December 31, 2010 Column
Tweet of the Week
The 15 Funniest Athlete Tweets of 2010
Video Revolutionary New Use for Vuvuzelas: Beer Bongs
If it stops the sound of a vuvuzela, fine by me. (via TotalProSports)
Opinion 2010 Sports Punchline Honoree: Brett Favre
Taking a look at the biggest sports punchlines of 2010…
You unretired. Again. Got busted for trying to cheat on your wife. Played truly awful football. Saw your consecutive games streak end. And got fined by the NFL.
That was all just this NFL season. You, of course, kicked off 2010 by throwing one of the worst interceptions in playoff history to keep the Vikings out of the Super Bowl. There really wasn't a news cycle that went by this year that didn't include some sort of new and humiliating story about you. Normally it would be mean-spirited to laugh at so much misfortune heaped upon one person. But here's the thing: everyone hates you. That's the one thing you achieved in your final return to the NFL: you managed to become despised by 100-percent of the U.S. population.
For 20 years we heard constantly how you played "like a kid out there." This year you gave us the gift of childlike laughter — full of purity and joy — as we laughed at you. Thanks, Brett. Maybe you're not all bad after all.
Link Some Great Outtakes from the Crosby-Ovechkin Winter Classic Ad
I'll watch this again when the Winter Classic is cancelled due to rain.
Opinion 2010 Sports Punchline Honoree: Rick Pitino
Taking a look at the biggest sports punchlines of 2010…
According to various studies, the average person reads 225 words a minute. Some can obviously read more. Some, of course, read less. But most everyone falls in a range of 200 to 250 words a minute. What that means is that by the time you have finished reading this paragraph — this paragraph that contains 120 words — Louisville head basketball coach Rick Pitino could have had sex twice with some random woman on a table at an upscale Italian restaurant while one of his assistants sleeps on the floor within earshot of the happy couple. Larry Bird is not coming through that door. Kevin McHale and Robert Parish aren't coming either. But Rick Pitino is. Down his pants leg. And fast.
Picture Pennsylvania's Governor Joins Non-Wuss Party
It's a rare politician who will take a stand against wussies. (via mocksession)
Link The 100 Best Sports Quotes of the Year
No. 101: "These are really funny quotes." — SportsPickle
Opinion 2010 Sports Punchline Honoree: Vuvuzela
Taking a look at the biggest sports punchlines of 2010…
Every four years the World Cup is held and serves as a celebration of the sport by billions around the world. It's also a high-profile opportunity to win over the unconverted.
That's what happens at most World Cups.
Whereas the 2010 World Cup was mainly about loud, plastic horns. We learned that these annoying noisemakers — called vuvuzelas — were an African tradition. You see, hundreds of years ago when the continent was still filled by warring tribes, the vuvuzela was blown when a tribe's territory was breached. The sound of the vuvuzela would annoy the invaders away and peace would be restored. (Why were they being invaded in the first place? Probably in hopes of learning how to make plastic centuries before it was developed in the West.)
Fast-forward to the Summer of 2010 and South Africans chose to celebrate their annoying plastic horn heritage at the World Cup. And while it was indeed quite annoying, it also united the world in the hatred of the vuvuzela in a way soccer never has.
For one month this summer we truly became one world. One world holding our ears.
And while it was a magical time, I think we all hope that the vuvuzelas will go away forever and that we can again enjoy the true soundtrack of international soccer: hate-filled, racist, xenophobic, nationalistic chanting interspersed with gasps from the crowd as a player misses a shot.
