The Other Type Of Football

In the early days of the YES Network, as the network searched for programming to fill airtime, YES reached an agreement with English soccer club Manchester United, where YES would re-air recent Man U games on "Manchester Mondays", much as they currently do with Notre Dame football. Thanks to their free spending ways and successful history, Manchester United and the Yankees are often compared to each other. When Bill Simmons undertook a search for an English Premier League team to support three years ago, he immediately ruled out Manchester United based on the parallels to the Yankees.

I never played soccer, but I've had a passing interesting in the sport since the United States' strong showing in the 1994 World Cup. While I'll watch international competitions, I never really took an interest in club play.

Lately however, I've started paying some attention to the English Premier League and UEFA Champions League. Having the Fox Soccer Channel has helped, as have the early morning Saturday games airing on ESPN prior to College Gameday.

In attempt to nurture to my interest, I've been trying to do a little reading on the sport. This morning, I came across an interesting piece on Manchester United midfielder Ryan Giggs. At 35 years old the career-long Red Devil is climbing or atop all sorts of Man U all-time leader boards. After it was assumed he was on the downslope of his career, he's enjoying a late career renaissance, highlighted by being named Player of the Year for the first time following last season. In reading the article, I couldn't help but notice several parallels to a resurgent 35 year-old career-long Yankee.

It's yet another Thursday off day. It's slow around here. Give it a read and I promise not to mention soccer again any time soon.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Good morning Fackers. I've got a little extra hop in my step this morning, and it's not just because the Yankees continue to roll along about as well as we could imagine.

Tonight marks the return of college football. No sport will ever replace baseball when it comes to capturing my attention, but with the autumn-like weather that's settled in over the past few days, I've been anxiously awaiting the return of pigskin. It's been 238 days since God's own quarterback dispensed with Oklahoma and gave Florida their second National Championship in three years. The Gators were a record-setting, overwhelming, pre-season number one in the AP poll, and are the favorites to capture a third National Championship in four seasons.

ESPN has a doubleheader tonight. In the opener, The Old Ballcoach and his Cocks travel to Raleigh to face the Wolfpack, led by former BC coach Tom O'Brien. These same two teams kicked off last season. While the match-up itself isn't all that compelling, the game will be interesting in that it will mark Erin Andrews' return to work. Perhaps you've heard that America's Sideline Princess was the victim of a serious violation of privacy over the summer. Understandably, she's kept a low profile since then, and this will be her first public appearance outside of her tell-all at an Oprah taping last week.

The night cap features a much better match-up as the #16 Oregon Ducks visit the #14 Boise St. Broncos. It'll be the ugly uniforms against the ugly field. I'll likely have the CFB games on the tube with the Yanks game streaming on the laptop. Cut me some slack; it's opening night.

In an effort to somehow tie this back to the Yankees, I'll mention that much to my surprise and even more to my chagrin, I caught a commerical on YES earlier this week indicating that all Notre Dame home games will be replayed on YES Mondays this fall. I researched this a bit. Turns out it's a multiyear deal and includes the showing of other ND content on YES.

/vomits

As you may recall, I'm not particularly fond of Notre Dame, nor is Big Willie Style. The best thing that come of this deal as far as I'm concerned is that it allow me a second chance to watch BC's seventh consecutive victory against The Irish.

Certain teams, usually the ones that have been highly successful, are generally despised outside of their own bases. The Yankees. The Cowboys. The Lakers. Duke basketball. Notre Dame football. The Yankees have now had content sharing agreements with Manchester United and Notre Dame. They established Legends Hospitality Management in conjunction with the Cowboys in order to service their two new stadiums. They're certainly making it easier for the average fan to consolidate his vitriol to a few choice locations.

Okay, I promise: that's my only football post today. If you need a little help getting excited for the season, check out this post from a couple weeks back. Now back to baseball.