Pit-Wrecked: Recently Jimmie Johnson, one of NASCAR’s longest winning racers of all time, is likely facing the hardest challenge of his career.  His crew chief, Chad Knaus, has been suspended for six races for not bringing JJ’s car up to NASCAR regulations for the Daytona 500.  As a drastic result, Johnson’s car was wrecked on lap two.  That outcome pummeled JJ into NASCAR’s point standing basement.  He currently trails the leader, Matt Kenseth, by 70 points.  While JJ has been able to overcome large point deficits before, this may be too much, even for a 5 time champion.  At one of the most critical turning points in JJ’s hall-of-fame career, his crew chief is suspended.  Right now, JJ needs him more than ever.

 Jammed Rams: In the upcoming NFL draft, the St. Louis Rams currently have the No. 2 overall pick, otherwise known as the “toxic pick.”  This is a sticky and unkind situation for the Rams because they need help at just about every position except QB.  While the Rams have gotten several offers from other teams, it may be in their best interest to keep the pick and draft someone they can use, like Justin Blackmon out of Oklahoma State.  Unfortunately, the No. 2 pick is “toxic” because the Rams have to pay that player an enormous amount of money because he is drafted extremely high.  St. Louis needs help at several other positions and can get two or three really good picks if they trade their 2^nd overall pick, which they are considering and listening to offers.  They are in an inevitable position of being up on the wrong side of their decision (or indecision) in regards to this pick.  If they trade it, they forfeit a really good player and if they keep it, they can only get immediate help at one position.

 Name Must be Clipped: Darrell Bailey or “Clipper Darrell” has been a lifelong fan of the Los Angeles Clippers for his entire life.  Cruel fate has finally blessed his beloved team with talent as the Clippers are finally headed in the right direction and are in good position to win their division.  However, now that the Clippers are good, the team owners have wanted Clipper Darrell to stop wearing his suit, drop his name, and stop being the diehard fan that he is.  This is absolutely ridiculous because the franchise has been nothing short of an absolute joke since moving to L.A. in the early 1980s.  Let the lifelong fan keep his moniker and root for the team he has always loved.  The Clippers should be fortunate that they have had a fan as devoted as Clipper Darrell since they only seem to have a winning record once every decade.

Not Loving this Valentine: It has been over 10 seasons since Derek Jeter’s flip to home plate nabbed Jason Giambi and sent the Yankees to the World Series which they ultimately lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks, but Bobby Valentine still thinks the play was a fluke.  The new Boston Red Sox manager has reason to hate the archrival Yankees, but not over this.  Valentine was not on the Yankees or Oakland Athletics team during the 2001 ALCS but he still thinks Jeter takes too much credit for the series win.  Fate can never seem to shine upon the Yankees as Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez are two of the most hated sports figures in America.  Valentine has also recently bashed A-Rod for being “too sensitive,” referring to his incident with Bronson Arroyo in 2004 when he was hit by a pitch that ignited a bench clearing brawl.  Valentine should focus his attention on trying to make Red Sox nation forget their historic meltdown in the 2011 season and not focus his attention on beating up on some of the easiest punching bags in sports.

Hunted Tiger: Tiger Woods is ready for a comeback.  Unfortunately, fate has played its hand Woods does not seem to have overcome all of his demons regarding his free-fall.  The media still bashes Woods for his erratic play and his subpar performances tournament after tournament.  Leave the guy alone and pick on someone else for a change.  The mainstream media constantly focuses its attention on Woods because it is easy to make fun of this guy.  Let him play golf.  The Masters is coming up and Woods is trying to focus on that but the media will never let him let go of his mistakes, nearly three years ago.

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5. Blasting Refs:

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  Head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, Nate McMillan, was fined $35,000 for blasting the referees following their loss to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of their playoff series.  Coach McMillan refused to go into details about his thoughts on the huge discrepancy of free throws shot by both teams in the fourth quarter.  The Mavs had a commanding 19-2 edge.  McMillan blames the refs for this lopsided case and uses it to explain his team coming up short in the end.  Danny Crawford, the head official of that game, has come up in officiating Dallas’s playoff games before.  Previously, the Mavs were 2-16 in games that he officiated so bias was certainly not in order of the game.  McMillan must move on and help his team regain their composure or they will be early exits in the playoffs.  For the record, Dallas has not won a playoff series since their championship run in 2005-2006.

4. Thankless Job:

• NHL vice president Colin Campbell has recently declared his job thankless and unsatisfying.  Why you might ask?  Well, he takes criticism for making indecisions on punishments for “cheap hits” on players.  Suspensions differ for players despite the hits being very similar.  What hurts Campbell’s case is that he just does not like to explain himself to the media.  His job isn’t thankless; his job is to keep order among players and to make an example of some to those who play dirty.  Campbell is more media shy than Jay Cutler, but to call his job thankless?  Child please!

3. Speeding Ticket in NASCAR:

• Jimmie Johnson came out and apologized for comments on NASCAR’s credibility for issuing speeding penalties.  Now this is not your typical (or atypical) speeding ticket of going 10 miles over the limit.  Johnson was busted for going 5 miles over the speed limit in the pit zone.  While some people do not consider NASCAR a sport, it should be noted that a driver should be allowed to go as fast as he wants, provided the pit crew is off the track.  NASCAR has stated that there is no need to post the speeds of the driver’s cars for all to see and Johnson called out NASCAR in giving him a bogus penalty for taking points away from him.  Tough break but considering he might win his 6^th championship in a row, this is nothing.

2. Labor Strike Warning:

• In wake of the NFL’s labor strike, NBA commissioner David Stern is calling the situation a mess and prays that the situation does not happen to his NBA.  The NBA has plans to send a revised proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement to prevent a lockout from happening in the NBA.  The last lockout that took place in basketball was in 1998-1999 and there was only a temporary work stoppage, but with the economy the way it is, no chances should be taken.  Should Stern be concerned about another league’s handling of its policy?  Absolutely not.  He should focus his attention on his own league first.

1. Dodging Nothing:

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  Probably the most laughable thing I have ever seen in baseball is a franchise being bought out by the MLB.  Los Angeles Dodgers executive Steve Soboroff has called MLB’s actions unprofessional because they are taking advantage of the owners getting a divorce.  To add insult to injury, Bud Selig, the commissioner of MLB, has explained that he foresaw this and made plans to handle the situation.  This does not sit well with a storied franchise that had poise to make a run at the division.  While these distractions do not hurt the team’s field play, it does shed a bad light on the franchise.  Trash talk has arisen from Soboroff and Selig, but Selig has the upper hand here since he has the cash assets to bail the team out.  So to all owners out there, do not go through a divorce while still possessing majority ownership of a team!

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