| Singer '09: Headaches the norm for NFLers
I was sitting on the couch watching football this past Turkey Day when my four-year-old cousin stumbled into the room. After tumbling onto the couch and staring at the screen for a while, she uttered the following words:
"Why do they play? They run and then" - she clapped her hands as a tackle was made on the screen - "they die."
Those are awfully philosophical thoughts coming from someone who still wears diapers, I thought. She should eat some more turkey. But instead, I decided I'd try to explain my thinking to her.
"Well, they get a lot of money to play. And some of them enjoy it," I said, looking at her to gauge her approval.
She scrunched her nose and shook her head in that spastic way little kids do. "I don't like it," she said.
Same teams, boring result
Since the NHL resumed play after becoming the first major professional sports league to cancel an entire season in 2004-05, players have been reticent to criticize their sport. After all, the more tickets the league sells now — or doesn't sell — the more it affects their take-home pay. But players can no longer stifle themselves about the league schedule, which has each team playing a divisional opponent eight times. In the Avalanche's case, it will play a Northwest Division opponent for the 10th time in the past 11 games when it hosts the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center. "I'm against the eight games against your own division. That's just too many times," Avs veteran Andrew Brunette said before .
Is this the season the Lake's late show doesn't lack?
Games are under way across the state in boys' hockey. Before we know it, we'll be talking about that annual winter storm that seems to strike the area each year during tournament time. But with the season still young, here are a few story lines and notes to get you going. By Brian Stensaas, Star Tribune Last update: November 27, 2007 – 4:56 PM .
VAT wants a piece of the action
The customs agency is seeking to levy a new tax worth tens of millions of shekels on soccer clubs that import foreign players, the Israel Football Association claimed yesterday. The IFA has already helped clubs petition the courts against this demand.
Since Arcadi Gaydamak took over Beitar Jerusalem, competitiveness - and thus salaries - has jumped significantly, and the tax authorities apparently want in. .
Fans will lose out in NFL Network battle with cable operators
The NFL Network's business strategy is well on its way to becoming one of the biggest flops in sports television history. All the yap-flapping, spinning, and perhaps even some anger from fans who cannot watch Thursday's Packers-Cowboys tilt on NFLN won't change that fact. Neither will all the anti-cable rants coming from the mouth of Jerry Jones, whose sudden concern for the average fan is the leading candidate for Most Disingenuous Sports Moment of 2007. Nor will the well scripted, well presented words of commissioner Roger Goodell, who last week was on the stump campaigning against cable monopolists via a conference call. Surprised we have not heard from NFLN boss Steve Bornstein, marked conspicuously absent on this recent propaganda tour. It looks like Mr.
|
