Now, Tim Thomas did the opposite, he decided not to attend the White House honouring a Bruins team that won the Stanley Cup last year. He did so, stating in a statement on Facebook (I thought college girls just poked each other on there), for personal reasons, citing that the government was too involved in the people’s affairs. Now, with a democratic government, it’s pretty well expected that he’s going to be made fun of, and poked at by all sorts of media and personalities, but is it really justified? Well, the answer is complicated. Muhammed Ali, has been lauded for his political and social involvement just as much as his boxing record, which is saying a heck of a lot. Hell, some see, Ali as a face for civil rights more than as a boxer. Steve Nash raised eyebrows when he spoke out against the War in Iraq a few years back, and Don Cherry raises a few eyebrows every weekend – and that’s just with his outfits. Here’s the difference between those acts, and what Tim Thomas did. Tim Thomas chose a team even to make an individual statement. The backlash he got is part and parcel with any athlete speaking out – it’s not something that’s justified or not justified, it’s part of the whole deal. Can you imagine how choked Tim Thomas would be if no one cared or noticed that he didn’t show up? Heck, this is the guy who has cited Glenn Beck as a hero, and I don’t think Glenn Beck’s own family cites him as a hero.

Now, I’m not speaking as a republican or democrat, and I’m not so sure I’d care who is in the Oval Office, but, if I got the invite to check the joint out, I’d take them up on the offer. Tim Thomas not showing up makes a statement, but it’s not political in nature, nor is it really effective. The fact that he posted a statement on Facebook makes it even weirder. Tim Thomas was effectively the girlfriend that refuses to go to a restaurant for birthday party, because a waitress once upon a time was rude to her. It’s not about you sunshine.

So, Dave Bolland went on WGN radio the other day and talked about how much he hates Vancouver, and referred to the Sedins as sisters and they and the green men as ugly. First off, Dave Bolland calling anything or anyone ugly is like Patrick Kane making fun of someone’s ability to grow a beard.

So, here’s the thing, I’m not too fussed about what Bolland said, the guy is known as a chirper and agitator, and that’s what he does. Yeah, he plays Vancouver well, and he slashes his way into the heads of the Sedins, he’s still not newsworthy. At the end of the day, he’ll go down as a niche player, that many non Canuck and Hawks fans will have trouble remembering.

Here’s what pissed me off. The number of people agreeing with him on this mornings Vancouver sports radio. They are the clearest definition of uneducated, bandwagon hockey fans. Hell, some folks said that they’d rather have 1 Dave Bolland on their team, than both the twins. I’d recommend they have 1 stiff drink and two tylenol, and call sanity in the morning. There is no one player in the league that I’d trade straight up for the twins, outside of a healthy Sidney Crosby.

These are the same ‘Canuck’ fans that shout ‘hit him’ when the opposing player has the puck behind their own net prior to a rush. They’re the same fans that scream shoot it, anytime a Canuck has the puck in the offensive zone. They hold strong to the belief that the twins are soft, despite them playing injured, they believe that they’re non-playoff performers, which means they likely didn’t have a tv set these last two seasons.

Yeah, Dave Bolland is a pest, and is annoying, what’s more frustrating is the 1 out of 7 ‘Canucks fan’ who claims to know the game and team, yet asks why Raffi Torres is being benched.

All of that aside, if you consider yourselves a sports fan, you should know a little bit about the Green Bay Packers, a team like no other in sport. The Packers, the third oldest franchise in the NFL, are the last of ‘small town teams’, something that was only really common back in the early 1900′s. The team was founded in 1919 by Earl Lambeau (hence the name of the stadium they call home), they’ve built a long standing tradition of success, winning the most league championships (13). What’s most interesting about the franchise is that it’s community-owned, it’s not a team owned by one person or a corporation. It’s a team that represents a city of roughly 100,000 people, with that small of a fan base, any other kind of ownership would’ve led to the team to being moved. It’s a team that might arguably be the most popular in the league, and has one of the most loyal fanbases in all of sport. The team actually runs as a not for profit, but, with the ability to sell stock. The team is currently selling stock, until early 2012, at $250 per share. The share includes voting rights, but the redemption price is minimal, there are no dividends, and the stock cannot appreciate in value. Furthermore, shares don’t offer any kind of ticket availability, and no shareholder can ever own more than 200 shares.

As with any team or sport, fans play a massive role in the success of the Green Bay Packers, every single game has been sold out at Lambeau Field since 1960, and this ain’t no 19,000 attendance capacity field. Demand is so high, that the team has one of the longest waiting lists for season tickets in sport. Roughly 86, 000 people are waiting for seasons tickets, meaning they have more people waiting for tickets, than they have seats at Lambeau. The team estimates only 90 tickets are turned over every year, meaning if a name was added today, the wait would be longer than 955 years. You have a better chance of playing on Lambeau Field as a NFL player, than winning seasons tickets. Season tickets are mentioned in wills, and newborn babies are often placed on the waiting list as soon as they receive their birth certificates.

It’s a team that has been affiliated with legends of the game, such as, Vince Lombardi and Brett Favre, and is home to likely future Hall of Famers such as Aaron Rodgers. It’s got one of the smallest television audiences for a sports team, yet, has one of the strongest and most dedicated fan bases. A tradition of winning, proud of the place it calls home, owned by the people, for the people, that’s the Green Bay Packers. Now, no need to call somebody.

Jerry Sandusky, used to be the defensive coordinator for Penn State, and early this November was arrested on 40 counts relating to sexual abuse of little boys over a 15 year period. A grand jury investigation revealed that a grad assistant told Paterno in 2002 that he had seen Sandusky performing a sex act on a 10 year old boy in the Penn State shower facilities. Paterno told the Athletic Director the next day. The matter seemed to disappear at that point. Paterno never contacted authorities.

When this all came to fruition, and Sandusky likely continued on his fucked up path of destruction for 9 more years, Paterno said he’d resign at the end of the season. Penn State, the next day, fired him.

The logical response to this of normal thinking adults would be that this makes sense. Paterno protected the Penn State brand and reputation, rather than going out of his way to protect innocent children. I don’t care how many games he has won, or how long he has been coaching, morally, you don’t call your athletic director when you think something like this is going on. I’m not calling Mr. Trotsky, my grade 9 gym teacher, because I think my neighbour has a grow up.

What blew my mind, is that much of the Penn State student body went up in arms when Paterno was fired. Many of them rioted, they turned over a news van, damaged lamp posts, injured an ESPN reporter. Joe Paterno is a legend they said, a good guy, he did so much for Penn State and their players. That’s what they rioting for. It’s funny, I always think University or College students are way more forward thinking than they actually are. Universities and institutes of ‘higher education’ are meant to give their students a stronger understanding of all elements of society, thought, and culture. They’re meant to help give a renewed focus of a moral compass, and fight for truth and justice, no matter how harrowing the circumstances. What they are meant to do is if you see an act of rape, you do not report it to your coach, nor your director, you get the authorities involved.

The real evil here is Jerry Sandusky, but it could’ve been stopped so much sooner if Joe Paterno truly was the leader many thought he was.

We start with a NFL clip, the New York Jets may have won, but everyone will be talking about Mark Sanchez’s total flinch out against Drayton Florence. Pretty funny.

The Boston Bruins Dan Paille shows why visors might just need to be mandatory in the NHL, as he blocks a Steve Staios slapshot with his face.

The next is of a sports me not, of the local news variety. The exercise fitness ball demonstration gets a little wobbly.

The first is a pretty creative costume, that’s relatively cheap, if you have a couple of thousand dollars of electronics laying around, particularly a couple of Apple iPad2′s. Check out how facetime makes the illusion of a gaping hole in your body.

Heidi Klum naked would probably generate a ton of internet search requests, and why not? She’s a friggin’ supermodel. She’s also known for throwing crazy, elaborate Halloween parties, featuring some pretty cool ass costumes. Check out the video how a naked, a really naked Heidi Klum showed up to her own shindig.

LMFAO is known for creating some very catchy ass tunes whether for the club or just to shuffle on your iPod. Check out this fans take on the song, incorporating a ‘Griswold’ like feel to their home.

Number 4 on my favourites list is a group of Ohio University students who took on starting a campaign to speak out against ‘racist’ Halloween costumes. They created clever posters that focused on particular ‘cultures’, and had a catchy slogan, like, ‘We’re a culture, not a costume.’ Sounds to me like someones not spending enough time in the fuckin’ library. I thought students were supposed to protest trees getting cut, and cheating corporations, rather than worrying that the next door neighbour’s kid is going as Eminem. The posters featured below show a couple of young people from particular ethnicities, one holding a ‘terrorist

Halloween costume’ pic, and the other holding a picture of a ‘geisha girl Halloween costume’. The part that makes me laugh out loud, is that they look so miserable, it really looks like someone beat them before they went in front of the camera. Maybe that was someone in a ‘dea

dbeat dad’ costume. The guy holding the bomber photo, we’ll call him Kobe, because that makes sense, needs to realise that the dude in the pic doesn’t actually think that all folks who have beards are terrorists. I applaud all of the students for their convictions, and proving that students do more than just study and party, they annoy the fucking shit out of you too.

Last, but definitely not least, is fitting to follow the Ohio virgins. Ex-Canuck Raffi Torres paying tribute to hip hop artist Jay Z, as he and his wife arrived to teammates Paul Bissonnette’s Halloween house party. His wife came as Beyonce, baby bump and all. This, of course, prompted lots of folks, probably from Ohio, screaming outrage that Torres would show up in ‘blackface’, and dare imitate Jay Z. Those upset, of course, are upset about the blackface, which is more brown face to be honest. Apparently, the world is not allowed to admit that Jay Z might be darker in skin tone than Raffi Torres’s ginger ass. Grow the fuck up people. It’s fuckin’ Halloween, and it’s nothing like Al Jolson in what looked like boot polish.

You see, year after year, only about five teams have a shot at winning a championship. You’ve got LA, Boston, Dallas, San Antonio, and probably a team you could float in and out. What about Miami, you ask? Well, it’s a damn good thing they didnt win, otherwise the NBA would become separated by two distinct eras. Pre-Heat, and Post-Heat. If a model as greed hungry actually won in it’s first year, this lockout would go even longer, and the damage to the NBA would’ve been even bigger. No league can run if you can ‘buy a championship’, fans will lose interest. You take a look at the NBA, and the big money teams seem to be bent on doing so. The Lakers got knocked out, and it had nothing to do with luck, heart, or lack of play. No, it was because they didn’t have Dwight Howard. A player who has never even worn the yellow and purple. This league needs a serious salary cap, not a Larry Bird era cap. It needs Minnesota, Denver, Cleveland, Sacramento, Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston to be profitable, productive, progressive teams. There’s a whack load more too. These teams don’t suffer because of poor management, or economies. They suffer because of the system in which they operate. The LA Lakers have a team salary of $90+ million, while Denver carries roughy $28 million. Hell, Kobe Bryant clears $25+ million a year. All of these figures need to come closer together for this league to continue. It’s bad enough that 80% of the games action and get settled in the last five minutes, no one needs to see the same five teams over and over.

At last report, the owners and players were no closer to an agreement.

One of the biggest things they pull off? They get the NBA stars not just to commit to covers, but to do some pretty cool stuff, check out these three sick trailers.

I remember the off season for the Canucks a few years ago was deemed the worst off season in recent memory. The team didn’t perform anywhere close to expectations, Trevor Linden retired from the game, Markus Naslund was left to walk away, and then on one cloudy morning, we all learned of the sudden death of up and coming defenseman Luc Bourdon in a motorcycle crash. Well, all due respect to all of those involved that summer, the loss the hockey world had faced this summer is unthinkable.

A few months back, Derek Boogard was found dead of an accidental overdose, a couple of months later, former Canuck, and fan favorite, Rick Rypien died in an apparent suicide. It didn’t end there, former Leaf, Wade Belak was found dead in his condo. All three left behind friends and families. You’d think that’s all the tragedy the hockey world would have to suffer.

But, then yesterday we learned about a plane crash in Russia, carrying the entire KHL team Lokomotiv, including former Canuck Pavol Demitra. At last count, there were believed to be 44 people dead. Staggering. Imagine an entire sports team being wiped out, a key part of a cities culture, it’s dynamic. You think of Demitra, and you think of the tough times he went through when his wife was ill, and the leave that he took, and, of course, you think of his exceptional performance for Team Slovakia in the Olympics. How can’t you forget that stellar save that Roberto Luongo made off a Demitra shot, and the two embracing in the handshake line afterwards.

I think I speak for everyone, when I say Hockey Gods, please leave us alone for a bit.