Sporting Madness

One problem with the holiday season is it leads to a lack of blogging time, especially when busy writing for other publications. I did manage to get some thoughts on the Roy Halladay trade and what it means for the Blue Jays up over at The Rookies However, I've finally cleared some of the backlog of work, so I should be able to get a few things up here pretty soon. One of the things I've been working on is a three-part series on concussions, which I'm planning to run today, tomorrow and Thursday. The first installment will go up shortly. Until then, here are some of the other pieces I've previously written on the subject: - " The heads up on head injuries " ( Queen's Journal , Sept. 28, 2007) - " NHL's stance on concussions is troubling " ( Queen's Journal , Dec. 28, 2007) - " The school of hard knocks " ( Queen's Journal , Jan. 29, 2009) - " Take concussions seriously " ( The Phoenix Pub , Aug. 11, ...

I haven't written much about the "Zidane and Friends" series of charity exhibition matches being played across Canada this summer, as they really don't appeal to me. Sure, there's some interesting players supposedly involved, including the legend himself, but at the heart of it, it's just "an oldtimers' game", as my father referred to it in our conversation this morning. There's much better and more interesting soccer going on in MLS and the USL, and that takes more of my attention. The Toronto match was interesting , but still lacked many of the promised names [ Larry Millson , The Canadian Press ], so I wasn't overly concerned about following the Vancouver one set for July 4. However, some interesting news came out today. Reports spread across the Vancouver media landscape today that Zidane hurt his back [ Full Time: Vancouver's Soccer Show in town while watching the Canada Day fireworks with his kids and might not be able to pla...

This is pretty awesome. (Thanks to the incredible FailBlog )

I figured that 12-6-2 start was too good to be true. According to Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun , Roberto Luongo has left the Canucks-Penguins game with "what appears to be a serious left groin injury." As Neate wrote, "I never saw an entire team get helped off the ice before!" Sean Zandberg doesn't think it's too bad , though, because of the on-air reports. The Canucks can go a few games without Luongo, but he really is what makes this team anything more than mediocre. If he's gone for a long period, they may have trouble even making the playoffs. We'll have to wait and see.