An observation from Norman Chad, in his Couch Slouch column from the Washington Post: “Can you imagine the buildup and the hype — think of the length of the pregame show alone — if ESPN were around for the creation of the world?” . . . When the Seattle Seahawks dealt receiver Percy Harvin to the New York Jets, the New York Post headlined it: Percy snatcher. . . . The gang at Fark.com went with: Ppppercy and the Jets. . . . Janice Hough of LeftCoastSportsBabe.com noted: “Seattle will apparently receive a conditional draft pick in 2015. Percy Harvin will receive the month of January off.” . . .

After arriving in London, England, where they play the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, the Detroit Lions released running back William Powell. So much for him getting the royal treatment. . . . Headline at TheOnion.com: Calvin Johnson is out until back is healthy enough to carry team again. . . .

Jimmy Kimmel of ABC-TV yearns for the good ol’ days. “I love baseball,” he says. “You know, baseball was our national pastime before selfies took over.” . . . One of the college football bowl games this festive season will be the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl. Len Berman of ThatsSports.com points out: “Yup, nothing goes together quite as well as spicy wings and a citrusy drink. What’s next, Guantanamo Bay sponsoring the Liberty Bowl?” . . . Here’s Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald making a valid point: “At a WWE event, the Big Show ripped down a Russian flag. Before World War III starts, can someone quickly explain to the Russians about pro wrestling? Thanks.” . . .

Thanks to Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times for passing along a note from Vox.com. Wanting to see how much action there is in a televised NFL game, the folks there took an in-depth look at what was shown during the telecast of the Oct. 6 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and New England Patriots. The results:
• Players standing around: 35.5 per cent
• Commercials: 24.5 per cent
• Replays: 10.7 per cent
• Coach shots: 4.9 per cent
• Referee shots: 3.2 per cent
• Halftime: 3.2 per cent
• Sideline player shots: 2.2 per cent
• On-screen promotions: 2 per cent
• Other (crowd shots, cheerleaders): 5.5 per cent
• Actual football being played: 8.3 per cent.

“According to an ABC News report,” writes RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com, “clowns carrying baseball bats have been terrorizing people in Bakersfield, California. ‘We feel your pain,’ said Cubs fans.” . . . A note to the talking heads doing the highlight shows who refer to the NBA as the Association. There is only one Association and they sang Windy. Feel free to Google it. OK? . . . “The Canadian Ebola vaccine looks very promising,” notes comedy writer Alex Kaseberg. “If Canada can rid themselves of Justin Bieber, they can get rid of anything.” . . .

Hey, TSN, you can ditch those fantasy football commercials as soon as you can find the delete button. Thanks. . . . “The NBA is experimenting with shortening games,” writes Bob Molinaro of the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot, “while some players wish for a shorter season. But when it comes to sports in general on TV, what I want is a lot less pre-game chatter – none would be good – from the overcrowded panels whose analysis amounts to nothing. And I get what I want simply by not watching until the ball is in play.” . . . But, gee, without the panels, what’s left? . . . Gee, where would the likes of P.J. Stock and Glenn Healy go to be heard? . . .

Here’s Molinaro, again: “Media accounts of Kansas City’s undying love for its Royals go real easy on the inconvenient truth that the team ranked 25th out of 30 in attendance. The https://twitter.com/Royals were one of only six MLB clubs that didn’t break the 2-million mark this year. But don’t expect the facts to get in the way of a good story.” . . . Michael Beasley has played his way out of the NBA and signed with the Shanghai Sharks. Which got Greg Cote of the Miami Herald to asking: “How do you say ‘got weed?’ in Chinese?” . . .

With Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos putting a hammering on the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night, Vancouver comic Torben Rolfsen tweeted: “Finally, something positive to take Coloradans minds off worrying about weed-tainted Halloween candy.” . . . Have to wonder how many major league managers called their realtors when they found out Friday that Joe Maddon had left the Tampa Bay Rays. . . .

We close this week with a thought or two from Jack Finarelli, the Sports Curmudgeon, who is quickly becoming our resident sports philosopher: “With regard to Dallas Cowboys’ running back Joseph Randle’s arrest for shoplifting some cologne and some underwear because he supposedly did not want to wait in a long line at the cashier to pay for those items, can I please get someone at ESPN or FOX Sports1 to stop calling this a bad decision. That was so far beyond a simple ‘bad decision’ that it is insulting to every person on earth who ever made a bad decision. Buying and holding Enron stock was a bad decision; wasting two hours of one’s life to see the movie Ishtar was a bad decision; shoplifting items because the cashier line was too long to wait in is not a bad decision; it is an indicator of a massive case of entitlement. The fact that he is now some kind of spokesthing for the underwear company ought to be embarrassing to the max – but entitled people seem not to understand the concept of embarrassment.”

(Gregg Drinnan is a former sports editor of the Regina Leader-Post and the late Kamloops Daily News. He is at gdrinnan.blogspot.ca and twitter.com/gdrinnan. Keeping Score appears here on weekends, except when it doesn’t.)

In case you missed it, the NHL’s board of governors approved two real changes during meetings in Las Vegas in June.
A player who puts a hand on the puck in an attempt to hide it from an opponent or to keep an opponent from playing it will be given a minor penalty. (Sorry, but I always thought it was a penalty to put your hand on the puck, so I don’t quite understand this one.)
The other rule change calls for a minor penalty to any player who attempts to use a hand to win a faceoff. That now will draw a delay of game penalty.
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All of this is bad news for WHL observers who may have been hoping for the removal of the trapezoid.
The QMJHL has shown some terrific foresight in moving to get rid of the trapezoids from behind both nets, a move that will allow goaltenders to go back to playing pucks, thus taking some of the heat off defencemen who are far too often getting drilled by onrushing forwards.
The WHL isn’t expected to follow suit, choosing instead to continue to blindly and stubbornly follow the example being set by the NHL.
The junior leagues also need to go back to allowing one defenceman to hold up a forechecking forward, just for a beat or two, in order to prevent some of the brutal hits that are being put on defencemen as they recover the puck on dump-ins.
That, however, won’t happen as the WHL continues to choose to treat concussions rather than work harder to eradicate them.
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Without releasing the actual numbers, the WHL has admitted that the number of players suffering concussions was up in 2011-12 over the previous season.
In 2010-11, more than 100 concussions were suffered by players on the WHL’s 22 teams. An increase means that WHL players again experienced more than 100 concussions.
Ron Robison, the WHL commissioner, has said the league was not surprised by this increase.
Here’s what he told Bruce Luebke, the radio voice of the Brandon Wheat Kings:
"We anticipated that the numbers could increase this year because of the heightened awareness around the league at every level . . . from our doctors to our trainers to the players themselves being more conscious of it.
“We are very confident that the seven-point plan that the competition committee has put into place is a solid plan, is very comprehensive and addresses all of the areas.”
With all due respect, that is nothing but hogwash. At best, it is naive; at worst, it is disingenuous.
If, as Robison seems to indicate, the WHL didn’t go into a state of heightened awareness until after the 2010-11 season, there should be an investigation of some kind.
Because the rest of the hockey world was well aware long before 2010-11 that concussions were a major problem. Long before 2010, research had shown that “getting your bell rung” was more serious, a lot more serious, than it sounded.
The brothers Lindros, Eric and Brett, had come and gone, as had Paul Kariya, Keith Primeau, Pat Lafontaine and on and on and on.
On Aug. 27, 2009, Chris Shafter, in writing about The Messier Project wrote at thehockeywriters.com:
“According to the project website, TheMessierProject.com, the numbers are staggering. Since 1997 more than 750 players have experienced a concussion. The amount of games missed during that same time frame is averaged at 639 games per season lost due to concussions and concussion-related injuries. On top of that, nearly $60 million has been lost by organizations in player salaries alone while the injured are recovering, a subject that cannot be left out during these hard economic times while organizations struggle to break even.
“These scary concussion rates though are getting even worse. Over the course of one season (from 2005-06 to 2006-07) the number of NHL games missed due to concussions rose by 41 percent.”
The Messier Project, if you aren’t aware, has to do with the development of a better helmet for hockey players. D Willie Mitchell of the Los Angeles Kings is one player who wears the M11 helmet. Yes, he has been a concussion victim.
You should expect to hear a lot more about the M11 and M11 PRO helmets. That’s because Cascade Sports, the maker of those helmets, has been acquired by Bauer Performance Sports.
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There also was this piece right here, written by Michael Farber for Sports Illustrated in December 1994. If ever there was a canary in the coal mine for concussions in sports, this was it.
It is a devastating look at concussions that, unfortunately, not enough people seem to have taken seriously.
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If you didn’t see it, this comment recently was left by a reader of this blog:
“Regarding concussions: my son had two concussions playing in the WHL last year, both the result of hits to the head (and I would say flagrantly so because he is very tall — players have to hit very high to get his head). Neither hits were penalized. Until hits to the head are taken out of the game, nothing will change with concussions.”
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From Len Berman, at ThatsSports.com:
A school teacher who doubles as a school board member in a Philadelphia suburb may have just started something. Patty Sexton stood up at a town board meeting and said some things which might have sounded radical just a few years back. She advocates banning football at the high school level. She thinks asking taxpayers to "fund gladiators" is no longer appropriate. She said the sport is too dangerous and the kids are being put at risk for injuries, especially concussion. She said "our mission is to grow brains, not destroy them." She says if kids want to play football, fine, but let the community set it up, not the school system. This might sound blasphemous, but she has a point.
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A tip of the hat to The Concussion Blog (there’s a link over there on the right) for a terrific piece headlined “An Oldie But A Goodie.”
In this essay, the point is made that having a “mild concussion” is like being “mildly pregnant.”
If you have anything to do with sports, you should be checking out The Concussion Blog on a regular basis.


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Jenny's back on the block

How bad are the mosquitoes in Edmonton these days? “You have to be careful when coaching third base at our ball park that you don’t put on the hit and run at the wrong time because you were slapping a mosquito on the indicator sign,” Edmonton Capitals manager Orv Franchuk told Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun. . . . “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Eskimos GM Eric Tillman told Jones. “The next thing that’s going to pop up on our injury report is malaria. It’s like we’re practising in a jungle!” . . . The skeeters were so bad on Thursday that the Eskimos moved their practice inside. . . . Those mosquitoes likely have more bite than the 0-2 B.C. Lions, who are in Edmonton tonight. . . .
Here’s one from blogger R.J. Currie: “The Daily Mail reports the Seattle Mariners are one of the teams planning to have nut-free games this year. I thought they did that when they released Milton Bradley.” . . . With the Dodgers having filed for bankruptcy protection, ABC-TV’s Jimmy Kimmel offered: “I don’t know how an organization that sells a beer for $12 runs out of money, but they did.” . . . Comedy writer Jim Barach noted: “Who knew that the old Dodgers mantra of ‘Wait ’til next year!’ would have to do with trying to meet payroll?” . . . Iowa Speedway, the site of a recent IndyCar race, is known for its really bumpy corners. When the Des Moines Register asked driver Danica Patrick about her propensity for taking those corners at full throttle, she replied: “That took some ovaries to do.” . . .
A Tuesday tweet from the PGA of B.C., during a tournament in Pemberton: “Bear on the 4th hole just ripped apart a players bag at Big Sky in Assistants Championship.” . . . Which goes to prove the golf adage that some days you eat the bear and other days the bear eats your bag. . . . Having baseball’s all-star game decide home-field advantage in the World Series, notes Len Berman of thatssports.com, “makes as much sense as moving the Super Bowl to the home city of one of the teams based on the Pro Bowl! They’ve gotta change this.” . . . The man has a point. . . .
It’s almost as if the rats are deserting a sinking ship. First, it was Jeff Marek leaving Hockey Night in Canada for Sportsnet and now Pierre LeBrun has bailed for TSN. Marek used to be on HNIC’s iDesk, while LeBrun, who will continue to work for ESPN.com, was part of the After 40 Minutes gang. . . . And, if you missed it, Rogers Sportsnet cut ties with hockey play-caller Peter Loubardias on Wednesday. No explanation given. . . . Loubardias was the TV voice of the Calgary Flames and also handled the Memorial Cup for Sportsnet. . . . Say it ain’t so, J-Lo! Say it ain’t so! . . . It’s a wonder that the Internet didn’t implode from all the bad jokes after J-Lo and her third husband, ol’ what’s his name, announced they had visited Splitsville. . . .
Ty Davidson and the Golden Rockets are hoping the DeFrias brothers from Kamloops will burn up the KIJHL in the fall. Brett, a defenceman, had 32 points in 43 games with the Rockets last season. The other day, Davidson acquired Colten, a forward, from the Kelowna Chiefs. He had 36 points, including 22 goals, in 34 games last season. . . . In Saskatchewan, where it’s all Roughriders all the time, they have unveiled Darian’s Darios, a cereal named after QB Darian Durant. . . . “To boost first-week sales for the cereal,” writes Dave Deibert of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, “grocery stores around the province were offering a Roughriders special: 13 boxes for the price of 12.” . . .
Our man Dylan Armstrong got some publicity in Toronto on Tuesday, before winning the National Track League shot putting title there the next evening. “Press has been crazy,” he said via text on Tuesday evening. “Did Canada AM on CTV at studio. Was really good.” . . . Armstrong was in Victoria on July 2 to honour old friend Gary Reed, Canada’s best-ever 800-metre man and an Olympian. A lot of Reed’s friends gathered for a retirement dinner; they also named the Victoria Track Classic’s main event The Gary Reed 800m. . . . Mike Bianchi, in the Orlando Sentinel: “Did you see where Greg Anderson, Barry Bonds’ personal trainer, has been barred from coaching a youth league baseball team in the San Francisco area? Too bad because he would have given a whole new meaning to the term ‘juice boxes.’ ” . . .
Catharine Pendrel, the reigning World Cup champion who trains in Kamloops, is in Canmore today for the Canadian cross-country mountain bike championships. She will be working to keep rival Marie-Hélène Prémont from her seventh Canadian elite title, which would tie Alison Sydor’s record. . . . Ron Judd, in the Seattle Times: “Weather records indicate Seattle has been getting wetter and warmer, which at least ought to provide some new material for people who gripe that it’s only been getting richer and ruder.” . . . Jeff Speedy, a former interim athletic director and women’s basketball coach at TRU, will be back on campus later this year. He is bringing his U of New Brunswick Varsity Reds to the annual BDO Canada preseason tournament. . . .
In case you missed it, the legendary Joey Chestnut won the Nathan’s hot dog-eating contest on July 4. The inaugural women’s title went to Sonya (The Black Widow) Thomas. He downed 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes; she handled 40. . . . The Left Coast Sports Babe would like to see a division for super models. “The winner would be the first to finish a cocktail weiner,” she scribbled. . . . Pat Hickey, in the Montreal Gazette: “It’s comical to see Matthew Hulsizer pop up as the possible owner of the St. Louis Blues. Here’s a guy who was only willing to put up $70 million of his own money to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and now he’s going to pony up $165 million for the Blues?” . . .
You may not be interested in hearing this but quarterback Brett Favre is said to be thinking about playing some more football. Here’s Greg Couch of FanHouse.com: “Brett Favre is like a piece of gum you’ve chewed too long and can’t find a place to spit out. Once you finally do — thank God! — you accidentally step in it and can’t get it off your shoe.” . . . During the second round of last week’s John Deere Classic, John Daly came up with a 13 on the par-3 fourth hole. “Two-putted,” he explained. “(I missed a) 20-footer for 12.” . . . Hey, golfers, have you heard about the Rupert Murdoch Invitational? Comedy writer Alan Ray explains it: “Not a lot of good golfers involved. Mostly a bunch of hackers.”

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, twitter.com/gdrinnan, and gdrinnan.blogspot.com. Keeping Scoreappears sporadically over the summer months.