The meaningless exhibition season is now officially over. We've finished the NBA All-Star Game, NHL All-Star Game, NFL Pro Bowl, and Cincinnati Bengals 2001 season. Now things start to matter again.

NBA All-Star game MVP Kobe Bryant seemed surprised to be booed in his hometown of Philadelphia. Didn't he pay attention growing up in Philly? If the Philly fans have no compunctions about cheering injuries and booing Santa Claus, why would they hold back on a guy who's been living two time zones away for the last six years? Clearly I think the sentiment here was if Kobe were a true Philadelphia soul, he'd boo himself.

The real All-Star hero is turning out to be Minnesota forward Kevin Garnett. Garnett is giving ten thousand fans at the next Timberwolves game a free soda or beer to celebrate his All-Star appearance. By the way, Garnett has also just been elected to next year's Pro Bowl, U.S. Hockey team, Real World cast, WNBA All-Star game, IROC, and Minnesota legislature.

It appears that baseball contraction is about as dead as plans to remove the American League pennant from the Yankees clubhouse. The Montreal Expos have now been sold to the other 29 baseball owners, thus giving them the exact same motivation to win as the Washington Generals. And in spite of begging for the Kervorkian treatment, the Minnesota Twins have been forced to play this year by their Metrodome landlord. Savor, if you will, the exquisite irony of the best-laid plans of Bud Selig being undone by Stanley Roper. In this offseason, Selig has been outsmarted by both an ex-professional wrestler and an inanimate object. It doesn't take an act of Congress to determine the weakest link. Although come to think of it, that might happen, too.

The 2001-2002 NFL season is now over, as the Pro Bowl is in the books. The Pro Bowl is traditionally the weakest of the All-Star games, a game where everybody just lines up and doesn't try too hard. Or as Randy Moss calls it, "Sunday."

Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Darrell Russell is disputing the claims of a woman who said he raped her, saying among other things, the woman bragged about posing for Playboy Magazine. I know this is a serious issue, but if the American legal system agrees being naked in Playboy is a suitable defense for rape, this country is going to be thrown into anarchy so fast it'll make your head spin. Hefner's mansion is going to look like the last days of the Alamo.

And finally, why does everything weird in America seem to happen in Florida? Voter controversy, immigrant problems, soccer contraction, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and now the Buccaneers coaching search. Since firing the only coach to ever make the franchise a consistent winner, the Bucs have missed on hiring their top three choices to replace him. Usually top-level decisions this bad are proceeded by many hours of document shredding. Tampa Bay wanted a new coach to take them in a different direction, unfortunately that direction turned out to be similar to that of a skydiving rhinoceros.

Labels: Bucs, MLB, NFL, Raiders