That'd be a nice backdrop for the All-Star Race, don't you think?

It's time for Power Rankings! After every race, we opine about who we think is at the top of the Sprint Cup heap and how and why they got there. But this week, it's different! The All-Star Race wasn't for points, so there's no point (pun!) in ranking the Sprint Cup field again. Besides we'd just put Jimmie Johnson back at the top.

Instead, let's stick with the All-Star theme. There's been some fantastic fodder for Happy Hour in the email inbox this week; people are incredibly passionate about the All-Star Race. So what if the All-Star Race was going to go to another track? Where would it go? Let's answer that question.

P.S. -- We're inverting the field this week. Why? Because we can. And we're dreaming big, too.

12. Rockingham: Let's start off with a fan favorite. Rockingham has produced some great racing since the Truck Series has returned to it, and given the multiple grooves through the corners and the tire wear, there would be no shortage of side-by-side racing. Of course, the

Getty ImagesThe Boston Bruins’ fourth line of Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton are everything the New York Rangers are not in the Eastern Conference semifinals: Tough, tenacious in the offensive zone, clutch and, above all else, goal-scoring.

The trio factored in on both Bruins goals in their 2-1 Game 3 victory over the Rangers at MSG on Tuesday night, as Boston took a 3-0 lead in the series and can eliminate the Rangers on Thursday night.

"They were working hard, and they've scored some big goals for us in the playoffs. I have confidence in that line," said Coach Claude Julien. "You utilize them because they're good, not because you have to."

Entering the third period, Rangers held a 1-0 lead in the third period on a Taylor Pyatt goal at 3:53 of the second. But a Henrik Lundqvist turnover led to a few golden chances for the fourth line, until Paille found Johnny Boychuk for a blast just inside the blueline that beat Lundqvist and tied the game at 3:10.

Boston took the lead for good on a strange sequence later in the period.

After Thornton won an offensive zone faceoff, the Bruins fired two shots on the Rangers’ goal. A third shot from Campbell deflected off of bodies in front of Lundqvist, with the puck flying up and over the Rangers goalie onto the goal-line. It landed squarely and then rolled away from the goal, in one of the postseason’s oddest moments.

Lest one believe the Hockey Gods favored the Rangers on this play, Paille was able to skate around the cage unchecked and knock the loose puck in for the 2-1 lead. The Rangers pulled their goalie, but were unable to mount much against Tuukka Rask (23 saves).

Charles Woodson is returning the Raiders (Getty Images)

Free agent defensive back Charles Woodson is returning to the Oakland Raiders as Jay Glazer of FOXSports.com reports that the 36-year-old has agreed to terms on a one-year contract with the team that selected him with the fourth overall pick of the 1998 NFL draft.

The one-year dealhas been confirmed by the Raiders. According to Josina Anderson of ESPN.com, the deal includes a signing bonus of $700,000 and is worth a maximum of $4.3 million.

Woodson, who won the 1997 Heisman Trophy while at the University of Michigan, was the 1998 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and was named to four Pro Bowls during his eight-year stint with the Raiders. Woodson joined the Green Bay Packers in 2006 and in seven seasons Woodson would twice lead the NFL in interceptions (2009, 2011). Woodson was named to four Pro Bowl squads and earned Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2009 before he was moved to safety during a 2012 season where he would nine games with a broken clavicle.

The officiating in the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs has been, shall we say, a tab underwhelming at times.

In Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, for example, Boston Bruins man mountain Zdeno Chara was on the receiving end of a high stick – previously only thought possible with the assistance of a cherry-picker or a giraffe – with no call.

Then, in the third period, this odd incident occurred:

IT’S H-E-DOUBLE-HOCKEY-STICKS COME TO LIFE!

As Bruins forward Tyler Seguin skated in on the New York Rangers defense, Steve Eminger wildly swung his stick and clipped Seguin. As Seguin recoiled in pain, the Bruin’s stick then clipped Rangers forward Chris Kreider, sending him face-first to the ice.

As Pierre McGuire said: It’s a mutual high-sticking. (Right before he told us in painstaking detail where the sticks played their junior hockey.)

To the surprise of no one that’s watched the officiating in this postseason, there were no penalties on this odd play.

Nick and Dan Gilbert (left) celebrate the Cavaliers' lottery win (Nick DeCrow/ Associated Press).

It seems like Nick Gilbert brings a lot of luck to the NBA Draft Lottery for the Cleveland Cavaliers. For the second time in three seasons as the franchise's lottery representative, the teenage son of Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert has brought home the top pick in the draft. The Cavs, who finished the 2012-13 season with a 24-58 record, entered the lottery with the third-best chances of snagging the first selection at 15.6 percent.

The Orlando Magic, the league's worst team at 20-62, were forced to settle for the second pick. However, the biggest losers of the lottery were the Charlotte Bobcats (soon to be the Hornets), who dropped to the fourth spot after posting a 21-62 record, just one game better than the Magic. They were supplanted in the top three by the Washington Wizards, who entered the process with a 30 percent chance of jumping from the eighth pick into the trio of lottery spots.

While the Wizards will benefit the biggest boost of any team in the lottery, the Cavaliers are the clear winners of the event. In 2011, they won the top pick and selected Duke point guard Kyrie Irving, who earned his first All-Star selection this February in his second season. This June, Cleveland will have the chance to choose between Kentucky shot-blocker Nerlens Noel (currently rehabbing a torn ACL) and Kansas shooting guard Ben McLemore. Given the presence of 2012 first-round pick Dion Waiters, the Cavs will likely opt for Noel, although that is merely an educated guess with the draft more than a month away.

Roger Goodell may find himself on the receiving end of some hard questions. (Getty Images)

Recently, you may have heard that the Internal Revenue Service came under some considerable fire for targeting certain groups seeking tax-exempt status while green-lighting others (such as one run by the brother of President Obama), but did you know that the National Football league, an organization that currently rakes in about $10 billion per year in revenue, is also a non-profit organization in the eyes of the government? While you're trying to figure that one out, we've got another one for you. Did you know that the league has been a non-profit organization since 1966, when the NFL merged with the American Football League, and then-commissioner Pete Rozelle folded in the request for an exemption with the request for an anti-trust exemption?

Yes, it's all true. Technically, the NFL is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization. That part of the Internal Revenue Code "provides for the exemption of business leagues, chambers of commerce, real estate boards, boards of trade and professional football leagues, which are not organized for profit and no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual."

It's an interesting wrinkle, because while the NFL's member teams essentially act as a group of individual entities with an overarching partnership governed by the league, the league itself has not always argued so when it was against its benefit. In the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission vs. National Football League et al dispute argued in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1983, the league argued that it was a single entity, thus exempting it from certain antitrust statutes. The Coliseum Commission (and the Raiders franchise on whose behalf the Commission was responding) said that the league was instead a group of legal entities that act independently. The Court agreed with the Commission and the Raiders, finding that Rozelle had acted in bad faith in Al Davis' attempted move out of Oakland.

When Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens ruled against the NFL in the American Needle case in 2010, he more specifically outlined how NFL teams actually operate in practice, as opposed to pure theory.

NFL teams do not possess either the unitary decision-making quality or the single aggregation of economic power characteristic of independent action. Each of them is a substantial, independently owned, independently managed business, whose "general corporate actions are guided or determined" by "separate corporate consciousnesses," and whose "objectives are" not "common." Copperweld, 467 U. S., at 771. They compete with one another, not only on the playing field, but to attract fans, for gate receipts, and for contracts with managerial and playing personnel ...

[...] The fact that the NFL teams share an interest in making the entire league successful and profitable, and that they must cooperate to produce games, provides a perfectly sensible justification for making a host of collective decisions. Because some of these restraints on competition are necessary to produce the NFL's product, the Rule of Reason generally should apply, and teams' cooperation is likely to be permissible. And depending upon the activity in question, the Rule of Reason can at times be applied without detailed analysis. But the activity at issue in this case is still concerted activity covered for [the ruling's] purposes.

While member teams obviously operate for profit, the interesting wrinkle here is that the league itself claims not to. And one way to avoid profitability is to pay your current and former executives up the wazoo, which the NFL has done.

Michael Jordan takes in the pageantry of the announcement (MCT via Getty Images).

Charlotte's NBA franchise will soon have a new but familiar look. At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Bobcats owner Michael Jordan announced that the team will change its name to the Hornets for the 2014-15 season and beyond. The official announcement follows a Friday report from Ken Berger of CBSSports.com that the Bobcats were beginning the process of formalizing a name change.

The NBA expanded to Charlotte in 1988 with the Hornets and played in the city through the 2001-02 season, when owner George Shinn moved them to New Orleans. The Charlotte Hornets built a brand on the basis of their ultra-'90s teal-heavy color scheme and the allure of young stars Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning. The Bobcats have not succeeded in building the same kind of fan base or image, and the New Orleans Hornets' decision to become the more geographically acceptable Pelicans has freed up the name.

Jordan explained the decision on Tuesday. From Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer:

(Getty Images, BLS Illustration)The New York Yankees proved Tuesday they won't be confined — not to baseball and maybe not to New York City either.

A $100 million partnership was announced Tuesday between the Yankees and Premier League club Manchester City to create a Major League Soccer team called New York City FC. Yahoo! Sports soccer blog, Dirty Tackle, has more of the particulars. But here's one interesting tidbit that's emerged on the baseball side: This could open the door for the Yankees to play in England.

From London newspaper The Telegraph: