Ok it's official, Aaron Rodgers is the least luckiest man in professional sports.  it is not even close anymore.  Give him the trophy or the $10,000 or something else, cause he may need something as of Monday.

It has been reported that Brett Favre will be reinstated to the Green Bay Packers on Monday and that will officially end the honeymoon between the Pack and Aaron Rodgers.  Then on top of that it has also been reported that there will be an open competition for the starting QB that Favre left in March, that had been Rodgers job since Brett teared up in March.

So now we can officially hold off the Favre jersey retirement ceremony that would have been happening on that first Monday night game of the season.  Unless Brett decides to be like Michael Jordan and pull out a number 5 and let them add 4 to the ring of honour or whatever the have in Green Bay.

This just proves one more thing that people have been speculating since the Draft back in April...The Packers aren't completely sold on Rodgers, when they drated not one but two quarterbacks in the draft.  Granted the second QB they took was in a late round, but the first one was taken in round two.  A second round pick isn't one that teams are taking the best player available, they are drafting for need.  So I believe that the Packers are still waffleing on Rodgers.

But now that Brett has reportedly been invited to compete for his old job, Green Bay  has confirmed many suspicions, unless Rodgers beats Brett out for the job, but I think only the Rodgers family believe this will happen.

Now Green Bay loses a player that has learned thier offense and is some what comfortable running it, because the way the organization has jerked Aaron around, there is no chance he re-signs, but I don't think the organization cares.

No matter how this situation turns out, or how many animals they bring into the circus that will be Packers camp on Monday, we can actuaclly get some interesting football in early August.

Are you ready for some football?

Like the Slam Dunk competition in the NBA, the Home Run Derby has gone the way of drying paint.  Watching it on TV is pretty terrible, but then you get people actually paying money to go watch glorified batting practice for what I guess would be a ton of money.  But I think most people, aside from baseball purists, we have grown tired of the derby.

Even in most years when they had great homerun hitters like McGwire, Sosa, Griffey and Bonds it was painful to watch.  Now we have guys like Evan Longoria, Grady Sizemore and Dan Uggla, who don't typically hit home runs.

The only two bonafide home run hitters in the derby are Justin Morneau and Lance Berkman, and they are even marginal guys.  The typical big home run guys like Ortiz, Ramirez, and everymans punching bag A-Rod are going to be watching it because they have realized how terrible this event is.

Then you get people ripping on A-Rod for missing the derby.  Does't this guy already have enough problems with the New York Media.  He is in a no win situation by entering the derby.  If he does well, the media will say it was the derby, lets see him in September or October, and if he puts up a single digit total and gets bounced in the first round, people will say its the same old A-Rod.

The only people who think the derby is great are the ones sponsoring the event or if you are a fan of one of the contestants.  Other than that, no one really cares.

If you like it fine, but seeing marginal hitters hit bombs off of some pitching coach just doesn't do it for me.

I was just sitting down reading a story from a web-site yesterday only to find that there was somone in Ohio who wanted to ban all star games.  Normally I don't react to what somone is saying, but this really bugged the hell out of me.

Here is the link to the article if anyone wants to see for themselves.  In this article he is talking about kids younger than 10 years old.

If you dont have time to read it, let me give you the coles notes version.  Bascially what is being said is that the writer of the letter wants to ban the all-star game because it shatters a person self-confidence and can bruise the kids ego. 

Then he compares it to school and says that if a kid is learning numbers and letters quicker, do we call then "special" or "gifted".  Then he compared the all-star game to taking a vegetarian to a fancy steakhouse and or a person on a strick diet to a buffet.

Next he says all these games do is reward the kids who have developed quicker, then he got rediculous and said that all-star games with children at a young age can lead to injuries with extra games and practices.  I'll use a direct quote and he says "They take a toll on young bodies and lead to an avalanche of overuse injuries."

Then he goes on from there talking about how you should take a stand and help in the fight to ban all-star games in general, or something along those lines.

I don't know what to say after something like this.  This was written by the guy who wanted the great institution of the "Participant" trophy installed at every youth sports league in North America.  Whenever someone wants their child not to feel upset by belittleing other accomplishment bugs me to no end.

This letter was probably written by a parent who thinks their son or daughter when they are signed up for sports is going on to better things even though they can't tie their own shoes yet.  Then when their child got passed over for an all-star team, they are just so upset and they use the old addage of if I can't have it no one can.

Then he proceeds to damage his stance on the issue further saying that it can lead to a bruised ego when a child is passed over for an all-star team.  If your kids who is younger than 10 years old knows what an all-star team is unless he is watching the peofessionals, you have missed the point.  A 10 year old isn't going to be drafted tomorrow so whether or not he makes an all-star team should be irrelevant.

Next we have the overuse injuries comment.  You know what else provides overuse injuries to kids, playing video games for hours on end and eating bag after bag after bag of chips.  That also adds to the kids being severely overweight and less interested in sports. 

At least when kids are playing sports like baseball, basketball and football, they have a goal to strive for in being a great player, who is better -yes some kids are going to be better and it is not based solely on whether or not they have developed some are more skilled than others- than other players on their team.

Why should somones accomplishments be torn down to make other feel better about themselves?

I say that all-star teams are great because the ones who are passed over will try harder and they will try to become a better player.  Being dissappointed builds character in a person and isn't that more important in raising a productive member of society.  When kids get dissappointed at a young age, they learn how to persevere and get beyond road blocks.

If you don't teach a kid dissappointment at a young age what is going to happen when s/he hits middle age and goes off sulking when he didn't get a big account at the law firm s/he may work at.  It motivates them to become better at what they are doing and gets them working harder to achieve that goal.

Nobody celebrates mediocraty and by banning the all-star game, that is exactly what you are doing.  You saying that everyone is equal, which in many cases, like sports and life, they are not.  If you say to a kid that everyone gets a trophy for participating, the kid will be conditioned to think that way their entire life.

Listen to a lot of recruiting stories for big college programs.  Not everyone can go to USC, so when teams play USC, there is a little extra motivation to try and beat them to show them what the missed.  Ian Johnson, runningback at Boise State was passed over at UCLA, and has gone on to become one of the best runningbacks in college football.  What may have motivated him to this level, somone telling him he was not good enough.  Johnson was passed over on an all-star team and went on to great things in spite of his situation.

If you remove the all-star game you will be a lot more harm than good, by raising a nation of soft people, like the ones on American Idol who think they are excellent even though they are probably the worst on the planet, everyones great accomplishments will be downgraded and belittled to make everyone appear equal.  No one is equal or we would all be playing professionally.

I learned this concept when I was playing minor hockey and was passed over for an all-star team.  It motivated me to become a better player and then I kept moving up in levels.  When I got to my highgest level that gave me an incredible sense of accomplishment and I felt good about my self.

If there was no all-star game, maybe I wouldn't have gotten as high up as I did.  An All-Star game made me a better person, and I wasn't even apart of the game.  The team I was passed over for gave me motivation to get better, it taught me to peresevere and be a driven person and to work hard for everything I got.

By removing the All-Star game and start giving trophys to everyone, you create a culture of entitlement and then when somone doesn't receive a "good job" or an "atta boy" thats when it hurts the kids development.

When these people realize that they are hurting the kids rather than helping them, we will get a better kids and better professionals, because somone didn't say to them, "Congratulations Participant"

Not enough to do an entire post on one topic, so here is a little bit of everything:

1. Loved hearing about Fresno State winning the college world series last night upsetting Georgia 6-1.  Great story to see them win the National Title, and being 6-0 in elimination games in the entire tournament.
2. Jermaine O'Neal to the Toronto Raptors for T.J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic and the 17th pick is a good deal for both teams.  The Raptors get a big man to play down in the post and sit there and rebound the entire game long, and it takes a lot of pressure off Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargniani who were playing the inside game.  The Pacers get an excellent point guard in Ford and the possibility of a great player with the draft pick.  Nesterovic was just a throw in to make the salaries match up, but he could turn out to be a good player for Indiana.
3. If the Miami Heat don't take Michael Beasley with the second overall pick in the draft this will be the biggest passover since the Raptors took the stiff Rafael Araujo with a ton of good palyers still on the board.
4. The whole Javon Walker saga has become a little tired.  After his BS excuse that he was mugged at his hotel room and dragged to a car and dumped in the street was completely believeable.  Now we have testimony that he willingly got into someones car and then was dropped off in the street.  I was on Javon Walker for bad decision making when this stroy broke, then I dismissed that totally implausible story, and now the truth has come out.  Okay, time to move on.
5. I love interleague play, and when I hear people say the schedule is un-balanced and un-fair need to look at baseball as an entire sport.  It is the most un-fair sport in the world.  Different parks have different dimensions, some parks have different nuances to them (Houston has a hill in centre field and Fenway has the Monster).  The schedule has been un-balanced for a long time.  The AL EAst plays the Yankees and Red Sox 18 times each, while other AL teams play them about six-nine times a season.  The Cubs get to play the Pirates 18 times a season.  Baseball on the whole is the most un-fair sport on the planet.
6. Stop beating me over the head with somone dunking in the WNBA.  When Candace Parker throws one down on someones head and doesn't just let it fall over the rim, call me.

That's it for this week.

With the NHL Draft taking place in Ottawa this weekend, every hockey fan is wondering who is their team going to pick, what trade day deals are going to happen and how is their teams chances at the Cup going to look after the weekends completes.

Being the good person that I am I thought I would shine some light on a few things.

Steven Stamkos will be the first overall pick, no questions asked.  I think that Tampa Bay's problems are not concerned with offence and they should be focusing on defense, but a prospect like Stamkos only comes along every so often.

Watching Stamkos at the World Junior Championships this past Christmas was a treat because I finally got to see what eveyone was talking about how good this kid is.  He will be an instant impact player in the NHL and will slide right into the Lightning line-up replacing the departed Brad Richards.  Their powerplay will be incredibly good with Lecavalier, St. Louis and Stamkos.

Teams are going to shy away from taking European players who are signed with club teams and playing professionally in Europe because of the disintegration of the IIHF Transfer agreement between the NHL and all other professionaly leagues around the world.

Players like Nikita Filatov who is projected to be the Number 5 overall pick according to TSN, will get passed over simply for the degree of difficulty of getting players away from their European team without being caught in a legal battle like Evgeni Malkin was when he left Russia for the Penguins.

In the NHL, especially with the Draft, you can't expect to be good overnight unless you get a prospect that is a 100% can't miss like Stamkos.  Most of the time when you get a player who is 18 years old, he takes time to develop physically, when the player is a lot smaller than his future NHL colleagues.

The mental aspect is not that big a deal because the players in the CHL are used to playing a ton of games, including three games in as many nights.  Also, in the CHL they play with the rules they are going to play with in the NHL which is another reason that the turnover is going to be a lot faster than a sport like baseball and or to a lesser extent football.

A draft in any sport-except baseball-is always exciting and the upcoming NHL one will be no exception.