The Friday Five
The top five sports stories of the week.
Number 5: Replacement Referees Make Debut
This week the NFL's replacement referees made their debut. These referees are replacing the regular referees, who are currently locked out because of a contract dispute with the NFL. A couple of miscues have already occurred. At the Baltimore-Atlanta game, a referee mistakenly referred to Atlanta as Arizona. In the Buffalo-Washington game, the referees mistakenly called a punted ball a touchback, even though the ball was clearly downed at the 4-yard line.
Number 4: Dwight Howard Traded
NBA Center Dwight Howard was traded from the Orlando Magic to the LA Lakers in a 4 team deal. Howard had been publicly unhappy about being with the Magic and reportedly will sign a 5-year deal with the Lakers. Lakers' Center, Andrew Bynam, was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers also received Jason Richardson from the Orlando Magic. The 76ers' traded Andrew Iguodala to the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Vucevic and Moe Harkness to Orlando. Orlando also received Arron Affalo and Al Harrington from Denver.
Number 3: Usain Bolt Wins Again
On Sunday, Jamaican Sprinter, Usain Bolt, repeated as Gold-Medal winner in the 100-meter race with a time of 9.63 seconds, which is a new world record. On Thursday, Bolt ran in the 200-meter and won gold with a time of 19.32 seconds.
Number 2: Kerri Walsh-Jennings and Misty May-Treanor Win 3rd Straight Gold
The team took on fellow Americans April Ross and Jennifer Kessy in the Gold Medal match on Wednesday. They won 2-0. With the win, they become the first beach volleyball team to win three straight Olympic Gold Medals. Misty May also said this would be her last Olympic games, and will retire from beach volleyball. As a team they went 21-0 in Olympic matches.
Number 1: U.S Soccer Gets Redemption
The U.S Women's Soccer team finally got redemption they wanted after last summer's loss in the World Cup Final to Japan. On Thursday, the team beat Japan 2-1 in the Gold Medal match at the Olympics before a crowd of over 80,000. The final score was 2-1, with both goals coming from Carli Llyod. With this win, this marks the 3rd straight Olympics the U.S Women's soccer team has won gold. -Sarah Davis
