Carlo Ancelotti was requested to get ex-Arsenal midfielder Patrick Vieira for the nest January season.Chelsea is gonna miss many mid-field players due to African Nations Cup which is due to be help in the early next year. Ancelotti sees Vieira as an ideal cover for Michael Essien in mid-filed. He is seen in interaction with Vieira at inter-milan.
Seems like Vieira could be the first name on Ancelotti’s wish-list.
The 2009 UEFA Champions League Final football match will be contested by Barcelona and holders Manchester United, The match is to be played at the 72,698-capacity Stadio Olimpico in Rome, the home of Roma and Lazio, on 27 May 2009 at 7-30 pm IST.
Manchester United are the first defending champions to reach the final since Juventus in 1997, and will be looking to be the first team to retain the European Cup since Milan in 1990.
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Mike Singletary
Mike Singletary replaced Mike Nolan on Monday as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. Nolan was largely ineffective in his tenure with the team that dominated the National Football League during the heydays of Joe Montana, Steve Young, Jerry Rice and a coach named Bill Walsh.
But now, with Singletary in the charge, the team will be run by the middle linebacker some say was the best in league history. And he’s also the player whose image represents television technology at its best.
Remember the first time the close-up camera captured Singletary’s intense look as a play was being called? Has there ever been a more vivid image in NFL history?
If Singlestary can install some the same intense degree of concentration, they’ve got to improve, right?
The National Football League has announced the price of Super Bowl ticket will both increase and decrease for next year’s game.
Twenty-five percent of the tickets for the game Feb. 1 in Glendale, Ariz. will be $1,000. A majority of tickets will be priced at $800 with the remainder priced at $500. The latter two prices are lower than last year.
The first Super Bowl was played 43 years ago in the Los Angeles Coliseum and the tickets cost $6, $10 and $12.
Ticket prices surpassed $100 in 1988, which means they’ve increased ten-fold in 20 years.
I’m not a NFL fan, but a Super Bowl ticket for $1,000?
Let’s see . . . with $1,000 I’d rather . . .
1. Buy a new laptop;
2. Make an extra mortgage payment;
3. Make a sweet credit card payment;
4. Throw a great party, buy a lot of pizza and beer and chips and salsa and watch the game at home with good friends . . . and probably save $800.
How many broadcasters does it take to do on NFL football game?
I’m no NFL fan, but I just spent a week in Missouri and visited a few sports pubs along the route of the Tour of Missouri. Either college or NFL games were on most of the time, including last Sunday night on ESPN.
Chris Berman, ESPN announcer
The sports pub in the hotel had about 20 flat screen televisions, most broadcasting the NF pre-game show. There was Chris Berman, Mike Ditka, Tom Jackson, all long-time NFL broadcasters, sharing opinions and then asking for the opinions of Keyshawn Johnson and Cris Carter.
Five guys reporting on the pre-game show? What could all five possibly have to say that three guys couldn’t say or most likely what two guys couldn’t say?
And as if the five NFL opinion-makers (all trying to outdo each other with their respective suit-and-tie coordination), didn’t have enough to say, the producers opted to go to a Stuart Scott, a sixth broadcaster, who was stationed on the stadium sidelines. He had an opinion, too.
Six announcers, not one down played yet, lots of opinions. That’s one good reason I gave up watching Monday Night Football years ago and now Sunday Night Football, too — unless, of course, I’m on the road in a hotel sports bar with nothing better to do.
The start of college football is still a couple of weeks away, but that doesn’t stop prognosticators from giving their opinions long before one down is played.
Georgia running back Knowshon Moreno
And since college football is huge Florida, the Orlando Sentinel has already taken it upon itself to forecast five players to watch as leading candidates for the Heisman Trophy, the award given annually to be best collegiate players.
Tim Stephens of the Sentinel’s staff offers these candidates:
Sam Bradford, quarterback Oklahoma; Chase Daniel, quarterback, Missouri; Chris Wells, running back, Ohio State; Tim Tebow, quarterback, Florida; and Knowshon Moreno, running back, Georgia.
According to Stephens, Georgia is getting heavy hype, which may put Moreno in a huge spotlight. And he’s gotta be a favorite among headline writers around the country, too, with his poetic first name.
After more than 30 years as a reporter, many of my assignments and interviews are a blur. But some of my memories from the late 1970s include weekly visits to booster clubs meetings for the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders.
Jim Jenkins, my first sports editor at The Sacramento Bee, sent me to Monday nigh meetings at either the Dante Club or Neptune’s Table, both Sacramento restaurants.
The invited players — Joe Montana to Ken Stabler, Cliff Branch to Dwight Clark — talked over dinner to fans about the previous day’s game and then gave outlooks for the next week’s contest.
One of the frequent guests at the Raiders’ gatherings was Gene Upshaw, the Pro Football Hall of Fame guard who died Aug. 21 of pancreatic cancer. He was age 63, which corresponds to his uniform number.
I was a cub reporter at the time, didn’t know much about National Football League (and still don’t). But it was a great indoctrination to interviewing, and players like Upshaw, while intimidating, were always professional.
I can’t remember what I asked Upshaw in the half-dozen times I interviewed him. But I do have a lasting memory. It’s a photograph of me interviewing Upshaw following one of the booster club meetings.
Gene Upshaw, NFLPA executive director
I have a full beard, notebook and pen in hand and I’m looking up at Upshaw while he’s answering a question. I look young, which I was at about age 25.
The picture of Upshaw accompanying his obituary in newspapers today looks nothing like the menacing lineman who several years was voted among the top 100 football players in NFL history.
I guess we all change in 30 years. Farewell, Gene Upshaw. Thank you for being nice to a cub reporter.
