Each week, The Reporters put their thumbs out to the good and the bad in the world of sports. This week they discuss football enrolment, the reimagining of Mike Tyson, Denis the "Tweeting Mayor" Coderre and Sochi security. Bruce Arthur, National Post: My thumb is up to what appears to be happening in football at its roots. ESPN reported this week that Pop Warner Football, Americas biggest youth football program, experienced a 9.5 per cent drop in enrolment between 2010 and 2012, largely over what appears to be a fear of children experiencing concussions. Another survey said participation in tackle football has fallen 13 per cent since 2011. We still have a lot to learn about concussions; not every kid will be irreparably damaged by football, and not every kid will get away clean. But given everything we are learning about the dangers of the game - and since six American high school players have died playing football in 2013 alone - talking about whether you want your kids to take the chance seems like something close to the least a person can do. Steve Simmons, Sun Media: My thumb is down to the daily attempt and the publics buy-in to the rehabilitation of Mike Tysons image. You cant turn on your television set these days without being exposed to a Tyson movie, a documentary, an upcoming book, something. You can even turn on a comedy movie like "The Hangover" and see him in a cameo role. And laugh we all do, uncomfortably. Thats not the Mike Tyson I covered for more than a decade. That guy went to prison for rape in 1992, went to prison again in 1999, was accused of assaulting his first wife, was arrested 38 times before he was 13, arrested again in 2006, 2008, 2009 for drugs and assault and more. You can buy in on the new Mike Tyson. Sorry, Ive seen too much. Michael Farber, Sports Illustrated: My thumb is up to Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, who tweets em as he sees em. Coderre tweeted he wanted to send scuffling Canadiens centre David Desharnais to Hamilton, which, in Montreal, amounted to taking a strong populist stand. I was awaiting Desharnais tweet that Coderre should be shipped to Chicoutimi. Ive had a fondness for sports mayors ever since Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell told me before a World Series game at SkyDome that he would relish a chance to hit against Todd Stottlemyre. Anyway, after Desharnais shootout winner in Columbus Friday, Coderre tweeted, "Bravo, David." I look forward to Coderres Twitter account tackling my citys other pressing issues, such as P.K. Subbans penalty killing minutes. Dave Hodge, TSN: My thumb is down to any sporting event whose location, sheer size or stated importance makes necessary the kind of security measures that will exist at huge cost at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. To understand, there were patrols by combat jets, surface-to-air missiles on rooftops and an aircraft carrier on the river Thames at the London Olympics, and Sochi is promising police and soldiers in double the numbers mobilized in 2012. Spectators must carry and show at all times Olympic passports that will not respect their privacy - theyll be watched by more than 5,000 closed-circuit cameras and a fleet of drones - it is said they could be monitored on their phones and computers and their email could be intercepted. And they dare not protest those things or any other things as they go about their business as sports fans. If the games must begin like that, we can only hope they end with everyone still safe, and still free. wholesale jerseys free shipping . PAUL, Minn. wholesale jerseys china . -- Teemu Selanne scored the first goal of his 22nd NHL season, and the Anaheim Ducks extended the best start in franchise history with their fifth straight victory, 3-2 over the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. http://www.wholesalejerseysstit... . Virtue, from London, Ont., and Moir, from Ilderton, Ont., scored 194.03 points -- a Canadian championship record. It wasnt a flawless performance as Virtue wobbled on their twizzles, which resemble side-by-side travelling spins. [url=http://www.wholesalejerseysstitched.us.com/]wholesale jerseys stitched .36 per game in the 2011 season. The final game of the schedule, a 31-14 Giants win over Dallas to clinch the NFC East, was right at that average as the 32 teams surpassed the 11,283 points of 2010. wholesale jerseys . PETERSBURG, Fla. WASHINGTON -- Welcome to The NFL Lockout. As far back as May 2008, it became a possibility. As recently as a week ago -- when owners and players agreed to extend the deadline for a new collective bargaining agreement -- Commissioner Roger Goodell made it sound avoidable. And yet here we are: Americas most popular sport -- water-cooler fodder for six months of Mondays; generator of more than US$9 billion in annual revenues; responsible for the two most-watched programs in U.S. TV history, the 2010 and 2011 Super Bowls -- is stuck in a holding pattern, thanks to its first work stoppage in nearly a quarter of a century. The owners imposed a lockout on the players Saturday, essentially shutting down operations. That came hours after talks broke off and the union dissolved itself, meaning players are no longer protected under labour law but instead are now allowed to take their chances in federal court under antitrust law. Nine NFL players, including superstar quarterbacks Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, and one college player headed for the pros filed a class-action lawsuit in Minnesota and asked for a preliminary injunction to block a lockout, even before it went into effect. "I know this sort of gives us a bad name -- as well as the owners -- in some fans eyes," said Minnesota Vikings defensive end Brian Robison, one of the plaintiffs in the case that forever will be known as Brady et al vs. National Football League et al. "Some fans are more upset with the owners, and some are more upset with the players." The lockout, a right management has to shut down a business when a CBA expires, means there can be no communication between the teams and current NFL players; no players -- including those drafted in April -- can be signed; teams wont pay for players health insurance. They took the term "lockout" rather literally at the Tennessee Titans headquarters in Nashville, where a metal chain secured the main gate to the parking lots front entrance, an extra bit of security normally not seen there. The NFL has enjoyed labour peace since a 1987 strike by the players, but now next season could be jeopardized, depending on what happens in court. Fans really will be upset if regular-season games are lost. No Sundays on the couch or at a bar, scanning television screens for the latest "Did you see that?!" plays. No fantasy football leagues or office pools. So what happened? With so much at stake, why did everything fall apart? Despite 16 days spent in face-to-face talks at the office of a presidentially appointed federal mediator, how did it come to this? In terms of the key bargaining issues, there really was one that stands out: Put simply, owners and players couldnt figure out a mutually palatable way to split all those billions of dollars that come from TV contracts, ticket and merchandise sales, sponsorship deals, etc. By Friday afternoon, when mediator George Cohen declared "no useful purpose would be served" by asking the parties to keep negotiating, it appeared the NFL and union were about $185 million apart on how much owners should get up front each season for certain operating expenses before splitting the rest of the revenues with players. Thats a far cry from the $1 billion that separrated the sides for months.dddddddddddd There also was a significant standoff on the unions insistence on seeing years of detailed financial statements for all 32 teams. The players point, basically, was: If you say you need more money from us up front, prove it by showing us what you bring in and what you spend and what youre left with. But this wasnt merely about numbers. It also was about trust and respect: Each side has accused the other of bargaining in bad faith. The NFL filed a charge against the union with the National Labor Relations Board. The union has said owners were planning for a lockout since they exercised an opt-out clause in the old CBA in 2008. Indeed, U.S. District Court judge David Doty -- who has overseen NFL labour matters since the 1990s and is expected to handle Fridays filings -- sided with the players in a March 2 ruling, saying the league improperly negotiated TV contracts with an eye to a lockout. And neither side held back as the rhetoric escalated Thursday and Friday. After talks ended, NFL Players Association executive DeMaurice Smith referred to football as a "business where two partners dont trust each other," and said: "While the players were moving forward, thinking that this was about fairness, honesty and transparency, the National Football League was meeting in secret to talk about collusion, conspiracy, leverage and breaking our game." Jim Quinn, outside counsel for the union, spoke about "greed on the part of these owners" and, in reference to NFL lead negotiator Jeff Pash, said: "I hate to say this, but he has not told the truth to our players or our fans. He has, in a word, lied to them about what happened today and whats happened over the last two weeks and the last two years." Pash, for his part, noted one dollar figure Smith had mentioned to reporters a few days earlier and said it was "not close to factual." Pash also spoke of the unions "commitment to litigate, as weve said all along." New York Giants owner John Mara chimed in, too, saying, "I never really got the feeling during the past weeks that (the players) were serious about negotiating." The leagues statement Saturday announcing the lockout called the NFLPAs decertification a "sham" and said the players court action is "built on the indisputably false premise that the NFLPA has stopped being a union and will merely delay the process of reaching an agreement." New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft, a member of the leagues powerful labour committee, issued a statement Saturday saying, "I remain confident that an agreement will be reached and that the 2011 season will be played." He added that he hopes the sides will "return to the negotiating table very soon." Thats theoretically possible, and it echoed what Goodell said when he left the mediators office Friday. Then again, the previous Friday, Goodell pointed to the decision to delay the expiration of the old CBA and said: "The fact that were continuing this dialogue is a positive sign." The signs were more ominous a week later. ------ AP Sports Writers Jon Krawczynski in Minneapolis, Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, and Joseph White in Washington contributed to this report. cheap nfl jerseys wholesale jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '