Fernando Torres And David Luiz! Fernando Torres And David Luiz! Fernando Torres And David Luiz!

David Luiz had to be pulled back from his flight in order to sign paperwork with Benfica, but the deal is done. David Luiz, the young Brazilian central defender and Fernando Torres, the superstar Spanish striker, are on their way to Stamford Bridge. With this, Chelsea have gotten a central defender for the future (who could probably start today) and a future replacement for Didier Drogba, who could very well be on his way out this summer.

Torres and Luiz! Chelsea are all of a sudden back in the thick of things in the English Premier League, with both of their fixtures against Manchester United yet to be played.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have a sticky mess in my pants that needs cleaning up.

Greatest Pro Bowl Touchdown Ever? Greatest Pro Bowl Touchdown Ever

That, and this idiot made that Pro Bowl entirely worth while. Oh, and the NFC dominating the AFC for once was a refreshing change of pace that made the game more enjoyable than normal.

From now on, whenever Thom Brennaman announces a game, teams should try lateral plays in the final 2 minutes of the game. It is a guaranteed touchdown. Really.

All-Star Sunday Live Blog

Enjoy the games and leave comments! All trolls will be banned.

2011 NHL All-Star Game Rosters

Coming into this All-Star Draft, I was intrigued by the idea of this fantasy draft and interested to see it. After watching it, I hope the NHL uses this format for years to come. That was fascinating television. You had some of the best hockey players in the world being paraded around like 2nd graders on national television with a smarmy host trying to create conflict. TSN's James Duthie did an excellent job by the way. Not only did he need to fly by the seat of his pants with little time to adapt, but he succeeded and played the role the host needed to play to make this entertaining television. Anyway, here are the 2011 NHL All-Star teams.

Team Staal

F - Eric Staal
F - Ryan Kesler
F - Alexander Ovechkin
F - Daniel Sedin
F - Rick Nash
F - Patrick Sharp
F - Jeff Skinner
F - Claude Giroux
F - Corey Perry
F - Patrik Elias
F - David Backes
F - Paul Stastny

D - Mike Green
D - Zdeno Chara
D - Marc Staal
D - Dan Boyle
D - Kris Letang
D - Erik Karlsson

G - Cam Ward
G - Henrik Lundqvist
G - Carey Price

Team Staal Rookies

Logan Couture
Tyler Ennis
Michael Grabner
Jamie McBain
Tyler Seguin
P.K. Subban

Team Staal Coaches

Joel Quenneville and Mike Haviland

Team Lidstrom

F - Patrick Kane
F - Martin St. Louis
F - Steven Stamkos
F - Henrik Sedin
F - Danny Briere
F - Jonathan Toews
F - Brad Richards
F - Martin Havlat
F - Anze Kopitar
F - Matt Duchene
F - Loui Eriksson
F - Phil Kessel

D - Niklas Lidstrom
D - Duncan Keith
D - Shea Weber
D - Dustin Byfuglien
D - Keith Yandle
D - Brent Burns

G - Tim Thomas
G - Marc-Andre Fleury
G - Jonas Hiller

Team Lidstrom rookies

Evgeny Dadonov
Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Cam Fowler
Taylor Hall
Kevin Shattenkirk
Derek Stepan

Team Lidstrom coaches,

Peter Laviolette
Alain Vigneault

Even though my boy Giroux is on Team Staal, I think I have to root for Team Lidstrom in this one. They have my boys Laviolette and Briere, and overall, the team is slightly less douchier than Team Staal. Plus P.K. Subban ended up on the Staal rookie team. Even if Subban is not playing on Sunday, that fact alone makes me lean to Team Lidstrom.

SuperSkills competition tomorrow, and All-Star game on Sunday. This should be a pretty entertaining weekend of hockey, even if it is all just one big exhibition.

Bleacher Report Duped

Media sources with real credibility have reported that Jeff Fisher's agent says it is "highly unlikely" that Jeff Fisher will be the Eagles next defensive coordinator. But leave it to Bleacher Report to find an obscure (likely fake), claim it's the guy from another Twitter account who is for whatever reason using a different account to say that Fisher agreed to a 3-year, $15M contract. And then put up that suspicious, unverified on their web site as breaking news.

Bleacher Report, ladies and gentlemen! Need I say more?

Update: It appears as if Bleacher Report finally realized that they had been duped and they have offered a retraction of sorts. People need to start checking sources because apparently the guy RT'd through a fake @EaglesLnsider account (on Twitter lower a lower case "L" and upper case "I" look exactly the same, so the guy replaced the first I in "Insider" with a "L.") It's a good trick......only it's been done twice in the past month. Someone used @SL_JonHeyman (capitalization changed for illustrative purposes) to make people think the Phillies traded for Zach Greinke (which spread across the entire internet), and hours before Cliffmas arrived, a fake @KenRosenthai account reported a Cliff Lee signing (again catching on majorly with a lot of people). Does it hurt to try and verify reports? Or at the very least check to make sure the Twitter account is not a fake? A simple click of the profile showing lack of number of tweets easily proves it's a fake.

Alas, Bleacher Report may have deleted the original and offered a retraction, but I still got screengrabs of the originals! And they are staying up here. Think of them as a recovered special treasure.

All-Star Weekend Schedule

I guess I should have tried to put this up earlier in the week, but I found myself busy with school and other blogging matters. I remember as a young teenager growing up when ABC would have the NHL All-Star game and the Pro Bowl on the exact same day. Those were good times, indeed. And now, it is happening once again, only the NHL All-Star Game is on Versus and the Pro Bowl is on Fox. And yes, I will have a live blog up this weekend for both all star games (though not the NHL fantasy draft and skills competition). Now without further ado, here is your schedule for All-Star weekend! (all times ET)

Friday, January 28

NHL All-Star Player Fantasy Draft 8:00 (Versus) (TSN)

Saturday, January 29

NHL SuperSkills Competition: Team Lidstrom vs. Team Staal 7:00 (Versus - Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk, SR: Charissa Thompson and Bob Harwood) (CBC - Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson, and Glenn Healy, SR: Elliotte Friedman and Bob Harwood)

Sunday, January 30

58th annual NHL All Star Game: Team Lidstrom vs. Team Staal 4:00 (Versus - Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk, SR: Charissa Thompson and Bob Harwood) (CBC - Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson, and Glenn Healy, SR: Elliotte Friedman and Scott Oake)
2011 Pro Bowl: AFC vs. NFC 7:00 (Fox - Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick, and Terry Bradshaw, SR: Tony Siragusa and Jay Glazer)

I was late in getting this up, and even though I tried to search for it, I have been unable to dig deep enough in the archives of certain reliable blogs to find press releases where it is announced exactly what personnel CBC will be using this weekend. I am assuming that Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson will be the ones in the booth, but if anyone can confirm this and point me towards a link as well as list any and all "sideline reporters", I will greatly appreciate.

Trying To Make Sense Of The Union Waiving Brad Knighton

(Originally posted at The Brotherly Game)

Last night, Piotr Nowak made a shocking move when he decided to waive goalkeeper Brad Knighton.  Brad Knighton was the back-up goalkeeper behind Chris Seitz and while Seitz was dreadful, Knighton filled in admirably when he got his chances towards the end of the season.  In his eight games, he had a .697 save percentage (Seitz posted a .596 save percentage last season for that it is worth), allowed 8 goals, and recorded two clean sheets.  The Union's record in games Knighton started was 3-3-1.

Heading into the off-season, goalkeeper was something the Union were going to have to address.  While Brad Knighton may not yet be ready for a full-time starters role, Seitz needed to go.  And go he did as he was drafted in the Re-Entry Draft by the Seattle Sounders.  That left the Union with a big goalkeeping hole.  Most teams carry three goalkeepers, and yet the Union only had one.

Enter Faryd Mondragon.  He was not officially announced until after the SuperDraft but reports of his acquisition had surfaced well beforehand.  The 39-year old Colombian goalkeeper may be past his prime, but for a young team and, more specifically, a young back line, a veteran leader goalkeeper like Mondragon is a perfect fit for the Philadelphia Union.

The stunner came at the SuperDraft when the Philadelphia Union surprised everyone and selected Zac MacMath 5th overall.  Don't get me wrong, I like MacMath and I see him as a critical part to the Union's future, but honestly, there is little he will do to contribute to the Union this season.  Chances are he will spend most of the season on the reserve team.  And for a 19-year old kid coming out of college and having never played professionally before, it will be all the better for him.

As unexpected as the MacMath selection was, it did solve the Union's goalkeepers problems.  They had Mondragon, their veteran starter for this season and next season, Brad Knighton, the young competent back-up, and MacMath, the exciting young prospect in the reserves.