When it comes to our sports heroes, does it matter what they’re doing in their personal lives as long as they’re performing well on the court, field, or rink? There are always rumors regarding contracts and salaries and possible trades, but I prefer to take my sports with as little celebrity-esque gossip as possible.

It seems to me, as a New York sports fan, I can’t get away from the news regarding our greatest players’ personal lives. For starters, there’s the uproar of Yankee Alex Rodriguez’s mega-divorce this summer, not to mention all the news-mania in this steroid-era of major league baseball (I’m looking at you, Roger Clemens!). Then last year when the Giants made the playoffs, every time I opened the Post or the Daily News I’d see something about Eli Manning and his girlfriend-turned-fiancee. And even though football season is long over, I can’t get away from Patriot Tom Brady and Giselle Bündchen. Then in 2007 there was former …

It’s day 3 of Free Agency and at 4:30 the Rangers made some more announcments: they’ve signed 15-year NHL vet and 5-time All Star left-wing Markus Nasland, 34, as well as Dmitri Kalinin, 27, a defenseman from the Buffalo Sabres. Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather also dropped another important bit of information: Jaromir Jagr is out.
Okay, first things first: Naslund’s coming to the Blueshirts on a 2-year, $8 million deal after 12 years with the Vancouver Canucks. He was once regarded as one of the best players in the league, but over the last few years has been slowing down. Nevertheless, he’s a solid player with 371 career goals, a great leader and also served as the Canucks’ Captain since 2000-2001. I’ve no doubt he’s going to be valuable leadership-wise in Jagr’s absence.
Naslund said in the conference call that “the Rangers were on top” of his list of the …