Junk Food Nation, let’s take a look around the world of sports!

1) Ron Artest, or the Artist that I refuse to call Metta World Peace, clocked James Harden in the head with a celebratory elbow that knocked him to the ground and gave him concussion symptoms.  You can really see how brutal the foul was at the 1:00 mark:

My thought: do we really need to go through the rigamarole of suspending him, and having opposing sides plead their case? I watched three hours of various ESPN shows covering this topic last night, and despite the various angles different commentators took on this cheap shot, the same conclusion was reached: he needs to be suspended due to repeat offenses and general idiocy.  The question remained: how long?

Well, I say, how about forever?  Ron Artest was a good player  back in 2004.  2004, people!  That’s 8 years ago. Just put this dope out to pasture and let’s move on.

2) The Saints are back in the news after reports surfaced that the friggin’ GM was wiretapping his way into opponent game time headset transmissions.  GM Mickey Loomis not only broke NFL law, but also a few FEDERAL ones while he was at it. After Loomis gets a lifetime ban (I’m calling it), he and Gregg Williams will ascend into their new roles as Cobra Commander and Destro. #careercriminals

3) Finally, yesterday baseball said goodbye to a legend, Ivan Pudge Rodriguez.  Well, not goodbye – he’s not dead. But he retired yesterday, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the Yankees-Rangers game.  Well not, the first “pitch” per se.  The future HOF-catcher who was known for gunning down people trying to steal second eschewed throwing the pitch from the mound and instead took his place behind home plate, throwing a ceremonial throw to second base .  For any baseball geeks who saw this, you, like I, just nodded approvingly.

Today, I’m reviewing more freezer pops: A&W Soda Pops!

The Money Shot

I bought these A&W Soda Pops at my local Walgreens, and I’m always a little intrigued when frozen things are root beer or Coke flavored.  Will the flavor of the soda come through? Or will it taste watered down?

At least they have the instructions of what to do right on the box – just in case we weren’t sure.

But is it made with real Root Beer?

See, A&W Soda Pops, you tease me with the fact that these will have root beer flavor, but will these make me feel like I’ve cracked open a frosty root beer, sipped out of a frozen mug? Cause if not, I will punch your face.

3 pops per serving

While I love the fact that three of these frozen pops only accounts for 50 calories, I was expecting the ingredient list to be only one ingredient: ROOT BEER.  Hmmm….

Brown ice

These A&W Soda Pops were a dark brown color, and I kept scanning the small tubes to see if there were any frozen carbonation bubbles there.  Not finding any, I peeled one open and indulged…

MMMM root beer-y!

These A&W Soda Pops tasted as expected – cold, and tasting like frozen root beer.  You know, sometimes these descriptions of how something tastes just aren’t complicated.  But I can say that these really delivered – These tasted like frozen root beer.  The sarsaparilla-like syrup taste tickled the back of my throat like I was drinking actual soda, and it was sweet and refreshing.  The ice had frozen until it was a little hard (this didn’t feel like a slushy).  Still, it was soft enough to chew with my frozen teeth.  I really enjoyed these.

Thoughts? Hit me in the comments below or hit me on Twitter @junkfoodguy or on my Facebook Page.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy

PS: Shout-out to my buddy Nilo, who turns 29 for the n-th time today!