James Brown 1933-2006

James Brown performing in 1969.

If that wasn't enough to convince you the man was a genius, check the dance moves out in the clip below. The young fella in the dark glasses and the powder blue jacket did.



When I was 15, I wrote an essay about my heroes. James Brown was one of them, as were Otis Redding and Roland Alphonso. I actually met Roland Alphonso five months before he died in November 1998 and I used to joke about meeting James Brown one day - because I never thought I'd meet Roland Al, there was always a chance I'd meet James Brown or see him perform. I never did.


Skatalites from 1992, including solos from the Roland Alphonso (about 6:00m in), Tommy McCook and Lester Sterling.


Otis Redding performs 'I Can't Turn You Loose', 'Shake' and 'Land Of 1000 Dances' with Eric Burdon of The Animals and Chris Farlowe on 'Ready Steady Go' in September 1966, around the time James Brown was recording 'It's A Man's World' and The Skatalites had turned into The Soul Brothers.

But here's one of my favourites to finish with.



Play JB LOUD if you're having a party tonight and keep diggin' the new breed thing into 2007 and beyond.

There is no joy in Oaktown now...

Read it and weep.

The stark truth: the Oakland Raiders cannot compete in the NFL. What's the point of any sort of football if your favourite team can't compete? You can't get relegated in the NFL, which is a shame because that's exactly what should happen to the Raiders for being so chronically poor over the last few seasons.

It's predictable, hilarious...and it hurts like hell. It diminishes my enjoyment of the season. The only upside I can think of is that when you look at some of the poor teams that within a half decade turned themselves around (the Cowboys, Bills and...through gritted teeth...the Bucs) and did really well then the law of averages indicates that at some point the Raiders will return to prominence. Until then, I won't be holding my breath.

It would be nice if all the teams I support did well, but you can't have everything. And the one that's always frustrated just as much as the Raiders do on is doing very nicely thank you even though this is the wrong Scott Murray.

'Our' Scott Murray

Nottingham Forest lost 1-3 at home to Latent Orient, Scunny Rovers lost by the same score to Blackpoo and now Bristol City are second in Division 3, four points behind Forest and a point ahead of Scunthorpe - after having beaten Millwall by a goal after sixteen seconds by The Incredible Levitating Murray.

If you think I'm going to have a pop at Millwall FC here, then you've come to the wrong place. They looked a poor team on Saturday but we should have done better than 1-0. Still, the old truism applies: we played badly and won. Next time we meet them it's the last away game of the season, unless we get them in the Cup.

Madame Zaza predicts: it could be an important game for both teams, but we'll have no talk of...well...you know what. The 'P' word.

Of course Millwall have still got some undesirable elements attached to them, but so do we and so does every other club up and down the country, including our old rivals The Gas and Swindle, who covered themselves in glory on Saturday with an exchange of furniture and some alleged racial abuse of the Sikh referee. I can't believe I even wasted that many words on either of them.

Division 1 got much tighter yesterday as Chelsea pulled one out of the bag against Everton and WHam beat Manyoo. Just to prove I'm not biased, here's a gratuitous picture of Bobby Moore who was one of my very first sporting heroes when I was a little kid all those years ago.

Proper.

Sunday Stuffing

Manyoo are nine points ahead of Chelski in Division 1 (although they have played two games more than Shabby Peasant's mob), the bottom three (West Ham, Charlton and Watford) already look in serious trouble. It's Chelski v The Arse this afternoon at Stamford Bridge and I find myself in the position of wanting Obscene's lot to win, even though I don't think they will; they've never liked it up 'em as this clip from earlier in the season shows.


West Ham just beat you. West Ham!

Peculiar Division 1 stats of the week: Man City have only conceded one goal at home this season (19 let in away!) and despite being eighth and three points away from a potential European Cup spot, Spurs haven't won away.

Ten points separates the top nine teams in Division 2, Birmingham City and Derby County lead the way. At the bottom Southend United and Hull City have an air of despair about them (even though Southend beat Southampton yesterday) but quite what Leeds United are doing down there is beyond me. Perhaps I should investigate.

Ten points also separates the top six in Division 3 but there's a five point gap between Nottingham Forest and second placed Scunthorpe United who are now ahead of City by two points. It's knees up cockney ding dong time at the bottom, with two of the four clubs in the drop zone coming from The Smoke, although next week's opponents (Millwall*) managed to pull themselves out of the bottom four after beating Bradford 2-0 yesterday.

If you take the Man City stat above and reverse it, you have Northampton Town. They've only let in six goals on their travels this season (as many as Forest and Scunthorpe and five less than City) but they've been absolutely dreadful at Sixfields this season.

Story of the year is Rotherham United. Having been docked ten points for going into administration, they've clawed their way back up the table and if they'd not had that penalty they'd be a potential play off team. We got a point up there yesterday and that's a bloody good result.

Walsall have a seven point lead in Division Four despite having lost to second placed Swindle on Saturday. It's pretty tight after that. Right at the bottom of the league we have Paul Inces' Macclesfield Town, seven points adrift of three clubs on 20 points.

In the Nationwide Conference, Oxford United lead the way. 20 years ago they were in Division 1; 30 odd years ago they played Sunderland in the first ever league game I saw.

Oxford United's old Manor Ground: now flats apparently.

On the other side of the pond, there are only three weeks left in the regular season and the play off picture is a little clearer.

In the AFC, both Indianapolis and San Diego (currently on a six game winning streak - they can clinch the division title today with a win over Denver and put £3.20 into my pocket!) have 10-2 records with New England and Baltimore leading their respective divisions but a game behind. After that it gets messy again with five teams on 7-5 records, including the 'surprise of the year' New York Jets. In the NFC Da Bears have clinched their division but there doesn't seem to be a lot of confidence in Rex Grossman; Dallas, New Orleans and Seattle top the other divisions with 8-4 records but then it's a pile up with the possibility that a team with a .500 record could reach the post season.

(There's still a long way to go yet, but the application of the 'offense wins games, defense wins championships' theory still seems to indicate a Ravens/Bears Superbowl in February. But the angle for that one could be Steve McNair v Brian Griese...)

Now on to the only possible interest left for any Raider fan: the race for first pick is currently between Oakland and Detroit. What are the odds that 2006 Heismann Trophy winnner Troy Smith won't end up with either of them? Probably not that bad: a lot of self proclaimed experts think that if Detroit ends up with the initial choice they'll take Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn.

So that's Scott Mitchell, George Plympton, Jon Kitna and...

But that would be underestimating the Raiders ability to self destruct even further. Including today's games, the Lions have a slightly easier schedule: their opponents are 27-21 for the season and their last two regular season games may be 'meaningless' as Chicago has already qualified for the playoffs and Dallas may not need the win in the last game. On the other hand, Oakland plays three teams with post season aspirations (Cincinnati, Kansas and the Jets). It's not inconceivable that the Raiders may end the season 2-14 and be rewarded with the overall first round pick.

Oh God, I'll consider what a potential disaster that could be when the season is over. It'll happen and we'll pick the wrong player.

MSK's games of the week: Baltimore at Kansas and New Orleans at Dallas. Stuffing: Oakland at Cincinnati.

* I feel a midweek post coming on.

Manyoo Throo

While I was nodding off in front of the TV last night, Manyoo beat Benfica 3-1 to qualify for the knock out stages of the European Cup. The draw will be interesting as Manyoo, Chelski, The Arse and The Honorary Blue Team are all through, along with Celtic. So a nice British presence for a change: just like the old days of 30 years ago.

What we didn't have in the old days was a weird link between what seems to be a cross between an old school political assassination by the Russians and The Arsenal Stadium Mystery*

Mind your tea lads, Stalin might have put something in it.

Spring is almost here: no Division 1A College Football this weekend. The Bowl Season kicks off on December 19th when TCU (10-2) takes on Northern Illinois (7-5) in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. If I can be bothered, I'll post a full listing of Bowl Games but don't hold your breath; there are some interesting ones ahead, including the Orange Bowl between Louisville and Wake Forest.

The big event will be the Heisman presentation on Saturday night, although it looks as if Troy Smith of OSU has already wrapped that one up.

So nothing more to report tonight; there will be an update at some point over the weekend with a distinct possibility that 'soccer' may take precedence over 'footbrawl'...well, I've been in hibernation since August so I need to get re-orientated with the movers and shakers. Who, pray tell, has the best away record in Division Four? I need to know and more importantly so do you.

* Far be it from me to put ideas into anyone's heads, but The Shabby Peasant and Obscene Wank3r aren't exactly best friends, are they?

Champion's League and other stuff

Right, time is of the essence so here's a quick round up of all the essential nonsense that matters in MSK Today.

1. The Raiders were horrible on Sunday against the Texans. I could have watched the Giants/Cowboys game but I watched two awful teams. Houston deserved to win even though the Raider defense improved - but as the D was dire last year, the only way is up in any case.

After Betty Everett, now Otis Clay* gets in on the act.

BTW, here's a picture of Raider defensive co-ordinator Rob Ryan:

And here's one of ex-Welsh national rugby coach Scott Johnson.

This must be some kind of 'I'm not having my hair cut until we win' thing going on, although Johnson has now departed to help coach The Dark Side (ie Orstralia**)

2. The BCS Championship Game is (as exclusively predicted by myself!) is...OSU v Florida.

3. Barcelona and Chelski got through to the next stage of the European Cup but Manyoo need to beat Benfica at Old Trafford...wait, I'm getting some interference from the past here...

Now I'm excited.
More tomorrow.

* Not 'kin Yazz. Not here, not ever.

** Or the 'proper trouser' game. It's WINTER here, fer Chrissakes.

'Will play...'

Two parter today that is going to be split into 'BG' and 'AG' (Before and After Gillingham - with a soft 'G', like a 'J') with the distinct possibility that the AG section may contain delirious ranting.

Half the excitement of the FA Cup is not knowing who you're going to playing next. This concept seems to be obligatory in the Bowl Championship series in College Football because there have been some very interesting results from the USA overnight: USC lost to UCLA, throwing the entire BCS series into absolute confusion (especially as Notre Dame beat UCLA). For what it's worth, here's a very quick overview using my take on how things should shake out:

Florida v Ohio State in the Championship game...because the best blogs about college football are Tressel's World and Every Day Should Be Saturday. I've got a spreadsheet I knocked up a couple of weeks ago that does some headline analysis of schedule strength, but I can't find it now - it did seem to suggest that USC/UCLA and Florida/Arkansas would be crucial to finding out who Ohio State would be playing - and it's turned out that way, as Florida won the SEC.

Of course, the next week is going to give the opportunity to the world and his wife to have an opinion about who should be in the title game. To some extent it doesn't matter, because as long as the game itself is as good as last year's was I don't care who wins as long as it's not Ohio State.


When it's all over this year, this one will be worth watching again - great fun.

Oh and Wake Forest won the ACC. Jim Grobe seems to be a consensus Coach of The Year; I can't imagine that this real life Cinderella story won't be registering some degree of interest in Tuscaloosa when the folks down there read their papers this morning.

Thus endeth the 'BG' section today. I have a 1:00pm Kick Off to attend.

I hope we win today. Third Round, Third Round, Third Round...

After AG begins here...

One of the best things about having friends that are football fans is that sometimes the following scenario happens: after having avoided each other's teams for the best part of thirty years, fate brings you together.

This afternoon, having watched City storm into a three goal half time lead courtesy of a Phil Jevons hat-trick, I spent the last ten minutes worrying that Gillingham were going to snatch an equaliser to make it 4-4 and possibly steal what modest FA Cup dreams I have away from me. We won (but the Gillingham goals were sloppy) and after a trip to the newsagents I got home in time to watch the draw for the Third Round.

'...will play Coventry City...'

As soon as the initial...well, shock and bewilderment actually...had subsided (about a nanosecond) I immediately shouted 'Dave!' and tried to find his phone number. For you see, Dave is a Coventry fan; when I rang him he said he knew it was me and that it was about time our teams played each other. I'll attempt to find out when this was, but I suspect the 1979/80 season when Bristol City were still in Division 1.

There are a number of angles to this game already and as it's more than a month to go I'll be attempting to give some detail about them later: but two things are significant. With the assistance of the mustachioed chin wagger above, both clubs were able to escape relegation at the end of 1976/77 season. More recently, Louis Carey had a season so unremarkable at Cov that they sold him back to us.

Well, we got a home tie (thanks Ricky Hatton) against a team that's in a higher division than us (thanks Amir Khan) so I can't complain. It could have been worse...Liverpool v Arsenal...LOL.

He wouldn't have got us a home draw with the gloves on.

Another mad weekend

How great are the dangers I face to get across St Augustine's Parade

I don't know. The weather here is abysmal: it's dark all the time, it never seems to stop raining and despite the best efforts of the worst drivers in the world to stop Buchephalus (my bike) and I getting home in one piece on Friday, I am here and I'm writing this again.

OK, to business.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that Tony Romo was no Tom Brady. I'm going to have to retract that after he lead the Cowboys offense to a win over the previously unbeaten Colts and then spanked The Chucky All Stars with five passing TDs on Thanksgiving Day.

Tom Brady is the one at the bottom right. Hold on, isn't that Chucky on the bottom left?

'What are we doing? What's the coverage? Ah, shit!
We can't run! We can't throw! We can't tackle!'

Romo's been getting a lot of rave reviews and he's apparently going out with Jessica Simpson, who is blonde and sings.

I'm assuming that's Jessica Simpson on the right?
It's definitely Al Davis in the middle.

Having said that, the problem with all the good publicity about Tony Romo is that he only took over from Drew Bledsoe a few weeks back and is already being compared to Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach who - in case anyone forgets - won a few Superbowls in the last century; there are some comparisons between the Jimmy Jones era and the current squad, notably that they have an obnoxious dickhead with a big mouth at wide receiver.

Terrell Irvin? Michael Owens? Oh who cares.

Enough about the bloody Cowboys already. There's something about them I've never liked.

In a move that shocked no-one, 'Offensive Co-ordinator' of the Oakland Raiders Tom Walsh got the old heave ho tin tack treatment earlier this week and will not be replaced by former England Rugby Union head coach Andy Robinson* but by John Shoop. It was 'Bye, Bye Baby' rather than just win baby for Walsh as it became obvious that 'The Shoe Don't Fit' and the number of critics of the Oakland offense meant newspaper columns in Northern California were 'Getting Mighty Crowded'; Andrew Walter apparently said 'I Can't Hear You No More' from the huddle, but if you wanna know if Shoop likes to throw, I'll post some stats on Monday from the Raiders/Houston game...by the way, that may be the best thing I've ever written.

Betty Everett songs and the Raiders in one paragraph. Perfect.

There have been various rumours this week that West Viriginia's Rich Rodriguez is being lined up for the Alabama job, which are apparently enough to make his wife cry. You can tell that the football season is over down there: the lead story on rolltide.com at the moment is swimming.

Even if Rita Rodriquez doesn't like the idea of Tuscaloosa, her husband's offensive philosophy actually fits the material available that Bama has at the moment. It's not too difficult to imagine John Parker Wilson spraying the field with passes to DJ Hall, Keith Brown, Will Oakley and Nikita Stover, but there are big shoes to fill at running back as the seniors have gone and Jimmy Johns is probably the number one back next season. I can't remember where I saw/heard it this week, but Alabama now seems to have recruiting issues: it's been a generation since The Bear died and Bama hasn't really had the same type of profile that it once did.

Underlining that, the SEC Championship game this weekend features Florida and Arkansas. Bama lost by one point to the Razorbacks at the end of September for their first defeat of the season, lost to the Gators the following week and were 3-4 the rest of the way. Exit Mike Shula stage left; this programme needs success and a higher national profile in a hurry. It's a huge job and good luck to the coach who eventually gets it.

News just in: Bristol Rovers dodge a bullet, Brighton don't.

Having beaten Forest on penalties on Wednesday night, City avoided 'local rivals' Bristol Rovers in the regional semi finals of the Whatever It's Called Cup this season but were drawn against the other team that begins with B and plays in blue and white that every self respecting City should have a very special place in their hearts for.

I don't mean that in a nice way either.

Tomorrow City face Gillingham for the second time in three weeks only this time it's in the Second Round of the FA Cup. Lose and we're left to concentrate on the league (and the Whatever It's Called Cup), win and the possibility of a draw against one of the bigger teams gets closer.

'Dear Santa...'

Magic number: 48, apparently.

League and Cup Double STILL on!

Forest on penalties!

Sing the song!

Drink the drink!

'It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory and in creative action that man finds his supreme joys'

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Wonderful Stuff

Play and enjoy. This is genius at work.

Weekend Round Up

A P47, which is loads better than a P45. Read on for relevance.

Notre Dame lost to USC, so that's the National Championship done for this year. But as NDCHOOCHOO points out, it may be something to do with Coach Weis' preference in holiday destinations...having said that, if ND gets to the Tournament of Roses then a win would be a very good thing to build on for next season.

England and Wales were beaten (by South Africa and New Zealand respectively) at buggery and rumour has it that England coach Andy Robinson will be getting the old heave ho tin tack P45 treatment sometime this week, presumably to be replaced by some blazer with no discernible neck looking at getting into the after dinner speaking circuit at some point.

One of these two will be the next England Rugby Union head coach.

The Redcoats lost their last game of EFLXI (4-8 for the season), Bristol City drew 0-0 at Swansea and the Raiders lost so that's 0-1-3 for the weekend.

Manyoo and Chelsea drew 1-1 in a highly entertaining game where Louis Saha atoned for his misses last week with a finely taken goal and the Portuguese slaphead who got his testes in a tangle with Wayne Rooney's boot during the summer scored Chelski's equaliser.

Oi ref! What a load of bollocks!

In America, some teams won, others lost and a highly talented (and highly paid) athlete got a bit upset with some of the locals even though it was the fella below they should have given some stick to:

Roddy White: couldn't catch the clap in a whorehouse. Move to Oakland imminent.

But here's a story that I'll keep tabs on: the Alabama job is open once more as Mike Shula (son of) got the old heave ho tin tack P45 treatment after leading the Crimson Tide to a less than stellar 6-6 season in the SEC. Early rumours suggest Nick Saban (currently HC of the Dauphins) might be the next in line to fail to live up to the legacy of the man in the pink safari jacket?

There were always rumours of Democrat sympathies...

Good luck to whoever gets the gig, here's some advice for them: recruit a decent field goal kicker and don't try to be The Bear or else you'll end up like this:

'I had a health checkup. The doctor said everybody ought to take a day off and do nothing.
That'd drive me crazy.'

Boss Tunes of the Moment:

'My Baby's She's Gone' by Sammy Wilson & The Del Larks
'I'm So Glad You're My Baby' by Johnny Nash
'Don't You Know She's Alright' by The Bell Brothers

Far Too Much Going On

I need more TV sets.

Here's the situation this weekend: I'm not too interested in watching the England v South Africa rugby union game this afternoon, which means I can watch ESPN College Game Day (which for some reason has returned to NASN) but then comes the first conflict of the day: Wales v New Zealand or Florida v FSU?

As the Florida derby is actually for something (Arkansas lost to LSU last night and a Florida win would give them a psychological advantage going into the SEC championship game on 2nd December), then I'm tempted to go with that. There may be a lot of switching around though.

It gets even messier tomorrow. City are at Swansea (easy - radio and mobile phone), although if this happens again I won't be very happy at all.


Total and utter humiliation.

I don't care if Tinman made a balls of his time as a manager down here. He should still be regarded as a legend.

Anyway, here's the Sunday lineup:

8:30am USC v Notre Dame (the other option is to watch it live...KO 1:00am)
1:00pm Swansea v Bristol City
4:00pm Manyoo v Chelsea
6:00pm Saints v Falcons, Bears at Patriots plus another couple of games on the Sky interactive service.

Far, far easier to digest.

Both USC/Notre Dame and Manyoo/Chelsea are huge games as they should in theory provide clues to the outcomes of both the College Football and Premiership championships this season, although obviously the stakes are far higher in Los Angeles this weekend as it's the end of the season rather than the middle of it. I'd love to be able to give you some analysis but as time is precious this weekend I'm going to have no shame in linking to the outstanding Notre Dame blog The Blue Gray Sky.

Madame Zaza will be contributing something tomorrow around lunchtime, but I'm going to sign off today with Knute Rockne.


'On the road we're somebody else's guests - and we play in a way that they're not going to forget we visited them.'

Go Irish!

Turkey Day

Right then, it's the third Thursday in November, which means I make an absolute ton of booze laced food and watch NFL. Despite what a lot of Brits say, we do actually celebrate Thanksgiving here, although it's far less important than in Canada and the USA. Over here, it's a celebration of the end of the harvesting season, would normally be on the Sunday nearest to the harvest moon in September and involves food. It's that tradition that the Pilgrims took with them when all the non-conformists were booted out of Blighty and landed up in the USA.

I started off cooking Thanksgiving Dinner for Cath and I about three or four years ago as a laugh - if I cooked, she'd let me watch the games. It's now an annual event - I like think of it as the official beginning of the countdown to Christmas. I know when it's Christmas when this starts happening:

The N**l Edm*nds free version. Thank fuck for that.

But anyway, it's not Christmas yet so here's a quick look at the three games taking place later on.

Miami (4-6) at Detroit (2-8)

The Dolphins are on a three game winning streak and you just know that Joey Harrington would love to put one over his previous employers, who couldn't beat the skin off a rice pudding right now. After having posted a picture of Scott Mitchell and footage of Jon Kitna (who I've just traded for) being pounded, here's a picture of the most literate Lion quarterback ever: the late George Plimpton.

Do yourself a favour: get a copy of Paper Lion. Even non-football fans will enjoy it.

Tampa Bay at Dallas

Oh please please can the Buccs play in throwback uniforms? I'd love to see Chucky surrounded by one of the true manifestations of sporting awfulness.

Doug Williams a few years before 'The Quarter'

According to all sorts of rumours doing the rounds (most significantly from profootballtalk.com), this could be Chucky's last season in Florida. Apparently the Cardinals are interested and the lad himself may have made some overtures to the Steelers on the QT.

PFT's comment on him echoes what no less a source than (ahem) myself said a couple of weeks ago:

'The problem, of course, is that Gruden's star has fallen a bit over the past few years. No longer regarded as a hot-blooded up-and-comer, Gruden is now merely a grumpy middle-aged man with a mouth like a sh-t-sprayed sewer.'

Dallas by 14.

Denver at Kansas City

A game too far for me, which means I'll watch it tomorrow. I'll go with the Donkeys, even though late breaking news on ESPN Radio this afternoon strongly suggests that former Vanderbilt QB Jay Cutler will be starting tonight instead of 'Even' Jake Plummer, who is now most definitely Second Hand Rose.

Anyway, food doesn't cook itself and beer doesn't drink itself, so I'm off. Enjoy.

Madame Zaza Predicts Part I

'...because to be brutally honest, United fannied about for most of the evening expecting a draw.'

Yep, I wrote that last night before the game. Once again, my psychic powers were proven correct: that's exactly what happened in Glasgow last night as Manyoo crashed to a 1-0 defeat by a Shunsuke Nakamura free kick with about ten minutes left.

Is it me or is that shirt too big?

I like a good cliche, so here's one. Louis Saha was 'left to rue' a missed sitter and a missed penalty that would have at least drawn the game, but Manyoo seem to want to qualify the hard way. To make matters even more tense ahead of the Benfica game on December 6th, it means that Celtic qualfied for the last sixteen in the Champions League for the first time - although it is not the first time they've qualified for the last sixteen in the European Cup*. I don't know how many times that's happened, but seeing as though they won it in 1967 and reached the final in 1970 it has to be at least twice. Best of luck to them.

Billy McNeil proving Nicky Campbell wrong almost 40 years ago.

The Arse beat Hamburglar 3-1. As I write this, Liverpool are drawing with PSV Eindhoven and Chelsea are losing to Werder Bremen (snort, giggle etc.)

* So there, Radio 5.

Bubba Hog Tuesday

Bubba Hog, Arkansas...errr...cheerleader.

OK, some big European Cup games tonight. Arsenal need to beat Hamburger SV and I hope they do so. The club that gave the world Uwe Seeler also made a pact with the devil in the last century: here's the proof.

The Anti Christ in action v Liverpool when they were good. Possibly the twentieth century?

Right, on to the proper stuff. It's Manyoo v Celtic in about half an hour and that should be an experience. Manyoo are three points ahead in Group F but a Celtic win plus an 'interesting' result in Lisbon could change the entire shape of the group. Celtic are unbeaten at home in the group, haven't conceded a goal yet and are currently FIFTEEN points ahead of Rangers in the SPL, but that's probably because Celtic aren't either (a) totally dysfunctional or (b) terrible at football like the rest of the teams up there.

United have split their away games in the group, both performances can hardly be described as classics. Benfica should have beaten them in Lisbon but had about three meaningful attacks that were snuffed out and FC Copenhagen beat them because to be brutally honest, United fannied about for most of the evening expecting a draw.

I don't think that's going to be the case tonight, purely and simply because the atmosphere is going to be amazing...although that bloody song is a pain in the neck, so when you hit the play button below, turn the volume down or put your hands over your ears or something.



Priceless? I'll give you priceless.

I could tell you a story about this - and I will one day - but the TV coverage is about to start, so I'll leave you with one of the greatest finishes to a match I've ever seen.


Sometimes words are totally inadequate.

It's Sunday!

Handle with care.

It's cold enough to keep beer in the garden.

Yesterday I did say 'if' Michigan beat OSU and I picked OSU, so it should be no surprise that OSU won by three points (42-39 - the most points since 1902, when Michigan won 86-0), which indicates that it was a lot closer than I actually felt it was. The Buckeyes twice had convincing leads and might have put the game away earlier if Troy Smith hadn't committed a couple of turnovers.

Anyone got Matt Leinart's phone number?

I can't remember which one of the ABC/ESPN commentary team (Brent Musberger, Bob Davie and Kirk Herbstreit) was raving about Smith being a first round draft pick now, but it strikes me that this is an extremely premature assessment. There's no doubting that he has the ability, but as I mentioned above, he will need work on handling pressure situations and there are accuracy and consistency issues. He was outstanding in the first half of the game, but dropped off dramatically in the second.

I'll probably comment on the National Championship Game when we know who the other team is , but for now it's worth looking closely at OSU's schedule. Michigan were 11-0 going into yesterday's game and despite losing, they scored the most points against OSU this season - which shouldn't come as a huge surprise, because since beating Penn State on September 23rd, the combined record of OSU's opponents is 42-53. Only Northern Illinois (6-5) and Iowa (6-6) had scored more than ten points against OSU this season.

One of the current favourites to meet them - USC* - has arguably had tougher opponents. They've played teams with a combined 48-40 record, which includes a 50-14 away win over Arkansas, the new champions of the SEC West. USC faces 10-1 Notre Dame next weekend, so see if you can guess what I might be writing about this week.

In other news...Cal lost to USC (23-9), Virginia Tech beat Wake Forest 27-6 and Boston College beat Maryland 38-16, which included a couple of defensive TDs from Jolonn Dunbar. Auburn won the Iron Bowl, Princeton shared the Ivy League title with Yale and Jim Beam Black Label is the real deal. Oh yeah, Rutgers lost as well.

But today is Sunday and here come the big boys. In a break with tradition that's lasted all of two months, I'm not going to bore anyone with my rubbish picks but take a look at the opposite ends of the spectrum in the NFL.

There are some big games this weekend involving teams in the 'if the play offs began today' scenario. Well, the playoffs don't actually begin until January but we may know more about who will be in them at the end of this week, because six teams will also be playing on Thanksgiving Day: so I'm going to start with the three that are currently in the best positions for post season play.

Dallas (5-4) has two home games, against the 9-0 Colts on Sunday and 2-7 The Chucky All Stars on Thursday. It's tempting to say 1-1 here, but there may be an upset waiting in the wings. Both the Cowboys and Indy are top ten offensive teams, but Dallas' defense is much better than the Colts. If Dallas DC Mike Zimmer can stop Peyton Manning and Joseph Addai, Indy might find themselves 9-1 tomorrow morning. Having said that, I wrote something similar a couple of weeks ago when Indy lost to New England - and Tony Romo isn't exactly Tom Brady.

Denver and Kansas have two games that will go a long way to deciding the destination of the AFC West crown (which won't be Oakland again). In MSK's Game Of The Week the Donkeys visit San Diego in the late game today while KC 'entertain' the Raiders; on Thursday night (well, very early on Friday on this side of the Atlantic) the Chiefs and the Broncos play each other. Even though I've got Friday off, I'll probably be too stuffed with turkey and booze to watch a game that kicks off at 1:00am over here.

There are also a number of interconference games that could provide a sneak preview of the Superbowl, but when you look at the games themselves it's doubtful. I've already mentioned Indianapolis at Dallas, but there's also Atlanta (5-4) at Baltimore (7-2), the Bears (8-1) at the Jets (5-4) and Jacksonville (5-4) at the Giants (6-3). (Note to self: a Ravens/Bears Superbowl perhaps? Or - using the 'defense wins championships' theory - possibly Jaguars/Bears?)

At the other end of the food chain, we have Buffalo (3-6) at Houston (3-6), Minnesota (4-5) at Miami (3-6), Pittsburgh (3-6) at Cleveland (3-6), Washington (3-6) at Tampa Bay (2-7) and Detroit (2-7) at Arizona (1-8). Why the Steelers have crashed and burned this year I've no idea (although there's a clue in the Arizona preview below and there's a blog here that might help) and the Buccs are 2-7 because Chucky is useless.

Chucky apparently discussing the situation in Tampa with Rupert Murdoch

I don't particularly care about most of the other teams in that list apart from Detroit for musical reasons, Cleveland for reasons I'll go into another day and Arizona, because I've been on a Southwestern Airlines plane that had the Cardinals livery on it plus it's a spectacular place and the people are nice. 'kin HOT though, but seeing as though there's a lot of desert it shouldn't be a surprise.

The Cardinals plane (left) at McCarren Airport in Las Vegas. Imagine how hot the tarmac must be.

So this week's special preview is Detroit at Arizona, sponsored by Sisyphus.

Sisyphus: a problem with red zone fumbles.

Detroit is 0-4 away from home; the Cardinals are 1-4 at home and both teams are 1-6 against the rest of the NFC. Arizona is on an eight game losing streak having not won since the first week of the season whereas the Lions have actually won two of their last four, so they can at least remember what it feels like.

However, scratch a bit further and something immediately becomes apparent. Up to and including Week 10, offensively, the Lions aren't that awful in some categories: they have average more yards per game than the Seahawks and are third in the NFC in average yards per play but they've let themselves down with penalties, fumbles and turnovers - see below for how this can ruin your season. Kudos to Jon Kitna and Roy Williams, who are in the top five in the league in passing and receiving yards respectively as well as competing with each other to see who can have the shortest hair.



Scenario: first play of the second half, the Lions are down by ten. The fumble is recovered by Marques Douglas of the 49ers; Coach Marinelli (Detroit) challenges the call and loses a time out. San Francisco gets another three points from the following FG. If you look at it again, it's likely that Kevin Jones (blue 34) didn't see Shawntae Spencer blitzing when Jones was running his check flare route.

Arizona are just plain awful when they have the ball. I won't bore you with all the stats as all you probably need to know is that Edgerrin James is averaging 2.9 yards per game and they currently jointly 'lead' the league in fumbles with the Steelers (20) although the Cardinals have lost 66% of theirs. Crikey! Some perspective here: the NFC average is 50% fumbles lost and Atlanta has the best record (28%).

Defensively both teams are dreadful. Arizona are one of five teams that are giving up over 300 yards per game (and the Jets are in there too, which doesn't bode well for them today) which is emphasised by the fact that three of their top four tacklers right now are defensive backs. The Lions have some experience of this; safeties Josh Bullocks and Terrance Holt are getting plenty of tackling practice.

I'll not only take Detroit, but I'll also give them a nice write up before Thursday, when they play Miami and face their former quarterback Joey Harrington. It could be a spectacular game.

Here's the MSK Stat of The Week: the Redskins have two interceptions for the ENTIRE SEASON. Rashean Mathis of Jacksonville already has six. No doubt Daniel Snyder is reaching for his cheque book already.

The stat it narrowly beat: the Patriots haven't visited Green Bay since 1979.

Right, I'm off. European Cup this week, so there's a strong possibility of some 'other' football getting a rare mention.

* USC = University of Southern California.

Honest guv'nor, I AM British...

...although anyone randomly stumbling across this blog might think that I wasn't. All I can say is tune in around February time and ask the same question then because it won't be college 'hoops' and 'base-ball' that will be on here.

Off we go.

The long awaited game between the top ranked Division 1 teams that takes place later today is already one of those contests that may become legendary; if #2 Michigan beat #1 Ohio State, it'll probably become some sort of eulogy for their former coach, Bo Schembechler, who died on Friday.

Before going any further, I'd like to point you in a couple of directions: this piece by a Michigan fan is one of the best written things I think I've ever read about sport generally, especially the section that ends the first paragraph that begins '...somewhere, years from now...' which reminds me a little bit of the 'shovellin' shit in Louisiana' part of the speech given by George C. Scott at the beginning of Patton.

This is the real General Patton.

The second is the somewhat less than serious Tressel's World, which is...well, go and see for yourself. It's probably Not Safe For Work though, but not in a naked ladies doing rude things way ;-)

Michigan at Ohio State isn't the only big game today though. California visits USC, Virginia Tech...

'What's her name...Virginia Tech...'

...meet Wake Forest and the Terrapins of Maryland play Boston College in the ACC. I could say something rude about BC but I'm not going to ;-)

Then there's the Iron Bowl, which is what I thought I was going to be watching tonight until NASN switched to Michigan/Ohio State.

I had everything lined up for the Iron Bowl. Most of the stuff that I'll be using to cook next week is here, but that included two bottles of bourbon (Jim Beam Black Label for drinking and Smokey Jim's for cooking, although their primary roles may be interchangeable) , some Extreme Chili Heatwave Doritos and a dozen cans of Budweiser (for clearing the palette). Don't get me wrong, I wasn't planning to consume all of that while watching Auburn v Alabama, but I was going to do some 'testing', especially as one of the online Jim Beam Black Label reviews describes it as having 'vicious chargrill and chewing tobacco overtones' which sounds perfect for watching SEC football.

Well, I've already made a reference to General Patton, so here's Bear Bryant speaking after the Crimson Tide had won their first national championship back in 1961.


No comment needed.

Which leaves me with one thing left to do: who's going to win in Columbus, OH today?

The last time I picked a team from Michigan to win anything (the Detroit Tigers in the World Series) I got that wrong and the Detroit Lions seem to be winning despite me picking them to lose recently. In the spirit of getting things arse backwards, I'll go with THE Ohio State University, but I'll finish today with some incredible footage of The Contours (from Detroit, MI) singing and dancing through 'It Must Be Love' during the 1963 Motortown review: OSU might have produced some great football teams and players, but Michigan beats them hands down for soul...

Ladies and gentlemen, watch the feet. This is how it should be done.

A Sad Day For All Sorts Of Football

Puskas Ferenc April 2nd 1927 - November 17th 2006

Bo Schembechler April 1st 1929 - November 17th 2006

Here's a tribute (in Spanish) that I found on youtube, about a minute in comes the goal that Puskas will be remembered for in England.



Here's what Coach Schembechler will be remembered for. The ball starts on the 19 yard line: count the passing plays.

Bears...by 18

A happy bear.

Why don't I take my own advice?

League and Cup Double Still On

Bristol City vault to the top of this post, purely and simple because The Double is still on - the rare combination of the Division 3 title and the Johnstone's Paint trophy. Oh yeah, City are still in the FA Cup too, having beaten York City in Round 1. We've now got a home draw with Gillingham in Round 2...and if we win that one, there will definitely be a special post on the magic of The Third Round (TM).

BTW, this post would have looked a lot better in it's original version, but some strange this happened when I was composing it so some good images and videos are missing. I don't know if this is something to do with the new version of the software and templates that this site is promoting, but it's buggered up what I'd planned and I'm not hugely happy...

In other sports news, a really terrible England team were beaten by Argentina at Buggery yesterday (Wales won though!), the Redcoats lost to Bama Beavers (therefore ending any interest in EFLXI), Notre Dame beat the US Airforce and Princeton beat Yale in what sounds like an excellent game.

So here's the NFL preview for this week. I'm afraid you'll just have to use your imagination.


Someone must win:

San Francisco (3-5) at Detroit (2-6)

Breaking news on Friday night: Bill Walsh has leukaemia. It's premature to eulogise, but I like quote from the man himself: 'I'm positive, but not evangelistic.' In the off season, I'll try to explain the impact that Coach Walsh has had on football but suffice to say, I spent a year trying to find a copy of 'Finding The Winning Edge' and when I got one (via eBay, from Sacramento), it was a signed copy. When Cath and I visited Candlestick on our honeymoon, we sat in the endzone where Dwight Clark made 'The Catch'.

This is the only game between two teams with losing records this week, which means it'll probably be worth watching although it probably won't be as good as the 1957 Western Division Championship game. Both of these teams deserve another win after their unexpected victories last week so it's a shame they play each other. The 49ers are apparently on the point of leaving SF for Santa Clara (about 50 miles south of SF) - I was going to write something along the lines of leaving Oakland as the Undisputed Kings of The Bay Area, but there might be more to this than meets the eye, especially if Al Davis spots an opportunity to start making daft noises about moving again.

Buffalo (3-5) at Indianapolis (8-0)

Errr...Bills! Yeah! The Bills will win this one! So when are the Colts going to lose? My guess might be December 10th, when they visit the Jag-wahs.

NY Jets (4-4) at New England (6-2)

Patriots to rebound at home after losing to the Colts last week. The Jets have been something of a surprise package this season but they won't have enough to win this one.

Baltimore (6-2) at Tennessee (2-6)

Oh, Baltimore probably.

Denver (6-2) at Oakland (2-6) The Broncos, but the Black Hole will be 'vociferous'.

New Orleans (6-2) at Pittsburgh (2-6) The 'aints have become the ares, but this is one that could bite them on the arse (it's an anagram of 'ares', that's pretty clever isn't it!) if they aren't properly prepared. More later. I need to think about this one.

Washington (3-5) at Philadelphia (4-4)

Eagles. I hope so anyway...at the end of August I had a bet on Phillie to win the NFC East at 11/4, they're currently two games behind the Giants.

Play Off Implications?

San Diego (6-2) at Cincinnati (4-4)

The Bengals appear to be in disarray, but who knows. Like the Eagles, in August I put some cash on SD to win the AFC West at 11/5; they're currently second behind the Broncos due to some arcane NFL rules that I can't be bothered with right now.

St Louis (4-4) at Seattle (5-3)

DCF. It'd be nice for the Rams to knock the crap out of the Seahawks but who cares?

Cleveland (2-6) at Atlanta (5-3)

A week ago I would have picked Atlanta, but they've now turned into the Flaggin' Falcons after being mauled by the Lions*. Still, the records are worth looking at here: Atlanta is 3-1 at home and 2-0 vs AFC teams and Cleveland is exactly the opposite. Falcons to get back on track by at least ten points.

Green Bay (3-5) at Minnesota (4-4)

God knows. OK, the Vikings, although it could get interesting if Aaron Kampman gets into the Minnesota backfield. If the Vikings win and the Bears lose later in the day the divisional situation will get interesting.

Houston (2-6) at Jacksonville (5-3)

Jags.

Kansas (5-3) at Miami (2-6)

Chiefs.

Tampa Bay (2-6) at Carolina (4-4)

Panthers. Here's a Chucky fact: he's currently 37-35 since he took over at Tampa and is on course for his third losing season in five seasons there. Since beating the Raiders in the Super Bowl, he's only got to the playoffs once. In the same time span Tony Dungy (who was replaced by Chucky) has gone 56-16 with the Colts. Those are facts, this is speculation: Gruden got lucky with Dungy's team and won a Super Bowl - he's done nothing since. Discuss.

Dallas (4-4) at Arizona (1-7)

Apparently a lot of folks in Arizona used to follow the Cowboys before the Cardinals moved there. Of course, there are probably lots of folks in Arizona who follow the Cowboys especially now that the Cardinals have moved there. I think the Cardinals should change their nickname to be honest...the Cardinal is a baseball bird.

MSK's game of the week

Chicago (7-1) at NY Giants (6-2)

It's November. The Bears and the Giants - both currently with winning records - meet in New York on Sunday night. This is what it's all about; this is the kind of game that makes me glad it's winter, it has a resonance within the history of professional football in the United States.

The first official championship game the NFL ever held, December 17th 1933 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Bears won. The following year, the Giants won the rematch in the famous 'Sneakers Game'. Want to see some 1934 model sneakers? Go here.

The Bears won the 1946 championship - beating the Giants. That was the last title game for a decade, when the Giants won 47-7. Exactly 30 years and 12 days after the '33 game - at Wrigley Field again - the Bears won the league title. Following the NFL-AFL merger the league title games were over, but at the point where I came in the dominant Bears team that demolished the Patriots 46-10 in SuperBowl 20 shut out the Giants at Soldier Field in the playoffs.

So basically, it's a big game with a long history and whatever happens it will have a huge impact on the NFC post season line up. On the one hand, the Giants come into this one on the back of a five game winning streak but with a couple of major injury worries (Amani Toomer and Michael Strahan - who most people over here would recognise as the smelly golfer in the Right Guard ad). The streak isn't much to crow about either - they've not had the toughest schedule either: their two losses were to Seattle and Indianapolis.

To some extent, the Bears face a similar situation. They could be without Brian Urlacher and Bernard Berrian on Sunday, they've not had the toughest schedule in the world (this is about to change dramatically) and last week they lost a game that they were expected to win. I'm going for the Giants here, probably because Eli Manning is a better QB than Rex Grossman, but it'll be close and I fully expect to see a picture of a victorious Jay Feeley on the ESPN home page on Monday morning, having booted the game winning field goal.

So Bears by 17 it is then.

Rutgers beats Louisville!

Amazing. Here's the game recap and here's the official website...and here's a pic of one of Rutgers' best known alumni.

How much money did T make from this?

Thursday Night College Preview

Shame it wasn't Jim Beam, but you can't have everything.

While Louisville vs Rutgers is getting all the attention, there are a couple of other games this weekend that are worth taking a look at. In all Top 25 action Oregon takes on USC in the PAC-10 and Arkansas faces Tennessee in the SEC but hidden away in the Division 1AA schedules is a nice one: Princeton at Yale.

Both teams have 7-1 records, but Yale is undefeated in conference play and hasn't lost since the first game of the season when they went down 43-17 to San Diego. Princeton lost their unbeaten record a couple of weeks ago when they dropped their game at Cornell. Players to look out for are:

Senior Princeton QB Jeff Terrell (Chagrin Falls, OH - 20 miles west of Cleveland) has a 128.28 passer rating (NCAA formula) that translates as 81.96 according to the NFL rating, which means he's pretty good - in fact, he leads the Ivy League in all offense. He's interested in 'music, sports, economics, history and architecture.' But can I find out what he's studying? His main target this season is Junior WR Brendan Circle from Villa Park, CA (nearest place you've heard of: Anaheim) who has snared 38 passes for 531 yards. Junior LB Tim Boardman (Staten Island, NY - been there...well, sort of...) is the Tigers' leading tackler.

For Yale, Sophomore HB Mike McLeod (New Britain, CT - slap bang in the middle of Connecticut, not far from ESPN in Bristol, CT) is the leading rusher and is currently second in the Ivy League behind Joe Digiacomo of Brown. Senior WR Chandler Henley (Littleton, CO - south of Denver - an 'outstanding organic chemistry student') is junior QB Matt Polhemus' (North Chatham, MA 'enjoys drawing and boating' which is fair enough - if you travel east from North Chatham, the next stop is the South of France) leading target. Sophomore LB Bobby Abare (Acton, MA - NE of Boston) leads the conference in INTs with four (he's also the Bulldogs' leading tackler), one more than Tim Strickland and Kevin Kelleher of Princeton.

So there you go - Ivy League football action for you at the Yale Bowl on Saturday afternoon. I'll let you know what happens.

Two quick ones to end this preview: this story makes me wonder if how I'd react if it happened to me when I was 79:

You think you're tough? Joe Paterno is tougher than you.

Whereas this story sounds like an absolute tragedy for all concerned.

Bryan Pata 1984-2006