League Notes

In N.Y., Gary Myers noted Stanford QB Andrew Luck is creating NFL “draft hysteria,” and it is “impacting the integrity of the game.” “Suck For Luck” is “clever and funny, of course, but it's not a good thing when fans are rooting for their teams to lose just two months into the season.” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell “should change the rules in the middle of the game: Instead of the No. 1 pick in the draft going to the team with the worst record, the NFL needs to institute a modified version of the NBA's draft lottery, which includes all the teams that don't make the playoffs.” The NFL should “do it for the 2012 Luck Derby and all future drafts” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/29). In West Palm Beach, Ethan Skolnick wrote the NFL “needs to follow the leads of the NBA and NHL by instituting draft lotteries, using the Suck for Luck campaign as the impetus to inject some luck into the proceedings” (PALM BEACH POST, 10/31).

USING THEIR HEADS: In Toronto, Mark Zwolinksi noted an online poll conducted Oct. 19-21 showed around 80% of Canadians “agreed hockey would benefit from outright ridding the game of illegal head shots.” Eighty-three percent of those Canadians “who considered themselves devoted hockey fans felt the same way about head shots.” But only 43% “supported the total ban on fighting.” The poll was conducted among 2,005 randomly selected Canadian adults, with a 2.2% margin of error (TORONTO STAR, 10/31). Meanwhile, Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford Monday said that the “subject of visors has been discussed in league meetings and could be on the agenda again for the NHL meetings next month” (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 11/1).

MAKING A RACKET: At her year-end news conference, WTA Chair & CEO Stacey Allaster said of coverage of women’s tennis, “In the future, there’s no doubt this is going to be about multi-platform. This is no longer just about television as we produce and send out these incredible matches. We’re very close to signing a new four-year deal. We’ll start in 2013 through ’16. We announced that the board authorized us to enter into an exclusive negotiating period with a digital company out of the UK called Perfrom. Perform will double the number of matches we are producing each year. We produce and distribute about 250 live matches a year. Starting in 2013 we will exceed 500.” Allaster said of the WTA’s global reach, “China will be the epicenter of our global strategy. We have just signed a new six-year agreement with the Beijing Sports Bureau to continue to have the Beijing WTA office there” (WTA).