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Okay, I like having NHL teams throughout the United States. I like Gary Bettman’s efforts to find new audiences for the great game. I would not mind a second NHL team playing out of the ACC in Toronto, but I sure don’t want a team playing out of Hamilton, or Kitchener, or London. Do I need to surrender my Canadian passport?…sports viewing should be approached like an investment portfolio; don’t put all your egg’s in the North American basket. This morning, thanks to Justin TV, the stunning second Test match between the British & Irish Lions and South Africa was available for your perusal. Sport at its absolute finest. The Lions tour is a once every four years affair. The best British (England, Scotland and Wales) and Irish players form an all star team and they then engage, on a rotating basis, either South Africa, New Zealand or Australia. In other words, the Lions will not play in South Africa again for twelve years! The historical implications of the event are staggering and the players chosen for the matches consider it a career highlight. All that passion and desire was poured onto the field today as the Lions desperately sought the win which would still allow them a chance to annex the series. In the lead throughout, the Lions sagged after Leinster star Brian O’Driscoll left the match, after dishing out a hellacious hit, and eventually lost on a last second penalty 28-25. The Lions have now lost the first two Test matches and, with only one game remaining, the series. Still, the final match is on Saturday July 4^th, y’know, the one where pride is at stake, why not head out to the Rose and Crown or Scallywags, or hit up Justin TV, if you want to have a taste of a sporting experience miles apart from the posed histrionics of the North American millionaire set…I’m finally free of my hardcore adherence to boxing and horse racing. Boxing’s current rating systems have turned into the grossest misuse of power and funds in the sordid history of the sport. Today thoroughbred fans are meant to rejoice as female superstars Zenyatta and Rachel Alexander race..just not against each other. European racing has eclipsed North American in terms of both talent and compelling spectacle. Yeah, I’m no longer sick at heart as these two fine sports implode through greed and short term, self serving thinking. New technologies mean we can preserves the best of the past (and a recent highlight for me was watching the first Marciano-Walcott fight, thanks to a crystal clear print bought by my nephew) while engaging the new and vibrant in the future. That means, to this world weary slug, more rugby, English Premier League, Gaelic sports as well as devotion to the NHL and NFL…after the brilliant Lions - South Africa match I stayed on Justin TV to watch some of their classic boxing stations. First fight up? Antonio Margarito - Kermit Cintron 2. It was like you find out your friend (Margarito) is sleeping with your wife, you remove him from your life and then, a year later, you come across a video of the good old days. Margarito tramps through Cintrons heavy blow and applies relentless pressure. His win sets up what will be his finest moment, an explosive KO of Miguel Cotto. Watching the fight, you smile, you instinctively reach for a cold beer…and then, wtf? You recoil. The greasy bastard is likely utilizing gloves with the consistency of concrete! The sense of betrayal and embarrassment floods the consciousness anew. I was a defender of Margarito. I expressed disbelief that the Mexican could violate the “warrior code”. Thanks for the memories, but it is clear that the Mexican should be handed a lifetime ban. His inexcusable inactions have caused more friends then I care to count to announce they will no longer watch the sport…at the end of the day, I could listen to one Michael Jackson song, “Billie Jean”, a work I suspect was more the product of Quincy Jones genius than Michaels. The rest of his material is execrable. As a performer Jackson is easily the most overrated in musical history. His shows were terrible, silly affairs. As an avid concert attendee, I rank Michael’s shows as among the worst I ever saw. He had no presence, no desire or ability to connect with his fans. He’d squeak through his insubstantial, annoying ditties while quickly devolving into a colossal bore. His moment of glory was clearly the Motown 25^th anniversary television special. But the rest of his career was an assortment of disappointments for all but the weirdo’s and freaks that followed him. My sadness at Michaels passing is that he never had the chance to redeem himself. To behave like an adult. To face head-on his illness’s, particularly his unseemly attraction to children. I have little doubt his fear of the famous 50 shows in London, which would have slammed shut the door on his career after exposing an array of infirmaries, caused inordinate stress and lead to an increase in his drug usage. A cautionary tale for the rest of us, nothing more. Repent and atone. Stop having your personal physician pump drugs into your butt. Rest in peace, King of Pop…