I said it before and I'll say it again, the USA Mens Olympic team is in more jeopardy of coming up short on a Gold Medal than most people and journalist are willing to admit. The Americans have a lack of on-court continuity not to mention a scarcity of frontline tall bodies to compete with the elite European teams. Don't be surprised if Spain and Greece, respectively, finish in front of America when its all said and done

The NFL Training Camp sessions are here...YEAH! Which means the season is not to far off, to bad we all have to be witness to this ugly love/hate war between Brett Favre and the Green Packers. I'm like most of you, I'm sick and tired of hearing about it. I don't get the uproar thats being massaged each and every day. The Packers have decided to move on without Favre, so what, for all the great accomplishments Brett has had on the field wearing the green and gold he's also been responsible for a ton of heartache and headache. For every touchdown and wacky/amazing play he's orchestrated (in particular the last 5 plus years) he's turned around the following week and thrown 3 or 4 interceptions that cost the team dearly during the regular and/or early playoff exit.  I'm sure the Packer front office has made there share of communication mistakes along the way but I can't help but side with mgt/ownership because of their willingness the last 4 years to hang at the mercy of Favre's ego and wait to hear till the last minute if he decided he wanted to retire or not. This year mgt said enough is enough, your retired, good--happy trails, we're moving on with our potential qb of the future Aaron Rodgers...see you in 5 years at the Pro Football Hall of Fame

The best out of conference football rivalry in the history of the NFL will resume this season, in December, when the Dallas Cowboys visit Heinz Field and the Pittsburgh Steelers for the first time ever. Expect a lot of fireworks and Fan-Nation Ego thumping. The Cowboys continue to hold the AMERICA'S TEAM banner but 'Burgh fanz will tell you, even if u don't ask, that there's no deeper fan base in America professional sports than the Steelers Steel-Nation base. This might be the the first of 2 meetings for the teams, they might meet again during the first weekend of February '09 for the rights to earn their 6th Super Bowl championship

Chicago Bears finally wised up and paid their only true offensive talent on the team when they gave pk/kr Devin Hester a 4 yr. extension and a nice signing bonus. It was well deserved for a player that's already considered, after only 2 years in the league, the best return guy to ever play in the NFL. The Bears sheepishly backed down and re-worked the contract of out-dated and over-rated LB Brian Urlacher, after he complained and moaned all summer about wanting new money. They should of let Urlacher hang out to dry and forced him to honor the mega contract extension he signed 3 years ago (when he was actually an effective player on the field) and then focused their monies and attention on the one and only player people watch Bears game to see 'Fast-Flash Hester'...he's worth the contract extension and 2 prices of game-day admission

The panic in Steeler Nation over the potential sale of the storied Pittsbugh Steelers is greatly exxagerated. Even if the Rooneys have to give up majority ownership of the club they will continue to be the front crew for the team and will continue to code of excellence on and off the field. New Steeler ownership might be good for the team long-term, they could potentially have more monies to pull from when it comes time to re-sign their own players

I applaud Annika Sorenstam for once again dissing/criticizing fellow ladies golfer Michelle Wie. Wie has decided to enter another Men's PGA tournament this weekend instead of play in the more celebrated and gender correct Womens British Open. Annika pointed out that Wie continues to apply for PGA tourny's when she's yet to make the cut at any of seven PGA's she entered and on top of that for every LPGA tourney she has entered she's yet to come close to winning one of them. Michelle Wie is an average golfer who gets the attention from the media for all the wrong reasons, the notoriety should be about her yet to be discovered winning accomplishments, but instead its always about her brave attitude of taking on the mens golfers even as she continues to be overwhelmed by the courses. She might be highly talented but thats where the buck stops, she has nothing going for herself, she's not even the best lady golfer in her age class

1. I'm sure Adam 'PacMan' Jones (my bad, Adam Jones) will be on his best behavior this inaugural season in Dallas (on and off the field) but my quesion  is how will be perform from a skill and talent point of view? As much as analyst want to portray Jones as some kind of All-Pro player with the Titans before he was suspended for a year, my memory doesn't serve me in that way. Adam was an 'ok' defensive back and he returned a couple of punts for touchdowns in his brief NFL career but to say he was anything more than slightly above average athlete is a stretch.  My point is this, Adam still needs to prove that he's an every Sunday quality defensive player in the NFL, something he hadn't yet proved in Tennessee. It'll be interesting to see if he can earn a starting 'd-back' position on this Cowboy team that has most of their defensive starters in place

2. Venus Williams and Serena Williams are playing well in this years Wimbledon (they should meet in the Finals) one could only wish they will continue to focus on Tennis and not the off-the court periphery items. They can go down in Tennis history as the best to ever do it but they have to stay in shape and keep that fire burning to win every Major championship

3. Griffey Jr. hit his 600 home run recently and is a certain Hall of Famer but I can only think what could of been with Griffey if he stayed in shape and worked out more often through-out his career. If so he would of had the all-time home-run record by now and looked at as the best baseball player of all time

4. The NBA draft just concluded and I couldn't help but think and be reminded of the great collegiate Maryland Terrapin player LEN BIAS. He was drafted #2 overall by the Celtics in '86 and was on par to be another great clog in that 80's Celtics machine. An impromptu night of post-draft partying ended Len's life prematurely and the enormous potential Bias was carrying into the league. You never want to definitively project what a sports player 'would of' or 'could of' done on the professional level but its safe to say Len would of eventually been a perennial All-Star and All-Pro, and the Hall of Fame would of put him on their ballot immediately once he qualified. Len Bias was all-around skilled beast in college and couldn't be stopped, he got better every year and he was humble and appreciative of his talents...R.I.P Brotha

5. Plaxico Burress of the NFL's New York Giants is asking for more money and he should get it but again he's adding to a number of #### football players. thru the years, who go about it in the wrong way (i.e. Chad Johnson, Terrell Owens). Plax is a very good receiver who deserves a bump up in his salary but he's no All-Pro and you could argue he's not even the best receiver on his team. I'm sure eventually, once he reports to camp, the Giants will give him an increase in loot and extension but they won't pay him the max like he foolishly thinks he deserves

6. Who knew that Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, whom have been known to 'hate' on each other in the past, would have so much in common at the end of their careers

7. Andy Roddick overrated...Check!  Michelle Wie extremely overrated and shouldn't even be allowed on a professional golf course....Check! 

8. Tiger Woods probably jeopardized at least a few future Majors by playing with a fracture leg and torn ACL, winning the 2008 U.S. Open, but it was great sports theatre nonetheless. The Greatest off all-time put on another Great Show

9. Lets hope the coaching staff and QB coach at The Ohio State Buckeyes find a way to coach their new freshman phenom Terrele Pryor in a way that makes him a quarterback who looks to throw first and run only when necessary. If they do that, he should have a great college and promising NFL career. He's an extremely talented player who can run and throw with great ability but unfortunately history has proven that college coaching staffs rely more on the pure athleticism of a qb who can do both instead of coaching up the most important skill a QB must possess; Throwing. I rather see Pryor be more like the 49er style Steve Young instead of becoming a Vince Young type of player

10. If Karma has any real effects on life and potential activity, the Dallas Cowboys moving into their new stadium in a year or so are going to have nothing but bad luck and losing seasons. During the 3 year construction of their new over-priced billion dollar stadium 1 construction worker has died and numerous more have been seriously hurt

11. We all know Lakers coach Phil Jackson is a first ballot hall of famer once he retires for good but here's hoping that the architect of the Triangle Offense and the man responsible for all the success Phil has had, Coach Tex Winters, gets in to the hall of fame too (he retired 5 years ago but still consults for Jackson and the Lakers) he's in his 70's and should of been in the hall years ago, I credit him for changing the face of basketball offensive scheming...he's a legend

12. Can the commissioner of MLB and the NBA find a way to cut back on games so we don't have the baseball regular season and post-season drifting into late October-early November and the basketball playoffs starting in April and ending in middle of June. We're halfway through the NFL season by the time baseball officially ends and we're a little less than a month away from the baseball all-star game by the time basketball ends....its ridiculous

12. Lets put this false 'rumor-statement-belief' to rest once and for all. The Portland Trail Blazers did not miss out on drafting Michael Jordan. There was no reason to draft M.J. who was projected as a 2-guard because they drafted Clyde Drexler a year earlier-who was also a 2-guard. Plus nobody knew how great Jordan was going to be in the NBA, I'm sure if the Blazers had a crystal ball and could see in the future they would of drafted Jordan and traded Drexler immediately but that's not humanly possible so lets all chill out on the infamous '84 draft and realize every team drafting in the top ten that year, drafted in terms of need

13. I know it's way to early to project on this recent '08 NBA draft crop but I'm going to take a leap of faith and say the only 2 players that have potential to be perennial All-Stars in the league are Derrick Rose and Kevin Love. Westbrook, Mayo, Gordon are tweener players who aren't pure points or off-guards which will make their life difficult in the NBA. Because they were all picked in the top ten, they have the high potential to be labeled 'bust' in a few years. I think all three along with the Lopez twins will eventually be good off-the bench role players during their career

14. WNBA right now is where the NBA was during their early years (decade of the 50's); nobody paid attention much but they stuck around anyway and eventually became relevant. With players like Candace Parker in the league the WNBA is headed in the right direction and will rival the NBA in popularity and profitability in 10 years

NON-SPORTS RELATED PASSION ITEM:

15. Is it me or are there way too many TV and Radio commercials during sports programming these days? It's very distracting and it makes every game an extra 15 to 20 minutes longer (this specifically applies to the NBA and NFL...in addition National-Local sports talk shows are interruped with a bevy of 'Male Enhancement' infomercials) I know these companies got bills to pay and journalist to appease but 'come on fellas' ease back on the countless beer ads and car commericals , the U.S. economy is in a recession and nobody really cares anymore