I'm not a loser. I just support losing teams

DPC and Ginger Spice share a love of Red Bull F1

It has been 23-years since I've witnessed one of my teams win a championship. I was 15-years old and the Montreal Canadiens shocked the NHL world and knocked off the Gretzky led LA Kings in 1993. Patrick Roy made my awkward high school years easier and then destroyed me when he demanded to be traded.

In a way the up and down years of Roy and the Habs could be an allegory for my dazed and confused teenage era but that's a mercurial story for another time.

I'm not a loser, I'm a happily married parent and gainfully employed, but the teams I dig are not championship material.

Life would easier if I rooted for the New England Patriots but I dig the Arizona Cardinals. It's not fair for to consider the Cardinals a suffering franchise because relative to my Chicago Cubs being the 1947 NFL Champs is a dynasty.

I can't expect my alma mater the University of Nevada to compete with the teams in the BCS Conferences but they've given me a fair amount of joy over the years. Four straight trips to the Dance. A Sweet 16 appearance in 2004 made my time in Reno kick ass as a basketball fan. But in all honesty I still haven't gotten over Nevada losing to Georgia Tech in the Elite 8. It was a winnable game, damn it.

I have similar sentiments with Super Bowl XLIII. To this day I cannot watch replays of the Cardinals last minutes loss to Pittsburgh and it created a lot of disdain for Ben Roethlisberger. Call me a petty man but I hold a grudge against someone I will never meet.

I'm a newby Phoenix Suns fan but it is my hope that Robert Sarver will have things worked out by the time I join AARP.

We've been over my Danica fandom and she is currently 24th in NSCS standings and has zero Top-10 finishes in 2016. When she finishes on the lead lap I consider it a triumph.

I sorta have an exception rooting for losing teams and this is Red Bull F1. Unfortunately I was not a fan of Red Bull F1 when they won four straight championships, I had just started watching F1 at the time and didn't really have a fave yet.

Twenty-three years is a pretty good drought. With some luck the Arizona Cardinals could win it all. I'm not counting on it but it could happen.

Maybe two plus decades of futility have made me pessimistic?

Vrbata is coming back to the Coyotes and my take on who should also return home

Radim Vrbata is close to making Arizona his home for the third time. Per an AZ Central report, the twice former Arizona Coyote is expected to sign a one-year deal and return to The Valley. Vrbata previously played with the Coyotes in 2007-08 and from 2009 - 2014.

With Vrbata coming back home it got me thinking about who should go back home again or at least return to their former team.

1. Paul Bissonette: BizNasty should be back with the Coyotes as a pugilist specialist and a solid locker room dude. You need guys that put the team ahead of themselves and BizNasty consistently did the grinders job. 
2. Anquan Boldin: 'Q' spent his first seven-seasons with the Arizona and he should end is solid career with the Cardinals. Yes he has a lot of mileage, off road miles at that, but he can contribute as a veteran presence to the younger receivers on the rosters. That and he has Super Bowl experience. 
3. Montreal Expos: I proudly wear an Expos chapeau and at MLB games I usually get a few positive comments. I guess there are a lot of former Expos fans in Arizona during Spring Training. Anywho, Montreal has a strong baseball history that began before the Expos, Jackie Robinson played north of the border. Move the Tampa Bay Rays and give us back the Expos. Also, they'll need a new stadium.
   

It's Time To Assign NASCAR Numbers Because No Man Should Have To Alter Their Dale Jr. Tattoo

NASCAR car numbers are the property of the team. #3 is owned by Richard Childress Racing, #24 is owned by Hendrick Motorsports, etc. This ownership of car numbers is a bit of a bummer. You identify the number with the driver, not the number with the owner. Except for Richard Petty.

Only in a Bizarro Universe would #3 only be associated with Austin Dillion, as opposed to Dale Earnhardt Sr. Yes, Chase Elliott is quite talented but #24 will always be Jeff Gordon. Aric Almirola seems decent but 43 is Richard Petty's. Because of the ownership of numbers Dale Earnhardt Jr. was forced to switch to 88 because his stepmom would not relinquish the right's to the #8 when Jr. left DEI. As a result, many a tattoo had to be altered because of Jr's number change.

F1 is leading the way for once by assigning number to drivers for their career. No matter how many times you switch teams you still have the same number you picked. Lewis Hamilton is always 44. Daniel Ricciardo is forever 3 and Jules Bianchi's #17 was retired after his tragic death.

NASCAR should follow in a similar suit. Forget giving the number rights to the team owners. Let the drivers keep them throughout their career and retire the ones that deserve.

Tim Richmond and Dale Earnhardt

In the last 25-years a few numbers should be retired when that driver hangs them up. That list is short and sweet:

#3 Dale Earnhardt

#24 Jeff Gordon

#48 Jimmie Johnson

#25 Tim Richmond

The first three drivers on the list are a given. You have legends of the sport that have a combined 17-NSCS Championships between them but then there is Tim Richmond.

Well Richmond admission to this list is based on conjecture and later influence. He wasn't Southern.

He was brash, loud and died of AIDS at a fairly young age.

His career was short, 13-wins in 185 Winston Cup races and no championships but he showed that a non-Southerner could do well in the sport and he was in Earnhardt's class as a driver.

"We can all speculate how far he could have gone if he could have just stuck around a little bit longer, " Jeff Hammond said. "But I feel like he could have been that rival that Dale Earnhardt would have probably met his match on."

Every time I see Brad K's number 2, I have flashbacks to Rusty. I've always associated the number 20 with Tony Stewart, not Matt Kenseth. I think I am being stubborn and/or I have a crappy memory but NASCAR can learn from F1 and let their drivers pick and keep their numbers. Because no one should have their tattoo altered just because their driver switched teams.

Cardinals Training Camp and I Hella Suck at Fantasy Football

Last weekend I took in Arizona Cardinals training camp at University of Phoenix Stadium. The trip was two fold: spend time with my son in an air conditioned environment and scout talent for the upcoming fantasy football season.

The Cardinals looked good and refined. I mean, I guess they did. I have no eye for judging athletic talent and my track record proves it.

In the past 20-years here are some of my more interesting predictions:

• RG3 will be better than Andrew Luck
• Matt Leinart was the steal of the 2006 NFL Draft
• Jeff George is a Hall of Famer
• Jay Cutler will lead the Bears to the Super Bowl (This could still happen)
• Edgerrin James was a good signing for Arizona
• Why did the Bears draft Devin Hester?
• Tom Hardy deserved an Oscar for Bane 
• Kirk Snyder will dominate the NBA

There are more predictions that blew up in my face but I have suppressed those memories like a Manchurian Candidate and only the sight of a Ramon Martinez rookie card can bring them back. 

My history of poor scouting should make me pick the opposite of my intuition but that takes logic and common. Two traits that I am lacking in. For example, if I have the intuition that drafting Darrius Heyward-Bey is a good idea, I should go with the opposite and realize that Michael Crabtree is the safer choice. 

So what can I expect in the upcoming fantasy football season?

Probably drafting Tom Brady seven-rounds too soon. 

Thinking that an aging Larry Fitzgerald is going to turn back the hands of time and have a huge season. Ditto for Carson Palmer and Drew Brees.

Predicting that RG3 will finally have his breakout season. That all he needed was a change of scenery in Cleveland.

Drafting any player associated with the Jacksonville Jaguars or Miami Dolphins

I'll probably pull a Lohan and be mocked the whole season...

Arizona cut ties with Antoine Vermette and I've spent too much time in the Coyotes' locker room

The Arizona Coyotes cut ties with forward Antoine Vermette. The team bought out the final year of his contract and in all likelihood the Coyotes faithful will get to see young phenom Dylan Strome in Vermette's spot next season.

Vermette gave the Coyotes five solid season with 70-goals and 79-assists.  Never a superstar but a solid player. One of the guys that you need on your roster that will make the proper sacrifices for the greater good of the time. The grinder who isn't overly concerned with stats and I've run out cliches.

My interactions with Vermette, and most players on the Coyotes, have been minimal in my four-seasons as an NHL reporter. Because I am low man on the totem pole I am usually pushed to the back when it comes time to interview players in the locker.

I'm ok with this because my fellow reporters are often better than me at asking the tough questions. That and I have a tendency to zone out when I find myself in confined quarters with a group of sweaty hockey players. The enclosed funk and poor ventilation make me yearn for the hallway and cleaner air.

Even after four-seasons of being in the locker room it is kind of a surreal experience for a lifelong sports fan. I somehow managed to cross that magical barrier where fans can't go but folks that spent four-years getting journalism degrees can. A simple lanyard with my face on it gets me into some cool parts of Gila River Arena and I know I am lucky dude to be granted access.

I may look pissed in the picture with Martin Erat but internally I'm hella stoked. That faces is my serious, journalist expression. Similar to Derek Zoolander's Blue Steele I have a signature facial expression.

Mine is serious, focused, driven and ultimately that combo makes me looked bored and or pissed off. I need more mirror time to perfect my signature look. Blue Steele was years in the making and I need some more time to get mine down, on the off hand chance I'm in the background of a postgame interview being filmed.