Weekly Sporties

-I'm always amused when someone who had an abrasive personality passes away and then the rest of the world tries really hard to come up with creative ways to acknowledge that without openly calling a dead person an asshole. When Al Davis passed away last Saturday, every media outlet in the country was trying to creatively praise the man for his ideas while at the same time concede that some aspects of his personality weren't so friendly. Example of the code words they came up with included "maverick" and "rogue". I lost count of how many times people started sentences with some variation of the phrase, "Say what you want about Al Davis..." But, here's the funny part: Al Davis was kind of proud of being an asshole. I saw many interviews this week in which he gladly admitted he was a tough person to deal with and I never heard a hint of shame in his voice. I guess the point is if someone chooses to spend their entire life being a bit of a prick to people then they are most likely very aware of how people feel about them and my guess is since they didn't care how you talked about them when they were alive, they probably don't care once they are gone. In fact, I bet they would appreciate the straight talk a lot more.

-Speaking of not being able to figure out that sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all, Red Sox owner John Henry showed up unannounced at the 98.5 Sports Hub studios on Friday to fire back against some of the things written in the Boston Globe's article earlier in the week and some of the conclusions the show's hosts had made in conjunction with that article. While it was shocking to hear the normally-reserved Henry come out firing like this, the entire thing came across as a little desperate and a little bit "me thinks thou doth protest too much". (At some point we should talk about how WEEI and not 98.5 is the official radio home of the Red Sox, so I bet they didn't appreciate the Red Sox owner giving the competition the exclusive.) But, instead of clearing up things, Henry just made it worse when he admitted he didn't want to sign Carl Crawford. You know, the same Carl Crawford who has six years remaining on his deal. This is not the way to begin rebuilding clubhouse chemistry. I guess this is why Henry doesn't do a ton of interviews. Why don't you stop talking for a while, Champ?

-In the middle of the week, NBA Commissioner David Stern came out and said that if this weekend's round of meetings do not go well, the league may have to cancel more games, all the way up to Christmas. No kidding, David. The further into the schedule you get without an agreement, the more games you will have to cancel. I know I'm not a lawyer, but that seems like a fairly obvious conclusion for us "normal" people to figure out. How is this for a counter-proposal: instead of holding weekly press conference to tell us how many games are going to be cancelled if you can't agree to a deal by some date that you are essentially picking at random, why don't you go and meet with the players' union? That way you can actually make progress instead of trying to negotiate through the media. Honestly, I'm one of like 30 people in the country who care about the NBA season and they are even starting to piss me off with this whole thing.

-By the way, the players are doing no better. First, they took to Twitter and began to end all their Tweets with the hashtag of #LetUsPlay. Yeah, you guys need to shut up as well. Again, the lockout isn't going to get solved by appealing to the fans. You have to talk to the owners. Trust me, you don't want us drawing up the terms of your new deal anyway. The players other big idea was that they might form their own league in Europe. I'm sorry, is this the same Europe where teams play with different rules that NBA players can't stop complaining about during the Olympics and fans barely shows up when the NBA plays exhibition games overseas? They care about two players: LeBron and Kobe. Everyone else they can take or leave. I mean, the players can go over and try to start their own league if they want. Actually, trying to organize all the logistics while losing money might make them more sympathetic to the owners' side of the things and help move a deal along. Suddenly, I'm all for NBA Europe.

-Every time a team wins a championship (doesn't matter the level or the sport) people worry about a "championship hangover" the following season. You know, the players spend all off-season celebrating, being told how great they are by fans, start to believe their own headlines and therefore they generally don't work as hard to get ready for the season. On top of that everybody they play gives them their best effort because those teams want to prove themselves against the champs. It's a recipe for a long season. That would be bad enough, but it seems like every story about the Bruins lately has been about them fighting actual hangovers. Last Sunday they were in Foxboro to show off the Stanley Cup before the Patriots game and the next day they were lackadaisical in their early game, leading to whispers they were living it up in the luxury boxes. Well, let me go on record as officially saying I don't care. The Bruins weren't going to repeat anyway. Seriously, the NHL is simply too physically demanding for any team to win that many playoff games two years in a row. That is why no one has done it in nearly 15 years. The Bruins have a two-year grace period where no one expects anything from them. I say enjoy it while you can.

-After last week's defection by TCU the Big East unveiled a plan for expansion this week in an effort to keep their automatic BCS bid. They are planning to offer membership to Boise State, Air Force, Navy, Houston, Memphis, Central Florida, Southern Methodist, Blaine School of Beauty, Framingham State, UMass and the University of Phoenix Online College. (I'm only making a couple of those up.) Look, I don't blame the Big East for fighting with all its might to keep that automatic BCS bid. That's big money and if you don't have one of those automatic bids then there is almost no point in having football schools in your conference. I think what bothers me is that they still insist on calling themselves the Big East. If your conference includes schools in Denver, Ohio and Idaho then there is nothing East about you. I'm not going to kick and scream about expansion like some college purists, but if they do start accepting any school with a pulse, I'm going to have to insist they change their name. Might I suggest "The Big Best of What's Left"?

-During last weekend's London marathon a runner who came in third got into a bit of hot water after the fourth place runner insisted he was never passed by that runner at any point on the course. The man who finished third was rather indignant about it, saying he was supremely annoyed that race organizers were even listening to this madness. At least, he was right up to the moment when people came forward with footage of that third place running stepping off a bus. Apparently, he had hit a bit of a runner's wall around mile 20 and decided to use some public transportation to get him through it. He got off the shuttle with a mile to go and ran the rest of the way in. Obviously, he was disqualified. I say not so fast. Running isn't exactly a popular sport right now. Mixing in things like buses and trains could really help. It would make the sport more like the "Amazing Race" and that show wins an Emmy every year. I know I would certainly be more interested in participating in a marathon if they weren't so adamant that everyone had to do all that pesky running.