Sports Links for Today

Saints Bounty
I’m assuming this will be the top story for a few days. Kind of strange. Was anyone surprised by this? I find it hard to imagine this is the only instance in the league. Whatever the harsh punishment winds up being, it should take care of the practice.

London 2012 Ball
I have an odd interest in soccer balls for big events. Of course, the World Cup and Olympics are about it to me for big events.

Before the last World Cup, the NY Times had a great interactive page chronically the balls over the years. How good? I remembered it existed. After looking through, it’s clear no other ball should be used besides the 1970 checkered. But I could be talked into some laces, like 1938.

Nats Take Back the Park
I have to imagine everyone who is upset by the number of Phillies fans invading DC already goes to those games. Now this campaign limits who can buy to DC area residents (based on credit card address). This may get a few more Nats fans instead of Phillies. However, the Nats haven’t been around long enough that the majority of DC residents are Nats fans. There are tons of O’s and Phillies fans. I’ll be curious to see if anything is different, I’m guessing it won’t be noticeable. Although, more Nats fans might make the locals feel like they have some backup, so maybe things will be a little more feisty.

Finally, it’s the 50th anniversary of Wilt’s 100 point game. Fans at the Sixers game got some of the court (my sister just texted me her piece of the court). A great post about the pieces of court on Uni Watch. I forgot to make the Warriors connection. Wilt played for the Warriors when they were in based in Philly. One more link, philly.com’s story of the 100-point game. That’s a really good read as well. I didn’t know the Eagles played a game before the Warriors game. Yes, the football team played basketball, which apparently was common. I haven’t been to philly.com in a while, so I’m glad Philly Sports History posted it on Facebook.