Now in our ninth calendar year!
PCR #426 (Vol. 9, No. 21) This edition is for the week of May 19--25, 2008.
NFL Owners Want More Of The Pie
On Tuesday, the NFL owners met to discuss certain issues within the league. One decision they made was to “opt-out” of their contract with the NFL Players Association which currently gives the players 60% of the NFL revenue. Now the owners - or in my mind, those fat banking guys who who are naked in the Washington Mutual banking commercial - want more money from the players stating that the players are making too much money, which in fact we could all agree on, but when’s the last time you were nailed by a 320-pound linebacker? This problem could result in an NFL Players strike in the 2011 season, with people who play in various minor league systems and failed aspiring football players filling your favorite teams roster while striking players sit back and count their cash at their fabulous homes, while you are throwing your beer at your television set because your team sucks. This would lead to total chaos in the once prestigious NFL, taking a dump on its fans.
To Be Or Not To Be
OK, the Rays are good. Really good. Setting out to prove to the Bay area that they a serious team, the Rays have done just that. I’m on the bandwagon just as everyone else, but is it right that they want a new stadium? The fact is that Bay area taxpayers and possibly all Florida taxpayers, if you think about it, would be on the hook for about $150 Million for the Rays’ stadium on the bay. Yes, the stadium in art drawings is nice, but do I, as a taxpayer (and I really pay a lot of taxes) want this that badly? We could say that the tax dollars would be best used to pay our emergency services or tourism, education maybe? We all would like to think that, but it would really go to sending your favorite county commissioner’s kids to college -- amongst other things -- and we all know that. With us paying for the stadium, we could see some MLB All-Star games held here in Tampa as it would be the most prolific stadium in all of baseball. But none of this would lead us to fact that you, a fan of sports (any sport) desires to pay, and make our children pay for this stadium. Frankly, I am tired (and I’m tired of hearing) that sports team owners have leverage. Owners constantly hijack cities into making the citizens and taxpayers pay for new stadiums and work-out facilities. Dallas, Indianapolis, and New York are already building new stadiums for their football teams, could you tell the average New Yorker that he’s paying $8 for a pack of Marlboros because Giants stadium is too old? This is a hot topic with me and also all of the Tampa Bay area, more on this in later Sports Talk editions.
King James Falls to the Celtics
Notice the fact that I have said King James in the headline, and not the Cleveland Cavaliers. Lebron James (as it’s a one-man team) and the Cavaliers lost to the powerful Celtics this week, with Boston winning their second seven game series in this playoff tournament. This loss was good for most fans of the east (as the Cavaliers would never match up against the Lakers), but it would make you think. Is Kobe Bryant the real MVP here? Forget that LeBron James had a 45 point effort in losing game 7 to Celts. Forget that the Lakers are led by Phil Jackson, and not Kobe. Forget that the MVP award goes to the most valuable player to the team, and I guess there’s Kobe Bryant, your 2008 league MVP, not Lebron James.
L.A. Rams Part Deux?
The St. Louis Rams are for sale since once-owner Georgia Frontierre passed away. The two numb-nuts that she left her team to in inheritance decided that they couldn’t run a football team. If you are reading this article and you have gotten this far, then you (and I) could run a football team just from watching NFL Live on ESPN at 4:30pm. They just want to take the money and run, leaving St. Louis football fans in the dust. This is just spitting image of the Rams’ owners naked in the Wamu commercial. With the Rams for sale there is one market that’s seemed unfulfilled. Los Angeles. Home of every sports team that you could think of, except for an NFL team as of this juncture in sports soaps, but L.A. would be the key to making the NFL worldwide as NFL fans don’t even want to talk about holding a Super Bowl overseas until Los Angeles has a team.
THANK YOU for reading this week's Sports Talk, please check back next week for more!
"Sports Talk" is ©2008 by Christopher Munger. All graphics this page, except where otherwise noted, are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2008 by Nolan B. Canova.
