By STEPHEN BRUNT, Toronto Globe and Mail

If he were a player, you know what people would be saying.

If he were a player with a valid contract refusing to report to his team because a lawyer or an agent advised him that it was in his best interests to remain absent, scorn would pour down from all quarters.

As the Beckham Across America tour began its final leg Thursday night with the Los Angeles Galaxy meeting the New York Red Bulls with Himself in the lineup, it has provided a few not-so-shocking insights into the workings of human nature.
Thanks to Grant Wahl's new book "The Beckham Experiment,'' we now know for a fact that it wasn't an easy fit.

Drugs couldn't kill baseball. Despite the morality plays, the kangaroo court, the mass hand-wringing about rewriting record books, the sport emerged from the steroid era having paid much lip service and offered much penance, and as a business stronger than ever.

As a small, tense drama played out in a Phoenix courtroom Thursday, a question leapt to mind.
Understanding the grave consequences, how could the NHL have allowed the Phoenix Coyotes to fall into bankruptcy?
Could it be that commissioner Gary Bettman badly overplayed his hand?

Anyone who has tracked this star-crossed centennial season shouldn't have been surprised by the latest turn of events for the Montreal Canadiens.

Football-wise, the logic is impeccable.
The Buffalo Bills haven't made the playoffs since 1999, which in the NFL is a very long time indeed (only the Detroit Lions have been equally bad over that stretch).

It is a mix, part opera, part Allo Police, unique to one team, to one town, to the most important hockey franchise on earth.

Of course, it's the least of it, with so many other dire real world worries in the air right now, jobs threatened, retirements imperiled and long-time assumptions gone up in smoke.

It is, to start with, a fascinating read.Declan Hill's book "The Fix: Soccer and Organized Crime,'' published this week and already stirring up loads of controversy around the world, is part true-crime potboiler, part spy thriller, part academic discourse and part journey of personal discovery.

VIENNA, Switzerland -- In that one substitution Sunday night, you could understand Joachim Loew's impossible dilemma.Down a goal to Spain in the final of the European Championship, his German team struggling desperately to create any kind of chance, he sent his original starting 11 out on the field to begin the second half.