Snap!

I was watching the Carolina-Florida game tonight, and in the third period I saw Martin Gelinas of the Panthers lose a scoring chance when his stick shattered about one-third of the way up the shaft.

By the way, he was taking a wrist shot.

I hope he gives his stick manufacturer some Hell about it.

The Thrill Of The Hit (Part I)

Here's Mark Cuban on playing Rugby:

I played till my body wouldnt let me and I loved to hit and be hit. Getting mad helped me play. It takes a lot to get kicked out of a rugby match, but I managed to get booted for fighting playing for the Pittsburgh Harlequins.

This is something only people who have played contact sports can really understand. And yes, getting hit can be fun too. In fact, the one time I really got knocked ass over tea kettle was one of the highlights (albeit a humorous one) of my hockey career.

I was near the right wing boards trying to hold the puck in the offensive zone. I was parallel to the boards, and I distinctly remember trying to stop the puck on my backhand. It was then that I took a tremendous shot to my left shoulder than sent me cartwheeling into the air.

I know, I had my head down and I deserved it.

Funny enough, the hit didn't so much crunch me (though I'll never know why) as launch me. And, as others have observed in times of peril, time did seem to slow down.

By the time I'd reached 170 degrees on the rotation, and was starting at the lights on the ceiling of the rink, I thought to myself, "Hey, this is pretty cool. I wonder how it's going to turn out."

It didn't take long to get my answer. Luckily, everything important that hit the ice was protected by a combination of padding, leather and hard plastic. I got up, took two strides, and then all of a sudden was overtaken by a feeling of astonishment that I wasn't lying in a quivering heap.

Best game on earth.

Burn, Baby Burn

Following a post about the riots in Paris over at Chicago Boyz, one commenter left some remarks that struck a chord with me:

I'd have to say that every single rioter I ever helped put in jail was doing it because they thought they could get away with it, and because they thought smashing and burning stuff they didn't own was fun.

The arguement might be made that I'm missing the broader picture and ignoring the underlying motivations of 2nd or 3rd generation welfare recipients. People raised in their environment, subject to the unique pressures they have to live with every day, would be so alien to my experience that I would miss the nuance.

That might well be true, since the rioters I was helping put away were affluent college kids who were acting up after football games. Still, I note that their actions were remarkably similar even though their motivations, environment, future prospects and upbringing were completely different.

Smash stuff, burn stuff, steal stuff. It's fun!

For further reference, check out Point #10 of the Manifesto.

Nice drop pass from Instapundit.

Carnival Of The NHL #12

Thanks to the Acid Queen for a fantastic job on the latest Carnival.

The next question: Who wants #13?

UPDATE: Christy from Behind The Jersey has stepped up and taken on the challenge of #13. See her blog for details.

Be Sure To Come Back After Lunch...

As I've scored a ticket to the National Press Club luncheon with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. I'll have a recap later.

UPDATE: Press club appearances have a dog and pony show quality about them, and are often used to buff the reputation of the person on the podium. It was pretty clear that's what Bettman's appearance is about, as he recounted the lockout, its resolution and the effort to win back the fans.

In other words, Bettman and the league took an absolute beating in the press last year, and he's trying to frame league comeback storied for the like of Business Week, Forbes and Fortune.

Some other points:

* Said the league was very happy with OLN, and that they were able to pull together a broadcast team as quickly as they did. Added that over the long run, the NHL would be a more prominent placement on the network, and would help grow the game. He also added that fans shouldn't judge the success of the partnership right now, as its simply too early to fairly evaluate it -- something that seemed to be a mild acknowledgement of ire over the quality of the OLN telecasts.

NB: The Press Club official moderating the event actually admitted that he liked the combination of Bill Clement and Keith Jones on the OLN studio show. I'm thinking he's the only one.

* Mentioned plans for an online real-time scoring system that would provide details like the speed of the puck, or a graphic analysis of a goalie's strengths and weaknesses.

* Acknowledged that it was in the plan from the beginning to completely engage the fans over the course of the lockout, which was what led to their work with NHLCBA.com.

* Said HDTV would be good for the game, but would probably do more to appeal to new fans rather than the hardcore types.

* Denied the Buffalo Sabres were going to move, and that the league was committed to keeping all 30 franchises right where they are. Ruled out expansion for the forseeable future (Sorry Winnipeg, Quebec City and Hamilton).

* Said that sudden death OT was an integral part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and that the shootout will never be used in the postseason. Despite this, he said that it was clear that the shootout has been an unqualified success.

* Talked up the new "sleeker" uniforms, and added something about protective equipment that would be more comfortable. He seemed pretty pumped about this.

* Got a big laugh from the crowd when in answering a question about the drop in fighting. After being asked if goons were being pushed out of the game, Bettman said, "It's a bonus if you can fight," but that the league now puts a premium on skill.

* Said "Congress decides to regulate, we will cooperate," on the question of steroids, but admitted that he doesn't think the league has a problem, and that implementing such a plan would be a unique burden on a league where one-third of players are based in Europe.

All in all, not a bad way to spend two hours for members of the busienss press who cover the NHL a few times a year; but not terribly revealing for those who follow the league closely.

POSTSCRIPT: I handed a pair of question to the head table, but they didn't manage to get answered. They were:

"Are you concerned with Trent Klatt's legal fight with the NHLPA?"

"Who is Eklund?"

If he ever got the first question, he'd probably shrug it off with a statement that it's the business of the union to pick its own leadership. But on the inside, I have to wonder if he and the rest of NHL HQ might be worried. Better the devil you know, right?

One questioner pointed out that the Washington Post was giving significantly less attention to the post-lockout Caps. Bettman made a joke about begging for attention, but as I've said before in other contexts, what your local paper does just doesn't matter anymore. I get so much hockey news and commentary that I could care less about the Post's coverage.

Now In The Cross Hairs, Joe Paterno

Penn State head coach Joe Paterno has waded in where once only Air Force head coach Fisher DeBerry feared to tread. Here's the word from Happy Valley:

"You have to be careful the way you say things sometimes," the Penn State coach said. "Poor [Air Force coach] Fisher DeBerry got in trouble, but the black athlete has made a big difference. They have changed the whole tempo of the game. Black athletes have just done a great job as athletes and as people in turning the game around."

In other words, college football became a better game once it was integrated -- just like every other sport. Which is only something I've been hearing ever since I started watching Greatest Sports Legends as a kid.

Here's what I seem to remember: Countless documentaries would tell the story of Jackie Robinson, and they would usually include a photo of Robinson signing his Dodgers contract with a beaming Branch Rickey over his shoulder. And then, invariably, we'd see footage of Robinson driving opponents insane on the basepaths.

Oh, and the soundtrack usually was accompanied by an up-tempo jazz tune.

And then there's the quote from Paterno that: "[T]he black athlete has made a big difference." Which last time I checked, was essentially the point of Arthur Ashe's history of African-American athletes.

But you know there's no way Paterno is going to be let off easy. When I found this story on the front page of ESPN.com, the hyperlink read, "Paterno links black athletes to increased scoring." And that's a quote that doesn't even apear in the ESPN.com account of Paterno's Big Ten Conference call.

When will the insanity end?

If you're looking for a real travesty in college athletics, you'll find it in a system of rules promulgated by the NCAA that wind up treating all athletes -- no matter what their race -- as nothing more than a commodity. A commodity traded in a marketplace rigged by the member schools of the NCAA.

UPDATE: ESPN has changed the headline of the story to read: "Penn State coach offers his take on black athletes."

Always Think Before Hitting Send

Here's an interesting story that broke this morning:

New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson says he will not return to Baton Rouge for his hurricane-displaced team's games for the rest of this season and next year, according to an e-mail obtained by a newspaper and a television station.

The e-mail was sent to NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue following the Saints' loss on Sunday in Baton Rouge, taunts from fans and an altercation with a TV camera crew.

In the e-mail, Benson called security at Tiger Stadium "inadequate to non-existent" and claimed that he and his family members "could have all been severely injured or killed."

"I will not return to Baton Rouge for any reason, including any games scheduled for the end of this season or a contemplated next season," Benson said in the e-mail.

The question that ought to be asked next is: Just who in the world leaked this email? If I were betting money, I'd guess the commissioner probably knows.

Another thing to keep in mind: The NFL never does anything on a whim. Everything, and I mean everything, happens for a reason.

If only it were true...

I'm having a hard time believing this figure:

My blog is worth $103,310.82.
How much is your blog worth?

I know one thing. I learned my lesson from the Internet days. If anyone wants to drop 100k in my lap for Off Wing just let me know.

Alex Ovechkin Was Robbed

Looks like the NHL isn't going to let anything get in the way of the Sidney Crosby marketing campaign, as the young forward was named the NHL Rookie of the Month for October yesterday.

And there's no way he deserved it, not the way Washington's Alex Ovechkin has been playing. Check the numbers yourself (Crosby had one more point, but 6 fewer goals than Ovechkin), but the real test comes when you see Ovechkin play. He's got moves around the net I've never seen before.

What's even more amazing is that Ovechkin is essentially the only scoring threat on an otherwise miserable Caps team. There's simply nobody else to worry about when you play Washington. Yet he still has 8 goals in 11 games.

Caps fans are already paranoid about anything having to do with Pittsburgh, and this is just going to stoke the fires. I'm going to keep my eye on this.

Off Wing On AOL Sports Bloggers Live

Here's a link to the audio from my interview on Monday night. Thanks to AOL's Jamie Mottram for the invite.

Talking Yourself Out Of Town

Meet Roy Keane, the Brett Hull of the English Premier League:

Roy Keane's career as a Manchester United footballer appeared to be fast approaching an acrimonious conclusion yesterday in the wake of the public disclosure of his withering assessment of his team-mates on MUTV on Monday.

(snip)

Assessing the current strength of the Old Trafford squad on MUTV's Play the Pundit feature at United's Carrington training ground on Monday afternoon, Keane is reported to have said: "There is talk about putting this right in January and bringing players in. We should be doing the opposite - we should be getting rid of people in January."

Keane's most personal attack was reserved for the club's £29m record signing and highest earner, Ferdinand, who, he claimed, had slipped into a comfort zone and had failed to show any leadership in a side bereft of so many injured, experienced players. Keane said: "Just because you are paid £120,000 a week and play well for 20 minutes against Tottenham, you think you are a superstar. The younger players have been let down by some more experienced ones - they are not leading. There is a shortage of characters. It seems to be in this club you have to play badly to be rewarded. Maybe that is what I should do when I come back - play badly.

Yeah, he'll be welcome back in the locker room. I guess he must be heading for Glasgow.

Letting Another One Get Away

I haven't dealt much with the Washington Nationals in the last few months. It's not that I didn't appreciate the home team, it wa just with the NHL back I didn't have enough bandwidth to take it all in.

But now that Pat Gillick has been hired as GM of the Philadelphia Philies, I'm feeling a little annoyed.

Why? Because even though this team has been in town since a little after the first of the year, we still don't have an owner, you know, somebody who might not have extended the contract of current GM Jim Bowden after so many of his acquisitions exploded in his face last season.

Like usual, the Nats blogs are all over this -- I'm talking about WWN and Capital Punishment for starters. Read them to catch up.

An Olympian Mistake

Oops. I don't think this is a rounding error:

Buying land and relocating businesses for the 2012 London Olympics could cost twice the original estimate.

But London Development Agency chair Mary Reilly said the figure approaching $1.76 billion was a "worst-case scenario."

The LDA budgeted $846 million in June 2003 for Olympics-related land acquisition. Reilly said that amount did not include buying new sites for relocating businesses.

"Some of the land is in worse condition that we thought," Reilly told The Financial Times. But she said the LDA would be able to cover the costs without making London taxpayers contribute more.

Really? I'd be holding on to my wallet if I was a British taxpayer.

The Road Ahead For D.C. United

DCenters has the rundown from the wreckage of a lost season.

Playoff System For Golf?

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I can hear the cash registers ringing already.

Then again, Greg Norman proposed this about a decade ago, and was beaten up in the media for it. I wonder if the PGA will cut him a check?

I'm Still Here...

I was just buried on an accelerated deadline. More later.

Best Bill Simmons Column Ever

The real story on Theo Epstein leaving Boston. Simply brilliant. Bravo.

One more time: Simmons doesn't need ESPN anymore.

Second Place, Two Weeks In Philadelphia

Looks like Bobby Valentine is a finalist to become manager of the Devil Rays.

I guess managing in Japan has to be pretty awful to want to take that job.

The Girls Of Curling?

How Playboy Canada didn't pick up on this idea earlier I'll never know:

Women's curling is sure to receive a lot more exposure this year, thanks to a new international calendar that features nude and scantily clad female curlers.

The calendar is the brainchild of Ana Arce, a photographer who skipped the Andorran women's team for three seasons before moving to Spain this year.

“I think it's going to change the image of the sport which is not so nice,” Arce, who also poses in the calendar, told The Canadian Press. “I've been playing for eight years and there are so many beautiful girls playing and nobody knows it.

My heart's in a whirl! Thanks to John Palmer for the link.

UPDATE: The world's leading Curling blogger is dismayed.

Eklund Followup

Toronto Star reporter Christopher Hutsul, the reporter who wrote a piece on Eklund for yesterday's paper, sent me a note responding to my Monday post that took his article to task:

My apologies for not attributing the "who is eklund and why is he blogging" quote to your site... I was under the impression that that very phrase was somewhat ubiquitous. Thanks for calling me on it.

As for your your other comments, I really didn't mean to discredit Eklund's dissenting bloggers by not including direct quotes. For the sake of efficiency, I attempted to summarize some of the sentiments expressed by Eklund's non-believers. Besides that, I didn't want to tap into the sense of "vendetta" that Eklund's rival bloggers seem to have. Tensions really seem to run high in this lot... so it didn't seem to be appropriate to voice the opinions of those with vested interests, professional jealousy, and/or good old fashioned bones to pick.

As I said to Hutsul in an email response, apology accepted. And it's to his credit that he responded at all, something many reporters (but not all) wouldn't ever think of doing.

In the end, it wouldn't have been terribly hard to edit this piece. Just embed a few links to folks who have debunked Eklund and there wouldn't have been a problem. If you're concerned about anonymity, just follow up with the blogger by email to confirm an identity.

As always, click here for my ever-expanding Eklund file.

Looking More Like A Blog All The Time

That was the thought that popped into my head when I read Tarik el-Bashir's Capitals Notebook feature from today's Washington Post.

Next, go take a look at the section the Post has set up as the archive for all of their Caps-related coverage. It's not a big deal, as plenty of papers do the same thing.

But imagine something different. Imagine if el-Bashir was given a blog to cover the team, and that updates would come in all day long, giving fans a reason to return again and again. All you would have to do is make a few design changes, and the Post would have an interactive forum on the team that would help drive traffic.

In general, WashPost.com has been pretty good when it comes to leveraging the Web completely in news coverage. Let's hope they take that next step here.

Eye on John Buccigross

If I were Gary Bettman, I'd be paying close attention to what ESPN's John Buccigross is writing and saying these days, because the thoughts that are his alone today, will start appearing on the lips of dedicated hockey fans (at least in the U.S.) tomorrow.

Back on October 19, Buccigross had this to say:

The game is fast. Up and down. At times, it almost looked like an All-Star Game, and that is not good. They need to find a way to keep the battle in the game without taking away the speed and stickhandling. Mickey [Melchiondo of the band Ween] was skeptical. He said he enjoyed the territorial game but didn't embrace the new flow.

And last night on SportsCenter, Buccigross was narrating the highlights from the Rangers-Canadiens game. After mentioning that Jaromir Jagr was taking advantage of the crackdown on obstruction, Buccigross said it looked like the league was enforcing "borderline soccer rules."

Boy did my ears prick up when I heard that, and I know for a fact that it's going to resonate with plenty of hockey fans.

Don't get me wrong, I love Soccer, but the chronic diving and faking of injuries is part of the sport that I can't stand. And whenever I've watched games with other folks who have played hockey, it was easy to see the disdain they had for diving.

The fact is, with possibly the exception of Larry Brooks, there isn't any other prominent national sports columnist in the states who covers hockey with as much passion as Buccigross. He's made friendships with players and management. On SportsCenter and on the Web, he's got a platform to crtique the game as freely as anyone -- especially so now that ESPN isn't the league's television partner any longer.

OBSTRUCTION POSTSCRIPT: A few weeks ago on a TSN broadcast, somebody mentioned that Daryl Sydor of Tampa Bay said that something had to be done about goalies getting rushed, and specifically mentioned that while he was fine with cracking down on obstruction in the neutral zone, that the refs needed to be considerably more lenient once the play got below the faceoff circles.

Luckily for the league, there is a way out. By starting off with a strict interpretation of obstruction, they can loosen things up a little later on without much fanfare.

But had the league gone the other way, and not cracked down hard enough on obstruction, there would have been Hell to pay from the fans and the press. Instead of headlines about the "New NHL" we'd be seeing headlines about the "Same old NHL". Click here for an example of what I'm talking about.

Of course, that has nothing to do with whether or not the critique has merit -- and I think to a certain extent it does. But in this case, while the charge has credibility, the volume has been considerably muted. I think I can understand why they made the choice that they did.

UPDATE: Ross McKeon of the San Francisco Chronicle makes a point that I don't have an answer to:

There are no physical battles for position in front of the net between defensemen and attacking players without the puck. Teams have figured out there's a scoring chance to be had every time if they screen the goalie with one or more skaters and they can wait for someone to wrist a puck on net from the point. More of a price should be paid to gain that position in front. But we're at a loss to suggest how fouls on one patch of the ice can be allowed when they're illegal everywhere else.

Something to think about.

NHL Interim Business Report Card: Mixed But Incomplete

Rich Hammond of the LA Daily News has an excellent roundup of the business of the NHL a little less than one month into the season, and the news is mixed. First, the good:

Despite the 10-month layoff, overall attendance has been strong. Eleven of the 30 teams sold out all of their home games in October through Sunday and arenas were filled to 91.3 percent of capacity. League-wide, teams reported that 87.7 percent of season-ticket holders renewed for this season.

Compared to average attendance in Oct. 2003, 24 teams exceeded or matched that average this October, and compared to average attendance for the entire 2003-04 season, 20 teams have matched or exceeded.

Some of the biggest jumps came in small markets such as Atlanta (14,341 average in Oct. 2003 to 16,168 in Oct. 2005), Florida (13,997 to 16,504) and Pittsburgh (12,498 to 15,901).

Now, the bad:

National television ratings remain dismal. OLN's initial telecast drew a 0.4 rating, which represented 353,439 viewers and equaled the rating that ESPN averaged for its telecasts in 2003-04. Even worse, ESPN had a 2.0 national rating for its opening-night telecast in 2003.

OLN's next game dropped to a 0.3 rating (278,000 viewers) and the next one dropped to a 0.2 (143,438), although the latter two went against Monday Night Football and a baseball playoff game, respectively.

This was a choice I didn't understand from the beginning -- why in the world is the NHL going head-to-head with the NFL and Monday Night Football?

And the ugly:

Fox Sports Net holds local broadcast rights for many teams, but the news isn't much better. Eight teams enjoyed big opening boosts from their 2003 opening-night rating, but attendance growth hasn't translated to ratings growth in places such as Nashville, which has struggled to top a 1.0 rating.

Jeremy Roenick has an interesting idea:

"Until the league wakes up and gets its act together with the broadcasts, the ratings will always be low. Why not do a deal with HBO? They could put cameras and (microphones) right next to the ice and you could hear the game and all the swearing and everything. Wouldn't that be something?"

Like I said, interesting. But I wonder what the average hockey mom might have to say about it.

Off Wing On Sportsbloggers Live

I'll be on tonight's show at 7:45 P.M. U.S. EST. Be sure to stop by and listen.

Eklund, Ad Infinatum

Our old pal Eklund is getting some more ink and pixels today, as Christopher Hutsul of the Toronto Star examines the record of the anonymous one with furrowed brow:

What we do know about Eklund — a pseudonym inspired by former Philadelpia Flyer forward Pelle Eklund — is that he's reached nearly mythical status in the online hockey community, and he's parlayed that profile into a blossoming career in the mainstream media. It's a cross-over that raises interesting questions about the ethics of anonymous blogging, the use of unnamed sources, and the journalistic standards to which the public at large holds the media.

If we take Eklund at his word, he's an American hockey fan who's written a best-selling book, worked briefly for an NHL team, and remains in contact with a handful of high-level hockey people. Many bloggers don't buy that, and have accused him of being a computer geek who's simply acting out delusions of being a hockey insider. If that's the case, he's played us, the audience, and the mainstream media, brilliantly.

Eklund's rise to notoriety began at the lockout's depths. While the mainstream media scrambled to keep on top of the convoluted workings of the labour standoff, Eklund carried himself like an authority. His posts began with sentences like: "I just got off the phone with a player from the Calgary Flames, who told me . . ." His reports didn't always prove accurate — some Eklund dissidents will tell you that he was almost never right, and have devoted themselves to debunking him.

That last line is a real howler. Here we have Eklund, a completely anonymous source, and Hutsul has no problem linking to his Web site and quoting from an Eklund bio I punched some holes in a few weeks ago (one Eklund updated after the fact). Yet nowhere in the piece do we hear from any of the legion of bloggers -- readily identifiable as far as I can see -- who have criticized Eklund since he surfaced.

In short, he's helping to perpetuate Eklund's influence, and ignoring the folks with actual identities who called him on the carpet so often before.

And by ommitting any dissenting voices on Eklund (not one solitary quote), he sends the message that the folks who have spent time debunking him are the ones without credibility. Thanks a lot pal.

I have to give him some credit though, because unlike other mainstream media folks who have covered Eklund (subscription required), Hutsul actually expresses some doubt that this is all a good idea:

Eklund's practices didn't bother me during the lockout. I took his comments with a grain of salt, as I would with any independent blog. He was a fleeting point of interest on the Internet. I saw him as a novelty, never a journalist. What did it matter anyway? After all, it was only hockey.

I realized I'd underestimated Eklund — and the influence of the blogosphere — when I heard his name on a Vancouver sports radio station. The host was talking about a trade rumour posted on Eklund's site. Apparently, it didn't matter whether Eklund was legitimate or full of crap. He'd transcended the blogosphere, and had become a mainstream media informant.

I was stunned.

Join the club.

How, I wondered, could the mainstream media justify the ongoing use an anonymous reporter, relying on anonymous sources?

As Hutsul discovered after interviewing a Rogers SportsNet exec who once worked at his paper, they simply can't. In this case, it's all about the eyeballs, and who cares if Eklund shovels some more BS in the process. That should tell you all you need to know about this story.

POSTSCRIPT: I couldn't help but notice this passage:

A common question in hockey blogs is, "Who is Eklund and why is he blogging?"

Actually, what Hutsul doesn't tell his readers is that's exactly how I posed the question, word for word, back in February.

Hey Chris, I'm waiting for my check.

As always, feel free to peruse our Eklund file.

UPDATE: The Acid Queen delivers Eklund another body blow. Thanks to Chris Young for the link.

Gone Freddie Gone?

I had the distinct displeasure of watching the disappointing end to D.C. United's MLS season yesterday evening, as the Red and Black dropped a 4-0 decision to the Chicago Fire at RFK Stadium.

It was a royal beating in every sense of the word. Chicago took to the attack from the opening kick, and United couldn't seem to develop any flow on offense all game long. Throw in a couple of defensive breakdowns, a couple of mistakes from goalie Nick Rimando and a tantrum "ala Roberto Alomar" from Christian Gomez (except he spit on a member of the Fire, resulting in a red card and automatic ejection), and the evening was complete. For a more detailed breakdown of the breakdown from Sunday evening, visit DCenters.

But the big news came after the game, when Mike Wise of the Washington Post interviewed former U.S. National Team member and ESPN broadcaster Eric Wynalda after the game:

"No one is coming out and saying it, but Freddy is not going to play here next year," Eric Wynalda said.

Wynalda is the Sean Salisbury of soccer announcers, a bit of a blowhard but very familiar with the inner workings of his sport. He is the all-time leading scorer in U.S. history. When Wynalda says, "My feeling is, Freddy is going to be in New York next season," well, you get the feeling the kid's junior prom next May might not be at the Rockville Pike Econo Lodge.

United President Kevin Payne angrily denied Wynalda's prediction, but you have to wonder what's on the wind after Adu's agent, Richard Motzkin, talked to the Post's Steven Goff on Saturday:

Adu has not granted any interview requests since making his surprising comments, but his agent, Richard Motzkin of SportsNet in Los Angeles, agreed to discuss the situation.

"Freddy is very much a team-first player and he is very much focused and motivated to do whatever he can to help the team win a championship," he said.

Asked his reaction to Adu's complaints, Motzkin said: "It came from a frustrated young adult. The timing of the comments certainly wasn't good, but in terms of the substance, Freddy is a person who speaks from the heart, and to me, it sounded like he was speaking from the heart.

(snip)

Motzkin was critical of the way United handled the recent controversy.

"Did Freddy do enough to remedy the situation?" he said. "I would flip it and say, 'Did D.C. United do enough to remedy it?' Because, at the end of the day, while Freddy is extremely mature, articulate and intelligent, he's still 16 years old. If someone is looking for adult-like behavior, whether that's in the form of an apology or the request for a meeting, it's reasonable to ask the question, 'Shouldn't the adults also swallow some pride, act in an adult-like fashion and reach out to someone who maybe isn't comfortable clearly doing things they want him to do?' "

Folks, these are not the words of an agent that wants to make peace.

As for Adu's unhappiness and the chances of him leaving D.C. United, think of it this way: How many of us have known folks around Adu's age coming to their parents and asking to transfer to another high school or college because they weren't happy? Do we call those kids immature? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But move on they do, and we don't give it a second thought.

Toss in all of the additional pressures from MLS and the rest of the American Soccer apparatus, and my money is on Adu getting out of town.

Know this: D.C. United may very well be the flagship MLS franchise. But the folks who run MLS and the U.S. Soccer Federation care more for the game as a whole, than they do about being fair to D.C. United. And if they come to the conclusion that Adu and the state of the sport in America would be better served if he left Washington, expect it to happen in a New York (or L.A.) minute.

UPDATE: Out in the Bay Area, PJ Swensen saw his team eliminated too.

ANOTHER UPDATE: DCenters has more:

Okay, so everyone whose overreacting to the Chicago game, please calm down. If we make moves out of reaction to one game, then they're probably not going to be the smart moves we need to make to improve for next season. This needs to be approached rationally, with a level head and honest eyes. Right now, we as fans feel too negatively to be objective about what we have, just as after a victory we feel too invincible. In case your wondering, I'm sure that Kevin Payne went through a pack-and-a-half of Marlboro (Lights, I'm guessing) in order to chill him out enough to deal with all the yelling and moaning that was going to come.

Shakespeare is wrong. "If it must be done, twere best done quickly" he wrote in MacBeth as he considered the possibility of making various regime changes. He's wrong. We need to do things a little more slowly, to consider what the right course of action is. Sadly, we have plenty of time for that now. So let's use some of it, and use some common sense.

In the end, I guess we really shouldn't be surprised that the season ended this way. We always knew that the biggest hole the team had to fill was on the back line in the wake of the departure of Ryan Nelsen after last season. In a sense, the United club we saw on Sunday evening bore a striking resemblance to last year's team -- the one, that is, that took to the pitch while Nelsen was playing in international competition for his native New Zealand.

Hockey's Tall Tale Of The Tape

James Mirtle has uncovered a source that says that NHL players are taller and heavier than ever before.

My question is, can we actually believe it?

Now, I'm not disputing the contention that players are bigger and taller today than they were in 1972-73 when the league first started publishing that data. I don't need a study when the anecdotal evidence seems overwhelming.

Then again, professional sports teams are notorious for fudging the numbers they publish when it comes to height and weight, and I can't help but believe that the NHL falls into line with other sports in that regard.

A Weakness In The Hockey Boxscore

At both TSN.ca and ESPN.com, the main NHL scoreboard page has a deficiency that could be easily corrected: In addition to listing all of the goal scorers, would it be too much to ask to add the names of the goalies and how many saves they tallied?

It Was Saturday Night In San Jose...

That provided my favorite moment of ice hockey from this weekend. Because it was then that one of the masters of the cheap hit, Calgary's Bryan Marchment, took a few powerful strides toward San Jose Sharks Captain Patrick Marleau with the intention of running him down like a piece of Northern California roadkill.

But Marleau, who once shared a locker room with Marchment in San Jose, had other ideas, shedding him like a bad habit, and propelling Marchment into the boards like a sack of potatoes.

Brilliance. Sheer, unadulterated brilliance.

Thumbs Up For The Truth About Cars

After getting drop-kicked by the San Francisco Chronicle for a negative review of the Subaru Tribeca, Robert Farago has earned me as a reader for life:

I believe the media in general, and newspapers in particular, have an obligation to tell the truth about cars. You know all those puff pieces that fill up the odd blank spot in every single automotive section in this great country of ours? Does it ever occur to the propagators of these gutless "reviews" that a car is the average consumer's second most expensive purchase? To operate under the principle that all cars are wonderful in their own special way is to sacrifice readers' direct financial interests for the paper's short term monetary gain. Chicken and egg though it might be-- readers attract advertisers who pay for copy to attract readers-- Bob Dylan was right. You gotta serve somebody. Clearly, the mainstream automotive media has made its choice.

And that’s why so many car enthusiasts have turned to the web. Other than Dan Neil at the Los Angeles Times, there are no print journalists ready, willing and able to directly challenge the auto manufacturers’ influence with the plain, unvarnished truth (including the writers found in the happy clappy buff books). Car lovers yearn for the truth about cars. Sites like www.jalopnik.com are dedicated to providing it. And that's why the mainstream press’ cozy little Boys’ Club is doomed.

Thanks to Instapundit for the link.