Miami’s Ernest Wilford recently converted to tight end from wide receiver, and gave the football an emphatic spike after his game winning touchdown reception:

“There’s a sense of urgency for me. I want to play well this year. It’s a good start. That was a lot of frustration right there. I didn’t play that much last year, so I had to let it out.”

Dolphins QB Henne, who is being groomed as the heir apparent to starter Chad Pennington, was pleased with his first effort of the NFL preseason:

“Overall I thought I played pretty well. I got some points on the board and had us moving.”

Jacksonville QB David Garrard gave a noncommittal assessment of his teams opening game performance:

“We have to get better at some of the protection issues. I have to make sure I get everybody lined up in the right spots.”

Free agent acquisition Tory Holt was happy with his first reception in a Jacksonville uniform:

“I had been anticipating this day for a long time. I enjoyed it and it was a lot of fun. I am looking forward to many more.”

Despite the loss, Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio was generally upbeat about his teams effort:

“We are going to be physical up front. I liked what we did up front.”

Not surprisingly given the tempo of the game, the most heated battle for a starting spot was between the Dolphins placekickers. Both incumbent Dan Carpenter and challenger Connor Barth were perfect on their kicking attempts.

The Dolphins will begin the NFL regular season on Sunday, September 13th against the Falcons at Atlanta, while Jacksonville will play the Colts at Indianapolis.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and noted authority on NFL football betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

Carolina’s fourth string QB Hunter Cantwell was in a position where he just had to take a knee and run out the clock on first and 10 from his eighteen yard line. Instead, he tried to throw a pass only to have his arm hit forcing a fumble which Hill returned for the score.

Afterwards, Hill spoke about his game winning touchdown return:

“I’ve never seen a game end like that, not that way. I’m just a rookie trying to make the team. Anything like that that helps the team win in turn helps me. It was just a fortunate situation and I made the most of it.”

Hill, an undrafted rookie out of Colorado State had already become a favorite of Giants fans due to his tenacious, high impact playmaking. His touchdown will no doubt bolster his efforts to make the NFL roster.

Carolina coach John Fox sounded more bemused than dejected at his teams unusual loss:

“Kind of an interesting ending. Both sides have a lot of work, but we have time. We have three weeks to do it

Giants QB Eli Manning played only two series before the backups took over. Still, he put a positive spin on his short night of work:

“We ran the ball really well, hit a couple passes and we got a touchdown. That is always the goal. We did a nice job with it, so I thought we were effective as the first group.”

The Panthers will kick off the NFL regular season hosting the Philadelphia Eagles at home on Sunday, September 13th while the Giants will start their NFL campaign with a big divisional grudge match against the Washington Redskins.

Ross Everett is a widely published freelance writer and highly respected authority on baseball betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

New Orleans had their share of offensive highlights, with QB Drew Brees hooking up with tight end Jeremy Shockey for three completions including Shockey’s first touchdown reception in a Saints uniform. It was a harbinger of things to come, as Shockey would later catch a touchdown pass in the Saints’ remarkable Superbowl victory over the heavily favored Indianapolis Colts. Many suggest that Bayou ‘root doctors’ have more to do with the win than the team’s actual play.

Saints fans were well aware that their QB would produce after hanging over 5,000 yards on the board last year, but Palmers return brought a sigh of relief from Bengal backers. Palmer missed 12 games last season because of a partially torn ligament and tendon in his passing elbow.

After Shockeys TD staked the Saints to a 7-0 lead, the Bengals tied the game before halftime when Palmers backup J.T. O’Sullivan hit Chris Henry on a 14 yard touchdown pass.

The Bengals will continue their NFL preseason this Thursday as they travel to Foxboro, Massachusetts for a game against the New England Patriots. The Saints will also play away from home, heading over to Houston for a game against the Texans on Saturday. Both teams will kick off the NFL regular season on Sunday, September 13th with the Bengals hosting the Denver Broncos and the Saints welcoming the Detroit Lions to New Orleans.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and highly respected authority on baseball betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

For Cro Cop, its another stop on what has seemed like a meandering professional course full of much talk and little action since his departure from the UFC. In September 10, 2007, Cro Cop had just won PRIDE’s Open Weight Grand Prix in dominant fashion. Some were suggesting that he, and not Fedor Emelianenko, was the best heavyweight fighter in the world.

Cro Cops upset loss to Gabriel Gonzaga changed that and his career his never really recovered. In what was supposed to be a “tune up” bout, Gonzaga smothered Cro Cop and roughed him up on the ground before unleashing his own version of Cro Cop’s signature kick. Mirko never saw it coming, and he crashed to the mat like he’d been shot with his leg folded awkwardly beneath him. Gonzaga went on to face Randy Couture, and the former Croatian anti-terrorism cop was relegated to being just another heavyweight.

Since the loss to Gonzaga it has been almost impossible to keep up with the various twists and turns in Cro Cops career. After another UFC loss, this by unanimous decision to Cheick Kongo where Cro Cop looked listless and gun shy, his management announced that he had suffered a broken rib in the first round and was having trouble breathing. Furthermore, Cro Cop suffered from a deviated septum that made breathing difficult. After some deliberation, he had surgery to correct this condition and announced that he was ready to re-commit himself to his career as a fighter.

Its been an eventful year for Hong Man Choi as well. 2008 began with a loss to Fedor Emelianeko on the Yarrenoka New Years Eve event, in which the Russian fighting god briefly struggled with Choi’s 7’2″ 330 pound frame before submitting him. In April, he joined the Korean army for his compulsory military service only to be relived from his duties after medical tests discovered a brain tumor. The tumor was removed in June, and Choi was back in the ring in late September. He lost to then K-1 heavyweight champ Badr Hari in his comeback fight, and lost again to Ray Sefo in a reserve match at the recently completed World Cup GP. The losses prompted K-1 president Sadaharu Tanikawa to curiously announce that Choi had been laid off from the kickboxing promotion due to perceived erosion in his skills. Instead, Tanikawa suggested that he compete in MMA and the fight with Cro Cop is his first appearance since the layoff.

Tanikawas comments notwithstanding (and with the realization that they may be as much storyline as anything else) Choi is really the same as hes always been. Hes a physical mismatch for any opponent and while his striking style is awkward at best, it has proven to be reasonably effective. His reach is insane, and his size allows him to get a ridiculous among of leverage from his knee strikes. Not sure why Tanikawa is just now realizing that Choi isnt Ernesto Hoost, but hes a surprisingly skilled fighter who uses his unique physical attributes to their best advantage.

This fight isnt about competition as much as it is about commerce. Cro Cop remains one of the most popular foreign fighters in Japan, and with the proven success of freak show matchups this may have been the most attractive opponent for him from the promotions standpoint. Its a fight that Cro Cop should win, and in Japan at least a victory over Choi would have at least some significance.

Ross Everett is a widely published widely published freelance sports writer and respected authority on baseball betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Southern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

A great game of recent vintage is the 1997 Bally release “Cirqus Voltaire”. The theme is sort of a ‘Cirque du Soleil” on acid, and the iconography of the circus that they cram into the design and play of the game is amazing. The ultimate object of the game is to “join the cirqus”, which, of course, is a classical American archetype of freedom and escape. Yet this “Cirqus” is not a Norman Rockwell vision of juvenile fun–there are a lot of sinister undertones as well, including evil ringmasters and an almost palpable feeling of sleaze.

The game play offers a lot of what we’ve come to expect from Williams/Bally, with sweeping ramp shots, clever uses of time-worn features (like the disappearing pop bumper, reincarnated here as a balloon. This feature dates back to the 1950′s and appeared on Williams “Gusher” among others), and multi-ball a-plenty. As is very common with pinball games today, the game’s ultimate object is to work your way through a variety of ‘modes’. Sometimes this is a confusing endeavor, but here is very easy to understand–yet still very challenging to the player.

At its nadir, pinball companies were cranking out games featuring themes and subjects that offered little, if any, synergy with game play. The low point might have been some of the celebrity tie-in games of the early eighties (which gave the world debacles like a Dolly Parton and Roy Clark tie-in). “Cirqus Voltaire” on the other hand is an almost perfect synergy of subject and gameplay experience.

The really great thing about the game is the multiple levels of contextual awareness it offers. A slack jawed yokel can play it and just think its a nice game about the circus. To a cleverer player, it alternately provides a celebration and condemnation of the circus and, deeper still, of the popular culture that spawns and embraces them.

Ross Everett is a experienced freelance writer who covers travel, casino gambling and sports handicapping. He is a consulting handicapper for Anatta Sports where he is responsible for providing daily free sports picks. In his spare time he enjoys fine dining, fencing and scuba diving. He lives in Las Vegas with four dogs and a pet coyote.

Lions head coach Wally Buono was quick to dismiss suggestions that his team ‘stole’ a win:

“I’m not going to apologize for playing well in the second half. If we play any kind of football in the first half maybe we don’t have to do this. That’s football. Nobody asks you at the end of the day whether you stole a win, they ask you how many games did you win? The game is 60 minutes.”

Lions QB Jarious Jackson echoed his coachs sentiments:

“I don’t feel like we stole one at all. I feel like we went out and played like we should’ve played in the second half. Most of the first half we were trying to manage the game, trying to see what they were doing defensively. Offensively, you definitely want to manage the game until you know what the defence is going to call in some situations. It took us the first half but I think in the second half we kind of were able to predict what they were going to do and I think we did a good job of countering it.”

Toronto was generally pleased with the play of their replacement starting QB Cody Pickett. Pickett was named the starter after a dismal performance by Kerry Joseph the previous week against Montreal. Placekicker Justin Medlock also shined in defeat, tying a team record with 7 field goals. After the game, Pickett was less concerned about his performance than his teams struggles:

“It’s 20/20 that we needed to score another touchdown. Whatever we’re doing right now isn’t getting the job done.”

Argos head coach Bart Andrus was pleased with Picketts play in the losing cause:

“That was an ideal performance. Cody threw it well, was accurate and didn’t turn it over. The bottom line is we didn’t finish that one. When we do get it right for 60 minutes, it’s going to be a great thing.”

BC will host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers next Friday night. Toronto has a bye week before theyll return to action against the Calgary Stampeders on August 28th.

Ross Everett is a experienced freelance writer specializing in travel, casino gambling and sports handicapping. He is a consulting handicapper for Anatta Sports where he is responsible for providing daily free sports picks. In his spare time he enjoys fine dining, fencing and scuba diving. He lives in Las Vegas with four dogs and a pet coyote.

At one point, pinball dominated the arcade. During the mid to late 1970s and on the heels of the movie version of the Who pinball themed rock opera Tommy arcades nationwide featured row upon row of gleaming new machines from one of over a half dozen US manufacturers (with many others made worldwide). The first salvo of the video game industry was fairly innocuous”Pong didnt do much to dent pinballs popularity since it didnt exactly offer the same immerse challenge. The first challenge to the popularity of the pinball machine in the arcade began with Midways Space Invaders and Ataris Asteroids. These games could be played alone, and offered the same sort of escapism that pinball provided. For the arcade owner, these games took up less space, required less maintenance, and offered a higher customer turnover.

Pinball hung in there, however, and through the early eighties continued to make some solid games. The ones that come immediately to mind are games like Firepower (which helped launched the now ubiquitous multi-ball feature), Black Knight (offering an early version of the looping ramps found on many modern machines) and a couple of fun machines from Bally Paragon and Flash Gordon. For awhile, the choice between pinball and video games was similar to the choice between Pepsi and Coke: both were equally pervasive and it was simply a matter of personal preference.

It was the late 1980s”when video games became more technologically advanced and began to offer superior play experiences”that pinball lost its way. Depending on the manufacturer, they did it in different ways. Gottlieb and others made simple, traditional games that just couldnt compete with their video counterparts. Bally and other manufacturers went the opposite route”by cramming so much onto a playfield that the game hardly resembled traditional pinball. Some of Ballys late 1980s games”with so much playfield gimmickry going on”were nearly unplayable. By this point the video game had taken over the arcade. Some larger arcades continued to offer a few pinball machines to placate hardcores, while some eliminated pinball altogether. In the 1970′s most decent arcades would feature over a dozen machines, with large facilities having several dozen. By the mid 1980′s, it was rare to see more than three or four pinball machines in one location.

As the eighties gave way to the 1990s, however, a funny thing happened. Pinball began to experience a bit of a comeback driven by well designed, enjoyable games that finally got the balance between traditional gameplay and modern technology right. Williams and Bally (whom WMS later acquired), along with Data East, were making the majority of new games and some would become classics. Pin-Bot, Earthshaker The Adams Family and Diner are among my favorites of this era. Williams was at the forefront of the return to excellent design and gameplay, and its hard to think of a Williams game from this period that wasnt a fun game to play, if not a borderline classic. Articles started to appear in the traditional media about the durability and timelessness of pinball, about how the average pinball machine received much more repeat business than the average video game and about the devotion of the pinball player.

With the century drawing to a close, it seemed that the Williams/Bally outfit had found a niche and would be able to grind out pinball machines for the aficionados forever. The final nail in the coffin, however, was a lot of societal changes beyond their control. For one, video games and video arcades became less profitable as companies like Sony and Nintendo were able to transform a lot of the high end gameplay to the home platform. Meanwhile, trends like new urbanism,which saw a return to downtown storefronts and the growth of online shopping combined to hurt traditional shopping malls. Eventually the WMS corporate braintrust decided to pull the plug on pinball and concentrate on their highly profitable gambling machine business. From a business standpoint, it probably made sense but that didnt make it any easier for lifelong pinball enthusiasts to reconcile with.

So what now? Stern Pinball”recently spun off by Sega”is still committed to building new games, but their track record is spotty and certainly not in the league with Williams/Bally. Theyll have a harder time marketing the games, and as a result theyre not a company that will be able to bring the industry roaring back. At this point, it appears that the only hope for pinball players is that some effort will be made to preserve the machines that already exist. With the capital investment required for a new company to get into the business, its hard to envision any new manufacturers popping up.

Ross Everett is a well known freelance writer specializing in travel, casino gambling and sports handicapping. He is a consulting handicapper for Anatta Sports where he is responsible for providing daily free sports picks. In his spare time he enjoys fine dining, flower arranging and scuba diving. He lives in Southern Nevada with four dogs and a pet coyote.

AC Milan got on the board first just three minutes into the game as Beckham set up Ronaldinho’s goal that sent the San Siro into a frenzy. Paul Scholes evened the score at the 36 minute mark and the teams went into the halftime break tied at 1-1. Rooney would net his first goal at the 66 minute mark and would score again just 8 minutes later to give Man U a 3-1 lead.

The 24 year old Rooney is becoming recognized as one of the best strikers in soccer. He’s now got 25 goals on the year with 19 games left to play. He’s also received high marks from the soccer press for his playmaking, heady play and overall attitude. The consensus is that he’s already one of the best in the world and is only getting better.

After the game, Beckham complimented Rooney on his play and suggested that he receive consideration for the World Player of the Year award:

“I hope he is a contender for the World Player of the Year and the Ballon D’Or. I would love to see him win every title possible. I have seen Wayne from being a young lad. I played in his debut for England and I have watched him score goals week in and week out ever since. It is amazing to see.”

“He looks after himself and works hard. The way he plays is the way he trains. That is why he is so good and why Wayne is ready for any game. It doesn’t matter how many games he has played or how many he will be involved in to the end of the season, he will be ready for anything.”

There’s a good chance that Beckham and Rooney will be teammates on England’s World Cup team this summer. Beckham made note of that fact:

“I wouldn’t want to see him do it again against us in a few weeks but of course I’d like it in the World Cup.”

Rooney’s sizzling play and Beckham’s veteran leadership and dominant free kicks are a big reason why England is among the World Cup betting favorites before the team has even been made official. England will start World Cup play on June 12 against the United States. England is a +600 choice to win the World Cup, third favorite behind Spain and Brazil.

Ross Everett is a widely published freelance writer specializing in sports handicapping, harness racing, soccer and hockey. He is also a well known expert on NFL football betting and has made many broadcast appearances on TV and radio. He lives in Southern Nevada with three dogs and a wombat.

NFL football betting enthusiasts who took Baltimore as +3′ road underdogs were mentally counting their winnings before the end of the first quarter. The Patriots had dominated the head to head matchups with a 5-0 mark (4-1 ATS) and were undefeated at 8-0 (5-3 ATS) on their home field heading into this matchup. The 47 combined points scored went OVER the posted total of 43.

The Ravens took advantage of three first quarter turnovers by Tom Brady to build their insurmountable lead. Ricky Rice ran for an 83 yard touchdown on the Ravens’ first place from scrimmage, but afterward refused to proclaim the New England era of dominance over for good:

“Their era is not over, they know how to win but for the Ravens, to beat the New England Patriots set a precedent. We’ll always remember this win. One thing we said as an offense is we want to start games fast. I wanted to be the guy today to start fast, whether it was a 5-yard run or an 83-yard run. I wanted to be the guy to say this will be a fast-tempo game. We want the other team to play catch-up to us.”

Baltimore certainly did that, forcing New England to play catch up from their first possession. From the beginning, things didn’t go well as Tom Brady fumbled on the Patriots’ first possession setting up another easy Ravens’ TD. By the end of the first quarter, Brady and his teammates were hearing boos from the Gillette Stadium fans. For his part, Brady didn’t blame them for their displeasure:

“I’d have been booing us, too, the way we played. Playing the way we played today, we weren’t going to beat anybody.”

New England is done for the year, while Baltimore will head to Indianapolis to take on Peyton Manning and the Colts on Saturday night. Indy has won and covered three straight against the Ravens, though Baltimore gave them a tough fight at home this season before losing 17-15 as a +1 home underdog. The NFL pointspread for this game has the Colts installed as -6′ point home favorites with the total set at 45.

Ross Everett is a well known expert on sports handicapping and a widely published writer specializing in NFL football, drag racing, fencing and model railroading. He provides daily free sports picks to Internet and broadcast media outlets. He lives in Southern Nevada with three dogs and a retired racing wombat.

Coleman became the first UFC fighter to be cut immediately after headlining a PPV event. Others have left due to drug test failures or for other opportunities, but none have ever been cut from their contract. Sources close to the UFC suggest that it was a decision no one wanted to make, but that all felt was unavoidable due to Coleman’s age and deteriorating skills.

While the fact that Coleman is a shell of the fighter he was at his prime, the UFC’s suggestion that they have his best interest at heart is somewhat duplicitous. He was kept around and booked into last Saturday’s fight–a fight that no one particularly had any interest in seeing in the first place–simply because he was a fighter that Randy Couture could beat. Were the UFC interested in the well being of their aging fighters there’s several others on the roster that should also be cut for the same justification as Coleman. Couture, Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell are all well past their prime but they’re still under contract and will all likely fight again. No one wants to *see* an endless parade of old timers into the octagon, but the UFC seems determined to shove their version of the ‘senior’s tour’ down the throats of the MMA fanbase.

Coleman’s age has never been a secret and his diminished skill level was evident to anyone who has watched his recent fights. If the UFC was really interested in his physical well being, the main event against Couture should have never taken place. The fight itself wasn’t exactly one that UFC fans had been clamoring for and one that met with derision from the MMA media from the time it was announced. The UFC has tried to hide behind a litany of excuses as their PPV buyrates have eroded including the economy and a spate of injuries but at the root of the problem is the hubris of the promotion and the misguided notion that whatever sort of substandard product they serve up will still be bought.

While retirement would be in Coleman’s best interest, he may attempt to fight in a smaller US promotion or in Japan where he’s well known from his time in PRIDE. He’s already a member of the UFC Hall of Fame with a 26-10 career record and has fought the best in the world including Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Mirko Cro Cop. He has a family and kids so his best future would be out of the ring but few fighters have been able to make a clean break from the sport.

Ross Everett is a freelance writer and highly respected authority on World Cup betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Northern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.