AS I SEE IT COLUMN: Ten things I don’t understand from across the sporting world

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/07/2025 (285 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are a number of things in sport that just don’t make any sense to me.

Here are 10 of them.

1. Why does the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ban Russia from the Olympics because of Russia’s illegal war with Ukraine, yet continues to allow Israel to compete in the Olympics, when Israel is committing crimes against humanity through their systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza? If one war is illegal and immoral, so is the other one. The IOC must show some moral consistency and ban Israel from the Olympic movement until it ends its grotesquely disproportionate and inhumane war in Gaza.

2. In the NHL where there are players from more than 20 nations, why does the league only play the Canadian and American anthems? Why is the league intent on insulting all those players from the other 18 countries?

3. Can hockey players please come up with a new routine after a goal is scored or at the end of the game. High fiving players along the bench after you score and butting your helmet against your goalie’s mask after a win are old, predictable and boring rituals. Take a page out of football, where their players put on a fun, creative dance after every touchdown.

4. In international hockey, why do organizers continue to torture the losers of gold medal games by forcing them to stand on the blue line to hear the winning team’s national anthem? Take a page from soccer’s playbook: play both team’s anthems at the beginning of the game. Problem instantly solved. It’s civil, classy and neither team ends up being humiliated.

5. Why do football players have it so easy? On average, in a 60-minute football game, there are only 11 minutes of actual football being played. The rest of the time the clock ticks away while literally nothing is happening on the field. Contrast that to soccer, where players play for a full 90 minutes.

6. In football, why does a quarterback get credit when a receiver catches the ball but then dipsy-doodles on his own for another 20-50 yards? The quarterback has nothing to do with those extra yards. It’s the receiver’s skill, not the quarterback’s, for any yards gained after a catch.

7. Conversely, why does the QB take the blame for an interception when the receiver lets the ball slip between his hands or deflects the ball into the hands of the opposition? Doesn’t seem fair.

8. In all of sport, is there a more disgusting and bacteria-infested surface than the floor of a Major League Baseball dugout? Seriously, can baseball please ban spitting? It’s disgusting.

9. In the NHL, why can’t video reply folks talk to the refs in real time? How many times did we see in the recent playoffs where all the on-ice officials missed a blatant high stick. Let people in the booth talk to the ref and get them to call a penalty. They do that in international hockey. The NHL needs to do the same thing.

10. I have never understood why athletes – most often but not exclusively football or basketball players – thank God after a win. Really?

There is a panoramically stupid, convicted criminal in the White House who has publicly threatened to use nuclear weapons. There are several parts of the world (including here in Manitoba) that are literally on fire. Israel is conducting a genocide against innocent Palestinians in Gaza that is killing tens of thousands children, women and seniors. Thousands of people around the world die of starvation every single day. And we’re supposed to think God is concerned about who wins your stupid sporting match? Give it a rest. You sound ridiculous invoking God in sports when there are so many serious issues plaguing humanity.