The Defending National Champs

The OTWT Tailgating Crew will be headed to the Big City in a couple of weeks to see the defending National Champions, North Carolina. The group will be headed the 2K Sports Classic to see 'Cuse vs. California and North Carolina vs. Ohio State. The tickets for the event came on Friday and I can not wait. Should be two really good games and we will have a full report after the event.

Some NFL owners care more about the Premier League

The Bucs and Browns are a combined 1-14 this season, while across the pond Manchester United stands second and Aston Villa stands eight in the Premier League standings.

I know what some people are thinking, what is the connections between the four teams. The connections is simple The Browns and Aston Villa are owned by Randy Lerner, while the Bucs and Manchester United are owned by Malcolm Glazer (pictured right).

Both owners bought their Premier League clubs a couple of years ago under different circumstances. Lerner was hailed as a hero after taking over the club from Doug Ellis, while the Glazer family was hailed as villians for buying United. But both men have been turned into good owners in England and terrible owners of their NFL teams.

In England, both men let the soccer people run their clubs. At Villa, Lerner has Martin O'Neil. O'Neil is a soccer man and makes all of the decissions on trasnfers and any other on the pitch related decissions. While at United, the Glazer family has Sir Alex. Sir Alex rules United, he does everythign froom pick the players to picking the food at the training center.

Both owners are hands off in England, but in American its a different story. With the Brown, their is no clear figure head. Just this week the Lerner fired the general manager and it looks like their first year coach could soon be on his way out. While in Tampa, its also a complete mess. The head coach is two years older then me, their is no qb and nothing really to look forward to.

Maybe both owners should do what they are doing in England and have football people run the show and stay away from the action. One of the reasons that this works across the pond is because owners know very little about the soccer, but over here its a different story, both think that they know what is right. Maybe they should take a hands off approach and see what happens. In Philly the hands off approach of owner Jeffrey Lurie, seems to have worked very well for the Birds over the last decade. Maybe both owners should put their egos in check and do this.

Questions that need to be answered in college basketball

The preview mags are out and people are starting to talk about the college basketball. There are a ton of stories lines and questions that need to be answered. Here are just a couple that OTWT has thought up.

• People talk about Carolina being a top five type of team. They are going to be so young, I just can't see it. I will get a first hand look at Carolina on Nov. 19 and then give a full report.
• How much trouble will Coach Cal get Kentucky in. There has already been issues with uber recruit John Wall. Look at Cal's record at UMass and Memphis, he always leaves a mess.
• Super recruiting class always don't lead to great thing. Like a Seton Hall during the early 90's. This is a warning to Kentucky fans.
• Could Kansas be this years North Carolina. I think so
• With all of the talk of Kentucky, Kansas, and Michigan State; Some people are forgetting about Villanova. Jay Wright has the program moving in the right direction. A great recruiting class and great returning guards usually lead to great things.
• How long will it take for before an assistant at FIU accuses Isiah Thomas of doing something wrong. Maybe after the North Carolina game.
• Sean Miller, Arizona and Anthony Grant, Alabama will be success in their new spots, while Mark Fox, Georgia will not get the job done because of lack of SEC ties.
• Texas freshman Avery Bradley will have the biggest impact of any freshman in America. With him at the point, Texas has a shot to be at the Final Four.
• My Final Four before the season even tips off: Kansas, Texas, Villanova, Michigan State.

World Series Game 5 Cover Story

The Phillies beat the Yankees last night in Game 5 of the World Series to send the series back to New York for Game 6 on Wednesday night. Here is how the newspapers in each city over the action from last night.

Metro (Philadelphia)

The Philadelphia Daily News
The New York Post

The New York Daily News

R Country

People traveling into the New Jersey from the Delaware Memorial Bridge now know what country they are entering, Rutgers Country. My brother, Endy in the Outfield, snapped this picture while coming back from Maryland. Its good to see Rutgers marketing its brand like this.