Gamekeeping, Field Sports and Country Pursuits

Archive for the ‘Bbc Sport’ Category

Joe Calzaghe completed the year in which he became the unquestionable World Super Middleweight Champion by being voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. The contenders list was determined by a range of newspapers and magazine sport experts, plus a BBC panel and the public vote by phone decided the winner during the show broadcasted from the NEC in Birmingham.

The award definitely went to one of the nations finest sports competitors. This year, the Welsh boxer joined the Super-Middleweight Division with a unanimous point’s victory over Denmark’s Mikkel Kessler at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium last month. He now stands with a professional record of 44 wins, including 32 knockouts.

It was a night of double celebration for Calzaghe’s family as his father Enzo was named Coach of the Year. While accepting the prize, he expressed to be shocked since receiving the award was a massive honor for him. Lewis Hamilton also capped a memorable first season in Formula One by being voted runner-up. In regards to Calzaghe’s victory and being the odds favorite Hamilton added: “He’s a worthy winner. I just wish he was here so I could meet him,” Hamilton told BBC Sport.

On the other hand, Ricky Hatton finished third in the poll only 15 hours after his WBC welterweight title fight defeat in Las Vegas. However, he seemed to be very satisfied with his third place worthier for a boxer with 43 successive wins in his career, including 31 knockouts.

Other big names in the world of sport gathered at Bidmingham’s NEC, including Roger Federer, who was named the Overseas Sportsman of the Year for third time and Tom Daley crowned the Young Sports Personality of the Year. The World equestrian Champion, Zara Phillips, 2006 BBC Sports Personality of the Year was also one of the show’s special guests.

Additionally, football legend Sir Bobby Robson picked up the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award and received a standing ovation and huge applause as he made his way to the stage and England Rugby Union achieved the Team of the Year Award.

The end of the ceremony was full of grace, elegance; the BBC Sports Personality was crowned by the public vote and Calzaghe ended the season with another trophy.

Over the past fiscally shocking months I thought we had seen it all in regards to American corporate greed. We’ve had instances of massive fraud, incomprehensive incompetence, exorbitant bonuses awarded to executives of failing companies, and too many other manifestations of greed on behalf of corporate America to detail here. Now we are witness to another egregious example, a thoughtless and irresponsible act of greed by none other than the National Football League!

Yes, you read that last sentence correctly. The NFL has been talking to officials in London about hosting the Super Bowl sometime in the near future. As FoxNews.com reported today, April 24th, a senior NFL big-wig has confirmed that ‘substantial talks’ have been held with London officials to ship the biggest American sporting event overseas.

I don’t think the NFL people wanted this information to leak out – especially not on NFL Draft Weekend. The BBC Sport news organization scooped the story and put out the word which was then picked up here in the United States by Fox. This morning it is a hot topic on talk radio.

Preposterous! What is the NFL thinking especially now in our time of financial disaster and a crisis of confidence? How could they even consider as a remote possibility outsourcing the biggest sporting event of the year every year, an event which has become a quasi American holiday, a sports gala which is the biggest in the world emanating from right here in the United States showcasing our country as well as the host city?

And yet, the top NFL buffoons are serious about this. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has always had the idea of expanding the NFL overseas. We have had several preseason and now regular season games abroad. Last fall the San Diego Chargers flew to London to play the New Orleans Saints, a journey of many thousands of extra miles just to satisfy the whacky dreams of the Commissioner. It was a tiring week for the players and a logistic challenge for team staff. For what I ask? Money is the answer – a manifestation of excessive greed.

There has been an interest in doing this for some time according to insiders in the NFL organization; only now has it been confirmed as a distinct possibility. A spokesman for London’s official visitors’ organization says “Ever since the NFL began playing games in London we have been in discussions with the NFL about what is involved in staging the Super Bowl from the host city prospective. It continues to be something we discuss on a regular basis, without there being any specific timetable or plan in place.”

The next three Super Bowls have been awarded to cities in Florida, Texas, and Indiana ensuring the NFL won’t abandon America any time soon – at least not for three years. Don’t count on anything after that. If the NFL and Roger Goodell can shake down London for enough money, you can rest assured it will be very enticing to go there.

That’s how awarding a host city the Super Bowl goes these days, sort of a high bid situation. Money talks. The NFL holds some cities for ransom while rewarding those who have built new stadiums and punishing those who refuse.

On January 26, 2003, San Diego was the chosen site for Super Bowl XXVII and put on an excellent show in beautiful weather, had rave reviews from attendees and football officials, and was deemed one of the better cities to have ever hosted a game. But, the Commissioner was unsatisfied with the venue, Qualcomm Stadium. He said then in no uncertain terms, while in the host city as a guest, that San Diego would not see another Super Bowl unless and until it built a new stadium.

New stadiums do not come cheap these days. The team and city would have to come up with at least $500 million dollars – and probably lots more – to satisfy the greed of the Commissioner and NFL. It was a shakedown, plain and simple. To date San Diego has not backed down on their stance that cities should not pay for new stadiums for football teams which are awash in cash, Super Bowl be damned!

Super Bowls bring thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions in tourist dollars for the week of festivities. In San Diego’s case, it was a family affair where the city offered varied entertainment opportunities such as Sea World, Wild Animal Park, and the San Diego Zoo suitable for families as well as beautiful beaches in January for visitors to enjoy. It was an exciting time for locals as well as tourists. And profitable for the city.

Yet NFL officials have let the cat out of the bag: “The NFL is a global property, has a global audience, and London is an incredible city from a sports fan’s perspective. I don’t think it’s an unrealistic prospect at all.” says Mark Waller, marketing and sales guru for the NFL.

You have been forewarned; get on the hook – bombard the NFL with calls, emails, and whatever else you can do to let these greed-driven nincompoops know that we won’t allow this insulting idea of moving our Super Bowl to a foreign country. If they still persist in so doing, cancel all NFL season tickets to let them know WE pay the bills for their overpaid staff including the Commissioner.

Maybe they will get the message that we are mad as hell that they would even consider this stupidity and intend to be proactive in voicing our displeasure at any attempt to outsource OUR Super Bowl

The soccer season might be over, but hey, what a time of year for sports fans in the UK. Having already witnessed the French Open tennis championship, courtesy of Eurosport and the red button on BBC, attention will quickly turn to Royal Ascot and the five glorious days of racing held there. This magical racing festival alas clashes with the daily dose of the Twenty20 cricket, World Cup, but fortunately it will not clash with the US Open Golf Championships. This huge golf tournament also starts during Royal Ascot week, but for UK sports fans this is evening viewing over four solid days as the world’s best Golfers battle it out at Bethpage State Park, New York, for the second major of the season, where only one man is fancied to win the championship and that is Tiger woods.

After Ascot and the US Open, the cricket World Cup continues into the semi final stages, but the big sports event to follow will of course be Wimbledon and the chance for British fans to support a potential men’s winner in the form of Scot, Andy Murray.

There is also the small matter of the British Lions tour of South Africa going on as well of course, the three test series begins on June 20th and ends a fortnight later and the Lions will be hoping to win their first tour since they were last in South Africa in 1997.

Wimbledon will hold the nations attention for a full two weeks, during which time the Twenty20 World Cup will have been decided and many of the top three year old colts and fillies will have lined up and ran in the Irish Oaks and Irish Derby respectively.

British sports fans cannot be blamed if their attention is diverted towards Silverstone the weekend before Wimbledon starts. The British Grand Prix takes place and for the second successive year there is every chance of saluting a British winner. Jenson Button has won five of the six races that have taken place so far in the F1 season.

Wimbledon concludes at the end of the first week in July and then after a sharp intake of breath, its all systems go for the Ashes series against Australia. That begins on July 8th and takes place throughout the summer concluding towards the end of August.

Of course, sports fans will not only have to suffer the Ashes during this period, but Glorious Goodwood is also in July as is the world famous Galway Races on the beautiful West Coast of Ireland.

Then, notwithstanding the soccer season gets underway once more and sports fans will realise that they will need at least three TV sets and three sets of eyes to take it all in. It is a truly wonderful time of year which as always will produce the talking stories of the summer and be responsible for many tears and cheers as champions are produced and losers forgotten no matter what the sport.

The great British summer is here at last!