Monday, October 02, 2006

On the radio again

On my drive home, I phoned into the FAN 590 during Bob McCown's show. He was talking about an incident during a football game the other day where one of the players got his helmet knocked off and once the play was over, one of the opposing players walking off the field stepped on his head. The player has been suspended 5 games by the NFL for this moronic, blatant attempt to injure. I called in and told Bob about a similar play in a lacrosse game I saw a couple of years ago -- Rock vs. Bandits. John Tavares hit Patrick Merrill and knocked him down (perfectly legal hit), but then after the play ended, he stepped on Merrill's back on his way back to the bench. JT was given a 2-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, but no other punishment. It was different though, JT didn't intend to hurt Merrill, just humiliate him a little. It was certainly unsportsmanlike, but not as bad as the football play.

It wasn't the first time I've seen JT do some dirty stuff either. He's an amazing player — one of the best ever, no question — but in addition to this incident, I remember another nasty play in Toronto. JT had the ball when the whistle was blown, with the ref signalling a Buffalo penalty. He waited a couple of seconds and then fired a blistering shot directly at the goalie. It hit him square in the chest protector, but the shot was way after the whistle. Pissed me off, and I'm sure the Rock players weren't too happy about it, but no penalty to JT.

This was my second time on the radio; I called in to the same show about a year and a half ago and blogged about it. I was just a young blogger then — it was only about my 6th blog enrty.

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