Mike Dojc

SPORTS

Who Should the 2006 Bobblie Go to?

9/29/2006

Calling all sportnuts, lend me some peanut grease. I need your help with my 2006 Bobblie Awards article. The categories will be the same as they were for 2005 which is posted below.

Calling all sportnuts, lend me some peanut grease. I need your help with my 2006 Bobblie Awards article. The categories will be the same as they were for 2005 which is posted below. I’m thinking Talladega Nights for best sports movie, Tiger Woods for Turnaround and Zidane for biggest blow-up but I’d really like to hear your thoughts on the other categories winners.

2005 Bobblies

Bust out the pizza and pretzels. It’s time for Bell TV Magazine’s first annual Bobblie Awards. We may not have an A-list host (yet) or a glamorous red-carpet crowd (yet), but we do have a giant gym bag full of shiny Bobbleheads for the winners.

BEST SPORTS TV SHOW
WINNER: THE CONTENDER

By editing the elimination matches to resemble the flying fist fiestas of the Rocky flicks, The Contender makes the sweet science accessible to non-boxing fans. This compelling reality show packs a one-two punch, introducing fighters’ wives and children to viewers and juxtaposing the pulverizing jabs and uppercuts with heartstring-tugging family drama. Sylvester Stallone, who hosts the show along with Sugar Ray Leonard, calls this humanizing touch “the Adrian factor,” a reference to Rocky’s main squeeze.

BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY
WINNER: MURDERBALL

“No arms, no legs, no problem,” says Bob Lujano, one of the tough-as-chainmail quadriplegic athletes profiled in this gritty and gripping doc that gives audiences an all-access pass into the rock’em soc ‘em world of wheelchair rugby. A hybrid of hockey, NASCAR and basketball, quad rugby is not for the squeamish. It’s an extremely physical sport, with jarring collisions paving the road to the end zone. Murderball focuses on the US National Team and its bitter rivalry with Team Canada, which culminates in a battle royale between the two clubs at the 2004 Athens Paralympics.

BEST SPORTS MOVIE
WINNER: CINDERELLA MAN

Russell Crowe masterfully portrays Jim Braddock, a burly depression-era boxer with a bruising right hook and everyman charm. When he breaks his money-making hand in a title fight, his promising career crashes in synch with the stock market. Savings wiped out, he takes a job as a longshoreman on the Hoboken docks to feed his family. You’d need a heart of stone not to get wrapped up in this tale of a working-class hero making the most of a second chance.

BEST TEAM
WINNER: LONDON KNIGHTS

With the NHL in limbo last season, the junior ranks received major-league attention. While the Sidney Crosby watch consumed the waking moments of most hardcore hockey fans, the London Knights were just too good to ignore. Not only did the OHL champs reign in Ontario with a phenomenal 79-9-2 record including playoffs, but they continued to dominate in the Memorial Cup, blanking Crosby’s Rimouski Oceanic 4-0 in the final to the absolute rapture of a hometown crowd. You couldn’t ask for a better way to celebrate the club’s 40th anniversary.

BRIGHTEST NEW STAR
WINNER: DWYANE WADE

When the Marquette guard was drafted fifth overall by the Miami Heat in 2003, you didn’t hear so much as a peep about Dwyane outside of basketball circles. The water-cooler crowd was too busy chatting about earlier picks like LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh. But by the end of the season it was Wade who was at the top of his rookie class. He carried the Heat to the semis, where they fell one game short of a championship berth, then struck a signature sneaker deal with Converse, got his mug on the cover of the NBA Live 2006 video game and scored a modeling gig with Sean John. “We’re going to make Dwyane Wade the first NBA supermodel,” raved CEO Sean “Diddy’ Combs.

BIGGEST BLOW-UP
WINNER: ROAD RAGE AT THE SYLVANIA 300

Playing bumper cars at 200 mph is a recipe for disaster. The motor mayhem in New Hampshire was sparked on the third lap when Scott Riggs slammed into Kurt Busch, sending the 2004 Nextel Cup Champ into the wall. Fuming, Busch stormed Riggs’ pit box and gave crew chief Rodney Childers a mouthful. Things got even more heated on lap 191 when Michael Waltrip ended Robby Gordon’s day with a tap that sent the #7 car spinning out of the race. In retaliation, Gordon tried to reverse his smoking wreck into Waltrip. When Waltrip deftly avoided him, Gordon hurled his helmet at Waltrip’s car. Gordon was fined $25, 000 for the attempted hit and an additional $10,000 for calling Waltrip a “piece of ****” on national TV.

BIGGEST BREAKTHROUGH
WINNER: RAFAEL NADAL

Nadal surged from 46th in the ATP rankings to the two-spot, right behind tennis titan Roger Federer. By climbing so close to the top before his twentieth birthday, the Spaniard joins the exclusive company of early bloomers Bjorn Borg and Boris Becker. With his phenomenal physique and penchant for sleeveless shirts and Capri pants, Nadal would have become a teen idol whether or not he won the French Open. His play is as sharp as his fashion sense: Nadal swings his racquet with the vim of a lumberjack, and his fighting spirit is unbreakable—he tracks down balls that lesser competitors wouldn’t even attempt to return.

BIGGEST TURNAROUND
WINNER: PHOENIX SUNS

In 2003-2004, NBA teams didn’t need much sunscreen to block out the Suns. Phoenix was under a big dark cloud: they mustered just 29 wins. But after signing free agents Steve Nash and Quentin Richards for 2004-2005, the team went through a total eclipse, topping the Western Conference with 62 wins, one of the biggest turnarounds in NBA history. Bursting with offensive options, the Suns were also one of the funnest teams to watch, averaging a league-topping 110 points per game. In the playoffs they swept the Memphis Grizzlies, then disposed of the Dallas mavericks, but fell short to the defensively minded San Antonio Spurs in the Conference finals.

This article first ran in Bell T.V. Magazine

Copyright © Mike Dojc 2006