warning. This is pigskin freakout weekend, so if you find yourself on the couch a lot this weekend, do try to build in short breaks between the cheezie nibbling. It all starts with the CIS semifinals starting at noon Saturday. That OSU-Michigan thing goes midday (it'll be DVR'd in my house, so please, no giving away the ending before Saturday night). NFL all day Sunday and of course, the Grey Cup Sunday night.

One last Sam Mitchell laff. Two, actually, from TBJ, who I should just hand over the Friday roundup to, because it seems like every one of these has something from them -Coal Region Recipes with Sam Mitchell, and Searching for Sammy Mitchell. I'll miss this stuff when he's gone.

Sports around town. If you can tear yourself away from the couch - and you really should - U of T got its game on last weekend, and now it's York U's turn to start the party Saturday night. The Lions (got it right this time) host Waterloo up at the arena on the edge of forever, a doubleheader with the women at 6 p.m. and the men at 8. Bring your own pajamas. Honest.

Pooch punts. It's true - Jinks the Vizsla really is just as bad as all the other public handicappers out there. After another 2-3 weekend, here's the latest set of kibbles or cookies picks (bonus points, though, for the Grey Cup gobble):

Montreal (+7 1/2) over B.C.
St. Louis (+6 1/2) over CAROLINA
St. Louis-Carolina OVER 44
PHILADELPHIA (-13) over Tennessee
CLEVELAND (+ 3 1/2) over Pittsburgh

Have a great Grey Cup weekend.

Lions by how many?

Some things from the weekend you might have missed while you were tearing up those "Run Ricky Run" signs:

From dome sweet dome to Winnipeg's great outdoors for next Sunday's Grey Cup, it's B.C. and Montreal. Lions should be clear favourites - let's see what's posted, but I make it 9 points. Arland Bruce, meantime, won't be there.

MLS - better start boning up - has enacted the "Beckham Rule" to allow teams to go over their salary cap to sign foreign stars, while Manchester United have called young  Freddy Adu in for a trial training session: "MLS — which owns his registration, as it does for all US-based players — it seems to be annoyed by the whole thing. One league official, quoted anonymously in the US, said: 'This is the same old Freddy bulls***.'"

Oh yes, Houston Dynamo won Sunday's MLS Cup on penalties with former Canadian international Pat Onstad making the winning save and a couple of Canucks - Dwayne De Rosario and Adrian Serioux - converting their spot kicks.

Brazil wins the beach soccer World Cup (at least a couple of fans found a way to jump the queue to get in), and are into the semifinals and strong favourites to win it all at the women's world volleyball championship. That'll sure ease the pain of Germany '06.

Followups from the Friday file: The U of T Blues men's ballers, whose battles with four-peat national champion Carleton this season will be must-see, will get a boost in the rankings after home-opening with a 34-point mauling of No. 7 McMaster on Saturday. And courtesy of Neate, here's your CIS football semifinal matchups: Acadia vs Laval, Saskatchewan vs Ottawa.

From the good reads department:

Jason Whitlock has something to say to all you ref-baiting David Stern haters:

Stern took the appropriate step to eliminate the problem. He acted in the best interest of his players. Not surprisingly, the players have reacted like Stern stripped them of some constitutional right or outlawed tattoos and strip-club visits. The players union considered suing the league. NBA player groupies in the media blasted Stern, and some even suggested that Stern is an old white man who can’t relate to his predominantly young black players.
Hmm. Young people in general, and young black men in particular, don’t need leaders who can relate to them. They need leaders who see their unlimited potential and have the courage to demand that they reach it.

Charlie Pierce in Slate on the Awfulness of NFL contracts (thanks to Peter for the link):

All football players are in some ways constantly in rebellion against the teams for which they play. The team makes the player play when he shouldn't and then ruthlessly disposes of him when the consequences of that coercion become obvious on the field. One of the great diplomatic triumphs Tom Brady has is that he has managed to become the public face of the Patriots without becoming perceived as a management mouthpiece among his primary constituency in the locker room.