After a wonderful weekend of sports brilliance and silliness, I had a few little things banging around in my noggin. Here goes…
1) Two of the world’s greatest athletes rose to the occasion on Sunday. (Fact is, it was quite a day for Nike and Gillette. Their two most prominent spokesmen were both big winners.)
At Wimbledon, Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick, in a marathon, 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 16-14 to win his record 15th Grand Slam title and the sixth Wimbledon championship of his career.
Meanwhile, Tiger Woods, made birdie at 16 to go 13-under and win his own tournament, the AT&T National at Congressional Country Club outside Washington, D.C. It was his third win of the year, the 68th of his career and moved him to the top of both the money list and the FedEx Cup standings.
I don’t think there is any doubt. We are now watching the two most remarkable individual-sport athletes in the history of, well, individual sport.
2) The National Hockey League’s free-agent frenzy continues and there were a number of local (Manitoba) moves this weekend.
Neepawa’s “Sherriff” Shane Hnidy signed a one-year, $750,000 deal with the Minnesota Wild; Winnipeg’s Tyler Arnason signed a two-way deal with the New York Rangers; Jason Krog left the Manitoba Moose and signed a two-year deal with the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers; Jason Jaffray left the Manitoba Moose and signed a two-year deal with the Calgary Flames; and of the 20 players who selected salary arbitration, two were Winnipeggers, Nigel Dawes will go to arbitration with Phoenix while Travis Zajac will go to arbitration with New Jersey.
Throw in Colton Orr’s four-year $4 million deal to beat people up on behalf of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Cam Barker’s semi-legal RFA offer from the Chicago Blackhasks and it was quite a week for our local hockey stars.
3) It’s Week 2 in the Canadian Football League and it starts on Thursday with Edmonton at Montreal.
On Friday, Calgary plays right here in Winnipeg — it’s the 2009 home opener — while Hamilton is at B.C.
On Saturday, Saskatchewan plays at Toronto. All four games are, of course, on TSN.
Meanwhile, over in Bomberland, 1,000-yard receiver Derick Armstrong, who refused to play in last Thursday’s game, did not practice Sunday or Monday and was apparently being shopped to other CFL teams. He’s probably finished as a Blue Bomber and a whole load of fans are righteously pissed at head coach Mike Kelly (even though Armstrong refused to play when called upon last Thursday and in a team game, that’s just about as selfish as it gets).
Win or lose, it’s going to be a very, very interesting football season in Winnipeg in 2009.