U.S. Rallies for a Draw

Despite having to finish up its World Cup Qualifying against Costa Rica at RFK Stadium on Wednesday night, to the United States men's national team, the sport itself took a back seat to very serious matters.

Early Wednesday morning, teammate and striker Charlie Davies was seriously injured in a car accident that occured outside Washington DC. The accident claimed the life of 22-year old Ashley J. Roberta. Davies was seriously injured in the crash and in expected to be at Washington Hospital Center Medstar for at least a week. The injuries Davies sustained in the crash could keep him out of next year's World Cup in South Africa.

For the US, taking the field against Costa Rica in the wake of the tragic news must have been very tough, yet they were there at RFK Stadium, trying to solidify first place in the CONCACAF Hexagonal standings, which it did, as the US rallied from a two-goal deficit to preserve a 2-2 tie against Costa Rica.

(Continue to Soccer 24-7)

USF, Cincy Battle in Prime Time

The Big East LOVES to have center stage.

The conference that has too many basketball teams and too few football teams puts its two big guns on display Thursday night before a national television audience on ESPN.

The Cincinnati Bearcats, unbeaten at 5-0 and ranked 8th in the AP, 9th in the USA Today polls, comes to Raymond James Stadium to tangle with South Florida, also unbeaten at 5-0 and newly-entered into the polls at 21st.

Something's gotta give.

(Continue to Running with the Bulls)

Cardinals Have Questions

To begin the week, Arizona Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt answered questions by questioning himself.

He criticized himself for the Cardinals' inability to establish a running game in their 28-21 win over the Houston Texans in October 11 at University of Phoenix Stadium.

The Cardinals rushed for 44 yards on 16 attempts. Arizona saw an eight-man front from Houston for most of the game. The Cardinals,2-2, will probably see it again when they face the Seattle Seahawks Oct. 18 on the road. Whisenhunt said the front discouraged the Cardinals from sticking with designed running plays. Instead, Arizona had to check off into pass plays, which after time, made its offensive attack predictable.

"There were at least a half dozen plays that would have been huge plays had we connected on (passes), but that's probably the biggest regret I have, not calling more run plays that were just runs without checks," Whisenhunt told The Arizona Republic.

(Continue to Arizona Sportspage)

Bucs' Best Chance for a Win

There's no other way to put it.

Fact is, these Tampa Bay Buccaneers of Raheem Morris are playing like dogs. And perhaps that's an insult to dogs.

After getting wiped out at Philadelphia, the lads from Tampa Bay are home again and they're home with just an ounce of hope.

Hope is arriving Sunday in the form of the 1-3 Carolina Panthers. This MAY be the Bucs best shot at winning, not this week, this year.

(Continue to Buccaneer Bow Shots)

Laraque in Hot Water over Ad

Georges Laraque usually gets into trouble on the ice as an enforcer with the Montreal Canadiens. The 6-f0ot-3, 253-pound right wing began his 12th NHL season this year with 52 goals and 1,098 penalty minutes in 667 career games.

Now, the 33-year-old is in hot water with the league and women's groups for appearing in a commercial for an alcohol drink that shows him playing street hockey with several scantily-clad women.

The commercial has no dialogue and can be viewed at 33mag.com.

According to Article 25.1 of the league's collective bargaining agreement: "No player shall be involved in any endorsement or sponsorship of alcoholic beverages (excluding malt-based beverages such as beer) and/or tobacco products."

(Continue to Through the 5 Hole)

Safin Refuses to Shake Hands

When you see Marat Safin walking with the shadows of his past glory beside him and with the end of his career approaching, playing against Mr Unstability Thomas Berdych, you could expect everything but a straight match.

The encounter filled up with the expectations. In the first set Safin dominated the match with 6 aces while Berdych was out-played and seemingly close to retirement. After that the Czech received treatment and finished to win the match.

Safin refused to shake his adversary's hand. Later, in the press room, he confirmed once again his genuinity and spontaneity of tongue and mind.

"Don't pretend that you are injured and then you start running around and start to hit winners and then all of a sudden you pull the hands up in the air after winning the match? ... So then of course the guy will say 'No, I've been injured but then I felt a little bit better'.

"Of course he will find 10,000 excuses. Still, it's not enough. You're playing or you're not playing”.

(Continue to ATP Tennis 360)

UFC 108 Card Taking Shape

As per usual, the UFC will be holding another year end card in Las Vegas featuring some of the promotion's most talented fighters.

Only this time there are a few differences. Most notably, the fact that the year end card -- UFC 108 -- will actually be held in the new year, January 2nd to be exact.

The usually star-studded event is trending that way again with three of its first four rumored bouts. The main attraction looks to be a middleweight title defense as Anderson Silva (25-4), the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, defends his title against recent middleweight acquisition Vitor Belfort (18-8).

(Continue to Fighter's Corner)

Cool Hands Reign in SoCal

Joe Torre and Mike Scioscia remind me of each other, because all these two men do is produce winning ballclubs. Their styles might not be mirror images of one another, but their results are.

Fans in Los Angeles are fortunate to have Torre and Scioscia in the dugout. They are two managers who make the right moves.

Yeah, of course, managers win with talent. Don't forget what the late Yankees manager Ralph Houk told a sports journalist who once asked him what it took to be a great manager.

"Great players," Houk replied.

(Continue to Justice Is Served)

Showdown Sunday in New Orleans

The table is set, and for the first time in the Grill Room's short but storied history, the top two teams in our NFL 100-PROOF RANKINGS are bubbling over and ready to uncork what they've been bottling in order to see which team is made of the strongest stuff.

And though it's oh-so tempting to continue pouring out an endless stream of metaphors to set up what's on tap in this 100-proof matchup, we'll just call for the tab, and point out how appropriate it is that the showdown between the No. 1 Giants and No. 2 Saints is in New Orleans.

Let's pop the keg on this baby already! Er, sorry...

(Continue to The Grill Room)

Time for Quinn to Get Out of Cleveland

I've always hoped that Brady Quinn could make it in Cleveland, just like I root for all Notre Dame players to do well in the NFL.

But it was more than that. I thought that it would be a story-book scenario if the Ohio native/matinee idol could star for the team he rooted for as a child. That's why I was thrilled when the Browns drafted him, even though it was painful watching the kid get hung out to dry as he dropped through the draft.

Now, however, I'm thinking it might be best for Brady to get out Cleveland, which is still a mess and will have trouble winning two more games (Last week's 6-3 victory over Buffalo has to be one of the ugliest games in NFL history.) Let him go some place more stable, which would be about 25 other teams in the league.

(Continue to Bob Birge's Irish Eyes Are Smiling)

Dolphins Climb Back into Race

The Jets-Dolphins rivalry is back, and the nation got a chance to see two up-and-coming football teams play a classic game Monday night.

Ronnie Brown and the Wildcat got the better of the Jets, with Brown scoring a 2-yard touchdown run with six seconds left to give the Fins a 31-27 win that puts them back in the AFC East race.

There were several positives in the performance, and many of them were on offense.

(Continue to Dolphins Watch)

Ugly Start for Maple Leafs

Are the Toronto Maple Leafs really this bad?!

I mean after Brian Burke's summer of cleaning house, this is what the Maple Leafs are? A team that can't keep the puck out of its own net, is horrid down-low in its own end, has trouble finishing at the other end, and compounds one dumb penalty after another by being a putrid 57.9% on the penalty kill so far this season?

Yikes!

Well at least they can fight (witness Colton Orr tangling with Donald Brashear, above). And to their credit, the Maple Leafs did battle the Rangers for a bit last night before succumbing under the weight of their own ineptitude to the tune of a 7-2 final at Madison Square Garden.

(Continue to Jim Cerny's Rink Rap)

Should Cardinals Keep LaRussa?

Cardinal manager Tony LaRussa is the biggest free agent of the non playing roster heading into 2010.

LaRussa has been in St. Louis a long time. How long? Current Dodger Manager Joe Torre was the last full-time manager before Tony.

All indications point to a LaRussa return. But should the future Hall of Fame Manager come back to the Cardinals? Part of me says yes, part of me says the Cardinals need different and fresh direction. Has Tony brought the Cardinals as far as he can these days?

Yes, he led them to the 2004 and 2006 World Series winning it in 2006. So yes, he deserves to write his own ticket whether to stay or go.

(Continue to Paul's Redbird Report)

Expectations vs. the Spread

Let's talk more about expectations, specifically how teams have done against the spread this decade.

The first thing to realize, if you don't already, is that the spread is NOT a measure of how much Vegas thinks a team is going to win or lose by. It is a measure of what Vegas thinks the betting public thinks a team is going to win or lose by. Their goal is to get the number of bets on either side of the line as close to equal as they can, thereby ensuring that they'll win as much as they lose, making a profit on the vig they charge to place the bets. So it's in their best interest to know not only how good teams are and how they match up, but more importantly what the betting public thinks of how good teams are and how they match up.

So the spread can be seen as the mean, or middle, of public expectation. Half the people think a team will beat the spread, the other half don't. Looking at how teams have performed against these expectations can give us a good idea into whether they're truly underrated, overrated, or rated just about right.

(Continue to The National Championship Issue)

Spike to Air UFC 104 Prelims

Following in the tradition -- albeit short -- of UFC 103, the UFC and Spike will once again join forces to air UFC 104: Machida vs. Shogun preliminary bouts.

The fights will air at 6 pm PST or one hour prior to the pay-per-view (PPV) broadcast featuring a main event with Lyoto Machida defending his Light Heavyweight belt for the first time against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

In similar fashion to its debut at UFC 103 last month, Spike will show two guaranteed fights while potentially showing a third depending on how the prelim fights go. The two guaranteed fights will feature a light heavyweight contest between Ryan Bader and Eric Schafer as well as a heavyweight matchup between Antoni Hardonk and Pat Barry.

(Continue to Fighter's Corner)