The best Winter X Games Athlete Ever?

The boy is back on TV. The boy that I think is ruining the X Games is back. Not just the winter X Games, but the summer X Games too. The kid is seemingly unbeatable. The kid with flaming red hair and a bandana over his nose and mouth. The kid nicknamed "the Flying Tomato."

Shaun White is back in my life.

I hate his effortless 900s during his slopestyle runs. I hate the way he throws them back-to-back-to-back. I hate the way he may throw a 1080 in that mix if he feels like it. I hate the way he can dominate the competition in slopestyle, and then compete at a high level the next during halfpipe. I hate the way that he's won more gold medals than some of the most famous boarders in the world while he's only 20 years old. I hate the way that he can grab a skateboard and immediately transfer his prowess. I hate the way he skipped past a 900 and started trying to land 1080. I hate the way he almost lands it.

I hate the way he is destroying extreme sports. He's become too good too young and too soon. He's on the top of the game and figures to stay there for quite some time. I may have to tell my future children about how good he was and I really don't want to. To me, he's just a snot-nosed punk. I really just don't like the look on his face. What should I like about him? The fact that he's better than I'll ever dream of? The fact that he was better than I could ever hope to be by the time he turned 15? The fact that half of the things he does, I can barely do in video games? I have no reason to like Shaun White, so I never will.

Yes, I hate Shaun White.

More top players coming to the MLS: (! or ?)

The New York Red Bulls have signed Manchester City cast-off and American national Claudio Reyna. This move should help but it won't make up for the departure of phenom Freddy Adu as well as losing out on David Beckham to the Los Angeles Galaxy. The bigger news is that the Chicago Fire is courting all-world head-butter Zinedine Zidane. Whether they can land him or not is debatable as the French mid-fielder retired from soccer after the World Cup. If they can land Zizou, it would be another huge (past-his-peak) star coming over the league and another huge draw soccer fans in North America.

Agent Zero at it again

When he's not busy dropping large amounts of points and yelling names of portable barbeques while shooting, he's writing a quirky blog. When writing about the possibility of playing against Duke, he mentioned things like he'd give up an entire season to play one game against them and that he'd play like it was a video game; he wouldn't pass the ball “I wouldn't even think about passing it.” “I'd probably score 84 or 85” he wrote. By now, if you hadn't come to expect anything and everything from Arenas, you were probably not paying attention for the last few years.

Webber: A week later

Remember Chris Webber’s awful Detroit Pistons debut? That turns out to be far behind him. C-Webb seems to have regained some form playing in his hometown and, over his last three games (all started) he’s scored 15.3 points per game and grabbed 7.6 rebounds per game while logging over 34 minutes per game. Needless to say, he is no longer in danger of being cut from my fantasy team.

NHL All-Star Day Two Wrap

In a severely spiteful move toward these very ramblings, Brian Rolston, Bill Guerin and Yanic Perrault of the Western Conference combined for eight points last night. Jason Blake and Justin Williams of the Eastern Conference outscored their hot shot teammates Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin by a margin of 4-1. This comes on the heels of my criticism that none of those deserved to be All-Stars just a few days ago. Well, a big thanks goes out to you guys; a big, sarcastic thanks.

While the game turned out to be high scoring, as per usual, it seems that American fans still didn’t really care. After the game ended, the score and relating story were posted on ESPN.com as the third story in the queue. The, I guess you would call it, headline story of the page was (and currently still is as of 11:36 AM) a magazine piece about a high school football player who is currently incarcerated for statutory rape. This story (which is a good read) was posted on the site at 5 PM last night. So, I guess hockey is most definitely a second class sport in the U.S. and will continue to be for a long a time. If the promise of Crosby and Ovechkin teaming up doesn’t draw fans, what will?

NFL Moves

Ron Mexico staying put. For now.

Michael Vick's still going to be the Atlanta Falcon's starting quarterback says their management. This comes in the wake of a season where the Falcons missed the playoffs, Vick gave the finger to some fans during a game in Atlanta and recently, he was busted (then cleared) for possessing marijuana and trying to take it onto a commercial flight. Not too mention that Matt Schaub is frequently hailed as the best back up QB in the league. New Falcons head coach Bobby Petrino is going to have some fun riding this rollercoaster through the off-season and into next season, especially when Vick eventually falters and is shoved to the bench. At least west coast rappers can be ahead of the curve and pick up their Oakland Raiders Michael Vick jerseys now.

Cowboys to interview Garrett.

And no, it’s not Leif Garrett. Jason Garrett, QB coach of the Miami Dolphins would be a great fit for the ‘Boys. I mean, who wouldn’t want a guy who coached the great Daunte Culpepper, Joey “The Boy” Harrington and Cleo Lemon all in the same season. He also backed up Troy Aikman in his playing days with Dallas. Fans of those days will remember his name as he was the guy you ended up losing your game with after Aikman went down to injury.

Suns roll through Agent Zero

I'll freely admit that I'm not a Steve Nash fan, but this guy's having one great year. Phoenix extended their winning streak to 14 games by beating the NBA's "it" player of the year so far, Gilbert Arenas a.k.a. Agent Zero. Arenas came up with 31 points but in comparison to Nash's 27 and 14 assists, it wasn't nearly enough. When the Suns are really on their game, it will be hard for any team in the league to stop them.

Also, I’ve “hired” an “intern” to write some NBA articles coming soon because, well, he’s much more knowledgeable on the subject than myself. So whenever he sends me some stuff, I’ll be sure to put it up.

NHL All-Star Day One Wrap

The East wins the NHL All-Star Skills Competition

So what's the relevance behind this? Not too much actually. It's more for the fans and allowing the players to have some fun on a de-facto day off. Does this event have an affect on the All-Star Game? No. Does the All-Star Game have an affect on anything? No. So do the results mean anything at all? No. All we know now is that Andy MacDonald had the fastest lap out of the six guys participating, Marian Hossa and Eric Staal both hit four targets in five shots and that Zdeno Chara can shoot the puck harder than the guys he competed against. Oh, and never forget that Rick Nash can skate and stickhandle faster than a big defenseman. Just remember to take everything that happened at face value.

East holds off West in Young Stars Game.

In a game seriously lacking anything remotely resembling defensive play, the young guns from the Eastern Conference held off a comeback attempt from the West's kids 9-8. While it is fun to see what the future of the NHL can do, especially Evgeni Malkin, what kind of message it is sending to the kids who watch these future stars play and let their opponents walk around them? Their should be at least some effort put into defense in this game, if anything, not to just hang your goalie out to dry.

NHL unveils new jerseys, sort of.

What was anticipated to be the debut of the league's newly designed jerseys turned out to be the NHL and RBK showing off the All-Star game uniforms for tomorrow's game. Disappointment hit on another level as those jerseys very much resembled last year's get up. The event was nothing like it was anticipated to be and the new design for uniforms only look like a tighter, slightly more streamlined fit of the previous incarnations. It looks like we'll have to wait some more to get a glimpse of the new designs for the regular teams.

As a side note: each media member received an Eastern Conference jersey; the twist is that they were all size 54. It seems that the NHL thinks every sports journalist is quite big boned, to say the least.

R.I.P. Scott "Bam Bam" Bigelow

One of wrestling's stars of the 90's has passed. The former wrestler was found dead in Florida home at the age of 45. Usually, when an athlete, especially a pro wrestler dies this young, steroid use will be suspected, but Bam Bam wasn't the most muscular guy so it would be hard to have judged. Bigelow was probably best known for the flames he had tattooed on his head and he was one of the few big men who could actually execute a drop kick with precision.

NBA Wrap

Well, that was kind of predictable

'Melo scored 28 and Iverson dropped 22 and picked up 7 assists in their first game together. If you didn't think that they'd be buddy-buddy for their first few game(s) together, you don't know sports stars one bit; but give it time. Two players with their style of play are bound to butt heads; the only question is "When?" And when it happens, the media will, without a doubt, blow it out of proportion.

Kobe has an off night

A year ago, January 22, 2006, Kobe Bryant aka "Black Mamba" dropped 81 points on a pathetic looking Raptor's team. This year, Kobe was only able to score 42 against Golden State. Has Kobe lost his game? Well, no, everyone has off nights; even Kobe. It's a shame his scoring average for January 22 games over the past two seasons has dropped to 61.5.

David Stern's power tripping again

After the tragic murder of NFL player Darrent Williams in outside a Denver nightclub, NBA commissioner David Stern is, according to the rumour mill, researching popular night clubs in major cities in an effort to ban his league's players from going to them. While this can be construed as a precautionary measure, it is a violation of the player's freedom to disallow them from going out to certain places in certain cities. Drive-by shootings can happen anywhere, not just outside popular clubs. Who's to say that uber-white boy / Ashton Kutcher look-alike Kyle Korver won't be out for a walk in a nice neighbourhood when a drunk driver accidentally runs him down while yelling, "You got punked!" Accidents will happen at any time and Stern should realize this.

'Melo Back Tonight

After serving his 15 game suspension for sucker-punching and then subsequently running away from Mardy Collins, Carmelo Anthony is eligible to return to the Denver Nuggets line-up against the Memphis Grizzlies tonight. Finally, we'll get the answer to a question that's been out there for weeks now; can Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony coexist? Will two of the leading scorers and shot-takers in the NBA be able to play on the same floor? I can hardly wait to find out but it will be interesting to say the least.

Weekend Wrap Up

Patriots Fall!

Even after going up by 18 and having the potential to run away with the game, the Patriots couldn't hold down Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. New England straight up blew it and the Colts beat them down, that's all that can really be said for that.

Tom Brady didn't display his usual clutchness and the debates should now begin about if he's lost it. I don't think so but a case can be made. Especially after that brutal game-sealing interception he threw. If you're one of the people out there who says that Tony Romo blew his team's playoffs because he was distracted by his off-field drama, you shouldn't be sparing Tom Brady any heat for his much publicized hook-up with Giselle Bundchen.

And what did I say about Reche Caldwell? Turns out I was right on the money about how bad he actually is. Maybe this loss wasn't all Brady's fault.

What conspiracy theory now?

The Saint's Cinderella season has come to an end after losing in Chicago on Sunday. Many conspiracy theorists attributed the Saints run of luck this season to planning by the NFL head offices. Everything from the Texans passing on Reggie Bush to the Dolphins signing Culpepper over Brees to everyone passing on Marques Colston until New Orleans grabbed him the seventh round. Really, who wasn't cheering for them after last year's Hurricane Katrina disaster? Well, it was a good run while it lasted.

Also, have you heard of that Reggie Bush guy? He's going to be quite something.

Indy named early favourite

Will defense conquer offense like the adage says or will Rex Grossman play like, well, Rex Grossman? Vegas look like they're counting on the latter as the early line has the Colts giving 7 points for Super Bowl XLI.

What you really have to keep in mind is that Chicago's vaunted defense has been sieve-like recently and Peyton Manning should be able to tear into them given the chance.

My early pick: Indianapolis 30, Chicago 20. But I'll probably flip-flop over the next two weeks.

Fighting Irish receiver goes pro

Jeff Samardzija decided to turn pro after two outstanding season catching Brady Quinn's passes at Notre Dame; only he's going to be the one pitching instead of catching in the majors. Samardzija signed a 5-year deal with the Chicago Cubs and figures to be a possible ace of their staff after some development. I'm just excited to see a potential two-sport star again. It's been too long since the days of Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders.

Parcells done in Big D

After a decidedly unsuccessful four years with the Dallas Cowboys, the Big Tuna has called it quits. Parcells has announced his retirement from football; this time for good he says. If he's really gone for good remains to be seen as if, I recall correctly, he said the same thing the last time he retired.

The real question now is, "who's going to be the next Cowboys coach?" But that could also be read, "Who wants to put up with Terrell Owens?"

It's just too bad that former offensive coordinator Sean Payton left last off-season and became coach of the year for the Saints. He would have been a great choice to lead Dallas now.