Ack! More Sports!!

Of all the people who show up to play tennis here, Tony is probably the worst player. He just doesn't get how to play the game. It's not that Tony, a native of China, has no athletic background. He's played quite a bit - of soccer. I asked him once if China had any kind of soccer "major league". They do, he said, and he even played in it. But the league is corrupt. You have to do things like bribe the officials. I don't expect to have much use for this information, but if you find yourself in Shanghai and someone tries to get you to lay down a bet, you might just keep it in mind.

The whole world, it seems, would like the Washington, D.C. franchise in the NFL to change the team's name to something other than the "Redskins". The team's owner says they will NEVER change. But what if you were the owner? What would make a good but unoffensive name for a football team based in the nation's capital? The "Commanders"? The "Tomahawks"? The "Potomacs"? Could we satisfy just one political side and call them the "Gippers" in honor of one of Ronald Reagan's best-known (and football-based) movie roles? I'm open to suggestion. Anybody.....?

I think it was just last year I mentioned in this space the possibility of a woman making the roster of a top level male pro athletic team. It hasn't quite happened yet, and still may not, but we're considerably closer to it happening than we used to be. The goalie from the gold medal-winning Canadian women's team has signed with a minor league men's team in Canada. I'm not sure how she's doing, but there's nothing wrong with wishing her the best. The whole country knows her now anyway, so it will be a loooonnngg time before she's not famous up North.