Playoff previews

The playoff race has began in the NFL, 4 wildcard matches are set on the table, first we have the steelers and the Jaguars for the AFC, the winner of this match will have to face the Patriots in the next round, also for the same conference we have the Chargers facing the Titans, the winner will have to meet Payton Manning and the Colts in the next round.

And for the NFC we have the Giants who will fight for a chance against the bucs, the winner will meet the cowboys and the last wildcard game have the Seahawks facing the Redskins, the winner will battle Brett Favre and the Packers.

For the AFC, Steelers - Jaguars ? I’ll go for the Steelers, Steelers – Patriots? Let me take the Patriots, then let me have the Colts, between those two? Hmmm that is tough one, for the NFC, Giants – Bucs? I’ll take New York, who might have a chance against the Cowboys, and I’ll take the redskins who have struggled their way through this playoffs but their road to the superbowl might end up in the hands of the Packs.

Even if the Patriots seemed unstopable right now, playoff games are never the same, most teams will leave everything in the field for a chance to make it to the superbowl

A superbowl guess? Patriots – Cowboys, Tom Brady vs Tony Romo, two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL right now, or maybe the Packs with Favre against the Pats, chances are New England will beat every single team on their way and end this year with all glories, but who knows.

Dissapointing charity match between Messi and Ronaldinho’s friends

A “friendly” match took place on December 26^th in San Luis, Argentina, when the Friends of Messi faced Ronaldinho’s friends.

As weird as it is, Lionel Messi could not play due to an injury he was carrying before Barcelona’s defeat against their arch enemy, Real Madrid, and this match really didn’t showed the friendly side of any player, it was more like just another match between Argentina and Brazil on the road to the world cup.

“Messi and friends” was compress of Roberto Abbondanzieri, Fernando Cavenaghi, Juan Sebastian Veron, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Martin Palermo, Martin Demichelis, Edison Mendez, and Diego Forlan and a few others, while “Ronaldinho and Friends” had Maicon, Vagner Love, Diego, Roberto Carlos, Naldo, Daniel Carvalho, Tinga, Nilmar among others.

Interesting enough is the fact that there was only 1 goal scored in the match by Argentinean Leandro Lazzaro, a player that is well known in his country but that didn’t had that much success in his journey for Europe, he played with the AC Sparta Praha and in a few low division clubs in Italy, so it might had been a kind of embarrassment for his teammates seeing him scoring.

The match ended up 1-0 and I guess many fans went out of Juan Gilberto Funes stadium with disappointment as people gets tired of seeing matches of this caliber with almost or none goals, and not to see Messi showing his talent might had being taken as a low point in the match, this was supposed to be a deadly rivalry between the two Barcelona players, one with the youth and one with the experience.

Lionel Messi will be out for about 5 more weeks due to his injury which is a big turn off for Barcelona who might lose Ronaldinho as offers from AC Milan and Chelsea are tempting enough to let him go; “The crack” has had a difficult season with the catalan club and even fans were bashing him at the ‘El Prat’ airport just after the disappointing defeat in ‘El Clasico’.

Only time will tell what is out there for two of the most important stars in international soccer right now.

Wings aniquilate The Blues in a sold-out Scottrade Center

Yesterday night the Red Wings slaughter The Blues in a game that didn’t had Tomas Holmstrom due to a bruise knee and Henrik Zetterberg suffering of a back injury, which give it the chance to a few players that hadn’t seeing much action on the ice lately.

One of those players was Valtteri Filppula, who had the first two-goal game of his career and scoring those in less than 3 minutes, he was given the chance and took advantage of it, he is just going through one of his best periods as he had scored 7 goals in his last 9 games, something outstanding considering that he was scoreless for 10 games before that.

“I got a couple lucky bounces and my teammates made some great plays setting me up, I was in good position and they got me the puck.” Said Filppula

Detroit’s coach Mike Babcock couldn’t be happier, he was missing two of his key starting players, but the guys replacing them knew it was their chance to prove that they have what it takes to keep on playing on a regular basis, if you have a team that is lacking flaws, injuries are not potentially harmful for the whole team structure, it is actually a way to find out what is the condition of the players that have being on the bench for a while.

Another impressive performance was given by goalie Chris Osgood, who stopped 20 shots to record his 45^th career shutout, it was also a sort of “revenge game” for him as he had a streak of 8 games unbeaten and fell to The Blues on December 20^th when they won at home 3-2.

This was The Wings fifth victory in 6 games and the fourth defeat for The Blues in 6 games, something outstanding considering that St Louis was playing at home and in a packed Scottrade center in front of the biggest crowd of the season, 19,250.

"The last time we came in here we let them dictate the physical style of play, this time, we just said, 'let's go out there after them."' said Coach Babcock.

The Lakers finally ended with a 2 year playoff curse to the Suns

Kobe Bryant became the youngest player to reach 20,000 points on Sunday on the 122-115 victory against the Suns, Bryant scored a total of 38 points, 26 in the second half.

“I’m focused on one thing and one thing only — winning the championship,” Bryant said.

The Lakers definitely gotten better, they have won 9 of their last 11 games and this one meant their third victory in a row, Los Angeles have shown that they are a solid team, proof of that is Kobe Bryant, who is not complaining anymore, he said there was not enough talent around to make it a championship-winning squad, well, his teammates disagree, they might not be at his same caliber, but without any doubts, they are performing at their best.

Now the Lakers are leading the season series against the Suns 2-0 with 2 games left to play, something they didn’t managed to do in the previous 2 seasons when Phoenix eliminated them from the first round of the playoffs each time, now the Suns have alot to be worried about, as they have lost 5 of their last 8 games.

Another player that added alot was Andrew Bynum, the 20 yeard old center had an excellent night, scoring a career-high 28 points.

“I put in all the hard work just for this, it’s paying off. This definitely was one of my better games. Made a pretty big impact, teammates looking for me, wide open a lot of the times and they found me today. Bynum said.

Eagles bring the Saints to the verge of not going to the playoffs

Donovan McNabb is the responsible for letting New Orleans in a very uncomfortable position, the eagles quarterback had an awesome Sunday night, when his team defeated The Saints 38-23.

It seems like the effects from the knee surgery that Mcnabb went through last year are totally gone, he’s playing like he used to, proof of that are the 300 yards he accounted and the three touch down passes he tossed against New Orleans, now there’s an important question out there, to keep McNabb as starter or to let rookie Kevin Kolb to take his place?

"I think teams now see the progression of me coming off the injury and seeing I'm getting my mobility back," McNabb said.

Even the efforts from Aaron Stecker who scored two touchdowns in the first half for the Saints, weren’t enough for a team that is on the verge of losing any chances to make it to the playoffs.

New Orleans could be gone by now, but the 32-21 victory of the Redskins against the Vikings are giving them a chance. Now, for the Saints to make it to the playoffs, they need to win against the Bears and hope for a loss by the Redskins against the Cowboys and the Vikings against the Broncos.

It looks like a tough run up the hill for the Saints, but coach Sean Payton is trusting in a miracle.

Livepool losses to Chelsea at the Carlin’s cup quarter finals

Liverpool’s tallest player, Peter Crouch, lost his head after being provoked and kicked twice by Mikel John Obi, who he tackled just to receive a red card in the game against Chelsea for the Carlin Cup’s quarter finals.

The Reds coach Rafa Benitez supports Crouch stating that the referee wasn’t paying attention to the intentional aggression against him.

"That is the reason Crouch lost his head. If the referee blows his whistle before, you avoid the sending off." He said.

The game resulted in a loss for the reds and Crouch’s expulsion was determining for the final score of 2-0 at Stamford Bridge.

The Reds went out of the field with a taste of disappointment as they got disqualified in final stages and leaved Petr Chech’s arc intact.

It was a defining game for both teams who came from losing their previous games for the Premier League, Chelsea to Arsenal and The Reds against Manchester United.

Another important fact to mention is that Chelsea was missing John Terry who is suffering of a three broken bone injury on his right foot and Liverpool didn’t had starter (and captain) Steven Gerrard who was suffering of stomach problems.

Chelsea are the title defenders and we might seeing them playing against Arsenal at the finals in repetition of last season's championship game.

PPH shops and casino games

A Pay Per Head shop is not only the solution for those interested in sports wagering, there is also the option to offer casino betting (for an additional fee per authorized active player) at the bookie’s request.

At bookperhead.com you can find the most popular games like black jack or poker built in secure and advanced software.

I don’t know about you but when it comes to sports wagering and casino online gambling both goes hand to hand, I was actually losing a portion of my current earnings by not having this extras available for my players who were expending their casino chips somewhere else.

I decided that paying the extra cost to allow my clients to use the casino features was well worth the price and I haven’t regretted it, I perceived extra $3000 from just one player from a few black jack hands and since my clients are mostly people I know, I have found new clients through old prospects that are only interested in the casino, and honestly, I am perceiving around a 65% more than I was when I was just offering sports betting options.

If you ask me for personal choices, I would go for bookperhead.com which is the PPH shop I have being doing business with...

I’ll leave you their link in case you want to give them a try

http://www.bookperhead.com/

25 Seminoles suspended on academic cheating charges

Head coach Bobby Bowden has being hit by unpleasant situations lately, first he saw his son resigning as Florida’s offensive coordinator due to extensive criticism and lack of results, and now, 25 Seminoles, almost a quarter of his team are facing a suspension due to a academic cheating scandal.

If they get suspended, they will probably not see any action at the Music City Bowl on December 31^st. Which is leaving Bowden with few choices to replace some starters.

"Kentucky would be a tough opponent when we are at full strength so clearly this will make things more difficult. Our staff is in the process of determining what adjustments we must make for the game." Bowden said.

It seems like Bowden is one tough coach, he’s the reason for Florida State to become into the dominant force they are and he’ll make sure The Seminoles are going to Nashville without enough motivation to come up with a positive result.

FSU officials made the announcement on Tuesday but Federal privacy laws prohibits the school from releasing the names of all the players involved but sooner or later, we’ll find out who the cheaters are as they might be ruled ineligible for some games next season.

Bowden is not near retirement, he’s 78 and just signed an extension of his contract to coach his 33^rd season next fall on which he’ll be joined by Jimbo Fisher (coming as his son’s replacement) who is possibly his successor once he retire in about 3 years.

Bobby Bowden is a respected coach and we can see lots of good things happening in coming seasons for the Seminoles.

Contradiction in NFL regulations, same action, different judgments

As it is a well known story by now, Michael Vick ended up receiving 23 months in jail due the the dog fighting charges he faced, the hearing was on December 10^th, the same night the Falcons played at home against The Saints.

Rodney White along with tight end Alge Crumpler and cornerbacks DeAngelo Hall, Chris Houston and Joe Horn decided to play a tribute to the ex-Falcon, they all wore black eye stripes with messages in a tribute to Vick, the NFL decided that this was “an unauthorized personal message” and a violation to uniform regulations and fined the 5 players for such reason.

White scored a touchdown and immediately displayed a black shirt with the phrase “Free Mike Vick” and Hall had a poster of Vick on the field during pre-game introductions.

White, Hall, Houston and Crumpler each have to pay $10,000 while Horn was hit with $7,500 for a total of $47,500 in fines.

Is it that this really has to do with any violations at all or is it that the Falcons just wants to distance themselves from the image of the suspended Pro Bowl quarterback? Well, remember Sean Taylor? A couple of weeks ago, Redskins runner back Clinton Portis wore a shirt in his memory and he wasn’t fined, and I’m not saying he had to be fined, I just think the NFL is contradicting themselves with this type of actions,

Melvin signs 3-year extension with the Dbacks

Former MLB catcher and current manager for the Diamondbacks just extended his contract for 3 years, the Arizona team is going through an stability period and Bob Melvin has deserves a lot of credit for that.

"We have verbally agreed, the Tribune reported, citing a source with knowledge of the negotiations. We have to get some things in writing." Melvin said.

He has being voted as National League Manager of the year and guided the Dbacks to a 9-win season and a NL West title.

“The Mad Scientist” started his managing career with the Mariners, and in that first year, he won 93 games but didn’t made it to the playoffs, after that season, Seattle decided not to extend his contract so he parted ways to join Arizona after the Dbacks fired Wally Backman who didn’t manage a single going before leaving the team, and Melvin already had served as bench coach for Arizona before joining the Mariners.

Bob Melvin led the snakes to the 2007 National League West title and was voted as Manager of the year by several reputable sports magazines.

When Melvin arrived, the Dbacks was one of those teams nobody paid too much attention to, but since he’s in charge, things are different, he had given kids the chance to be regulars, like Jose Valverde who grew into a full-time closer and Tony Pena into a full-time setup man. He has played with 89 different lineups and has seeing the victory will all of them.

Bob Melvin’s era is one of the brightest the Diamondbacks have seeing and to lock a manager like him is a big plus for them.

Watch George Mitchell speaking on his report

The Mitchell Report finally revealed today

Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell finally released his long awaited report on the MLB athletes that holds a dark history on steroid use which took around 20 months of investigation.

Even President Bush, who is the former owner of the Texas Rangers spoke about it:

“My hope is that this report is a part of putting the steroid era of baseball behind us,” he said.

The report mentions big names; Seven MVPs, two Cy Young Award winners and 31 All-Stars, including Jose Canseco, Miguel Tejada and Roger Clemens, who was singled out in almost nine pages.

The players most mentioned in the report were Canseco (105 times), Barry Bonds (103 times) and Clemens (82 times).

The most affected team was the New York Yankees with 20 past and present athletes identified.

Just a couple of players cooperated with the report, Jason Giambi who is currently under threat of discipline and Frank Thomas, the rest preferred to leave their lawyers to comment on the issue, like Clemens, whose path to the Hall Of Fame is on hold.

“It is very unfair to include Roger’s name in this report. He is left with no meaningful way to combat what he strongly contends are totally false allegations. He has not been charged with anything, he will not be charged with anything and yet he is being tried in the court of public opinion with no recourse. That is totally wrong.” said Clemens’ lawyer, Rusty Hardin.

Some people questioned Mitchell’s report as he is currently a director of the Boston Red Sox and none of his prime players were mentioned in the report.

“Judge me by my work. You will not find any evidence of bias, special treatment, for the Red Sox or anyone else. That had no effect on this investigation or this report, none whatsoever.” Mitchell said.

The report promises to leave a black mark on everyone mentioned, either they are guilty or not, so we just hope this has been beneficial for the game and not just a bunch of pages full of
misleading accusations, only time will tell...

Just in the first three hours the report was uploaded to MLB.com, around 1.8 million downloaded it, You can also get it in PDF format here:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/news/mitchell/index.jsp

Tejada to Astros

The Orioles couldn’t keep Miguel Tejada in their roster, they were almost forced to do something to prevent their team to fall apart.

They were really severed last season and apparently they still can’t find the answer to their pitching and defense problems.

Baltimore is betting on the young talent; that is why they just traded four-time All-Star Tejada for five Astros players, in the trade they will acquire outfielder Luke Scott, pitchers Matt Albers, Troy Patton and Dennis Sarfate, and third baseman Michael Costanzo, they want to give these young blood continuity so they can grow and be the face of the team and finally be competitive against the big names in the AL East.

Club President Andy MacPhail knows this is a decision that can affect the team in the short term, as this means to sign-off the most important player that was acquired since he’s running operations, but he also knows that the new arrivals are real talented players but they also need more experience, more opportunities to mature in the field.

The trade rumors started a couple of years ago when Tejada argument that he’d benefit with a change of scenery, it’s sad for Orioles fans to see him go, but Baltimore is rebuilding their team structure and even though Miguel Tejada was doing his job, he wasn’t happy playing for the O’s.

He was being criticized for his dark attitude and his willing to leave, well, now the Astros will benefit with his offensive and hopefully for the Orioles, Luke Scott who is the player that could see action faster than the other newbies, can give the team a different direction. Scott is very capable, but he was lacking playing time with the Astros.

Some thoughts from a friend on the Price Per Head industry

I know alot of people who could bet their house if they didn’t had any money but were certain about winning a sports bet (as everybody is!) and I wanted to test my bookmaking skills on them. But since I am just a regular entrepreneur, and I wasn’t too sure on how to run a sportsbook, I started to check over the internet about online gambling solutions, and after reviewing some sites, I found out about the Price Per Head or PPH industry, and it was just like butter in bread.

A Per head shop provides betting agents and sportsbook software to any credit bookmaker (like myself), and just charges a PPH fee for the use of their sports data processing facilities.

Thoughts about legal issues flew out of my mind like geeses flying north in the winter, boy was I happy!

This was like two years ago and even though I already have enough cash to mount my own operation, I don’t want to have any concerns other than collecting my money.

There are a few interesting choices out there, but the one I started to use and still do is www.priceperhead.com, this is an amazing Pay Per Head book and their phone betting agents are as professional as you can get and their Sportsbook management team is incredible.

At first I was doubting the PPH industry but after so long, I am a believer baby!

Allen Iverson's Top Ten Plays with the 76ers

Olli Jokinen, A forgotten NHL star

It has been tough times for the 29 year old player from Finland, he is without a doubt one of the best players in the NHL right now, nevertheless, he is not even in the top 50 players list in the league.

Olli Jokinen started his career playing in his country with the KalPa and the HFK Helsinki, he also represented Finland in different tournaments, including a few World Championships. In 1998, he helped his country to win the gold at the World Junior Championship and was also named the best forward in that tournament and made it to the tourney’s All-Star team.

Back in 97’, he received the Finnish Rookie of the year award and it was chosen by the Los Angeles Kings as the 3^rd overall pick in the NHL entry draft.

He moved to the New York Islanders in a trade for Zigmund Palffy but after a poor season, he was dealt to the Florida Panthers.

Many experienced players have a lot of good stuff to say about Joniken, including former Panther Marcus Wilson:

"He's big, strong, can skate, shoot. I'd say he's one of the top centremen in the league. At least he should be in the 50 top players in the league." He said.

He had a slow start with the Panthers, but after his second season, he scored 36 goals and 65 points stablishing himself as the Panthers first-line centre.

Jokinen recently broke the Panthers franchise records in goals (36), assists (29) and points (65)

The undisputable captain of Florida is going through an excellent period and has been a constant menace to rivals but that really hasn’t helped his team to achive some outstanding results as The Panthers haven’t qualified for the playoffs in the seven seasons he has being part of the team.

In many ways, Jokinen is the Allen Iverson of hockey, they guy gives 110% but is never enough, we hope to see the Panthers to finally get into the right track so the forgotten star can wear his first championship ring.

Mark Murphy, a new era for the Packers

Just on December the 3^rd, former Redskins safety and athletic director at Northwestern University, Mark Murphy, was signed as the new President and CEO for the Green Bay Packers.

Even though he has no experience in administrative positions at the NFL, he did served as an assistant executive director with the NFL Players Association. He also counts with a master's degree in business administration from American University which he obtained when playing with the Redskins, and a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.

I think Murphy is a guy with the capacity to do the job, he played 8 years professionally and have the intellectual background to take the right decisions, mostly because when it comes to sports, the person who’s hiring personnel and handling most of the team’s major duties, needs to be experienced both in and out the field.

He is a guy that knows how to handle the pressure of power because he trusts the people he hires, and in most cases, those he has chosen, have responded him with professionalism, so much, that in a few cases they have remained in their charges for as long as 13 years.

Craig Muder the sports editor of the Utica (N.Y.) Observer-Dispatch, said the following on Murphy:

"He’s no meddler,he hires good people, gives them what they need to do their jobs and then gets out of the way. Ego is no consideration."

And that is exactly what the search committee consisting of six members of the team's executive committee and four members from the board of directors is looking for, a guy who can follow up with the team’s traditions, like allowing the general manager to asume complete control over the Football operation.

There was alot of controversy when Mike McCarthy (current coach) and Ted Thomson (General Manager) assumed their positions, but they proved everybody wrong by winning 14 of the last 16 games and it’s just too early to say if Murphy was the right choice, but certainly, critics must give him the chance to prove himself on a position many must envy.

Hakeem Olajuwon, the nigerian marvel

One of the five greatest centres in NBA’s history, he migrated in an exodus from his natal Africa to join the University of Houston, where he along with other teammates including member of the Basketball Hall of Fame Clyde Drexler, formed “Phi Slama Jama” the first slam-dunking fraternity.

The Rockets picked Olajuwon in the 1984 NBA draft over future stars like Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley.

During his first season, he teamed with 1984’s Rookie of the year Ralph Sampson to form “the Twin Towers” a powerful duo that was vital for the Rockets to defeat the Lakers and advanced to the 1986 NBA finals, where they lost to a Celtics team that is often considered of the best in NBA’s history.Hakeem the dream was effective on both sides of the court, he was named NBA defensive player of the year twice.

Offensively, he is one of only 4 players to have recorded a quadruple-double and is also considered an above average offensive rebounder, he was recognized for his signature set of movements known as “The Dream Shake”

“The Dream Shake” was actually one of my soccer moves which I translated to basketball. It would accomplish one of three things: one, to misdirect the opponent and make him go the opposite way; two, to freeze the opponent and leave him devastated in his tracks; three, to shake off the opponent and giving him no chance to contest the shot." Olajuwon said.

Olajuwon is the only player in the NBA history to have won MVP, Finals MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards in the same season (1994), he’s also the all-time leader in blocked shots , and an Olimpic gold medalist (1996) among others.

All in all “The Dream” is Houston’s pride and a man that is one of the greatest african sportsman, without any fears, he moved from one continent to the other and left a deep mark in the world’s most competitive Basketball League.

Nuggets, Mavs preview

It seems like the Nuggets are setting their hopes on Allen Iverson, the ex- 76ers, to win tonight against the Dallas Mavericks.

Last wednesday, Iverson scored an amazing total of 51 points (33 in the first half), on Denver’s lost 111-107 to the Lakers, this was their fourth defeat in 6 games.

"I just got in a rhythm. I kept attacking, everything that I saw open, I attacked, and I was able to knock down shots. When I got the ball, it seemed like every move that I made, it would throw the defender off." Iverson said.

Iverson has reached 50 points during a single game 11 times in his career, and had scored at least 20 points in each of his previous four games.

Carmelo Anthony is the other most important player in Denver’s attack, he leads the team with 25.3 points per game, while Iverson is averaging 24.9.

On The Mavericks side, they come from losing against the Spurs, a team playing without Tim Duncan, one of San Antonio’s stars.

"They made shots and tough buckets in the lane over our centers. ... We should have won this game, but we didn't" Said Dirk Nowitzki.

Anthony and Iverson are ready to face Nowitzki and company, but the weight of a victory is on the Mavs shoulders, as they are playing at The American Airlines Center, an arena where the Nuggets have dropped five straight visits since a 107-102 win on Jan.31, 2004.

Heisman Trophy finalists announced

The Heisman Trophy is the most important recognition any College Football player can receive and it’s awarded in December after the post season Bowl Games.

The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award is named after College Football player and coach John Heisman, the first award was presented in 1935 and the first winner was Jay Berwanger who played halfback for Chicago.

Running Back players have won the most Heisman Trophies with 51, Quarterbacks have obtained 25 and Fullbacks just a couple.

The list of finalists for this year’s recognition is final:

• Colt Brennan, QB, Hawai’i
• Darren McFadden, RB, Arkansas
• Tim Tebow, QB, Florida
• Chase Daniel, QB, Missouri

Many critics are giving the Hawaiian Quarterback the most chances to win, he currently holds the record for most touchdown passes in a single season with 58 in the NCAA Division I-A and other 25 records more in the same division.

"I think it's a good race, I think anybody can win it." Brennan said.

But McFadden, who might join Tom Brady’s team next year is also a strong contender.

The Ceremony will be held on Saturday night, at 8 PM, and then we’ll find out who’s going to be Troy Smith’s successor to the throne.

Michael Vick’s future, in the midst of uncertainty

The ex-Falcon, Michael Vick will possibly not be playing in the NFL anymore, his future in professional football seems to be unclear.

It really all depends on how long he’s going to serve on prison due to the dogfighting accusations on him, the sentence hearing is set for December 10 even tho he is already incarcerated, just waiting and praying.

One of Vick's defense attorneys, Bill Martin, told the press that it was Michael’s decission to start serving time volutarily.

"From the beginning, Mr. Vick has accepted responsibility for his actions and his self surrender further demonstrates that acceptance," Martin said.

It’s just unreal to see how a brilliant career is about to end due to off-field situations, a player that was picked as the first overall selection in the 2001 NFL draft, now is expecting to live behind bars.

He was the symbol of the Falcons, a team that was setting their hopes on the 27 year old quarterback, his early career included league records, playoff appearances and lucrative endorsements, and with a $130 million dollar contract signed on 2004 he was the highest paid NFL player at that time.

His family and fans are hoping that U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson will take notice of Vick’s cooperative state as he is starting to serve his sentence rather than postpone it, he is surely going to miss his loved ones during Christmas, but he is aware that Hudson has a reputation of being a though sentencing judge, so if he’s not convinced that Michael Vick has taken responsablity for his actions, he might impose a sentence longer than the 12 to 18 months in prison he is being charge under federal sentencing guidelines.

The whole football community wishes him the best, and we hope the judge and eventually NFL managers to be aware that the ex-Falcons can still give any other professional team some glory if he doesn’t perceive a long sentence.

67 Million dollar man

Troy Aikman was the emblem of the Cowboys for a long time, when he retired after the 2000 season, the Dallas team had trouble finding his next quarterback superstar.

Many names were put on the table, from Quincy Carter to Chad Hutchinson to Vinny Testaverde to Drew Henson to Drew Bledsoe, but owner and general manager Jerry Jones knew better.

The chosen man for the job is Tony Romo, a free agent from Eastern Illinois to whom Jones paid a $10,000 signing bonus in 2003, at the same time the young quarterback was signed as an undrafted free agent and took out a $30 million insurance policy at the beginning of the season.

The Royal Blue team was aware of the need to keep one of the best young talents in NFL nowadays, and on October 29, Romo reached an agreement to a six-year, $67.5 million contract extension with the Cowboys, one of the richest deals in team history, the second after the nine-year, $85.5 million deal Troy Aikman signed in 1998.

Romo has played outstandingly this season, completing 62.8 percent of his passes for 1,984 yards, with 16 touchdowns against nine interceptions, to lead the Cowboys to a 6-1 start.

"It feels good to know this is where you're going to be for a long time, although continuing to deny a deal was complete, I feel like I'm going to be with the Cowboys for the rest of my career." Romo said.

We might be in presence of Brett Favre’s major rival, even tho Favre is not in his best shape for the playoffs, every Dallas – Packers game is full of rivalry and the odds are favoring the young Tony Romo, for leading the Cowboys to their next Superbowl.