http://www.davesfootballblog.com It's always football season somewhere. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:44:31 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The boys at TheCup.us just alerted us to the news that two more clubs -- the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Crystal Palace Baltimore -- have broken ranks with USL and officially joined the new Team Owners Association league. For those of you keeping score at home, that gives the TOA ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/11/20/breaking-tampa-baltimore-bolt-usl-for-new-nasl/ O MY GOD ONE TIME I TOOK A SNAP TURNED AROUND AND THREW THE BALL OVER MY HEAD AND SAID WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Seriously, it's more fun if you're listening to this while watching that video. (Spotted on The Sporting Blog.) http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/11/20/bethel-college-qb-holds-on-to-his-gonads-and-strife/ You've got it all figured out. You've broken through the backline. You've got an angle on the goalkeeper. All you have to do is slot the ball home and celebrate your goal. Then, this happens... That's Daniel Nardiello, a Blackpool striker on loan at Bury, watching his certain goal roll to a ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/11/20/worst-way-not-to-score-ever/ After watching Jake Delhomme shit the bed against the Eagles in Week 1 this year, I fully expected the Carolina Panthers to have a very long and very ugly season. So I tuned out and focused on my Steelers, who then proceeded to shit the bed twice against the Bengals ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/11/19/carolina-panthers-could-benefit-from-nfc-suckitude/ This is how France got into the 2010 FIFA World Cup. There was nothing legitimate about this goal. Thierry Henry clearly used his hand to direct the ball and set up William Gallas for the game-winning score. However, none of the officials saw it. The goal stood. France goes to South ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/11/19/there-is-no-justice-in-football/ Three years ago, I wrote about Carolina Panthers v. New Orleans Saints game in which the Saints, down by four points with 1:56 left to go, failed to stop DeShaun Foster from getting a key first down and let him run into the end zone for a touchdown. The Saints ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/11/18/spot-kicks-the-fine-art-of-taking-a-knee/ DO YOU SUFFER FROM FREQUENT MUSCLE INJURIES!? DO YOUR LIGAMENTS SNAP LIKE UNCOOKED SPAGHETTI!? LOOKING FOR A WAY TO GET BACK ON YOUR FEET FAST!? HI, BILLY MAYS HERE FOR EQUUS GEL, THE ONE OF A KIND RUB THAT MAGICALLY HEALS ALL YOUR MUSCLE AND LIGAMENT INJURIES FAST! IF YOU'VE BEEN ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/11/17/and-now-a-word-from-our-sponsor/ What better way to start the week than with an old guy flippin' the bird? Yes, Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams was clearly enjoying his team's win over Buffalo yesterday, so much so that he proudly stood up, pointed at the Bills, and gave them the finger -- two fingers, from ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/11/16/bud-adams-were-number-one/ Does anyone really know what American club soccer is going to look like in 2010? Because after the news of the last two weeks, I'm starting to wonder. For starters, we're on the verge of having two competing 2nd-division leagues in this country next season. The Team Owners Association, a group ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/11/13/american-club-soccer-an-offseason-on-the-brink/ We have apparently reached the portion of the NFL season where everyone is bored to death and looking for random crap to talk about. Never mind that there are two rather important games this weekend with AFC playoff implications. (Bengals @ Steelers, Pats @ Colts) No. The world has decided ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/11/12/everyone-has-a-go-at-football-helmets/ Until yesterday, I had never heard of Groote Eylandt, a small island off the coast of Australia's Northern Territory that became part of the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Reserve in 1976. Groote Eylandt is home to the world's largest manganese mine, which produces 3.8 million tons of the mineral each year. ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/11/10/they-take-their-footy-seriously-on-groote-eylandt/ As I sat here getting ready to watch my Pittsburgh Steelers in another big Monday Night Football game, I watched Ron Jaworski give a bit of his usual solid game analysis. As you can see from this video, David Anderson of the Houston Texans has seen some of Jaws' analysis ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/11/09/ron-jaworski-not-so-inimitable/ Every football team needs an enforcer. Bolton keeps Kevin Davies around for a reason. University of New Mexico defender Elizabeth Lambert, however, seems quite willing to ignore that fine line between playing hard and playing dirty. Or maybe she just figured that if Troy Polamalu's hair is fair game, her ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/11/06/meet-the-female-rodney-harrison/ The FIFA 10 commercial asks that question. This e-mail exchange might answer it: Yeah. All the Premier League matches on ESPN won't make the haters go away. Neither will the next World Cup. The rest of us will just have to live with it. (Thanks, @Unsilent. I think.) http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/11/05/how-big-can-soccer-get/ Some of us will have a good giggle over Tatum Bell's claim that the UFL's Florida Tuskers could beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I wouldn't completely dismiss that idea myself, given the way the Tuskers are running over those other three teams. Plus, in a one-game shot, Jim Haslett seems ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/30/meet-the-next-tommy-maddox/ My latest piece for EPL Talk takes a closer look at how Fabio Capello is adapting NFL coaching ideas and techniques to the England national team -- and how Portsmouth goalkeeper David James wants to go even further with those ideas. And I think I speak for most Premier League fans ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/29/the-biggest-nfl-fans-in-england/ The Numa Numa guy? Really, Michigan State? Was Rick Astley not available? Could you not get a Keyboard Cat to play you off? Then again, maybe Keyboard Cat was wearing an Iowa sweatshirt that day... (Spotted on http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/28/michigan-state-marching-band-is-a-few-years-late/ Y'know, in most cases, I don't like to see a player from my favorite team getting blown up like this, but let's be real. Hits like this one that Adrian Peterson delivers on William Gay are a big reason why people watch the NFL. On the other hand, Peterson was compared ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/28/the-lizard-king-strikes-again/ Because really, athletes secretly wish they were musicians, and musicians secretly wish they were athletes. What better way to combine the two than through a gigantic video game mod? Imagine if they could get some Premier League footballers to do this. Could Arsenal rock out more than Tottenham? Here's one way ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/28/this-should-have-been-a-feature-in-fifa-10/ I'm a little late to this one, but I think it deserves a much more detailed analysis... A few weeks ago, I found myself in a sports bar in Philadelphia, which was filled with people in Phillies jerseys who gathered to watch the Raiders upset the Eagles and kvetch about Andy ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/27/reincarnation-nfl-style/ This arrived in my inbox yesterday. Take a close look at it and tell me what's wrong with it... Take a minute. I'll wait. Then look after the jump for the answer. It was quite a day yesterday in the UEFA Champions League, too, what with Russian Champs FK Rubin Kazan walking ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/21/whats-wrong-with-this-picture/ These were the scenes on the streets of La Ceiba last night after Honduras beat El Salvador 1-0 and the USA got a last-second equalizer from Jonathan Bornstein to earn a 2-2 draw against Costa Rica. Those two results gave Honduras an automatic berth in the 2010 FIFA World Cup ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/15/honduras-celebrates-jonathan-bornstein-day/ It's a shame that NFL teams can't loan players out to other teams. In soccer, clubs loan players to other clubs all the time, usually because those players are young prospects on the end of the bench that need some experience. So big club A and small club B have a ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/13/the-nfl-needs-a-player-loan-policy/ Since I wrote this post yesterday, the UFL web site has added a PDF box score and a 99-second highlight reel, which was taken directly from the Versus broadcast. Plus, this popped up on the UFL's Twitter feed: Y'know, it's almost as if someone other than Different Dave and Jeff actually reads ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/10/ufl-web-site-makes-some-quick-fixes/ With the DirecTV-Versus feud still in full swing, I figured I wouldn't get a shot to watch the first United Football League game last night... Imagine my surprise, then, when I went to the UFL web site and discovered they were showing the Versus feed online for free. That page is ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/09/what-the-ufl-web-site-got-right-and-wrong/ If you're going to create these slick-looking highlight reel web sites on Hulu for the  Premier League and the UEFA Champions League, try to do a better job of keeping them updated. Matchday 1 of the Champions League is still missing, and there haven't been any new EPL highlights since ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/09/memo-to-fox-soccer-online/ While it might be hidden underneath the news that the Olympics found an excuse to give Tiger Woods a gold medal if he wants one -- and really, what else can you get the man who has everything? -- the addition of rugby sevens to the 2016 and 2020 Olympics ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/09/rugby-sevens-becomes-olympic-sport/ Well, there's one thing I can do better than Cristiano Ronaldo. Hell, even Eli Manning is looking at this thinking, http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/09/why-not-they-auto-tune-everyone-else/ So, who's got UFL fever? Anyone? Anyone? Yeah, me neither. I tried to get myself excited about the new United Football League, telling myself that this might be the only football league operating in 2011 -- and this could still happen, given the current state of NFL labor negotiations -- and ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/07/ufl-fever-more-curable-than-swine-flu/ Remember the 2008 SuperLiga Final, when the New England Revolution beat the Houston Dynamo on penalties, then swapped shirts with Dynamo players as a show of solidarity over Major League Soccer not giving them a worthwhile cut of the "$1 Million SuperLiga Prize"? Steve Ralston, wearing a Dynamo jersey, walked ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/05/usl-situation-gets-uglier/