Radio Free Tobin

In a continuing attempt to convert the Eagles’ training camp into a makeover reality show, Chip Kelly has now eliminated “Taco Tuesday” and “Fast Food Friday”. He also is encouraging his players to get 10-12 hours of sleep a night, which is what he believes all elite athletes require. Can you imagine if this catches on league-wide? Think how many strip clubs would go out of business if all NFL players slept 12 hours a night.

Photo: Jeannine Edwards

Donovan McNabb has announced that he will retire this fall as an Eagle. I think McNabb was waiting for Andy Reid to be gone. If Reid was still the coach, he likely would have signed McNabb to a 1-day contract and then traded him again.

(photo: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

One of the joys of watching hockey online via a bootleg Russian gambling website is the popup ads. They always run two ads at a time, side by side, and sometimes maybe someone should check which ads are paired up. I’m not sure what would happen if I clicked that video on the right, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be one step away from helping kids.

Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa accused some of the Sharks players of embellishing to try and sell penalties. Perhaps he was referring to the way the Sharks seem to “embellish” almost every shot on goal they take by raising their arms and sticks up into the air afterwards.

The fun continues in Ottawa. Paul MacLean defended his decision to call a timeout with 17 seconds remaining in Game 3, a game his team was leading 6-1. His explanation made no sense whatsoever, and I loved every second of it. First, he began by reading out penalties (in no particular order) from the scoresheet: “Well, 16:58 elbowing, 19:42 cross-checking, 8:31 instigator faceshield.”  (The latter, while technically it is a penalty, still sounds like a man just rattling off some nouns.)

He goes on: “I have 10 players left on my bench, and I didn’t know what was going to happen next…So, my only recourse was to take a time out because I didn’t want anybody to get hurt.” Perhaps he feared one of the Canadiens would commit another instigator faceshield.

Then the closer: “In order to protect my players, in circumstances that were orchestrated by the Montreal Canadiens, I was forced to protect my players. I will do that every time.” Read the first sentence again, but skip the part between the commas. The whole thing sounded like an inspirational speech given by your insane grandfather who thinks he’s still fighting the war. 

The time out was completely unnecessary, but the glorious rant that “explained” it? Wonderfully necessary.

(The Sens website has video of the press conference here.)

I really dug the placement of the robo-cam at the Joe tonight. I felt so close to the action I was waiting for Bertuzzi to cheap-shot me.