The UFL Has Actually Found A Cable TV Home!

I did not think I would live to see the day, but the United Football League (a.k.a. the UFL) has gotten a home on cable TV. Guess where? They're on Versus! Well, it is where the NHL went to die get a broadcast deal to bring back interest into the sport! From Awful Announcing via UFL PR

The United Football League announced that VERSUS, a national sports network in more than 75 million homes, will air the League’s “Premiere” season beginning in October 2009. VERSUS will air live weekly games beginning on Thursday, October 8, and continuing through the Championship Game scheduled to air Thanksgiving weekend. Each live telecast will be approximately three hours and all games will be produced and available in HD. The complete schedule will be announced this summer.

In its “Premiere” year, the UFL will host teams in Las Vegas, New York, Orlando and San Francisco. There are also plans to play additional games in Hartford and Los Angeles. The season will conclude with a Championship Game tentatively scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend in Las Vegas. On Wednesday, the UFL will announce its four coaches at a press conference in San Francisco. League officials are in final negotiations with various stadiums and these agreements will be announced as they are completed.

“We are excited to be the television home of the UFL in its “Premiere” season,” said Marc Fein, Executive Vice President of Programming, Production and Business Operations for VERSUS. “The UFL has put together a great management team and sound plan and we are looking forward to the opportunity to expose these games to a national audience each week.”

So let's see, you are going to have a 4-team league at the same time the NFL and college football are on, show it on one of the more obscure sports networks, and you are going to hope to succeed? Oh man, this has comedby show written all over it!

The Eagles Have Let Another Player Get Away From Them

One thing is for certain when the Eagles take the field next year, the Eagles will be hardly recognizable. Yes, that's right, the Eagles have lost yet another player. Tra Thomas has signed with the Jacksonville Jaguears. From CSN Philly

The Tra Thomas-Jon Runyan era has officially ended for the Eagles.

The Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday agreeed to terms with Thomas, who is expected to sign later in the day.

Runyan, an unrestricted free agent who is recovering from major knee surgery, and Thomas have started a franchise record 134 regular season games together.

Now the Eagles either will move Shawn Andrews or Todd Herremans from guard to tackle or add another tackle – most likely through the draft. Andrews’ brother Stacy most likely will become the starting right tackle.

And while this story is not exactly heartbreaking like the Brian Dawkins was, Thomas will be missed. While not necessarily a great player, Thomas was solid. The thing that kept him from being great was that it always seemed like that he got called for holding at the worst possible times. Good luck in Jacksonville Tra William Tra Thomas!

Eagles Commandment: Thou Shall Not Criticize The Eagles' Organization For Not Re-Signing Brian Dawkins

I'm pretty sure the Eagles' organization is taking this Brian Dawkins' thing a wee bit too far. And when I say a wee bit too far, I mean the Eagles' Front Office is quickly turning into some sort of Stalinist regime; firing employees for criticizing the not-resigning of Brian Dawkins. And when I say criticizing the Eagles, I mean he put up his criticism as his Facebook status! Seriously, the man was fired for something he said on Facebook! Inquirer Columnist John Gonzales has the story.

It's not personal. It's business. That was the cold cop-out the Eagles used when Brian Dawkins signed with Denver. But you can't fully appreciate how heartless the organization actually is until you learn how it apparently treated Dan Leone.

For the last six years, Leone was one of the team's many game-day stadium employees at Lincoln Financial Field. For longer than that - for his entire life - he's been a fan of the franchise.

Leone grew up in the shadow of Veterans Stadium in a red-brick rowhouse near 10th and Oregon. As a kid, he'd walk over to see his beloved Birds play. The trip was never easy. Leone has a neurological disorder called transverse myelitis. Because it causes muscle fatigue and limits the range of motion in his limbs, Leone was sometimes forced to use crutches as a child.

When he grew older and the Linc opened, Leone crossed his fingers and filled out an application. The Eagles hired him almost immediately. He was ecstatic. Leone called his friends and family and gushed about going to work for the team he's always loved. He couldn't have been happier if he'd been named the Eagles' starting quarterback.

On game days, Leone served as the west gate chief. The gig required Leone to hustle to different areas of the stadium as needed. That was tough. His left leg is weaker than his right, and standing for too long gives him severe pain in his right knee and hip because that's where he shifts all his weight. While on duty, he sometimes needed a wheelchair to get around.

"They had me running all over the place like a nut, but I didn't care," Leone said. "I was so proud to work for them. It was my dream."

Last week, the Eagles fired Leone.

Like a lot of Philadelphians, Leone was upset when Dawkins became a Bronco. So he did what a 32-year-old does these days: He vented on Facebook. "Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver. . .Dam Eagles R Retarted!!"

It was a rash, stupid thing to do, and Leone regretted it almost instantly.

"I shouldn't have put it up there," Leone said. "I was ticked off, and I let my emotions go, but I didn't offend any one person or target a specific individual. I was just upset that we lost such a great guy. Dawkins was one of my favorite players. I made a mistake."

Less than two days after posting the Dawkins remarks, Leone said, he was contacted by Leonard Bonacci, the team's director of event operations. According to Leone, Bonacci said they needed to talk about Leone's Facebook page, and Leone agreed. Leone - who deleted the comment - figured that the two would sit down and that he could apologize to Bonacci in person. But Leone said Bonacci never got back to him after that.

Two days later, Leone said, he received a call from Rachel Vitagliano, the team's guest services manager. Leone said she fired him over the phone. The conversation lasted less than 10 minutes.

No warning. No suspension. No face-to-face meeting. Just a quick call to tell Leone he'd been terminated.

"I tried putting in my case to Rachel," Leone said. "I told her I worked there for six years. I did whatever they asked. I only missed one Eagles game the entire time I worked there, and that was because I'm a Mummer. I told her it was my dream to work for the Eagles and that I'd never do anything like that again."

Leone said Vitagliano didn't want to hear it. He said that she told him he couldn't be trusted, that the post made the team look bad, and that the only way to resolve the situation was to fire him.

"I apologized for it," Leone said. "I apologized 20 million times. I never bad-mouthed the organization before. I made one mistake and they terminate me? And they couldn't even bring me into the office to talk to me? They had to do it over the phone? At least look me in the eye. To get done dirty like this, I can't believe it. I'm devastated."

Messages left for Bonacci and Vitagliano weren't returned. Through a representative, the Eagles said, "The only information we can share is that Dan was a seasonal game-day employee and not a full-time member of the Eagles staff."

It's anyone's guess what that means. Perhaps the franchise thinks hourly-wage workers are disposable and, therefore, don't deserve consideration. At the very least, it appears the Birds don't think workers like Leone deserve a second chance.

The truly remarkable part about all this is that Leone isn't bitter, and he doesn't want revenge. He simply wants to be part of the team again.

"If they called me right now and told me to come back to work, I would," Leone said. "I'm not holding any grudges. I just want to do my job."

The way the Eagles appeared to have treated Leone seems so cruel and merciless, and they should be ashamed of themselves for it. Then again, how can you feel shame when you don't feel anything at all?

All I can say is wow. I love the Eagles players, but damn, the people in their Front Office can be such douche bags that it is not even funny.

"Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver. . .Dam Eagles R Retarted!!" Can you imagine being fired for saying that? I mean, if my college had a rule where everyone who criticized anything about them was punished, I would be kicked out of school if they saw what I said about their food. For example, my current Facebook status, "Justin is fairly certain he just ate powdered potatoes." I love my college, but the food is, in fact, disgusting. And don't even get me started on some of the things that I post in order to allude to the one regret I have in life when I am thinking about it (2-year anniversary of that day coming up, thank goodness I'll have March Madness to keep me occupied that day). But back to the point, to no longer have a means of income for something you say on your Facebook status is just flat-out wrong.

Maybe there's a story to it that we don't know, but hopefully the publicity that this story is getting will convince the Eagles to re-hire the man.

A Reason To Never Work For The Eagles (Keith's Sports Journal)

Fighting In Hockey

So this seems to be a topic of intense discussion over the past month or so. Should fighting in hockey be banned? I was watching some WBC this morning on ESPN2 when after the game they went straight to Mike & Mike. And sure enough, they were talking about hockey fighting and whether or not is should be banned. Now personally as somewhat of a hockey fan, I feel like it is a part of the game and it should stay as is. Especially as a Flyer fan. Come on now, we're the Broad Street bullies! Fighting is what we do best. But even if you're not a Flyers fan, one has to appreciate what has to be one of the greatest fights brawls in hockey history. I'm not sure if any of you remember this, but it was March 5, 2004 and the Flyers took on the Ottawa Senators and at the very end of the game, got into 5 brawls over the course of 30 seconds playing time. The game set an NHL record with 419 penalty minutes and both teams ended the game with more coaches on the bench than players (although miraculously the game was played to conclusion) Appropriately enough, it was a Friday night and believe me, this forever redefined Friday Night Fights. And while you will soon figure it out, the announcers are the Flyers' announcers, Jim Jackson and Gary Dornhoefer. Watch these and tell me that fighting should not be banned in hockey. It's just way too fun to watch!

Round 1


Rounds 2 and 3


Rounds 4 and 5


"PATRICK SHARP HAMMERS HIM WITH A RIGHT! DOWN HE GOES! DOWN GOES SPEZZA! DOWN GOES SPEZZA!" Classic Jim Jackson. Jack Edwards is proud of you, JJ. Good times.....goooood times.

Fighting just adds way too much fun to the game. And I am also positive that the NHL would lose viewers en masse if they were to get rid of the fighting aspect of the game, just my thoughts (and my excuse to put up that awesome Senators-Flyers brawl from 5 years ago).

Back to the game itself, the Senators did score a goal in that last minute or so of play, but it obviously was not enough as the Flyers beat them 5-3.

Updating The Road To March Madness (UPDATED!)

Seeing as it is useless to create a whole another post for updating the entrants to the tournament, I figured I'd just update this one with Northern Iowa as the kings of Arch Madness.

And just to update on the big breaking story from the mid-major tournaments. Davidson lost in the semifinals of the SoCon tournament to College of Charleston. They were a great story last year, but they should not be in the tournament this year. They've had a few bad losses (College of Charleston twice, including today) and their only signature win was against an Alex Ruoff-less West Virginia. As much as I hate to pimp the Big 10 (aside from Penn State), if it comes down to it, one of the numerous Big 10 teams hovering around a .500 conference record should make the tournament before Davidson.

America East:
ACC:
Atlantic Sun: East Tennessee State
Atlantic 10:
Big East:
Big Sky:
Big South: Radford
Big 10:
Big 12:
Big West:
Colonial Athletic:
Conference USA:
Horizon League:
Ivy League: Cornell
MAAC:
MAC:
MEAC:
Missouri Valley: Northern Iowa
Mountain West:
Northeast:
Ohio Valley: Morehead State
Pac 10:
Patriot League:
SEC:
Southern:
Southland:
Summit League:
SWAC:
Sun Belt:
West Coast:
WAC:

To be determined by the end of Monday Night: CAA, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (a.k.a. MAAC - if any expert on the conference out there knows why its called the Metro Atlantic please tell me), SoCon (minus Davidson), and WCC (49er16 and I will be live blogging that one over at his site.

Update:I was not sure if I would be able to find this, but with the luck of the draw, I did the search 8 minutes after the video was posted on YouTube. The quality is not great, it's a SportsCenter recap and not the live-action, however, it has everything on it that is worthy of being embeded on this blog and it's all I can find at this hour.. The highlights of the OVC Title game. It's these types of whacky endings to conference tourney games that lets you know that MARCH MADNESS IS HERE, BABY! (Sorry for that channeling of Dickie V).



Update: Here's the best that I can find of the Alabama buzzer beater. This is the best non-highlight package I could find (I only turn to those in last resort, as I did with the OVC game). If I find better, I'll post it up. FYI, right after the buzzer beater the people who made this video scream really loud, so if you turn it up to hear Harlan, you will jump out of your seat at the buzzer beater. Yes, the camera picked them up 300,000x better than it did the game. If I ever come across better, I'll post this one with that.

Terrell Owens Is Going To The AFC East! (And No, It's Not Where You Think)

Despite all that is going on around the college basketball circuit, I think the most surprising headline of the day goes to the NFL. I figured that it would be awhile for teams to sign T.O., but alas, that was not the case. Just mere days after being released, Terrell Owens has found a new home. Yes, he is going to the AFC East. No, he is not going to Newo N England. He is going to New York. Upstate New York, that is. Yep, you guessed it, Terrell Owens has signed with the Buffalo Bills! From NFL.com

The Buffalo Bills and free agent wide receiver Terrell Owens have reached agreement on a one-year, $6.5 million contract. There will be a press conference at 6:15 p.m. ET at the team’s headquarters.

Um, wow...? Where to start with this one? First of all, Buffalo does not seem like a good fit for T.O. T.O. seems to thrive (and is used to) teams that have stability at the quarterback position. The Bills do not quite have that. It's been an on-going battle between him and J.P. Losman. However, as opposed to who is the better player, the competition has been more along the lines of who can get injured more and/or who can throw away more games. Also T.O. loves the big sports media markets. Look at where he has been. San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Dallas...all major sports markets. And now Buffalo? The team that plays 1 game a year in Canada? Buffalo? T.O. went to Buffalo?

Second of all, this now means that twice a year we are going to have the epic battle of Randy Moss vs. Terrell Owens shoved down our throats. ESPN overkill....HELLO! I may just intentionally avoid The Leader the 4 weeks before and the 4 weeks after both of those games.

Third of all, it's a 1-year deal so that means that surely we're going to have more T.O. controversy at the end of this year and the start of next year. And hold on....T.O. actually agreed to a 1-year deal???? With a team that did not make the playoffs last year???

Well, on the plus side of things, at least he is out of the Eagles' schedule...

The Road to March Madness

It's official, we are on the road to March Madness. We already have one team, Cornell of the Ivy League, guaranteed a spot in the field of 65. After every day from here on until the tournament, I will update a list of all of our conference champions. And don't worry about scrolling down to find updates, I will create a new post each day with the new conference champions filled in.

America East:
ACC:
Atlantic Sun:
Atlantic 10:
Big East:
Big Sky:
Big South:
Big 10:
Big 12:
Big West:
Colonial Athletic:
Conference USA:
Horizon League:
Ivy League: Cornell
MAAC:
MAC:
MEAC:
Missouri Valley:
Mountain West:
Northeast:
Ohio Valley:
Pac 10:
Patriot League:
SEC:
Southern:
Southland:
Summit League:
SWAC:
Sun Belt:
West Coast:
WAC:


To be determined by the end of the night: Big South, Atlantic Sun, Ohio Valley