Now THAT was a sports weekend!

I literally was thinking to myself yesterday afternoon, in the midst of a fantastic day of EPL and NCAA action, "man, it has been a couple days since something stupid happened in the NHL."  Mere moments later, I stumble across a mention by the good man behind Empties Crushed - and noted Pittsburgh honk - about Matt Cooke doing something stupid and costing the Penguins a game.  It didn't take long for the Twitterverse to provide video evidence of this gem:


Now, we already know the immortal answer to the immortal question of "does a fool ever learn", but some of these knuckleheads continue to remind us, while the NHL fiddles as Rome burns.  If this isn't the epitome of a head shot, blind sided, and the kind of dirty play that any other sporting organization with any sense would look to avoid, I don't know what is.  But really, does anybody know with the NHL?  He might get 5-8 games.  Or, he might have already served his penalty with five minutes and the game misconduct.  And isn't that the problem?  How does that clown look Sidney Crosby in the eye knowing what Sid is going through and has endured the last couple months on far less dirty plays?  If it weren't Cooke, I'm sure Don Cherry would be prepping a speech saying you have to know who's on the ice, but since it is, he'll come down hard.  And that kind of inconsistency is the cancer here.

Insurance giant AON - who sponsor Manchester United - had their CEO Phil Clement declare that the club sells more jersey's annually than all NFL teams combined.  I'd wager so do Barcelona and Real Madrid, for starters.

Not sure if it is being repeated again, but glance at The Comedy Network's schedule this week and if you can catch the Donald Trump Roast, do so.  My ribs still hurt I was laughing so hard.  Except for when The Situation of Jersey Shore fame got up, that was really, really bad.

Trouble in the land of the New York Knicks?  Not only are the Knicks struggling along around .500 in the 'Melo Era, the Denver Nuggets are winning games, and plenty of them, well north of .500 since the deal.

The Champions League quarter-final draw went Friday morning and we've got some juicy match-ups for sure.  I'll list the match-ups with my winner listed first.  Barcelona vs. Shaktar Donetsk, with the winner getting the winner of Real Madrid vs. Tottenham (though Ronaldo is nursing a sore hammy and may be out three weeks), and the winner of Manchester United vs. Chelsea and Inter Milan vs. Shalke meeting in the semi-finals.   The first legs go April 5/6.  Can't wait.  Prediction overall?  Barcelona vs. Man U/Chelsea in the finals (I think that one is that close, especially with Man U's problems with player health on defence).  Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp says his club wanted a date with Real.  They must've been really looking forward to it on Saturday when they drew 0-0 against lowly West Ham.  Maybe Redknapp figures it being Real's first trip to the quarters in seven years so there isn't much to be afraid of?

The less said of Toronto FC's opening 4-2 loss in Vancouver on Saturday, the better.  They were outclassed in every way, and their defending has never, ever looked worse.  A gutless performance mostly, though they did control the ball for stretches better than anytime in recent memory.

Jon "Bones" Jones is the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion after a ridiculously dominant win over Mauricio "Shogun" Rua on Saturday night.  Bad ass.  Jones is also the youngest champion at 23 years.  In other fights, Cro Cop lost to Brandon Schaub.  How about you just Cro Stop?  Embarrassing seeing an alleged legend get his head handed to him like that.

Chad Ochocinco is on a try-out with the MLS squad Sporting Kansas City.  He calls it his childhood dream.  Of course, the MLS came into being when he was 18.

This is hard to do.  I have two entries in an NCAA pool, 43 entries deep.  I currently sit in first (and 99th percentile overall among Yahoo! entries), and last.  Some fantastic action this past weekend for what, to me, is always the best run of the tourney in the opening two rounds.  Wild finishes, bonehead plays (Pitt especially), and more than a few questionable calls, and way, way too much of the "Wiserhood".   Phil Jackson thinks I'm mostly just lucky lobbing a dart around the board.