A 12 year old kid could be the next Shaun White or Tony Hawk.  Tom Schaar has landed what used to be an impossible move, a 1080.  That’s right, 3 full rotations, 1080 degrees around and 100% impressive.  Check out this little bit of skateboarding history being made in the video below (the magic moment starts at about 1:10) :

Most impressive but surely this kid will have a knock against him in that he did the trick on Red Bull’s Megaramp, which is by no means a standard ramp. One has to wonder if other skaters can get enough speed and height to do this trick on this ramp once they get the chance? Sure it takes an incredible amount of body control and balance to do it, but that ramp had to help out getting him high enough in the first place.

Still, its very impressive and certainly nothing that Tony Hawk or Shaun White has accomplished on a skateboard. Its been about 13 years since that day in 1999 when Tony Hawk hit the 900 and now that trick has finally been surpassed. Young Tom Schaar just might have a bright future ahead.

I sure as heck didn’t realize that the MLB season started yesterday, did you?  Well it did…for two teams at least. To my surprise, yesterday, when I was clicking around the interwebs, I saw a box score showing that Seattle beat Oakland, 3-1, and now is the only team in baseball with a win because that game was a regular season game. Like a full on regular season win. In March.

What?

Oh, see, Bud Selig, in all his genius,  thought that this year would be the fourth time in history that the Major League Baseball season should open up in Japan. They call the series the “Season Opener” (not exactly the same ring as Opening Day but who am I to complain, huh?) and the first game wasn’t even nationally televised, unless you count MLB’s own cable network MLBN if you happened to be lucky enough to have it and to be able to skip work and tune in at 9am on Wednesday. To be honest, i’m not even sure if they advertised this game anywhere because I sure as heck didn’t see anything for it.

I mean, I am all for spreading the game of baseball around the world and yes, the Mariners are owned by a Japanese company (Nintendo) but c’mon, shouldn’t the first game of the 2012 season have a little bit of fanfare  and especially be in its country of origin? ESPN’s own website still has a countdown to MLB’s Opening Day for crying out loud.  How can we have Opening Day now that the season is already WIDE FRIGGIN OPEN? No other American sport starts its season out this way and I would venture to say there is a BIG reason for that…because it is stupid.

Oh and what else makes little sense about this series? The games are considered home games for Oakland, aka “The team not owned by a Japanese corporation“, aka “The team  no one in the crowd is rooting for because they are not owned by a Japanese corporation and are without a national hero in Ichiro that the entire crowd loves and reveres“,  meaning they lose two home games in Oakland this season.

Yeah that is fair, huh? Couldn’t make this imaginary home series for Oakland an imaginary home and away series for both teams? Just to even things out a little? Just a little?  No, no of course not, that would make WAY too much sense.

Then again, I don’t often expect MLB to make much sense anymore…I mean home field advantage is still tied to a stupid All-Star game.  Ugh.  Now, there is a whole other rant…

 

 

Winning a Super Bowl can allow a NFL head coach a little bit of candor in his public statements.  Winning two super bowls allows a coach a ton.

New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin took full advantage of that yesterday when he couldn’t resist taking a jab at the “cross-town” rival New York Jets and their recent player acquisitions (ie: Tebowmania in NYC). Here’s what Coughlin had to say about the Jets recent acquisitions:

“You know who won the Super Bowl, you know who the world champions are,” he said. “Whether we’re on the front page every day or not, it’s not that important. New Yorkers know.”

Ouch, little bit of a burn there or what? The best part about that statement is that it pretty much rings true. The Giants go about their business, generally not making too many crazy headlines (minus Brandon Jacobs i guess) and they just go and win two Super Bowls in five years. The loudest Giants in the media are ex-Giants Tiki Barber and Michael Strahan.

Meanwhile, over in Jets country, you’ve got Rex Ryan flapping his gums every other week, talking about winning Super Bowls like he is a fat and sober Joe Namith, showcasing the entire team on HBO’s Hard Knocks, making free agent signing splashes that, all combined together…gets them essentially nowhere. Nowhere, that is, if you consider your season to be a bust if a Super Bowl ring was not won.

Anyway, it is nice to see Coughlin finally give up a little of the “hard ass” persona in his interviews with the media. Generally this is a guy who can make Bill Belichick look like charming. Maybe he’s finally getting soft in his golden years?

If so, I am loving it.

Its the spring time people! That wonderful time of year that, if you live in a densely populated area like myself, you can drink outside all weekend and stare at women in sundresses. Now, if you really want to impress those women while you are on the way to grab a tasty beverage, check out these brand new MINDBLOWING (see above) ways to get around on a skateboard. People be designing some crazy ‘ish over the winter.

1. Mind Controlled Skate Boards

This board is called the Board of Imagination and its by Chaotic Moon Labs (remember that name) and it is a skateboard that you literally control with just your thoughts. From a recent CNET article:

The obviously named Board of Imagination integrates a neuroheadset from a company called Emotiv, with a Samsung tablet running Windows 8, which is in turn connected to the skateboard’s motor. The headset translates thought into electrical circuitry that’s routed through the tablet, into the motor, and powers the board. Simply put, you think-it goes.

How sick is that? I hope you clicked through to see the video because i don’t feel like embedding it and robbing them of their hits.

Sure, its true, you can’t run out and buy one now, but when this technology actually comes to mass production can you imagine the new level of laziness it’l create? I mean this is lazier than the Segway and NOTHING is lazier to use than a Segway (ok, well maybe a Rascal). This could create a whole generation of atrophied kids who don’t ever have to physically exert themselves to get anywhere ever again!  Just stand, think, go!

Screw the hoverboard from Back to the Future II, I must have one of these when they come out!

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers shelled out $56 million for a 5 year contract with $26 million of it is guaranteed for wide-receiver Vincent Jackson.  HUGE payday for the 29 year old wideout and thankfully for Washington Redskins fans, it was not their favorite team that shelled out that kind of money to just one player.

Most people thought it was surprising that the Washington Redskins didn’t make him their number one priority, as many were stating prior to 4pm on Tuesday, but once you realized what they were up to, their lack of interest in VJax made perfect sense.

If you might recall, starting just last season, the Redskins made a point of signing younger free agents when they have had to dip into the free agent pool.  Productive players last season such as Stephen Bowen, Chris Chester, Barry Cofield and Adam Carriker were examples of this. This year, the Redskins’ free agent approach appears to be no different. So far the ‘Skins have signed wide receivers Pierre Garcon, Josh Morgan and have made a strong offer to Eddie Royal out of the free agent pool for a combined $66.5 million, with at least $29 million guaranteed.  Just Garcon was signed to a deal that was longer than 2 years and none of the players are older than 27 years old.

If I was a wide receiver on the Redskins besides 2nd year player Leonard Hankerson, I might be worried about my job next season.

Despite the NFL taking away around half of the Redskins’ available cap space, they have gone out and put together a receiving corps that should be able to catch up to the deep balls that either Robert Griffin III or Andrew Luck will be launching.  (Oh, right, if you live under a rock you should know that the Redskins moved up to the number 2 spot in the draft (giving up three 1st round picks and one 2nd round pick in the process) to draft Robert Griffin III.)

If the Redskins can continue to make moves like these, with any luck to their fans, the team will win the title of “Off-season Champs” this year for their shrewd picks instead of for the foolish money they throw at the big name players they acquire who never live up to their price tag.

Note: If you want to buy that logo on a T-shirt, hit up 289 Designs, its yours for $20