Sport and Cinema.com

In a role that carries the ball forward in a picture based on a true story, Sandra Bullock’s performance as Leigh Anne Tuohy, a gutsy, self-confident, well-off Southern woman with hyper-protective instincts garnered her an Oscar as Best Actress at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards held Sunday.

The Olympic Games have traditionally been a ratings bonanza for American televison networks and they still are. Correspondingly the astronomical rights fees have reflected broadcasters’ level of interest in securing them. But the times, they are a changin’. As the future rights fees are not likely to reach such heights.
(see chart below)

The Richmond Olympic Oval is the long track speed skating venue for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and bound to be eye-candy for viewers around the world. A 15 minute train ride down the new Canada rail line from downtown Vancouver, With its floor to ceiling views of the Fraser River and North Shore Mountains, not only is the vista impressive, but so are the numbers:

The men’s hockey competiton at the XXIst Winter Games in Vancouver will be one of the most coveted tickets form the first day of competiton through to the gold medal match, but will Canada even be in that title game?

There are plenty of world class teams that are capable of winning it all including Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic.

2010 Vancouver Olympic Television Schedule

The sports world turns to its biggest winter extravaganza beginning on the 12th and running through the 28th of this month. So to help prepare those who are more expert in the nuances of an NFL game or the intracacies involved in a NASCAR pit stop, we’ll present over the next few weeks a basic guideline to the sports, venues and potential stars of the XXIst Winter Olympics from Vancouver, Canada.

Colts vs. Saints
Continuing the theme from an earlier post regarding the importance of quarterbacks, let’s focus there in assessing the game’s key matchup.
Early in his career, Peyton Manning, a four-time league MVP, was criticized for failing to win big games. Indeed his career playoff record is just 9-8. However, he has won six of the last eight, including a Super Bowl victory over the Bears three years ago in the rain in Miami.
Heading into this year’s Super Bowl, Manning is red hot setting an NFL record for 300-yard playoff games with his seventh in last week’s AFC championship win over the Jets.

This year’s NFL Playoffs have certainly re-affirmed that a team’s performance, now more than ever, is closely tied to the results produced by their quarterback.

The pressure in the NFL’s second season to reach the Super Bowl has knocked off the likes of San Diego’s Phillip Rivers, the Cardinals’ Kurt Warner and the Bengals’ Carson Palmer.

The Tide’s Heisman running back, Mark Ingram and Longhorn mobile QB Colt McCoy may be taking a rare back seat to a pair of defenses that are likely to determine the winner in the first-ever BCS Championship clash of 13-0 teams.

In the closest race in the award’s 75-year history, Alabama sophomore running back Mark Ingram became his school’s first Heisman Trophy winner and the first running back since USC’s Reggie Bush won it in 2005.

Despite a storied program that include 12 national titles and with such illustrious names as Joe Namath and Ken Stabler, no one from the Crimson Tide had ever won college football’s biggest individual award.