Thursday Night Lights: Football in Israel

With soccer and basketball being the two main sports in Israel, the commissioner of the Israel Football League (I.F.L.) wants to take football to the next level. Uriel Sturm is attracting players from all over the country and has them feeling like a family and feeling healthy, offering them an exciting escape from the mundane routine of their daily lives. Many believe the I.F.L. will bring football to a professional level in Israel but at the same time football has been omnipresent their for 22 years, albeit flag football and not professional. Only time will tell where it goes but it is exciting to see the influence that the sport is having on the world. Read the article from the NY Times: Tackle Football Gains a Following in Israel by Ben Solomon

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Rodney Harrison Unaware He Played Football

According to the Onion SportsDome, the retired safety, once known as the NFL's dirtiest player as the leader of a dominating Patriots defense from 2003-2008, has no idea he ever played football. The two-time Pro Bowler claims he never knew he was part of a complicated game but rather just thought he was chasing and hitting people, preferably in the head. He also added that if he forced them to drop anything they were holding then all the better. Interesting comments from a player who revolutionized the safety position. Watch Host Mark Shepard and analyst Ronde Barber discuss.

Onion SportsDome

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Happy Holidays from the Crying Giants Fan

Ho, ho, ho, everyone! With the Steelers dominating the Panthers 27-3 this Thursday, they opened themselves an early Christmas gift in the form of a clinched position in the playoffs, putting them in a merry mood. Here's something from Daniel Tosh and the crying Giants fan that should get your holiday spirit going with a laugh. I can only imagine how he reacted after last week's meltdown against the Eagles. Enjoy and have a great and safe holiday from JZ Sports! 

Tosh.0	Tosh Tuesdays 9pm / 8c
Web Redemption - Crying Giants Fan
www.comedycentral.com
Tosh.0 Videos Daniel Tosh Web Redemption

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Another Distraction for Jets?

The New York Jets are on the brink of a playoff berth, only needing a win over the Bears on Sunday to clinch. Unfortunately, there appears to be another off the field issue clouding the team, Rex Ryan's foot-fetish. It seems elementary and unimportant to the game of football and it is. The videos Ryan and his wife made are slightly disturbing and make it clear he has a foot fetish... but who cares? Can the media just leave the Jets alone? His foot fetish, true or not (seemingly true when Ryan labeled it a personal matter), has nothing to do with football. Braylon Edwards' arrest earlier in the season wasn't football related but it was a legal issue, which can affect one's status in the NFL. A foot fetish doesn't apply. Let the man live his life and let his personal matters stay between he and his wife. Just another shot taken at the Jets, they'll look to silence everyone this coming Sunday. If they beat the bears, the media will go in a frenzy but this time it won't be a personal matter.

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Sponsored by Become.com

     In searching for the perfect holiday gift, a new plasma television for the family or Nike Zoom T5 White and Yellow soccer cleats on become.com, shoppers can explore all opportunities. Similar to amazon.com, become.com is a user-friendly site that has all products that one needs for the home, as well as anything else one yearns for. From outdoor lacrosse wall equipment to a mini foam basketball set, the prices beg for attention, competing with all the cheap shopping sites. 
     It's the walmart of shopping sites. To help shoppers, the site has editor's picks and top 10 lists, as well as user-friendly tabs and searches for any product a shopper wants to pursue. It's a pleasure to experience become.com with your family and friends in searching for gifts and house supplies, as well as video games and watches. The site has it all and doesn't lack any products. 

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UConn Women's 89th Straight Win Irrelevant?

The women's basketball team at the University of Connecticut set the NCAA basketball record for most consecutive wins with 89 straight after beating Florida State on tuesday. Coach Geno Auriemma had a less than stellar view of the record, claiming that nobody truly cares because it is the women that accomplished this feat, beating the men's record of 88 straight, set in 1974 by UCLA.  His comments are borderline controversial, albeit honest and direct. He might have a point as he brings sexism into the picture. Watch what he says as Jemele Hill and Skip Bayless discuss his comments. 

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Tebow Not the Answer for Broncos?

Watch: Boomer Esiason on Behind the Mic talking about Tim Tebow.
The University of Florida legend played with poise and fervor in his first NFL start, becoming the third player to throw a touchdown pass of at least 30 yards and run for a score of at least 40 yards in the same game. While Tim Tebow only finished 8/16, 138 yards and no interceptions, his critics still doubt him. He is a scrambling quarterback. The Broncos can force him to throw as much as they please but it is his legs and his drive that got him drafted and in the NCAA history books. The ubiquitous question continues to be whether he is the future and how high is ceiling is as far as being a top-notch signal caller. Underneath is the highlight reel from his first start, enjoy. 

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A Steelers' Giant Curtain

JZ Sports welcomes our new contributor, Bill Eckert. This is his first piece for us, with more to come. He discusses his love for the Steelers and his expectations of the Giants, who he was raised to follow by his father. It's a dichotomy of one team's expectations to win and the other team's expectations to blow it in the final seconds. Enjoy the article and thanks Bill. 

A Steelers’ Giant Curtain

W.T. Eckert

     I knew I was going to write this column before I watched the games this Sunday. I wanted to compare the two teams that I watch most. Two teams that I believe couldn’t be more different. I discussed the teams and my plans for this column at length with Zack of JZ Sports Inc. and hung up at the start of game one: New York Giants vs. Philadelphia Eagles. The winner would top their division. The game went just as I expected. Game two came after: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. New York Jets. If the Steelers win they would claim their place in the playoffs and clinch their division. This was a game that could have gone to either team, but the match up also went as I expected.

     I blame my father for putting me in the situation of following two teams, however it is a situation I have grown comfortable with. You see, my pop is a diehard New York Giants fan. His love of the game spread throughout my family and every Sunday I’m subjected to the screaming and moaning that comes along with watching the Giants lose with disgrace or scrape by, winning by the skin of their teeth, possibly fumbling their way into the playoffs and Super Bowl. I say I’m “subjected” to this because, though I am supportive in the G-Men’s struggle to make the playoffs and Super Bowl, I am a Pittsburgh Steelers fan at heart.

     Sometime in the early eighties my folks bought me a Pittsburgh Steelers Starter coat (the ones with the zip-up hoods, very old school). I have never been a guy who could wear a team’s colors and not support them. I went through a long-standing period where I could have cared less about sports and enjoyed the hard hitting sounds of 80’s Metal. It wasn’t until the mid to late 90s, with a little help from John Madden’s video game that I reemerged interested in the NFL and the Steelers.

      Having watched the two teams over the years, I couldn’t help but notice what polar opposites they have become, more so now then ever. Interesting, for a team that has a shared ownership through actress Kate Mara’s parents. The Steelers are a solid team. They are the kind of team that other teams use to test themselves against in order to find out what they are made of. It’s what the Jets did this week. The Giants have become, I feel, a team that the opposition isn’t as concerned with. As Desean Jackson said after the Eagles embarrassed the Giants this week, “No worries, I got nothing to say. We’re a dominating team.”

     The quarterbacks for each team couldn’t be more different: Eli Manning, who at times doesn’t seem he could run a bath, never mind an offense, does, at times, display serious heart by fighting off defenders while remaining in the pocket. His snap decisions, however, seem faulty at best. Though he had overall success in their remarkable loss to the Eagles this week, any success he found in his snap decisions were deeply rooted in luck, or receivers who knew they have to make a faulty play work.

     A prime example where Manning was fortunate enough not to give the ball away on a snap decision occurred this week when the blitz pressured Manning into quickly throwing the ball away, off of his back foot. But he doesn’t just throw the ball away; he bombs the thing down field into a flock of Eagles surrounding a singular Giant. The play should have resulted in a turnover. It didn’t out of luck, I say. I always get the impression that a hit is something that Manning is running away from.

     Ben Roethlisberger, on the other hand, comes off as the gladiator type, welcoming any and all defenders to have a try at taking him down. He stays in the pocket as long as needed but he is an unusually large QB. The greatest example of his toughness came in the matchup against the Ravens in week 13. With an already injured and taped ankle, Roethlisberger received a broken nose during a sack by Haloti Ngata. Carrying on like a leader, he finished the game and the Steelers walked away victorious. His snap decisions are designed to move his team forward and often times he finds success in these decisions.

     Though they lost against the New York Jets this week, they battled through. Going into this game, I knew the Jets were going to have something to prove, especially after the way they have embarrassed themselves over the last few weeks.

     Watching the game was exciting. It was a true battle with neither team resting on their laurels. The absence of the Steelers’ Safety Troy Polamalu (due to an ankle injury) always makes a difference in their secondary, but I can take nothing away from the kind of game the Jets played.  In the end, the Jets worked harder. From the opening kick return by Brad Smith to the Jets defensive damage with a safety during the last three minutes of the game, putting them ahead by 5.

     I’ve always had a problem with making plays with your backfield while in the end zone. And if you are going to make a backfield play, why wouldn't you have your explosive starting back who is going to get out of the end zone fast with a few yards. Granted Mewelde Moore is quick and elusive, but what the Steelers needed was a hole-puncher and a few yards and that would have been easily found in starting running back Rashard Mendenhall.

     The Giants played a very different kind of game. After being exposed to the Giants’ style of football, I have come to understand that, no matter how great their lead may be, the game isn’t a sealed deal until the final seconds have been completely removed from the clock. Their game against the Eagles proved my point perfectly. New York was so dominating throughout the first half of the game and then something happened; they played Giants football. The 24-3 lead at the start of the second half improved to 31-10 and it says a lot about the Giants when coach Tom Coughlin is as excited to see his team wax successful as I was from my living room couch. It wasn’t the only view that Coughlin and I shared.

     Giants’ football is a very special kind of football. It’s the kind of football where they have the ability to blow a 21-point lead in seven and a half minutes. Coughlin knew it too. When Vick made that 65-yard score with the help of Brent Celek, Coughlin folded his arms and had that “Oh no, not again” look on his mug. He knew what I knew. I said it before the game to Zack, Coughlin said it after the game to the press, “The game’s never over until it’s over.”           

     It should make my pop glad to know that Coughlin feels the same way he does. “It’s about as empty you get to feeling in this business,” Coughlin said in his response to the disastrous meltdown his team had. Of course Coughlin did the right thing and took the blame for this Giants tragedy, well, I thought he did until he followed, “I’ll take full responsibility for the last play,” with talking about how punter Matt Dodge was “a young punter. He was told to punt it out of bounds and he got a high snap and didn’t feel like he could.” Way to take the blame coach!

     In both games the death knell came in the sign of a punt return. For the Steelers it started the game and for the Giants it ended the game, both in time and in success. Between the two teams, I got what I came to expect. The Steelers can’t win every game, but they put up a fight and did so until the bitter (and it was bitter) end. The Giants had a great first 3 and a half quarters. Eli did an overall great job putting points on the board but Vick got the best of the Giant defense in the waning minutes of the game. He just, as Coughlin put it, “slithers his way out of there. Whether he ducked down or however he did it . . .” Yeah, however he did it. It’s all right coach, your head was probably so cocked off to the side in disbelief, as usual, that you probably missed that play. But hey, I’ll explain that to my father who, after 50 years of calling himself a Giant’s fan, decided to rip down all the NY Giants ornaments from his Christmas tree and call himself a free agent of football fandom. “I’m watching the game for the love of the sport with no specific attachments,” I recall the phone statement.

     Between my pop and my brother, I thought they had never watched a Giants game before the way they get that Coughlin reaction of bewilderment when the Giants cough up a win. I’ve since learned to keep my NFL emotional attachments in Pittsburgh where, if we lose, we know we did so taking no guff, some busted appendages and we leave with some heart. And pop, there’s room for you on my couch if you ever want to wear the ol’ black and gold while wielding a Terrible Towel!

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Trampoline Madness

Is this what most young athletes miss out on during their early years? These are clearly trained athletes, yet they seem to be exerting as much effort as if they were taking a stroll in the park. This is their typical boring wednesday. Time to start saving for a trampoline. Seems to be an exuberant way to kill time, albeit detrimental to one's blood flow to the head. Enjoy the video...


MPORA Action Sports >>

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Metrodome Roof Collapse!

Raw security footage of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome collapse this weekend, which caused the postponement of the Vikings-Giants game, forcing the Vikings to play away from home. It could force them to play in Detroit or at a University stadium for the remainder of the season. Talk about high maintinence!

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A Case of Gang Green?

It seems like a tidal wave has hit the usually optimistic and positive Gang Green. The season began with such promise and at 9-2 most believed the New York Jets had the season under control and the playoffs in their near future. Those same fans are now questioning the team's recent play and the flustered lack of confidence from the face of the franchise, Mark Sanchez. Be realistic. Sanchez isn't ready to carry this team, amidst a recently struggling run game and questionable pass-blocking. The Jets will prosper with an elite defense and a dominating running game that now needs their offensive line more than ever.

Fans began to cringe after the game against the Lions in week 9. Close to a loss in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, the Jets were saved by a Nick Folk field goal. The game was ugly as Braylon Edwards and Dustin Keller had catches pryed away by defenders for statistical interceptions. The next week in Cleveland against the Browns was the same story, with an overtime touchdown by Santonio Holmes securing the win. Lacking a dominant victory, the Jets still compiled inspirational wins that built team spirit, so it seemed.

The poor play caught up to the Jets as the Patriots held their ground with a 45-3 trampling that broke the Jets' spirits. Perspiration omnipresent, fans and players seem to be at a loss for words. Even their chatty and colorful head coach has been subtly avoiding the media, aside from his burial of the ball used during the loss to the Patriots.

Their games have been slightly less entertaining than watching a microwave timer dwindle. Sanchez has no confidence, Ladainian Tomlinson isn't getting holes to squirt through or accurate chucks to allow him to run after the catch and the offensive line has lost its swagger. All good teams have hick-ups, but unless they start playing with some pizzazz and heart, it could be an epic fail towards the playoffs.

They can turn it around and they need to, but will they? To add insult to injury, their strength coach, Sal Alosi, was suspended for the season for tripping the Dolphins' Nolan Carroll. It will be a tough climb to the top with games against the 10-3 Steelers and 9-4 Bears, as well as their week 17 battle against the fiery Bills, who refuse to be called pushovers.

In the end, the season is in the Jets' control. Find the dominant offensive line that has become the cream of the crop and that will instill energy in the whole team. Last year they were a team that surged in the second half, now it seems to be the opposite. The real Gang Green will show their grit in the coming weeks and will define what team they are right now. As Broadway Joe Namath said, "First I prepare, then I have faith." Only time will tell how much faith the Jets have.

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Jamarcus Russell's Cough Syrup

Jamarcus has been busy since he was shoved out of the league. Rejected by the UFL, the once future king of Al Davis land has found a new business venture, and it's not making sports memes for Spleaze.

Instead, he will the face of cough syrup. Not sure how this liquid medicine is taking over, since I'd rather swallow Mexican food vomit than drink Robitussin, but it surely is. Just ask Lil Wayne, though Sorry 4 The Wait 2 wasn't bad.

Anyway, we wish Russell the best of luck, though doubt we see this being sold at NFL stadiums any time soon.

(The original site can be found, herehttp://2.media.sportspickle.cvcdn.com/c/f/sportspickle.b3b74a0c394cc7762c096d1f3dae5d9a.jpg)

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JZSports Saturday Special

Listen to internet radio with jzsports on Blog Talk Radio

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Fat Albert Checking Out

The big sweaty hold out from the summer finally got what was coming to him. Perennial whiner Albert Haynesworth has been suspended without pay for the remainder of the season by head coach Mike Shanahan. Shanahan has suspended him citing "Conduct detrimental to the club, refusal to listen to the coaching staff, and not abiding by the terms of his contract"

This is undoubtedly the final straw that will destroy his chances of remaining on the team, and that was already unlikely. The Redskins basically threw $41 million in guaranteed money into the toilet when he signed his contract, this suspension is basically just hitting 'Flush'.

The ballyhooed signing back in the spring of 2009 was met with controversy, as Redskins owner Dan Snyder was taking a well documented complainer, locker room problem, and me-first player and turning him into the highest paid defensive player in the league. Said contract guaranteed the tackle $41 million and was potentially worth $100 million. What Snyder failed to realize was that Haynesworth is not a Tom Brady, Ray Lewis, or Larry Fitzgerald. Guys like those will take their huge contract extensions and still play like it is their rookie season. Sweaty Haynesworth on the other hand, was happy to take his money, grab a double bacon cheeseburger, and stop playing period. For a player to be worth that kind of money, they can't just be physically good, they have to be leaders and improve the team overall.

After his signing in '09, Haynesworth was basically a non-factor last season, plagued by both injuries and his own unwillingness to put his heart in the game. His brash and outspoken manner was certainly one of the factors that led to the ousting of former coach Jim Zorn. Two-time Super Bowl winner Mike Shanahan on the other hand, has a reputation for not allowing his players to oppose him. Just ask Jake Plummer. When Shanahan came to Washington, he brought with him a vision of changing the Redskins to a 3-4 defense, a move which Haynesworth immediately opposed, citing that the new scheme would hurt his stats. Not that he couldn't play a 3-4, but that he wouldn't get enough stats playing nose with only 2 other D-linemen. In protest, Haynesworth sat out the first few minicamps and OTA's.

Shanahan of course, was having none of Haynesworth's childlike antics, and immediately set forth a public conditioning test which he probably knew the lazy Haynesworth would fail, and he promptly did. This public humiliation created an irreconcilable rift between player and coach, and the season thus far has just been plagued with more bad blood between the two of them. It has all led up to this week after the Giants game when Haynesworth told Redskins GM Bruce Allen that he will not speak to Shanahan anymore. Now Haynesworth's time with the Redskins is all but over.

For some players, one might hope they land on their feet, but Fat Albert deserves no more respect than Mr. Purple Drank himself, Jamarcus Russell, and maybe even less respect at that.

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Incredible Goal by Walsh Wins Shootout

This Saturday night game between the Muskegon Lumberjacks and the Cedar Rapids Roughriders of the United States Hockey League featured a unique move by 17-year-old defenseman Travis Walsh to win the shootout for Muskegon. He told the Huffington Post, "I didn't have the move planned, but for some reason I got an urge to do it. "I came up with it five years ago when I was messing around with pucks on an outdoor rink. I didn't really think I was going to do it until right before I did it. It ended up working out well." I have to admit that I don't follow minor league hockey, but I do keep tabs on the NHL as an avid New York Islanders fan and this is no routine goal, especially for a tall and bulky defenseman such as Walsh. I'm going to have to keep tabs on this prospect from now on. Enjoy the video...

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Mad Dog McDaniels: Sound FX

Here's the ex-Broncos coach attempting to exude some confidence in his team, but instead having some harsh words for them. It was the beginning of an epic fall for the second youngest head coach* in the NFL. This video is a classic and defines McDaniels' career as head coach...



*Youngest coach in the NFL is Raheem Morris of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4 months younger than McDaniels)

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The Fall of Josh McDaniels

He was hired with so much enthusiasm and expected to bring a title to a team that needed a young exuberant leader to take them over the top. After being hired, McDaniels immediately attempted to trade his star quarterback to receive Matt Cassel from New England, where he was previously the Offensive Coordinator. This did not sit well with Jay Cutler when the trade fell through and the rumors got out. He immediately requested a trade and was eventually traded to the Chicago Bears for Kyle Orton. Things only got worse... Here is a timeline of his major transactions as head coach of the Broncos:


January 2010: McDaniels and defensive coordinator Mike Nolan "agree to part ways." The move is shocking because Nolan transformed the Broncos' defense from the 29th ranked unit in the league in 2008 to the 7th in '09. 


March 2010: Trades running back Peyton Hillis to Cleveland Browns for Quarterback Brady Quinn


April 2010: Brandon Marshall is traded for two 2nd round picks


End of April 2010: After trading down twice in the first round of the 2010 NFL draft to take wide receiver Demaryius Thomas out of Georgia Tech, McDaniels wastes the extra picks Denver received in previous trades and moves back into the first round to select former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow 24th overall. 


October 2010: The Broncos suffer the worst home defeat in their history, losing 59-14 to the Oakland Raiders, a team that had only 10 first downs and three field goals total in a 17-9 loss to the 1-5 San Francisco 49ers the week before. The team is 4-13 in the past year. 


December 2010: McDaniels is fired and replaced by running backs coach Eric Studesville. 

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JZSports Friday Special!

Listen to internet radio with jzsports on Blog Talk Radio

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When The Software is the Sportswriter

"StatSheet, a Durham, N.C., company... serves up sports statistics in monster-size portions... The company, with nine employees, is working to endow software with the ability to turn game statistics into articles about college basketball games."                             

- Randall Stross, NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28digi.html 

    The transformation from print to online journalism continues to increase at astounding levels, yet this is a new technology completely. Is it far fetched to envision computers writing articles in the future, or rather in the now? It makes sense in the business sense because it is far more cost efficient. Perhaps more importantly, computers capable of performing this new skill can cover smaller schools that don't attract the same national attention that the powerful Division I colleges do, such as Ohio State and USC. The powerhouse schools have a plethora of writers covering their games, while the smaller schools have maybe a dozen. With the statistical analysis, all games can be thoroughly covered.
     There is more to cause me to believe this is quite risky. Without the common sense of a human writer, routine words can be missed. An example in the article is when the computer put "victory over Buckeyes." Forgetting "The Buckeyes," the article seems sloppy and lacks precision. This is the fine-tuning that only a human can take thorough care in. More importantly is the human effect. Computers lack the emotion and unique creativity that humans exert on a daily basis and it doesn't seem plausible for computers to exert human traits that engage readers. If human writing can be so easily replaced, we are seemingly destined to relinquish control in many more jobs. Any thoughts?

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Sound FX of Andre Johnson: How the Fight Started

The often humble receiver is miked up during the Texans/Titans game and we get a close-up look at what provoked the heavyweight battle between Cortland Finnegan and Andre Johnson during week 11 of the 2010 NFL season. Watch and enjoy.

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