From the Bleachers

Bad Dad gone mad - Vancouver coach jailed for tripping 13 year old - VIDEO

Normally 'tripping' in hockey costs you two minutes in the sin bin. For one delinquent Dad it is costing him 15 days in the slammer.

Martin Tremblay of Vancouver will serve 15 days in jail for assault, an incident where he tripped an opposing player after his son's youth hockey game.Tremblay (48) swept out the leg of an opposing player while the teams were going through the age old youth hockey ritual of lining up to shake hands after the game. Two players, a 10-year-old and a 13-year-old, fell to the ice.

Tom Brady shows leadership in taking pay cut for the Patriots

There’s a reason Tom Brady, despite what some would describe as ‘limited physical abilities’, has multiple NFL MVP awards and multiple Superbowl rings on his fingers. He may be slower than Jabba The Hutt, he may look like the Tinman in the Wizard of Oz in the pocket, but the kid has a seriously solid head on his shoulders. Time and time again Brady makes the right decisions.

For the second time in his career, Brady has restructured his contract with the New England Patriots in a manner beneficial to the team, not the player. The restructuring is dramatic in terms of numerical value, and means primarily that the Patriots have all sorts of ‘wiggle room’ to play with in terms of keeping players (Welker, for example) or bringing in new free agents.

Let’s immediately swat the nay-sayers out of the argument. Sure, Brady can physically afford to take a pay cut. However, he did it. He put his money where his mouth was. In this day and age, how often do professional athletes actually give out hometown discounts? Put simply, they don’t. it is very rare. Look around you, Justin Verlander is demanding to be paid over $200 million. No hometown discount for Detroit. Dwight Howard certainly didn’t offer Orlando a hometown discount. Joe Flacco is looking for mega bucks from the Ravens, absolutely no sign of a hometown discount there.

Life, the universe and everything according to an NHL goalie.

All too often we are let down by those in authority when it comes down to quotations on the 'heavy' topics in life. Life, the meaning of same, the universe and such. Do you recall we had a US presidential candidate that once said; "Space, is a very big place."

On the flip side of that coin, all too often we are also let down by our sporting heroes, in that absolutely all they want to talk about is themselves.

Let's face it, the life perspective and World view of many of our athletes is nothing short of pathetic.

Did Oscar Pistorius kill Reeva Steenkamp over South African rugby star Francois Hougaard?

The sports world at large is reeling at the terrible tragedy that unfolded in a high security, upper class gated community in South Africa last week. The whole World is watching intently as the trial of Olympian Oscar Pistorius begins, with opening statements towards the bail decision this morning. As the details around the death of Reeva Steenkamp emerge, the surrounding fog of uncertainty is possibly getting even murkier, as opposed to clearer. Pistorius and his team are sticking rigidly to their claim that the shooting was effectively self-defence, defending one’s self against a burglar.

Of course, none of us were in the house when the tragedy, or murder,  occurred, so until justice has its day, we can’t really pass final judgement, tempting as it may be. However, Pistorius’s pre-planned and calculating statement at the bail hearing today had some massive holes in it.

Add to that the hint that a motive may have been found, and Pistorius would appear to be skating on extremely thin ice. Before we delve into this possible motive, a quick look at Pistorius’s statement from earlier today.

Alfredo Aceves still causing headaches for the Boston Red Sox

You may have noticed the Boston Red Sox are doing their utmost to change their club house environment for the better. They have been bringing in ‘high character’ type players all offseason long. The team is clearly trying to send a message, move on together, and get away from the ’25 guys, 25 cabs’ mentality that prevailed over much of the last two seasons in Boston.

This apparent change to in-house culture obviously hasn’t been completely finalised as yet, as one massive, glowing, shining neon light of potential disaster is still emanating from one of the lockers in the Sox clubhouse. Alfredo Aceves is no stranger to controversy in Boston (or anywhere else, for that matter). He apparently simply refuses to toe the line of a ‘team first’ mentality, and seems to have a burning desire to stand out via the medium of outlandish actions and incidents.

Ten years on: Can Real Madrid and Manchester United pick up where they left off?

The Champions League is a beautiful thing. The knockout stages of the competition provide some of the most dramatic, endearing moments in sports anywhere in the World. The international element, combined with the quality of play make for pure dramatic tension, wonderful entertainment. To sports lovers like myself, this section of the sporting calendar is a fantastic time. Baseball is coming, the Six Nations, the NHL (Just!), the NBA, the Premier League and La Liga are all in action. Tuesday and Wednesday nights, Champions League nights, have a special aura about them.

With Real Madrid set to host Manchester United tonight at the famous old Bernabeu stadium, memories have come flooding back from their dramatic Champions League encounter which took place, that’s right, ten years ago.

Section of Irish rugby fans an embarrassment during loss to England

Ireland were pretty much knocked flat on their face on Sunday by a powerful (if stupefyingly boring tactically) English team. Perhaps worse yet, the legend of great Irish fans support took a serious body blow, inflicted by none other than our own.  One of Irish rugby’s most endearing features, and indeed one of its proudest traditions, was the veritable silence afforded the kicker, even opposition kickers, during play. Sadly, English outhalf Owen Farrel was subjected to boos, whistles and cat calls on almost every one of his six kicks on Sunday.

It was ugly.

The summer of Gronk gets started early - Patriot's Tight End Rob Gronkowski partys on

Patriots Tight End Rob Gronkowski is a living legend on many levels. His ridiculous tangible success to date, the combination of his athletic size and talent and his charming, cheeky, Dexter like grin have combined to basically carpet bomb the hearts and minds of Patriots and other NFL fans to the point where he is a superhero after just two seasons in the league.

A feature of his personality that doesn’t sit as well with the Patriots front office and indeed some fans, is his Peter Pan like party animal persona. Gronkowski likes to pary. After last season Gronk embarked on a General Sherman like assault on the summer, partying, drinking and dancing to the point where Patriots fans were referring to the summer of 2012 as ‘The Summer Of Gronk’.

The night the lights went out - A theory on the Superbowl power outage

There are those who watched as the lights went out last night in the Louisiana Superdome and thought, 'oh well, that's crazy!' Then there are those who saw it and thought, 'Wait a second, what's going on here?' This article is geared towards the latter. The Superbowl last night was basically one or two big plays away from being one of the best, if not the best, ever played. If San Francisco had managed to bury the rock in the end-zone with those two minutes to go, it would have been the greatest comeback of all time. Instead we are left with a pretty memorable event anyway, partially because of that power outage that happened just after the start of the second half.

Essentially, as we said in the opener, your interest in that crazy event, the lights going out, can go one of two ways. Either, ‘Gosh that was funky’ or ‘Wait a second, this is a bit odd’.

Can the 49er's rookie quarterback Colin Kaepernick really lead his team to Superbowl glory?