Sports Notes, 12/24/06

Very interesting sentence for Tank Johnson: He’s under home confinement, he’s only allowed to leave for work, and he must get court permission to leave the state even for work purposes. It’s a well-known fact, almost certainly known to any judge who serves in the Chicago area, that after Johnson serves his team suspension this week against the Lions the next road game the BEARS could possibly play would be Feb. 4 in Miami.

In other words, start playing by the rules or we won’t let you play in the Super Bowl. That just might get his attention.

Now, on the light-ish side …

-- I’m putting the over-under on the number of Lions fans who walk out of Sunday’s game in the second quarter at 8,900.

-- I couldn’t be happier about being wrong about Denis Savard as coach of the Blackhawks, who are now 8-3-3 under his leadership and fighting for -- ooh, I so don’t want to jinx this -- a playoff spot. The streak includes a game Friday night won on Peter Bondra’s 500th NHL goal. There’s a lot of good feeling in Hawk Nation right now.

-- I don’t know which is more disturbing: That Illinois trailed by two possessions, at home, in the second half against Div. XXXIV Idaho State, or that that game showed how badly this team needs Warren Carter.

-- On the other hand, the Illini did notch a nice win against Missouri this week. That’s eight in a row for Illinois -- the Tigers had better win one soon or I’ll run out of fingers. Still, it was more fun to beat them under the stewardship of the highly coiffed Quin Snyder, so we could throw it in the face of all the girls who would swoon over his dreamy locks.

-- To an old Illini we haven’t forgotten, here’s hoping nothing is too seriously wrong with UIC head coach Jimmy Collins, who is taking a leave of absense this week. Collins may or may not have had some bad feelings about being passed over for the Illinois job when Lou Henson left in 1996, but Illini Nation never felt ill will toward him.

-- Lastly, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! And if you don’t celebrate Christmas … well, you should try it. It’s really not that much of a religious holiday anymore, and people give you stuff just for being you! Pretty cool, huh?