Hot Rod! The Rowdy One 

We’re back for another week of Out of Bounds here on Planet Ill. As always, we strive to give you the best from the world around. This week, the world of sports began to wind from the high of the 2010 Winter Olympics. We saw a great Olympic Hockey game to close out the Winter Olympics. The U.S.A. lead the final count with 37 total medals while the host country, Canada, had the most gold medals with 14. Although the Olympics initially looked to be a “snooze fest” with the way things began, the paced picked up quickly this year, with hockey playing a major part. 

Pro-Hockey may not have the flash it once had here in America during the late 90’s and early 2000’s following the hockey lockout of 2004. However, in Canada, it’s their national sport and they showed us why they’re the best at it.  Congrats to the Canadian hockey team for their gold medal win, to the U.S. Hockey team for advancing to the gold medal game and putting up a good fight, and to all of the Olympic participants, winners and losers, for making the 2010 Winter Olympics one of the more memorable Winter Olympics. 

Allen Iverson has had a hell of a week. On Tuesday, the Philadelphia 76ers released Allen Iverson. Iverson hasn’t played a game since February 20, 2010 in order to take care of his daughter who is ill with an undisclosed illness. On the same day, his wife of 8 ½ years, Tawanna Iverson, filed for divorce. A.I. has always been linked to alcohol and gambling problems and those troubles have again lead to the recent troubles in Iverson’s life and friends are asking fans to “pray” for A.I. 

Despite his troubles, Iverson is still one of the All-Time greats in the NBA. It’s sad to see anyone having to fight their demons and have their life altered on such a scale. Love or hate him, one still has to have hope that he can see his way out of this storm and come out a better person from it. 

Another athlete who’s going through a storm of his own is Pittsburgh Steelers star quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger. Roethlisberger is being accused for sexual assault for the second time of his career. The first incident took place in 2009 when charges of sexual assault were filed in Reno, NV by Andrea McNulty for an encounter that took place in 2008. 

I don’t know where to begin with this situation. Once is enough with this kind of situation, but for a second incident to have supposedly happened, you really have to start questioning a person, their actions, and the people around them; especially if you’re a teammate of Roethlisberger’s. Hopefully more details will emerge from this situation and all parties involved can put this behind them. 

Speaking of the NFL, free agency signings kicked-off at 12am Friday morning. There were some big names that made big moves to other teams. Former Carolina Panthers DE Julius Peppers signed a six year deal with the Chicago Bears. The New York Giants signed former Arizona Cardinals Safety Antrel Rolle. Speaking of the Cardinals, the New York Jets traded a fourth-round pick in this year’s draft and a seventh-round pick in 2011 draft for Safety Kerry Rhodes. The Cards also traded WR Anquan Boldin and a fifth-round selection to the Baltimore Ravens for a third and fourth round 2010 draft picks. 

Also from the Carolina Panthers camp, the organization decided to release QB Jake Delhomme. 

Finally, with today being Oscars Sunday, I figured I would share with you three sports documentaries that have caught my attention that every sports fan should see. Two of them have debuted already while another one debuts this weekend. Let’s check them out. 

First, let me apologize to one of our writers here at Planet Ill. About a month ago, our very own Malice Intended did a review on the documentary Facing Ali and I never mentioned it. For that, I apologize. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, it’s a documentary about the life of arguably one of sports’ greatest athletes and professional boxing’s greatest champs, Muhammad Ali, through the eyes of ten men who have face Ali in the ring. It’s a great documentary and Malice’s review is excellent as always. 

Last night on HBO, HBO Sports debuted Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals. The documentary coincides with the book When the Game was Ours which was written by Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Jackie MacMullan. The documentary covers a range of topics between the two superstars including their upbringings, their rise and rivalry in the NCAA and Pro Basketball ranks, their off the court lifestyles and personas, the racial tensions amongst the fans of the sport, and so much more. If you’re a fan of basketball and a historian of sorts, this is a must see.