A retort to Rick Blaine who, ahead of the Notre Dame v Navy game, says Europe is not interested in Football

It is merely a couple of sleeps until kick off between Notre Dame and Navy in the college football game in Dublin this coming weekend. All around Ireland and indeed Europe the anticipation is building. Naturally, as we say here in Ireland, ‘There’s always one!’ meaning, there is always someone who is unhappy with the situation, despite everyone else looking forward to, in this case, the big game. Step forward Mr Rick Blaine, a writer for Yahoo, who penned this angry article proclaiming that the game is only going ahead as a ‘merchandising’ exercise.

To further anger the Notre Dame faithful, Blaine has also suggested the Fighting Irish could be in for an upset against Navy

Naturally, it goes without saying that Mr Blaine is entirely entitled to his own opinion, and if he doesn’t think the game should be played anywhere but the USA, well, good for him. Unfortunately, he uses a completely erroneous statement as the main basis of his assault on the decision to play the game here in Ireland. Blaine says, and we quote;

''Europe has shown little interest in American football, no matter how hard the NFL tried to force it on them.''

Woah, woah, woah. Hang on a second there. With all due respect to Mr Blaine, this is an incredibly stupid comment. I say that with authority. Stupid. There is an enormous fan base for Football American style in Ireland and the rest of Europe. It has been growing steadily since the 1980s and the NFL in particular is one of the most popular sports in Europe not called ‘soccer’.

Let’s delve a little deeper than Rick chose to.

First of all, and on a most basic level, the game on Saturday is sold out, and has been for the best part of a year. If Lennon and Harrison came back to life and the Beatles reformed, the tickets for their first gig would only be marginally harder to get than for this game. People in Ireland have been trying for months to get them, and there is absolutely none left. The game is being played at a shiny new Aviva Stadium, however it could easily have been played at the much bigger Croke Park, they could have sold the home of the GAA out twice, without any great difficulty.

That fact in itself should be some indicator as to the public excitement about the game here in Ireland.

Furthermore, football is all over Irish, English and European television. It has become one of the most popular sports to gamble on, a fact that illustrates in dollar figures how popular the sport has become over here. Everywhere you go there are NFL and college jerseys worn by fans all over Ireland, the UK and Europe. Sky Sports, the biggest sports station in Ireland and the UK, has several live games weekly. Last season Chanel 4 showed the Monday night games, and there are countless football related programs on ESPN and ESPN America. College football basically takes over the ESPN America schedule on weekends.

Everywhere you go in Ireland and mainland Europe, football is front and center in terms of popularity amongst sports fans.

Further to this, football is being played by tens of thousands across Ireland, the UK and Europe.

  Notre Dame players relaxing with a
giant chess set at their Irish hotel

There is a huge league in the UK, played out by thousands of weekend warriors, with a passionate and knowledgeable fan-base. Sky Sports, to its credit, takes an active interest in same, and frequently shows highlights from the games, and the quality of these is often praised by visiting American coaches and players. Germany has a massive league, which I believe is actually semi-professional, some players earning money out of it, the popularity and standard of play is that high.

Mr Blaine’s comment was not only flagrantly incorrect, it was also very poorly researched. A Basic level of same on the Internet might have suggested to him that there might be more to European American Football than has, to date, met his eyes. Take for example this simple list of teams in Europe. Take a quick look at it. There are hundreds. Look at Germany and France in particular. They themselves have dozens, each!

There are twenty American football teams in Denmark, for example.

We can only wish Mr Blaine had even taken a cursory glance at, for example, the German, British and Irish American football official web pages, before he wrote his regrettable and frankly insulting comment.

The Irish American Football league is a thing of beauty. It is a combative, passionate and talented league, with a very high standard of play. I can vouch for the ferocity of the defense and tackling personally, having played QB for the DCU Saints (now basically merged with the Rhinos) for three years. Let’s just say, those boys can freaking hit. We had some incredible players on defense in particular, guys like Eoin ‘Foxy’ Fox, Joe Carlyle, Connor Sullivan and Irish American Football legends Dave Rothwell and the late, very great, Steve Christian. The team was littered with passionate, knowledgeable and talented football players. In my first season with the Saints we made the playoffs and enjoyed several literally life affirming, uplifting moments, games and wins.

It is an insult to me personally, it is an insult to hundreds of football players in Ireland, and an insult to tens of thousands of football players across Europe. It is an insult to thousands of football fans in Ireland and an insult to hundreds of thousands of football fans across Europe to say anything less than the sport is huge over here, and growing still.

Myself and a few buddies held our annual NFL fantasy draft this week. In a Dublin bar, no less. That's right, fantasy football, in Europe, Mr Blaine. On the way home my good friend Andy said he was going to go to the Lansdowne area (where the game will be) on Saturday, without a ticket (because, if you recall, they are impossible to get), just to soak up the experience. What Andy was tapping into there was the fact there has been a tangible, exciting ‘buzz’ growing across Ireland for over a year now for this game. It is swelling from the ground level up, and the infusion of support, passion and color from the States, combined with the ground-swell of excitement that has been building here, should lead to a great spectacle on Saturday.

Here’s hoping Mr Blaine not only enjoys the game, but perhaps also comes to appreciate just why it is taking place here in Ireland.

Who knows, maybe the football loving European fans might even get an apology.

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The L.A. Dodgers represent great World Series value at 12/1

In case you were hidden under a rock, buried deep in episodes of The Kardashians or blinded by endless naked Prince Harry pictures, you should probably know that sometime between Friday and Saturday the Red Sox and the L.A. Dodgers pulled off probably the biggest single trade in MLB history. The Dodgers gave up a group of prospects (including the wonderfully named Rubby De La Rosa) whilst in return Boston shipped off Adrian Gonalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and (don’t forget!) Nick Punto. A simply stunning trade in its sheer magnitude, particularly the incredible $260 odd million dollars of salary The Red Sox West Dodgers are committing to by taking on those high priced veterans.

Boston’s media and fan-base are literally reeling from the shock, the former have nothing to write about anymore, and the latter simply stunned this is happening. Perhaps conditioned by weeks, nay, months of negative Front Office bashing by The Knights Of The Keyboard (as Teddy Ballgame sardonically called Boston’s sports media), Red Sox fans were under the impression the Front Office at Fenway Park had no clue how to run a Major League ball-club. As it turns out, their timing was absolutely impeccable and they have managed to not only drop those $260 million in wages, they have also changed the club-house attitude completely. There is still some work to do, obviously, however right now the future looks definitely brighter and clearer for the Red Sox. The fans are delighted by and large, the media, well, they are a little stunned.

Meanwhile, flying somewhat under the radar, are the Dodgers. The L.A. Dodgers have gone from something of an after-thought to a legitimate World Series contender in a very short space of time. Magic Johnson and his co-owners have signaled their aggressive intent with the Hanley Ramirez pickup, they have now literally engaged afterburners and left many an opponent in their wake with the arrival of Beckett and most of all Gonzalez. The Dodgers line-up, already awesome, is now a veritable Murderers Row for opponent pitchers, who are basically going to have nightmares every night before taking on this lot. Consider, for a second, the core of the Dodgers lineup on a nightly basis. Kemp\Ethier\Ramirez\Gonzalez is a simply scintillating three through six, perhaps superior to anything else in baseball, NL and or AL. Seriously, look at those names, and imagine for a second being a middle level pitcher trying to navigate their way through those four, back to back to back to back. Then throw in pesky leadoff guy Shane Victorino and other parts like Nick Punto, and you can understand the ferocious, other-worldly potential of this Dodgers lineup.

Of course with the addition of Josh Beckett the Dodgers have also upgraded their pitching staff. Beckett will provide experience, depth, and, for my money anyway, wins. He did not turn into a bad pitcher overnight. He can still bring a fastball, and still has a burning desire to win every single battle with every single batter. Beckett is going to love pitching in the wide open expanses of Dodger Stadium, which make Fenway Park look roughly the same size as a tiny little panic room. There are going to be a lot of fly balls to left and center in particular that turn into outs for Beckett, reducing his ERA, his WHIP and his stress levels.

Say what you want about Beckett, he tells it like it is, and has been brutally honest about his own performance when asked about it on the Left Coast. Take these comments for example;

“I’m as big a part of that as anybody. That’s not what they wanted to do. They wanted Adrian to stay. They wanted me to stay. They wanted Nick [Punto] to stay. They wanted Carl [Crawford] to stay. We just didn’t do our jobs.”

He is clearly invigorated and ready to, frankly, be awesome again. Beckett was a huge fan favourite in Boston just two seasons ago. It all fell apart in a short space of time, but the good people of L.A. will probably end up loving the big Texan, particularly if he puts up a few wins for them between now and the World Series.

Speaking of the latter, our overall point is that right now is the time to get on board the Dodgers bandwagon. A few weeks ago the Dodgers were as high as 25/1 to win the World Series. With the addition of Hanley Ramirez, they moved in to 20/1, and now suddenly with the big trade there has been a further market adjustment, all the way in to 12/1 or 14/1 with some establishments.

For me, this adjustment still is not big enough. You are telling me that 12/1 isn’t incredible value for a deep pitching staff, a good bullpen and a simply superb, out of this world lineup? We’re talking value here. We aren’t suggesting for a second that the Dodgers are 100% locks for the trophy, however you cannot deny that at 12/1 they represent superior value, considering the sheer talent of the pieces they have added recently.

The Dodgers are building something special for the short term. The bookmakers have not fully adjusted as yet. Find a way to get on the bandwagon, and enjoy the ride.

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Red Sox players again under attack, this time for not attending Johnny Pesky's funeral

In this lost Red Sox 2012 season, the anger and frustration continues to rise. As you probably already know, the latest drama is around the funeral of the late great Johnny Pesky, which was on Monday morning. There were four Red Sox players amongst the estimated hundred Sox front office and coaching staffs present at the funeral. That same night, Josh Beckett held his annual (since 2006) fundraising event in a bowling hall, and basically most of the Red Sox players attended.

Those are the raw details, and in the last 24 hours there has been a deluge of material of varying degrees of vitriol lambasting the Red Sox players for not attending the Johnny Pesky funeral, and yet attending the Beckett Bowl.

There is no point in tackling either the mud being slung the way of the Sox players, or trying to defend ‘their actions’ Perhaps the most level headed thing to do is understand a few simple facts. First of all, the Sox got in on Monday morning at 4 am from a road trip. Second of all, the Beckett fundraiser is for a Boston kids hospital and has raised over a million dollars for same.

The latter is the point I would like to draw attention to. Regrettably, the more fiery of the articles assaulting the Sox players appear to be attempting the pawn the Beckett ‘thing’ off as the Sox players hanging out, eating chicken and drinking beer. The honest truth is, it was the Sox players giving themselves up completely for children. To try and use this event as a reason to beat further the very dead horse that is Boston’s players behaviour these last two seasons is actually pretty pathetic, and also completely dishonest.

Things are often never as simple as black and white.

Who knows why only four players made it to Pesky’s funeral, however it would appear that the four that did, did not attend the children’s hospital fundraiser later that evening. Perhaps, for example, it wasn’t possible to do both, and therefore the Sox players decided which they needed to attend, to ensure coverage at both.

I believe it is entirely unfair for people to instantly draw a wildly negative conclusion when the fact of the matter is, very few of us know the timing on the day. Perhaps if you are one of those who want to bury the nail deeper into the coffin of this batch of Sox players, you should check yourself momentarily and review these pictures from the Beckett fundraiser.

They were taken by Shelley from Fenway West, and from what I can see, there isn’t a beer or a bucket of chicken in sight. Just a lot of Red Sox players putting in a lot of time with a lot of very, very happy kids.

If you are absolutely determined to hate this Red Sox team, fine, knock yourself out, however don’t disgrace yourself by dragging the funeral of a Red Sox great and a very worthy fundraiser into the debate.

It is probably best to leave both alone. Very, very few of us are qualified to cast the first stone in this one.

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Nike LeBron X shoe will cost $300 while 15% of the USA is below the poverty line

Nike LeBron X shoe to cost $300

Right now, in a remote desert region somewhere in the Middle East, a terrorist trainer is showing an attentive class a PowerPoint presentation and slowly, for effect, eulogizing that, '..this, this is why we hate the United States'. No, the presentation is not about the Kardashian sisters. No, it isn't anything to do with Justin Bieber or the insanity that is child obesity and fast food in middle America. It isn't even about Donald Trump. No, the presentation is about LeBron's new Nike shoes.

Before we kick off, let's get one thing straight. The below isn't wanton capitalism bashing, you won't find this author extolling the virtues of communism or a switch back to the old system of barter of goods and services. We all take part in this Western World, including me, we all make occasional stupid purchases, we are all just trying to get by.

However, in no World, capitalist, communist or otherwise, is there any valid reason for a company to create a $300 sneaker, and it is particularly ugly when that sneaker cost them about $10 to create, and the families they are aimed at are generally low income, inner city families. In a World where millions of people are starving to death every minute, in a country where unemployment is rife and where approximately 15% of adults in the United States officially live below the poverty line, LeBron James and Nike have come up with a shoe that is going to cost $300 to buy.

That's right, a sneaker that is going to set you back $300 to buy it.

Of course, LeBron has had very little to do with this, Nike have done all the hard work. They paid some kid in Indonesia $2 today to put together the shoe, the same one they are going to sell for 150 times that sum to only the finest collection of Muppets on this great planet Earth. LeBron, supposed philanthropist (as he insists in his cameo on Entourage), is just putting his name, his face and his enormous ego to the shoe.

I am sure the starving kids in Africa that he throws the occasional bouquet at are absolutely thrilled that LeBron has released a new $300 shoe. I imagine they all gathered around one of the kids iPads to check the shoe out, before heading off to their local Foot Locker to pick up a couple of pairs. Each.

With this incredibly crass, arrogant pricing of a shoe Nike has yet again displayed it's wonderfully warped grasp on the status-quo in America. There are quite literally hundreds of thousands of people protesting in the streets against rampant greed in all its shapes and forms, and yet Nike deem this the right time to bring out a shoe that will cost $300? Incredible.

They should have called it 'The Nike 1%'

Before you jump to the defence of a company to price their wares any way they want, spare a thought for a second for hard working family men and women, who are now going to feel compelled to try and buy this ridiculous shoe for little Jimmy, little Tommy or little Keyshaun. In England and Ireland, men and women are distraught trying to afford the latest $50 Manchester United or Chelsea jersey for their kids, lest they be teased on the playground. In the States it is going to be $300 shoes.

I wonder how many families in Akron, where LeBron is from, can afford the new LeBron shoe?

Whatever about the idiots who decided to price a shoe, that cost them about $10 (including parts and labour) to create, up at $300-$315, what about the brain dead chug monkeys that are actually going to purchase these disgusting symbols of waste, greed and frivolity?

If you do end up buying one of these pairs of sneakers, congratulations. You are approximately as intelligent as Imelda Marcos.

Have fun with that.

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New York Jets backup QuarterbackTim Tebow's Christ pose for GC magazine causes a stir

We live in a World where it would appear to be far easier to slam dunk home an angry, knee-jerk reaction than make an intelligent, calm, considered opinion on any given topic. The New York Jets backup Quarterback, otherwise known as Tim Tebow, is taking plenty of flak for appearing to be recreating Jesus on the cross in a recent GC magazine article. The pointless, angry kerfuffle brings to mind another inane conservative reaction to 'the liberal media' that occurred a month ago

As the latest Batman movie was released, neo-conservative shock jock Rush Limbaugh noted the super villain Bane, remembered that Mitt Romney once ran a corporation called 'Baine' and couldn't help rushing to the following reaction;

"Do you think that it is accidental that the name of the really vicious fire breathing four eyed whatever it is villain in this movie is named Bain [sic]?"

Unfortunately for Limbaugh, his rushed, heated and angry comments were completely off the mark. At no point in the movie did the psychotic and yet tragic Bane ever breathe fire. Furthermore (and more importantly) Bane first appeared in Batman comics almost twenty years before 'Batman - The Dark Knight Rises'. It would have been astonishingly visionary for the creators of the caped crusader to foresee Mitt Romney's Baine Capital adventure and link it to their impressive villain, Bane.

But, Limbaugh saw what he saw and, without thinking about it, went ahead and made his assumption.

Pretty much the exact same story is playing out right now with a Tebow snap that is making some of the more vociferous, ardent religious right explode in fury. We at 'From the bleachers' don't even have the stomach to copy and paste in the quotes that are available on this topic, suffice to say the angry parties have out Limbaughed Limbaugh himself.

A quick seconds thought would have perhaps led to less volatile commentary. Call Tim Tebow what you want, he is obviously very serious and reverential about his faith, and even the most simple minded amongst us must realise, he would never, ever be caught parodying or taking lightly same.

Added to this, the fact that GQ recycled and no doubt doctored the pictures, the recycled them from a lengthy six years ago in fact. Tebow had no idea they were going to be re-posted.

The below snap was also from the same photo shoot, and you can see the Florida Gators colours clearly prominent.

With the above in mind, if you originally thought Tebow was making light of his faith, do you still think so? If so, well, probably nothing is going to change your mind, however most people who are willing to think through a topic fully would agree, clearly the picture has been taken wildly out of context.

As for those still frothing at the mouth with anger, rest assured, Tebow is going to be absolutely annihilated in the New York Jets locker room for this by his merciless team mates. No doubt about it he is going to be teased ferociously.

Now on to a far more pressing matter, how has nobody even mentioned the incredibly Zoolanderesque latest Tom Brady cover shoot?!

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Two top French soccer players face trial and possible jail for soliciting underage escort

Let’s take a walk on the murky side.  Close your eyes for a second and imagine the greatest ever underage prostitution scandal hit American professional sports today. Imagine, if you will,  LeBron James and Tim Tebow being linked with an underage ‘escort’ in a scandal as explosive as any Michael Bay ‘movie’. That doomsday scenario, LeBron and Tebow being caught, cough, with their pants down, is basically playing itself out in France as we speak, with two of the greatest stars of French soccer filling in for King James and the Jets backup Quarterback. Franck Ribéry and Karim Benzema are both French national team heroes, and both play for gigantic clubs, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid respectively. France is tearing itself apart from the inside with what to do with this situation.

Prostitution is basically legal in France, so the fact Ribéry and Benzema solicited one isn’t a big deal (apart of course from the moral issues), however the fact that when they did so, the girl in question was under 18, is a massive issue. The name on everyone's lips is Zahia Dehar, now 20. Dehar has told police that Benzema was first, and that the nefarious deed took place in 2008, when she was only 16 (and Benzema was 20). Interestingly Dehar still speaks relatively highly of Benzema, who’s lawyers maintain he is "innocent" and would explain himself in court.

Dehar speaks considerably less glowingly about Ribéry. The French winger has delivered the stunningly narcissistic explanation that he flew Dehar to Munich as a birthday gift to himself. Whilst most of us are happy with a nice cake and a card, Ribéry, married with children, chose to basically buy another human being for the night. Whatever makes your frog’s legs tasty, I suppose. Dehar has since comments that: "It was hard to get him to pay me, but he did all the same."

Whatever about being basically mocked by a 20 year old prostitute turned fashion designer (more on the latter shortly), Ribéry has opened himself up to further ridicule with his slimy and incredulous defence. Unbelievably the tricky little winger seems genuinely surprised he is going to court. He has called the trial "surprising and unfair" and has gone so far as to complain openly that the whole affair has hurt his family deeply.

Earth to Franck, the moment you dropped your pants and (reluctantly) handed over thousands of euros to sleep with a woman who was decidedly not your wife, that’s where your family started getting hurt.

As for Zahia Dehar, the girl at the middle of this French furore, France seems to be viewing her through some sort of odd rose tinted glasses as the trial approaches. Fashion designers have taken to her, writers are pouring praise over her, and even the French movie business is talking about committing her ‘story’ to the big screen.

Wait one hot French second here, what on earth is the attraction, other than sleazy, murky and greasy scandal?  The designer Karl Lagerfeld has, tongue firmly in cheek one would presume, said that Dehar is so interesting because she is a throwback to France's 18th-century courtesans, paid mistresses of the rich, "a purely French tradition that the whole world admired and copied".

Or, she has really, really big fake boobs

She might be the nicest, most intelligent woman in the World, but why all this sycophantic praise?

The woman is famous because she took money off two soccer stars to have sexual intercourse with them. Without that, she is just another fame chasing, Z-list ‘celebrity’. There are literally billions of women Worldwide who ‘deserve’ fame more than her, and billions more who provide a more meaningful input to the societies they live in.

However, the French, like the rest of us, love a good, dirty, filthy, scandalous story, and bottom feeding scavenger fish people like Zahia will always be in demand.

The whole story is playing out something like the tag line for the brilliant 2000 movie ‘Traffic’, ‘No One Gets Away Clean’.

Who knows how long Zahia‘s ill-gotten 15 minutes of fame will last, and who knows how much trouble Ribéry and Benzema will find themselves in. All we do know is, is this was America, and this was James and Tebow, as hypothesized above, the Internet would quite literally break.

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Derek Jeter shows his class with moving eulogy to Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky

New York Yankee Derek Jeter

Boston lost a true legend yesterday as 92-year-old Johnny Pesky moved on to the great diamond in the sky.

Pesky bled Red Sox red longer than most of us can imagine, dedicating himself to the Sox and the local community. On first hearing the news of the great man’s passing, the first thought I had was, thank goodness the Red Sox managed to win a couple of rings for him in his lifetime. Pesky definitely deserved that.

Shunned by former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette, who famously and idiotically banned Pesky from the Sox dugout during games, Pesky was thankfully welcomed back into the fold by the current management team, an act that will stand to them for the duration of their ownership.

The legend of Johnny Pesky stretches back a long way. Former Major Leaguer Larry Upton told me that none other than the great Ted Williams used to jokingly and playfully call Pesky ‘needlenose’ . He also spoke of Pesky’s outgoing, warm nature. You can read a nice article by him on the great man here.

Like Larry, there are going to be many a worthy accolades written about Pesky in the coming hours and days. Last night as the New York Yankees prepared to play Texas, one of the Red Sox greatest rivals spoke about him.

Often the greatest compliments come from your rivals. They just carry more weight to them. In this case, the Boston Red Sox have no greater rival than the New York Yankees, and the figurehead of that organization, one Derek Jeter.

His softly spoken, measured and thoughtful comments should resonate strongly with even the staunchest, loyalist Red Sox fans. Jeter said;

“He was always so nice to me throughout the years. Every time I’d see him, he would come over and say, ‘I hope you get four hits today – and the guy behind you hits into four double plays.’ I’ve always enjoyed having the opportunity to talk to him. I always like the fact that we have a lot of ex-players that come around all the time. I always liked going up [to Boston] and having an opportunity to see him. They loved him there; fans, players, media, everyone loved him. I send my best wishes to his family.”

Jeter has broken Red Sox hearts countless times down through the years, however this time he may have tugged at their heart-strings in a different way, with such a simple, yet gentle and meaningful eulogy.

Like Pesky before him, Jeter remains a class act.

Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky

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