...and the entire NHL wouldn't show up. Go to hell Bettman.

Kobe's antics on and off the court get him my vote for asshole of the year. I think his behavior over the passed few years is a reflection of who he really is. He doesn't get along with ANYONE...not his wife, women he hits on (and rapes), team mates (passed and present), coaches, his parents...need I go on?

TO shouldn't even be in the running. He is nothing like the rest of the assholes listed. He does a little celebration dance...that doesn't make him an asshole.

yeah, I gotta agree with Cass. It's kinda sad that TO is at the head of your table, when he generally confines his "asshole-ness" to the playing field.

Then you mention players who beat down fans in the stands and Yankees who feel the need to cheat by shooting up every steroid in the world.

Let me know when TO gets arrested or gets caught with drugs. I'm guessing the beat downs TO lays on the Giants might be clouding your judgement...

Being an asshole on the field is plenty good enough for me.

Let me know the next time Randy Johnson dances around after striking out someone or Ray Allen preens on a mid-court logo or Brett Favre takes the field with a marker in his sock.

Granted, he's a showboat. No one will deny that.

Sure beats being a rapist and a guy who manages to alienate the best player and coach in the NBA and everyone else he seems to come in contact with (i.e. Kobe).

Sure beats being a cheater more interested in shooting up roids than protecting the integrity of the league (i.e. Giambi, Sheffield, Bonds, etc.).

Sure beats being a punk who wants to take two months off in the middle of the season to promote an album and then takes a fight into the stands to beat down a fan (i.e. Artest).

So if you think pulling a sharpee out of his sock years ago is worse than what these players are doing this year... that's fine, it's your blog :-)

I think TO's defenders missed the point:

Paul's not judging who's the biggest asshole athlete, but rather, this was the "Year of the Asshole Athlete". And TO has made a healthy contribution to that distinction.

Also, let us not forget who brought back the chair-toss at sporting events, retro-style:

Rangers reliever, Frank Francisco, no doubt still pissed that his parents couldn't come up with a less redundant name, took it out on an A's fan when he hurled a plastic chair into the stands during a fight with the crowd on Sept. 13th.

He's pleading not guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge for breaking a woman's nose, despite being caught mid-fling from three different camera angles. Definitely a California attorney at work there.

Personally, I think Milton Bradley (who's in jail as I write this) paid the guy to do it, to get his name off the front page for a day.

TO was on Letterman last night, and it showed him in a different light. Overall, he's entertaining in my opinion.

I think a special exemption should be made for the NHL owners. If they can pass up the recently offered deal by the players' union- which was incredibly generous and showed a true willingness to try to end the impasse- and have most likely tossed this season into the crapper, than they are definitely deserve the ASSHOLE Athlete of the Year Award.

The Canadians are so freaked about the loss of NHL hockey that Canada's Prime Minister, Paul Martin, offered the services of govenment negotiators. They have six NHL hockey teams; the US has 22.

Gary Bettman needs to have his owners control themselves rather than forcing the players to a contract which includes a salary cap. Who is responsible for the payroll- the employee or the employer?

I haven't followed the NHL dealings too closely. Let's face it, they can take 10 years off and I wouldn't care. But I have to laugh at businessmen who lock out employers they offered contracts to.

I think the players are being paid some kind of lockout salary -- like $10,000 a month. Maybe someone more in tune with the situation can verify.

Shows you how much power these leagues have.

Lucy summarized the entire current NHL situation perfectly. I am just sick over the loss of hockey this year. As a season ticket holder for the Philadelphia Flyers, I am more disgusted. I paid for my season last spring, and was told that if I wanted to be reimbursed (since there wasn't a hockey season) that I would have to pay administrative fees AND that I "may" lose my season ticket status. What the fuck.

I don't know anything about that $10k a month lockout pay (I will ask my friend tonight). I do know that if a player wasn't cleared to play and was on the DL at time of strike, that they receive their regular salary still. I know Amonte and Roenick have incredible salaries and even the rookies make good scratch, so $10K is nothing. They want to play.

If anyone's in NY for the games today, Katcher talked me into driving down for the Sunday Night Football Drinking Game. Here's hoping "The Three Clowns" in the announcers booth saved some idiocy and hyperbole for tonight.

I hope Ray Lewis isn't the jealous type. They made sweet, sweet love to Delhomme, Vick and Muhammad last night. If we were drinking beers just based on "i'm a tell ya what" and "unbelievable" - i'd be comatose this morning.

I watched that awesome game at a holiday party, with the sound off and I was dying for two reasons:

* I couldn't remember who I picked in my pool. Turns out I had Carolina and pushed with a final of 3 points.

* I couldn't hear the announcers and it was killing me. I knew there had to be at least five times where Patrick screamed, "Are you kidding me?"

The drinking game is picking up steam across the Internet, being posted in a ton of forums. Here's one on a gambling site, though some guy copy and pasted all the rules and fellow posters seem to be crediting him for coming up with it:

http://www.covers.com/postingforum/post01/showmessage.aspx?spt=21&ur=142370433&sub=301706

TIME has announced its Person of the Year and, for the second time, it's George W. Bush.

http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2004/story.html

"For sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his ten-gallon-hat leadership style and for persuading a majority of voters that he deserved to be in the White House for another four years, George W. Bush is TIME's 2004 Person of the Year."

From editor James Kelly:

"This is not the first time a President has earned the title twice. Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower (first as a general), Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton all share that distinction, albeit the last three with partners the second time around (Henry Kissinger, Yuri Andropov and Kenneth Starr, respectively). Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Deng Xiaoping and Mikhail Gorbachev also got the nod twice. Franklin Roosevelt holds the record, with three appearances."

TO is pretty much done for the season.

Hope you don't need him for your fantasy football, PK.

My shirt was a jinx...