Finally, our first Hump Day Hottie

The other day I was watching hockey and I happened to catch Sidney Crosby’s new commercial. I must say, I was caught a little by surprise. When did he get so…hot?

In case you don’t know, Sidney Crosby is one of the NHL’s biggest young stars. He came into the league in 2005 at the tender age of 18, and won a Stanley Cup with his team the Pittsburgh Pengions just four years later. Last winter, he scored the goal gave Canada the gold medal over the U.S. at the Olympics. And he is currently leading the NHL in both goals and points (you get one point for a goal and one for an assist).

Sid the Kid, as he is known, has never been on my hot list because he seemed like, well , a kid. Not only did he have trouble growing a beard come playoff time, but he was also living at Penguins owner (and former hockey great) Mario Lemieux’s house with Mario’s family. But now that he has bought his own house, grown into his face a bit, a taken to wearing tight-fitting gear in his commercials, I may have to revise my opinion of the lad.

So I’ll put this out to the public at large - Sidney Crosby: hotsy totsy or hotsy notsy?

The Grey Cup

Last night was the 98th Grey Cup – the championship game in the CFL (Canadian Football League). It’s Canada’s version of the Super Bowl, in about the same way the Gemini awards are our version of the Oscars. And just like you will watch cross-country skiing during the Olympics, a lot of people watch the Grey Cup every year who don’t normally pay any attention to the CFL.

This year’s match did have quite a bit of drama. The same two teams that played last year – the Montreal Alouettes and the Saskatchewan Roughriders – were facing each other again. Last year the Roughriders only needed to kick a field goal to win the game. They did, but someone got confused and wandered into play when he shouldn’t have, so they got a penalty for having too many players on the field and had to redo the kick. This time they missed, handing the victory to the Alouettes.

Needless to say there was a lot of build up (as much as there ever is in Canadian football) heading into yesterday’s game. The Roughriders have been haunted by that play and desperately wanted to erase the memory with a victory, while the Alouettes were eager to prove that they were champions, rather than just a team that benefited from their opponent’s mistake.

Darian Durant

So what happened? Well, the Alouettes won on yet another heartbreaking play. With about a minute to go and the Roughriders storming down the field (a touchdown would have won them the game, a field goal would have tied it and sent it to overtime), Roughriders quarterback Darian Durant got into some trouble. With the Alouettes bearing down on him he attempted to throw the ball out of bounds, but instead threw it directly into the arms of an Alouette player. It was the only turnover of the game, and a costly one. The Alouettes were able to run down the clock and became Grey Cup champions for a second year in a row.

You may hear people talking about this game today, so now you’re prepared. But rest assured, by tomorrow all talk of the CFL will be suspended until the 2011 Grey Cup, taking place next November in Vancouver.

The Alouettes celebrate their win

Catch that?

If you happened to catch Glee last night you may have noticed Finn reference Jay Cutler, NFL quarterback. If the name sounded familiar, that’s because we featured him and his lady love Kristin Cavallari back in September. See, sports knowledge can even help come in handy while watching a show centred on singing and dancing!

Since we last talked about him and his on-field woes, Cutler has continued to have a rough season with the Chicago Bears. In fact, he was recently described as “a player who possesses all the physical tools for the position but just not enough of the mental make-up to be a consistent winner.” Hmm...sounds a little like Finn himself, don’t you think?

Your NFL news: Week 6

The big story in the NFL this week seems to be the growing concern over violent hits. The more research that is done on concussions, the scarier some of these helmet-to-helmet collisions become. There were at least three concussions on Sunday and a number of other head injuries as well. In response the NFL has announced that it will unveil new head protection rules in time for next week’s games. As usual this has led to a flurry of commentary about whether this is long overdue or an affront to football’s nature.

A sample of the reporting on each side:

“Sunday, we had the ghastly spectacle of an NFL in which it is completely forbidden to jump around happily after a touchdown -- but perfectly fine to make a sadistic helmet-to-helmet hit that can cause lifelong harm…. [E]ach year about 1 million play football, most of them high school boys. The NFL not doing everything possible to prevent head injury sets an awful example for the high school players who model themselves on what they see in the pros.” [from Gregg Easterbrook, "NFL must enforce rules, hit back"]

“I loved and was completely enthralled by every one of those violent encounters and I'm not afraid to admit it. That is the essence of this sport we all adore called football. My guess is that deep down the vast majority of people out there feel the exact same way, whether they would confess to it publicly or not.” [from Ross Tucker, "Hard hits will keep coming"]

We’ll have to wait and see what exactly the NFL proposes, and of course whether or not it does anything to protect the players.

James Harrison, fined $75,000 for a violent hit on Sunday

Dunta Robinson, was fined $50,000 for his hit 

Brandon Meriweather was also fined $50,000 this week

Jenn Sterger

Finally, to follow-up on last week’s story, Brett Favre had a meeting today with the head of NFL security. Not sure what exactly they discussed, but apparently the woman at the centre of this controversy doesn’t want to cooperate with the NFL (whatever that means), so the whole thing may end there - at least as far as the NFL is concerned. His wife may not move on so easily.

You may have noticed that we did not have a Monday Man yesterday. Given that Your NFL news will be posted on Monday or Tuesday, this feature will be moved to Wednesday.

You know in your heart what's right

Major League Baseball has a bit of a unique structure. It was originally made up of two leagues: the American and the National. The National League was around first and the American League was initially its competitor. Though the leagues are now legally one entity, they still have slightly different rules. For example, in the American League there is a player whose job it is to hit for the pitcher (called the Designated Hitter) while in the National League, the pitcher has to bat.
We’re now into the second round of baseball playoffs, meaning that there are only two teams left in each league. In the American League the Texas Rangers (who knocked out our Monday Man’s team) are facing the New York Yankees. And in the National League- the Philadelphia Phillies are up against the San Francisco Giants.

xoxo Roy

The National League series is posing a bit of a conundrum for me: I hate the Phillies and always have, but a former Blue Jay (and the best pitcher in baseball), Roy Halladay, is on the Phillies and I love him. (Read more about his awesomeness here.) So what do you do when your heart is pulling you in two different directions?

I’m watching the Phillies game as I write this, and they are losing 4-3. Every time the Giants get a hit on Halladay I feel sad. And when the Phillies get a hit, I don’t. So I guess I have my answer. I love Roy more than I hate the Phillies – so GO PHILLIES GO!

Your NFL news: Week 5

What with turkey and houseguests, football was not on as much as usual in my household this weekend. My round up is correspondingly a little bare, but a story that I couldn’t avoid is the one developing around Brett Favre.



Glory days

Favre is the 41-year old quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. He’s had a long and illustrious career – highlights of which include a Super Bowl championship and a cameo in There’s Something About Mary (he was Mary’s ex-boyfriend, refresh your memory here). He’s also very married, Roman Catholic, a father and yes, even a grandfather.

Now in Tiger-esque fashion, some sleazy voicemails and texts (not to mention some –ahem– little penis shots) have been made public and the NFL is investigating. Favre had allegedly been harassing a couple of women who work for his former team the New York Jets and doesn’t know how to take no for an answer. (Incidentally, the Vikings played the Jets last night - Favre's team lost).



Favre's post-game press conference



Now as of yet there’s no hard proof that it is actually his voice on the messages (though it sounds an awful lot like him) or his body parts in the photos (and I certainly can’t vouch for their likeness). If someone is stupid enough to risk their reputation, family and endorsement deals in this way though, there’s probably a whole lot more dirty laundry waiting to be aired, and we’ll probably find out the truth eventually.

You have to wonder when these guys will learn that recordings and photographs last forever, but I guess they do hit their heads a lot. At any rate, I think we can now safely say that Mary picked the right pony with our boy Ben Stiller.

Much to be thankful for

October is not only the start of hockey season, but also the month that baseball playoffs begin. The playoffs got started last week and there has been no shortage of drama thus far. One of the most exciting series to watch right now is the one taking place between the Texas Rangers and the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Rangers seemed to have the series under control after they won the first two games. But the Rays didn’t give up and came back to win the next two. So they are now tied 2-2, and since the first round of the playoffs is a best of five series, whichever team wins the next game will advance.

One player who has been a big part of the Rays comeback is first baseman Carlos Peña. Born in the Dominican Republic in 1978, he moved with his parents and three younger siblings to the US when he was nine years old.

He grew up in Cape Cod and then attended Northeastern University where he studied electrical engineering. In 1998 he was drafted by the Texas Rangers (the team he is now facing in the playoffs). He bounced around from team to team for quite awhile and spent a good deal of time in the minor leagues before having a breakout season in 2007. That year he was named the Comeback Player of the Year by his fellow players, and donated the $20,000 prize money to underprivileged Dominican youth.

He’s since signed a three year, $24-million contract with the Rays. He’s also continued his charity work, acting as a spokesperson for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and getting involved in relief efforts after the earthquake in Haiti.

Peña’s attitude towards his success (and his great smile!) made him a natural choice to feature this holiday Monday. When his club was behind two games to nothing Peña called a meeting and urged his teammates to relax and remember how much they had to be thankful for already. “This is a ballcub of guys that love to play baseball and have gone through many difficulties to get to this point, so all of us appreciate where we're at,” said Peña. “[This is] what I dreamed of as a kid…. To be able to live the dream, I'm just extremely grateful.”

It's always nice to see an athlete who appreciates all that he has. And in a few weeks - if everything goes well - he may have a World Series championship to add to his list of blessings. But first he has to get through tomorrow with a victory. Good luck to Peña and the Rays, and Happy Thanksgiving everybody!