http://www.davesfootballblog.com It's always football season somewhere. Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:22:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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/ YA BETTA ASK SOMEBODAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!! (Flickr photo from tomrichnc. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, look here.) http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/04/not-even-bono-can-escape-the-shadow-of-the-marmalard/ The chill bros at Shutdown Corner reminded us earlier this week that this was the week the NFL was promoting the fight against breast cancer, and to do that, our pal Eeyore will be wearing these pink shoes on Sunday. We'll also see pink gloves and towels, coaches in pink ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/02/the-message-of-the-pink-shoes/ Brian Phillips on Manchester United v. Wolfsburg: Somewhat more interestingly, then, I think the lack of interest in this game is a minor, local reflection of the fact that what we think is good in soccer and what we actually want to watch aren't always the same thing. To leap to ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/10/01/what-we-think-we-want-0-1-what-we-really-want/ Let's talk a little bit about the future of watching football. Most of here are primarily spectators, and we often go to great lengths to follow our favorite clubs. That often means shelling out big bucks for cable or satellite sports packages. Being a soccer fan means giving DirecTV an ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/09/30/wheres-the-netflix-for-sports/ It wasn't nearly as pretty or as high-scoring as the Round 14 clash between Geelong and St. Kilda. A downpour in Melbourne coated the turf and made the ball slick, and the high stakes made it seem even slicker and made the hits seem harder. The Cats and Saints wrestled ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/09/26/geelong-vindicated-in-ugly-instant-classic/ If you live in the USA, set your DVR for ESPN Classic at 12:25 AM. The St. Kilda Saints, who are seeking their first title since 1966, edged out the Geelong Cats, who are in their third consecutive Grand Final, in an EPIC regular season clash a few months ago. ... http://www.afl.com.au/Results/tabid/11433/default.aspx?display=1&seasonid=73&roundid=743&fixtureid=5241 So does anyone else look at this: And see this? Anyone? Just me? Okay, just checking. http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/09/25/whos-going-to-jay-cutlers-birthday-party-in-austin/ So let me get this straight. James Harrison can do this... ...and he's considered awesome. Meanwhile, Craig Bellamy can do this... Bellamy & Garrido - More amazing video clips are a click away ...and he faces an inquiry from the FA? Okay, perhaps Bellamy didn't need to get involved there, but still, this ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/09/21/james-harrison-approves-of-craig-bellamys-actions/ The huge amounts of money flowing around football these days make it easy for us to forget that some parts of the world don't have it so good. In these places, you have to use what you've got to get what you want. That's how they do it in one African ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/09/18/making-football-from-scratch/ If you're going to introduce another football code in America, where the gridiron game is king and the Association game is still that filthy pinko commie game those greasy-haired Europeans play, you have two options. You can fire up the satellites and show people the top levels of the game ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/09/18/is-america-ready-for-a-third-football-code/ Some rumors emerged yesterday that the Team Owners Association -- the rebel group of American soccer club owners who don't like the way USL is run and want more say over their league's future -- had arranged a meeting with Major League Soccer officials to discuss the possibility of creating ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/09/17/like-af2-but-for-soccer/ I would like someone to take a look at the two photos below and explain to me exactly what the difference is between them. Take a minute to think about it. I'll still be here. The man on the left, of course, is Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who got himself into ... http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2009/09/15/a-tale-of-two-hotheads/