CFL 2011 Season Begins This Weekend!

With Arena Football League season under way, there will be another chapter going down in the books, as the Canadian Football League begins regular season play on Thursday with the two time defending Grey Cup champs Montreal Alouettes hosting the Lions.

CFL is and always will be the "cure for the common football." With the exception of indoor leagues such as AFL and the former af2, other outdoor leagues tried and failed-such as USFL and XFL. UFL is still active, and their season begins in August.

With the NFL lockout, and the rumored shrinking of the regular season from 16 to 8 (see 1982), at least the CFL never fails. And it's regardless of what period you're talking about, whether it's before the Miners (1993), the US expansion era (1993-95, including the Pirates), the "Radically Canadian" era, or the current era, it never failed. Remember the 54-51 shootout at Taylor Field between the Riders and Als? Could there be something like that to start the season off? Who knows as the CFL season begins Thursday.

For the record, every game televised is exclusive to TSN for the fourth consecutive year. In the states, watch it on ESPN3!

Round 1 schedule:
Als/Lions (Stade Percival) 6/30 7:30pm

**CANADA DAY CLASSICS**
TiCats/Bombers (Ivor Wynne) 7/1 6pm
Stamps/Argos (McMahon) 7/1 7pm

Riders/Esks (Taylor) 7/3 6pm

(all times local to home team)

It's Women's World Cup Time!

That's right! 2011 Women's World Cup is in Deutschland, where the Germans are defending their crown. The Germans start off group matches on Sunday afternoon against Canada. Kickoff is 6pm local time (11am USCDT).

The first match will have Nigeria and France, with a 3pm local kickoff (8am USCDT).

US Women will start play Tuesday against North Korea. Kickoff is 6:15 local (11:15am USCDT).

Every game in the states in English will be on ESPN or ESPN2. Totally unsure about the Spanish commentary, and whether or not any network in the Univision Communications family (Univision & Telefutura free-to-air, Galavision cable) will carry the games this year, since they currently have the Spanish language rights in the States for the men's World Cup.

And there's probably going to be live timing and scoring at the official FIFA Women's World Cup site, just like the men's World Cup last year. 

Go US women's soccer!

 

The Return of the Name "Winnipeg Jets"!

It was announced Friday before the 7th pick in the first round of the 2011 NHL draft...

Yes folks!

J-E-T-S! JETS! JETS! JETS!

Oh and for the record, The Stars first pick (14th in first round) happens to be a big 6'7" defenseman and has the distinction of being the first drafted from NCAA Division I hockey!

Another tidbit of the draft, one of the Sens' first round picks is a native of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. Very interesting.

Friday Jukebox 6.24.11: A Tribute to Clarence Clemons.

As you all aware, Clarence Clemons, the saxophonist for the E Street Band passed away earlier this week. You all remember the video for the E Street Band's "Dancing in the Dark" from the Born In the USA album (1984), where a young Courtney Cox (Friends, Cougar Town, etc.) came on stage and danced with both Clarence and Bruce! Enjoy as this is a tribute to a big contribution to a big name act that everyone loves and adores. RIP Big Man.

Lt. Columbo Hangs Up His Coat For Good...

In Heaven. At the age of 83.   Great in "Machine Gun McCain" (1970) as well.

BELLATOR Returns This Weekend!

This Saturday night marks the return of one-if not-the most exciting mixed martial arts promotion on the planet-BELLATOR, "Where Title Shots Are EARNED, NOT GIVEN"!

This is Bellator's "Summer Series," that kicks off this Saturday night (6/25) in Hollywood, Florida with Bellator 46. The two hour broadcast on MTV2 will be all featherweight quarterfinal matches, headlined by Pat Curran (pictured) against Luis Palomino. Former Sengoku champ Marlon Sandro will take on Genair da Silva.

THE CARD (as of now):

Featherweight tournament (145 lbs./65.25 kg)

Marlon Sandro v. Genair da Silva

Nazareno Malagerie v. Jacob Devree

Ronnie Mann v. Adam Schindler

Pat Curran v Luis Palomino

LIVE from Hollywood Florida, starts at 8pm USCDT LIVE on MTV2! 

 

BIG Road Racing Weekend This Weekend.

This weekend is a big road course racing weekend around the globe. The biggest of the weekend's motorsport activities is the annual Nurburgring 24 Hour race, featuring over 150 GT and touring cars from around the eastern hemisphere. No US TV for this one, so there's live timing at the race's official website and Radio Le Mans will have live radio coverage!

And in other road racing news, Formula 1 will have the European Grand Prix, but at Valencia, Spain. The good news, for the second straight F1 event, here in the States it will be televised free to air (Fox) on Sunday.

Also Sprint Cup and K&N West are at Sears Point (Infineon), with West on Saturday and Sprint Cup on Sunday, where the series will make it's 23rd appearance.

Finally, Nationwide will race at Road America, a place where CART/ChampCar and American LeMans had great races there in the past. The bad thing is that the Nationwide series is sharing the weekend with Grand (Sh)Am and their "crapotypes."

So there's a lot of options as your choices, but a big road racing weekend nonetheless around the world.

Black Comedy At It's Finest.

I am a big fan of Chelsea Handler, but on Tuesday night, the roundtable was talking about a concert held in Serbia for heroin-prone death-bound Amy Winehouse, where the fans booed her after she left the stage. Greg Proops was talking about the country's history with genocide, and then after reading the concert promoter's facebook that mentioned the fact that Winehouse's concert "was a big disappointment," Handler remarked: "And so is your country."

My take on this: it's pretty much the fault of the promoters and owner of the venue who brought her there as well as the idiots who bought a ticket to see this piece of shit perform. Not the country.

Handler's show, like other late night shows (ie. Leno, Kimmel, Conan, etc.) and other comedic shows (see all of The Chaser's shows, like War on Everything), are NOT intended for short attention spans, in which the comments on this on the YouTube videos (which Cumcast has started pulling one by one) are of those types. You must have a brain to watch any show these days, except those trashy reality shows or modern day anime or even WWE or UFC, which are built for short attention spans (I like MMA but today prefer Bellator over UFC).

These people who trashed Handler...like the "fans" of the Jonas Brothers did in 2008 are a fine example of short attention spans. And I mentioned the Chaser, do you remember this skit where some people got butthurt thinking it was cruel?

That led to the fab five to get a couple weeks suspension from ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). However ABC brought them back and finished the season, possibly the third and final season of War on Everything.

Remember, Handler works for Comcast/NBC, which is private and NOT publicly funded like PBS, ABC (again the Australian ABC), BBC or the CBC. If her show was on public TV using government funds, then I can see that they'll get her ass. She's lucky there, but I think she needs to clarify on what she said in context to the misinformed. That's all. After all, it's called "black comedy" to troll the misinformed. That's my two cents.

Penn Declares War on Miss Tennessee USA! Or Did He?

Not a fan of pageants anymore, but this is somewhat amusing.

Penn was amongst the judges at the 2011 Miss USA Pageant, held this past weekend. He asked a question to Miss Tennessee USA, Ashley Durham. After the pageant was over, he tweeted:

"I 'judged' Miss USA. 'Miss' TN was asked about burning the Quran and she negated the First Amendment. Fuck her. Glad to help her lose."

As much as a fan of Penn and Teller that I am, I don't know whose side to judge. Both Durham and Penn are entitled to their own opinions, and those who put either Penn or Durham down...we'll Penn has these four words for you...

Rory Has Finally Done It!

Pure greatness. A great weekend, enough to shut the haters up about him "choking" like he did at the Masters. Well done.

Wimbledon 2011 Is Here!

It's been two weeks since the last grand slam at Roland Garros. Now we're going from clay to grass and this time-the All England Lawn, Tennis and Croquet Club located in the London suburb of Wimbledon. In 14 months time, this will be the tennis venue for the London 2012 Olympics.

In day 1 of the opening round, highlighted at center court by Rafa Nadal and Fran Schiavone, will have Andy Murray at centre court in action as well.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of this year's championships is no Kim Clijsters, who suffered an ankle injury, that probably bothered her since Roland-Garros. Hopefully Kim, who won the Australian Open in January, will probably be ready in time to kick ass for Flushing Meadows in late August.

On the men's side, native Shreveporter Ryan Harrison is back, but perhaps the best matchup of the first round is the rematch between John Isner and Nick Mahut. Last year at Wimbledon, both Mahut and Isner played for two days in what was probably the longest tennis match ever.

Back to the women's side where French Open champion Li Na is the third seed, while Caroline Wozniacki is the top seed.

And don't forget to check out Wimbledon.com for live scoring and insane online radio commentary that is better than the coverage you normally see for this event (in the States, it's the usual suspects that broadcasted the French Open).

Re: Caption This! 16 June 2011

Remember this pic...

And now they've come clean...

More Vancouver Riot Coverage!

Check out these scenes of fights and shit that took place on Wednesday after Game 7...

Reminder, this is shown here just to show how these morons ruin an even sad night to the Canucks season. These morons aren't fans. Look at the 2010 Olympics, probably the same pieces of shit started those riots did the same thing here. These "fans" ought to be kicked out of Canada for good.

Friday Jukebox 6.17.11

As you all know, the Mavs are world champs. Their intro song is from Pete Townshend and the Who, "Eminence Front" from 1982, a long time starting lineup intro song for the franchise. This is the same band whose songs "Who Are You?", "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" have been recognized this past decade as the themes to the three TV series in the CSI: franchise.

Happy father's day to all the dads around the world!

Sing it Dirk!

Caption this! 16 June 2011

NBA Finals 2011 Humor!

Anthony (and his Weiners) Resign from the US House!

Good riddance.

Bruins Win the Cup, Canucks "Fans" Riot.

Congrats to the Boston Bruins, first time in almost 40 years...STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!!! 4-0 winners in game 7, Tim Thomas MVP.

Sadly, like 1994, Canucks "fans" took it to the streets after they lost. A BMO branch was among the buildings damaged in the riot.

Also I came across this startling footage, that I found as funny:

That punk deserved it.

More soon!

US Open Golf 2011 is here!

This man will be there. That's your defending US Open champ Graeme McDowell who won it last year at Pebble Beach, now this second major of the year heads east to Bethesda, MD. Could he do it again? Will Charl Schwartzel make it two majors in a row? A perfect time to watch golf is this weekend, and when a major is on, that's where the good golf is. 'Nuff said. It begins Thursday morning on ESPN and continues at 2pm Central on NBC (same for Friday's 2nd round). NBC will have coverage all weekend long, but for the best results, USOpen.com is where it's at for live timing and scoring! Over 140 golfers checked in, including PGA Tour veterans and of course, USGA "sectional" qualifiers. A great mix of talent as usual as only the USGA delivers!

This is Ingolstadt. This is What We Do.

Do these two 2 minute promos have in common? I'm talking about the 2 minute promo (not a commercial) for the 2012 Audi A6 Avant, which will be available soon throughout Europe, and the epic Super Bowl ad from Chrysler, with Marshall Mathers driving to the Fox Theatre in Detroit and when he enters the Fox, is welcomed to a choir. Then ends by saying "This is the Motor City. This is what we do" (the ad is among my five favorites from Super Bowl XLV). There's some sort of striking resemblance that is pissing off Mr. Mathers that Volkswagen (who were the big winners in my opinion ad wise in Super Bowl XLV with the VW "Darth Vader" and Audi "Release the Hounds" ads) is facing a lawsuit.

See if you spot the difference:

Where's the proof that Audi stole the ad and music? It's fucking crazy (see "Any Man").

Epic Fail!

The full story is here.

So what happens with the merchandise? The hat can be recycled, and the shirts can be used now for mopping the floors.

As for the ad, if anyone has this ad in Monday's Miami Herald,  please send it in to the Tonight Show for "Headlines"! We know it's gonna happen sometime soon.

Vorsprung DIRK Technik!

CONGRATS TO THE DALLAS MAVERICKS!!!

2010-11 NBA WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!

And Dirk is MVP!!!

Well done to everyone at the organization. 30 FUCKING years and it's done. Haters, now please shut up!



Vorsprung durch Technik...Again!

They did it again! Auto Union has once again dominated LMP1 and overall at the 24 Heures du Mans. It also showed that with the lone Audi factory team left showed those damn Peugeots that TDI power still rules the roast at the big Circuit de la Sarthe course.

Despite losing the #3 and the defending race winning #1 to huge crashes before halfway (3am CET, 8pm USCDT), the #2 held off a hard charging group of Peugeots and held on for LMP1 and overall win, continuing the four rings' dominance for more than a decade.

Andre Lotterer brought home the car, with Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer as the co-drivers. Remember, up to three drivers per team, to meet ACO's standards for all ACO events period (LeMans and ALMS events).

The Greaves Motorsport #41 Zytek Nissan won LMP2, with Tom Kimber Smith, Olivier Lombard and Karim Ojjeh as the drivers.

Like Audi, Corvette had the same thing working out since losing the #74 within the final quarter of the race. However the #73 with Olivier Beretta, Tom Milner and Antonio Garcia went to victory lane in the brand new GTE "Pro" category.

The new GTE "Am" category was swept by the Jack Leconte two car effort. Both Larbre cars won that class, with the #50 Corvette piloted by Gabriel Gardele, Patrick Bornhauser, and Julien Canal winning the class and the #70 Ferrari piloted by Christophe Berret, Pascal Gibon and Jean Philippe Belloc finishing 2nd. The biggest story of that class is American LeMans effort Robertson Racing finishing 3rd with New Orleans native David Murry as well as David and Andrea Robertson as the driver. The Robertsons, who are owners of the #68 Ford GT Doran (#40 in ALMS), celebrated their wedding anniversary and what was really nice was that Andrea took the checkers in that car. Well done and congrats.

What a fun, yet thrilling hours of the race that I've enjoyed through the voices from Radio LeMans, Speed TV and Eurosport. I know ACO has camera people that sends those pictures to all the broadcasters, and I wish that Speed can carry the entire 24 hours next year or relegate some hours to FX. That's just a suggestion.

24 Heures du Mans 2011 (79th running): The Dramatic Crashes.

The world's greatest sports car race produced some very interesting points of the race...

Very big incidents. The four drivers involved have some sort of injuries. Horst Felbermayr Sr. suffered a concussion in his tangle-up with Jan Magnussen. Allan McNish is somewhat sore. Mike Rockenfeller has some injuries, but walked out of the car before being placed onto the stretcher. The worst of all injuries at this year's event-Michael Wainwright, who is reported to have broken ribs and a punctured lung in his crash.

It's here!

Yes folks, it's the biggest day of the motorsport world. The world's greatest sports car race, the 24 Heures du Mans. A Peugeot LMP1 will lead the 56 cars and 168 drivers that will take part on one of the grueling, yet great road courses in the world-Circuit de la Sarthe. Some of the US teams are here as usual-such as Robertson Racing, Flying Lizard and the return of Corvette Racing. This is all about the car not the driver and that's why all things ACO is the best racing cars in the world, period.

Speed will have TV coverage on and off throughout, but for the best coverage listen to the best motorsport commentary on radio...Radio Le Mans!

Live timing & scoring is here!

Friday Jukebox 6.10.11: Tillmann Uhrmacher 1967-2011

On Wednesday, the electronic music world dealt a blow when Tillmann Uhrmacher was found dead in his apartment. He was 44. He has remixed and produced great tracks such as "The Pride in Your Eyes (Om Nama Shiva)" in 2007 (featuring the Martin Roth and Midnight Club Extended mixes), and "On the Run," from 2001, which is the focus of this week's "Friday Jukebox."



Won and Done: My Take.

First their first CHL President's Cup championship. Then Scott Muscutt resigns, and the radio play by play guy is moving on too. On Thursday night, while I was watching the NBA Finals, I turned on NBC6's 10pm news only to find out that it was even worse for Mudbug nation, as Tommy Scott said it: the Bugs are no more. Sad. Here is what Mr. Scott's memorandum on this situation.

It is sad that my neck of the woods, the place I call home, has suffered the same fate before. Let's see...

*Steamer, WFL 1974-75
*Pirates, CFL (part of Larry Smith's US expansion push, including the Stallions (new Alouettes, defending Grey Cup champs), Gold Miners/Texans, Posse, Barracudas and Mad Dogs). Despite pulling 32k in a '95 game at Independence Stadium against the defunct Ottawa Rough Riders (like the Pirates and Renegades, typical Glieberman ownership), and a combined 8-28 in regular season, the team, had the CFL continued the US expansion era, would relocate to Norfolk. However, the US experiment ended in 1996 once Art Modell announced that the Browns moved to Baltimore.
*Old Captains. Great times at FGF, but once the team name changed and so did ownership and the demands of today's minor league resulted the Giants' former AA affiliate to relocate to Frisco.
*Battle Wings. Indoor football wasn't new at the time, another team played in this area before they came into af2 play. Entered af2 in 2001 and played in the league until last year, when the af2 combined with the AFL. After the 2010 season, their tenth season, Dan Newman decided to "expand" the Wings' fanbase statewide by relocating the team to the New Orleans Arena. And after three seasons, the 'VooDoo' name returned. Still they're at the bottom of the ladder in AFL.
*Crawdads/Storm. Remember the CBA? I do! Fun league that was! The team relocated in 1996 after two season at Hirsch. The CBA lasted a few years and after financial issues, went kaput.

All this area has now left is the New-Captains. The American Association's defending champions, who pull a good reasonable crowd at FGF. If they go, that is probably the last time semi-pro sports will ever come to town, unless NBA or NHL teams want to use CenturyTel for preseason or NFL teams want to use Independence Stadium for preseason play (Saints-Cowboys in 2006).

Now this will impact CTC the most. What will SMG do now? My guess is they will most likely lose more revenue and unless a move to bring the NBA Developmental League or another minor sport entity to CTC, it seems that in a few years, the place will be history and SMG will have to be forced to give up management of CTC. After all, SMG oversees this and other arenas, and I do believe that CTC is parish (Bossier) and state owned, in which the building and completion of the building in 2000 was with your tax dollars.

I know that the Scotts really appreciate what they did taking the ownership duties from John Madden (BOOM! We're talkign a former businessman, not the Stanley Cup championship player and DEFINITELY not the former Super Bowl champion coach), but why couldn't they contact Gov. Jindal about this? Maybe he should've got some state funding like the Saints and Hornets did. The Bugs' was one of the biggest sport entities in the state and why the team didn't get proper state funding to keep afloat. That would've been the best situation.

Still it won't do anything in this economy. As long as the demographics shows, this area will have to settle with the new-Captains for a while as the only minor sport entity around. It's reality, and you wonder why I'm looking forward to move town when I finally get that bachelor's degree I wanted!

And I hope Muscutt gets a gig as coach for a Division I program!

End of story.

Anthony's Weiners!

It plumps when he cook's em...

And now the pervert's wife is pregnant. Hopefully he will resign for letting down his constituents for this bullshit.

Finger Lickin' Good!

From Stanley Cup finals game 1...

For the record, I'm a little bit behind.

Matt Dillon has died.

No, not the actor...but James Arness himself. A true icon, 20 seasons (1955-75), and movie specials. Nuff said.

Friday Jukebox 6.3.11

1979-80 goodness with the Whispers. From their 1980 self titled LP, "And the Beat Goes On" will always be remembered as being sampled in Will Smith's "Miami."

Vancouver Pizza?

That's right. Boston Pizza, one of the largest dine-in restaurant chains in Canada, is changing its name. But it's for a couple weeks only. The reason is because of the Stanley Cup Finals, and with the matchup being the Bruins and Canucks. I think the chain decided to do it because they don't want to lose any money during these next two weeks simply for the fact that Canucks fans would think that everything on the menu (pizza, pasta, wings, etc.) is always imported from Boston. So it's a clever marketing strategy that the chain did. Hopefully it will work.

Also I've seen somewhere that at some, if not many, Tim Hortons throughout the country (even though they have US stores), "Boston" Cream donuts were renamed "Vancouver Creme." What's next? "Vancouver" Creme Pie? Maybe "Vancouver" Baked Beans? Or maybe Samuel Adams "Vancouver" Lager, which doesn't have a good ring to it?

Why didn't we think about it during the World Series last October? You would have seen "San Francisco" Toast or "Texas" Sourdough. Or this year's NBA Finals where classic TV fans have the opportunity to watch the classic primetime soap "Miami" or the great '80s cop show "'Dallas' Vice."
The possibilities are endless!

Centenary Has a New Athletic Director...

Meet William Broussard, former football player at NSU (Northwestern State-the "real" NSU-not Nicholls State!). He will now be Centenary's new AD replacing Jake Voskuil. Read the press release!

The NHL is back in Winnipeg! My take.

Yes, that's right! It was announced on Tuesday, that after 15 years since the Jets left for the Valley of the Sun, the city of Winnipeg, home to such people as Chris Jericho, has received an NHL license for this season. How they did it? True North Sports & Entertainment, owners of the MTS Centre (pictured) and the AHL's Manitoba Moose, have acquired the owner-less Atlanta Thrashers and will relocate the Thrashers from the Phillips Arena to the MTS Centre for this season. As a result, True North is in negotiations to move the Moose east to St. John's.

What is my take on all of this? For one thing, I wanted Winnipeg back into the comp, but as an expansion team for 2012-13, granting the go ahead from the NHL governors, which financially would make more sense than relocating an existing club who has no owners. And since they start playing again in four months (NHL regular season usually starts October 1), in the way our global economy has shaped for the last few years, it would have been a bad financial decision to move them right away. It would take months, even a year for a franchise to build up financially, and that is why I prefer merging two existing teams and that would give way to a new franchise from the ground up. Maybe merge the Thrashers with the Panthers and hence the renaming of the Panthers to the Miami Thrashers (and they play in Fort Lauderdale). The CFL has done it before (Hamilton Tigers merged with Wildcats to form the Tiger-Cats, which won numerous Grey Cups), so has the Australian Football League (Fitzroy Lions merged with the Brisbane Bears to form the Brisbane Lions, 3 straight AFL premiers in a row 2001-03) and the National Rugby League of Australia and New Zealand recently done it (St. George-Illawarra Dragons, the 2010 NRL premiers).

As much as I have a soft spot for the Thrashers, I'm really happy that Winnipeg is back in the NHL. Sad for Atlanta which saw the Flames left for Calgary years ago. My theory is that the Thrashers had poor ownership and off the ice problems. If the city wants to accept ice hockey again, it could be through AHL or ECHL, maybe CHL. Who knows what might happen? Good luck to both Atlanta and Winnipeg no matter where they go from here.