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Starting off (unofficially) the year with a little spunk.

Let’s hit it!

 

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The roundup:

http://youtu.be/qfc5XWt-HDc

My wife, brother-in-law and I sat on the couch for 15 minutes, mouths agape, watching that highly-produced Stuart Scott tribute yesterday [higher quality here]. It was tremendous. Along with Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick, Stuart Scott helped define the way an entire generation consumed sports. What, say, Howard Cosell was to the Baby Boomer generation of sports fans, those guys were to those of us born in the 1980’s and early 90s. Sad to see one of them go, way too early. Here are some of the on-air tributes:

http://youtu.be/PQANto0oEQI

http://youtu.be/-ur6TXGvUO8

http://youtu.be/YBHI0Fr-rfE

That last one might be the most perfect tribute I’ve ever seen. [UPDATE: Annnnnnnnd it’s been deleted.]

 

The Flyers were fined for breaking one of the stupidest rules in sports: They traveled to Nashville on December 26 – Boxing Day for those of you under the Queen’s rule – and that’s a big no-no under the CBA, which restricts games, practices and travel from December 24-26 (unless the 26th is a Saturday, in which case the 23rd is the substituted off day– and we wonder why The Shield is a fourth-place league in the US). The Flyers, who played (and lost) in Nashville at 8 p.m. on the 27th, decided to travel a day early, something every team does in every sport every other day of the year. Broad Street Hockey notes that this is supposedly a competitive balance thing – every team gets off, no one gains an advantage – except the glaring issue of teams playing away on the 27th, who are forced into traveling on a game day. Sportsnet in Canada broke the story because Canada hates the Flyers.

The Flyers accepted their undisclosed fine and it sounds like they planned on it all along. Ron Hextall:

“The players came to me weeks ago. They wanted to travel the day before as opposed to the day of the game. I talked to them, they said everybody was on board,” he said. “Once I went through the whole thought process — we pay guys a lot of money, we’re in the hunt for a playoff spot, we want to give our team every chance to win. If we’re not giving them every chance, I’m not sure how fair we’re being to the players. We decided to go and accept the consequences.”

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Eyyyy cuz. Tha pot got dat new carer on locc !! Gridn !! All day erryday ya herr meh !! I have no idea how this went.

The Arizona Cardinals, too, showed a little spunk:

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The house of Ron Rivera, coach of the Cardinals’ opponent on Saturday, burned down (!) this morning:

pic via (@ltmelvin)

pic via (@ltmelvin)

Rivera and his family are fine, but man, do the Panthers have some strange karma going on. They’re awful and have somehow conned their way into the second round of the NFL playoffs thanks to their bad division and playing a Cardinals team at the end of their line, but on the flip side, their quarterback broke his back in a car accident and the head coach’s home burned down. Weird fucking vibes going on with the Panters right now. Stay away.

Here’s Cowboys fan Chris Christie celebrating the Giants’ Super Bowl win in that same, attention-grabbing Red Delicious sweater:

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Here’s a timeline of Christie’s fandom.

Lionel Messi is disgusting.

Howie Roseman will get paid $1.7 million to do contracts and oversee the medical and equipment staffs, according to Reuben Frank, whom a little birdie spotted on what appeared to be a date at a Bucks County restaurant last week (yes, he was wearing a CSN polo, I’m told):

Roseman, according to a league source familiar with his contract, received a $200,000 annual raise on Friday, from $1.5 million per year to an average of $1.7 million per year on a deal that runs through 2020.

That’s a 13 percent pay raise for somebody who for all intents and purposes was just demoted.

And that’s $10.2 million over the next six years.

Good work, if you can kiss enough billionaire ass to get it.

I have no idea what Les Bowen is getting at here– it’s presumably a dig at Kelly’s penchant for “his guys,” or some sort of veiled complaint about accessibility. Either way, it’s not funny:

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What is funny, however, is the new Geico commercial. Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike:

http://youtu.be/a18xWp0cLHg

Two meatheads arguing about how many days there are in a week.

Jury selection in Don Tollefson’s case begins today. Don will represent himself… and apparently the entire Sith organization at the trial:

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NY papers in lockstep today, united in their hatred of the Cowboys:

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Pretty sure the Inquirer-Daily News don’t even see the problem with this– sending a guy halfway across the country when he could’ve just watched the thing in glorious HD and streamed every single post-game press conference:

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Money well-spent.

Dog evolution.

The Rams’ owner bought land and the team is threatening to build an LA stadium (perhaps right next to the Maze Bank Arena?).

NFL head of officiating getting off a Cowboys party bus last August:

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Your CB Year in Review.

 

Liberty Broadcast

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All new Crossing Streams this week, and a bunch of new shows from Tony Bruno, Bleeding Green Nation, Eytan Shander and more, all at LibertyBroadcast.co. Big things planned for the this year.