Brett Favre comes back … in a different shade of green: As a Packers fan, it breaks my heart to see Favre slinging for another team. As a football fan, it makes me happy that I can watch Favre compete for at least one more season. As an ESPN fan, I’m glad he’s signed so I don’t have to hear about where his private jet was sighted every 10 minutes. The Packers-Favre marriage was destined for divorce once Brett hinted at a return and started playing catch with Mississippi high school kids. The Packers made a business decision to move forward as an organization with Aaron Rodgers and couldn’t rescind, while Favre wanted to supply his skills that were in high demand. Favre haters: it’s rare for a guy to be able to leave the game on his own terms; if he can and wants to play, he should, flip-flop or not. Packer management haters: The Packers have an extremely talented young team and had to think of the future. With Rodgers facing free agency in 2010, they had to see what they have with the Cal product to avoid the mistake of re-signing a Rex Grossman or letting a future star go.
NBA players bolt for Europe: Lots of NBA players are already making millions before they reach their junior year in college, so I suppose they’re just taking the semester abroad they never got. Josh Childress, Nenad Kristic, Earl Boykins, Jannero Pargo, Carlos Delfino, Jorge Garbajosa, Gordan Giricek, Carlos Arroyo and possibly Ben Gordon will all be collecting checks in Euros next season. NBA stars moving across the Atlantic is nothing new; remember Dominique Wilkins and his year in Greece spent leading Panathinaikos to the 1995 Euroleague title? But that was when Wilkins was The Human Highlight Reel and the league had already converted to VHS. The latest slew is unique in that they are young guys in the primes of their careers who also happen to be pretty good players who would get consistent minutes on most NBA squads. Many folks are laughing in the face of Commissioner David Stern, thinking that he overplayed his hand in Europe and now rich Europeans are calling his bluff, but they don’t see the full picture. Ninety-nine percent of the very best players will still play in The League (I could see Kobe, who spent his childhood in Italy, spending a year or two overseas for a 100 percent pay raise and the chance to become the first NBA and Euroleague Champion), NBA GMs will still have plenty of quality players with which to fill their rosters, and this will actually create a new market of NBA fans. For instance, if Jannero Pargo’s three-point gunning gains him a following in Moscow, then, following his likely move back to the NBA, some Dynamo Moscow fans who might not have followed the NBA closely will now stay up late and watch whenever Pargo’s team is televised. Word to the wise: never doubt David Stern. He’s a shady dude at times, but he’s always in control, and his expansion of the NBA product to Europe has been a calculated process 20 years in the making.
Big names change addresses in the MLB: CC Sabathia is unbeaten in Milwaukee, Rich Harden is unhittable for the Cubs and Manny Mania is sweeping Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Jason Bay has served as a valuable replacement for Manny in Boston, Mark Teixeira has the Angels thinking World Series and Adam Dunn brought some much-needed pop to the Arizona desert. The winners of the deadline? The Cubs and the Brewers, who know that you can ride big arms deep into October. One of these two teams will represent the NL in the Fall Classic, in large part due to the newest member of their rotation.
We all watch the Olympics: Ah, the Olympics, the only time gymnastics and beach volleyball are shown in primetime slots, and basketball and baseball are on at 3 a.m. and never shown on tape delay. My observations: Usain Bolt needs to revive the old tradition of track stars signing with football teams; Michael Phelps was awesome and is the best Olympian of all-time, but he better buy Jason Lezak a big steak dinner; the U.S. men’s basketball team was focused, motivated, did everything right and still only squeaked by Spain minus Jose Calderon—they may continue to win gold, but the American players have their work cut out for them from here on out; I’m amazed Kerri Walsh and Phil Dalhausser can jump that high and move that well in sand; and trampoline is a sport, and baseball just had its last Olympic hurrah?
Bengals WR Chad Johnson legally changes his name to Chad Javon Ocho Cinco: If I were 12 years old, I’d be trading some crumpled bills from my piggy bank for my dad’s credit card so I could go online and ensure I’d be the first kid in town with an Ocho Cinco jersey. At 21, I still want to buy it, I just know I can’t pull it off. In a local related story, Amherst College Men’s Basketball player Marcus Bradley ‘09 has turned in the paperwork to legally change his name to Marcus James Double Unos, but the NESCAC is on record as saying they will not acknowledge the name change in official box scores.