Weekly Sporties

-On Thursday Real Madrid was celebrating it's Copa Del Ray championship (according to people on TV, it's apparently the equivalent to the Super Bowl for Spain). They were riding through the streets on a double-decker bus when one of the players held the trophy out in front for the fans to see. Unfortunately, that was when he dropped it. (Hey, if he was good with his hands he would have played a different sport.) Had he just dropped the trophy it wouldn't have been so bad, except it was promptly run over by the bus. For the time being they have a replica ready to go as they attempt to fix the damage. Personally, I don't think they should. Much like the Stanley Cup gets a few new dings every year, I feel incidents like this just add character. I mean, you hand it to another team next year after it's been crushed by a bus they are at least going to know they can't make it any worse.

-Tuesday night ESPN and the NFL made a big deal of releasing the schedule for the upcoming season. They even had a ticker going across the bottom of the screen counting down to the moment the schedule was to be revealed to the world. I think I speak for all of America when I say the following: How about you come to a labor agreement, then release the schedule? I'll be much more excited about the Patriots chances to win specific games once I am sure they are actually going to play those games. As of right now the NFL schedule carries all the significance of saying we're landing on Mars in 2020. Could it happen? Maybe, but a lot of things have to happen first.

-After the entire world saw the officials totally blow an offensive goaltending call during the first game of the Nuggets/Thunder series, the NBA was force to come out and admit it. They said the play was called completely wrong and the Thunder should have had two points taken off the board. Fine, but what else you got? It doesn't help the Nuggets after the fact and it's not like the last two minutes of the game are going to be replayed. When it comes to stuff like that, I would almost rather sports leagues don't admit they got the play wrong. Seriously, stick to your very wrong guns. Hell, go the other way and tell us a play we could all tell was called incorrectly was actually called correctly. I mean, the Denver fans are already pissed, you may as well embrace the villain role and make them really hate you. It might even make them feel better.

-While we're on the subject of the NBA playoffs: every year I develop an irrational level of hatred towards a member of the team the Celtics are playing, which goes away as soon as the series is over. It's not usually a star player, but some bench scrub that I can't stay talking trash when he hasn't taken his warm-ups off yet. However, for this year's Celtics/Knicks series the guy annoying me the most isn't even a player, it's Spike Lee. He's not even on the team, yet he gets more camera time than most of the coaches. Every time the Knicks make a basket we have to see Spike's reaction. I wouldn't be so annoyed if he was at least entertaining me in other areas, but look at his IMDB page: the man hasn't made a good movie in a decade (and calling "25th Hour" a good movie is sort of pushing it). Frankly, I'm left to wonder how he can still afford to pay for those seats.

-With their playoff loss to the Detroit Red Wings, this could be the end of the line for the Phoenix Coyotes. The team has been losing money for years, to the point the NHL had to take over and run the team just to make sure they could make payroll every week. Now, even though contracting them would probably be for the best, the league is trying to sell the team instead. So far the only people to step up with an offer is a group from Winnipeg, who would move the team there. Ironically, that is where they moved from 15 years ago, when they were known as the Jets. As much as I like Phoenix as a city, I have no problem moving the Coyotes back to Winnipeg; hockey in Arizona has never really worked. The only condition I have is that they make the team revert back to the nickname the Jets. This would lend hope to all of Connecticut that maybe one day the Mighty Whale would rise again.