The Daily Sport-February 19th

I’ll start with saying, boo-yeah, I was right (so far) and that for those of you that skipped over my Daily Sport edition from last week on February 11^th where I predicted the outcome of the Men’s hockey semifinals of the Olympics, I was spot on going into the semifinals. 

But okay, back to ranting. Tonight will hopefully be a hodgepodge of some of the more interesting “nuggets” (a word that isn’t the easiest to use when currently wedding dieting but hey-it fits, right) I’ve come across in the past week or so. This edition of the Daily Sport should be interesting, among many other adjectives, as it will be comprised of all kinds of topics and “fun facts” that I’ve read or heard lately.

 

First, does it get any more ridiculous than this? The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) declared three Oklahoma University football players ineligible for the season until each pays back his own share of the impermissible benefits they recently received at a school banquet-style function. Banning a student-athlete for receiving and accepting impermissible benefits is a common occurrence; the outrageous fact here: the “benefits” the three OU athletes received happened to be pasta…yes of the angel hair variety. The f’ing NCAA was actually bold/dumb/bored enough to spend their time, efforts, and money on investigating, and subsequently ruling, that the three young gentlemen were ineligible to participate in NCAA-sanctioned events until they each paid back $3.83. Instead of focusing on issues such as: financial compensation for student-athletes, safety protocols for players, and medical marijuana to treat limit pain derived from injuries, the NCAA is plate-counting at the buffet line of a Sooner banquet-party. I could go on and on about the NCAA and its abuses of power, greed, and student-athletes for a while so I’ll just leave you all to stew on the current atrocities of the NCAA.

Link to Story: http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/10484741/oklahoma-sooners-penalized-three-student-athletes-eating-too-much-pasta

Second, you know how those ridiculous-looking NASCAR jackets look that some “fans” of the sport wear around showing the 36 or so different sponsors of their favorite racer? Don’t worry, other sports are starting to match. This “nugget” actually came up in my office today as I spoke with a coworker about some of the funnier and more bizarre oddities in the sporting industry. Soccer, which happens to be my favorite sport and something I shamefully have not written on thus far, has taken the practice of sporting sponsors on team jerseys to another level entirely. Now, don’t get me wrong, I actually fully support the use of sponsorship and their placement/prominence on soccer jerseys across the sport, however, this is taking it too far. Barcelona, one of the sport’s most popular teams, has now come to an agreement with partner Intel to place the company’s logo on the inside stomach of player jerseys. Yes, that’s right-the INSIDE! The thought behind the deal is that when Barca players score goals, in celebration, they will then lift their shirts overhead clearly displaying the logo and advertisement. Not a bad idea really, definitely revolutionary, but a wise investment? I think not. Especially at the current cost, Intel has agreed to play Barcelona FC $25 million over the next five years to display the company logo. Now, Im not sure about all of you but really Intel, you couldn’t think of anything better to do with that money than your investment of the stomach-placed inseam on player jerseys? 

Link to Story: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-12/intel-puts-logo-inside-of-barcelona-shirt-to-be-seen-after-goals.html

Third and finally, we’ll deal with another soccer story (I know right, I’m probably the only one actually excited by that fact but hey, whatever, I’m the one writing and you’re the one foolish enough to still be reading). Okay, so this is me kind of cheating in that it is basically a collection of stories all centered on a soccer star that oh…99% (at least) of Americans have never even heard of. His name: Mario Balotelli. He’s an Italian-born striker (or “the ones that play offense and score goals” for those of the soccer-challenged variety) who now plays for AC Milan’s club soccer team and is known for his off-field antics and on-field outbursts as much as his on-field skills (which truly are sublime). I’ll let you look up some of the stories on your own but I’ll at least give you Google fodder as I like to call it, to search on your own accord. In the recent years “Super Mario” as he is affectionately known, has been linked with stories including:

-Playing with, and then starting a seriously legitimate, structural downtown-building fire in his London apartment

-Claiming to be allergic to grass, the surface he spends 70 hours a week on and around to train and play his sport for money

-Numerous training “fights/altercations/”scuffles” with both fellow players, trainers, staff, and even coaches

-Sobbing on the bench during a game

-My personal fave: Teaming with Nike to create boots (cleats) that are decorated solely with newspaper headlines involving himself and some of his crazier antics off the field.

And as always, 

Today will be better than yesterday.