It's easy on a morning like this to have all your football-related thoughts be consumed with the primetime magic that was last night's Washington Redskins 28-18 win over the Dallas Cowboys. Here we had Dallas' QB Tony Romo trying to add some semblance of post-season success to avoid having his career become a big Everything But (all regular season stats, no glory). On the other hand, you had the growing legend of Richard Griffin III and the amazing play of fellow rookie Alfred Morris. But enough about high fives and happiness. For many teams, today marks the annual falling of... Continue reading

(Photo: Larry Brown Sports) It shouldn't really come as a surprise, given King James long ago bought a stake in Cannondale, but over the last year the Miami Heat star has taken to commuting to both practices and games on his bike. James told the Sun-Sentinel, "I’ve been biking a little more than usual. It’s fun. It’s also conditioning, it’s cardio.” Last week he made the 30-45 minute trip four times—riding to the gameday morning shootaround and back, then back again for the game against the Washington Wizards. Then he biked home after the Heat's win. “I got lights on... Continue reading

The swoosh has a closet full of iconic sneakers—Air Jordans, Air Max, Air Pegasus—but perhaps the most recognizeable style is the Air Force 1, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. It sits with Chuck Taylors, Vans and shelltoes in the pantheon of classic kicks. People write songs for this shoe. Earlier this month, Nike opened pop-up shops dedicated to the Air Force 1 in New York and Tokyo but it's not all nostalgia for the brand. Nike head designer Marc Dolce was tasked with reinventing a classic, which is no easy task (New Coke, anyone?). He spoke to... Continue reading

Ah, the goosebumpy, heart-swelling drunkeness of hockey nationalism. It's something of a Canadian specialty and here Nike serves it piping hot (or cold?) in its newest ad starring, among others, PK Subban, Steve Stamkos and Alex Ovechkin. In a not-so subtle dig at the NHL lockout, here we have everybody from the aforementioned NHL stars to little kids defiantly declaring that no one can take hockey away from Canada. Who cares if no one is actually trying to do such a thing (see: OHL, WHL, QMJHL, beer leagues, etc.)? It's more fun answering an imagined threat! By the way, if... Continue reading

Toronto Blue Jays fans probably thought their team went all in last month when they clipped the alarm system, slid in through a back window and flat out robbed the Miami Marlins of shortstop Jose Reyes, and pitchers Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson, among a few other pieces. In most baseball circles it signaled Toronto, who hasn't played a playoff game since hoisting their second consecutive World Series trophy in 1993, were back in the post-season conversation. Or maybe they waited to giggle uncontrollably until, a few days later, the Jays went and signed San Francisco Giants' free agent outfielder... Continue reading

(New ad for 7 For All Mankind Jeans. Photo: New York Times) You always knew Sean Avery was cultivating an image. All the chirping, fighting, stick waving and yeah, even scoring, did wonders for his career. Both his loudmouth and crowd-pleasing antics helped him standout among all middle-of-the-road NHLers and eventually helped him land that massive, if misguided, Dallas Stars contract that he never really got out from under. Earlier this year, Avery announced his retirement and then disappeared into the New York City life he built while bringing Rangers fans to their feet over the years. Now we know... Continue reading

Not too long ago, a buddy and I walked into a bar, got a couple drinks and sat down. Then we saw it. There, sitting under an angelic spotlight provided by a cheap beer branded lamp, was a foosball table. In the pantheon of bar games, foosball ranks high on both the fun and sophistication scale. Eight-ball is fun, darts is cool, Buck Hunter and Golden Tee are OK, but foosball offers an unparalleled opportunity of alcohol-fuelled competition for up to four people and involves miniature people playing an international sport. Anyway, we roll up to the table and the... Continue reading

For anyone who doesn't regularly watch English Premier League soccer, Sunday's Machester derby between United and City would've been a nice little intro. The two storied teams from a football mad city have been going at it since 1881, and this weekend they were fighting for the league's top spot. United is obviously the historically higher profile big brother to baby (blue) brother City, but thanks to a recent influx of Middle Eastern kajillions, City's been able to buy its way up to compete with United for league dominance. The match was a thriller in all aspects, with United jumping... Continue reading

Turns out Carly Rae Jepsen songs aren't just for secretly listening to when you think no one is paying attention because why would a 30-something guy want to listen to this anyway, what, stop staring at me like that. Ahem. According to record-breaking Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Vancouver-born popster actually helped the team prepare for its dominating performance in the pool at the 2012 Summer Games. He told told Bob Costas this week on Costas Tonight, "It's funny to say it now, but that Call Me Maybe video we did really brought us together. There are some of us who... Continue reading

We've all been there. The game is on and we're trying to maintain perfect TV tunnel vision to avoid anything that may even hint at all the stuff we should be doing instead of sitting on the couch for hours on end. If it's not soccer, it's hockey, football, baseball, golf, cricket, whatever. Sure, this ad plays the gender card pretty heavily, but that Voice of Reason could easily be your own conscience. Your stupid, stupid conscience. It's the last thing you want to hear when there's back-to-back soccer games on that, with the time difference between here and England,... Continue reading

The high-five is a strange mysterious beast. Some say it was originally conceived by the ancient Romans who believed that slapping a fellow warrior's raised open palm meant good luck in battle as well as protection from unforeseen beheading or impalement. Some contend Magic Johnson invented it at Michigan State. Others trace it to the women's volleyball circuit in the 1960s. Whenever and by whomever it was invented, the high-five is still fraught with danger. Too often foreheads or upper arms are slapped as participants can't seem to properly align their hands while aloft. Depending on the situation, a well-executed... Continue reading

The NHL lockout is now reaching annoyance of eye-gouging proportions. In fact, a laundry list of players, including Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Brad Richards, David Backes and Mike Cammalleri are meeting with six team owners in New York City today for a little round of What I Did On My Summer Vacation, along with some money talk. But I know one player who won't be there, LA Kings forward Dustin Penner. Penner has taken this hockeyless abomination of a fall season and made some lemonade by reaching for his dream rainbow of working with late night's Conan O'Brien. He's doing... Continue reading

(Photo: Global News) You're driving home, minding your own beeswax, perhaps humming along to a barbershop quartet version of "Feliz Navidad." Just your typical late November evening, when... sweet mother of Canadian football! Mosaic stadium! On fire! All over! Over the last few weeks, the Saskatchewan Roughriders played a video of a burning log on its scoreboard and on baner screens across its stands at Mosaic Stadium. Problem was, it made the stadium look like it was really on fire, causing locals to dial 911. Deputy fire chief Gerard Kay told CBC the callers reported "a very bright flame. In... Continue reading

There's not a lot of NHL hockey to watch these days. It's gotten so bad that we've been forced to watch old games on our nation's sports networks. I'm as much a fan of Mike Foligno as the next guy, but this is getting ridiculous. And so we sadly comb the interweb for anything even remotely hockey-related and entertaining. Here is the Great One on Letterman back in 1986. The man is 25-years-old and already the GOAT on ice. It's amazing. Almost as amazing as his hair in those fan club photos. Almost. Bonus highlight! Letterman suggesting Gretzky's Pro Stars... Continue reading

I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but there's an ancient Mayan prophecy that says the world will end on Dec. 21st. Plenty of our top scientists (and John Cusack) have tried to figure out a solution but the answer may lie with former NBA great Dikembe Mutombo. Old Spice has teamed up with Mutombo for an 8-bit video game that, among other things, features Mutombo's infamous wagging finger as a mouse cursor, and his very good friends Science the Bear and Random Turkey. Can he do it? Can YOU do it? Seriously this is amazing and weird and... Continue reading

What happens when Adidas takes a Dickensian tale and makes it... Snoopensian? Besides the heads of elbow-patched English Lit profs exploding spontaneously, we get a modern twist on a classic story in the form of a four-minute animated commercial for sneakers. Ah, the holidays. Snoop just isn't his old party-happy self, rolling up a fat bah-humdizzle for the holidays. But then he's visited by three ghosts, who take him on a whirlwind tour to show how lame parties will be without him. First up, the Ghost of Holiday Past played by tennis great Stan Smith in shorts so short they... Continue reading

The NBA has a tradition of giving fans an excuse to avoid awkward family conversations by scheduling Christmas Day games. And this year’s line-up will have any hoops fan ready to turn their turkey into a TV dinner—Knicks at Lakers, Celtics at Nets, Thunder at Heat, Rockets at Bulls and Nuggets at Clippers. Here, Lakers' Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade of the Heat, Knicks' Carmelo Anthony, Brooklyn's Joe Johnson and Russell Westbrook of the OKC Thunder dribble their way through a hardwood "Carol of the Bells" in the new single-colour Xmas uniforms. Would've been funnier if they sang it. Continue reading

The mayoral sports photo-op has a long and illustrous history, typically in the vein of winning and losing bets on championship games with mayors of other cities. It usually ends up with the losing mayor wearing the jersey of the opposing city's team in city council... HOW EMBARASSING, AMIRIGHT?! Well, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford already has the bet with Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi on Sunday's Grey cup tilt between the Argos and Stampeders, but yesterday he also took to a fake football field in Toronto's Nathan Philips Square to show off some gridiron skills of his own. Ford is of... Continue reading

Seeing as everyone's making such a big deal about the Argos playing in the Grey Cup at home—well, except Torontonians, obviously (heyooh!)—let's take a look back at the first time in modern CFL history a hometeam actually won the goods in their own 'hood. The year was 1972. The place? Hamilton, ON. The mustaches? Bushy. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats beat the Saskatchewan Roughriders 13-10 thanks to a 34-yard fourth-quarter field goal by Ti-Cats' 19-year-old kicker Ian Sunter. The game marked Chuck Ealey as the first black quarterback to win a professional football championship—16 years before Washington Redskins' Doug Williams started at... Continue reading

OK, while there maaaay be some rumblings about conspiracies thanks to the Toronto Argonauts beating the until-Sunday superior Montreal Alouettes in the Eastern final to put the home team into the 100th Grey Cup, let's not dwell on these frivolities of modern sport, shall we? Instead, let's take a step back and appreciate the long history of this game. In the lead-up to this weekend's three-down extravaganza between the Arrrrrrrrgoooooos and Calgary Stampeders, I'm going to dig up some little history lessons to better equip you for barstool banter. Of course, there's a fine line between The Most Interesting Man... Continue reading

John Denver was what you call an American Legend. Whether it was on Grandma's feather bed with the Muppets, thanking god he was a country boy, or starring in a movie with God himself (George Burns, natch) the man captured the hearts of millions with his feelgood cornucopia of awe-shucks acoustic, folk and toothy smiles. And now you can hit the slopes on his face! Denver-based Icelantic Skis teamed up with the late singer's estate to put together this two-planked memorial action set. You can buy the skis for $699 or, if your idea of Rocky Mountain High doesn't actually... Continue reading

There's an old redundant saying, "All good things come to an end." It's the type of thing that gets embroidered and hung on a wall or put on a poster with a rainbow. It's also a reality that hit home for Fredericton High School's junior varsity basketball team, who recently ended its 207-game winning streak. Spanning six seasons, the streak started when current team members were still in elementary school. It ended last Saturday against Simonds High School of Saint John. Coach Gary Young said, "I think it should be remembered as a team effort with groups of kids over... Continue reading

There's just something about people getting hit in the face with stuff. And by something, I mean it's hilarious. Sad and painful, yes, but also hilarious. Serious injury notwithstanding, of course (most of the time). It's second only to the groin-shot in the pantheon of funny injuries you're glad didn't happent to you. Look no further than America's Funniest Home Videos being on the air for the last 84 years. Here we have two teams competing for the Iowa state volleyball championships. After one player is taken out with a particularly vigorous spike, the ball then actually flies back to... Continue reading

Hockey has a long and storied past when it comes to players squirting water on fans. Who can forget Tie Domi in Philly? Certainly not the dude who got beat up after falling into the penalty box. Last Thursday, the Orlando Solar Bears lost to the Gwinnett Gladiators 4-1 in ECHL action and Solar Bears back-up goalie John Curry decided to vent his frustrations at the final buzzer by spraying the surrounding Gladiators faithful with water on his way out. The obvious question is, aside from where the sweet hell Gwinnett is (Georgia), is why did he do it? The... Continue reading

Last night, Ray Allen won the game for the Miami Heat 119-116 over the Denver Nuggets with a four-point play. LeBron James told reporters afterwards, “I’ve watched a lot of basketball but I’ve never seen one of those.” Well he can always re-watch it on ... his new Samsung. (See what I did there? Transitions!) Ok, crass commercialism aside, this new ad for Samsung's new Galaxy Note "phablet" (punch me in the neck if I ever actually say that word out loud) shows a friendly Everday LeBron. Cereal! School kids! Haircuts! It's all here folks, all that and a stylus.... Continue reading