The Miami Dolphins have already revealed who their first pick will be long before the NFL Draft even starts. They, or should I say Bill Parcells, decided to pick an offensive lineman to help protect a QB who really isn’t that good, but also to open up holes for Ronnie Brown, who could be that good. Rather than take the chance and draft a high profile skill position player and take the chance of not being able to sign him (see Raiders and Jamarcus Russell from last year), they will be able to get Jake into training camp and already have him signed. According to reports, it will be a five-year, $57.75 million deal with $30 million guaranteed. Must be nice.

Florida State got its first big win in a long time. Actually, it was the first time since 1999 that they had beaten a top 5 team on the road. The victim was Boston College, and if you watched the game, you could some glimmer of hope for the FSU offense, which has been abysmal this year. They were able to move the ball, control the clock, and protect the passer. At one point they had a 13 play drive going and were only at the 50 yard line. Of course, they started at the one, but that is shear clock dominance. Anyways, I’ve been a completely happy camper this year and looking forward to their next game against the formidable opponent…Virginia Tech.

As for my other teams, and basically the entire city of Miami, the outlook hasn’t been so bright. The Dolphins are 0-8, having lost something like 12 straight regular season games. The Miami Heat are still winless this year (0-4) in the regular season, and also lost their 7 preseason games, and if you count last year’s end of the regular season and playoffs, they have lost a combined 17 straight games. So, what do you do as a fan of Miami teams? You basically have to soak in the fact that the Heat won the championship two years ago and continue to say “Wait til Wade gets back.”

The Miami Dolphins are on the verge of being the worst team in the NFL. If I gave you a sheet of paper and asked you to rank them, then you might consider them a pretty good team. However, they are proving to be too old, too slow, and just plain bad. You could argue that they played two pretty good teams to start off the season (Washington and Dallas), but this week they played the Jets, who hadn’t even had a rushing touchdown in their first two games. Well, the Fins decided to give up 31 points to them this week, including a rushing touchdown to their quarterback, who is literally hobbling around due to a bad ankle. As the announcers said, it is hard to think they even have a playoff shot at all right now, and it’s only September.

As for FSU, well, they are supposed to be going through a full re-haul of their offense since the new offensive coordinator is sickened by the first 3 games’ output. He basically said we are going to find players who care about creating results. They had the week off, and play Alabama next week in Jacksonville, so it will be interesting to see if they still have Weatherford as their QB, or if they go with the more athletic QB in Xavier Lee.

Basically, this is starting off as a repeat of last year, although I still have hope for the Noles…call me an optimist.

This last week there have been some absolutely amazing finishes to basketball games. The latest one was last night during the Pistons vs. Nuggets game. When you watch the video, just remember that the Pistons are down by 3 pts. with 1.5 seconds left to go, and the Nuggets have the ball and just need to inbound it to there own player.

http://broadband.espn.go.com/ivp/splash?id=2813975
(you browser may block the popup, so you will need to allow it)

The second, and more unbelievable finish came in the NCAA Division II Championship game. I am not sure I have seen a more amazing finish to a game in a long time. The closest thing was the Boise State victory in the Fiesta Bowl. Just click on the link below to watch the highlights, and just be amazed.

http://www.sportsline.com/video/player/videos?id=134951s

In case you haven’t heard, the Oakland A’s have decided to move from Oakland down to Fremont, which is closer to San Jose.  As if this wasn’t news in and of itself, they are going to be leasing land from Cisco, and it is supposed to be the most high tech ballparks of all time.  I have heard plenty of rumors recently about this announcement, but it has finally been made public a few days ago.  The funny thing is that I have seen plenty of demos with John Chambers simulating what a new high tech ballpark would look like, but didn’t put the two pieces together until the rumors started to swirl.  Anyways, this is good news for me as I can probably make some more games, and it won’t be such a pain to get up there.  Here is a link about the upcoming ball park:
New A’s ballpark to be high tech

In case getting one major team further south wasn’t enough, the 49ers also decided that they are going to move south to Santa Clara.  Their training facilities and offices are already in Santa Clara, so it somewhat makes sense.  Who knows, with all the major teams moving closer to San Jose, perhaps San Jose will become the big city in the Bay Area.  Here is the info about the Niners’ move:
49ers dump Candlestick Point, announce Santa Clara stadium plan

The infamous Zidane head butt during the finals of the World Cup is now all over the news, but did you ever stop to think that people from around the world might have a different perspective on what they saw?

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Unless you have been living under a rock that last few weeks, you probably knew that the World Cup of Soccer had been going on. Unfortunately for Barbie and I, it came a year to late as it is being hosted by Germany this year, so that would have been fun to be there for that. To give you an idea just how many people watch this, take this into consideration. Last year, the Superbowl, which is considered the most watched event in the US got approximately 100 million viewers. Now, during the selection of the World Cup teams, i.e. the drawing to determine which groups they were going to be assigned, the World Cup had 325 million viewers! And to top that, during the finals of the World Cup back in 2002, they had an estimated 1.1 billions viewers, 11 times that of the Superbowl.

So, now that you understand the importance of the tournament, and what a grand stage this is, you would think everything about the game itself would be at the highest level possible. Well, I personally think the entire soccer world should be ashamed of the events that unfolded. We all know that in every sport, people are going to make mistakes, or try to get calls from referees, etc., but in soccer, it is bordering on comedy. Players fall, scream, grab their ankle, get taken off by a stretcher, then the replay comes in and shows they weren’t even touched! Of course the referees fall for it over and over, so the players keep doing it. I saw at least 2 or 3 games where one of these catastrophies happened “in the box,” which means in the goalie box and will result in a penalty kick for the other team, which results in a goal probably 85-90% of the time. So, if you are the referee, you should be 100% certain there was a foul to call something in the box. Heck, I even propose that all fouls in the box be “under review” just like in the NFL, because a goal is just so valuable. Australia was absolutely robbed against Italy b/c of a horrible call. If you are a soccer fan, and these are your heroes, I feel sorry for you.

Now, let me say that the semi-finals and finals matches had the best referees in there, and they didn’t take anything from the players. Players were falling and flailing and complaining through the first 30 minutes of the game, but when they realized the ref wasn’t buying it, they actually started to play normal. Kudos to those 3 referees.

Of course, we can’t forget about the Final match between Italy and France. Great match all around, except for a bad call in the box which resulted in a penalty kick and goal for France (their only score), but the ref made up for it by not calling a legitimate foul in the 2nd half, so all is forgiven. Of course the highlight, or lowlight, depending on your view, was France’s best player Zenadine Zidane head butting an Italian player in the chest for apparantely making some serious derogatory remarks about his mother or sister or wife (who knows). Either way, it was unbelievable that a guy who was going to retire, would have his career ending go from possibly winning a world cup to being ejected and watching his team lose on PKs (penalty kicks).

Finally, I will give a token nod to the USA, who managed to tie the champions Italy during their group play with a score of 1-1. Of course, Italy scored on themselves, but it is still a tie in the record books.

And to all my Italian friends…congratulations on winning the 2006 World Cup!

So, he we are 5 days removed since the first game of the NBA Finals, and the Miami Heat are down 0-2. Well, should I be concerned? Of course, but not so much that I think that they are doomed and can’t win the series. The Mavs held serve in the first two games, especially in the 2nd game, but if you go back and look at the first game, the Heat had a good chance, and actually outplayed the Mavs for most of the game. The Mavs got a late run at the end of the first half, and one in the middle of the fourth, and that was it. The Heat played well enough to win, but just couldn’t overcome the last run.

So, what are my expectations for Game 3 in Miami? Well, a Heat victory of course. I’m thinking it’ll be about a 105-95 game with the Heat winning because they finally start to make some Free Throws. Also, this is the first Finals game ever in Miami, the fans are going to be able to provide a few points of their own somehow. So that is my prediction, we’ll see what happens!

The NBA Finals are just around the corner, and I couldn’t have asked for a better matchup. First, and foremost, the Miami Heat, after being in the NBA for 18 years, have finally made it. Last year they lost to Detroit in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, but this year they didn’t even allow it to go that far…ending the series in 6 games.

Their opponent, the Dallas Mavericks, who are also making their first appearance in the NBA Finals. So, either way, the NBA is going to be crowning a new NBA champion. My reasoning for wanting Dallas to make it is simple, I want to be able to talk trash to my buddy Cassidy who is a Mavs fan. He’s from Dallas, I’m from Miami, what else could you ask for except that the Heat win…which I’m quite certain they will. Of course, the odds makers say Dallas is the favorite, but that is just blind speculation.

We have Shaq and Wade…what else do I have to say? Actually, in all honesty, the game is going to come down to whether Haslem, Williams and Walker can step it up and hit shots. Wade and Shaq will get their points, but the rest of the team needs to contribute since Dallas is a team that can straight out run you out of the building if you aren’t careful. The good thing is that the games are so spread out (3-4 days apart), that it will give the Heat time to recuperate b/t games and get their legs back. If the games were every other day, the Heat would be dead tired after the 3rd game, but this way, we’ve got a great shot at it.

Either way, I’m heading to the local store to get some Heat gear to wear around town and show my support. So, if you haven’t decided on a team to pull for, pick the Heat…b/c wouldn’t it be better to live in Miami than Dallas!

If you haven’t seen this, it is absolutely amazing. It’s up there with Tiger Woods’ shot from last year Masters tournament.