I suggested that DeShaun Foster was better off taking a knee after getting that first down, rather that running into the end zone, because then the Saints never would have gotten the ball, and the Panthers could have run out the clock with a 4-point lead. As you might expect, the FanHouse commenters thought mockery was the proper response to that idea, in part because the Panthers still won the game.

Three years later, Maurice Jones-Drew takes a knee at the 1-yard line for the Jacksonville Jaguars, setting up a game winning 21-yard field goal and preventing the New York Jets from getting the ball back. It was a riskier move, because the Jags were trailing by a point with 1:48 left, but Jones-Drew seems to be attracting universal praise for making a smart strategic play.

The point here is that you don’t give your opponent the opportunity to score if you don’t have to. This is why Bill Belichick really went for it on 4th down on his own 28-yard line against the Colts. Converting meant Peyton Manning would not get the ball, and the Pats could run out the clock. Punting meant Manning was all but guaranteed to get the ball and engineer a game-winning drive. Plus, Belichick put his faith in his best player — Tom Brady — to get the job done.

We shouldn’t criticize Belichick for choosing to go for it. We should, however, get on his case about the play he chose to call. Honestly, the coaches couldn’t have picked something better than that?

Here are some other interesting football stories you might have missed:

• UNC serves up its most fortunate illegal forward pass since 1895. [WRAL FANKind]
• Dan Marino inadvertently shares his true feelings about the Wildcat formation. [Awful Announcing]
• Chicago Bears fans are sore losers, even when they win. [FanHouse]
• Allen Iverson as a Philadelphia… Eagle? Right. [The Sporting Blog]
• Japan calls on South Africa to ban the vuvuzela. Yeah, good luck with that, fellas. [The Guardian]
• Katy Perry launches new line of West Ham United lingerie. Now we know what Michelle Obama is getting for Christmas. [The Guardian]
• Belated congratulations to the Raleigh Venom, champions of Division II USA Women’s Rugby. [WRAL FANKind]

For those of you not familiar with rugby sevens, it’s a 7-on-7 version of rugby union (which is usually 15-on-15) that was created in 1883 in Melrose, Scotland, by Ned Haig, a butcher who was trying to raise money for his local club. It’s played on a full-size pitch with 10-minute halves, which allows an entire tournament to be played in a weekend. Because there are only 7 players per side, the game is much more wide open, so it emphasizes speed over brute strength.

The biggest sevens event is the IRB Sevens World Series, an eight-city affair that runs from December to May. Most of those Sevens World Series events tend to have a party atmosphere, including women dressed in costume, if this Flickr photo set of the New Zealand Sevens is any indication. That should make it a perfect fit for Rio in 2016.

The question remains, though, whether this will make other forms of rugby more popular around the world. The wide open nature of sevens might make some rugby-curious folks look in on something like the Tri-Nations series or the Heineken Cup and decide, “Eh, I like sevens better.” The Sevens World Series could be the only real winner here in the long run.

Then again, perhaps the fact that this will make anyone rugby-curious — and it will — is a win for the code. We’ll have to wait and see, though, what this does for the next Rugby World Cup 2011. I suspect even then, it’ll be too soon to tell.

By the way, the future might belong to China, but with the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016, the next decade definitely belongs to Brazil. We need to start learning to speak some Portuguese.

I think we all know which one of these methods will end up working better in the long run.

Spike TV, being a TV network and all, is counting on the former. In the wake of Setanta UK’s collapse and the American network’s big sell-off of non essential properties, Spike bought the rights to Australia’s National Rugby League and is airing matches from the NRL finals series on Friday nights. While there won’t be any Russell Crowe sightings this year — his South Sydney Rabbitohs missed the Finals by 2 points — the NRL fits right in with Spike’s “manly men doing manly things” programming. Plus, it gives them an opportunity to expose their core audience to top level rugby league without spending a whole lot of money.

That’s probably not the case for the founders of NRL USA, a new rugby league competition in America that is slated to launch in 2010 with 8 teams in 8 cities. Ignoring the fact that this country’s econopocalypse has encouraged everyone to stop spending money, these guys have to convince sports fans to come out and watch “the USA’s premier rugby talent.”

Do we even have premier rugby talent here? It seems like this will be a bunch of dudes who played football (or rugby union at a high level) in college and are looking for another athletic outlet. We all know the premier rugby league talent is primarily in England and Australia. It’s the reason some soccer fans mock MLS and USL — the top players just don’t play here. Sports fans want to see the top players play at the top level. That’s why the Premier League and the NBA are so popular worldwide.

I do wish the NRL USA boys success with their venture, just because having three popular football codes in America would get us one step closer to the footballing awesomeness of Australia, but man, they’ve got a steep mountain to climb to find their audience. They’ll need help from both Spike TV and Russell Crowe even more than they realize.

Next, Scotland v. Fiji turns into a boxing match at the Rugby League World Cup:

The difference? For one, the soccer fight dragged on for a little while, and all sorts of side skirmishes broke out, whereas the rugby fight, while clearly fiercer, ended quckly, and nobody came off the bench.

For another, the rugby referee was clearly respected and feared. Show me one soccer ref on this planet — or one NFL ref, for that matter — that gets that much respect from the players. It’s as if the rugby refs are all scanners, and if you disobey them, they will make your head ’splode. Which would be pretty awesome, come to think of it…

It has been widely reported that if Australia is to host soccer’s major event, then the only stadia capable of holding adequate crowds across the various states will be AFL and NRL venues. Ironically that is because soccer has not had sufficient success to build large stadia for itself. Yet now it has re-branded itself as simply “football” and increasingly journalists are abused if they dare to refer to it as soccer (its original nickname to distinguish it from the other codes of football). Some of kind of reverse-racism is in play – where once soccer was considered a game for ethnic minorities, now to even call it by that name is seen as discriminatory, yet its supporters and administrators claim the name football for themselves. Sadly, Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, has fallen into line.

And the sport’s peak body will almost certainly succeed in gaining access to the major venues of Australia, if it does secure the soccer World Cup. That’s because bodies such as the AFL and NRL would be seen as, that ugly term, “un-Australian” if they didn’t support the country’s bid, and no doubt there would also be government pressure to fall into line.

Read the rest at World Footy News. The football wars never end in Australia, do they?

This is supposed to be the big-money-no-whammies portion of the American soccer season, is it not? MLS has reached the win-or-go-home phase, the moment when everyone is supposed to tune in and see who wins that shiny new Anschutz Trophy. After all, this league has spent all season downplaying its clubs’ involvement in the CONCACAF Champions League and the U.S. Open Cup, because hey, the MLS season is more important. Now it all comes down to this.

So where’s the advertising blitz? Did I miss it? Did Soccer United Marketing pass me over? Does MLS not want American sports fans to know that the playoffs are on? Do they not want anyone to see guys like Brian McBride, Sacha Kljestan and Dwayne DeRosario compete to become this country’s domestic champion?

Right now, the biggest stories in MLS seem to be David Beckham wanting to get out of his contract with the L.A. Galaxy and Landon Donovan wanting to give European football another try. We should be focused on the clubs that are in the playoffs, but instead, the focus is on two big names who want out now that their so-called superclub has utterly failed on the pitch.

Doesn’t that sound like a failure in marketing? MLS and SUM appear to have no control over their message right now. It might be a sign that the league has lost its way. Perhaps instead of giving big money to European stars that won’t attract casual fans, MLS should go back to its original mission — developing American talent. Right now, the top American talent would rather not play in the top American league. What does that tell you?

Oh, by the way, attendance is off this year. That might be a result of $4/gallon gas more than anything, but that has to be a concern, does it not?

Also a concern: ESPN is cutting deals to stream Carling Cup and Coca-Cola Championship games online, a sure sign that the WWL is moving closer to its goal of acquiring the broadcast rights to the Premier League. Once the ESPN audience gets a good long look at the English leagues, will it still care about the American league?

The powers that be in MLS seem to think so, and hey, they might be right, but that doesn’t mean they can just sit back and count on the audience to come to them. SUM needs to spend some of that Beckham jersey cash to make fans care about these playoffs. Otherwise, the audience will ignore MLS just as much as it ignored its own Champions League, and that’s no good for anyone.

So I’m watching this video of the pregame war chants of Australia’s and New Zealand’s Rugby League World Cup teams, and all I can think is this: Damn. Look at how much space those fans have to spread out. You don’t see that many empty seats at a New York Red Bulls home game.

According to one report, the official attendance for the Australia v. New Zealand match was 34,157. Where were they all hiding?

UPDATE: Readers have now informed me that this was not the actual Australia v. New Zealand match at the Rugby League World Cup, but the Aborigines Vs. Maoris pregame match. So that explains A.) why there are so many empty seats, and B.) why I don’t write about rugby very much.

(Spotted on Deadspin.)

Simon informs me that the Rugby League World Cup began this week in Australia. This seems like it should be slightly more significant than a couple of International Rules test matches, but honestly, I just can’t bring myself to care. Go figure.

So I’m just going to point y’all here and here. Plus, there are more fun photos here.

This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder if I should just pick one football code and write about that for a while…

At first glance, Michael Turner’s new nickname might have far more to do with certain forms of public transportation than Brazilian women’s football. Perhaps John Abraham is on to something here, though. After all, both Marta and MARTA are top talents who, on their best days, can become pure forces of nature. One cutback, and Turner is off. One sidestep, and Marta is pushing forward. Both leave defenders in their wake as they add another score to their stats and lead their teams to victory.

Some days, though, these forces of nature run into people with the rare ability and determination to control the weather…

Yes, it actually was proven in Beijing that you can prevent a downpour. It was proven in Charlotte, too. Ha.

This is why you want the rugby team on your side if you ever find yourself in a bar fight. Rugby footballers will kick some ass. Of course, if I found myself wearing that pink and blue monstrosity that the Stade Francais players are wearing, I’d want to beat the crap out of someone, too. Seriously, the Cincinnati Bengals uniforms are less ugly than that.

(Spotted on With Leather.)

Between those two things and Stuart Holden’s dumb foul at the end of the Netherlands game, the USA earned its trip home here. I hope Nowak earned a pinkslip.

US Open Cup: No quadruple for the New England Revolution. D.C. United topped New England, 3-1, in a game seen by less than 7,000 people. (Thanks for nothing, MLS.) Meanwhile, on a rainy night in Charleston, SC, the Seattle Sounders took the Charleston Battery to penalty kicks, and the Battery came out on top. The Open Cup Final between D.C.U. and the Battery takes place on Wednesday, September 3, at RFK Stadium. It will probably be D.C.U.’s only chance to win a trophy and make the 2009 CONCACAF Champions League.

Premier League: Dimitar Berbatov is headed to Manchester United. (Was that deal ever not going to happen?) Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur has not yet secured Andrei Arshavin from Zenit St. Petersburg. Expect even more “SPURS GET BENT” headlines from British Tabloids.

AFL: The Sydney Swans just signed 24-year-old Canadian rugby fullback Mike Pyke to their rookie list. Their next target: Chris Chambers…

Dude can mark. Ha ha.

Programming Note: Blogging will be light for the rest of the week, as I’m off to Las Vegas for a few days. I’ll have something resembling a Premier League preview up on Friday, but that will probably be about it until next week. On a side note, I made a grand total of $3.06 yesterday from my banner ad network, thanks to this Stuart Scott karaoke post. I’d promise not to spend it all in one place, but really, I’ve got a lot of postcards to buy…

Well, guess what shows up in my inbox today?

Hello Dave,

I am currently working on the cinema release of Cass, which is based on the life of Cass Pennant member of West Ham’s ICF.

The film is due for released on 1st August and I was hoping you might be interested in feature the trailer and information about the film on your blog.

Please let me know if this is possible, I have placed the synopsis and trailer links for you below and here is a link to the website – http://www.cassmovie.co.uk/

I hope to hear from you soon.

Yes, it’s a movie about the Inter City Firm — just four days after the Inter City Firm shows up in the news, attempting to make trouble at an MLS match in America. Could it be that this so-called hooligan attack was really *gasp* a publicity stunt for this film?

If so, it’s either utter baloney or utter genius. Or both. I haven’t figured it out just yet. Either way, I have a hard time believing this is a total coincidence.

(Photo by Mike Thorn)

Rugby viewers in New Zealand last weekend got a little surprise with their sport — four minutes of hardcore porn. It seems a scheduling screw-up caused Prime TV to switch off from the game and over to Desperate Black Wives 2. As opposed to Desperate All-Black Wives, I suppose…

The mother in this news report — which, sadly, does not show the slip-up — seems strangely aghast and bemused at the same time. Or is that just the normal reaction to porn down in New Zealand?

(Spotted on Deadspin. Video spotted on FanHouse.)

The 2008 Tri-Nations Rugby Union series kicked off today in New Zealand — you may have seen the giant ad for it to the right there — and what better way to get it started than with a big fat haka from the All Blacks? If that doesn’t get your blood pumping a little faster, nothing will. (In case you’re wondering, yes, the Stellenbosch ELVs are being tested this year.)

The boys at MediaZone were nice enough to hook me up with a Rugby Channel account, which I will be testing today. They seem eager to give away a free one-month subscription to the Rugby Channel through this site, so keep an eye on this blog for details.

I don’t care what style of football you prefer. That’s a quality play.

(Spotted on The AFL Show)

The bulk of Argentina’s players, as well as those of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, are based in Europe. Whatever else might change in the brave new world, the timing of the competition will remain roughly the same – running from July to September.

That prevents both Argentina and either a combined Pacific Islands team or one of the three individual nations, depending on how things are structured, from gaining access to their best players. A competition featuring full-strength New Zealand, Australian and South Africa teams and a half-strength Argentina and Pacific Islands would be a disaster.

Indeed. That’s why it’s time for SANZAR and Europe to come together for the good of the sport. It’s time to combine Tri Nations with Six Nations, add Argentina and create Ten Nations Rugby.

Think about how big an event this would be in world sport — ten giants among national rugby union teams, criss-crossing the planet for nine weeks to play each other in a competition to determine true supremacy in the sport. Tell me that wouldn’t attract a huge international audience. Granted, it might be a scheduling nightmare, and those long plane trips would certainly test the limits of those athletes’ endurance, but it might be worth it to keep interest in rugby union alive in the nations where it’s most popular.

What do you think, rugby fans? Would you like to see Ten Nations Rugby? Or is there something else SANZAR could do to keep Tri Nations interesting?

Hard enough to survive a good smashing on concrete steps, anyway. I’d like to see that dork behind the anchor desk try to survive that.

(Spotted on Deuce of Davenport.)

(Spotted on With Leather)

Gold Coast Titans boss Michael Searle has attacked the Australian Football League’s expansion plans, labelling the AFL “cannibals” and vowing to fight to protect his team’s turf. …

He said the AFL’s aggressive attempt to make its presence felt in the region was the greatest challenge facing his (National Rugby League) club and he intended to be pro-active in repelling its advances.

“The AFL is aggressively trying to expand into traditional rugby league markets and we have to be equally aggressive in defending and growing our game,” Searle said. “The AFL has shown itself as a sport that wants to cannibalise. It doesn’t want to co-exist.

“I have great respect for what the Brisbane Lions have achieved in the past 10 years and feel for them in the predicament this will put them in, having to share revenue in a finite market. This battle has just begun, but we must have a plan that will counteract what the AFL is trying to achieve.”

To understand why this is a big deal, you have to understand the concept of club membership, which appears to be very unique to Aussie sports. These clubs don’t just want fans to buy tickets, walk in, cheer and leave like most American sports owners do. They want these supporters to feel like they’re involved in the success of the club itself — and with their financial support, they often are. Membership gets you special ticketing privileges, voting rights within the club, lots of free and discount gear, and the general feeling of being part of a very large family.

(This explains why the Sydney Swans supporter I spoke with at the Grand Final party in Raleigh would kiss the Swans logo on his cap in the middle of every other sentence. The membership system makes the Swans really feel like his club.)

Of course, the catch is that membership costs money, and Aussie sports fans only have so much of that. As Ando points out over at the AFL Footy Blog, lots of sports radio callers in Melbourne have said they can only afford one club membership, and they find themselves having to choose between the Melbourne Victory and their AFL club. So while the A-League and AFL schedules don’t compete with each other, the clubs themselves do.

Thus, the NRL is pissed off that the AFL is trying to encroach on their territory, because suddenly, they have to compete with them for members in markets that were exclusively theirs. That might be the main reason these football codes keep sparring with each other. It’s not enough to say that your code is superior — you have to convince your members to put the other code down so that they can help you sell more memberships.

As all these football leagues seek to expand, the battle for members will only grow more fierce every year, and old ladies will find even more entertaining words to describe Andrew Demetriou. References to roosters and lollipops grow more likely every day.

It has been a crazy week for football around the world, though, what with the Champions League knockout stage and the Super 14 starting, the NAB Cup well under way, and in America… the scouting combine. Oh, yes, the NFL scouting combine. There’s nothing creepy at all about young men in T-shirts and shorts being ogled by geezers with clipboards. Nothing at all.

It’s a sign that we take the NFL a little too seriously — some guys more than others — but really, where don’t they take football seriously on this planet?

Here’s a look around at some football stories around our planet this week:

• Michael David Smith has the combine covered. [NFL FanHouse]
• The Gladiator helmet has your brain covered. [Mighty MJD @ Yahoo]
• The Dolphins want to bring the Premier League to Miami. [Pitch Invasion]
• Just who is this Richard Scudamore character? [BBC Football]
• The troubled life of Gazza. [Goal]
• Trouble ahead for MLS? [ESPN Soccernet]
• Red cards ahead for swearing footballers? [The Offside]
• Is FIFA looking to rugby to help beleaguered refs? [Reuters Soccer Blog]
• Not everyone digs those ELVs. [The Rugby Blog]
• A lesson in drop punting. [Kick2Kick]
• AFL rejects plan to plunder Ireland. [Fox Sports Australia]
• Fantasy football is everywhere. [AFL Football Blog]
• Matt Walsh is watching you. [Deadspin]
• Troy Vincent may be full of shit. [Mighty MJD @ Yahoo]
• Everton waits for Michael Bradley. [Liverpool Echo]
• A primer on football in Argentina. [Pitch Invasion]
• Those UEFA Cup knockout ties look pretty good. [Reuters Soccer Blog]
• Some useful soccer news web sites. [The Offside]

That ought to hold you for a little while. In the meantime, I’ll be straightening up the house this weekend, as some fellow Carolina Railhawks supporters are coming over to watch the Carling Cup Final. Meanwhile, the Premier League, Super 14 and 6 Nations are on, while Australia will witness the A-League Grand Final and more NAB Cup preseason footy. Set your DVRs accordingly. I did.

Enjoy your football, everyone!

1. The Stellenbosch Laws require more stamina. Apparently, keeping the ball in play more means you have to run around more — which, of course, means you run out of breath more quickly. Every team seemed to run out of steam toward the latter part of the second half. This will require some extra cardio on the part of these players throughout the season.

2. South African players seem to kick into touch more. Perhaps it’s just part of the game plan in South Africa to play for field position through line outs than through looking for openings in the run of play. This would explain why I almost fell asleep during the Rugby World Cup Final a few months ago, when it seemed like the Springboks were playing for field position every time they got the ball. Clearly, though, the S.A. clubs have figured out these ELVs enough to know when to kick into touch.

3. South African announcers are boring. Seriously, the guys calling the Cheetahs v. Lions game literally sapped the energy right out of the viewing experience. It was like they were calling a round of golf, when in fact they were calling one of the closest games in the round. The Aussie and New Zealand presenters were much better at conveying excitement.

4. Jason Eaton has lost his razor. He could be auditioning to join ZZ Top. He might have just gone native. For whatever reason, though, the Hurricanes’ second-line man (pictured above) has gone Grizzly Adams on us. Someone should inform him the Stanley Cup Playoffs don’t start for another two months.

5. I still know far too little about rugby tactics. I’m going to stick with Super 14 for a few more weeks to see if I can figure out the different game plans of different teams, but there’s still a lot about this football code I don’t get yet. Plus, the AFL season is starting soon, European soccer is headed into its stretch run, and March Madness is coming to America. If posting about rugby drops off after a few weeks, that’s probably why.

I so wanted to write a headline here about a hooker getting a facial, but alas, Cory Jane is the fullback for the Hurricanes, not the hooker. Still, his pain is our gain, as he takes one for the team against the Waratahs. If this happened more often, rugby would be a lot more popular in America.

(For the record, I tried to upload this to YouTube, but it didn’t want to cooperate with me today. I guess they has enough face shot videos for one lifetime at that site.)

UPDATE (2/16): Better-quality YouTube vid is here.

Meanwhile, our man Carlito stands there and wishes he could give the rain falling on him to North Carolina — or anyone else, for that matter. It’s all just a matter of perspective, really, and hopefully some of these stories from the last week or so will provide some extra perspective into your own football experience.

On with the show!

• Why Arlen Specter may not be wasting his time (or ours) with this whole Spygate investigation. (Mighty MJD)
• Canadian soccer needs an enema. (Pitch Invasion)
• So do the West Coast Eagles. (AFL Footy Blog)
• Your Super 14 preview. (SA Rugby)
• Botswana football’s “Golden Lady.” (The Offside)
• New York Giants fans better hope their team doesn’t get dynastic. (Deadspin)
• Is this the end for Ronaldo at AC Milan? (Soccer by Ives)
• Is it the start for Mourinho at Barcelona? (Reuters Soccer Blog)
• Kevin Sheedy wants to give exchange students free footy. (Fox Sports Australia)
• Is International Rules worth it for the GAA? (Setanta Sports)
• Congress to NFL: Stay out of the churches! (Techdirt)
• Philip Rivers hates Horny Werewolf Day, too. (Kissing Suzy Kolber)
• Being in a strong NFL division is important. I wonder if this applies to Champions League groups, too… (NFL FanHouse)
• Real Madrid is richer than you. (Yahoo Eurosport)
• This TJ Simers column about David Beckham got people talking this week. (LA Times)
• Becks, however, has other impacts on American soccer that we don’t see. (The Offside)
• Mike Carey talks about “The Giant Snatch.” (NFL FanHouse)
• FA to female footballers: Sorry about the ban! (Guardian Unlimited)
• Those wacky Chris Berman videos aren’t on YouTube anymore, but they’re still online. (Deadspin)

It’s an FA Cup weekend in England. Show of hands: who’s paying $16 to watch Man U v. Arsenal? Not me. I’m going to take a good look at Super 14’s opening weekend and see if these new rules really do make rugby union more fun to watch. I’ll report my discoveries on Monday. Oh, and the Champions League knockout stage begins next Tuesday. Expect a lot of coverage of that on FanHouse.

Enjoy your football, everyone!

Anyway, the new ELVs are now called the Stellenbosch Laws, as they were first tested at Stellenbosch University in South Africa two years ago. The Super 14 decided to adopt some, but not all of the Stellenbosch Laws for this season. According to Wikipedia, here’s what we’ll see:

• The corner posts are moved so that they are outside the junction of the touchline and goal-line. A player will also not be in touch if they are touching the corner post unless they are also touching either the touchline, or ground over the touchline.
• A ball can be thrown backwards on a quick throw-in rather than having to be thrown straight.
• The offside line will now occur immediately once a tackle is made.
• At the breakdown the scrum-half (half-back) cannot be touched unless they are touching the ball.
• During a scrum, with the exception of forwards in the scrum, and each team’s scrum-half, the offside line will now be 5 metres behind the hindmost foot of a scrum.
• With the exception of offside, not entering the breakdown through the gate, and foul-play, the punishment will be a free kick.

The idea behind these ELVs is to create a faster, more exciting game to watch. The ball spends more time in play, more free kicks are taken on the fly, less time is spent setting up lineouts, and we see more of the short kicking game — which, at its best, can resemble a good short passing game in American football. Imagine for a moment the rugby union equivalent of the West Coast Offense. That might be fun, no?

If you want to get a glimpse of the future of rugby union, Setanta Sports will air three Super 14 matches this Saturday:

1.) Blues v. Chiefs, 1:30 AM ET (Live)
2.) Reds v. Highlanders, 7:30 AM ET
3.) Cheetahs v. Lions, 7:45 PM ET

Bryan Habana and the Bulls will get their first run on Setanta on Friday, February 22, at 1:00 PM ET, for a live match against New Zealand club the Crusaders. Set your DVRs accordingly.

Of course, the end of the NFL season means we can look forward to a nice long offseason full of complicated mathematics involving the salary cap and franchise tags, as teams rejigger their lineups for the 2008 season. During this time, no actual NFL football will be played. Some of my fellow football bloggers are not pleased by this.

No, football, nnnnnooooooo! Just stay a little longer. Please? Cmon, what’s the rush? You can have Emmitt say something incoherent. I don’t care!

Me? I’m not quite that upset that the NFL season is over. Why? Because while the KSK Gay Mafia(TM) sees a world where there’s no football until September and only the half-sized Arena League to tide them over, I see a world where there’s still a ton of football to watch.

Now I suspect it’s too much to ask the KSK boys to get into the Premier League like I have. Soccer is still too different a world from the NFL, and the average American sports fan can’t see (or chooses to ignore) their common heritage. However, soccer’s not the only other form of football out there. So here are a few options that some of you NFL fans might consider to pass the time until the NFL returns:

1.) Rugby Union. It’s kind of like the NFL, except nobody wears padding, blocking and forward passing is verboten, and play doesn’t stop when someone gets tackled. The southern hemisphere’s top rugby competition, the Super 14, starts this weekend, and they’re adopting some new rules to make the game more appealing to fans. (More on those later in the week.) If you like some hard-hitting football action, rugby could help you pass the time until the gridiron game returns.

2.) Rugby League. Of course, union isn’t the only rugby out there. Russell Crowe showed America that rugby league can be fun to watch, too. SuperLeague XIII has already begin in Europe, and the 2008 NRL season begins in Australia on March 15.

3.) Aussie Rules. The Australian Football League preseason is already under way, and with the game angling to go global, now’s the perfect time to get on the bandwagon. Aussie Rules is fast, physical, and highly entertaining to watch. Plus, if you live out on the west coast of America, it’ll be easy to find an Irish pub somewhere that carries Setanta Sports and shows AFL matches at reasonable hours.

So don’t fret about the NFL entering it’s silly season. It’ll be back soon enough. In the meantime, there’s still plenty of football to watch out there, if you know where to look. It’s all just a matter of perspective.

Carlito wants you to make a habit of stretching every morning when you get up — especially on game days. You’ll feel better every day for it.

* – Does not apply to Manchester United fans at Old Trafford.

And now, on with the links!

• The Eli Manning-to-David Tyree pass has a name. (Kissing Suzy Kolber)
• One lucky Giants fan sneaks in. (Deadspin)
• Tom Hicks is an idiot in two countries now. (Dallas Observer)
• Football in Colonial Africa. (Pitch Invasion)
• Footballer trafficking in modern Africa. (Guardian Unlimited)
• Is FIFA boss Sepp Blatter a racist? (The Offside)
• One last look back by a Havant & Waterlooville fan. (Hobo Tread)
• The Rochester Raging Rhinos are in real trouble. (Triangle Soccer Fanatics)
• Revenue sharing works in America, but what about England? (Pitch Invasion)
• Mankinis work for Borat, but what about New Zealand rugby fans? (We Are the Postmen)
• AFL attempts to put lipstick on pig. (Fox Sports Australia)
• Hey, did someone say pig? (Friday Metro)
• What we would have seen if the Patriots had won. (FanHouse)
• The Pats’ season ended perfectly — for the rest of America. (The Onion)
• And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of fans. (With Leather)
• Of course, there’s just as much class in Manchester. (Guardian Unlimited)
• Remembering the Munich Air Disaster. (200%)
• An awesome Fulhamerica photoshop. (Oz City)
• The sad tale of Kevin Hart. (Deadspin)
• Chiefs running back Larry Johnson was just joking. Really. (The Sporting Blog)
• But drugs are no joke for retired NFL players. (Tampa Bay Online)
• Say, is Tiki Barber on drugs? (NFL Experts Blog)
• HBO pulls the plug on Inside the NFL. (Sports by Brooks)
• What is zone blocking? (FanHouse)
• International Rules is the new General Franco. (Setanta Sports)
• A closer look at World Footy News. (AFL Footy Blog)
• Are the Buffalo Bills cheating on their hometown? (NFL Experts Blog)
• Fabio Capello will make you an offer you can’t refuse. (Pitch Invasion)
• Those damn Sepak Takraw prima donnas. (With Leather)
• It’s just easier to be a football fan. (Deadspin)

That ought to hold you for now. It’s a quiet weekend for football in America, with only the sad little exhibition that is the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. There’s a full card in Europe, though, including a Chelsea v. Liverpool match on Sunday and some Six Nations rugby action around the continent. Oh, and there’s also some Aussie Rules in Dubai, though we’re still more than a month away from the start of the AFL season. (I need to find some way to get the rest of the blogosphere talking about Aussie Rules again. The West Coast Eagles’ drug problems won’t be enough this year.)

One more thing: the Carolina Railhawks are holding tryouts this weekend. So if you’ve got some serious soccer skills and are looking for work, get yourself to the Triangle by tomorrow morning. Here’s a little something to inspire you to play…

Enjoy your football, folks.

That’s the only real question I have about Saturday’s rugby league test match in Jacksonville. I’m sure plenty of the 12,500 people who showed up — and by the way, that’s an impressive number for a football code about which most Americans haven’t the first clue — actually wanted to see the game, but this is America, after all, and star chasers are everywhere.

Plus, Crowe appears to have quite the mullet in this video, which should get the bloggers buzzing a little. Bloggers love mullets. I have no idea why.

The video is a little short on actual rugby league footage, which is disappointing. I’m sure some other footage from the stands will show up on YouTube this week.

- Fox Soccer Channel was showing the one FA Cup game nobody really cared about at 10:00 AM, and Setanta Sports had no rights to the FA Cup and showed the lone Premier League game of the week — an Aston Villa-Blackburn tie that probably would have been entertaining had I paid attention to it. Thus, I was forced to use less-than-legal means to watch the game I really wanted to watch — Liverpool v. Havant & Waterlooville — and I missed Richard Pacquette’s goal in the 8th minute. Seeing their second goal, though, was a truly uplifting moment. Here’s a pub team playing in a once-in-a-lifetime (if that) game on one of English football’s biggest stages, and they’re winning. It makes you feel good about sports again, and it reminds you why the FA Cup is still the most romantic competition in sports this side of the NCAA basketball tournament. (BTW, I wrote more about that game here.)

- Speaking of romance, lots of folks will look at the lack of Premier League clubs still in the FA Cup and start suggesting that the top-flight clubs really don’t care about this competition anymore. This ignores the fact that a good number of Premier League clubs were eliminated by other Premier League clubs. Man U knocked off Villa, then knocked off Spurs, who beat Reading earlier. Chelsea beat Wigan, who knocked off Sunderland previously. Arsenal beat Newcastle. Sure, we’ve had our share of giant-killers so far, but the biggest of them so far may have been the one that got relegated out of the Premier League last year — Sheffield United, who have beaten Bolton and Man City so far.

- It just occurred to me yesterday that this is the first year in about eight years that I’m not throwing some kind of Super Bowl party. I’m not sure why. Perhaps I’ve been distracted by the fact that I have a girlfriend now. Perhaps I have this subconscious urge to reject everything involving the New England Patriots and that jackass safety of theirs. Perhaps I’m just looking forward to other things — the start of the AFL season, the start of the Carolina Railhawks’ season, an interesting free agency period, etc.

- Speaking of free agency, the Jacksonville Jaguars are one of the teams I cover for FanHouse, and they have more than $32 million in salary cap space. Given the season they just had, they might have a very good shot at a linebacker like Lance Briggs or Terrell Suggs. The problem they have, though, is that they need more help at receiver and cornerback, and it’s fairly slim pickings in the free agent market for those positions.

- BTW, I neglected to mention that Australia Day rugby league test match in Jacksonville on Saturday, which turned out to be a sellout. Leeds Rhinos beat Russell Crowe’s South Sydney Rabbitohs, 26-24. I considered traveling down there to that game, but I couldn’t really justify the expense, and besides, I had a date on Saturday night. There appears to be video of this, though, which I’ll post later.

- Finally, I’d like to pay more attention to the African Cup of Nations, but the organizers of that event are making it really, really hard for us. Max Bretos told everyone he campaigned to get the competition on Fox Soccer Channel, but the competition’s organizers priced it out of everyone’s range. Someone needs to help CAF understand that less money than you want is still better than no money at all. Obscurity is the enemy of competitions like this.

- About a year ago, I offered up this defense of Tom Coughlin after New York Giants fans, bloggers and columnists were calling for his head following an ugly 8-8 season. Right now, I’m guessing most of those folks are glad they didn’t get what they wanted a year ago.

- Say what you will about the San Diego Chargers, but their defense kept them in it against New England. The problem, though, is that you simply can’t beat the Patriots by kicking field goals. You have to get in the end zone, because so will they.

- Y’know, had I known that Pats-Giants game in Week 17 was going to be a Super Bowl preview, I might have paid a little more attention to the second half.

- I’m going to get into this later on FanHouse, but does it seem like this Aston Villa v. Liverpool game this afternoon could determine the future of Liverpool as a football club? If they lose that game, will Royal Bank of Scotland reject the loan deal that Tom Hicks and George Gillett are trying to secure for fear of creating another Leeds United?

- Titus, Titus, Titus. How do you manage to keep a job in the top flight?

- Interesting read over at With Malice: “How Rugby Saved My Life and My Sanity.” I wonder how many similar stories are out there for soccer and Aussie rules.

- CFL fans, beware. That NFL game in Toronto looks like it’s going to happen, and all the Lenny Kravitz halftime shows in the world aren’t going to stop it.

- There’s a part of me that wishes that Mike Carey becoming the first black man to referee the Super Bowl wasn’t so big a story. The bottom line is that he’s one of the best refs in the game right now, and that’s why he’s getting the gig.

- The Hawthorn Hawks are promising us a bigger, badder Buddy Franklin in 2008. Be afraid, footy fans. Be very, very afraid.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go bug some friends of mine about this year’s Super Bowl party…