DETROIT – After yesterday’s Vikings/Lions game in Detroit, Fox made an inadvertant move that is sure to attract more of us female NFL fans.

During a ‘live’ feed after the game showing Vikings owner Zygi Wilf handing a game ball to coach Brad Childress, tight end (there’s a bad joke there) Visanthe Shiancoe was standing directly in the shot, stark naked, his prize hanging right out.

There it was, a huge one being part of the game ball presentation and the crew did not notice until it was too late.

As this blooper makes it’s way through the media, you have to wonder if coach Childress is “looking in the wrong direction” and may need a lesson in locker room etiquette.  

Maybe this event will divert the attention away from the Vikings’ legal matters like drug tests and player suspensions.

Besides entertaining the female football world, Shiancoe led his Vikings in receptions, total reception yards and caught the winning pass in the fourth quarter. Talk about hogging the spotlight.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

Last year, during the Western Conference Finals, I was with a group of beer-guzzling friends, watching the Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars run each other through the boards in a brutal, physical game; these guys looked pissed like they hadn’t been laid in a while.

When there was a break in the action, Hailey, one of the other girls in our group, threw a question out onto the table.

“Do you think a woman will ever play in the NHL?”

Hailey’s hockey comments are usually ignored since she thinks icing is something you only find on a cake. The guys feel she makes up for her lack of knowledge with those tiny denim cutoffs and extra-small tight ‘T’s she chooses to wear to some of the sporting events and ice-cold taverns.

This question though, got the guys riled up more than one of Hailey’s see-through shirts and the timing was perfect as a close-up shot of two Red Wings sitting on the bench came up on the giant screen. Dallas Drake sporting a fresh, two-inch gash on his nose and Kris Draper slouched next to him icing a big red knot on his chin that was decorated with new stitches, compliments of a Drake shot minutes earlier that bounced off his face and into the net for a goal.

We stared at the image on the screen like the question had just been answered then the one-liners began to fly.

“The helmet might give her a bad hair day.”

“If she got run into the boards she’d be upset about breaking a nail.”

“The Islanders had a bunch . . . Bossy . . . Gillies . . . Bobby Bourne.” – Nothing like a smart-ass Ranger fan.

I even threw one in, “Do those skates come in another color?”

After we finished our bad rendition of “Last Comic Standing” I reminded the group, ‘Don’t forget about Manon Rheaume.’

For those fans that were not following pro hockey in 1992, Manon Rheaume is the hot twenty-year-old goaltender best known for becoming the first woman to appear in an NHL game.

Phil Esposito, who was running the Tampa Bay Lightning at the time, was accused of using Rheaume as a publicity stunt. Maybe, but regardless this hot little babe gained a bunch of attention and was later offered to pose in a few men’s magazines.

Marketing ploy or not, 10,000 fans packed little Expo Hall on a humid September night in Tampa to see the 5′ 6″, 125 pound Rheaume strut her stuff.

Playing against the St. Louis Blues and donning her idol, Patrick Roy’s #33, the French-Canadian Rheaume allowed 2 goals on 9 shots in one period that night. Those aren’t the greatest numbers but nobody seemed to mind. She was a chick, she looked like a model and like Hailey, people in Tampa still thought icing is something you only find on a cake.

Rheaume went on to play a few other ‘pro’ games for the Knoxville Cherokees of the ECHL and the Atlanta Knights in the IHL compiling numbers that guaranteed her a short run at the men’s level.

Other chicks who gave it a run are Kim Martin, a Swedish goalie who was born in Stockholm and Erin Whitten who was named the top goaltender at the 1994 World Championship. Whitten made pro sports history by becoming the first woman to post a goaltending win in men’s hockey. On October 30, 1993 while playing for the Toledo Storm, she stopped 15 of 19 shots and defeated the Dayton Bombers, 6-5 in an ECHL game; the same league Rheaume later posted her first pro victory.

Time will tell if these women are laying a foundation for some of us girls to make it to the pro ranks and eventually compete in the NHL. But looking back to that image of Drake and Draper nursing the wounds inflicted in that brutal game, if we ever see a female make it in the NHL, odds are it will be in the goaltender position.

The Sports Chick can be reached direct at email sportchick@sportsclimax.com.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

It’s official! For the few of you who had not yet realized the fact, Sarah Palin is NO hockey mom!

Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin was greeted by boos when she walked onto the ice at the Wachovia Center and the boos continued with a mixture of polite applause as she dropped the ceremonial first puck a few weeks ago at the opening game for the Philadelphia Flyers.

Why then would she and the NHL schedule another puck dropping in St. Louis this weekend.

The Alaskan guv has tried to sell herself as a hockey mom and that sell has hit a major mountain in the road. It was recently revealed that Palin has spent approximately $150,000 of donations on clothing, hair and make-up over the past few weeks for her campaign on a shopping spree at Saks Fifth and Neiman Marcus. How many “hockey Moms” do you know who shop at those two stores.

The politician was invited to drop the puck after she had a meeting at a Philadelphia bar with Flyers owner Ed Snider.

Although the NHL said it did not view the Flyers’ invitation to be politically motivated, most “hockey moms” and “Joe Six-packs” do and they showed their displeasure when she walked onto the ice by greeting her with boos.

Amid this political backlash, the Flyers are the only team in the entire NHL who have not won a game thus far and many fans are loving those results.

Adam Proteau of The Hockey News nailed it on the head in his weekly column, “Philadelphia Flyers owner Ed Snider makes it very difficult to root for his team. And I’m the guy who picked them to win the Eastern Conference this season.

Listen, I don’t give a tinker’s damn if Snider supports Sarah Palin on his own time, but to foist his views on his fan base the way he did that night and openly bang the drum of politicians while they’re still running for office, to associate the NHL with one particular ideology, is beyond nauseating and will go down in history as a black mark on his ownership for the rest of time.

Even as a business decision, it makes no sense. Does Snider and the NHL wish to completely alienate the millions of people who think the current Republican ticket is an affront to the intelligence level of women and voters? And what about his and the league’s employees who aren’t for creationism in schools or endless war or the erosion of the constitution or forcing rape victims to pay for their rape kits?”

As harsh as Adam’s column may sound, his views echo the sentiments of many of the NHL’s blue-collar fan base and Snider should have known better.

Even in Toronto, Canada they are taking notice.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

It’s no wonder the NFL continues to book the biggest names in music year after year for their halftime Super Bowl show. The competition for millions of the game’s halftime viewers is heating up.The competition comes in the form of the annual Lingerie Bowl that has aired global-wide to millions of viewers on pay per view television during every Super Bowl halftime since 2004.

The Lingerie Bowl is a football game played between teams of hot-looking, athletic models scampering around the field in tight panties and bras, and it is gaining popularity fast.

Half-naked babes bouncing down the field scantily clad in sexy lingerie, gang-tackling each other to the turf . . . does it get any better than this!

This event brings new meaning to the ‘tight end’ position and I would suggest the announcers avoid phrases like “She penetrated the gap.” when calling the game.

Lingerie Bowl VI will be competing with this year’s 2009 Super Bowl halftime show that will feature Bruce Springsteen. Corporate giants have jumped on board over the past few years with Miller Brewing Company, Dodge and Universal Pictures sponsoring the game and every major media network has covered it as well.

The game has become so popular, the ten-team Lingerie Football League is being formed and is scheduled to begin play in September 2009.

Teams will play in Atlanta, L.A, San Diego, Miami, Tampa, Chicago, Phoenix, Dallas and New England.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax