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And our chains are longer, too
The Canadian Football League was looking for attention when it came up with a new marketing slogan. Maybe not this much attention, however. Some are offended when the CFL claims, “Our Balls Are Bigger.”
“The slogan was meant to reflect an attitude,” CFL operations chief Jeff Giles rationalized. “We’ve been kicked around a lot and we’re kicking back.”
The slogan also refers to the days when the CFL used a bigger football than the NFL. But both leagues now use the same size balls. “Our objective already has been met because people are talking about us - negatively or positively,” Giles said.
Keep the slogan. Lose the logo.
Do unto others …
The latest tiff between the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t culminate with a brush-back pitch or bench-clearing brawl.
Instead, the Rockies felt compelled to send a letter of apology. The transgression in question occurred late last month, when the Rockies, using their elaborate video scoreboard at Coors Field, showed statistics designed to embarrass their most loathsome rivals.
As Mike Blowers ambled to the plate, the scoreboard operator flashed a graphic showing that the Dodgers third baseman was hitting just .197 with runners in scoring position. Blowers, for his part, laced a triple.
“We’ve come to a simple solution,” Keli McGregor, senior vice president of the Rockies, wrote in his letter. “If it’s not appropriate to put up for our own team, we won’t put it up for a visiting team.”
Meaning the scoreboard will go blank when it comes time to flash John Smoltz’s ERA.
A few more years, and he’ll be in his prime
Denver Nuggets coach and general manager Bernie Bickerstaff defends the trade in which he gave up the No. 10 pick to acquire point guard Mark Jackson.
“People talk about Mark Jackson not getting up and down the court,” he said, “but you look at what he did with the Knicks when Rick Pitino was coach.”
Not to mention the fact Jackson, since starting out under Pitino, has had eight years to get even quicker.
all day i dream about stardom
Tim Henman’s trip to the Wimbledon quarters - the first Brit to get there in 23 years - generated a frenzy in the British tabloids and a shortage of sportswear. “Volley Good Fellow,” the Daily Star’s headline read.
Henman wore adidas tennis whites through the tourney, and reports say some 1.5 million pounds - or some $2.25 million - of the Henman stock has been sold over the last several weeks.
“We would normally expect what stocks we have to last us until October, but things have just gone crazy,” said Simon Cartwright, spokesman for adidas.
Henman figures to make millions in endorsements if he can win Wimbledon. Eleanor Carless may also cash in. Two years ago, the English woman placed a 20-pound bet with bookmakers William Hill at odds of 500-1 that Henman would win it before 2000.
The last word …
“The difference between Dallas and Green Bay, quite frankly, is that Dallas has much better players than Green Bay.”
- Packers general manager Ron Wolf, on why his NFL team has lost six straight to the Cowboys
, DataTimes