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Wednesday TIME: US | UK WEATHER: US | UK HOME THE NEIGHBORHOOD "Life in the UK" American Groups Essential Contacts Money Education Driving WHAT'S ON US Group Events Diary Dates Music Live FEATURES Politics blog SPORTS Features Sideline blog NFL Draft THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE ONLINE |
SIDELINE ARCHIVE Santa's Sackings January 01, 2009 Ready for the Turkey November 27, 2008 Making it to the Big Dance November 26, 2008 Brighter Days Ahead for Chargers? November 5, 2008 Unnecessary Hits To The Pocket / Upset: BYU October 17, 2008 Romo's Pause / Seattle Seahawks October 15, 2008 Weekend Prep: Red River and More October 10, 2008 College Football's 'Crossroads' Weekend October 9, 2008 Gramatical Error October 7, 2008 Turning The Page September 30, 2008 So Cal 'Quizzed — But Who Will Answer? September 26, 2008 3rd Tuesday Panic Button / Forté Yard Dash September 23, 2008 Two and Oh; Oh and Two September 22, 2008 No More NCAAffeine September 11, 2008 Week 1 College Football September 6, 2008 How To Spell Heisman / Chad Ocho Cinco September 1, 2008 Why the Favre story STILL won't go away August 18, 2008 Olympic Notes / Ricky's Still Relevant August 14, 2008 Committee Meetings August 9, 2008 Let the QB Battles Begin August 8, 2008 Slinging The Slinger — More Favre August 6, 2008 Welcome to the 2008 season July 28, 2008 Plus One May 27, 2008 Draft: The Morning After April 28, 2008 Draft: Thinking the Unthinkable April 25, 2008 Draft: Ready For The Long Haul April 23, 2008 Sofa–bound Sport April 16, 2008 Post–Winter Wonderland April 11, 2008 Six Impossible Things February 4, 2008 Brady's Misdirection Play February 3, 2008 Colorful Language January 23, 2008 Let the Romo–bashing begin: Dallas lost January 14, 2008 Bowl Bites: The Wrap January 10, 2008 All About The Coaches January 1, 2008 Bowl Bites 3 and A Communication Breakdown December 29, 2007 Bowl Bites 2 December 27, 2007 Bowl Bites 1 December 23, 2007 The Empty Chair - Coach Situations Vacant December 22, 2007 For Some, The Playoffs Are Now December 15, 2007 A Certain Lack Of Welcome December 13, 2007 Unrelated Notes November 29, 2007 Two Thanksgiving thoughts November 22, 2007 Halftime: NFC November 9, 2007 Halftime: AFC November 8, 2007 London, Part 2 / A Tale of Two Chads / A Game of Intimidation November 4, 2007 Damp Squib / Other London Notes October 29, 2007 Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em / Dolphins – The Aftermath October 23, 2007 The Dolphins Did What? October 18, 2007 Notes on the Defenses October 13, 2007 Habits to be Broken October 12, 2007 Overtime October 13, 2007 This Week's Starters October 6, 2007: USF: Covering The Spread / Fantastic Football September 27, 2007: Grossman: The Final Act? / McNabb, the Epilogue September 24, 2007: Eagles QB in Slight Controversy September 21, 2007: Leftwich's Parting Gift to Jacksonville? / Boos cruise September 18, 2007: Notre Dame M.I.A. September 16, 2007: Looking Beyond NFL Wk. 1 September 12, 2007: Best Hope For Heisman September 10, 2007: Coaching Hot Seats / AP Poll Feeling ’Appy September 7, 2007: The NFL’s Prime Cuts September 5, 2007: Michigan Falls to Killer Apps September 3, 2007: Look Out Couch / The Taint's On You, Bud September 1, 2007: |
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SPORTS SIDELINE 
Observations, Opinion & Occasional Silliness by Richard L Gale Welcome to the start of the 2008 season Okay, so it's still a week — ONLY a week! — until the start of the NFL preseason, but it's time to blow the cobwebs off Sideline and get ready for some football. This space has been pretty silent over the last few months, but I haven't been entirely idle. For one thing, this erstwhile designer has been revamping the print version of The American, and for another, I've been getting used to this fatherhood thing (and not by chance that the young lady was born between the NFL Draft and preseason — do you think I don't plan these things?) However, I haven't been completely ignoring my sportswriter responsibilities. This summer I conducted interviews with fantasy football No.1 selection LaDainian Tomlinson, backfield enigma Reggie Bush and Saints owner Rita Benson LeBlanc, all of whom will be visiting the UK again in October when the San Diego Chargers and New Orleans Saints visit Wembley Stadium. Those interviews begin in the August edition, where Rita Benson LeBlanc talks about the marketing of the Saints after Hurricane Katrina, ownership meetings, and why bringing the Saints to London is so important. You can read the extended version of that interview right here on the website in a few days, but don't miss the print editions for LT and Reggie! And with that plug out of the way, onto the opinions... I have to say, the prospect of meaningless preseason football just around the corner has me way more excited than the Olympics. Let's not pretend I'm anything but a football junkie. When it comes down to it, the only parts of the Olympics I'll be making special efforts to catch are tennis, soccer, and of course basketball. The rest of it — the running races, jumping and throwing metal objects — is what the Olympics should really be about at its core, but running fast in a straight line never quite impresses me as much as running fast, making a cut, and catching a ball while somebody tries to deck you. I just prefer my sports complicated. Here comes the new NFL season, and nothing changes with the Washington football team's name. A district court judge last month ruled that the youngest of a group of Native Americans didn't file a lawsuit against the Washington team's use of certain trademarks soon enough after turning 18. This allows the team to continue using their trademarks. So, a team with an image of a Native American as their logo is called the 'Redskins' — a racial nickname bound to offend at least some Native Americans. And if it offends somebody, that makes it 'offensive', by definition. So, if it's racial and offensive, that makes it racially offensive, am I right? And this is the team based in the nation's capital — the team all those politicians go to see. Strange. I can't add anything to the 'Favre unretires' story that hasn't already been said. So, let's talk about Trent Dilfer. Sure, Dilfer isn't going to the Hall of Fame, he isn't storied, he doesn't have a road named after him (well not that I know of), and he hasn't displayed wooden acting in the final scene of any romantic comedies. He threw more interceptions than touchdowns, threw less than half the number of yards as Favre, and had a career QB rating of 70.2. He has, however, won just as many Superbowls as Favre. Penn State Joe Paterno has been enshrined at the College Football Hall of Fame. I'm stunned it's taken this long, but I guess they'd been waiting for him to retire and finally realized he's probably not going to. I can remember visiting Pennsylvania in 2003 and thinking I'd better get along to a Penn State game; at the time I figured it might be the last chance to see Joe Pa on the sideline. Wrong. One thing that bothers me about Joe Paterno's resume: he still isn't officially the winningest coach in Division 1–FBS history because Florida State coach Bobby Bowden's 33 wins with Howard University are counted by the NCAA, even though Howard isn't a 1–FBS team. Even with such statistical nonsense in place, Paterno is just one behind Bowden. So who do Florida State line up for non–conference openers? Western Carolina and Chattanooga, teams that are not only in the FCS rather than 1–FBS, but are two of the worst teams in the lower tier. I have to wonder if Florida State are deliberately padding Bobby's stats to stay ahead of Joe Pa. |
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