betterREDthandead

I doubt it. Unlike Crosby or Brady, Phelps isn't routinely beating everyone's favorite team nor is he getting attention at their expense. And what you think is more entertaining is purely a matter of opinion. Even without Phelpsomania, the swimming has generally always been prime time or near it. Personally I can't even see how weightlifting is even remotely entertaining.

It's a shame the white football jersey can't look as good. This is the kind of thing I'd been hoping to get from adidas for the football team. I think I like the maize one the best. The blue one is cool but that design always reminded me of old-school letter sweaters.

Those are sharp. Did they get rid of the Colorado Avalanche style numbers on the back? I always thought they looked pretty awful on the U-M jersey. Block M, block numbers, that's how it should be.

Those guys are absolutely in great shape. Fat, yes. Out of shape, no. Football coaches are too demanding for that. There was a college football blogger who went to try out a workout with a football S&C coach, and was informed that every single one of his times - 40, shuttle, etc., the stuff that they measure football players on - was bested by most 300 pound linemen.

Funny, I thought I was saying them to justify that he's the King of Siam. Of course I'm saying them to justify my position, why else would I? For the record, I think he'd do much better in the boxing ring or on the ice than a champion boxer or hockey player would do in the pool. Wouldn't need to run much. The mile would take about as long, or shorter, than that 400 IM, which is a far more grueling race. His lung capacity as a swimmer would be just as good if not better than most of these runners.

I'm not talking about legal in the courts sense. As far as what the league allows and what the league doesn't, banned and illegal mean the same thing, as in, an illegal trip. Fighting is banned, illegal, whatever you want to call it. It is not allowed in the league any more than a good old-fashioned cross-check. The only question, again, is how severe to make the penalty?

And my point is simply that whatever mile time does put one in the upper echelon of athletic achievement, Phelps could do it. If 4:30 is what I should have said, then fine: 4:30. Let's put it this way: Put Michael Phelps on the 1500-km track with the rest of the Olympians, and I would bet on him finishing no worse than 10 or 12 seconds behind the rest of the field. That's without having trained as a runner.

What's the difference?

And Phelps would kick all their asses, so what's your point? My apparently poor grasp of track times notwithstanding, Phelps would still be able to run whatever is considered a terrific mile time.

Fighting is illegal - it's just a question of how severe the punishment.

Because Crawford has done a masterful job up to this point of being known as a classy, sportsmanlike coach

That has nothing to do with Ottawa. The Wings were spawned from the ashes of the Victoria Cougars from Victoria, BC. Favorite team besides the Wings: the Penguins. Always liked Mario Lemieux and the underdog attitude of the team in the late '90s, early '00s when they were struggling, but always seemed to come up with a playoff upset. I like Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh teams in general.

And, obviously, Michael Phelps is the best Olympic swimmer. So. What you say is true. Swimming is the most rigorous of all Olympic sports, and it requires the best conditioning. So dominating the pool is more impressive than dominating any other Olympic sport.

If you can name several boxers that have never been beaten, it can't be that amazing of a feat for a boxer, can it? Because trust me: Phelps' run of not getting beat is much more impressive for a swimmer. After all, a boxer doesn't compete against 7 other guys at once. Amount of attention received isn't a measurement for the greatness of an athlete.

The idea that athletes are athletes. You think he wouldn't be a pretty good runner or basketball player? Olympic champion, no. Superior to mere mortals? Absolutely. For example, I bet he'd run better than a 5-minute mile.

I do. The guy hasn't taken second in anything since 2006. And his ability to swim every stroke is analagous to Jordan playing both point guard and center. Again: have them trade sports. Phelps would do well in anything he tried. How well would these guys swim?

Don't think for a minute Jim Thorpe is the only person ever who can excel at many sports. Fact is, there are hundreds of high schoolers who excel at several sports. They'll be both the star running back and the star point guard too. Maybe even the star center fielder. Or the star sprinter on the track team. The reason nobody these days does what Thorpe did is because you can be far better and make a lot more money specializing, not because there's nobody who can be good at multiple sports. I imagine Phelps would be quite good at whatever sport he tried. Athletes are athletes. Thorpe ran a 4:35 mile - I bet you Phelps would come in pretty close to that time. On the other hand, what about Thorpe in the water?

Neither did Spitz's opponents. The gold medals say nothing about the times. Also, Spitz never swam the IM. Phelps swam it twice. End of discussion. Advantage Phelps.

00.01. MICHAEL. PHUCKING. PHELPS. Serious mancrush going on here, complete with avatar change. All aboard the destiny train, your conductor is the greatest athlete in world history, Michael Phelps. The lesson: Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever talk trash before any event you will be swimming against Michael Phelps.

No, I don't. Actually I think you Texans would probably declare war on Oklahoma for a lot less than that.

Rarely. Stephanie Rice definitely gives the Aussies the gold medal in the 200-meter HAWT. Natalie Coughlin gets the silver though. That 200 breast was shocking. And totally awesome. Leisel Jones won the 100 by a pretty comfortable margin, so I figured silver again up until about 75 yards in when I realized Soni was gaining on her fast. Helluva race.

I never miss the swimming in any Olympics and I can't remember when our swimmers looked so dominant.

I forgot about that. And probably, Stuart wasn't yet on the team either. I've tried to expunge the Great Defenseman Shortage from my mind, it was an ugly time.

Au contraire - average ice time per game killing penalties is about the best you're gonna get. I mean, what else do you want? The more shorthanded time on ice you have, the more trusted you are killing penalties. It's a direct correlation. Hell, even Quincey's numbers are pretty significant even despite the sample size; it shows that during the games he played, he was entrusted, more so than most of the regular defensemen, with killing penalties. What could possibly be misleading about it?

I agree - I don't think those girls are at all of legal age for the competition. And furthermore I agree with Martha Karolyi that the stadium officials might have been hindering our girls. I don't normally buy conspiracy theories like that, but this is China, after all - and when I was watching, I got the distinct impression that the Chinese were "icing" our girls before the vault, much the same way you call a timeout in football to ice the kicker. That took way too long. Nobody else had to wait like that before they were allowed to go.