Okay people, here’s what’s up for the next two weeks.  I’ve been
selected by a panel of prestigious film makers in Europe to be a judge
at the 2008 Sitges International Film Festival, an annual festival held
in Sitges, Spain.  Sitges is a resort seaport town just south of
Barcelona.

There will be more than 100 films, both U.S. and foreign.  I’ll keep
you informed of the difficult task I have before me while being wined
and dined in Spain.  Eat your hearts out!

What a season, so far.

The Giants have a franchise player, Plaxico Burress, who comes to
practice when he wants.

The Bills’ safety, Whitner, is pissed because the Raiders were
show-boating after they beat them.  Hell, he should be more pissed that
they lost to the lowly Raiders.

The Steelers QB, Big Ben, is spending more time on his butt than
standing up every time he goes back to pass.  The big bet seems to be
will he, or won’t he, finish the season?

The Pats are a deep threat with all pro receivers, but no once can
throw a pass past 20 yards.  Deep threat gone!

What is it with Tampa Bay?  They threw the ball 67 times in a game -
who do they think they are, the Colts?

I think the humidity in San Francisco has something to do with the
slippery ball - the 49ers have lost five fumbles so far.  How low can
you go?

The Bengals have tackled the opposing quarterback for a sack only once
so far this season.  Is that a sad sack, or what?

The Chiefs, man, you’ve got to be bad to let the Raiders beat you.  The
Chiefs have lost 12 regular season games consecutively.  Wonder what
the pep talk in the locker room is like.

What?  The Raiders lost to the Chargers.  Could it be?  The Chargers
are finally on the right track, the one they were predicted to be on.

What an unpredictable season this is turning out to be.

Did you see the fight between Sugar Shane Mosley and Mayorga?  It was
an okay fight.  Sugar knocked out Mayorga in the last 15 seconds of the
last round.

Okay, he won, but I’ve noticed a different Sugar in his last few
fights.  That killer instinct is missing.  He used to throw crushing
body blows to his opponent - I mean he used to swing with his whole
body - and if he missed the breeze would hurt.  Now, he’s content to
throw a punch and fall into the arms of his opponent.  Not the Sugar of
old, he would never clinch.  Now, clinching is part of his plan.  He is
slowly becoming a boring fighter.

You can hear is father giving him the advice of old..  “Throw body
punches, jab more…” all of which Sugar did very little of.

He won, I guess that’s the bottom line.  But I kept feeling he was
going to be knocked out in that fight.  Too many right hands were
finding their marks on Sugar’s face.  Something is missing in Sugar.
I’m a fan, so hope he finds whatever is missing before a championship
fight and then he can retire, no matter what the outcome.  Go Sugar.

Jason Taylor: Former Dolphin pro football player, no Super Bowl wins,
2nd place winner on Dancing with the Stars… What does all of this
mean? It means that Jason had better be careful - last week he was
still riding high on television but next week he may have to ride off
into the sunset. Why? Because he’s challenging Bill Parcells and
that’s not good!

Parcells is a powerful man in the NFL, much more powerful than Jason.
A few phone calls with negative information can forestall Jason’s
career, unless he decides to be a pro-dancer!
What you do from this point, Jason, and how you do it, is very
important to your future. Get your football career back on track and
in writing - then go dancing.

Me dancing next? I don’t think so.

The NFL commissioner received 8 more video tapes from Patriot’s former employee, Mat Walsh. These tapes (allegedly) show that the Pats were taping signals from other teams. So? What good are they?

At games, and pre-game practices, there are signals being flashed all over the place. As you look across the field at the opposing team giving signals to their team on the field, how do you know who is flashing the fake signals and who’s sending the signals that are real. Most importantly, even if you know which signal is real, how fast can you signal your own team that same signal? No way there is enough time to figure out the signal being sent, then get that info to your own team, then have them ruin the opposing team’s play or defense. Are you kidding?

Teams have been doing this for years and years. No big deal. Usually they spied to see if the team you were playing showed any new offensive formations - something you hadn’t seen before - so you could prepare your defense for them.

Now, about this jerk Matt Walsh, what the heck was his motivation to spill the beans in the first place. And, once the commissioner fined the Patriot’s, why couldn’t this bozo just let it alone? This is all a big to-do about nothing.

I remember when I was playing, we used to be given information on opposing teams, then we’d practice their new defensive formations, right down to some of our players wearing the opposing players jersey numbers, especially the numbers of the running backs or receivers. We never asked how they got the information, we just used it. We’ve been there, done that. We weren’t the first - and the Patriots won’t be the last. So forget it!

Especially if you are talking bad about LeBron James when you are playing against him. He might hear you. Washington’s DeShawn Stevenson said that LeBron was just an “overrated” average player. What? No, he didn’t!

We are in the first week of NBA Playoffs, the best of seven. This is the third season that the Cavs and the Wizards have met in the post-season. This is Act III, and game one is now history with LeBron doing his thing. And the Washington players are telling DeShawn to shut up.

During game one, LeBron made the play of the week with a high flying dunk that brought the crowd to its feet. Stevenson may have been trying to motivate himself or his teammates, but he also motivated LeBron.

My advice, DeShawn… keep your mouth shut, or speak very quietly. LeBron may hear you.

The Cavs in seven.

Okay, the NFL just finished one of their big meetings. Yup, the year is moving fast and they’re already talking football. That’s just fine with me. There were some interesting proposals, here are a few.

The team that wins the coin toss can defer their decision until the second half. This means if you are losing at the half you could choose to have the ball and with it a chance to score. You could literally catch up and win the game all because of the opening coin toss. Okay, that’s kool - I can live with that.

The 5-yard face mask rule is out. No penalty. But the 15 yard penalty is still in place for grabbing, twisting or pulling the face mask. I’m good with this. Did you pull the mask a little or a lot? Rather than trying to decipher the difference they are saying, “you touch the mask, it’s 15 yards”. I’ll buy that!

The force-out rule is eliminated and this can be controversial. If the receiver jumps up to catch the ball close to the side line, would he have come down in bounds if he hadn’t been pushed while in the air? Instant playback will get worked overtime for this ruling. The receiver must get both feet down in bounds, no matter what - push or no push.

Did you know that a field goal could not be reviewed by instant replay? Well, now it can. It will be interesting to see how many times this new rule is put into play.

Now, here comes the big one… Hair, to be or not to be? Still deep into heavy talks is the issue of long hair. The powers-that-be wanted the hair to be tucked under the player’s helmet. Can you picture some of the players trying to stick all that long hair under a helmet? Not happening. And, this turned out to be the most difficult situation to solve. The vote was postponed for later consideration giving the NFL reps time to discuss the matter with the Players Association.

And, that would be the long and the short of it!

Okay, so what’s the big deal? Tiger came in 5th place in a tournament. I’m sure the sports writers and the public are more concerned about it than Tiger. If I remember correctly, Tiger was on a jet going to the next tournament after Doral.

My take? The starting and stopping due to the rain was Tiger’s biggest opponent. He has intense concentration when he plays and I’m sure it would be very difficult to turn that on, off, then back on again in order to sync with the weather. It doesn’t fit his character.

I remember how intense I used to get in the locker room waiting to go out and play. The preparation had mentally started on the bus ride to the stadium. No talking, no b.s., stay away - leave me alone! All my teammates knew my routine and gave me that respect. They knew the killer instinct was brewing inside me. We would get to the stadium, dress for battle, listen to the coach give his inspirational speech, then charge out of the locker room ready to do battle. Blood boiling, ready to destroy the enemy, and what happens? Everything stops while we sing the national anthem.

Okay, look, I’m just as patriotic as you, but timing is everything. Why don’t they sing the national anthem while we are warming up on the field, not when we’re ready to do battle. We finish singing and now we have to start revving up the emotions all over again. Sometimes you can reach the same height, sometimes you can’t - and that’s the difference between a good game and a great one.

I believe Tiger suffered this change of emotions from the rain delays. He never was able to get that adrenaline rushing and regain the intensity he had earlier. And for those of you who were getting bored with his winning ways, hope this one little loss will hold you for awhile, because I expect him to be back in full form for his next tournament.

2-Peat, Same Result

Checked out the Taylor v Pavlik fight. Taylor lost. Again. What happened to Taylor’s jab? He left it home. Again. Pavlik knew where his jab was, it was in Taylor’s face, not to mention a lot of hard punches all over Taylor .

Taylor did a lot of dancing. Again. I guess we’ll see him next on “Dancing With the Stars”. Of course, that will be after he quits seeing stars from Pavlik’s punches.

In their last fight, Pavlik knocked out Taylor in the 7th round. I guess Taylor was thinking about that as he continued to dance away from Pavlik.

Taylor was determined to not let Pavlik knock him out this time. I guess Taylor considered it a personal victory to finish the fight and end up on his feet. For Pavlik the whole fight was a victory for him.

According to the judges, it wasn’t even close.

Super Fly

I don’t mean Ron O’Neal. The slam dunk contest was held the past weekend in New Orleans. Man, how many ways can you slam dunk a basketball? I’ll tell you… more ways than you can count. Here are a few of the best.

Gerald Green tried to be different by slamming the ball into the basket while he blew out a candle on a “birthday cake” he had set on top of the rim. Crazy? Yes. Crazier still because he did it! The crowd went nuts but his score - five 9’s - wasn’t enough to beat a
6’ 11” high flying Dwight Howard. Too bad Green hadn’t thought up something creative for his Slam Dunk #2. Gotta have two great dunks to beat this “sky’s the limit” competition.

As for Dwight Howard’s first dunk, he came up behind the backboard as the ball was thrown to the same position. He grabbed the ball, reached around the backboard and dunked the ball with this left hand as he looped his body around from the back to the front of the basket.
Yes! A perfect score - all 10’s from the five judges.

The judges were a who’s who of all-stars in the NBA world: Charles Barkley, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Carl Malone and Dominque Wilkins. They were obviously enjoying every second of the competition and plenty other NBA stars were joining them along with Arnold Schwarzenegger and other celebs sitting out front on the court. But even the biggest pro names couldn’t believe the shot that will become one of the classics in Slam Dunk history.

Dwight Howard was taking no prisoners as he returned to the court for his second try. He did it with style - Superman style. Peeling off his Orlando jersey to reveal a Superman tank below, one of his teammates helped him fasten a flowing red cape. He took a few steps around the court to be sure the cape was moving properly, then he took his run, cape flowing, toward the basket. He made his mighty leap and took flight just past the free-throw line. He literally flew through the air so high he actually was able to throw the ball through the basket - not just dunk it. It was an eye stopping, hand clapping, jump-to-your-feet standing ovation sight - and it was played over and over on the jumbo-tron from every angle. The judges were on their feet jumping almost as high as Howard. Cheers and salutes came from the judges and his fellow competitors. “Superman is in the house,” screamed Barkley. The Slam Dunk trophy was his for this year. Kazam!

It was something to see, and if you haven’t seen it yet, go to one of these links and don’t believe your eyes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp__vGs3fa8&eurl=http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/tag/DwightHoward/ or
http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/tag/DwightHoward/

Please, Not Again!

I watched a special on O.J. the other night. There was a camera on him as the authorities brought him from the airport the second time he was busted for talking to a witness a month or so ago. As they washed him, sprayed him and changed his clothes, he was talking non-stop to the guards. First he was talking about his golf game, then how well they treated him at the jail. Then he went on about how much he believed in the justice system and trial by jury.

Yeah, I guess that goes without saying. It sure worked in his favor at least once - and when it counted most. Being found “not guilty” in his first trial allowed him to go free all these years. Being found “guilty” in his second trial appears to have merely inconvenienced him. He should remember, however, that when you get down to the nitty gritty, his score with the justice system is 1 win, 1 loss.

We’ll all be waiting to see who breaks this tie with a win - O.J. or the jury. Stay tuned for more O.J. to come.

Too Much Time on His Hands

What’s up with pro football players and their involvement in dog fighting? Don’t they learn by example? I’m disappointed to say that Antonio Pierce was recently busted for having a fighting pit bull. The dog was seriously undernourished - one of many tactics used to make the dog more vicious and fight harder. And we’ve all learned what happens to the dogs that lose. And talking about losing dogs… shame on you, Antonio.

Say What?

A former Ram is suing the Pats for allegedly spying on his team prior to the 2002 Super Bowl. In case you haven’t guessed, the Rams lost. Please, give me a break. The $100 million lawsuit (yes $100 mil) was filed in New Orleans district court on behalf of former Ram Willie Gary and names Patriots owner Robert Kraft and head coach Bill Belichik.

Dude, how did he get an attorney to go along with this? Okay, he’s probably on the ‘if he wins he gets paid deal, but doesn’t he know the Pats can keep this in the courts for a whole heapa years. Willie Gary would have a better chance if he sued one of his own teammates for dropping a pass, making a fumble or missing a tackle.

This is such a bad idea for so many reasons and on so many levels. Man, don’t you know that the word “pro” is short for professional? Act like a pro, man. It was over for your game six years ago. It’s still over. Put on your big boy pants and be professional about it.