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Some feel-good from Ryan Lawrence of the Daily News:

On Sunday afternoon, A.J. Burnett finished his workout with the Phillies and boarded a plane. He had an important place to be.

Burnett’s 12-year-old son was playing in an elimination playoff game. The pitcher had co-coached the basketball team all winter and made sure he returned to the bench to help the team.

The team won, surviving for another day.

“They’ve got another game on Tuesday, though,” Burnett said, motioning to fellow pitcher Cliff Lee. “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to me that one.”

Let’s hit it!

 

But first, a word from our sponsors:

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V, for Victory. Grab one.

More. Already have all of our t-shirts? Grab one from Philly Phaithful.

Andrej. Meet Mezzy at the Sports Vault in the King of Prussia Mall on Tuesday, March 4 from 7 – 8:15 p.m. Details and tickets here.

Tickets. We have concert tickets at Crossing Broad Tickets, too. Great deals. See for yourself.

 

The roundup:

The US-Canada game was stream by 2.1 million people, making it most-streamed event in NBC’s history. I would assume that’s also a record for most people to watch a game online and not see a goal scored by the home team. Real nice finish for the men’s hockey team. WHO WANTS A T.J. OSHIE T-SHIRT?

Yes, we should blame Dan Bylsma and his glasses for Team USA’s embarrassing flameout.

Sam Hinkie talks about the Sixers’ new practice facility.

This is really funny:

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Bjorgen gorgen jrogen bjorgen rorrororgen. That’s my Swedish guy.

Athletes are struggling to adopt dogs in Sochi. I think this was the perfect storm– a bunch of young competitors who have spent the last four years training for one two-week event now look to fill the void in their lives with a companion. Boom, Sochi puppy. I can’t imagine a more willing group to adopt dogs.

Netflix and Comcast have already reached a deal to keep the video flowing quickly. From the NY Times:

Comcast, the country’s largest cable and broadband provider, and Netflix, the giant television and movie streaming service, announced an agreement Sunday in which Netflix will pay Comcast for faster and more reliable access to Comcast’s subscribers.

The deal is a milestone in the history of the Internet, where content providers like Netflix generally have not had to pay for access to the customers of a broadband provider.

But the growing power of broadband companies like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T has given those companies increased leverage over sites whose traffic gobbles up chunks of a network’s capacity. Netflix is one of those sites, accounting for nearly 30 percent of all Internet traffic at peak hours.

The agreement comes just 10 days after Comcast agreed to buy Time Warner Cable for $45 billion, an acquisition that would make Comcast the cable provider to nearly one-third of American homes and the high-speed Internet company for close to 40 percent. Federal regulators are expected to scrutinize whether that deal would thwart competition among cable and Internet providers.

These types of deals, known as “paid peering,” are typically struck between companies that manage the plumbing of the Internet, unseen by consumers. Netflix does far more than that, offering original programming and features like TV and movie recommendations for users based on their previous choices.

Netflix will now essentially have its own on ramp to Comcast customers. That is different from paying to be moved through the pipes more quickly, a deal known as “paid prioritization” that is generally seen as a net-neutrality violation.

Make no mistake, this is the first actual thing to throw net neutrality out the window. Netflix is paying Comcast to ensure more reliable streaming. This sounds great for consumers, but more agreements like this will happen, and now that Comcast and Time Warner will control a third of the broadband market, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for competition to prevent the mega conglomerate (and perhaps streaming services like Netflix) from passing the costs associated with these deals on to consumers. We talk about all this stuff and more in our Cord Snipped podcast (subscribe!), where I’ve been saying all along that cord cutting isn’t really a cost-saving measure. It’s an experience thing. You may be able to save a few bucks now, but you’re crazy if you don’t think providers and streaming services won’t raise prices in the future once everyone is getting content through broadband pipes. Plus, we’re gonna need a service that aggregates and packages streaming services… unless you want to go through the confusing process of paying and keeping track of five, six or seven separate bills each month (Netflix, Hulu, MLB.tv, etc.). Suddenly the model is going to look and feel very much like your current cable experience. Comcast is winning.

Meanwhile, the WWE Network is on the air.

Freddy Galvis is concerned about civil unrest in Venezuela.

A Cord Lidle statue was vandalized in California, begging the question: there’s a Cory Lidle statue? Sorry– it’s probably too soon. Those jokes don’t fly here.

In case you weren’t on social media this weekend to find out that Penn State, like many, many others colleges in the country, does great things to raise money for charity, here’s your THON total from The School Philly.

Erin Andrews will be the new co-host of Dancing with the Stars. Cue the righteous indignation from sports media weirdos who refuse to acknowledge that they like looking at Andrews, her endless legs and big cans.

Jason Collins checked into an NBA game last night in LA and received a smattering of applause:

http://youtu.be/JDnzbwMa2mI

I feel like if this was Philly he would’ve gotten a rousing ovation from the 12,000 people at the Wells Fargo Center.

Piers Morgan Live is canceled.

Scott Hartnell, Wayne Simmonds, Claude Giroux, Ray Emery and Jake Voracek watched the US-Canada game at Mac’s in Old City.

Cole Hamels has made tremendous progress.

Mexican drug lord taken down, and Gus Fring didn’t have to empty the contents of his stomach to do it.

The best Olympics GIFs.

 

Podcasts

Little did we know that the title of the latest Crossing StreamsMunching Mara, would be so timely and appropriate. New episode coming early this week. Listen or downloadSubscribe with iTunesListen with Stitcher. All are mobile-friendly links.

On Cord Snipped, Dan and I discuss what Comcast’s takeover of Time Warner means for your cord-cutting. Listen or downloadSubscribe with iTunesOr listen with Stitcher. All are mobile-friendly links.