The week that was and the week to come

Hope you all had a Happy New Year. New Years Eve and New Years Day have added two new events that I hope will be around for sometime. On New Years Eve for the past two years ESPN has presented Red Bull: New Year No Limits. Last year Robbie Maddison broke the world record for a motorcycle jump (322’ 7.5”) with a leap over the length of a football field. This year Maddison attempted a more elaborate, but equally challenging jump. He jumped more than 120 feet high to land on the top of the 96-foot-high replica Arc de Triomphe in front of the Paris, Las Vegas Hotel. Upon completing the jump he then performed a freefall 50 feet off the Arc to a ramp below. Here is the video:



Sorry for the f bombs in the video but you can understand. That was just crazy and nuts, great alternative to the ball drop in Times Square. I hope ESPN keeps up this new tradition.

On New Years day the NHL presented there second annual outdoors Winter Classic. This year’s game was played at Wrigley Field, the home of baseballs Chicago Cubs. What I like about this is that it is old school, in that most people start out playing hockey outside and this year’s game was a heated Original Six-Rivalry and it was a divisional match-up between the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks. Original Six means that Detroit and Chicago are two of the oldest teams in the league. What I also like about the Winter Classic is that the announcers are outdoors like the rest of the event, this gives the game a better feel for the weather conditions. All and all it is a great event and an alternative to the meaningless Bowl Games on New Years Day. It looks like the Boston Bruins will get a Winter Classic in the near future. Just think about hockey at Fenway Park that would be a lot of fun. I hate the winter and cold but I would not mind covering that.

I’M glad to see a staple of my youth coming back this summer. According to Variety, ABC is bringing back the “Superstars” for a six-episode run in June. As originally conceived, the show pitted pro athletes opposite each other in sports like swinning, biking, running and a obstacle course was the final event. In this vision of the "Superstars," eight celebs will be paired with eight male and female pro athletes to compete in various events, including swimming, biking, running and kayaking. Teams will be eliminated each week, until one athlete/celebrity pair is crowned the champs.

This weekend in Sports
This weekend the NFL Playoffs continues with the Divisional Round. On Saturday in the AFC it’s Baltimore at Tennessee (4:30) on CBS, the other Saturday game is Arizona at Carolina on FOX at 8 P.M. On Sunday is Philadelphia at the New York Giants on FOX at 1 P.M., then its San Diego at Pittsburgh at 4:30 P.M. on CBS. Enjoy, all the action.

The alternative to the football is the second stop of the Winter Dew Tour from Mount Snow in Vermont. TV coverage is Saturday 4:30 to 6 P.M. and Sunday 4:30 to 6 P.M., both days on NBC. Saturday will feature freestyle skiing in a Superpipe. Sunday is the Main Event with the snowboard Superpipe. Always fun and crazy, you never know what there kids will do. By the way, these kids are athletes, you tray to do what they do.

Enjoy the weekend. Good by and good luck.

Jamie Lazaroff