It was a busy weekend in the sporting realm, and I had the best seat in the house — a faded green couch in my apartment.
The Winter Olympics ended Sunday, and the U.S. suffered an all-around loss in the medal count between participating countries. Or a win if you look at it from a bronze medal perspective, a category the U.S. won with a dozen medals. Russia, Norway and Canada finished one, two and three in the official medal count.
The U.S. men’s hockey squad was shut out by Finland 5-0 on Saturday, perhaps the most devastating loss for Team USA since they lost to Team Iceland, 12-1, in D2: The Mighty Ducks. To bring it back to reality though, the U.S. loss tied its worst shutout defeat in its Olympic history. To make matters worse, our rival up north, Canada, took home gold in both men’s and women’s hockey.
Kudos, Canada, at least we have effective universal health care to heal our open wounds. Oh, that’s you guys? Sorry.
Also over the weekend, Jason Collins, the first openly gay player in the NBA, signed a 10-day contract with the Brooklyn Nets after a one-year respite from the league. He took to the floor on Sunday evening against the Los Angeles Lakers and even garnered a standing ovation from some in the crowd.
Even though Collins is a fairly average NBA player, he should get applauded by all for his courage to stand up to threatening aura that continues to linger around members of the LGBT community sports community.
Rain plagued the Daytona 500, which caused it to finish soon before Sunday turned to early morning Monday. I’m not even going to pretend that I thoroughly know the ins and outs of NASCAR. I don’t even know what the acronym stands for. But I would like to think I know the difference between a live event and a past recording.
A rain delay at Daytona prompted Fox to broadcast last year’s event, leading sports news outlets and fans to think Jimmie Johnson won his second Daytona 500 in a row. After a six-plus hour rain delay, where Tony Stewart probably played Candy Crush (a game, he says, he has spent $2,000 on), Dale Earnhardt Jr. went on to win, evading a final lap crash. Usually crashes are anything but funny, but when Kyle Busch finished the race in reverse, it captured the hilarity of the event.
Hilarity also rolled over to the links, where Jason Day, who lives in Westerville, captured his second PGA Tour win at the WGC Accenture Match Play against Victor Dubuisson, who sounds more like a James Bond villain than a professional golfer.
It took five extra holes to decide a “victor,” and then an onslaught of more name puns rolled into media outlets. “Jason’s Day,” “J-Day,” “Jason All Day,” “Carry the Day” — they’re all viable headlines options.
Until more sporting events happen from the comforting confines of my couch, how about we simply “Call it a Day?”
