Are the people pictured above putting out the fire on the Columbus Crew's scoreboard or spraying water at people who want Ben Olsen fired? I'm not entirely sure.
I wasn't here yesterday because I slept for a couple days after covering the NFL Draft, which you should never do. On to the links.
Coach Jurgen Klinsmann has recently announced that he will call up to 29 players into camp for the
upcoming friendly matches and World Cup qualifiers. The first wave of call ups will be announced
May 15th, and will consist of the European and international based players.
Full slate of games in Major League Soccer this weekend. Before we get to the attendance
figures, one quick note. The NFL draft was the weekend and the first overall pick, Andrew Luck,
is someone with Major League Soccer ties. Luck's father, Oliver Luck, was the head of the Dynamo
front office until recently and MLS has played up that connection by featuring an interview on
their website featuring Luck and talking soccer.
He's been at the helm for six NFL seasons. In many ways, he was the right man for the job at the
right time.
Roger Goodell's biggest contribution as commissioner would probably be recognized in his ability to
curb the bad behavior of NFL players and wannabees off the field. He set the precedent by
suspending players often and for long durations anytime there was clear evidence of inappropriate
off the field activity.
There is a lot to look back on. Many posts have been retired to pasture, but they may be worth
another look. Readers can find anything written by clicking Posts, except for the Americanizing
Soccer articles, which can be read by clicking Series. Some of the most popular articles can be
seen at the right side of the website under the heading Popular Posts.
We all know LaMichael James. He was a Heisman Trophy award favorite heading into last season.
Even though he's small, he's lightening quick and tougher than you expect on runs up the middle. He
should be drafted in the first few rounds of the 2012 NFL Draft.
Should you draft him for your fantasy football teams in 2012?
Outside of Justin Blackmon, Michael Floyd is considered the best wide receiver prospect in the
2012 NFL Draft. While he doesn't have Blackmon's upside, Floyd is quite a good prospect who will
likely land in the middle of the first round.
As for his fantasy football outlook in 2012, it's shaky – at best.
While David Martin is shorter than 5-foot-10 and wasn't a well known player at Virginia Tech,
don't be surprised if he explodes on the NFL level. He has the type of powerful build that could
make him a touchdown machine. Add in the fact that he should be able to play every down and Martin
translates to a fantasy stud going forward.
It's only a matter of time that the Indianapolis Colts let Peyton Manning walk. Since they have
the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft and will select Andrew Luck, the Colts will let go of Manning
and go in a different direction.
With that in mind, where will Manning end up? Well, first of all, since he's dealing with a neck
injury, there's a chance he will retire.
The Washington Redskins haven't been very good at running the football the last few years. On
Sunday, the Redskins brought in another option at running back by trading for Tim Hightower. In the
deal, the Redskins sent Vonnie Holliday and an unspecified pick in the 2012 NFL Draft.
Tim Hightower is a big, powerful runner who excels near the goal line.
Jermichael Finley might be the most explosive fantasy tight end this side of Antonio Gates.
However, Jermichael Finley fantasy owners will have to find a new tight end because the Green Bay
Packers star will be out between three and six weeks following knee surgery. Finley injured his
knee in Week 5 against the Washington Redskins early on in the first quarter.
The NFL lockout hurt a lot of people. People lost jobs, sports writers were left with nothing to
write about and football fans were bored out of their minds. But nobody lost as much as Cam
Newton.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft signed with the Carolina Panthers on Friday.
However, due to new rookie contract restrictions, Cam Newton's deal was worth only $22 million.
The 2011 NFL Draft is over. It was a rather awkward affair considering that NFL lockout. NFL
commissioner Roger Goodell was routinely booed. The drafted players had a tough time answering
questions due to the lockout. And teams couldn't exactly begin teaching their draft picks the
basics since contact will be barred.
Did your favorite team draft well in the 2011 NFL Draft? Check out the list below to see how we
ranked your team's draft. Since this draft was relatively strong, a lot of teams got solid grades.
However, like every season, there were teams who had no idea what they were doing.
What were the Atlanta Falcons thinking? In the 2011 NFL Draft, the Falcons made a splash. But it
wasn't a very good splash. It was more of a panic splash. To move up from pick 27 to pick 6, the
Falcons gave up their first rounder this year, their second rounder this year, their fourth rounder
this year, their first rounder next year and their fourth rounder next year.
The 2011 NFL Draft won't take place until April. However, that doesn't stop football fans from
beginning the process of dreaming about which players their favorite team will select. That's
especially true for the football fans whose favorite team is watching the NFL playoffs on TV.
Here's our first crack at a 2011 NFL Mock Draft:
Cam Newton, the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback for the National Champion Auburn Tigers, has
entered the 2011 NFL Draft. Newton, who began his college career with the Florida gators, will skip
his senior season. In his lone season at Auburn, Newton passed for 2,854 yards, rushed for 1,473
yards and totaled 52 touchdowns.
Andrew Luck, the star quarterback for Stanford, has announced that he is staying in school and
not entering the 2011 NFL Draft. While staying in school is usually noble, it isn't in this case.
In fact, Andrew Luck is stupid for staying in school and not jumping to professional football.
If he entered the 2011 NFL Draft, Andrew Luck would undoubtedly be the No.
On paper, the Pittsburgh Steelers versus the Carolina Panthers was a mismatch. On the field, it
was even more of a mismatch. The Thursday night NFL game turned into a laugher with the Steelers
dominating the Panthers by a final score of 27-3. A fourth quarter field goal kept the Panthers
from getting shutout.
The NFL draft is tonight, for those of you not clued up on your American sports (looking at you,
98% of Europe) the draft is the process by which new players enter the league. The worst team from
the previous season picks first and therefore, in theory, has a chance to draft the best young
player entering the league at their position of need.
A few GotW round-ups for you. First off we have Romain Poyet (2:06) with a stunner of a volley
for Brest. 101greatgoals.com has a top ten list, with the goal of the week going to Pavlyuchenko
for being on the receiving end of Gareth Bale magic against Inter.
Speaking of young footballers, this from Joe Posnanski is a must read.
In this, Joe looks at top quarterback selections in the NFL draft and points out that these
players almost never make it to the levels expected of them.  In case you're not aware, the
system in the NFL is that each season the worst team gets to choose first from a pool of all the
nation's young talent, and so on and so forth.
Maurkice Pouncey had a great rookie season for the Pittsburgh Steelers. A center drafted by the
Steelers with the 18th overall selection of the 2010 NFL Draft, he has started every game and was
even named to the Pro Bowl. Unfortunately, his rookie season is over. Due to injury, Maurkice
Pouncey won't be able to play in the Super Bowl against the Green Bay Packers.
If you have Knowshon Moreno on your fantasy football team, scratch him from your Week 3 starting
lineup. The starting running back for the Denver Broncos was injured in practice and will miss at
least this week's game. The 1-1 Broncos will now have an even more difficult road against the
Indianapolis Colts this weekend.
Kenny McKinley, a wide receiver for the Denver Broncos, has apparently committed suicide. He was
found dead in his apartment. Reports say he died from a self-inflicted gunshot. Needless to say,
Broncos Nation is in shock.
"Kenny had a promising future on the football field, but more importantly, he was a great
teammate whose smile and personality could light up the room," said Broncos head coach Josh
McDaniels.
UPDATED: As some of you may or may not know, the NFL Draft has commenced here in America. All the
teams in the National Football League descend upon New York and spend the next several days
drafting the best college ...
This is a content summary. Visit http://www.epltalk.com to read the entire article
Seeing a lot of tweets tonight about the first round of the NFL draft, it got me thinking about the
draft history for Kansas City when it comes to the Wizards/Sporting KC.
First, some honorable mentions, 1998, specifically for the drafting of Chris Klein, who appeared
200 times for the club.
Tim Tebow playing for the New York Jets this upcoming NFL season is not a sure thing. There is a
lot of time between now and the start of the season for things to transpire.
There just seems like too much of a possibility for some kind of change to happen.
Every year sports fans are inundated with coverage of the NFL Draft. It starts weeks prior and gets
heavier and more detailed with each approaching day. The Draftboard for each pundit contains a
mountain of information for each potential high draft pick. Every team's needs are evaluated and
every position is dissected.
2011 NASL Combine held in Fort Lauderdale, FL this past weekend.
The 2011 NASL combine ended Sunday in Ft. Lauderdale with the opportunity for over 70 players to
impress the league's eight coaches, assistant coaches such as the Puerto Rico Islanders' assistant
Adrian Whitbread, Traffic USA Director of Soccer Fernando Clavijo and observers from other
leagues.
Thursday was the MLS SuperDraft, and as we did last year, we thought we would take a look at
some of the business aspects of the proceedings. Before we explore the broadcast, a couple of
notes on some of the coverage of the event. The Twitterverse was exploding with coverage of the
draft. Journalists, fans, teams, players, bloggers and others drove the draft coverage to the top
of the Twitter lists of trends.
