Coach gives up his job for a legend

Coach gives up his job for a legend

[NHL] Coach gives up his job for a legend

Current New York Islanders head coach Ted Nolan has made a fine gesture to former Islanders coach Al Arbour by stepping down from his post for one game during the upcoming 2007/2008 NHL season. Arbour who led the greatest of all Islanders teams to four consecutive Stanley Cups from 1980-1983 finished his tenure with the Islanders on 1,499 career games behind the bench and at Nolan's request he will step behind the bench for game 1,500 against the Pittsburgh Penguins on November 3, 2006.

Considering the pressure on sides to make the Playoffs each season, Nolan is putting his own neck on the line by letting another coach take the reigns - even if it is for just one game - but the gesture (even with a loss) creates a gigantic amount of positive press for a club that lost a vast array of their top players in Free Agency this month.

Arbour was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996 and finished his Islanders career with 739 career wins and of course - those 4 Stanley Cups.

Check out the full story here:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=AvyjljB7AkecXqraiKHqGWJ7vLYF?slug=ap-islanders-coacharbour&prov=ap&type=lgns

NRL to bring back two byes in Season 2008

NRL to bring back two byes in Season 2008

[NRL] NRL to bring back two byes in Season 2008

Bowing to pressure that has been around for about 5 years, the NRL has decided to re-introduce two byes to the 2008 draw in an attempt to reduce the strain on their players.

The proposed draw structure has not been officially released but I understand that all teams will have two byes over a 6-8 week period (from the weekend of the Anzac Test to the end of the Origin Series). If this is the case then the NRL is on the right track but if they only give teams that may have the highest number of representative players involved byes on the weekend before Origin games - then they are significantly disadvantaging the other teams who will be forced to play games without their best players.

Ideally over the four weekends in question we would see all 8 teams have a bye on each of the 4 weekends that have representative football attached to them. While that would only mean 4 NRL games on each weekend you've still covered all your significant television bases with a Friday Night game, a Saturday Night game, a Sunday Afternoon game and a Monday Night game. The current setup gives 4 teams the bye on these 4 weekends and it has certainly worked the best of all the setups since the bye was reintroduced in 2002.

The next step on the road to respectability would be to have the NRL Judiciary actually judge cases objectively and the Finals System revert back to the Final Five that flourished during the late 80s and early 90s when only the best teams played off for the ultimate prize of a premiership.

Check out a few articles on this topic:
* http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/news/schedule-changes-a-good-step/2007/07/20/1184559965975.html

* http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,22098722-23214,00.html

Money and spare time = dangerous combination

Money and spare time = dangerous combination

[NFL] Money and spare time = dangerous combination

Former #1 Draft Pick and Atlanta Falcons superstar quarterback Michael Vick has been indicted in the USA for allegedly creating an illegal dog fighting organisation based out of one of his homes in Virgina.

It is probably best you read the entire article as it sums things up cleanly - but this is a tragic example of how vast amounts of money and spare time (plus surrounding yourself with people who don't have the money but do have the spare time) can put professional athletes on the road to ruin.

Check out the good summation at Yahoo! Sports:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AtGfRqB_m9Q.aKr6UiI_Av05nYcB?slug=ap-vickindictment&prov=ap&type=lgns

Get your NFL pre-season fix here

Get your NFL pre-season fix here

[NFL] Get your NFL pre-season fix here

The doyen of American Football reporting is Peter King from Sports Illustrated in the USA. His regular column Monday Morning Quarterback is the best weekly read on the NFL available on the internet and I highly recommend it.

If you want to find out where King rates your team heading into the 2007 season then get your butt over to SI.com and read up.

For the record my Top 5 heading into the pre-season is:
1. Indianaoplis Colts

2. New England Patriots

3. Carolina Panthers

4. Seattle Seahawks

5. Chicago Bears/San Diego Chargers (tie)

Check out Peter King's full NFL Pre-season Power Rankings here:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/peter_king/07/16/mmqb/index.html