The Trade Deadline/Archer Award Show.

           

           The pageantry of baseball’s 4:00 P.M. trading deadline rests on the battery life of General Managers’ cell phones

Since GMs make their paychecks in the last week of July, moves to improve the team are frequently made, and graded. Also, just like every year, some players have new teammates for the rest of the season at least.  

With the non waiver deadline done, let us award the teams that did the best, and heckle the ones who did the worst. Heck, let’s make this a themed award.

Ladies, gentlemen, readers of all ages, welcome to the first ever Archer trade deadline award post.

We start with the “THAT WAS TOTALLY NINJA!” award for the best deal made with five minutes before 4:00 P.M.

 This year, the Texas Rangers spearhead the top of the trade deadline ninja class. The Rangers needed a starting pitcher like a businessman needed Dunkin Donuts in the morning. With the L.A. Angels snatching up Zach Greinke, the Rangers had to respond by landing a quality starting pitcher. When Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez got taken off the market they did the next best thing, they landed Ryan Dempster.

The Rangers gave up Class A third baseman Christian Villaneuva and pitcher Kyle Hendricks to the Cubs in exchange for Dempster. In addition to his killer impersonation skills, Dempster brings the second lowest earned run average in the majors to the lone star state.

By landing Dempster, the Rangers reminded the American League that teams still have to go through Texas to get to the World Series.

The Rangers get the ninja award for their move five minutes before the clock struck 4:00.

Honorable Mention: The New York Yankees getting Pirates third baseman Corey McGehee. Even with a six and a half game lead in the AL East, the Yankees lineup is currently being held together with Duct tape. McGehee provides a body to plug the hole until Alex Rodriguez recovers from his broken hand. Getting McGehee was a smart deadline deal.

Next we have the “Yeah, I know it's sexy Woodhouse, that's why I bought ten. Now arrange those by color.” award for the team that made the highest number of big name, low productivity trades. Come on down and claim your prize Los Angles Dodgers.

The Dodgers managed to snare shortstop Hanley Ramirez and outfielder Shane Victorino before the end of July.

            

            Ramirez and Victorino are both upper level names in the game, yet both have struggled this season. Ramirez was hitting a whopping 2.43 with 66 strikeouts this year before heading west. Yet Ramirez’s ten home runs and 45 runs batted in this year were somehow enough to convince the Dodgers to trade for him. The low production coupled with Ramirez’s history of back issues at age 28 makes the move more flash than substance.

            Speaking of substance, there hasn’t been much of that from former all-star Victorino. The flying Hawaiian managed only a .261 average to be paired with nine homers and 40 runs batted in this year. Also, the Dodgers are planning on giving up cash to the Phillies to take on the 31 year old outfielder.

            Between Victorino and Ramirez, the Dodgers will increase their jersey sales. Too bad L.A. will be disappointed by the production they get from their two big names.

           

             Honorable Mention:  Chicago White Sox get Francisco Liriano. This lefty has not won a game since July 6^th. Liriano also has an ERA of 5.31 with a horrid win loss record of 3-10. The White Sox may be in first place still, yet this is a big name-bad move situation.

            Up next is the “I’m sorry Cyril’s off what, with whom?” award for the most surprising deal made. This trophy goes to the Cincinnati Reds for their acquisition of Jonathan Broxton.

            The Reds have won ten out of their last eleven games and managed to get better on deadline day. Broxton is 1-2 this year with a 2.27 ERA, 23 saves, 14 walks and 25 strikeouts for the Kansas City Royals. Between Broxton and human cannon Aroldis Chapman, the Reds have the last two innings covered. Oh and their best player, Joey Votto, is rehabbing as we speak. With this move, the Reds are now the scariest team in the National League right now.

            

             Honorable mention: Yankees land Ichiro. Sure Ichiro is hitting .260 and yes he is 38, yet this move works for the Bronx bombers. He provides a dependable replacement for Brett Gardner at a reasonable price. This move doesn’t guarantee the Yankees a championship, yet it helps.

            Our fourth award is the “You know I bet there's a lesson to be learned from all this, but I - oh s*&^ my rug!” award for the biggest trade deadline blunder. This award goes to the Saint Louis Cardinals for trading for Marlins reliever Edward Mujica. This award goes to the team that made a terrible deal, not one who did nothing.

            It is one thing to have a fire sale at the deadline; it is another to make a horrid move for the sake of improvement. The defending champs traded for bullpen help, yet it is possible someone forgot to tell them Mujica has a career ERA of 4.42. Mujica has been more of the same this year with a 4.38 ERA this season. With the Reds and Pirates improving, the playoffs may not be in the Cards this year.

            Honorable Mention: Liriano to the White Sox. See above.

            Finally we hand out the “That is my foot in your face, Smell the embarrassment” award for the team that made the worst mistake by not making a trade.

This award goes to the Atlanta Braves for not getting a bat.

            The Braves .256 batting average is 16th in the league. Atlanta did exactly nothing at the deadline to patch up their lineup. With the Washington Nationals slowly gaining distance between themselves and the Braves, Atlanta will have to hope there is still an opening for that second wild card spot in October.

            Honorable Mention: Boston Red Sox not doing anything substantial. The Sox didn’t get rid of Josh Beckett or unload Carl Crawford for talent in return. Sure they got Craig Breslow, a good relief pitcher for nothing. To put it simply, not only did the Sox not appease their fans, they also failed to make a move that put them in the playoff picture.

Thank you for coming to the award show everyone. Be sure to e-mail your GM with a congratulations or strongly worded F-you letter.

If the Flame Could Talk

       

           If the Stanley Cup could talk, fans would know the X-rated antics of their favorite champions. If the Olympic Flame could talk, countless questions throughout history could be answered.

            Fortunately, thanks to the internet, that opportunity is finally among us. The Olympic Flame has taken time out of its trip across the United Kingdom to do an exclusive Facebook chat interview. To keep the interview from turning into an ancient history lecture, we only tackled the time line from 1928 until today.        

Now without further delay, here is my exclusive interview with the Olympic Flame.

Sports on the Side: Mr. Flame, thank you very much for agreeing to this interview. I know that you have a packed schedule, and I appreciate the time.

Olympic Flame: Thanks for having me.

            SOTS: So, let us get right to it. Every one of your journeys has begun in Olympia, Greece where the Temple of Hera used to stand…..

            OF: Wait, you mean I didn’t get sparked outside of the local Chipolte outside of her majesty’s castle?  I think my whole life has just been turned upside-down.

            SOTS: My apologies. You obviously know that you make a journey through Greece before every Olympics. What is that trip like?

             OF: Long for one thing. I get passed around from random person to random person like your freaking stocks.

 I don’t know any of these people. These runners always take the most obscure routes to get from Olympia to Athens. I always tell them when they are going from Gastouni to Lechaina; you want to go south towards Anapafseos first. But no, these guys have to make sure that everybody and their grandmother sees them running through town with me.

Eight days in Greece alone is too freaking long. Your NBA trophy flies first class and gets its own seat for Hera’s sake. I want that kind of treatment. I’ve been around for 49 years longer modern time here. Yet that hunk of metal gets an in flight movie every time it moves.

SOTS: Well, at least with the runners you don’t have to worry about being stuck on a plane watching Battleship for hours on end.

OF: What is that?

SOTS: It’s this disgrace of a movie with Rihanna as a….

OF: Say no more. I concede that point. I just wish that I got better treatment.

Sure it’s nice to see Greece. But I’m fire, I don’t need the exercise.

SOTS: The first time that the modern day relay system was utilized was during the 1936 games in Berlin.

OF: Yeah. Those b*&^%$#s really knew how to keep things moving. It only took 12 days and 11 nights to get me from Greece to Berlin. I traveled 3,187 kilometers and was carried by over 3,000 people. I didn’t mind the pace of the travel, what I got mad at was that that Hitler tool reduced me to part of his propaganda machine.

SOTS: I take it that you were not a big fan of the film Olympia?

OF: No I was not a fan of the film. I think Hitler used the games to illustrate his belief that classical Greece was an Aryan forerunner of his twisted Reich.  There are so many freaking pictures of me with the pictures of swastikas in the background. I mean, the rest of the world was there with those stickers in the background. HELLOOO, YOU SEE THESE FLAGS HERE!? Did people just miss that or did they just not give two schizers? It made me look like I supported what they did. I’m the symbol of global unity for Poseidon’s sake. But the rest of the world just freaking let those guys just bro-out until it was too late. I don’t know how you humans have survived for this long.

SOTS: Okay, so next question. What is the single weirdest thing that happened to you since 1928? Torch run or ceremony wise?

OF: That’s an easy one. This one gets me every time. The guy who completely duped everyone in 1956. The Melbourne Games, I think, yeah, in Australia.

SOTS: Barry Larkin?

OF: Yeah, him! Oh my Hermes. I still don’t have any idea how that happened. That was like waking up in a dumpster after a drunken night in Prague. You guys are really stupid for that one.

SOTS: I don’t know how that happened either. You would think that getting a fake torch to the mayor of Sydney would be a plot sure to fail. But it worked.

OF: Oh I remember that so well. These kids were planning on protesting the relay because the relay was an idea created by Nazis. The plan was pretty much get some kid in a white shirt to carry a fake torch and give it to the mayor of Sydney.

SOTS: How exactly did they manage that?

OF: That’s the best part! They got the moron carrying me at the time…

SOTS: Harry Dillon.

OF: Yeah, that moron. Anyway, Larkin and his buddies come running up with the fake torch. I can hear the people laughing at them. Then all of a sudden, one of the kids is waving his arms around and a pair of underwear flies out of the fake torch. The fake runner dashes off and this Larkin kid picks up the fake torch and starts running the rest of the route PROTECTED BY THE SECURITY WHO THOUGHT THAT HE WAS CARRYING ME. Anyway, Larkin gets to Sydney town hall and presents the torch to the mayor. The mayor, then proceeds to read his big speech and Larkin sneaks off. By the time somebody told the mayor it was a hoax, Larkin was gone!

Everyone was sooooooo pissed when they found out that torch wasn’t me. The crowd started to get unruly and Dillon and I needed an army truck to get to the mayor. I was laughing my embers off the whole time. What ever happened to him anyway?

SOTS: Larkin went on to become a successful veterinary surgeon. Never faced any jail time or anything for it.

OF: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So you guys are so stupid that you got fooled by a fake torch, and then didn’t even arrest the guy who punked you? Oh that’s rich.

SOTS: I suppose so. Anyway, there have been plenty of ways that you have been transferred into the Olympic Cauldron. What is the most memorable way that you went from torch to cauldron?

OF: I have to go with the 1992 Barcelona Games. There was a guy named Antonio Rebollo. He was a Paralympic archer who lit me on the end of an arrow and shot me into the cauldron. I shot up like a volcano and boasted to the crowd. That was the one moment in which I felt all powerful.

SOTS: Umm, you know that’s not what happened right?

OF: What do you mean? Of course that’s what happened. I got put on an arrow and shot into the…

SOTS: Rebollo deliberately overshot the cauldron. The arrow that you were on did not light the natural gas that was coming rising from the cauldron. A technician from Reyes Abades lit the cauldron via remote….

OF: LA LA LA LA LA LA. I can’t hear you. LA LA LA LA. You’re just jealous because that method was too epic for human understanding. LA LA LA LA.

SOTS: Yes, I suppose you are right. Let us move on. What was the most memorable lighting ceremony you were a part of?

OF: Oddly enough, it was in 1996. Muhammad Ali was the guy who placed me to the cauldron in Atlanta that summer.

SOTS: Why is that?

OF: Even though he was shaking the entire time I barely moved. Even when everyone could see the brutal effects of Parkinson’s disease right before their eyes, he didn’t drop me. Even when Bob Costas was patronizing the ever living crap out of the poor man on NBC in front of millions of people, he held me firm. That is an effort that I will never forget for as long as I burn.

  

SOTS: Last one before you go. And really, thank you very much for the interview. What do you expect out of these Olympics in London tonight?

OF: The same thing that I see every Olympics. You guys all across the world gather around me and compete against each other. Even though it is blatantly obvious you guys pretend to care about most of these games once every four years. This year, South Africa will celebrate a certain runner who has no chance of winning, yet he shall compete anyway.  Enemies put their conflicts on hold, for the most part, and shake hands when I’m lit. I represent the ideal that we all want: that one day, every country in the world can forget about oil, war, and religious tensions and learn to live together in harmony. And that hope will never extinguish no matter what, or who, tries to put me out.

When Nice Guys Finish Second

         

           Nice guys don’t always finish last, sometimes they finish second. However, Adam Scott’s second place finish at the British Open was far more painful than finishing last.

            Scott gave away the Claret Jug on the final hole of her majesty’s major. His collapse culminated with a seven foot putt that rolled to the left of the hole. Scott then sank to the ground while the ball stayed on the green.

            When Scott crouched down on 18 he knew what happened. The Australian knew that he had lost a great chance for his first major title. Scott knew that he bogeyed the last four holes of the tournament. He knew that he had been crushed like a grape by the pressure of a major tournament.

Also, Scott knew that he had only himself to blame.      

The champion, Ernie Ells, did not run down Scott like a cheetah in the last four holes. Even when Ells did sink his final birdie on 18, Scott still had two holes of golf to play. One more birdie would have made Scott the 18th different player to win a major since 2008. Even if Scott pared 18, he could have redeemed himself in a playoff round.

            Yet it was never supposed to even get to that point.

By the time he had reached 15 on Sunday, Scott could practically feel the jug on his lips. He was at -9 on Thursday, took the lead on Friday, cradled the lead Saturday, and had a four stroke lead with four holes to play on Sunday.

Then Scott slowly, painfully slowly, began to come undone.

The bogey on 15 was one of few mistakes that Scott had made all weekend. Then Scott missed an unforgivable four foot putt on 16 to bogey again. After his second shot on 17, Scott had to will his ball to the green to try and save par. When Scott missed par for the third hole in a row, he was tied with one last hole to play. On 18, Scott’s first shot hit the sand. The co-leader somehow got the ball seven feet from the green in two shots and had a chance to save himself.

Yet the shot Scott needed to hit listed lazily to the left.

Now, Scott joins the group of infamy made up of men who gave away majors.  

Scott’s collapse was, unfortunately, Greg Norman-esque and Jean Van de Velde like. While Scott’s lead (four strokes) at this Open was not as big as Norman’s (six strokes) in the 1996 Masters, it was Scott who fell harder and faster. Van de Velde, the man with the infamous triple bogey at the 1999 British Open, at least got a chance to win via playoff hole. Scott missed his chance at a playoff when his last shot failed to find the hole.

          The expression of anguish on Scott's face post final bogey summed up his last four holes. Scott had the Claret Jug in his hands, until the pressure of the moment turned the jug into liquid, and the trophy slipped thorough his fingers.  

Irony in Making Money

The accumulating torches and pitchforks outside of James Dolan’s office make for the sexy ‘he is incompetent’ story. However, everyone seems to have missed the important irony in the departure of Jeremy Lin.

            He is cashing in on one of the teams that jilted him one year ago.

            Everyone with internet access knows about Lin’s rapid rise to stardom. For two weeks straight it was impossible to turn on ESPN without hearing the names of both teams that abandoned Lin. The first team was the Golden State Warriors. The second team was the Houston Rockets.

            The same Rockets that waved Lin last Christmas Eve signed him to a three year $25.1 million offer sheet yesterday.

            This irony is not sleazy, yet it is noteworthy. Lin did what virtually every athlete would have done: he went to the team that showed him the money. However, he is also leaving New York to re-write part of the story that made him loved.

             Yes the Knicks could have re-signed Lin, yet there is opportunity in Lin’s ironic return to Houston. Lin gets a second chance to grow his career for a team that told him he wasn’t good enough.

Professional sports are the ultimate platform for second chances. In a community that gives rapists, dog killers, and punks who hit their own mother opportunities to come back, Lin will get to prove to Houston he can replicate his 2012 season.

The fourth largest city in the U.S. is a great landing spot for Lin’s marketability. Six percent of Houston’s population are Asian American. Yao Ming’s jersey cracked the top ten in sales during his tenure in Houston, and so will Lin’s.

Lin the brand will be very successful in Houston, yet Lin the player still has a lot of growing to do.

Lost in Lin’s glorious 2012 stat line are the 4 turnovers per game he averaged. Lin still can’t do anything with his left hand, and still can’t guard a chair. As successful as Lin the brand has been so far, Lin the player is mediocre at best.

Still, Knicks fans are practically rioting over management’s decision to release their favorite sub-par point guard. While Linsanity sells tickets, the Knicks were not going to beat the Heat with a healthy Lin anyway. Guess the prospect of being the fifth best team in the Eastern Conference next as opposed to the sixth was worth $25 million to them.

Lin made it with the Knicks. Since he made it in New York, he will not have any issues making it in Houston. How Lin develops as a player is another matter all together.

Corpses Don't Take Questions

Columnists, commentators, and the masses have spent the last few days yelling at a bronze man who doesn’t hear their rage.

Instead the statue of Joe Paterno everyone is so mad at still walks towards Beaver Stadium with its finger raised. The metallic embodiment of the deceased coach stands against the cloud of darkness that has engulfed Penn State.

Trustees have demanded that the bronze man remains standing. They want the statue to symbolize the good Paterno did for Penn State, as opposed to what the Freeh report said about him.

The masses want this statue to meet the same fate as the one that commemorated the dictator of the desert. Pundits and journalists alike have demanded that the bronze man should collapse and shatter into a million pieces: just like the credibility of the school Paterno coached for eons.

If we are talking about the symbolism of Paterno then the statue fits the aftermath perfectly. The metallic Paterno walks towards the football stadium and the bronze eyes see no evil. Even when that evil occurred in the locker room Paterno walked out of for over a decade.

Still, the supporters flock to their metallic deity in the wake of the scandal. At the feet of the bronze man a sign reads “Remember: He was a man, not a god!!!”

But Paterno was a man who knew everything.

Penn State’s own investigator proved that Paterno knew about his friendly neighborhood pedophile. The Freeh report stated that on May 13, 1998, an e-mail was sent by athletic director Tim Curley to Penn State president Gary Schultz. The e-mail came ten days after Sandusky assaulted Victim 6. The message was short, yet the words spoke volumes.

“Anything new in this department? Coach is anxious to know where it stands."

Well, for starters the life of Victim 6 was ruined forever. That person will never be able to take a shower again without the water being accompanied by horrific flashbacks of that day.  

Except Paterno’s anxiousness came from if anyone was going to get caught, not from the young life his subordinate ruined.

Part of the outrage towards the bronze man is the fact that the public can’t yell at the real Paterno. As much as we would like answers from the coach, corpses don’t take questions. In place of mass marches on Paterno’s grave, the national focus has shifted towards the symbol of the man that is still standing.

Since it takes longer for metal to decay, there is time for trustees to decide if the bronze man should remain standing. However, the more time passes the more that Paterno will be known for what he failed to stop as opposed to his football accomplishments.

Instead of tearing the statue down, relocate it. Put the bronze man right outside of the front gates of Penn State, with his back turned on the school. Let the symbol be how Paterno neglected his responsibilities as a man, and how he got out right before the cataclysm.

It is not like the statue is going to say anything to stop it.

            

Three is a Crowd

            Boston’s sports franchises have taken several punches to the gut in 2012. Between the Superbowl loss, Joel Ward’s goal, and the Kevin Youkilis trade, Boston fans are still trying to catch their collective breath. Now the all time leader in three point shots delivered another brutal body blow to Boston.

            Ray Allen will end the “Big Three” era in Boston for the NBA mid-level exception.  Allen looks to join the Miami Heat in pursuit of their second straight title.

            In 2007, Celtics GM Danny Ainge got Allen from the SuperSconics for next to nothing. That same offseason, Ainge traded away most of his roster to get Kevin Garnett, and the “Big Three” was born. Pierce, Garnett, and Allen went on to beat the L.A. Lakers and give three seasoned veterans the title they all wanted.

            Flash forward four years and the shine of the 2008 Larry O’Brien trophy has dulled. Despite the winning 322 games in five years, the “Big Three” never produced a second title. This past postseason, they ended up on the wrong end of a classic game seven.

The “Big Three’s” legacy aside the worst part about Allen leaving is that Boston should have seen it coming.

Jason Terry’s commitment should have had Celtics fans bracing for Allen’s departure. The former sixth man of the year’s signing acted as a neon sign that read “Ray Allen is not coming back to Boston.”  Still, fans' anger towards Allen is because of where he is going rather than the fact he is leaving.

The Heat are not only the bane of most fans’ existence, they also knocked the Celtics out of the playoffs this past year. Allen taking his talents to Miami is not Johnny Damon leaving for the Yankees, yet the move hurts.

If there is any solace for the Celtics faithful, it is that they can still contend without Allen.

From a basketball standpoint, the Celtics did not get worse with Allen leaving. Terry and Allen essentially play the same role of sharp shooting sixth man. Both men are deadeye three point shooters. Terry also averaged 15.1 points per game compared to Allen’s 14.2 last year.

 Terry is able to create his own shot better than Allen at this point. If Ray-Ray is not getting open via screens or shooting in transition he doesn’t score. In contrast, Terry is capable of getting to the basket far better than Allen today.

            There are no words to suppress the anger of Boston fans. Assurances of Terry’s capabilities will be drowned out by the heckling of one of the league’s classiest players. Today Allen is the bane of Boston’s existence, and Boston fans are still reeling from the body blow. 

Our Founding Frankfurters

           

           Apparently it is Fourth of July tradition to watch men and women devour Hot Dogs at disgusting rates.

            For the ninth straight year, the Nathan’s Hotdog Eating Contest is being shoved down our throats by ESPN. Yet for some reason audiences keep tuning in.

            Last year Coney Island had 40,000 spectators watch professional eaters stuff their faces. An additional 1.9 million people watched the contest live on the worldwide leader’s network. Champion face stuffer Joey Chestnut has over 5,000 people who like him on Facebook.

            The event’s appeal is inconceivable. Even the protocol for the contest are just crazy.

            In standard competition procedure, contestants are weighed-in by the Mayor of New York City. When Independence Day comes, the participants arrive in the "bus of champions.” Still, the bus is just the start of this deranged contest.

The most nonsensical aspect of this charade is the prize money. Contest winners are paid $10,000. Whoever eats the second most hot dogs gets $5,000. Also, third place gets $2,500 for engulfing dead pig.

Somehow, this event is taken seriously by television networks. Since 2004, the contest has featured a play-by-play announcer. In 2010, the contest coverage featured sideline reporters. I am not making this up. Reporting recourses are being spent on watching people eat hotdogs for 15 minutes.

If you think that’s nuts, the history of the “sport” is even more ludicrous.

            The organizers of televised gluttony made up the event’s history. According to legend, four immigrants had the first hot dog eating contest in 1916 to determine who was the most patriotic. However, that claim is false because Nathan’s hot dogs were not invented until 1921.

Also, Edward Bernays admitted to the New York Times that legend was fabricated by the event organizers. The actual first contest was held on Coney Island in 1972.

Even since that fateful day, people have flocked to Coney Island and tuned in to watch people eat hotdogs.

Since the event was first carried live in 2004, the number of viewers went from 926,000 to almost two million in nine years. There have been seven documentaries made about the Nathan’s Hotdog Eating Contest since 1996.

There is no rational explanation for the event’s success. Perhaps it is because 26 out of the 40 winners were from the United States. It could be the nostalgic appeal of older people having eating contests in their younger days. Maybe the appeal lies in the shock of seeing a person eat 68 hot dogs in 12 minutes.

Whatever the appeal is, it is unclear if our founding fathers would have understood it. No matter how patriotic this exasperated display of gluttony claims to be, the post-viewing indigestion just isn’t worth it.

Gray Clouds Overhead

            

            A commentator born in Glasgow Scotland has shown a fabulous mastery of the English language.

            Andy Gray has been omnipresent in the Premier League since its birth in 1992. He has been the voice of soccer for this generation. Yet thanks to some unflattering off the pitch comments, Gray’s voice could be forever muted.

            The former face of Sky Sports was fired in January for sexist comments made towards colleague Charlotte Jackson. There is a possibility that the Euro 2012 final could be the last we ever hear of Gray.

The announcer’s story began on the pitch. Gray first broke into soccer in 1975 with Dundee United. The striker managed to put up 178 career goals and held a spot on Scotland’s national team from 1975-1985. Gray retired from the game in 1990, and became Sky Sports’ most notable announcer just two years later.

Soccer and Gray have gone together like tea and crumpets. Gray’s voice was a staple for soccer’s premiere video game franchise for over 15 years. The announcer has been a member of ESPN’s soccer coverage since 2008. All the while, Gray has earned around $2.7 million in his career.

Gray built his career on his strong opinions. The announcer called out Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo for flopping on the pitch in the 2008 World Cup. Even though his words were harsh, Gray’s criticism held merit.

However, Gray’s illustrious career will flame out in controversy. Earlier in January, Gray suggested that lineswoman Sian Massey did not know the offside rule. In addition to those comments, Gray’s remarks towards Jackson were undoubtedly unacceptable.

Even if Gray’s comments were “lighthearted quips” on-air personalities are held to a higher standard. Announcers and pundits can critique players, decisions, and off air laundry. Still, when it comes to issues of sex, religion, or race, those jokes are on-air taboos.

Even after being fired from Sky Sports, expect Gray to be back with a different network. If Don Imus is still on the air after what he said about Rutgers Women basketball players, then Gray should be able to announce again. It will take some time for the incident to blow over, yet that is fine. The Olympics don’t start until July 25 anyway.

After playing football for 25 years, Gray has given two decades more to announcing the game. His style and knowledge of the game have been applauded for 20 years. However, because of the controversy the voice of soccer may not be able to graciously take a bow.