A Couple of Quickies

There's plenty going on right now in the world of sports, unfortunately, there's a great deal of it that is bad. I'm not sure O.J. Simpson is necessarily a "sports story" anymore, but it's still pretty pathetic from many different angles.

Today, I've got a few thoughts on the New York Rangers who just started training camp. There are pretty high expectations for the Blueshirts and Head Coach Tom Renney with the huge additions of Scott Gomez and Chris Drury. New York won against the Devs last night and play Philly this evening in pre-season action. Gomez and Jaromir Jagr reportedly have great chemistry together on the ice, so now the question is who will flank the two? Currently, Renney is rotating Marcel Hossa, Nigel Dawes, and Sean Avery in and out of the left wing position. The thinking is that each player brings a different element to the game. Hossa is strong along the boards, Dawes can score (although he hasn't done it in the NHL, yet) and Avery supposedly has good hockey sense. Huh? Rangers' fans have to be careful with Avery. As far as Hossa goes, he can turn invisible quite often. The guy who I'd like to see play with Gomez and Jagr is one Ryan Callahan. I'm willing to bet that by January he's moved up to the top line. Callahan, 23, has a ton of speed, goes to the net, has a great shot, shoots often, can fight, and plays with grit. I'm not sure what else you could want from a guy. He may not start the year on the first or second line, but he'll be there before long.

So is football already over in N.Y.?

The guys on WFAN are pretty quite these days in regards to the Bronx Bombers, eh?

Elsewhere, the W.W.E. and their Chairman Vince McMahon are sending out letters to former W.W.E.(F) stars encouraging them or any wrestlers that worked for McMahon to go get help for drugs or alcohol. In fact, the letter states that the W.W.E. will pay the bill. Wow! That's progress! Of course, you'll never hear any of the tabloid writers or Nancy Grace talk about this. The W.W.E. suspended 11 guys as a result of the Signature Pharmacy bust, which oh by the way included taking some guys out who held championships and were involved in major story lines. Is the W.W.E. perfect in dealing with steroids, drugs, and the like? Of course, not. But I see them taking major steps toward correcting a deadly problem.

Stay Onsides!