As the Denver Nuggets rolled through the downtown streets of LoDo, champagne filled and shirtless, the confetti flew, and fans cheered. A franchise that began back in 1967 had finally captured its first NBA Championship. A victory parade of epic proportions. But as the fire engines stopped, and thousands packed into Civic Center Park, I realized that Denver’s victory parade was also a goodbye parade. A goodbye to sports for quite some time. Forty-one days to be exact. Starting with the NBA draft on June 22 (in which – spoiler alert – the 7’5 French guy is going first) and ending with... Read More

It is hard to describe my excitement of the current sports calendar. It is as if the Sport Gods opened up the heavens and simply let it rain. The NFL kickoff could have satisfied my fix as entertainment filled my Sundays, Mondays, and even Thursdays. But add to that the college football season and I really start to get aroused. Using the term aroused intertwined with sports seems a little creepy, but it is not sexual. It’s not like I’m Ime Udoka of the Boston Celtics or anything. And after months of meaningless baseball, the MLB is finally getting good. Teams fighting for playoff spots,... Read More

The final seconds were ticking down, the net was empty, and the Colorado Avalanche were just a puck-clear away from winning it all. Gabriel Landeskog was on the bench after crawling off the ice, Tampa Bay was on the attack with an extra skater, and Darcy Kuemper had been ridiculed all series for letting in soft goals. Moments like this are what sports are made of. Anxiety mixed with exhilaration plus torture. I couldn’t watch, and yet, I couldn’t look away. With sixteen seconds left, the Avs got a stop near the blue line as the puck slowly trickled down the ice. Cale Makar fought for the... Read More

The last time the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup – Britney was dating Justin, Beyonce was still a Destiny’s Child, and Joe Sakic wore skates to work each morning. Instead of a suit and tie. The year was 2001, and while society was busy dancing to songs downloaded off Napster, the current Avalanche squad was so young, that they were most likely going down for Nap Time. On Wednesday, the 2022 Colorado Avalanche will begin their quest to lift Lord Stanley’s Cup as they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 – but to describe how excruciatingly long the two-decade wait has been... Read More

The darkness that is Halloween conjures up many frightful images.  The silence of an empty graveyard, the shadows of creatures that roam, and the fear of things that go bump in the night. The world of sports can be just as scary. Try watching the Colorado Buffaloes compete against Oregon, or the Denver Nuggets without Nikola Jokic.  In Denver, we hide under the blanket when the Broncos are on, and stars like Von Miller and Nolan Arenado can vanish without a trace. A look at the past week in sports – the tricks, and all the treats. Apparently, the only thing scarier than John Gruden’s resemblance... Read More

Late in the third period, the outcome was obvious.  The Colorado Avalanche had just scored their seventh goal of the night and the Las Vegas Golden Knights had no answer.  The Avalanche faithful of more than 10,000 fans pounded on the glass and waved their white pom-poms.  The score was now 7-1 and the first game of the second round of the NHL playoffs was all but over.  The Knights had only one move left. Bring in the Goon Squad. The first line was pulled from the ice to make room for five Las Vegas mercenaries and their mission to make things ugly. The game finished with cheap shots, bloodied... Read More

After a year of isolation, I slowly entered the health club with a gym bag around my shoulder and a mask upon my face.  Regardless of the Peloton bike, exercise ball, and weight bench gathering dust in my living room, I was fully vaccinated, and it was time to get out. It felt like a Saturday, but in the aftermath of quarantine naming days, months, or even years remained a challenge.  The gym was quiet as I reintroduced myself to the various machines, worked out for about an hour, then headed to the jacuzzi to ease a few aches. The confusion began once exiting the locker room as a high school... Read More

The Washington Football Team recently asked for fan input to find a new name for its NFL franchise.  Once known as the Redskins, the franchise abandoned the controversial team name after years of public pressure, eventually settling on calling the team the Washington Football Team until a new name was decided upon.  The organization has asked fans to vote on possible choices such as the Red Wolves, Wild Hogs, Aviators, and more. The organization has even asked for feedback on calling the team the Washington Capitol City Football Club. Hey WFT!  WTF? The conversation had me thinking about team... Read More

Ask someone to name their favorite sport and you will find a variety of answers.  The question so subjective that a crack of a bat, smell of fresh cut grass, or even taste of cheese dip may elicit contrasting responses. Ask someone to name the toughest sport and you will find arguments defending the size and speed of the everyday linebacker, the blood and bruises of the MMA fighter, and the toothless grin of the second-line hockey player.  Again subjective. But ask which sport has done the best job returning to play during a pandemic and there looks to be plenty of evidence to judge them objectively. ... Read More

An asterisk.  Look up the definition in Webster’s and you will find it described as the following: the character * thought of as being appended to something (such as an athletic accomplishment included in a record book) typically in order to indicate that there is a limiting fact or consideration which makes that thing less important or impressive than it would otherwise be. In sports, the asterisk first made a splash in 1961 after Roger Maris set a single-season home run record with 61, passing the legendary Babe Ruth’s mark of 60 set back in 1927.  The issue was that Ruth hit his 60 home... Read More

It was only last weekend that I sat on my couch watching some guy named Daniel Berger win the Charles Schwab Challenge in a playoff over some guy named Collin Morikawa.  This wasn’t about the names of the players, the putts being drained, or even the awkward silence of an empty golf course.  This was about hope, normality, and the gradual return of sports. Despite the fear of COVID-19 and the social unrest that has dominated our lives, the golf tournament gave me just a glimmer of hope that our world was finally trending the right direction.  The opening of restaurants, gyms, and businesses... Read More

As states continue to relax quarantine rules in an effort to open up again, the NHL became the first of the four major sports to step forward with a comprehensive plan to get back on the ice.  The Return to Play Plan was agreed upon in principle last week as the NHL decided on a four phase plan that would include self-isolation, training at local facilities, a training camp, and a 24 team playoff held at two hubs yet to be announced. According to the NHL timeline, players have already been isolating, and some facilities across the country have been opening with specific safety guidelines.  The... Read More

Hockey is known to be an intense sport. As a league, they’re known for fights and hard hits on the ice. These hard hits have caused several former and current professional hockey players to turn to cannabis for its medicinal benefits as a pain reliever, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotectant. Today we’ve rounded up 10 hockey players who support cannabis, starting with the 2018 Cannabis Business Awards Activist of the Year, Riley Cote. 1. Riley Cote Cote is a very outspoken advocate for cannabis. He played in the National Hockey League for four seasons as an enforcer for the Philadelphia Flyers.... Read More

While the hungry sports fan has to settle for games of H.O.R.S.E, NBA2K, and replays of March Madness from 1992 as the world quarantines, there has been some optimism recently as many leagues start to brainstorm about returning to their games. The NHL has reported that cities across the country have shown interest in hosting playoff games at neutral-site locations. MLB has reportedly discussed the possibility of the rearrangement of leagues, increased double-headers, and reduction in games.  And the NBA has even toyed with the thought of moving the entire league to the Bahamas until COVID-19... Read More

With the ongoing concerns of coronavirus, sporting events from around the globe have had to adjust their routines and make difficult decisions in order to protect players, fans, and all that are involved.  The NBA has postponed the season, the Ivy League cancelled their conference tournament, professional soccer leagues have played in empty stadiums, and the state of Washington has employed a rule that states no more than 250 people may gather in one place. The reality is such that March Madness may be played in empty or near empty arenas, the NBA playoffs may need to be postponed, and with so... Read More

With a ferocious run at the end of the season, the Colorado Avalanche pulled off the impossible and grabbed the final spot in this year’s NHL playoffs.  I doubted them, I wrote them off, and in all honestly, I didn’t write about them at all.  The Nuggets battled Golden State for the top seed all season long, the Rockies filled LoDo with big money contracts and aspirations, and the Broncos, well, this is Bronco Country, which is always news.  But I’m not apologizing.  Instead, I’m embracing playoff hockey, still befuddled about that end-of-the-year finish while jumping on that bandwagon. ... Read More

It was a monumental week for the cannabis industry as Congress approved the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, also referred to as the farm bill. The passing of this bill, once officially signed by the President, will legalize the production, processing, and sale of hemp. This will remove hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and make hemp just another commodity to be overseen by the US Department of Agriculture. This is a huge deal for hemp farmers interested in growing hemp at scale to be used for consumer goods like food, textiles, paper, plastics, and building materials, but what does the... Read More

The NoCo Hemp Expo hit Loveland, CO last weekend on April 6th and 7th. The largest hemp expo in the world, NoCo partnered with Athletes For Care (A4C) as their NFP benefactor for the incredible two day event. A4C “is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating a community where athletes can find support, opportunity and purpose in life after a career in sports.” They “are an organization founded by a group of pro athletes who are uniting as one voice to advocate for research, education, and compassion when addressing important health issues facing athletes and the public at large.” On... Read More

The excitement of the Avalanche players was contagious as the crowd erupted and the final horn sounded.  With a 5-2 victory over St. Louis in the last game of the regular season, Colorado secured the eighth and final playoff spot in what has been a remarkable turn-around season.  One could forgive the doubters for being skeptical as the Avalanche were coming off a last place, 48-point season in 2016-2017. But now that our Colorado boys have made the playoffs, is there room on that bandwagon for one more?  Even if I admit that Saturday night’s game was the only one I watched all season? It’s... Read More

In case you missed it, and most of us did, the Colorado Avalanche and the NHL season has begun. The truth is that I really haven’t paid attention to the Avalanche since they won the Stanley Cup back in 2001, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t love the sport. Hockey players blend the perfect amount of blue-collar toughness with graceful athleticism. It’s the ultimate team sport in which an assist is as good as a goal, and sacrificing a tooth in the process is well worth it. But the sport that brought us Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky, the movie Slapshot, and the single greatest sporting... Read More