Insert Super Bowl Here

Could the Super Bowl be coming to Six Flags? …Or, Trader’s Village?

Tuesday is judgment day in Nashville for the three regions hoping to host the 2011 Super Bowl. North Texas, Indianapolis and Arizona will each have 15 minutes at Tuesday's NFL meeting to convince 32 team owners that they should host the big game.
They have submitted hundreds of pages to the NFL detailing hotel rooms, venues, transportation and their shiny new stadiums. But the owners, who will vote using secret ballots, may follow their guts instead of their business minds when they pick the host. So it's anyone's guess who will win.

North Texas

Pro The $1 billion futuristic Dallas Cowboys stadium, set to open in 2009, will be able to seat almost 100,000 people, making it one of the largest facilities that could host a Super Bowl. The Metroplex also has more than 90,000 hotel rooms, making it easy to accommodate the league's request for 21,000 rooms.

Con It could be difficult for spectators to get to and from the stadium, since Arlington has no mass-transit system.

Indianapolis

Pro Money talks, and the bid committee's plan is to have the $20 million needed for expenses raised before the owners make their decision in Nashville. The city regularly handles large groups of people: It has hosted the Pan American Games, NCAA Final Fours and the annual Indianapolis 500, which draws well over 200,000 people.

Con Indianapolis does not have many of the high-end hot spots that the NFL and its sponsors love so much for swanky parties during Super Bowl week.

Arizona

Pro Other bidders can't compete with the weather in Glendale: February temperatures average a high of 73 degrees and a low of 45. Corporate sponsors love the valley's numerous golf and spa resorts.

Con Although the area has already hosted two Super Bowls, the 2008 game will be the first one in the new stadium. NFL owners may be reluctant to award the stadium a second Super Bowl before seeing how the first one plays out.

Grizz, from Blogging the boys.com …always does a fine job; but this column was so dead on, I wanted to reprint it here…

Yesterday I was going to write one more article about Bill Parcells. I was going to lay out the insanity of the argument that New Orleans somehow exposed the blueprint on how to beat this defense. I admit; I was taken in by that argument during the end of the season when the Cowboys looked very inept. Then I thought about it some and tried to wrap my head around the argument.

The argument I’ve heard goes that Parcells’ scheme was so archaic, so utterly unchangeable, that it was a relic of 1980’s football and couldn’t win in the new millennium. But here’s the funny part, I guess opposing teams have been total idiots for over 20 years until the moment New Orleans and Sean Payton exposed the double-secret blueprint to beating a Parcells’ defense. It’s not like they didn’t have plenty of film on the Parcells’ 3-4 defense. I guess the Colts could’ve used that plan earlier in the season when Parcells’ archaic and useless 3-4 scheme held the high-powered Colts to 14 points and sent them to a loss. I guess the defense that had us 8-4 going into the final month of the season was a mirage.

Do I think Parcells and Zimmer could’ve made some adjustments down the stretch? Sure. And they did. We forget that the Cowboys used Bobby Carpenter as a spy on Mike Vick from the defensive tackle position in a game. We forget that for the Lions game we played a lot of 4-3 defense because we just weren’t generating enough of a pass rush without Greg Ellis. I guess the fact that they went on the road in a playoff game, held Seattle to 21 points and had the team ready for victory isn’t important.
The point is the players are just as responsible as any coach for the collapse at the end of the year. Yet, some players are unable to accept any personal responsibility for their own shortcomings. I’ve also noticed some of the biggest complainers are guys that Parcells placed a lot of faith in. He passed on Steven Jackson and Kevin Jones and drafted Julius Jones. He chose Marcus Spears in the first round. Maybe the crushing burden of expectations got to them.

Or more probably, they, along with some other players just tired of Parcells’ style. It wasn’t the scheme; it was the constant needling, the limited carrot and the unlimited stick that Parcells used to get production that may have worn thin. But it’s easier to say the failings were because the coach used them wrong, instead of saying they couldn’t handle the abrasive style of a demanding coach or that their game wasn’t up to par.

There’s probably a lot more in the equation than we know. But to boil it all down to Bill Parcells’ scheme and his inability to win with it in the "new age" of football is hard to believe. I mean, if it was so easy to beat this archaic scheme, why did it take until New Orleans beat the crap out of us for other teams to catch on?
I’m not a Parcells apologist; he made some mistakes while here. For sure. But I also find the argument that his scheme is somehow responsible for our failure to win big an over-simplistic cop-out meant to absolve the players of responsibility. And we as fans want to absolve them from responsibility because they will be here in 2007 and Bill Parcells won’t. So if we are rolling-out the same basic roster this year, we need to believe that they can win, and the easy way to convince ourselves is to lay the blame of last year at Parcells’ feet. Too simplistic for me.

And let’s not forget, our young and talented QB didn’t exactly play that well over the last month, either. I have faith that Romo will become a franchise QB, but he certainly had some growing pains over the last month of the season that we didn’t see in his first month. But the offense was generally very good last year, so I won’t try to push it all off on that. Collectively, as a team, the Cowboys failed over the last month when they had succeeded pretty well up to that point, playing the same scheme that Parcells has employed forever.

But here’s the good part, Wade Phillips is here and maybe his approach will rejuvenate the players. Maybe his attacking style will improve the defense and create big plays and big opportunities. And if that happens, I’m sure we’ll here more of the "it was Parcells fault, see, here’s the proof." Again, a simplistic approach to a complex problem.

Which leads me to the reason I wrote this even though I decided to pass on it yesterday, an article by Gil LeBreton that takes on the issue of bashing Parcells by the Cowboys.

It's all about the disrespect. For most modern, underachieving athletes, it's all about passing the blame and teeing up the head coach, whenever possible, as the scapegoat.

We media love this. When there's a change at head coach, we trawl, trawl, trawl the locker room for dissenters, hoping to find the slightest answer that smacks of previous dissatisfaction with Life Under Bill.

It’s true; the media does search for juicy quotes that it can plaster on its pages to up its readership. And some Cowboys have taken the bait.

Rangers win 3 of 4????…

A crowd of 28,814 had to wait out a brief rain delay before the start of the game.
It was worth it. The Rangers scored in the first six innings, hitting home runs in three of them. At 18-27, they got back to within single digits in games under .500. Suddenly, they look a lot more like the Rangers that Washington coached against when he was in Oakland.

The Rangers scored a season-high eight runs in the fifth inning, expelling Twins starter Carlos Silva. They got a grand slam in the inning from catcher Gerald Laird. And they also had three infield singles, something that wouldn't have happened a few weeks ago.

The offensive onslaught came a day after the Rangers had a season-high 18 hits and 14 runs in a win against Houston. The Rangers had 15 more hits Monday and posted double-digit runs in consecutive games for the first time since September 2004. They also scored 14 or more runs in back-to-back games for the first time in five years and for only the fourth time in team history.

Washington said he sensed a carryover from the Tampa Bay series to winning the weekend series against the Astros, even though the Rangers were swept by Tampa Bay in Orlando.

"We played good baseball," Washington said. "I'm pleased with how things are going. I'm a baseball man. There is a season to be played."

The Rangers have scored at least six runs in five of their last six games. They have
done it despite losing third baseman Hank Blalock for three months and playing without regular Brad Wilkerson.

On Monday, everyone in the starting lineup got a hit, including first baseman Mark Teixeira, who has been red hot; second baseman Ian Kinsler, who is breaking out of a slump; and designated hitter Frank Catalanotto, who hit a home run in his first at-bat after being on the disabled list for 19 days.

Rangers catcher Gerald Laird (center) celebrates his grand slam.

There were three more RBIs for Sammy Sosa, who has 35 in 39 games. And there was the third home run in nine games for Nelson Cruz, who had only been hitting them in batting practice before his May 13th walkoff against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Elias Says Twins are strug-gel-ing …

The Twins started the season 11-6, at which point they had a 1½-game lead in the American League Central. But since then, including their 14-4 loss to the Rangers on Monday, the Twins are 9-18, tying them with the Reds for the worst record in the major leagues since April 22.

Pistons take Game 1, LeBron does Dirk impression …

It had to be a little unsettling for the Pistons at halftime. LeBron James was in full-out pass mode. He had just four points, making 2 of 7 shots.

Yet, after playing a miserable half themselves, the Pistons were still down by six points.

What would happen, they had to be wondering, if James ever joined the party?

James never did join the party, not really. He finished with 10 points (5 for 15 shooting), 10 assists and nine rebounds. But it still took a late flurry for the Pistons to escape with a 79-76 victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

What a wild finish.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas scored 22 points, including eight straight in the final four minutes, to put the Cavaliers up 76-75.

But Chauncey Billups, who struggled all game, nailed a clutch 3-pointer to put the Pistons up 78-76 with 1:52 left.

The Cavs, though, could not score another point. They didn't score in the final 2:08. James took one shot in that span. Larry Hughes missed two shots and Donyell Marshall missed a wide-open 3-pointer for the win with five seconds left.

Richard Hamilton led the Pistons with 24 points. At times, he was the only offense they had.

Rasheed Wallace had another strong performance, producing 15 points, 12 rebounds and a playoff career-best seven blocks. He scored nine in the fourth quarter.

Billups finished with 13 points (4 of 6 shooting) and seven turnovers.

And you want some bad blood? After Marshall's miss, Sasha Pavlovic raked Billups across the nose when they were chasing the long rebound. Billups was bleeding out of his nose and he had some stern words for Pavlovic in front of the Cavaliers bench.

This one is just getting heated up.

Rockets hire Adelman …I like Van Gundy so I am not crazy about parting ways with him, but Adelman is a nice hire…

Multiple media outlets were reporting on Monday night that the former Sacramento coach and the Rockets have indeed reached an agreement. Adelman will reportedly fly to Houston on Tuesday and be introduced on Wednesday.

Rockets spokesman Nelson Luis told The Associated Press on Tuesday night that Adelman was expected to come to Houston on Tuesday, but said he had no details of his plans.

He confirmed that Adelman has previously been interviewed for the job, which came open when Jeff Van Gundy was fired on Friday.

Houston television station KRIV first reported the hiring on Monday night, citing league sources. The Houston Chronicle Web site and KTRH radio also said Adelman already has the job.

Luis said he could not confirm the information.

The Rockets' Game 7 playoff loss to Utah meant a first-round exit for the third time in Van Gundy's four seasons. The 45-year-old Van Gundy had one season left on a nonguaranteed contract.

Adelman met last week with Rockets owner Leslie Alexander, Luis said.

Adelman took the Portland Trail Blazers to the NBA Finals twice and also coached the
Golden State Warriors. From 1998-2006 he was at the helm of the Sacramento Kings, taking the team to the playoffs every season but losing in the Western conference finals three times before being dismissed.

The Kings did not make the playoffs last year under Eric Musselman, who was subsequently fired.

Trouble in Phoenix? …

The Suns wanted to get together to commiserate following their controversial playoff loss to the Spurs, and Amare Stoudemire missed the Saturday meeting. Coach Mike D'Antoni dismissed his absence with a joke, but D'Antoni and star point guard Steve Nash concede the Suns have chemistry issues. In addition, managing partner Robert Sarver soon will take complete control of the franchise from Jerry Colangelo, and D'Antoni knows Sarver is concerned about being in luxury tax territory.

"We have to be careful tinkering with this too much," D'Antoni told Phoenix reporters. "You can get an All-Star out of the draft. I don't want to think we've got to go crazy."

Three of the four NBA playoff survivors are defensive, grind-it-out teams, and the fourth, the Cavaliers, are a wannabe with coach Mike Brown.

And while their more wide-open style didn't fail, the Suns could be a vastly different team next season.

They won Game 4 in San Antonio to reclaim the home-court advantage they lost in Game 1 when the bloodied Nash couldn't return after a late-game collision with Tony Parker. And before Stoudemire and Boris Diaw were suspended, they were in excellent position to move on because they dominated the Jazz in the regular season.

The Suns could have the Hawks' pick, plus they will have the Cavaliers' at No. 21 and their own at No. 29.

If you want to See the Suns mad, hope the Hawks land in the top 3 of tonight’s Draft Lottery …

The Suns have a lot of work in front of them this summer. But they will helplessly watch the first domino — OK, make that ping-pong ball — that will help decide what comes next fall tonight while sitting on the couch with their collective fingers crossed.

Phoenix could wind up with as high as the fourth overall pick when the 2007 NBA draft lottery is held today in New Jersey, giving them all sorts of options moving forward. Or, the Atlanta Hawks could retain the selection if it is among the top three, forcing the Suns to wait another year to complete the controversial 2005 Joe Johnson/Boris Diaw deal.

The odds lean toward Phoenix by nearly a 2-to-1 margin. The Hawks have a 37.8 percent chance of ending up third or higher when the ping-pong balls finally stop tonight.

“Without a doubt, this would be a key asset for us,” Phoenix coach and general manager Mike D’Antoni said. “This is a deep draft with a lot of talented players in the top 10. There are guys at several positions who could have an impact right away, and if we’re there we’d certainly get a good player.

Amusing prank idea …

Tomorrow, Liverpool plays for all the marbles …

History will count for nothing in the Champions League final in Athens on Wednesday.
And AC Milan may be the favourites going into the showdown with Liverpool but that will not matter on the night either.

It certainly did not make any difference to Liverpool when they made that astonishing comeback from 3-0 down to beat the Italians in the final in Istanbul two years ago.

That was one of the greatest comebacks sport has seen - but it does not mean a thing this time round.

The only difference it makes is that Liverpool have won five European Cups rather than four.

Talk about that game and how Milan want revenge only comes into play in the build-up.

We.Are.One.Day.Away




MLS Goals from this week. The third one is a SWEET goal from FC Dallas man, Chris Gbandi. You may not see a sweeter goal.



Cows with Guns



Rambo IV