For the past two years I've been actively recapping Drafted, a reality show put on by The Score and Gillette to find Canada's next sports broadcaster. I usually hate reality shows but Drafted really resonants with me because (A) it's a show about people pursuing their lifelong dream of talking about sports for a living and (B) what's more fun than watching emotional breakdowns when they fail at it?
We get it, hockey people (myself included). We know you like to act tough. But, please, please, please... Everybody in the NHL, for the love of whatever imaginary friend in the sky you believe in WEAR A VISOR! Fact is, visors don't save you from everything. They're not supposed to. But, they can still save your career. They can save you from something far worse.
As the "tough on crime" Administration continues attacks on criminals -- both real and imagined -- it behooves a responsible government to include crime prevention in the equation even as Harper expands Canadian prisons. Sports build the lifelong skills that Canadians of all origins value: character, teamwork, discipline, perseverance.
The World Junior Hockey Championship has captivated Canadians again this holiday season. But the sight of Team Canada's goalie's skin colour was met with laughter, bemusement, confusion and contempt in Canada and abroad. Thankfully, the long-ignored vestiges of disdain for diversity in hockey have been gaining attention nationwide, in the USA, and across the pond as hockey fans and foes band together to address long-standing pressures that still blight the game.
The unwritten rule in the NFL is that when players take a knee with the game conceivably out of reach, the other team backs down and lets them. But when the New York Giants Quarterback, Eli Manning, went to kneel down and run out the clock he instead got tripped up by a Buccaneers defensive lineman because the Buccaneers' coach insists that his teams play until the final whistle. Was this a true display of leadership?
In this day and age of gaming consoles and the rise in obesity, why not get off the couch and come out to your local field and have a game or two. Paintball offers all the thrills you are getting from your game consoles without the safety of your screen in the way and you get some cardio work out at the same time. There are lots of articles being written now about the health benefit of getting out and playing paintball. Your heart and lungs get a work out every time you step onto the field and realize as you raise your marker (correct term instead of paintball gun)...someone else is out there gunning for me and my friend those paintballs have a muzzle velocity of 300fps (feet per second).
Okay, so the NFL replacement refs are terrible. Missed calls everywhere. Questionable holding penalties that have decided games. Let's be real here: as awful as it's been, it's always been terrible. How many years have you sat on your couch and screamed at the TV because those Foot Locker employees missed an obvious penalty? How terrible are referees, in general, and across all sports?
Of all four NHL lockouts in the past 21 years, this one seems the laziest. This just seems like it's been a long summer and your kid doesn't want to wake up before 8 a.m. for the first time in two months. This lockout is the snooze button on a season that was coming too fast, especially since it's clear negotiations didn't "start" until the 11th hour, or not at all.
When Junior Seau's girlfriend found him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Oceanside, California, speculation arose over the similarity between his death and the suicides of other NFL stars. Though a recent autopsy report ruled out brain damage and drugs and alcohol in Seau's death, this is just part of a disturbing trend in recent years with former NFL players committing suicide in similar ways, showing that far more needs to be done.
For whatever, reason, Canadians and hockey fans have tended to direct their glare at the players. They misguidedly view their occasional idiocy and always-present lack of financial knowledge with blame. With all due respect to Canadians, our values of socialism and unity are flawed. At least, in this case.
Monday's Canada vs. the States soccer game was so good it made you forget you were watching women's soccer, or care (if you did). Too often, female athletes have to fight for airtime, and for recognition. It shouldn't be like that, but sports are sexist in nature. We're all guilty of slighting female athletes. So, thank God for Monday, because we can't now. Compared to this, Usain Bolt's thrilling 9.63 seconds was like a warmup to something better.
It has certainly been a global sporting affair this summer. With EuroCup 2012 in the history books, the world is now prepping for more sporting love with the upcoming London 2012 Summer Olympics. In that spirit, we thought what better way to show our love than with this photo feature by Shanghai-based fashion photographer Yocky Zhang. Shot in Shanghai, Zhang takes us on a global excursion filled with flags, colour and international models.
In a few days, I will begin a long, arduous, dangerous journey. Solo, unsupported, no additional assistance, resupply or shadow boat, I will kayak solo from San Francisco to Hawaii. 3,100 miles, 45 to 65 days, battling giant waves, killer great white sharks, and all that Mother Nature will throw at me. Why am I doing this?