For those unfamiliar with it, I have dedicated myself to follow and, to some degree, conflate the relatively separate fates of the Columbus Crew and the Colorado Rapids for the 2008 Major League Soccer (MLS) season. The idea is to see which of these long-struggling MLS original clubs make progress this season.

From RevolutionSoccer.net:

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Revolution has announced that defender Chase Hilgenbrinck has decided to leave the club and retire from soccer to enter a Catholic seminary in Maryland to prepare for a new career in the ministry. Additionally, the Revs announced that MLS rookie of the year candidate forward Kheli Dube has been promoted to the team's 18-man senior roster.

Sometimes you just can't make up news (or have them made up for you in some cases). But today we learned that one New England Revolution player decided his club was just too damn good and instead retired to join the Catholic seminary in hopes of becoming a priest. The Revs announced today that defender Chase [.

A quick, but not so dirty post for you this weekend. I've included the a couple of stories below that caught my attention during the past two days. Jim Donaldson (Providence Journal) Pats treat injuries like state secrets Kieran Darcy (espn.com): Chase Hilgenbrinck From the pitch to the priesthood Have a great weekend.

Sorry. This will be the only visibly strained pun of the day. Enjoy this press release announcing the Colorado Rapids latest signing: Chase Hilgenbrinck, a defender who has, to this point, played in Chile. But he's from Illinois...and you can't get more American than that, dammit. And I wouldn't be doing my bit unless I flagged [.