The 2008 season has been a very bad one for the Detroit Lions. The question is just how bad will it get. This analysis from the Detroit Free Press posits that the team could go the full season without winning a game. No team has gone a full season without winning since the NFL switched to 16 games over 30 years ago.

The organizing committee for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver is being taken to court in an effort to have Women’s ski jumping added as an official event at the Games. On the one hand the lawsuit is a bit of an oddity given that the International Olympic Committee (”IOC”) decides what events are to be officially sanctioned and not an individual organizing committee. However, it is sure to bring a good deal of attention and perhaps pressure on the IOC to reconsider its stance. The IOC, thus far, has refused to allow women to compete based on the claim that there are not enough women ski jumpers of a high enough caliber. That seems to be a dubious claim

In the quest for competitive success, U.S. swim team members have taken to mimicking the swimming techniques of sharks and dolphins.

The New York Times interviews Matt Walsh, who worked for the New England Patriots’ videotape crew, and gets an inside perspective on what went on while the team videotaped their opponents.

Organizers of the World Series of Poker have changed the rules and split up the tournament into two parts, with each one being months a part from the other. The net result is that the integrity of the event being called into question, all at the expense of the possibility of greater sponsorship dollars.

Consider the possible implications:

– Players get coaching. If a rank amateur manages to get through to the final table, then, if they have any sense, they will employ a top player to coach them for the next four months. Even if this means giving away 10 percent of their final table purse, this will be good value for them.

This effectively means that the nine sitting down in November will have a completely different skill level to the nine that would have sat down in July. Is this fair to the more skilful players?

With the 2007-2008 NHL season playoffs in full swing (go, Habs go!), the National Hockey League has something pretty cool going on at their website. The NHL has recruited the likes of Jason Reitman and Kevin Smith to blog about the playoffs.

via Paste Magazine

IHT reports about the growing conflict that many 2008 Summer Olympic athletes have between their personal social conscious and the desire to compete and win at the games. Note, though, that this is not just about the recent Tibet action, but also over China influence in Darfur.

Whether speaking to a group of young softball players or plying her teammates with literature, Jessica Mendoza, a 27-year-old outfielder on the United States Olympic softball team, does not hesitate to speak her mind about the killings in Darfur.

But Mendoza stops short of publicly condemning China, which has close ties to the government of Sudan, because she says it is impolite to criticize her Olympic hosts and because one of her sponsors, Nike, has a major marketing presence in China.

With growing protests in Tibet and pressure mounting on Olympic sponsors to denounce China for its policy on Darfur, socially conscious athletes said they were struggling to figure out how to honor their beliefs while also respecting the purpose of the Olympic Games — the celebration of athletic excellence.

The complexity of this comes not only from internal views, but external pressures such as a country’s own Olympic body or perhaps even an athlete’s sponsor:

Rule 51 of the Olympic charter, the constitution of the Olympic movement, forbids athletes from participating in a “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda” at Olympic sites. When the International Olympic Committee identifies a possible violation of Rule 51, it asks the Olympic Committee of the athlete’s country to investigate. Depending on the outcome, Olympians can be disqualified or sent home.

The question of whether Olympic athletes will have the right to express political views in Beijing erupted in February, after news that Britain and New Zealand were planning to require that athletes sign contracts barring them from speaking about politically sensitive issues. Both countries quickly reversed course.

Yup, I have been sick over the past few days – hence the hiatus. Well, let’s get back to it:

- Teenage Pregnancy Implementation Manager is a real job title.
- Here is a great article about the years when Barack Obama came up.
- Golf is declining in its popularity. (via arts and letters daily).
- Paper airfare tickets are just about to be a thing of the past.

According to the Daily Mail, British athletes who will be competing in this year’s Summer Olympics in Beijing are being forced to enter into agreement whereby they must not comment on human rights abuse in China.

The controversial clause has been inserted into athletes’ contracts for the first time and forbids them from making any political comment about countries staging the Olympic Games.

It is contained in a 32-page document that will be presented to all those who reach the qualifying standard and are chosen for the team.

From the moment they sign up, the competitors – likely to include the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips and world record holder Paula Radcliffe – will be effectively gagged from commenting on China’s politics, human rights abuses or illegal occupation of Tibet.

This is simply astounding.

Like me, not everyone was a fan of having Tom Petty perform at halftime at the Superbowl.

That’s right, Tom Petty – the man with a solid UK chart history of one top-30 song from 19 years ago. The man who can look himself in the eye and know that the most extreme reaction he’s ever provoked in anyone at all was that time when Free Fallin’ made a Mojo reader tap his fingers on his corduroy trousers for 12 seconds. The man whose band is called The Heartbreakers even though they don’t so much break hearts as occasionally cause some superficial rusting.

Moreover, it looks like he was lip-synching.

From the Globe and Mail:

Three people in balaclavas hold their fists in the air and stand between two flags: The flag in front boasts the symbol of the Native Warrior Society; the one behind, too big to fit in the frame, offers a partial glimpse of the Olympic rings.

This photograph, by Vancouver artist Alex Morrison, is a restaging of a shot sent to the media last year. It came with a statement from the Native Warrior Society revealing that the group had seized the Olympic flag from outside Vancouver City Hall to protest against the actions of the government and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). “We stand in solidarity with all those fighting the destruction caused by the 2010 Olympic Games,” the statement read. “No Olympics on Stolen Land!”

Morrison’s reproduction of one of VANOC’s less glorious moments, called Friday, March 9th, 2007, is hanging right now at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, part of a show called Exponential Future – and part of VANOC’s Cultural Olympiad.

If there’s irony in a restaged anti-Olympic protest photo being part of VANOC’s much-touted Cultural Olympiad (which gets under way Friday), VANOC officials prefer to see it another way: as proof that their event is artistically sound, not just a cheery diversion.

via artsjournal

PBS has this great feature on the history of the Harlem Globetrotters:

The Harlem Globetrotters have played in over 115 countries for more than 120 million fans. They have scored over 20,000 victories, and only 332 losses. They surpass every other team in the history of sports for number of games played. Today they are best known for their wildly-entertaining comedic routines and ball-handling skills on the court, and of course that famous song, “Sweet Georgia Brown.” But the Harlem Globetrotters have a long history of serious basketball play and their beginnings were modest.

The Official South Korean Tourist Guide has published the 5 most dangerous taekwondo kicks (includes video). Yes, this is from an official government publication.

The World’s first Jewish hockey tournament recently took place in Israel and Canoe has the scoop:

The tournament began with fireworks and ended with former (Toronto Maple) Leaf John Anderson’s American team, led by Chicago draft pick Nathan Davis, beating Israel for the gold medal. Canada defeated France for the bronze. And in a country where the national pastimes are politics, survival, religion and conflict, sport was somehow the victor.

This is a warm article that speaks of contrasts: contrasts in culture, surroundings and even the eye of the media towards Israel. It is well worth your attention.

Here is a quirky clip that I found on youtube that is a compilation of comedic moments in football/soccer.

FIFA, the world football (that’s soccer to us North Americans ) governing body is paying US $90M to Mastercard to settle a dispute over World Cup sponsorship.

Here’s a great compilation of the best saves during the NHL’s playoffs NHL Conference Finals.

Viewing essentials: the saves of the week for March 15 – March 22, 2007 in the run-up to the NHL playoffs.

The National Hockey League has handed a hard punishment to Chris Simon of the New York Islanders for taking his stick to the face of Ryan Hollweg of the New York Rangers. Simon will be suspended for at least 25 games: 15 for the rest of the seaon, the post season if the Islanders actually make it into the playoffs and 10 games into next season. With this suspension, the NHL is making a stict example of Simon – as they should. He was a goon in how he went after Hollweg.

You can see the cheapshot here: