Weekly Sporties

-I just want to go on record and say that I officially hate this Red Sox season. It just feels like the team can't seem to get out of its own way, as the second they appear to have their act together someone shoots their mouth off to get attention. Just this week, as the team had a chance to get over .500 for the first time all season (and, given the team's payroll, I would like to point out how sad a statement that is) David Ortiz ranted to the media about how he doesn't understand why he is under-appreciated as a leader, while also taking subtle shots at teammates Dustin Pedroia and Jason Varitek. (Not surprisingly, the team lost the next game.) Well, David, allow me to answer that one for you: actual leaders don't burst into a manager's press conference to complain about a scorer's decision which robbed them of an RBI because it is a contract year, give an interview saying that they shouldn't be expected to act as a babysitter after their team just had the worst late-season collapse in baseball history and also don't complain to the press during a winning steak about not getting enough respect when their real problem is the team won't give them a long-term contract. I guess Ortiz hasn't figured out professional baseball yet - just because you have been around for a long time that doesn't automatically mean you should have tenure, it just means the team hasn't found someone better. And whining about it certainly isn't going to help his cause. If Ortiz wants to be taken seriously as a leader than he should act like it, because real leaders don't have to tell people they are one.

-As expected following an up-and-down season, early this week the Orlando Magic fired head coach Stan Van Gundy. Van Gundy had been the most successful coach in Magic history, but you could make the case he had been there long enough and the team simply needed new voice. (Van Gundy has a history of being a bit of a complainer and you could see how that would get on the players' nerves after a while.) Of course, this move also appears as though it was meant to placate star center Dwight Howard, who has had a rocky relationship with Van Gundy for the last couple of years and will be a free agent after next season. During the regular season there were numerous reports that Howard said he wanted Van Gundy gone, so this was probably the first step in Orlando's efforts to get Howard to sign a long-term extension. However, if that was the intent it didn't work, as reports surfaced the very next day that Howard still wanted to be traded from the team as soon as possible. The Magic are desperate to keep Howard and clearly will do anything he wants to  get him to promise to stick around, but by firing Van Gundy at this point of the offseason they may have cashed in their biggest bargaining chip without getting any guarantee it would work. Suddenly, it looks like they could be losing a very good coach and their best player. The Magic front office hasn't handled this situation with Howard well from the very start and this is just another example of that. They need to be very careful with what they do next and so far there are no indications they even know what the right move is.

-Along those same lines: also let go during that front office purge was Orlando General Manager Otis Smith. Again, the team hasn't been great and has some obvious flaws so you could justify Smith's firing, but mostly this also feels like the team bending to Dwight Howard's wishes. But, if the team does actually lose Howard whoever takes over that job will probably have to rebuild the Magic from the ground up. Not an easy task, it will take someone with years of NBA front-office experience to save the Magic from years of irrelevancy. That is why it was so surprising to hear that Shaquille O'Neal was a candidate for the position. O'Neal might know the NBA from all his years as a player, but he has no experience running a team. Not to mention years ago he spurned the Magic for the Lakers, the exact same way Howard is trying. (I guess in that respect he knows just how bad a state the Magic could be left in.) Look, I would hire Shaq in a number of roles on my team (color analyst, big-man coach, fan ambassador), but general manager wouldn't be on that list. Shaq came out the next day and said he would not be interested in the position because he wanted to stay on TV. More likely he was never a serious candidate, the Magic only floated his name out there to create some buzz and when they saw the story was gaining traction told him he was never getting the job. Still, the fact that this is the way the Magic felt they had to create some buzz around their franchise is not a good sign. I get the distinct impression that right now Orlando is not the happiest place on Earth for basketball fans.

-One last NBA note: up until 1971, the Golden State Warriors played in San Francisco before moving to Oakland. This week it was announced that the team is going to be shifting back across the bay for the 2017 season. As you can imagine the Oakland fans did not taking this news particularly well. But, what amazed me was the laid-back attitude most sports networks took towards the news. It was barely a mention on "SportsCenter" that day and hasn't been brought up since. Now, it could be because the move isn't for several years. Also, some people don't see the big deal, as the team is moving about 12 miles. (Distance-wise it would be less than if the Patriots moved from Foxboro to downtown Boston.) They probably won't even get a new uniform for the new city. However, I think this relocation is actually worse than if they completely up and moved to someplace like Seattle, as it feels more personal. If a team switches entire states, the fans can blame it on legislatures, saying they didn't work with the team. But when they are just moving across the water to a spot which will be visible to the city they just moved from, that feels like a direct indictment against the city of Oakland. After all, familiarity breeds contempt, because who do cities hate more than the next closest city? The two teams might not seem like rivals, but that is only because they don't play each other in the major sports all the time. Seriously, this would be like someone leaving their wife and then living with their new wife on the same street. I'm really surprised this isn't a bigger deal.

-The NFL competition committee met this week to discuss changes for the upcoming season and beyond. Due to the increased emphasis on player safety, one the changes the league intends to enforce is demanding that players start wearing knee and thigh pads at all times starting after next season. You see, most speed players, especially wide receivers, stopped wearing knee and thigh pads years ago because they felt they slowed them down. Cornerbacks soon had to follow to keep up with the receivers and it just snowballed from there. Now it seems like the only people who wear them are quarterbacks and linemen. The NFL wants to reverse that trend, because they think that if players were moving a little slower than they might not hit each other with such force and this will cut down on injuries. Color me unconvinced, because I just don't see this slowing down guys all that much and they will still land with a lot of force. Look, I'm all for increased player safety in football, but this does seem like a move which is strictly for the sake of appearances. Thigh pads are something which the fans will be able to see very clearly, point at and say, "Look, the NFL is honestly trying to keep people safe!" But, what this really amounts to is putting a new coat of paint on a house that has termite damage. Yeah, it may increase the curb appeal, but you still have a serious problem to deal with. The thing keeping concerns over player safety in the news is concussions, not deep thigh bruises. I appreciate what the NFL is trying to do, but it still doesn't feel as though they are doing enough.

-The NFL also continues to be in the news for another lawsuit. This one was filed by the players' union, questioning whether the NFL has the right to penalize the Redskins and Cowboys out of cap space for the next two years, saying that the penalties for excessive spending in what was supposed to be an uncapped year amounts to collusion. Well, of course it is collusion. If the rules say everyone can spend what they want and then later two teams gets single out as spending too much money than clearly there was an agreement under the table among the teams to keep the cap at a certain level. In any court of law it would be a slam-dunk for the players' union. The only problem is that as part of the recent labor agreement the players waived the right to sue over this issue. Also as part of that agreement, they allowed Commissioner Goodell to decide these matters, which they have also recently realized is a bad idea. This leads me to one basic question: did the players' union lawyers even read this thing before they signed it? I know everyone was anxious to get back to football, but it doesn't feel like they were very diligent about reading all the fine print. The owners of NFL teams are a pretty slick bunch (they wouldn't be in the positions to own NFL teams if they weren't), so you had to know they were going to sneak in a bunch of things the players wouldn't like. Well, at least the players now know what to look out for in next collective bargaining agreement after this current one expires. And, good news, only 9 years until that happens!

-There is nothing sadder than seeing a once-great idea get corrupted. That was the feeling I got this week when I heard the NHL was thinking about playing its annual Winter Classic in Los Angeles. When the NHL started playing games outside on New Year's Day it was seen as a great marketing event. It was really cool to see the fans bundled up and the best players in the world getting back to what amounted to pond hockey. When they started putting the game into iconic baseball stadiums across the US it was even better. Seeing the Bruins play in Fenway and the Blackhawks play in Wrigley was an awesome sight. But, playing the game in Chavez Ravine on a 65 degree day just wouldn't be the same. Look, I know Dodgers Stadium is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and if you are ranking baseball stadiums on history alone it would obviously be above places like the Citizens Bank Park, which already got to host the game. Also, I know why the NHL wants to get the Kings involved (and that was before they made their current run to the Stanley Cup Finals). But the simple fact is that hockey is a cold-weather game and LA is a warm-weather city. Playing the game there would feel like too much of a blatant show, whereas sticking it in cold-weather cities at least feels like an homage to the game. I know that it would be just as much of a marketing tool if the game was played in Buffalo instead of LA, but it wouldn't be so obvious. Sometimes it is about appearances versus substance. I mean if any city should be able to appreciate that, it's LA.