- Whether the Tampa Bay Lightning make the playoffs or not this year, this much is certain: Either General Manager Brian Lawton or head coach Rick Tocchet will be gone. That was assured after Lawton fired Tocchet’s assistant – and close friend – Wes Walz without consulting – merely informing – Tocchet. Lawton then brought in his friend, successful, minor league (Norfolk) coach Jim Johnson. Disagreements happen — and can be worked through. An undermining, public act of disrespect can’t. New owner Jeff Vinik didn’t need this subplot.
- Word is that New York is now the favorite for the 2014 Super Bowl. It’s part of the NFL’s strategic habit of rewarding markets with new stadiums. But a football game — let alone this one — in an open-air stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. in February?
- And smooth move by that Tampa Bay Bucs’ staffer who, during a Senior Bowl player interview, asked former Florida State safety Myron Rolle if he felt he had “deserted” his teammates by leaving school after his junior year. Rolle, a pre-med major with designs on being a neurosurgeon, spent his senior year as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford. Would that the Seminoles — and the NFL — had more such Rolle models.
- Oh, Canada: Congratulations to the Canadian hockey team on its thrilling, sudden-death, Olympic gold-medal win over the U.S. on Sunday. Too bad Marty St. Louis or Steve Stamkos couldn’t have been part of it to ease the nationalistic disappointment back home. But that just tells you how many talented players were available to Canada.
But here’s another thought. Why not make Olympic hockey a double elimination tournament, as is done with NCAA baseball? That way, when the two bracket winners meet in the final – and one is undefeated and the other has a loss (to its gold medal opponent) — the one-loss team has to win two in a row to earn gold.
- Almost overshadowed by hockey on the Olympics’ last weekend was the impressive performance of Steve Holcomb, who piloted the four-man U.S. bobsled to a gold-medal. The U.S. hadn’t won the event since 1948. Moreover, the portly Holcomb, who had given up chasing his dream because of a degenerative eye condition, had made a remarkable comeback after successful surgery.
Only one downside, and I’ll be delicate. Bobsledders wear really, uh, snug, skin-
tight uniforms. It helps to be ripped. It hurts to be flabby. If there’s a next time,
Steve, work in a salad. If not, work in a girdle and a cup.