Two things before I get into this. 1) I have seen the future. He wears #1 for the Bulls. 2) I hate the Timbers so much that I actually (gulp) was rooting for Philly tonight. Those words have ner come out of my mouth before.
Ok, so I have no idea if anyone enjoyed this column a few weeks ago, but I really enjoyed putting it together. So that means you all get a second one to read. As always, please email me if there are any obscure sports you would like to see me cover in addition to the following.
-Thanks to Sports Illustrated I now know that Marta, the best female soccer player in the world, is currently playing in Buffalo for the Western NY Flash of the Women's Professional Soccer league. Apparently she has been a franchise killer as her past two teams went under. So now she is in Buffalo with some other big names like Christine Sinclair and #1 pick Alex Morgan (that's what happens when your league has 6 teams - you have stacked teams). In addition, my fav Abby Wambach is now playing for the South Florida magicJack after the team moved from DC. SkyBlue FC are still proudly representing New Jersey (but sit in last at 0-3-1).
-I have talked about USL PDL before, but I failed to mention the new Division 2 soccer league, the North American Soccer League. The NASL currently has 8 teams, 4 of which used to compete against the Sounders before they moved up - Montreal, Puerto Rico, Carolina, Atlanta. I can't claim to know anything more than what the SBI crew have told me, but from the sound of it, Edmonton and Atlanta are the worst teams in the league while Monterla, PR and Carolina are the tops. FC Tampa Bay, Ft Lauderdale Strikers, NSC Minnesota Stars make up the remaining teams.
-Speaking of the PDL, the North Sound Seawolves host their first ever home game this Saturday against Washington Crossfire. I doubt I will be able to make it out this weekend, but with Everett being only 20 minutes away, I hope to catch a few games this year. Again, I claim to know nothing about this more about this team than what their website provides. However, I do know they will have at least one familiar face- Craig Tomlinson of the former A-league Sounders. We also have 2 Garfield HS Alumni, 2 Seattle Univ guys, a Seattle Pacific graduate and two players from local community colleges.
-Let's move on to the Arena Football League, where the Jacksonville Sharks have won 6 games in a row after an opening night loss to the Arizona Rattlers. They sit tied with Arizona with the best record in the AFL at 6-1. J'ville is led by 59 year old QB Aaron Garcia who I am still surprised never really got a shot at the NFL. In his 17th AFL season, he is the all-time leader in passing yards and recently became the first football player to ever throw for 1000 td's. Yes, 100 td's. It's amazing to think that I saw him as a 3rd year player for the Red Dogs in 1997 and that I wanted to run him out of town in favor of Ricky Foggie (this one's for you, Jay). The guy has thrown for over 90 td's in 5 different seasons including 104 against 16 int's in 2001. When I look back, I am a bit sad that I never got into the New York Dragons as they were in the league for a good decade - I just was never able to get over my Red Dogs moving to Vegas.
-The Washington Stealth won their Western Division semi-final game against the Minnesota Swarm and now get a shot at the Division Champs, Calgary Roughnecks on Saturday night. The Stealth had an underachieving year but boast the league's top offense and are only one game from going back to the MLL Final where they look to repeat as champs. Gametime is 6:30...no tv because of the NHL Playoffs on Versus.
-The defending WNBA Champs, the Seattle Storm, traded for 37 year old SG Katie Smith last week in an attempt to win another title this year. Smith's acquisition makes the Storm's starting line-up the best in the league, but I question what this does for us in the long haul. It might be that the front office fully knows the team's window is about to close (with LJ sitting out much of next year because of the Olympics and Sue/Swin not getting any younger). If so, then I applaud them for their urgency but hope that the bottom doesn't fall out 2-3 years from now. I mean, it's not like we are going to get the next Maya Moore or Britney Griner by drafting at the end of the draft.
-It wasn't pretty, but Northampton FC has officially saved off relegation thanks to a 2-0 win over 9-man Stevanage last weekend. The win was huge for the Cobblers, who now sit 4 points out of relegation with 1 game left. The loss was equally big for Stevange who could have moved to within 1 point of 5th place. A year after being relegated to League 2, the Cobblers narrowly avoided spiraling out of professional soccer. I hope next year they can come back and fight for promotion. Final game of the season is tomorrow against Morecambe who sit 2 points ahead. With a win and some help they can finish 16th in the league.
-The United Football League had their 2011 draft on Monday. The first selection for the Hartford Colonials was Texas A&M QB Jerrod Johnson. Other selections included former Bears RB Adrian Peterson (the one from Georgia Southern), former Rutgers and Seahawks QB Mike Teel, former Oregon and Ole Miss QB, the disgraced Jeremiah Masoli and cancer survivor LB Mark Herzlich of Boston College. The draft was moved up to try to get the players signed before the NFL lockout was lifted, as players signed with UFL cannot be signed by any NFL teams during the season. It will be really interesting to see what happens in year 3 of the UFL. Up to now the league has been made up of players looking for a second shot (Maurice Clarett, Dante Culpepper) as well as those who aren't good enough to deserve a shot at the NFL (a whole list of players who I won't bore you with). If the NFL lockout continues on into training camp and some players are scared that they won't get paid, the UFl might become an option. I doubt we will see any of the big names jumping ship because they can afford to sit out a season, but players who might be in their last year of a contract, or those who are making the league minimum certainly might be tempted to go to Omaha or Vegas or Hartford.
Finally, let's talk some European Hoops. With their semi-finals wins over Real Madrid and Montepaschi, Maccabi Israel and Panathinaikos earned a spot in the Euroleague Finals on Sunday. I don't know much about Euro hoops except that each team is only allowed a few Americans and normally they are the stars of the team. Currently Bucknell has several alumni overseas - Chris McNaughton, Boakai Lalugba and of course, one of the best ballers in Europe, JR Holden. Anyways, Panathinaikos is led by the "Greek Shaq" Sofoklis Schortsanitis. If you watched Greece beat the US in 2006 you will remember him. Leading the way for Maccabi Tel Aviv is former Gonzaga Bulldog Jeremy Pargo (Maccabi). I'm not sure, but I have a feeling you can probably catch the game live on NBA TV.
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