Taking his sweet time
With another Super Bowl now consigned to the history books, it's high time to focus on the fall and the 2010 NFL season. At least that's the prevailing thought in Minnesota, where the Vikings are said to be pressing Brett Favre on making a decision regarding his future, possibly as soon as this week. While it's understandable they want to prepare themselves in case the 40-year-old quarterback wants to leave his $13-million (U.S.) salary on the table and finally hang 'em up, they clearly haven't been paying attention when it comes to No.4's track record. Favre doesn't just toy with your emotions during crucial playoff games - he does it throughout the off-season, too.
Canada expects
Jennifer Heil got her country off to the perfect start in Turin, taking gold in freestyle moguls as Canada went on to enjoy its most successful Winter Games. Four years on, she gets the chance to do it all over again on Saturday - assuming there's actually enough snow on Cypress Mountain - in front of an expectant audience whipped into a frenzy by a relentless marketing campaign emphasizing the fact that a Canadian has never won gold on home soil. Lucky girl. And as if there wasn't enough pressure on her already, Sports Illustrated has picked her to repeat, so she's now battling the infamous SI curse, too.
D-Day for Pompey
Maybe losing 5-0 to Manchester United on Saturday wasn't so bad in retrospect. Staring down the barrel of a high-court winding-up order, Portsmouth could find itself out of business by Wednesday, and the English Premier League - the world's richest soccer league - would have a hard time living down that embarrassment. Currently bottom of the EPL, Portsmouth is up to $100-million in debt, and owes the taxman about $11.5-million to boot. Even if the club escapes liquidation, the best-case scenario would be see the 112-year-old team into administration, punishable with a nine-point penalty in the standing - almost certainly enough to seal relegation. Now would certainly be a good time for manager Avram Grant to get one of those "massages" he's apparently so fond of.
Enjoy it while it lasts
With the largest crowd ever to witness a basketball game - possibly in excess of 100,000 fans - expected to attend Sunday's All-Star Game at Cowboys Stadium, the NBA should be in full celebration mode this week. However, that feel-good factor is dissipating rapidly after news of the league's new collective bargaining agreement offer hit the headlines. With the current CBA set to expire in 2011, the owners are calling for a reduction in the players' share of the income, the length and amount of maximum value contracts and elements of a hard salary cap - taking a large amount of the sheen off what should be one of the jewels in the basketball calendar.
Paul Attfield