Hockey is still the greatest sport in the world. Go ahead. Drop the gloves. See how long you last, bucko.
While I'm certain he's all broken up about it and will never be able to recover his dignity knowing how I really feel, I've finally figured out why I abhor Tom Brady as an NFL game analyst. It's that word "analyst", where when it comes to being successful you've got to be about as anal as possible in actually tearing into what makes a game tick. Brady offers zero in the way of actually breaking down a play and tells the viewer what they didn't see. As someone who has covered the NFL and football since Vince Lombardi was a puppy, (sure as Hell feels that way sometimes), I'm not often as bamboozled as the general viewer, but I still would like to hear the take of a GOAT on what just happened. Babbling Brady just repeats the obvious, adds in a few "golly gosh gee willikers" of his own, and inhabits his own little vacuum of dull. Even the interaction with his PBP cohort is forced and sounds scripted. I covered Tom and the NE Patriots for 4 years, and found him to be the single most boring part of that team. Hey, that takes away nothing from him being a GOAT. The man has his chops well secure. But every time Brady opens his maw and reveals how little personality he has, it's obvious how bad Greg Olsen got the shaft. As an NFL game analyst, Brady makes for an excellent choice to join Bill Belichick at UNC.
Speaking of college football, save for one or two exceptions, the first round of the ballyhooed playoff system has been a train wreck. Everyone knew Indiana would make for nothing short of a competitive speed bump, but the overall results of these games proved the biggest shortcoming of this concept. Expanding the playoffs is the ultimate in greed from the networks, the professional franchises masquerading as college athletic programs, and the various governing bodies all looking for their own slice of this financial pie. Every year, and I do mean every year, there are no more than 8 teams, maybe 10 if you stretch it, that can compete for a National Championship. The rest are nothing but cannon fodder to fill out the games and make for another prime-time ad fest. It's a hoot when someone talks about how "the little guy gets their chance", knowing full well they are there to be the designated doorstop. So then, you really want to make this playoff something special? No more automatic berth for conference winners. Pick the 12 best teams regardless of where they played. If that means 8 SEC teams, so be it. Pay more attention to strength of schedule, as that will force those wanna-be's to schedule real opponents or be left in the dust. While we're at it, college football is ripe for a relegation scenario just like they have in European soccer. That would force these faux-pro teams to really step up and play teams that matter, and it would give lower seeds the chance to get better without being whalloped on National TV. Wait until we start the "Shakedown Street" podcast soon and dig deeper into this.
As much as I love the sport, my favorite to call play-by-play or "blow-by-blow" as it;s called, it's time to finally label professional boxing as the sham it;s been for almost 20 years. Did you see the recent heavyweight title fight? Did you KNOW there was a recent heavyweight title fight? Of course you didn't. I'll give you a few minutes to Google who was fighting because save for their families and a few inveterate gamblers, you'd never know who they were if they slammed into you on a street corner wearing a tee shirt with their name emblazoned on the front. That's because the sport has been eclipsed by the "rabid cock fight in a cage" UFC method of bleeding out for dollars, and the various boxing organizations are run by clowns, clods and the usual con artists. For the record, it was a rematch between Aleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury. Fury used to be a notable fighter until he embraced the word "heavy" in heavyweight and now more closely resembles a food taster at Golden Corral. Usyk is considered the #1 "pound for pound" boxer in the world, which is comparable to being the #1 outfit worn by Taylor Swift on any given concert night. Once you've seen it, it's old news. So is the sport of boxing, and even as a fan I see no reason to give a damn or a dollar to this slovenly showcase.
Call me old fashioned, but I see no reason to spend a single dime or a single moment of attention to anything coming out of Russia these days, and that includes sport. As Vladimir Putin continues executing innocents in Ukraine and spreading the potential for another European conflict where millions may perish, at the very least every professional sports league should refuse to not only do business with anything Russian, but also refuse to have anything to do with any of their athletes. Yes, yes, I know all about the perils of mixing sport and politics, but this is a nation conducting widespread genocide. If one way to showcase this tragedy is to force their athletes to stand against their Mother country, so be it. That is why when the Montreal Canadiens announced they were sending several of their front office types to Russia on a scouting mission, it smacked of little more than greed from an historic organization that has been little more than a laughingstock around the NHL for a very long time. As Russia and Belarus have both been banned by the IIHF because of the war, and the NHL excluded any Russian participation in the Nations Face-Off tournament, there should also be a moratorium on signing or scouting any players from these countries until the war is over. One more body bag in Ukraine is one too many, and maybe by holding them to scorn as well as their country, Russian athletes may grow a spine and be part of the resistance needed to convince an international audience that Putin needs to be stopped at all costs.
I see where Sammy Sosa now wants back in the good graces of the Chicago Cubs and their fans, claiming he's learned his lesson about the time he cheated that same club, those same fans, and the sport itself by using performance enhancing drugs. Sosa remains a coward for refusing to ever admit what he did, and now in retirement wants a chance to cash in on his fame at Cubs conventions and be lauded by those same fans he spit on by being a cheater. It's all about the need for fame. Sammy has no concerns over money, or at least one might believe so. He is like so many other faded athletes who need the love and affection, (and attention) from those fans in order to keep him whole. There's no taking away what Sosa did on the field, but he did it by taking an unfair advantage. Everyone knows he cheated, and he has never admitted to what he did. Now, too late. Better that fans pay more attention to those players in every sport who turned their numbers honestly. Sosa would be better off forging a pact with Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire and every other PED cheat to have their own traveling hustlers show, signing autographs and posing for pictures as a band of cheating cowards who set records that should always carry a whopping number of asterisks. They'd clean up, hitting every sucker born every minute in falling for their fraud. Here's hoping the Cubs organization shows some dignity, accepts Sammy's faux "apology", and moves forward without the shadow of his injection needle.
Ed Berliner has been covering sports for more than 30 years as an anchor and reporter for national cable networks, local television news and network syndicated radio. His nationally syndicated radio show, "The Press Box", broke new ground comprised entirely of interviews and listener phone calls, emails or social media. He's got a nice shelf of Emmy Awards won over the years, and his most proud achievement was being Host and EP of "Sports Pulse" in Boston and New England.
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