• The NFL Network could not be happier based on the quality of the game that America got to see tonight but the quality of the production.....nothing to write home about.

• Is it just me or did the cadence for Rich Eisen's voice change since he's left ESPN? He almost sounded like he was doing a bad Howard Cossell imitation. Not to pile it on ol' Rich, but he also looks like he aged about 20 years since he left ESPN. What must Alycia Lane be thinking now?

• As much as I love Deion Sanders and Marshall Faulk, there pregame commentary was about as useless and uninsightful as could be. Even Steve Marriucci's pregame commentary seemed geared toward folks that have never watched football. I must say though that Deion and the boys looked sharp as usual.

• And on the opposite end of the "sharp" spectrum, who dresses Cris Collinsworth and Bryant Gumbel? Collinsworth looks like he got his suit at the thrift store and Gumbel looks like he's off to teach a Literature class.

• While I'm on the subject of Bryant Gumbel, I must say that he is a positively awful play-by-play announcer. He should stick to conducting interviews. How rough it is for Collinsworth to have to work with someone who always seems on the verge of wanting to cross examine him. I'd imagine Gumbel caught an afternoon matinée of Denzel's movie, "The Great Debaters" and wanted to try to pick an argument with Collinsworth.

• Could anyone else not hear the National Anthem or was it just me?

• The Giants are one corner and one receiver away from being a solid football team. Plaxico Burress and Aaron Ross are solid but Amani Toomer is not a #2 receiver anymore and the combination of Corey Webster and Sam Madison couldn't cover the chair I'm sitting in right now. Either Mario Manningham or Aquib Talib will look good in Giants blue come 2008.

• I would have nightmares if I were an AFC Secondary coach trying to figure out a way to stop Moss, Welker, Stallworth and Gaffney.\

• I would have nightmares if I were an AFC Linebackers coach trying to figure out a way to stop Ben Watson or Kevin Faulk.

• Speaking of Faulk, 8 catches for 64 yards including to catches that resulted in first downs on scoring drives for the Pats in the second half... those are solid numbers. Faulk may be the most underrated part of the Patriots offense but tonight, he was money in the bank.

• 26 rushes, 32 receptions, 4 kickoff returns and 2 punt returns. 64 "touches" and no fumbles. That's why the Pats are 16-0.

• Is anybody else sick of hearing Mercury Morris and the '72 Dolphins whine about the Patriots season?

• Alycia Lane sure is hot!  And crazy as a loon!

Tonight on the FoxSports.com Bloggers Show I am going to devote the full time to discussing College Football. Whatever you want to discuss; opening weekend upsets (Michigan), overrated teams (Florida State and Notre Dame), big games to watch for this week, schools, coaches, players and polls. It's all College Football, all night on the FoxSports.com Bloggers Show!

The 16th installment of the FoxSports.com Bloggers Show will air on Wednesday, September 5 at 10:00pm EST. Guests will include:

The topic we will be discussing is:

"It's all College Football, all night!!!"

Special thanks to the folks at FoxSports.com for promoting the show, the FoxSports Funhouse and BlogTalkRadio.com





The call in number is (646) 478-5128

To access the show, click on the BlogTalkRadio Button here:

While most College Football fans have had August 30 circled on their calendar's for some time and NFL fans can't wait for Thursday, September 6, there is one more date that all true football fans should be aware of.

Saturday, August 2.

On Saturday, August 2, approximately 360,000 children, ages 5-16 will take to the football field as Pop Warner football kicks off it's 78th season.  While many of you will be glued to your television sets or heading off to support your favorite college football team, I would encourage you to find a local Pop Warner game and go out and support some of these wonderful and hard working kids! 

Coach Urban Meyer with a few of my Knights at the University of Florida Football Camp

According to the Pop Warner website: "Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc. (PWLS) is a non-profit organization that provides youth football and cheer and dance programs for participants in 41 states and several countries around the world. Consisting of approximately 360,000 young people ranging from ages 5 to 16 years old, PWLS is the largest youth football, cheer and dance program in the United States."  Pop Warner was founded in 1929. 

As the President and Junior Pee Wee Head Coach for the Deland Knights Youth Football and Cheer Association, I have been actively involved with youth football for the past five seasons.  As much as I love my Gators and my New York Jets, there is no team that I have a greater passion for then my beloved Deland Knights.  I have committed myself to being the best league president and Head Coach that I can be and I know my kids have worked very hard to get ready for this season, as I'm sure most of these kids have worked really hard to get ready for this season.

For those of us that are big fans of youth football, it is a 365 day a year undertaking.From fund raising in December and January, to attending coaches clinics in February, to off season training and team meetings in March and April, to summer Flag football season in May and June, to training in July and kicking off the season in August, most youth football teams have been working toward August 2 since November of last year. 

Coaching legends Bobby Bowden and Frank Irizarry comparing notes at the 2007 Nike COY Clinic

Even though our team won the 2006 Mid-Florida Conference (the SEC of youth football) Mitey-Mite Eastern Division championship last year, our kids and coaches did not rest on their laurels.  Most of our kids went through rigorous off season training programs.  For example, my son John attended the University of Florida Football camp, played Spring/Summer flag football and worked out three times a week with a personal trainer at the All Star Sports Training complex (you really need to check this out to see the future of training for youth athletics).  This is no longer the exception as it fast becomes the norm in southern youth football.

John and Gators Defensive Coordinator Charlie Strong

Tonight on the FoxSports.com Bloggers Show I am going to devote the full time to discussing College Football. Whatever you want to discuss; opening weekend, big games to watch for this season, schools, coaches, players and polls. It's all College Football, all night on the FoxSports.com Bloggers Show!

***Note***

For this week only, the FoxSports.com Bloggers Show is moving to 11:00 PM EST. We will return to our usual 10:00PM EST slot next week.

The 15th installment of the FoxSports.com Bloggers Show will air on Wednesday, August 29 at 11:00pm EST. Guests will include:

The topic we will be discussing is:

"It's all College Football, all night!!!"

Special thanks to the folks at FoxSports.com for promoting the show, the FoxSports Funhouse and BlogTalkRadio.com





The call in number is (646) 478-5128

To access the show, click on the BlogTalkRadio Button here:

.........well here is your chance to make your case!

Tonight on the FoxSports.com Bloggers Show I am going to devote the full time to discussing College Football. The topic for the show will be:

"I believe my favorite college team has a shot at winning the BCS National Championship!"

I have six fantastic guests this week and they will get five-seven minutes to make the case why their favorite team will win the BCS National Championship. Slots for next week will be limited to one person per school so if you want to make a case, drop me a line at Gatordebate@aol.com as soon as possible.

The 14th installment of the FoxSports.com Bloggers Show will air on Wednesday, August 22 at 10:00pm EST. Guests will include:

Marty Walker (Ohio State)

Lisa4USC (USC)

Nostradomus (Nebraska)

Rev (Florida)

Josh Q. Public (BC)

KSP113 (Penn State)

The topic we will be discussing is:

"I believe my favorite college team has a shot at winning the BCS National Championship!"

Special thanks to the folks at FoxSports.com for promoting the show, the FoxSports Funhouse and BlogTalkRadio.com





The call in number is (646) 478-5128

To access the show, click on the BlogTalkRadio Button here:

The 13th installment of the FoxSports.com Bloggers Show will air on Wednesday, August 15 at 10:00pm EST. This week's guests include:

rivjo, ksp113, joshq.public

Topics will include:

1. Can the Yankees catch the Red Sox in the suddenly hot AL East?
2. Can you win in baseball without an out of control payroll?
3. Can Rick Ankiel be the real life incarnation of Roy Hobbs?
   

Special thanks to the folks at FoxSports.com for promoting the show, the FoxSports Funhouse and BlogTalkRadio.com





The call in number is (646) 478-5128

To access the show, click on the BlogTalkRadio Button here:

The 12th installment of the FoxSports.com Bloggers Show will air on Wednesday, August 8 at 10:00pm EST. This week's guests include:

Flying Pig, Miracle, and Shooter B

Topics will include:

1. Barry Bonds and the homerun record
2. NFL Training Camp holdouts
3. Jermaine O'Neal to the Lakers?

Special thanks to the folks at FoxSports.com for promoting the show, the FoxSports Funhouse and BlogTalkRadio.com





The call in number is (646) 478-5128

To access the show, click on the BlogTalkRadio Button here:

The times they are a changin' for the All Star Bloggers Show!

I recently spoke with Steve Miller, managing editor of Fox Sports.com and both he and his boss have been checking out the show and they like what they have been hearing. They've also seen some of the buzz that the show has generated on the blogs. They have asked if I would be interested in having FoxSports.com promote the show and of course I said yes. Possibly for this week and definitely by next week, they will begin running a link to the show on the FoxSports.com website. They will include a blurb concerning guests and topics. There is concern about routing traffic away from the Fox Sports site but I have agreed to do some promotion of Fox Sports.com on the show (The Fox Funhouse page in particular).

Steve seems to think that the show may get so much traffic that we may crash the BlogTalkRadio server. I have alerted the folks at BTR so they are preparing for tomorrow (as best as they can) and they will hopefully be set by next week.

I will be sending Steve a list of guests and topics every Tuesday and he will begin linking the show to the Fox Sports site. The ultimate goal will be to get FoxSports.com to actually house the show right on their site but they are not at that point yet.

I can use your help folks. I would love it if you could go onto the blogs and promote the show. The new show name is:

The Fox Sports.com Bloggers Show (do not refer to it as the "Fox Sports Bloggers Show"...you need the "dotcom" in there to avoid me getting an earful from the TV Division)
The url is:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/FoxSportsdotcom_Blog
gers_Show
If you'd like to put a button for the show on your blog, here is the html code that you can copy and paste in:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hostpage.aspx?host_i
d=4930">http://www.blogtalkradio.com/images/B
TR_Button_88x31.gif" />

I am keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow night!

As for the show tomorrow night....................................

Eleventh show and we are still going strong!

This week's FoxSports.com Bloggers Show will air at 10:00 pm EST on Wednesday evening.

Our guests this week will be:

Wednesday, August 1, 2007, 10:00 pm EST

1. Lisa4USC
2. Demonicume
   
3. Broblog
4. bluegrassLady
5. Reve
   rend Rhythm
   

We have some interesting items to discuss this week including:

1) Race and sports. Does race play a role in the way the fans, the media and others look at the Barry Bonds situation, the Michael Vick case and even the Donaghy referee scandal. Broblog and Demonicume will be on board to debate that.

2) Bringing their "He said, She said" blog to the show, bluegrassLady and the Rev will be debating the future of the Boston Celtics in light of the Garnett trade.

3) Lisa will open the show and will be on board for some football discussion. College football season is ONLY 27 days away!

We will discuss/debate these issues but we also want to hear what YOU have to say!

The call in number is (646) 478-5128. Please don't hesitate to call in. Part of what makes the show special is the interaction with the callers who bring such a strong dimension to the show. Also, if you would like to be a guest on the All-Star Bloggers show, please contact me at Gatordebate@aol.com. There are so many great bloggers out there and I want to give anyone that wants to have it, a chance to come on the show. Make no mistake folks, the show is not about me but about the great guests we have had, we are having and will continue to have. This is a show by the bloggers and for the bloggers.

I hope you all tune in on Wednesday evening!

Tenth show and we are still going strong!

This week's All-Star Bloggers show will air at 10:00 pm EST on Wednesday evening.

Our guests this week will be:

Wednesday, July 25, 2007, 10:00 pm EST
SoCalSportsFan
Broblog

We have some interesting items to discuss this week including:

1) Mike Vick - Will he ever play again in the NFL and what does this scandal to to him, the team and the league as a whole?

2) The NBA Referee Scandal - Does this doom the prospects of an NBA franchise moving to Vegas?

3) Ian Johnson says he needs extra security for his wedding in Boise.  Is this a sad ending to an otherwise storybook tale?

We will discuss/debate these issues but we also want to hear what YOU have to say!

The call in number is (646) 478-5128. Please don't hesitate to call in. Part of what makes the show special is the interaction with the callers who bring such a strong dimension to the show. Also, if you would like to be a guest on the All-Star Bloggers show, please contact me at Gatordebate@aol.com. There are so many great bloggers out there and I want to give anyone that wants to have it, a chance to come on the show. Make no mistake folks, the show is not about me but about the great guests we have had, we are having and will continue to have. This is a show by the bloggers and for the bloggers.

I hope you all tune in on Wednesday evening!

Ninth show and we are still going strong!

This week's All-Star Bloggers show will air at 10:00 pm EST on Wednesday evening.

Our guests this week will be:

Wednesday, July 18, 2007, 10:00 pm EST
SoCalSportsFan
FishElkhornCreek

We have some interesting items to discuss this week including:

1) Gary Sheffield's controversial comments about Joe Torre and the Yankees.
2) Massive contracts given out in the past week to Dwight Freeney and Ichiro. Is there a long term impact?
3) Barry Bonds inches closer to the Home Run record. We will discuss the "Al Capone" of baseball and the issues surrounding the record.

We will discuss/debate these issues but we also want to hear what YOU have to say!

The call in number is (646) 478-5128. Please don't hesitate to call in. Part of what makes the show special is the interaction with the callers who bring such a strong dimension to the show. Also, if you would like to be a guest on the All-Star Bloggers show, please contact me at Gatordebate@aol.com. There are so many great bloggers out there and I want to give anyone that wants to have it, a chance to come on the show. Make no mistake folks, the show is not about me but about the great guests we have had, we are having and will continue to have. This is a show by the bloggers and for the bloggers.

I hope you all tune in on Wednesday evening!

We are heading into the eighth installment of the show folks and still going strong. The feedback has been great. This week's All-Star Bloggers show will air at 10:00 pm EST on Wednesday evening. We have had over 1200 hits on the show on the archive and our live listener base has been strong so I thank you for that!

Last week, I tweaked the show format a bit and did the show by myself and went right to the phone lines. This week I will have two guests and we will divide the show into two segments; a 10:00-10:30 segment and a 10:30-11:00 segment. The lineup for this week is as follows:


Wednesday, July 11, 2007, 10:00 pm EST
kenrickthomas - 10:00
Neil Blackmon (theninthinning) - 10:30

We have some interesting items to discuss this week including:

1) The topic of the quality of blogging on the Fox Sports site as well as some interesting political commentary was brought up last week by Kendrick so we will discuss that a bit.

2) The Major League All-Star game is taking front and center sports news so we will wrap up the first half of the season and look ahead to the second half of the season with Neil. Neil is a good friend of mine and he is new to the Fox Sports blogging community so I wanted to get him on the show to introduce himself and talk some baseball. He really is like a young Peter Gammons!

We will discuss/debate these issues but we also want to hear what YOU have to say!

Just a few quick things:

1) The show is going to go on at 10:00 pm instead of 11:00 for those of you that can't remember when we air.

2) Promote the show. Mention the upcoming show in your blogs. Maybe include a link to the show:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/All_Star_Bloggers_Sh
ow

the more promotion = the more listeners.

3) I think I'm doing better with the phone calls each week and I'll try to do even better this week. As I've been saying, the show is a work in progress and I know some folks did not get their calls through last week. I will try my best to correct this.

4) The call in number is (646) 478-5128. Please don't hesitate to call in. Part of what makes the show special is the interaction with the callers who bring such a strong dimension to the show. Also, if you would like to be a guest on the All-Star Bloggers show, please contact me at Gatordebate@aol.com. There are so many great bloggers out there and I want to give anyone that wants to have it, a chance to come on the show. Make no mistake folks, the show is not about me but about the great guests we have had, we are having and will continue to have. This is a show by the bloggers and for the bloggers. I promise to try my best to not mess it up!

I hope you all tune in on Wednesday evening!

After a day of backyard barbeque's,drinking some brews, and watching baseball, make sure you come on over to BlogTalkRadio.com and check out this week's All-Star Bloggers Show. This week's All-Star Bloggers show will air at 10::00 pm EST on Wednesday evening.

The guests for this week's show will be..........................

YOU!!!

That's right folks, this week's guests will be the callers that call into the show. In the spirit of Independence Day (coupled with the fact that few folks would commit to doing a show on a holiday), we are turning the entire show over to the callers, many of whom are great bloggers at Fox Sports. Over the past few weeks, I've had trouble getting to all of the callers so for this week we will take a page from the Rush Limbaugh playbook and have "open mike Wednesday."

Got a rant? Share it with us.

Got a question? Share it with me.

Looking for a debate? Bring it on!

I'll give my rant on what's got me worked up in the world of sports and then the phone lines will open!

There are a few things that have ME pissed off in the world of sports this week:

1) Big Papi should not be starting in the 2007 MLB All-Star game. The guy played seven games at 1B and either Youkilis or Morneau should be starting ahead of him. He is NOT a first baseman.

2) Grant Hill is thinking of going to the Suns? The guy makes $93 million from the Magic who stuck with him through a ton of injury plagued seasons and this is how he wants to pay back the fans of Orlando? What a jerk.

3) Yi Gianlin says he wants to be traded from the Bucks. I think he should just shut up and sign with the team that drafted him but I don't think the Bucks did there homework either. Just like when the Magic drafted Rudy Fernandez with the 11th pick a few years back and he opted to stay in Spain, should teams do a bit more homework before they make a draft day blunder?

I will give my take on these issues but I also want to hear what YOU have to say!

Just a few quick things:

1) The show is going to go on at 10:00 pm. This will be our time slot.

2) Promote the show. Mention the upcoming show in your blogs. Maybe include a link to the show:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/All_Star_Blogger
s_Show

the more promotion = the more listeners.

3) The call in number is (646) 478-5128. Please don't hesitate to call in. Part of what makes the show special (and this show in particular) is the interaction with the callers who bring such a strong dimension to the show. Also, if you would like to be a guest on the All-Star Bloggers show, please contact me at Gatordebate@aol.com. There are so many great bloggers out there and I want to give anyone that wants to have it, a chance to come on the show. Make no mistake folks, the show is not about me but about the great guests we have had, we are having and will continue to have. This is a show by the bloggers and for the bloggers. I promise to try my best to not mess it up!

I hope you all tune in on Wednesday evening!

I never thought I would see a worst dressed draftee than Karl Malone in the 1985 NBA Draft.....

...until I saw Joakim Noah come on the stage tonight!

The bow tie might be worse than the knit tie and although Malone looked like he pulled a pair of old Dockers out of his closet and mugged a 6'11" waiter on his way to the draft, nothing compares to the Krusty the Klown Hair and the peace sign. This image will live in infamy FOREVER!!!

Go Gators!

We are heading into the sixth installment of the show folks and still going strong. The feedback has been great. This week's All-Star Bloggers show will air at 10::00 pm EST on Wednesday evening. We have had over 1000 hits on the show on the archive and our live listener base has been strong so I thank you for that!

The lineup for this week is as follows (and what a lineup it is!):


Wednesday, June 27, 2007, 10:00 pm EST
rivjo
joshQpublic
MartyWalker

We have some interesting items to discuss this week including:

We will discuss/debate these issues but we also want to hear what YOU have to say!

Just a few quick things:

1) The show is going to go on at 10:00 pm instead of 11:00 for those of you that can't remember when we air.

2) Promote the show. Mention the upcoming show in your blogs. Maybe include a link to the show:

 http://www.blogtalkradio.com/All_Star_Blo
ggers_Show

the more promotion = the more listeners.

3) I think I'm doing better with the phone calls each week and I'll try to do even better this week. As I've been saying, the show is a work in progress and I know some folks did not get their calls through last week. I will try my best to correct this.

4) The call in number is (646) 478-5128. Please don't hesitate to call in. Part of what makes the show special is the interaction with the callers who bring such a strong dimension to the show. Also, if you would like to be a guest on the All-Star Bloggers show, please contact me at Gatordebate@aol.com. There are so many great bloggers out there and I want to give anyone that wants to have it, a chance to come on the show. Make no mistake folks, the show is not about me but about the great guests we have had, we are having and will continue to have. This is a show by the bloggers and for the bloggers. I promise to try my best to not mess it up!

I hope you all tune in on Wednesday evening!

I can't believe we are heading into the fifth installment of the show. The feedback has been great. This week's All-Star Bloggers show will air at 10::00 pm EST on Wednesday evening. We have had close to 1000 hits on the show on the archive and our live listener base has been strong so I thank you for that!

The lineup for this week is as follows:


Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 10:00 pm EST
GR8ONE54
broblog
ksp113

We have a lot of items to discuss this week including:

We will discuss/debate these issues but we also want to hear what YOU have to say!

Just a few quick things:

1) The show is going to go on at 10:00 pm instead of 11:00. This will be our time slot for good.

2) Promote the show. Mention the upcoming show in your blogs. Maybe include a link to the show:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/All_Star
_Bloggers_Show

the more promotion = the more listeners.

3) I think I'm doing better with the phone calls each week and I'll try to do even better this week. As I've been saying, the show is a work in progress and I know some folks did not get their calls through last week. I will try my best to correct this.

4) The call in number is (646) 478-5128. Please don't hesitate to call in. Part of what makes the show special is the interaction with the callers who bring such a strong dimension to the show. Also, if you would like to be a guest on the All-Star Bloggers show, please contact me at Gatordebate@aol.com. There are so many great bloggers out there and I want to give anyone that wants to have it, a chance to come on the show. Make no mistake folks, the show is not about me but about the great guests we have had (thanks Lisa, Rev, Steeler, MeanD, Dan, AK47, Demon, ricko, Hoffman, rivjo, bluegrassLady and chuxtory) we are having and will continue to have. This is a show by the bloggers and for the bloggers. I promise to try my best to not mess it up!

I hope you all tune in on Wednesday evening!