Jobe Watson no longer has a Brownlow Medal to hang around his neck.But - on the bright side - he no longer has a monkey on his back. Or a target on his forehead.Watson was the skipper and stand-out player of the 2012 Essendon team, 34 of whom were hit with one-year doping bans for their roles in the spectacularly ill-conceived supplements program.That he won the Brownlow Medal in that very season - four votes clear of Richmonds Trent Cotchin and Hawthorns Sam Mitchell - only added to the opprobrium heaped on him in some quarters.How could an award for the leagues best and fairest player stay with a man who had served a doping ban?To his credit, Watson did not dodge that tricky question on Friday.It has been incredibly distressing for me to have people question my integrity and infer an intention to act against the spirit of the game - a spirit that is intrinsically a part of who I am, he said.The basic principle behind this prestigious award is to honour the fairest and best.If there is a question in peoples minds as to whether the 2012 award is tainted, the fairest and best thing to do is to give it back and honour the history that has gone before me.Watson and his former and current Essendon teammates remain convinced they did not deserve the one-year suspensions.Watson took it harder than anyone else.He spent much of 2016 in New York - as far away as possible from the suffocating AFL bubble - before finally making the decision in September to resume his playing career in red and black in 2017.Doing so will be much less difficult without constant criticism about why he refused to voluntarily give the medal back.The AFL Commission gave Watson the chance to plead his case to keep it.Wisely, the 31-year-old turned them down.Handing the Brownlow back on his own terms and starting 2017 with a clean slate - or as clean as possible given the murky nature of what has happened at Essendon in the past few years - was the smart play.And it was the right play.Cheap Royals Jerseys . Gerald Green and Miles Plumlee? Green had bounced around the NBA when he wasnt playing overseas. The Pacers gave up on Plumlee after just one season. Now Green and Plumlee are key cogs in the Suns surprising breakout season. Royals Jerseys China .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. https://www.cheaproyals.com/ . -- If this was Aaron Gordons final home game at Arizona, and it almost certainly was, then he went out in style. Royals Jerseys 2019 . The All-Pro lineman got the leg bent under him while trying to make a tackle during the first half of a 22-20 overtime loss at Miami on Thursday night. The medical staff initially thought hed torn the ligament, and the test a day later in Cincinnati confirmed it. Fake Royals Jerseys . The 29-year-old from Port Colborne, Ont., has nothing but good things to say about former U.S. marine Liz (Girlrilla) Carmouche ahead of their co-main event Wednesday on the UFCs "Fight for the Troops" televised card in Fort Campbell, Ky.WASHINGTON -- Dont look now, but Carey Price is hard to beat when hes angry.Mad at himself, his teammates and everybody for getting pulled the previous night, Price made a statement in his return to the net as the Montreal Canadiens snapped the Washington Capitals winning streak at six with a 2-1 victory Saturday night.Price stopped 20 of the 21 shots he faced in a better effort by the 2014-2015 Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender and his entire team than they displayed Friday in a lackluster loss to the San Jose Sharks.It was important for everybody to get an opportunity to bounce back, said Price, who earned his 17th win of the season and 250th of his NHL career. I didnt have any doubts about the resiliency of our hockey team and the way we would respond.Upon getting yanked for giving up four goals on 18 shots Friday, Price stared down his bench before going down the tunnel. Price explained he was just ticked off and that everything was good between him and coach Michel Therrien.I think were all professionals and were able to realize that hockeys emotional and sometimes youre not going to see eye-to-eye on things, Price said. But at the end of the day you show up to work the next day and get the job done.Price got the job done with big stops on T.J. Oshie, Marcus Johansson and former teammate Lars Eller. His teammates got the job done as Artturi Lehkonen and Jeff Petry scored and the Canadiens blocked 21 shots and contained Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals high-powered offense.Defenseman Shea Weber, who left late in the second period when he took a shot from Washingtons Dmitry Orlov off the right leg, wasnt surprised that Price or anyone else rebounded as strongly as they did.We werent good enough for him last night and we did a lot better job in protecting him and clearing everything out of the way for him tonight, said Weber, who pronounced himself feeling great after the game. Were a tight group in here and everyone wants to be good for each other and theres a responsibility iin here and hes one of our teammates and weve got to be a lot better for him.dddddddddddd.The Capitals couldnt say the same about their play in front of 2015-2016 Vezina winner Braden Holtby, who made 23 saves on 25 shots. Nicklas Backstrom scored a 5-on-3 power play goal for Washington, which lost for the first time since Dec. 3 and in regulation for the first time since Dec. 1.Eller, who was traded from the Canadiens to the Capitals in June, said it was too easy a night for Price.To beat any goalie, you have to get shots, said Eller, referring to a shot drought of 15:22 that lasted from the second period into the third. We made it hard for ourselves.Capitals coach Barry Trotz said before the game that he expected Price to come back and make a statement, adding that If theres one area that I know theyre going to be good tonight, its going be in net. He wasnt wrong about the goaltender he got to know well at the World Cup of Hockey in September.They were defending pretty well and they got one of the best goaltenders in the National Hockey League in Price, Trotz said afterward. Hes been outstanding. We didnt make it hard enough, I thought, on Carey. ... I thought they had a little more bite in their game than we did.Game notesThe Capitals recalled F Zach Sanford from the American Hockey League on Saturday morning as he skated in his first NHL game since Nov. 26. ... Backstroms goal gave him six points in his past six games and 18 in his past 16. ... Canadiens D Nathan Beaulieu was given a 10-minute misconduct for abuse of officials after tapping his stick on the ice and saying something to a referee when coming out of the penalty box following Backstroms goal.UP NEXTCanadiens: Host Anaheim on Tuesday night.Capitals: Off until visiting Philadelphia on Wednesday night.---Follow Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/SWhyno . ' ' '