$150 million for Jeter? You've got to be joking.

Pretty solid day of NFL action yesterday, especially the New Orleans at Dallas game which looked like it'd be over before the first quarter was done, but the Cowboys gamely fought back and might have won it if not for Roy Williams not knowing how to protect the ball in the shadows of the opposing goalposts against a team that constantly looks for turnovers.  In the end, a good result for Dallas even in a 30-27 loss: they competed, but still lost to keep the draft pick for 2011 nice and high.  Detroit looked fantastic in the first half against New England, but in the second half, they remembered they're Detroit and they got smoked 45-24.  And in the late game, Derrell Revis showed Terrell Owens just what an "average" cornerback can do, holding T.O. to three catches and 17 yards in the Jets 26-10 win.

Phil Simms to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson after the latter broke down the Lions/Pats game: "good analyzation there". Yeah, great "analyzation," Phil.

Derek Jeter is said to be after 6 years and $150 million from the New York Yankees.  I'd sooner see a terrorist be given a cache of nukes before giving Jeter that term or dollar amount.  Strange, coming from The Guy Who Wants To Win More Than Anything.

Cathal Kelly at the Toronto Star hammers the idea that MLS is floating about lining up its schedule to match the rest of the world's, which would see the league run through the winter instead of the summer.  I'm sure that would be a lot of fun attending games in Toronto, Seattle, Portland, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Colorado, Kansas City, New England, Columbus, D.C.,  and soon, Montreal.  That leaves about a handful of cities where it would work.

Good news, Buffalo Bills fans.  Forbes has a piece on who the best quarterback for the dollar is this year in the NFL and it is Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Toronto FC is still apologizing to its fans for the Mo Johnston/Preki team of 2010, ditching five players closely tied with the two.

A great bit from The Sports Pickle on using sports cliche's in everyday life.

Check out these NBA cheerleaders slam dunking.

The latest FIFA Goal of the Year nominee sees Arsenal's Samir Nasri shred FC Porto's defence.  Awesome.

RM returns this afternoon

Turkey Day throwdown

A trio of NFL games today for US Thanksgiving, starting with the Detroit Lions hosting the New England Patriots. The Pats are -7 in this one, and coming off a hard fought game with Indy, may struggle to cover that number. Like the game to see a lot of points and go over the posted 50 total. Dallas hosts defending champion New Orleans at 4:15 and strangely, I like the Cowboys at +3.5 at home in a low scoring game with two defenses that are tightening up. The night game has the New York Jets hosting Cincinnati. I'm playing the Jets as a Prime Time Pick tonight at -9 despite their last four wins coming in the last minute or in overtime.  That's living dangerously, but also pulling it out in crunch time.  Here are 9 reasons to love Thanksgiving Day, USA style, for its NFL action.

Tottenham continued a nice run in UEFA Champions League play with a 3-0 win over Werder Bremen to lock up their spot for the next round. Wayne Rooney - yes, Wayne Rooney - scored the loan goal for Manchester United in their win over Glasgow Rangers as they too punched their ticket to the next round. Neither team had players earn intentional red cards. Also locked up for the next round are Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Valencia, Schalke, Olympique Lyon, Marseille, AC Milan, Chelsea, and Bayern Munich. Four spots remain to be sorted out in the remaining game left for each team.

At least the New York Post isn't getting dramatic about the possibility of Derek Jeter leaving the Yankees. Joe Posnanski at SI.com says that there is no doubt that Jeter will remain a Yankee, it is just a question of how this all plays out.  JP also says that Jeter has been paid well - true - for the past decade, the third largest contract in baseball history behind A-Rod and A-Rod (no typo), and the Yankees shouldn't budge from the current offer.  Agree.

Which quarterback, a career 38-17 won-lost record, is being shoved aside by his head coach?  Vince Young.  

The first big free agent contract of the MLB off-season has come, and it sees Victor Martinez move from the Boston Red Sox - and isn't it a shame when a good bat leaves there? - to the Detroit Tigers. 4 years and $50 million for V-Mart.

Between 1990-1998, the Chicago Bulls never lost three straight. And then there's the Miami Heat, whose stars were chirping about winning over a handful of rings, now losers of three straight in the first month of the NBA season.  I'm not about to write them off for this year, but sure not the start they figured on.  Starting to see Chris Bosh trade ideas floating on Twitter from some prominent sources as well. Loving this trainwreck!

Don't look now, but the Toronto Raptors have won four straight.

Not sure why LA Lakers coach Phil Jackson saying that it is easier to get rid of a coach - Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was named - than the players, is a big deal.  Isn't that the old sports cliche?  Stan Van Gundy, Ron Jeremy clone, is not impressed.

The hot ladies of Entourage, singing and being, well, hot.

A couple videos to close out the proceedings today.  Enjoy.

The latest FIFA Goal of the Year nominee comes off the foot of Northern Ireland’s Matty Burrows, an unforgettable goal for Glentoran we've shown in these parts before.  Three left after today.


Yeah, football is all "man's game", right?

It is getting ugly in New York

Texas Ranger Josh Hamilton won the AL MVP with Miguel Cabrera and Robinson Cano trailing.  Some knucklehead Canadian reporter voted Toronto Blue Jay Jose Bautista as MVP, the lone vote of five he had that were in the top three, with no seconds.  Nice work, homer.

It is starting to get real ugly in the New York Yankees talks with Derek Jeter.  A day after his agent called the Yankees negotiation strategy "baffling" - and the only thing baffling is that they're offering him three  years at a load more than anyone else would at $45 million - Yankees GM Brian Cashman is now encouraging Jeter to test the open market to see if he will get a better offer than that, which the entire world knows, rightly, that he won't.  Joel Sherman at the NY Post says that Jeter's strategy seems to be "I'm Derek Jeter, pay me."   Amid all this, closer Mariano Rivera remains on the contract back-burner, and he's far more important to the Yankees 2011 than Jeter is.

Cincinnati Bengal Chad Ochocinco is looking forward to facing Mark Sanchez of the New York Jets tomorrow night since "we're both Mexican." 

Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher may be marginalizing Vince Young for more reasons than it appears: he may be looking to get fired to get a shot at some other jobs out there, including Chicago, Dallas and Houston.

The Cleveland Browns are -11 vs. Carolina?  Seriously?

Talk about paying a price: Colorado Rapids forward Macoumba Kandji tore his ACL on the winner in overtime that came off his foot to earn Colorado the MLS Cup.  Guess he wasn't trying to waste time while down, eh FC Dallas?

No, I haven't forgotten that there is Champions League action both yesterday and today, just got a little caught up in clearing the decks after a pile of links came my way.  Arsenal were surprising losers yesterday to Braga, 2-0, in a result that leaves their advancement in question.  Less surprising for the Gunners?  Cesc Fabregas left the game with an injury.  Real Madrid - as hot a team as there is in the world - went to Amsterdam and hammered Ajax 4-0.  Rest of the scores here.  Today's fixtures here.

The latest FIFA Goal of the Year nominee is off the boot of Snatos’s Neymar, who dissected Chelsea with this effort.  And why is it that Chelsea seems to often give up these solo effort goals?


Dancing Alexander Ovechkin.  Exactly how it sounds.

Chilly chilled

Looks like it wasn't just a guess here yesterday that the Green Bay Packers may have authored the demise of two rival coaches.  Brad Childress did indeed get the boot in Minnesota.  In related news, NFL analyst Rodney Harrison says here that it is time to put Brett Favre out of his misery.  Why?  We were just starting to have some fun?  For his part, Favre is giving hints he may pack it in immediately.

Sure, Peyton Manning's interception thrown in the red zone aided a few teams in his division in their playoff hunt, but you don't expect a rival QB - Jacksonville Jaguar David Garrard in this case - to tweet out "Thanks Peyton.  U da man???"

A wild weekend in the English Premier League, with Tottenham rallying from a pair down in the second half to beat rival Arsenal 3-2.  Chelsea shockingly lost again, this time 1-0 to Birmingham despite dominating, which allowed Manchester United to pull even in the Premier League with their 2-0 win over Wigan.  Sure, United may have seven draws in 14 games, but "undefeated" sounds a lot more like championship material than a team with four losses in 14, which is the case with Chelsea.   Mix in Arsenal and Manchester City and there are four teams within three points of first place.  Going to be a wild race, though United defender Patrice Evra expects his team to take the title.

Canadian boy Joey Votto was the runaway NL MVP winner, with 31 of 32 first place votes.

The Miami Heat were pounded at home 93-77 by the not-exactly-powerhouse Indiana Pacers. What a crying shame.

Turns out those NFL uniforms for next year turned out to be fakes.  Depending on your team, major relief.

Jason Whitlock has a great look at how important it is to treat being a quarterback as a full-time job, something that Brett Favre and Vince Young have failed to do.

Turkey's Hamit Altintop provides a lighning bolt for the latest FIFA Goal of the Year nominee.  What a bomb this is.

Don't get too hot now, Buffalo Bills, or you may miss out on drafting Andrew Luck.  Check out the run - and thundering shoulder - Luck dropped on the weekend.

Colorado tops the MLS mountain

The MLS Cup was played in Toronto last night with a slightly less than capacity crowd.  Wasn't nearly as frigid as it was expected to be and seemed to get warmer as the night went on.  Maybe it was just good preparations in the clothing department?  Colorado were 2-1 winners in extra time, and held off a flurry by FC Dallas in the dying minutes to claim their first MLS Cup.  Former Toronto FCer Marvell Wynne got lots of love for Colorado, and showed his appreciation for it to the fans. 

Nice show, Argos.  48-17 victims in Montreal with the Als now moving to the Grey Cup in Edmonton to face Saskatchewan.
Is it entirely lame hearing an NHL coach - and it isn't much better when a player does it - refers to a player by their nickname?  In one Toronto Sun sidebar yesterday, Carolina Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice referred to "Whitey" (Ian White, no doubt a popular nickname in the Carolinas) and "Harry" (Jay Harrison, since nobody would know or much care).  And is there anything more lame than hockey's "add a 'y' and you've got a nickname" thing?  Lots of mental horsepower at work there.

Is Toronto Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo getting paid by the move?  At what point do his bosses at MLSE say enough is enough, and that being competent or more is as important as being active?  Colangelo dealt Jarrett Jack, Marcus Banks and David Andersen to the New Orleans Hornets for the corpse known as Peja Stojakovic and Jerryd Bayless.  At least Raptors fans can look forward to a top draft pick with the defensively incapable Jose Calderon getting the bulk of the point guard minutes going forward.  Expect ugly, regardless of yesterday's surprising win over Boston.

The Green Bay Packers are on fire, outscoring opponents 85-10 the last three weeks.  They also might be the last straw in two coaches jobs.  Wade Phillips was booted from Dallas after their debacle in Green Bay three weeks back, and Brad Childress may be put out of his misery after his Minnesota Vikings showed a lot more fight on the sidelines than they did on the field yesterday.  If the Vikes are smart, they'll send Brett Favre to the curb with him.

Is it too early to start making Super Bowl matchup predictions?  I'm thinking Philadelphia will face New England or Pittsburgh.

The New York Yankees are said to be opening the Cliff Lee bidding with a five year, $120 million offer.   In other Yankees news, Derek Jeter's agent says he doesn't understand what kind of game the Yankees are playing with his client.  Tellingly, he only refers to past achievement in discussing Jeter.  Funny, but isn't part of a contract supposed to be about what you might do in the future?

I hate the spread at -8.5, but playing the San Diego Chargers to cover tonight for the Prime Time Pick regardless.  Figure they're about due to get things rolling down the stretch as they often do.

The latest FIFA Goal of the Year nominee comes from Arjen Robben, this one for Bayern Munich in the top German league.  Amazing.