money???

In a time where finding a job and making ends meet we take a short look at the richest of the sports we watch. The following is a list of the highest paid athletes and teams for the year 2011 in football, basketball, hockey, baseball, and NASCAR. Of course since NHL has a cap all the teams have the same salary, NASCAR we are only concerned with drivers, cause anyone who watches racing knows Chip Ganasi has more money then The Vatican.

NBA:
This one is no contest the player and team both come from the same city and inside the same arena.  The player is Kobe Bryant with an impressive 24.8 million bucks and the Lakers salary is 91.6 million. Not to surprising of a factor considering the talent they have on the team.

NFL:
One of the finer things is life is knowing that the best athlete gets paid more than anyone else in the league. Payton Manning is the highest paid player for this year with a 15.8 million dollar check. As far a overall payroll is concerned the Dallas Cowboys take this hit with an outstanding 136.6 million dollar team. Does this surprise me? No not at all the team is owned by Jerry Jones who if ran for election would probably win simply because he has more money then any other politician in the game. No shocker here in either categories.

NHL:
Those of you who follow the great sport know that the league has a salary cap of 54.6 million of each team, so the only thing we can show you is the highest paid player. Vincent Lecavalier from the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 10 million dollar bring in. Fans who know of him and have been following him since he hit the league in 1998 shouldn't be surprised, he is an outstanding player, does great work for the community and is overall a nice guy. He has a charity through Kanes which every time he scores a goal is 1,000 bucks and an assist is 300. This season he scored 25 goals and had 29 assists which means he donated 33,700 bucks to his foundation.

MLB:
I know i shouldn't even have to post the name OR team cause everyone who knows baseball even a little bit knows both answers to this. Both of them come from the same city, the player is one who, of recent, has had a slight slump in comparison to his earlier career. Alex Rodriguez with a 32 million dollar check. Like I said not surprising at all neither is the Yankees with a 196.6 million dollar payroll. The team decides to buy a championship rather than earn it like other clubs have in the past.  People who know baseball should know this: bout 10 yrs ago a team from Florida, the Marlins, won a championship(i think the year was 1997), and then in the off season sold off all their stars. I think it was bout 6 yrs later won their second with a bunch of no names! This shows that farm systems work. The Rays are another organization who has had success with the farm system. Laughing stock of the MLB a couple years ago, got new head office people and turned the club around. Now the AL east is a 3 way fight.

NASCAR:
Team wise if you watch NASCAR you already know Chip Ganasi has more money than anyone in the sport, I think him and Rick Hendrick are 1 & 2 depending on the week. As far as drivers go it's Dale Earnhardt Jr with a 29 million dollar check, this doesn't not include merch sales or anything else. Junior has been crowned fan favorite driver 8 years straight.

This is just a bit of info for you guys to chew on for a while.

Note:
all information above was provided through an assortment of websites

sports figures in the news

So as most football fans are aware they are still on lockout. Some of the players are looking for other options as far as a way to make money while not on the field. Well obviously Chad Ocho Cinco has made his way into the lime light by trying out multiple sports in the lock out. First was a try out for the Sporting Kansas City MLS team back in march. Initially I thought this was gonna be a joke and he was going to be laughed off the field, but apparently I was wrong. He didn't do half bad ended up on the reserve team. Next he decided he was going to ride a bull. Just hearing that made me laugh. The thought of a man who has never been around a bull except at the dinner table to eat it, is gonna ride a 1500 lb bull in the PBR. Well, having full knowledge of the repercussions he decided to do it and lasted 1.5 sec. For any of you who know nothing bout the event max time is 8 sec, and even the best don't last that long sometimes. But of course he got paid 10,000 for making it out of the chute. Bro stick to one sport your good at.

So for something out of left field. NHL bad boy Sean Avery recently made a stand into supporting same sex marriages. Hockey fans across the nation probably looked at their calender to ensure that it wasn't April 1st after reading the title. But after further reading the article on ESPN.com I found out that not only him but other well known professional athletes are supporting the act. Grant Hill and jared Dudley of the Pheonix Suns did a couple PSA's which started running a couple months ago about bullying of gay teenagers. Brendon Ayanbadejo, linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens,  has also backed the same sex marriage train. This is a huge thing for male sports icon to come out about. For female sports player it was never a big deal for them to come out and support or come out of the proverbial "closet" and announce they were lesbians. 

 So what can be said about the best player in golf ever? Does he still hold that title. After an embarassing exit after only 9 holes with a score of 42 on the first day at The Players tournament, his shortest outing ever, what can be said. Since he car wreck everything has been down hill for him with the divorce of his wife and losing several sponsers will he ever be back to top form like the tiger we remember watching, wandering who would finish second rather than win. On the lighter side he has opened the field back up with his injuries. Golf has gotten back to the sport  we as golf fans watch to see how young guns are doing and to see that one seasoned veteran come back and win. I am sad to see this happen to a man that turned around the game like he has.

Note: all information above was provided through ESPN.com.

hockey info

So this is the first time for me doing this and majority of my posts will be sports related because it has such an impact on my life.

To start things off, I am from Florida and I am a life time Lightning fan. Not one of those fare weather ones that came around when they started being good... so ive been there since game 1 in the Fl. State Fairgrounds.  After the regular season was over this year ESPN's Hockey experts announced their predicitions for the Jack Adam's Trophy (Coach of the year) and of course they pick Pittsburgh's Coach Dan Blysma. Yes he is a good canidate Pitt has had alot of success with people being injured all year. But let look at Tampa's turn around for a second, here are some stats.

09-10 season:
34-36-12 GF:217 GA:260 DIFF: -43 (eliminated from playoffs)
10-11 season:
46-25-11 GF:247 GF:240 DIFF: +7   (5th seed for playoffs)

Those thats alone for a rookie coach should take the cake but thats my opinion. Being overseas is rough (yes I am in the military) i wish i could watch the playoffs. Its been nice watching highlights and such. Anyways I dont really know what else to say, i will try and keep up with this as much as i can. Take care for now.