Mark Cuban has to be a sucker for punishment. I mean really, we all know that we would love more pro football, but nothing will ever compete with the NFL. You can call it whatever you want Mark; “Hey, pick a letter that isn’t N” “How ’bout U” “UFL baby! U.F.L!” …It’s not going to work.
But instead of straight up dissin’ you Mr. Cuban, allow me to proffer a new sporting direction for you to throw your money at. Recently the head of US Rugby Nigel Melville, set out his vision of a U.S. Rugby Union League. Now there is something that could work.
Every year after the Superbowl, when I’m all hopped up on a whole season of aggression and excitement, I turn to Rugby to tide me over until the next football season. Rugby fills the void left by the close season perfectly; It’s tough, fast paced, dynamic and is similar to Football in many unexpected ways (more on that in a later post). There are 15,000 college football players who never make it to the NFL and believe me, the cross over from football to rugby is an easy one to make (It’s basically the same skill set).
This could be the perfect alternative, not only for you Mark Cuban, but also for all of us meat eating football junkies. Heck, call it the NRL if you want, but a U.S. Rugby league whose season starts around mid-February would be a fantastic addition to the sporting calender.
I’m pretty sure if I had to choose between Jose Reyes and Hanlez Ramirez, I would take Reyes but twins does make a fairly decent argument for Ramirez in this weeks Thursaday Debate. [Complete Sports]
Sometimes it’s hard to remember that Lebron is still only 22. Handling the pressure he does and in the way he does it… awesome is the only word. [The Extrapolater]
I’m sure he’s a very attractive dude, but DAmnn, Grady Sizemore is one cheesy mofo. Even his name is corny…[Ladies...]
And Finally…
It has to be said that [Mr. Irrelevant] (Jamie Mottram) and the picture of sexiness himself, Dan Steinberg ([DC SportsBog]) are doing an incredible job with ‘The Blog Show’. If you haven’t seen it yet then you need to check out all ten episodes (so far) ASAP.
Liverpool chairman George Gillett is so impressed with his club’s manager, Rafa Benitez, that he has openly delcared his support for any attempted signing that Benitez makes. At the same time he showed how in touch with the youth he is by (nearly) name dropping a well known rapper:
“If Rafa said he wanted to buy ‘Snoogy Doogy’, we would back him.”
I’m not sure how Snoogy feels about this offer, but I’m sure if Snoop Dogg was offered a similar chance he would say something like:
What I want to know is, when did this guy think ‘You know what? I reakon I can jump off that bridge on my bike and bounce off that barrier without horrendously injuring my nutsack…’ I guess there was only one way to find out:
So you’re the head coach of the Hamburg Sea Devils NFL Europe team. You’re currently third in the league out of six teams and your team is looking decidedly average. You look at your roster and see that you have one of the fastest men in the world listed under WR. What do you do?
Well if you’re Vince Martino, you completely ignore this incredible offensive weapon and leave him to languish on the sidelines for seven whole games. You convince yourself that this guy was signed because the fans would love him and because, being a former 100m sprinter, he would put bums on seats.
What was that line from ‘Any Given Sunday’… Wasn’t it something along the lines of “straight outta Tony’s website – Badcoaching.com” Well maybe there should be a new website set up for Vince Martino; “LookingTheGiftHorseInTheMouth.com”
If you’ve got a guy in your team who can run the 100m in sub-ten seconds wouldn’t you have given him at-least one or two plays in seven games? Wouldn’t you have at-least tried him out on a kick return or a punt return or even a “go long Dwain, we’re gonna run play-action and hoof one down to ya” ?!
What the heck is wrong with you Vince Martino? Are you hiding behind some asshole morals, like Chambers is the only track athlete to be caught taking drugs or something and ‘damnit the NFL needs to be kept drug free!’ Dwain has been clean for years now and are you going to tell me that there are cornerbacks and safeties in NFL Europa that can match the pace of one of the fastest men in the world?
Stop being a moron Vince, The Hamburg Sea Devils could really use a super fast receiver right now – put Dwain Chambers in the game.
The governing body of soccer, Fifa have made an unprecedented move (unprecedented meaning that they actually did something) by banning the playing of any matches at altitudes above 2,500 metres/8,200 feet.
This is bound to disappoint several national teams like Ecuador (left) who managed to win all of their home World Cup 2006 Qualifying games, taking down such giants as Brazil and Argentina. It couldn’t have hurt that those games were played in Quito which is at an altitude of just under 10,000 feet.
Whilst stating that they have made this decision for health reasons, Fifa have been labeled as discriminatory by Peru who were hoping to play their next World Cup Qualifiers at a similar altitude to Ecuador’s. In 2007 Brazilian team Flamengo refused to play any more games at altitude after many of their players needed Oxygen tanks during a game against the Bolivian team Real Potosi which was played at 13,120 feet.
Personally I think this is a ‘nip it in the bud’ decision, in order to stop a new team like Nepal demanding their home games to be played halfway up Mt. Everest and ending up with an undefeated home record and a string of altitude related sporting incidents.
It seems that the Saturday qualifying sessions are going to be where all the entertainment value lies in Formula-1 this season. Once again the Sunday ‘race’ turned into a procession with the top three cars finishing in the way they started i.e. Alonso, Hamilton, Massa.
The Ferrari’s struggled on this circuit with no place for their straight line speed to give them an advantage. And yeah, it didn’t help that Kimi Robotkonen started in 16th place. He finnished in 12th. I guess he isn’t ‘The New Schumacher’ afterall; as I remember it, Michael started around 16-20th once and finished on the podium despite his car bursting into flames half-way round. Now that’s a race driver right there.
The only good news to come from this weekend is the fact that rookie Lewis Hamilton is still joint leader in the World Championship after coming second. The leaderboard looks like so:
1 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 38
2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 38
3 Felipe Massa Ferrari 33
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 23
5 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 18
Apparently there was some other big race this weekend happening somewhere in Indianapolis, but I have absolutely zero time for cars that go round in perfect circles and call it racing. No sir.
Fernando Alonso has claimed Pole Position for tomorrows Monte Carlo Grand Prix with impressive team mate and rookie Lewis Hamilton taking second postion on the grid.
Ferrari had ‘une secion horible’ (That may not be the correct French, but I’m sure you get the picture) with Felipe Massa only managing P3 and Kimi Robotkonenen bemusing everyone by hitting a seemingly un-hittable barrier and ending up in 16th place. It would be fair to say that, at this point, it seems like Kimi never actually stopped driving for McClaren…
There appears to be a decent amount of support on the inter-tubes for rookie Lewis Hamilton and I have to admit, he has added a nice demension to the Formula-1 universe. But despite all the optimism of McClaren fans, Hamilton will not be winning this race tomorrow. Yes he has never been beaten on this circuit and won twice here in his Formula-3 days,BUT nobody has ever won the MonteCarlo Grand Prix in their first year of Formula-1. It is a race that requires a phenominal amountof skill and concentration and I doubt that Hamilton can do what Schumaker, Senna and Fangio all failed to do before him.
In the clip below Uconn’s Josh Farkes shows us how it is possible to play Defense whilst being on Offense. I’m not sure how much Farkes knew about it but it brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘The best Defense is a good Offense’.
Perhaps Notre Dame’s Brett Lilley has something against him…
Mark Cuban has to be a sucker for punishment. I mean really, we all know that we would love more pro football, but nothing will ever compete with the NFL. You can call it whatever you want Mark; “Hey, pick a letter that isn’t N” “How ’bout U” “UFL baby! U.F.L!” …It’s not going to work.
Liverpool chairman George Gillett is so impressed with his club’s manager, Rafa Benitez, that he has openly delcared his support for any attempted signing that Benitez makes. At the same time he showed how in touch with the youth he is by (nearly) name dropping a well known rapper:
So you’re the head coach of the Hamburg Sea Devils NFL Europe team. You’re currently third in the league out of six teams and your team is looking decidedly average. You look at your roster and see that you have one of the fastest men in the world listed under WR. What do you do?
The governing body of soccer, Fifa have made an unprecedented move (unprecedented meaning that they actually did something) by banning the playing of any matches at altitudes above 2,500 metres/8,200 feet.
Fernando Alonso has claimed Pole Position for tomorrows Monte Carlo Grand Prix with impressive team mate and rookie Lewis Hamilton taking second postion on the grid.
There are other teams too, but really, this is all that matters.