The biggest fear for those caught in the web of underworld gambling is exposure. They will do anything to avoid these problems becoming known to their families, their friends and, most of all, their employers. They think the best way to avoid exposure is to play along with mobsters, become a small pawn in crooked betting and poker rings. As if.

The 15-time Major winner has always said he’ll never be a ceremonial golfer. So unless this surgery works miracles we have seen the last of him playing at golf’s top events. Will Tiger’s disappearance spell the end for the PGA Champions, which has always counted on him joining?

Once the kicker played another position. Today they are specialists. The combination of distance training plus a few new rules has revolutionized NFL and CFL game strategy in today’s game. With the so-called Dynamic kickoff rules forcing more returns, teams are regularly starting drives at the 35- or 40-yard line. What comes next?

Almost as precious as “Our” team in promos is the concept of the Blue Jays as a national team. It seems like only yesterday they were deposing the previous national team, the Montreal Expos. The ‘Spos had aided Toronto in getting a franchise in 1977. When Toronto sputtered in the early days the Expos gave them oxygen. But as we wrote in July of 2023, the newcomer turned on their National League cousins.

The Oilers city has been there before. The trade that always gets top defection billing is the 1988 Gretzky deal to the L.A. Kings, the seismic re-organization of hockey in the late 20th century. Less talked about— but more impactful on the ice— was a trade made this week in 1992 that sent Mark Messier to the New York Rangers. Messier led the Rangers their first Stanley Cup in 1994

Nothing compares to the story the 2025 Tigers are authoring. Manager A.J. Hinch has one great pitcher, Tarek Skull, and a whole lot of five-inning pitchers and hittable bullpen arms. His young core of hitters are gagging (12 LOB Sunday), and the Cleveland Guardinos are on an insane wining streak.  Even though they control their destiny it all feels doomed. And the dream of a Blue Jays/ Tigers AL Final may never be.

His impact on the business was monumental. . CBA negotiations have never been the same. Player salaries have never been the same. Media covering hockey has never been the same. His predecessor Alan Eagleson was criminally convicted in the U.S. and Canada and disbarred for the self dealing revealed by Conway and CBC Toronto. That’s an impressive legacy.

For the generation that watched him develop he was likely the quintessential modern Canadian. Son of a charitable community figure in west-end Toronto. Educated in the Ivy League. Obtained his law degree. Served as a federal cabinet minister. Author of several definitive hockey books (The Game is perhaps the best sports non-fiction in the English language). Executive of the Toronto Maple Leafs. And more.

Marner left his hometown in free agency, signing longterm in tax-free Nevada. The team received nothing in return for an elite player. The locals needed a scapegoat for their repeated Cup frustration. So when Marner cited the unrelenting pressure of playing in contemporary Toronto, the dam broke among critics who called him a whiner, a no-show for his $8 million salary, a traitor to Toronto.

At the moment that Elbows Up embarrassment was too great for even Team Carney’s most fervent media pals, Trump summoned him like a call-up from the minors to be told how out was going to be. Suddenly the implacable Carney was declaring  how swell it was that Canada had the best treaty in the world. Elbows Up had suddenly become Pants Down.

When it comes to the exposure of the trailblazing male pom-poms on the sidelines it’s best to weigh the motivations on both sides. The NFL— which is buying up large chunks of its own media —will play the virtue card. The traditionalists will bite their tongue. And no one will do a media feature on the two women who were denied these high-profile jobs because of other agendas.

The biggest 2025 story for golf fans (and pro golfers it appears) was the release of Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore II on Netflix. A raucous, vulgar, silly, sweet, creative shambles of a film, it’s one of those rare feats in Hollywood. A sequel better than the original. Some might say that it wasn’t a high bar to get over Happy Gilmore punching it up with Bob Barker. True.

The Jays roster patch job is not only holding it’s made the team stronger. As of this writing the Jays have a 91.9 percent chance of making the postseason, five percent of winning the World Series. Which would create euphoria elsewhere. Not in Toronto.

Not in Toronto.

With a single Crown witness-- who only came forward at the urging of her mother,  a puzzling video from the incident itself and contradictory evidence from the five players and others on the team— police knew it would not stand the scrutiny of a public trail with skilled defence lawyers. And that’s how it played out.

Because he has nothing else on his plate president Donald Trump has decided to revisit the Woke name change of the Washington NFL club from Redskins to Commanders and the Cleveland MLB name from Indians to Guardians. If that wasn’t enough, Trump decided to leverage funding for a new stadium in DC on a name change.

From its earliest days the Stampede has been a model of cooperation between the organizers and the indigenous. Guy Weadick, the founder of the modern Stampede in the 1920s saw the rodeo as a competition between white and “Indian” cowboys. He used his political connections within the Indian Affairs Department to allow indigenous tribes off their reserves to participate. It was estimated 1,800 Treaty 7 individuals participated in the first Stampede. 

And so the game of climate liar’s poker has more winners. It’s like awarding the captain of the Titanic the Nobel Prize for his work on floatation. As we now know these two— and the other WHO finger puppets in Canada— made the Covid 19 episode worse, not better, with their prescription for panic, positives and punishment. But they get a prize.

While attempts to amend O Canada have had mixed outcomes it appears it’s just a matter of time till singer Jully Black’s class-conscious culling of the words is accepted. Being generous we here at IDLM thought we’d short-circuit piecemeal attempts to create a throughly Woke version of the anthem that would last till the latest fad come along.

With the Americans winning the first game 3-1, a sense of panic crept over Canada as it headed to Game 2 in Boston. Losing a political battle with Trump was bad enough, but losing hockey bragging rights heading into a federal election was catastrophic for the Family Compact.

The smart play, as Michael Corleone would say, is move fast. Trade McDavid before the start of next season for a boatload of young players to supplement Draisaitl. Take a short-term PR hit but live to compete another day. Remember the re-structured Oilers won a Cup in 1990 using Mark Messier and the players they got for Gretzky. Think about it, Edmonton.