Weekly Sporties

-Since we're inching closer to when the league was scheduled to get started, the NBA lockout is starting to feel real. With both sides saying the negotiations are so far apart that fans shouldn't expect an NBA season this year, it ain't looking good. Commissioner David Stern has taken the now-expected step of saying he won't take a salary as long as the league is in lockout-mode. First off, I find it really odd that no one knows how much Stern makes a year. Reports have it between $10-$20 million. The fact that no one knows for sure shows just how bad-ass David Stern really is. But, I do find it ironic that Stern will be working for free now, the time when he has to do the most work he has ever had to do as Commissioner. Not all publicity stunts are smart.

-Forgot to get to this one last week, but oh well: Boise State has long been famous for its blue football field. While no one had a problem with it when the blue turf was just a gimmick to hide the fact that the school wasn't very good at football, the Broncos have become a perennial Top-10 team and can beat people for real now, which suddenly makes it an issue. As such, when they switched conferences their new rivals passed a rule saying they couldn't wear their blue uniforms on their blue field, because it created an optical illusion. This feels very bush league to me. If these schools think this is a real issue then they should have dealt with it when they were beating Boise by 21 points every year. I don't hear anyone complaining about optical advantages enough to make schools with green uniforms, but 2-10 records start painting their fields a different color.

-Speaking of college football, Notre Dame is going into the year ranked #18. While it's not a great ranking, it's higher than expected. So, Coach Kelly, you'd better not end the year ranked any lower or else the rumbling will start. You could have flown under the radar to start this season, but you had to beat USC and win a bowl game. Welcome to the world of unreasonable expectations.

-So, earlier this week reports began to come out that Alex Rodriguez may have been involved in high-stakes poker games which featured cocaine, Hollywood stars and some guy getting beaten up when he couldn't pay his debt. (Of course, Alex was playing in the World Series when this alleged poker game took place, but let's not let a little thing like 'facts' get in the way of a good story.) Now, major league baseball always freaks whenever gambling and baseball are linked up, because their worst fear is organized crime getting their hooks into a star player and forcing him to throw games. (Yeah, cause that can happen when guys get $15 million a year. Let's worry about gambling and ignore steroids. Priorities, people!) But, this story did give me the greatest quote of the year. A source close to Commissioner Bud Selig reported he is fed up with A-Rod because, "It seems like every week there is new drama surrounding Alex Rodriguez." I'm not sure if there has been a more perfect sentence to sum up a professional athlete in the history of ever.

-Speaking of athletes who can't escape drama, earlier this week LeBron James took to Twitter to defend Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, who's game has been critiqued rather harshly this off season. LeBron said he doesn't like it when people on ESPN act like they were all-world when they played and wondered why analysts spend so much time ripping guys instead of talking about the things they do well. You know, they always say what a person writes reveals more about them than about their subjects. Um, LeBron, sounds like someone is using Tim Tebow's problems to do a little venting. Is there anything you want to share with us?

-The big story out of Dallas this week was that Cowboys coach Jason Garrett wasn't allowing any of the Cowboys' rookies to have decals on their helmets because they all had to. "Earn their stars." First off, this kind of thing would only work in Dallas. I can't see Norv Turner making new Chargers earn their lightning bolts. But, everyone was talking about this was a great motivational tool. Yes, it was... when Bill Parcells did it a decade ago. Garrett totally ripped this idea off. I can't believe no one brought that up all week.

-We'll end this week's sporties with a few words about Randy Moss, who announced his retirement a couple days ago. I'll start by saying I don't totally believe he's retired. I think if a good team calls him once training camp is over and offers him enough money, he'll show up. He just doesn't want to play for a team that is looking at a 6-10 record. But, if that doesn't happen and he stays retired, Randy Moss will still be a first-ballot Hall of Famer and top-10 all-time receiver. That being said, I'll always view his career as a bit of a disappointment. Even his staunchest supporters will acknowledge he took plays off if the ball wasn't coming his way or if he was on a team that was having a bad year. Had he gone all-out on every play, he could have been the best ever. Top-10 is nice, but Randy's career will always be plagued by this nagging feeling it could have been even better.