Was he guilty? Hell, yes. Did he perpetuate lame excuses and construct a grubby martyr narrative? Sure did. Had he alienated just about everyone who could get him to Cooperstown? Oh yeah. A recent HBO documentary series on him is an accurate portrait of a rude, uncouth character still worshipped by sycophants. But whose record as a player is impeccable.

At the time the merger of Bell (TSN) and Sportsnet (Rogers) was compared to Twitter and Facebook deciding to partner. Such was the rivalry that many predicted it wouldn’t last. But it did—if you don’t include Stanley Cups. Until this past week when it was announced that, if approved, Rogers will buy out Bell’s stake in MLSE, leaving it with 75 percent ownership.

Even in a time of peace this would be interesting to see the public reaction in Canada and the U.S. to a Russian passing Canada’s GOAT No. 99. While the No.1 pick in 2005, Sidney Crosby, has had a squeaky clean image, the Great Eight has been a little salty for some folks. He plays a game Howe would love, dispensing devastating hits as well as brilliant goals. His gap-toothed sneer has not always endeared him to many. 

What did Iron Mike say about plans? The peak of the 2024 season probably occurred last winter where, for a few short days, some Toronto media convinced the fans that Shohei Ohtani was taking Toronto’s money over Dodgers’ green. He didn’t, and with no Plan B, Shapiro started talking about the re-design of the Rogers Centre. Anything but the fact they were in big trouble on the field. 

Without a salary cap, the beautiful game has allowed for the growth of super teams in smaller leagues. There is no parity narrative in soccer, just the unending quest for the best product possible. As a result, the sport has finally made a breakthrough in North America. While small, the NWSL may be about to prove a very large point about the running of sports.

The tragic death of NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew in a car/ bike accident last Thursday in New Jersey was sad beyond words. The pair, riding home from a rehearsal dinner for their sister’s wedding the next day, were killed by a drunk driver who’d passed on the right side of a vehicle ahead. Words fail. 

Is constantly exploring the depression faced by highly motivated women athletes counter-productive? Current research shows that rumination, the pathological obsession of pain turning over in your head, only serves to make those problems grow. For women athletes trained to confront challenges this often is destructive. It becomes a vicious cycle.

The other week we ran into Dean Moberg at Costco, and he invited me to sit for an extended conversation about our new book Deal With It, my other books (http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca), the Calgary Flames, broadcasting, betting and life. It’s just a terrific chat. Give it a listen and subscribe to their site.

But for Canadian and other Western athletes, being an Olympic athlete was a vow of poverty for as long as you wished to compete. Even remote support was deemed against the rules. This standard meant an athlete, unless wealthy already, rarely had no more than a couple of Games before the realities of life forced them to pursue jobs and profits.

There’s an old British racing expression that says what you lose on the swings you make up on the roundabouts. That’s also the attitude off predatory governments around the world as they see the spoils athletes are enjoying and want an undeserved piece of the tax action. 

People were left wondering what was the IOC doing in mocking the Last Supper with trans characters? There are an estimated 2.2 billion Christians in the world who’d rather not watch a naked blue-stained demon, his junk protruding beneath his scant towel, promoting the trans movement infecting the world at the moment. The IOC doesn’t care.

Watching whatever you wanted. It was now only some of what you wanted.  The streamers GTM strategy was to compete on original content to bring in the subscribers. But creating content and not consolidating content exasperated the issue.

A series of stunning Iwo-Jima style images of Trump and his Secret Service group beneath Old Glory are breathtaking examples of the craft of news photography. So perfect was the staging in some photos that viewers could not help but wonder if it was all an AI Simulation. 

Soccer is the UN of sports. It has a storied past. It represents many good and virtuous things in the world. But it is now a swamp of corruption, cynicism and bad people. To paraphrase the Hunter S. Thompson expression, soccer is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. 

There is an old quote that goes, ‘For my friend everything. For my enemies the law.’ New “hate speech” laws have been enacted to trip up those who, like Michael Richards of Seinfeld fame, are made to disappear for upsetting audience members unhinged by comedy. It doesn’t stop there. New Canadian laws talk about multi-million dollar fines for denying the climate ruse.

Old-timers like the “human element” romanticism of allowing blown calls, like the phantom tag at second base or the football barely crossing the goal line in a pile of bodies. They want the free flow of the game not to be interrupted (unless by a fight). They insist that lengthy delays, like betting commercials, ruin the sport’s purity.

What do you say to keep fans coming back even when they know the inevitable result is tanking? Enter recreational gambling. The NFL has floated its boat on pools, fantasy and illegal wagering for years. Its TV numbers would plummet without people tuning in to see how their fantasy teams, props bets and parlays are doing. The other leagues want that action, too.

The political water carriers don’t care for Clark’s white, straight act. They would return the WNBA to what it’s always been, a subsidized pet project for progressives in media and government. Perhaps the most on-the-nose indicator about the WNBA’s image is that Toronto is finally getting a team in the league. It’s a non-binary marriage made in progressive heaven.

“Team Up For The Cup” is the sort of pablum notion you get from focus-group people who drop in for the Final after spending the winter darning socks or attending NDP rallies. People we know actually believe it’s a government commercial. Even in the age of “Sinbad” Trudeau, this is inauthentic to the nth degree.

Auston Matthews’ commitment to Toronto means that a number of teams who’ve been delaying bold moves and hoarding trade bait in anticipation of his potential trade or UFA market can now move to Plan B. There were a number of U.S. teams poised to offer the Leafs the moon and stars— NHL version— at the trade deadline or to sign him next summer. This should now tell them to move on.