A screenshot from the Vancouver Whitecaps promotional video on YouTube.
Unlike the NHL, the Goldwater Institute can make up its mind: they don't like the idea that public money is being put at risk in the proposed sale of the Phoenix Coyotes and are going to flex their legal muscles to impede -- and likely stop -- the process. Meanwhile the league has so far resisted calls to penalize all hits to the head even as hits like this one go unpenalized. And the Vancouver Whitecaps have generated some chatter by having a beautiful woman body-painted in team colours, but my bet is they have to backtrack on it as a team sponsor is not pleased. That should get you started.
1. The weather was clear and sunny; view on concussions remains cloudy
The NHL surely wishes that concussions were a less significant aspect of their sport (and it is pretty significant given that there had been 72 diagnosed concussions among the 700 so players in the league as of the beginning of the week) and deserves some credit for the measures that did come out of the general manager's meetings in sunny Florida, but it is my opinion -- expressed nicely by the Vancouver Sun's Cam Cole -- that they haven't gone far enough: On opening day of this week's National Hockey League general managers' meetings in Boca Raton, Florida, commissioner Gary Bettman tossed a softball, underhand, to the GMs - big, strapping fellows for the most part, easily able to give that baby a long ride. His five-point strategy to reduce concussions wasn't perfect, but it had some great elements in it, and it set the table for the managers to take it from there on the rules and enforcement front. They elected to bunt. If they heard the commissioner's implied invitation to take serious steps toward curbing head injuries, they pretended not to, and you know how you can tell? They left the north-south hit to the head alone. It's still legal, even with new recommendations the GMs will forward to the competition committee and then the NHL board of governors, to hit a player in the head as long as he's facing you, and sees you coming. And maybe even if he doesn't see you coming, but should. As long as you're not too obvious about it.Even if his head is the first point of contact, as long as it's "a hockey play" - hey, it's a man's game. If your brain's too soft to survive the hit, too bad. You knew what you were signing up for when you got into pro hockey. That's basically the stance
2. Can it really be true? Are the Jets coming back to Winnipeg?
It certainly seems to be heading that way, with news that the Goldwater Institute is going to proceed with plans to sue the city of Glendale for the bond issue they'v cooked up to make the sale of the Phoenix Coyotes to Matthew Hulsizer possible. According to this story by the Globe's David Shoalts, the pending legal action will mean the end of the bond sale and the deal. Hello Manitoba!: True North Sports and Entertainment, which owns the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, wants to buy the Coyotes if the Hulsizer sale collapses. The Winnipeg Jets became the Coyotes in 1996 when they moved south. Glendale city councillor Phil Lieberman, the most prominent opponent of the bond deal on council, thinks Goldwater's announcement will sink the $116-million municipal bond deal that is supposed to finance the NHL's $170-million sale of the Coyotes. Hulsizer is to get $100-million from the bond sale up front. Goldwater said it will file the lawsuit as soon as the bond deal closes. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said previously that Glendale will try to get the municipal bonds issued despite Goldwater's opposition with the league's assistance. "I don't know when the bond deal will close because no bond company will buy bonds if there is a lawsuit right after," Lieberman said. "There is no way we can justify the $100-million to Hulsizer." In a statement released Tuesday, Goldwater said it determined the sale of $116-million of municipal bonds by the suburban City of Glendale violates "two prohibitions of the Arizona Constitution, which requires that no Arizona government 'shall ever give or loan its credit in aid of, or make any donation or grant, by subsidy or otherwise, to any individual, association, or corporation.' "
3. It's March Madness: time to pick at old wounds
For those who enjoy a solid documentary treatment of a sports subject -- either one little known but worth greater attention or the background of one that was a big story in need of more detail -- ESPN's 30 for 30 series is must-see TV. The producers of the series have made another documentary -- which I haven't watched, but plan to -- focussed on the Fab Five; the five freshman at the University of Michigan who stormed the NCAA tournament and made it all the way to the final before losing to Duke. In the documentary Jalen Rose and Jimmy King (both former Toronto Raptors, as a useless aside) said unkind things about Grant Hill of Duke, now of the Phoenix Suns. Hill, apparently, is going to write an op-ed piece about it, which should show them a thing or two: An ESPN documentary on the 1991-93 Michigan basketball team premiered last Sunday.Contained in the retrospective was former Wolverine Jimmy King offering this analysis of former Duke Blue Devil Grant Hill:
"I thought Grant Hill was a bitch."
Hill, whose two NCAA basketball championships at Duke included a 71-51 tournament final win over King's Michigan in 1992, is currently enjoying the 16th season of what has been a remarkable NBA career. Meanwhile King, after leaving Michigan, played one season in the NBA before being released in 1996 by Denver. Though in '99, King was invited to training camp by the Detroit Pistons - a squad led at the time by perennial all-star Hill.
A source at the NEW YORK TIMES told me late Tuesday that Hill has submitted an editorial to the newspaper to be published this week that will detail his feelings about the aforementioned Michigan team. Included in Hill's piece is an anecdote about King attending Pistons training camp in 1999.
I've been told that Hill notes in the N.Y. Times article that King's unflattering remark about him was particularly disappointing because he considered King a friend. In fact, Hill reveals in his editorial that he thought so much of King that he repeatedly lobbied then-Pistons GM Rick Sund not to cut the former Wolverine at the end of training camp in '99. (Hill's efforts turned out to be futile, as King was released before the season.)
Thanks to King's insult, Hill concludes in the NYT piece that he would not have been nearly so enthusiastic in attempting to save King's failed NBA career had he known that a decade later his former rival - and brief teammate - would treat him with such disrespect.
4. Vancouver Whitecaps go with body-painted babe; offend primary sponsor
From everything I've heard and read, the Vancouver Whitecaps aren't having a hard time selling tickets for their franchise opening match against Toronto FC on Saturday and are well on track to be a thriving club. And the ownership group's commitment to women's sports is second-to-none: they have a professional women's team in the club; co-owners Jeff Mallet and Steve Nash are investors in WPS -- Women's Pro Soccer -- and majority owner Greg Kerfoot has been a key private sponsor of the Canadian Women's national team. But they appear to have stepped in a bit of a mess by electing to use an model painted in team colours to generate buzz about their coming MLS debut: The provocative Vancouver Whitecaps FC video featuring a body-painted female model concludes with the question 'Where will you be March 19?' in reference to the team's Major League Soccer debut against Toronto FC Saturday. The answer for Anne Giardini, a prominent Vancouver forestry executive and novelist, is nowhere close to Empire Field, the Whitecaps' home stadium. The daughter of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carol Shields sent an e-mail to executives with the Whitecaps and premier partner Bell Canada Enterprises Sunday, asking them to explain the video, which has gone viral with more than 33,000 hits on YouTube.
"We understand that they're an exuberant new team eager to get the word out, but this marketing effort clearly didn't fit with Bell's expectations," said Marie-Eve Francoeur, an associate director of media relations. "We've spoken to the Whitecaps about this issue and they clearly understand our position."
Giardini, who copied journalists on her e-mail, writes that she is speaking to a group of women at a national conference next month, and intends to talk about the video in her presentation, including any responses from the Whitecaps and Bell. Reached late Tuesday afternoon, she said she has not heard back from either party.
"I can tell you what young women who are interested in soccer look like," Giardini wrote, referencing her 16-year-old daughter, who plays community and school soccer. "They are fully dressed in a jersey, shorts and pads. They are sweaty, muddy, active, focused, exhilarated and keen to win.
"They are not passive. They are not painted. They are not a blank canvas for some kind of perverse sports fantasy. They don't roll the ball suggestively against their necks. They don't bat kohl-lined eyes into the cameras that track their efforts on the field."
5. Meanwhile, it's becoming pretty clear TFC should trade Dwayne DeRosario, isn't it?
The sad thing for fans of TFC is that with a benefit of a five-year head start and the services of DeRosario, the best Canadian in the MLS and one of the MLS's best players, there is little expectation that they will be any better this year than they have any of the other four years they missed the playoffs, or even better than the Whitecaps. And now DeRosario, the team captain, isn't talking publicly because he's mad about his contract and there's at least the hint he won't play in the season opener in Vancouver Saturday. I think this is where the team trades the veteran for young assets, no? Cathal Kelly of the Toronto Star was at the team's training session yesterday and paints a fairly depressing scene: What we do know is that things have not gotten measurably better from the perspective of talent. The club's core players - De Rosario, midfield backstop Julian de Guzman, goalkeeper Stefan Frei and recent recipient of a team-sponsored public shaming, Adrian Cann - remain the same from last year's 13th place finishers. As a result, prospects for the season are, frankly, bleak. Toronto FC will be measuring itself against the newbies in Vancouver, who in turn are likely headed straight for the league's basement.
It was always going to be thus. The arrival of [new head coach Aron]Winter and his staff meant a teardown and rebuild of a club that never quite got the roof - literal and figurative - finished in the first place.
The best he can reasonably offer after two months in charge is a more attractive product making steady gains in quality. The playoffs will have to wait.
What's yet to be seen is whether fans will give Winter the luxury of another Toronto FC season gone wrong before he can get the next one right.
6. Serena Williams dresses nicely; determined to play again
The most dominant player of her era is 30 years old and will have been off the court for a year by the time Wimbledon rolls around, after suffering a list of ailments; including a potentially fatal blood clot. She still has her fashion sense and a drive to return to the game though: Williams, a 13-time major winner, has not played a match since cutting her right foot on glass shortly after winning Wimbledon in July. She has had two operations on the foot, most recently in October, to repair a damaged tendon.
Last month she suffered a pulmonary embolism, or blood clot, that traveled from her leg to her lungs. She then was hospitalized to remove a hematoma from her stomach that grew to the size of a grapefruit.
"I don't know if I've had my share of drama, but I've definitely had my share of hard times," said Williams, wore a white dress, leather Yves-Saint Laurent belt and a denim jacket. A large bejeweled necklace was strung across her neck.
"What's going to make me happy is going on the court and holding up trophies, singles and doubles," she said.
7. For fans of March Madness and/or Lego, this is can't miss:
A collection of great moments in the NCAA tournament recreated in Lego. I have nothing more to add.