Irish hearts and French Hands

For a 120 minutes the Irish National Team played their hearts out and with one hand Henry took their dreams of a World Cup away. Here is how the Irish newspapers covered the events yesterday in Paris.

Irish Times

Irish Independent

Irish Examiner

Irish Daily Star

Cover Story: SI College Basketball Previews

Coming to a mailbox near you in the next couple of days the Sports Illustrated College Basketball Preview. Again this year, the magazine has gone with different regional covers.

Kentucky

Michigan State

Kansas

Villanova

Washington

UConn

Going to be a busy next couple of days

This is the best time of the sports season. College Basketball is just started, College Football is coming to an end. The NHL, NBA, NFL are all going. With all of these options, the OTWT Tailgating crew can not help but head to some games. On Thursday the gang will be at the Madison Square Garden for the Coaches vs. Cancer events which features 'Cuse vs. Cal and North Carolina vs. Ohio State. Then on Saturday, the gang will be making the trip from home base in New Jersey to see Rutgers take on 'Cuse in football. A couple of big events in a couple of days, should be a lot of fun. Check back later in the week to see all of the sites and sounds from the events.

A new way to recruit

For the last couple of year the world of recruiting has started to change. Instead of players keeping their views on their recruitment underwraps, players are taking all of the their thoughts to the public, while others are coming up with tech savy ways of announcing which programs they will play for.

St. Patrick's Guard Kyrie Irving has been at the front of using social media during the process. Irving, who has signed on to play at Duke, has been keeping people up to date with his views with his twitter account. In October, Irving let the world know that he was hanging out with fellow top recruit Tobias Harris at Kentucky. In addition to the twitter, Irving also has a ustream channel that he takes questions from different fans. The twitter aspects of recruiting appears to be growing with 2010 basketball class: Will Barton (Memphis), CJ Fair (undecided), Josh Shelby (undecided), and Kendall Marshall (North Carolina) all have accounts, some of them are open to the public while others are protected. These few just show how much social media is growing when it comes to recruiting.

On Friday, Harrison Barnes took announcing his college pick to a different level. After giving a speech about the final six six schools that were involved in the recruiting process, Barnes said he would Skype the college coach that he was committing to after a couple of seconds Roy Williams face popped up on the screen. I guess the days of just picking a hat up and putting it on are almost over.

Social media is continuing to grow and over the next couple of years many other top high school players wilil be turning to social media.

Professional Tailgating: USF is still not that good

It was not the best start of the season for the State University of New Jersey, but it appears that they have turned it around by doing what they do best beat the hell of the South Florida. Here are some of the sites from the Rutgers South Florida game.

The game was so big that even the Arsenal fans game out of the game

White Castle and Blue Moon what could be better for a cold windy night of tailgating
The cars coming in late for the game

Our friend gets himself stuck under his car looking for his glove that blew away

Despite a ton of empty seats, love the RU in the crowd nice touch

A National Tragedy

Around Germany today, people were still in shocked over the death of former National Team goalkeeper Robert Enke. According to reports in Europe, Enke committed suicide after battling depression for many years. The story was front page all over Germany this morning

Here is how some of the German newspapers cover Enke's death

Opening Night Notebook

The season is here and here are some thoughts on the opening night of the college basketball season:
• Love the old school Frank McGuire uniforms for the Heels.
• Ed Davis looks old school in his get up.
• Will Graves has to give the Heels some type of outside shot this year.
• Larry Drew II is going to be ok at the point.
• Really impressed by Zeke and FIU, they never gave up during the game and played really well. I thought.
• I think Triche is going to be fine at the point for the 'Cuse.
• 'Cuse's Welsey Johnson might make the biggest impact of any newcomer in the Big East.
• Chris Joseph looks like he is going to give the 'Cuse quality minutes off the bench this season.

Now this is a NFL Crowd

Jags fans showed in mass on Sunday as they played the Chiefs. Only 45,546 showed up to watch the home team. This year the teams has not drawn more then 50,000 to any game and the way it looks it might be a long time before they do.

The fast lane to the NHL Blueline

For year, people have talked about the amount of time that it takes for an young defensemen to develop into a good player, but several players from the 2008 NHL Draft are making a mockery that view.

This year several defensemen from that group are making major contributions around the league. Drew Doughty, Kings; Zach Bogosian, Thrashers; Luke Schenn, Maple Leafs (above); Tyler Myers, Sabres; Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis and Michael Del Zotto, Rangers (right) have all made major contributions to their clubs. Luca Sbisa made a contribution last year to the Flyers but during the off season was traded to the Ducks and sent back to Lethbridge of the WHL. There are also a bunch of these young defensemen from the class in the AHL including Erik Karlsson, Ottawa.

While some of these defensemen were expected to do great things, Myers and Del Zotto were not expected to shine this quickly. Myers improved his reputation a ton last year with his performance at the World Junior Championships, while Del Zotto impressed during the training camp and has seen significate time on the Rangers first power play unit.

There are a couple of reasons that these defensemens have grown up quickly in the league. One of the major reasons is they are getting great training in the junior hockey. All of the kids that have made an impact on the back line have come from the Western Hockey League or the Ontario Hockey League. These leagues are almost run like professional programs allowing for the players to grow on and off the ice. Another major for the growth is the NHL salary cap. Teams can not afford veterans as their fourth and fifth defensemen, so they are turning to younger and cheaper talent to fill those voids.

Watching a young player growup is always fun. Sure there are going to ups and downs. With these defensemen its no different, but all of them look like they are going to be in the league for a long time.

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.

Cover Story: Game 2 of the World Series

So Yankees fans around the world are happy, Yankees last night evened the World Series at 1-1 heading to Philly for Game 3 on Halloween night.

Here is out the newspapers in the two markets covered the game:

Philly Daily News

Bucks County Courier Times

New York Post

New York Daily News

Maybe its time

With Rangers getting closer and closer to almost becoming Leeds United, maybe its time for both Celtic and Rangers to run away from the Scottish Premier League and head for greener pastures. Rangers 's club's bankers Lloyds are owed £30million by the end of the campaign. With a TV contract that is nothing to celebrate the only way that they maybe be able to meet the payment is to sell half of the first team. Maybe its time that both clubs look for a new idea to generate revenue, something like the North Atlantic Soccer League.

The league, which has been rumored for sometimes, would include top teams from the Netherlands, Belgium, Scotland, Portugal and Scandinavia. The league would almost be like a smaller version of the Champions League.

The league would create some interest all of Europe. Traditional powers like Porto, Celtic, Rangers, Ajax, PSV would bring large fan bases and large of amounts of money to a league that would be interesting to watch. Under my proposal the 20 team league would consist of Rangers, Celtic, Sporting Lisbon, Porto, Benfica, Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord, Standard Liege, Anderlecht, Malmo, Gotenberg, Brondby, HJK, and eight other teams to developed from a playoff.

Some think the creation of the league would kill the leagues in Portugal, Scotland, and Belgium, but that does not have to happen, if UEFA decides to give out spots in the Champions League to the winners of the leagues that are left behind and give a spot to the winner of the proposed North Atlantic League, it might all workout in the end.

Sure it might not be the best idea to soccer purist but its only a matter of time before something like this happens and before we turn our backs on the idea we have to look at what the impact will be and if UEFA handle it correctly it could be a win win for everyone involved.

The Cover Story: World Series Game 1

The performances of Cliff Lee and Chase Utley wrote the headline the for newspapers in Philadelphia and New York after Game 1 of the World Series. The front pages in the two markets told very different stories.

Philadelphia Daily News

Bucks County Courier Times

New York Post

New York Daily News

Now this is a logo

The NFL has their iconic logo, the NBA has Jerry West, but its easy to see why the top soccer league in Belgium has the best logo in the world. The Jupiler League logo (above) features a beer can playing the trumpet, can it get any better than that. Can you imagine the NFL logo featuring a Budweiser can playing an electric guitar, now that would be priceless.

Did I miss something?

For a World Series Champion, the Phillies are getting very little respect from the New York media. The Post takes it to a new level below. Are the Phillies the most disrespected defending World Series champions ever. No one is giving then any credit for what they have done over the last two seasons.

New York Post

New York Daily News

Professional Tailgating:: Football is set back decades

After attending the Rutgers vs. Pitt game, the game decided to spend Sunday at the Bills vs. Jets game. It may have been one of the worst game that I have been to, but it was a good time to say the least.

JP Losman's Potential checks if the Saints have scored another touchdowns against the Giants

The highlight of the whole day might have been watching the ice develop on the propane tank

The New Giant Stadium looks like a bunch of razor blades on the outside

Bonnie Bernstein does the pregame show on ESPN Radio

Even during pregrams warmups the Bills looked terrible

At least in the end the Bills won and Jet fans went home crying again

Professinoal Tailgating: Rutgers can't beat a good team

Last Friday the OTWT Tailgating Crew headed to the Rutgers to see the Knights take on Pitt and as Rutgers loss the game and feel to 0-2 in the Big East.

The Tailgating Crew favorite Knight B-Jones

Starwars fans in the crowd before the game

Kid kicks 25 yard field goal during half time, maybe Greg should give him a scholarship

Rutgers loss the game, but the star of the game was Little Jovi

The Jags are at it again

The Jags fans are at it again. This time the Jacksonville fan base packed Jacksonville Municipal Stadium to the tune of 42,088 yesterday. It sure looks like 42,000 showed up in this photo from a friend on Facebook for the Jags 23-20 win over the rams, the people in the seats might be closer to 25,000.

The NFL has to do something about this. People in Jacksonville will never get to see their team on tv at this rate. The stadium holds 67,164 for NFL games and 84,000 for college football games.