Sporting Madness

The CFL draft is coming up [ Jaime Stein , CFL.ca ] this Sunday (noon Eastern, TSN). It's always an exciting time of the year, particularly from the perspective of watching CIS stars making the jump to the pros. To get you excited for it, here's an e-mail interview I just conducted with Shomari Williams , the Queen's defensive end who led the Gaels to the Vanier Cup this year and is ranked first overall by the CFL's scouting bureau. We talked about the CFL, CIS, the NCAA and his up-and-coming business helping recruits. My questions and his responses are below (slight edits for clarity). Andrew Bucholtz: You've made a pretty meteoric rise up the CFL Scouting Bureau rankings, from #15 at the start of last season to #4 in December to #1 earlier this year. Do you pay any attention to the rankings, and if so, what did it feel like to take over the top spot? Shomari Williams: It felt great being named the top prospect in Canada. I worked real hard all season and ...

The NFL had their annual draft last week (you can find a good breakdown of the first-round picks over at SB Nation ), which was interesting as usual. There were plenty of surprises, including the Raiders doing something logical (taking Rolando McClain , generally considered the best linebacker in the draft) with the eighth pick, the Jaguars going off the board with the 10th pick to take defensive end Tyson Alualu , the Broncos taking Demaryius Thomas (widely thought to not even be the best wide receiver in the draft) with the 22nd pick overall and then trading up to take Tim Tebow with the 25th pick, a quarterback many thought wouldn't go until the second or third round but a guy some Denver bloggers, including my Fanball comrade Bryan Douglass , are quite high on . All in all, it was a pretty entertaining few days. In order to really enjoy the NFL draft, though, you have to keep extensive tabs on a lot of prospects. It's fun, but it either takes a fair bit of effort or yo...

So, the Canucks finally knocked off the Los Angeles Kings for good. My thoughts on the game and the series are up over at Canuck Puck , along with some excellent topical videos, but if you don't want to read that, here's another video for you. What can we take from this series? Sum it up, please, Dennis. "Listen -- strange league executives lying about icy ponds and distributing video-review judgements is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical bureaucratic ceremony!" Well, Dennis comes on a little strong, but he's right about one thing. For now, it's time to say goodbye to the Kings.

A 1-0 score frequently suggests a close match. That wasn't the case at Burnaby's Swangard Stadium tonight, as the Vancouver Whitecaps walked all over expansion AC St. Louis. They outshot St. Louis 11-1, had five shots on net to the visitors' nil and also dominated the possession battle, particularly in the first half. With the win, Vancouver improved to 2-0-1 on the season, while St. Louis fell to 0-3-0. Head coach Teitur Thordarson was not overly impressed with his team's showing, though, despite coming away with three points and statistical dominance. His criticism was for good reasons. Particularly in the second half, the Whitecaps sank to St. Louis' level and spent more time just passing the ball around than creating anything offensively. "I wasn't happy with the game today," Thordarson said after the match. Thordarson liked the way the team came out of the tunnel, but he was less impressed with their play as the game went on. "I thou...

Today features another interesting soccer clash, with the Vancouver Whitecaps hosting AC St. Louis [ Simon Fudge , WhitecapsFC.com ] in USSF Division II action. The Whitecaps got off to a strong start to their league campaign on April 11 with a win over the NSC Minnesota Stars at home , but they were held to a scoreless draw on the road against Miami FC last weekend. They still lead the NASL conference with four points from two games, though. St. Louis, in their first year of operation, have gotten off to a tougher start, losing all of their first three games. They'll be eager to turn that around, but Swangard Stadium is always a difficult place for road teams to get a result. They're also playing on short rest after getting thumped 3-0 by Portland Thursday, so this fixture doesn't auger well for them. There are some concerns on the Whitecaps' end, though. Their depth up front, already questionable, took another hit midweek with Dever Orgill suffering a calf injur...

The English Premier League title race has seen a couple of outstanding games lately, including Chelsea's victory over Manchester United and United's last-second escape against City in the Manchester derby. The title is still very much up for grabs, though, with United trailing Chelsea by two points heading into this weekend. Their game against Tottenham could go a long way towards deciding the race, particularly if they lose, so it looks like the clash of the weekend. I'll be live-blogging it both here and at Epic Footy , starting at 4:45 a.m. Pacific today (7:45 a.m. Eastern). You might want to watch this one, even if there might not be any kraken released . One of the interesting elements heading into this one is that Tottenham have done more than anyone else to aid United's title quest so far; they knocked off Chelsea last week and beat Arsenal before that . They won't be in a mood to help the Red Devils out this weekend, as they need every point they can m...

There's an interesting piece from Ian Hamilton in the Regina Leader-Post today. Hamilton talks to Regina Rams head coach Frank McCrystal and comes away with a couple of valuable notes. First, he addresses the new Canada West schedule. In the wake of SFU's departure, the conference is down to six teams, which could provide an opportunity to balance the schedule for everyone. That's something McCrystal would like to see. "We put all this time and money and effort into the football program, so let's play more games," he told Hamilton. "We should be playing 10 games. We should be playing everybody twice." This might be worth looking at. Currently, the conference plays eight regular-season games, and that hasn't changed thanks to SFU's departure. At the moment, the Rams get Saskatchewan, Calgary and Manitoba twice each, face UBC on the road and host Alberta. I'm not sure if that's "easily the toughest schedule in the CIS"...

One of the side effects of SFU's decision to jump to NCAA Division II and UBC's subsequent decision to remain in CIS for the time being was the potential loss of CIS football's most storied games, the annual Shrum Bowl between the two teams. The Shrum Bowl has been contested 32 times over the years and always gets a fair bit of attention; everyone in the Lower Mainland knows about the UBC-SFU rivalry, and the annual football game has been one of its best expressions. Fortunately, as Howard Tsumura of The Province reports , that's going to continue for at least this year. Oddly enough, SFU's switch to the NCAA both threatened and preserved this year's game. The two teams will no longer meet in Canada West competition, but the Clan's departure left Canada West with only six football teams and forced a conference-wide bye on the Oct. 8-10 weekend. During that bye, the game will be played under the Friday night lights at UBC's Thunderbird Stadium on Oct....

This weekend sees yet another interesting early match in the English Premier League, with Manchester United taking on local rivals Manchester City. It could be a great derby; United are four points back of Chelsea in the chase for the EPL title with only a few games to play, so they absolutely need full points here if they want to put pressure on the leaders. Chelsea will have their own tough match later in the day against Tottenham, but the importance of that one will be diminished if United can't get it done against City. Tensions are perhaps even higher than normal for a Manchester derby, especially considering the role that Carlos Tevez 's defection to City may wind up playing in the demise of United's title ambitions. If United can't pull off a title comeback, the decision to let Tevez go will likely be debated all summer long regardless of Sir Alex Ferguson 's comments , so a crucial win here over him and his current club would go a long way towards stifli...

There's been some interesting discussion lately about the prominence of ESPN's Bill Simmons from the likes of Paul Oberjuerge and Jason Fry . I've got some of my own thoughts on the topic, a few of which I talked about in my last post on Simmons , but I think there's room for a bit of a more detailed discussion on the successes and failures of different writers in attracting certain audiences. I prefer working with data to making wild guesses, though, and that's where I could use your help. When I think of broad-ranging sportswriters with substantial mainstream profiles, three in particular come to mind: Simmons, his ESPN counterpart Rick Reilly (formerly of Sports Illustrated ) and SI 's Joe Posnanski . I'm sure there are others out there, but these guys struck me as useful for a survey because they have similar profiles and exposure, but approach writing in very different ways. I've got a quick survey below on your impressions of these writers, an...

Welcome to today’s coverage of the Vancouver Whitecaps’ season opener against the NSC Minnesota Stars. Game video can be seen at the Whitecaps’ home page . Join the live blog below! Vancouver Whitecaps - NSC Minnesota Stars

The Vancouver Whitecaps begin their new season today at Swangard Stadium, and I'll be live-blogging the game from the press box for this site, The 24th Minute and Epic Footy . They'll be taking on the NSC Minnesota Stars [ Simon Fudge , WhitecapsFC.com ]. Game time is at 7 p.m. Eastern/4 p.m. Pacific, and live video can be found via the Whitecaps' home page. It should be an interesting clash; Vancouver finished with a mediocre 11-10-9 record last season, but got hot in the playoffs and went all the way to the USL championship before losing to Montreal. The Minnesota Stars are a new team, but they have nine players from the former Minnesota Thunder, who were 7-13-10 last year and missed the playoffs. They'll be eager to get off to a hot start. I've already written a season preview focused on the Whitecaps' league and personnel changes for Dave Clark over at Sounder At Heart , and I wrote one focused on their potential Voyageurs' Cup ambitions over at...

To me, one of the most interesting things about sports today is the shift in how they're covered. That's not just about the expansion of blogs, as newspapers, radio and television have changed dramatically too, but blogs have played a substantial role in changing the landscape. They've given exposure to people, issues and concepts that were largely ignored before that and might never have made it big otherwise . That isn't necessarily entirely good and not all of these changes have been positive (for example, I'm not sure we're better off for seeing naked pictures of athletes or hearing about their drinking habits), but I'd argue that some of them have been; I love a lot of the statistical analysis that's largely expanded thanks to blogs, and I love that there are different perspectives on sports being presented. Blogs really have revolutionized sports coverage, and other mediums are picking up on that; most TV and radio stations and newspapers have thei...

It's been a few weeks since I've live-blogged anything, and Saturday morning presents me with an excellent excuse . Manchester United will be taking on Chelsea at Old Trafford at 7 a.m. Eastern/4 a.m. Pacific. The match could be one of the most memorable of this English Premier League campaign. United lead the EPL with 72 points from 32 games, but Chelsea are hot on their heels with 71 from 32. Moreover, United just suffered a crushing Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich in midweek and lost Wayne Rooney in the process , while Chelsea are coming off a 7-1 thumping of Aston Villa that may have increased the pressure on Martin O'Neill . They're also set to get Didier Drogba back. There's a chance Owen Hargreaves may return to the United bench, but that's about the only good news for United, who will have to rely on Dimitar Berbatov in Rooney's absence. This clash could well decide the EPL title, so it will be live-blogged here and at Epic Fo...

The San Antonio Spurs are kind of good. They've won four NBA titles in the last 15 years and been a consistent threat over that time, but the interesting thing is that their identity has changed dramatically over that period; they started with the twin towers of David Robinson and Tim Duncan , then evolved into the Big Three of Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili , and now (thanks to Parker's injury) are perhaps in the throes of another transition. Parker's loss hasn't hurt them anywhere near as much as many would have expected, though, and one of the reasons why is the play of George Hill , who's the subject of my Stacheketball column this week. Hill's a fascinating guy, but not your traditional NBA star; he stands 6'2'' and weighs 180 pounds, and he went to the little-known Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis. Check out the piece for more background on him and a few thoughts on why he's a nice fit for the Spurs. Also, ther...

The start of the Vancouver Whitecaps' soccer season is almost upon us, as they kick things off on April 11 against the NSC Minnesota Stars. They're also preparing for the Voyageurs Cup, where they'll be facing domestic rivals Toronto and Montreal; their first match in that competition will be May 5 against Montreal. I'll have plenty of Whitecaps coverage here and at The 24th Minute all season, but I'm also covering the team for Fighting For Canadian Supremacy , a site started by Sam Gregory of The Canadian Stretford End that will look at the Voyageurs Cup through local perspectives from writers in each city. My team preview for that site, focusing on what that competition might mean to the Whitecaps this year, is up; check it out here!