The sports world has been awkward these past two weeks.  The Olympics have clogged everyone’s mind about the real sports that we should be watching.  I get it; the Olympics are fun, they're a spectacle, they have pride and tradition involved, but do we really have people praising ice dancing, curling, and speed skating?

What's wrong with you people?  How quickly has this NBC induced coma taken over your mind.  People are in a Vancouver frenzy for two weeks and it's like anything Canada related has taken over the news waves.  Even Boner from Growing Pains goes missing and its headline news because he traveled to Vancouver.  Do we really care where Boner from Growing Pains is at?  It's been almost 20 years since we heard from him, why do we care now?

I just don't get it.  I've watched my fair share of Olympics. They're enjoyable, but none of them except Men's hockey are events I'd want to watch on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Every four years; that's fine; I can live with that. I've heard people talk about wanting the Olympics to change to every three or two years. Please! No! It already ruins our normal television schedule for two weeks every other year, the last thing I would want is it to happen every year.

The biggest problem with the Olympics is that it takes away from every other sport that is going on. We haven't heard news, gossip, or anything of relevance from the NBA since the trade deadline. There have been some great games too. We've seen the introduction of Antawn Jamison to the Cavs starting lineup and Kobe came back with a 3 point dagger to win the game against the Memphis Grizzlies. Do we hear about any of this on the radio or in the newspaper?  Hardly. I would've never thought that people would care more about Lindsey Vonn's pinkie finger then Kobe Bryant's. What is the sports world coming to?

My biggest gripe is that nobody is paying attention to college basketball. College basketball always has a tough enough time as it is each year for people to get excited for it. Most people don't usually pay attention until March anyway, but this spectacular season needs to be viewed now. There are no dominating teams this year. Kansas and Kentucky are definitely leading the pack, but then we got plenty of others who could make a run at the title. Syracuse, Purdue, Duke, Kansas State, and Ohio State all have a chance to grab #1 seeds. I guess if you're a North Carolina fan then you should be happy that no one is paying attention.

Did you hear that Nike is coming out with special basketball shoes for March Madness?  They don't come with Heels!

Hopefully one of you got the joke.

March Madness is going to be special this year. It's special every year, but this year we will see an abundance of upsets. It just seems like this year, any team could beat their opponent on any given day, which means there will be lots of close games, upsets, and game winning shots, or at least game winning attempts. There's only one more week of regular season college basketball left and then we get into conference tournaments. I know the excitement will grow starting March 8th for those, but people need to be paying attention now because there's been spectacular games as of late.

Enjoy your Olympics that are shoved in your face for two weeks and act like it's the greatest thing ever for a few more days, but then jump back to reality. I just hope March Madness gets to some of you in time before you purchase your replica Johnny Weir outfit and hit the rink. The Olympics are fun every four years, but just remember that the greatest sporting event of the year is just around the corner.

Hockey always seems like its second fiddle to the other major sports.  Maybe it’s even third fiddle these days.  It just seems like whatever the NHL tries to do it never pans out for them.

They've had their problems; lockouts, gambling, Fox's puck highlighter.  For some reason or another they just couldn't get back over the hump into mainstream America's living room.  Some of the decisions they made after their year long hiatus didn't help their cause.  Signing up to be broadcast on the Outdoor Life Network (currently Versus) just didn't seem like the way to grab the much needed attention that they needed.

There are some positives.  Superstars have emerged that almost all American's know.  Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Evgani Malkin, and many others are now normal names that even very casual viewers of hockey recognize.  The Stanley Cup Finals were fabulous last year. A seven game series with a rematch of the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins definitely doesn't hurt the NHL's cause either.

The pinnacle for the sport was last Sunday night's game between Team Canada and Team USA.  The excitement, the emotion, the hatred for one another topped any other hockey game in a long, long time.  American's who haven't watched a hockey game in years tuned in.  Canadians who live and breathe the sport were ecstatic for the game until the conclusion of it.  It was the essence of what sports should be about.  That game and hopefully the games to come until this Sunday may help put hockey back on the American map.  The NHL needs to parlay the American victory into an NHL victory though.

The NHL needs to get rid of the West and East and start a North and South conference.  The North are Canadian teams and the South are American teams.  Make it a 28 team league with fourteen teams in each country.  We would have to get rid of some teams in the US, but that wouldn't be that big of a deal.  Do we really need the Columbus Blue Jackets and Phoenix Coyotes?  Americans could still play on the Canadian teams and Canadians on the US teams.

This would work out because what we learned from last Sunday's game was that it was about the name on the front of the jersey and not the name on the back.  Fans don't care who are playing, they care about their team and that they win.  All skaters could've been wearing full on green man suits with no names on their jerseys and we wouldn't care, as long as our team won.  This would be the same with the new NHL.  Canadians would love their conference and Americans would love theirs.  There hasn't been any other sport that has created a hated rival amongst conferences.  Baseball used to be close before interleague play was introduced.  Now when interleague play is going on we just care to see the other teams' players, not care about the American/National league rivalry.

The NHL would be different.  Every international game would be of importance to our country.  No one in American wants their team to lose to a Canadian team and vice-versa.  The All Star game would be fabulous and the Stanley Cup Playoffs would be unlike any other.  It would capture the atmosphere of an Olympic hockey gold medal game, except we would have a 7 game series to decide the champion.

It's an idea that is feasible and would work.  It would expand the audience of hockey to so many people and it would turn the sport around and catapult it past to where it once was.

For once the NHL wouldn't have to play second fiddle and could finally be an innovator instead of a follower.

Remember how entertaining it was to watch Dennis Rodman?  From the hairstyles to the antics to the nut shot on the cameraman; Dennis always gave you a reason to watch. He was definitely a peculiar fellow, but fans still gravitated towards him.  He was a bad guy.  He knew it, we knew it, and nobody wanted it any other way.

Things have changed now.  We no longer have bad guys.  Instead we have players with character issues and guys who should be privileged to be in the position they're in.  If a player acts out, they're labeled with the ranks of Adam "Pacman" Jones or Terrell Owens.  The problem is we have classified the two together, when they're not even near the same type of player.  Now if you act out, do anything that is deemed a detriment to society, or have any character flaw that doesn't fit with the norm then you're labeled bad, and that's never a good thing.

Back in the 70s, 80s, and even the early 90s we had teams like the Philadelphia Flyers and the Detroit Pistons who were considered goons or bad boys of their sport.  People knew what they were and loved them for it.  Being bad was an attitude, not a problem for the league.  Players who were considered bad guys had chips on their shoulder.  They showed it every day that they played and wanted to prove to the world that nothing was ever going to be their downfall.

I guess politically correctness has changed in the past couple decades.  No one can do anything anymore without being chastised or reprimanded for their behavior or something they say.  Everyone has to take the same path now to get where they want to go.  There's no individualism, and if you try to have any, you are put in your place immediately.

All sports have addressed these issues.  The NBA has enforced a dress code for all players, the NFL won't let you celebrate anymore, baseball won't even let players use steroids now.  It's unbelievable how far these leagues have gone.  No sport will let anyone talk negatively about the organization.  There are fines and suspensions for anything of that nature.  How did we get to this place?

It's the expansion of the Internet and media.  Now when something is said that’s regarded as derogatory it's blown out of proportion by the media, it's all over the Internet, and fans grab onto it and won't let it go it until it's run its course a million times over.  It's a shame that people aren't able to speak their minds anymore or express themselves, but we only have ourselves to blame for these extreme types of reactions.

I don't care about political correctness.  I'm going to say what I feel and hope you feel what I say.  What people don't understand is being political correct is a never ending process that is never going to be corrected.  The new accepting term today will be the disdainful term tomorrow.  You can't use the term midget anymore, you have to say dwarf or vertically challenged.  The word retard changed to mentally handicapped, and now it's intellectually disabled.  I guess the longer the word is the tougher it is to use it in a negative manner.  What's going to be the new term when people think calling someone intellectually disabled is demeaning though?

The point is that our society has just spiraled into a whole new realm of what's right and wrong.  We can't just be realistic and understand that no matter what word we use or what phrase we say, if it's used to be hurtful then that's it.  If I call someone a midget in a hurtful manner and I call someone vertically challenged in a hurtful manner then what's the difference?  Same context, different word.  We need to be able to look at the whole picture and realize there's no definitive right or wrong words, just like there are no definitive good or bad guys.

Sports organizations can try to control the perception of players all they want, but all they are doing is setting themselves up to fail.  By trying to create this utopian society of athletes we are just creating a situation where any problem is now considered terrible, when some problems should be considered minute and others severe.

Athletes have personalities; let them show it.  Why try to make someone into something they aren't?  We can keep pretending that these athletes are different people because they are dressed in suits or not celebrating, but all we are really doing is just calling them by a different word, one that just isn't as derogatory at the moment. We created this problem and there's really no way to fix it, except by understanding that our current fix is no fix at all.

Hopefully someday we can return to a society or at least a sports world where someone can show emotion and a $10,000 fine doesn't come with it. Maybe we can see players having fun and celebrating again when they score, even if it hurts the itty bitty feelings of the other team and their fans. Maybe we can finally let people just be themselves and not try to make everyone a good person.

Because even when you're a good person, sometimes it's fun to root for the bad guy.

The interest in the USA vs. Canada Olympic hockey game yesterday can be summed up by Seth Davis from Sports Illustrated.  On Twitter at 7:45pm yesterday he posted,

"Flipping between US-Canada hockey and VT-Duke hoops. Looking forward to @TimBrando accidentally calling VT's coach Seth Davis."

Three hours later he posted,

"I have not watched a second of the VT-Duke game, and I don't even like hockey. Riveting!!!!!!!!"

Unless you're a hockey fan you probably weren't tuning in at 7:45 to watch the puck drop.  You probably heard about the game, didn't expect too much of it, and went about your Sunday night like you usually do, basically fretting over going to work in the morning.  The ones that were watching initially were excited for the game, but we didn't realize the magnitude and excitement that the game would have.

The game of hockey changed in 41 seconds.

As soon as Brian Rafalski's goal got deflected past Martin Brodeur the sports world changed.  Immediately I was receiving text messages and calls from people making sure I was watching the game.  There was enthusiasm for America and an interest in hockey that we haven't seen in a long time.

I'm a Pittsburgh Penguins fan.  I was at the edge of my seat for all seven games of the Stanley Cup last year.  I don't know if any of them were as special as this one.  The weird thing is that this game didn't mean much.  It was just a preliminary game.  The intrigue was built up because it was two neighboring countries, both undefeated, and America was the underdog that had a chance, but a slim one.  Canada was easily the favorite that had the most talent, size, skill, speed, and athleticism.

The game went back and forth throughout the night.  Ryan Miller was absolutely amazing in net.  If you don't have a team to root for then root for the Sabres.  I told my friend, "Ryan Miller is making the Buffalo Sabres my second favorite team."  Before yesterday, I hated the Sabres.  It was the type of performance that turns you into a fan.

As the game went to 3-2 USA and then 4-2 USA the pride of the country grew.  Every other post on my Twitter feed read either, "USA USA USA!" or "Take that Canada!"  Both comments of which I loved.  I tried to remember the last time that I really saw the country come together as one like it felt like yesterday.  Michael Phelps in the Olympics was a big deal, but it still wasn't the same, maybe because it was an individual sport.  The USA basketball team had some excitement, but I think America always felt like we were the best in basketball so even winning the gold medal last Olympics didn't have the same special feeling.  It just felt like we got back to where we were supposed to be.

Canada fought back.  Sidney Crosby scored with a little over three minutes to get the score to 4-3.  Immediately the excitement on the Internet changed from USA pride into nervousness.  The final three minutes were punishing to watch.  It felt like Canada was on a Power Play the entire time as they pelted shots at Ryan Miller.  Canada pulled their goalie, the puck cleared down the ice, and Ryan Kessell superman dove to slap the puck in to give the US a 5-3 lead and a minor upset over the world's most dominating hockey team.

America prevailed as an underdog.  That's what made the game special. For once we weren't the dominate team that was expected to win. We were a team that was the underdog in a sport that is an underdog.

This game is in no way in comparison to the Miracle on Ice and it doesn't even have that much importance since it wasn't for a medal, but it meant a lot. It meant a lot to the people who love hockey; it meant a lot to the game of hockey; and it meant a lot to America, who showed a national pride when usually we just show a partisan pride amongst each other.

The game may have not changed everyone's outlook on hockey forever, but it changed it for one day. I guess winning really does cure everything, even peoples' perceptions. We will have to wait and see if the US team can keep skating on to an Olympic medal. I do know that as the games continue that there will be a lot more fans watching and cheering on our country as we go for a gold medal; something that most of us thought was only possible to obtain in an American dream.

I never thought I would ever get to a day where I could legitimately say that there are too many television shows.  Anyone who complains that there isn't anything on TV isn't looking too hard. There's always something on. There's downloading, streaming, On-demanding, and DVRing. We can start shows from the beginning that are halfway through and even set up a program to record from our cell phones. The options are out there to watch basically whatever we want at anytime so saying there's nothing on is plain ridiculous.

Do we have too many television channels though?

We have about eight C-SPANS, eight different ESPN's, and an individual network for every single sport. We have a channel for trimming trees, one for gardening flowers, and another for mowing lawns. We have gay channels, senior citizen channels, women channels, black channels, Hispanic channels, religious channels, and every other demographic you can think of. The segregation we have for television would be like McDonalds having a separate fast food place for fries, one for burgers, one for chicken nuggets, another for condiments, and a specific place for breakfast sandwiches that was only opened from 5:00am-10:30am.

The point is we have so many options at any time that the problem is that there's too much on, not that there's nothing on.

The Winter Olympics has felt the wrath of abundance. It used to be the Olympics were a special event ever four years and everyone in America would tune into it to watch basically all the events that the Americans were good at. Now more people watched American Idol on Tuesday then tuned into the Olympics. Who knew there would be a time where the top two shows in prime time featured one gay man and one gay woman?  If you've seen Johnny Weir then I don't know if you can call that a man though.

The Olympics are on four different channels now. We have NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, and Versus. We can watch curling, hockey, figure skating, and snowboarding all at the same time. Is it that the Olympics aren't special anymore or is it that by seeing everything available we're realizing that some events are pretty boring?

The same argument was brought up with the NBA All Star game. Each year and at every all star break for every sport we have the same argument. This game is meaningless; the players don't care about the game so why should we care about the game?  The competitiveness from the game might have changed throughout the course of the last few decades, but so has our eagerness to watch these spectacles. If we feel like the all star game is unimportant now then there's plenty of other things we can watch that are probably just as entertaining if not better. There's just not that sense that these programs are that one special thing on television that we look forward to. Nothing is really like that anymore, except for the Super Bowl.

Tomorrow is the big Tiger Woods press conference. I'm sure everyone is at the edge of their seat to hear Tiger not answer any questions and give a written statement about how he hurt his wife, kids, family, friends, sponsors, supporters, and fellow PGA tour players. I'm sure he'll take the brunt of the blame and turn it into a positive like anyone else in his predicament would. He'll speak on what he has done to try and make himself a better person and talk about what he will do in the future. That's fine though; that's what he's supposed to say. Press conferences like these a decade ago used to be the biggest ordeal. Everyone would want to get around the television to see what someone important had to say. Now ESPN has to market the press conference and put up bulletins throughout their programming just to try and get people to tune in. We don't care about press conferences anymore; we'll watch it on the Internet or hear a million stories about it immediately upon its conclusion.

So who is at fault for turning these special events into flip back and forth television programs?  I guess all of us.

Its basic supply and demand principles which allow us to see that as there are more television channels, there is going to be less demand for each one. Then again we have the Internet and other technologies that have supplied us more information and we have demanded more programming, which then created the over saturation of programs. That's just how things are going to be. The evolution of television.

So programs aren't going to be special to everyone anymore. Who cares?  We can complain all we want about these events that we feel everyone should love. What we really need to learn from all these television channels is that there are millions of people out there with millions of different personality characteristics and interests and now everyone can find something special to love. I don't need you to love what I'm watching and I don't have to love what you're watching.

That's what makes it special.