The Sports Observer

This is a great article on AdAge about the plentitude of marketing possibilities that marketers have with the Harbaugh Brothers coaching in the superbowl together on opposing sides! Great article by Michael McCarthy if you are interested in football, sports, and marketing/advertising in general.

Do you guys agree that this was a straight red card? Will there be any more consequences handed out to the Macedonian Popov by Fifa? How do you feel that spitting should be handled in footie? Was this a case for a straight red? So many questions surrounding this topic. Tell me what you all think?

Noble move, or complete show off? What will his role be with PSG? I still believe there is much skill left in Beckham’s football arsenal. Only time will tell if this will be a fitting end for the football star.

This is so cool! I found artist hypothetical productions of what MLB teams's jerseys would look like if they were to be implemented into a soccer jersey style rather than baseball.

There is one golden rule with NHL CBA talks...be secretive! Talks continue between the NHLPA and the NHL owners in a secretive location (the bat cave???) for todays meeting. Discussion about players contracts' continue, and one main issue still remains... Should all remaining player contracts be honoured in full even after player revenue changes occur (57% to 50%). Anyways, I personally am sick of these talks and I just want to watch some hockey. Should remaining contracts be honoured in full? Any guesses on where the meeting was held this afternoon?I'm sticking with the Gary Bettman Bat Cave.

What do you think? Over-priced and over-rated? Too early to tell?

Former Penn State President, Graham Spanier, has had numerous charges laid against him today including endagering children, perjury, as well as a number of other serious offences. Spanier was the president of Penn State for 16 years until the Sandusky-Paterno scandal broke out. It was believed that Spanier, among other school officials tried to hush the Sandusky allegations to protect the university and football program from receiving bad publicity (didn't turn out too well for them). Ultimately, Spanier and other highly ranked Penn State officials you could say, allowed for further despicable acts to occur because of this 'do not tell' mentality. It was none other than these officials that let Sandusky get away with such horrendous acts of sexual abuse towards many of the football players at Penn State. Is Spanier just as guilty as Sandusky? Did Spanier give Sandusky the opportunity to engage in further illegal sexual interactions with young males and therefore make it seem like these acts were acceptable?

Hopefully the third reading is not the charm. In a couple of weeks, the C-290 is expected to pass at Parliament Hill in the capital. If placed into affect, this bill will allow for legal single game betting on sporting events in Canada. On one hand, C-290 may help casinos attract more visitors, not just from Canada, but also from over the Detroit-Windsor border. Sequentially, while many fans hope for new sports franchises to establish themselves in Canada, such as a second hockey team in the GTHA or Quebec, or a new basketball team to Vancouver, the C-290 bill does help solidify such aspirations. Through the advent of betting on single sporting events, the increased likelihood for game-fixing becomes more than possible. One can just look to the soccer pitches in Italy to see how such single game betting is affecting the game. Not only will this make professional sports in Canada lose major integrity, but it may in fact alter the reason why we play these games in the first place. Above all, does this bill negatively deter major sports leagues and their franchises from establishing themselves in Canada?

It was just in September that the controversial ‘Show-your-papers’ immigrant provision was denied a motion in a San Francisco court of appeals. If it had been fully put into effect and not appealed by many groups of immigrants in Arizona and San Francisco, police would have been able to approach any person they believed was an immigrant in the country unlawfully and make them “show their papers”. The issue is, “How do you determine if one is an illegal immigrant or not?”…Appearance? Sadly, it ‘looks’ that way.

Are there any other Outfielders that could have contended for a Gold Glove this year?