Apparently they did.

They lost by 20 and it wasn’t even that close. USC was up 21-3 in the first quarter (I believe–or at least awfully early) and the only reason it didn’t turn into one of the 60 point beatdowns of old was because USC let off the gas because they were shocked at how easy it was to beat this “vaunted” team.

I know, I know, USC got a late touchdown and it was only 37-24 at that point, but they pay (not in college, wink wink, nudge nudge) you to win, not for style points and by the way two touchdowns on the road isn’t exactly a “close” game.

Not close. Notre Dame’s claim to fame is now that they have beaten no one and “come close” to beating some really good teams.

I’m a homer, but UGA–having an admittedly crap season, might should be ranked ahead of them. Their losses are terrible, but they beat GT (so did ND) and clobbered number 5 Auburn, plus played some pretty tough teams pretty close.

Which apparently matters when you’re Notre Dame.

I’m not saying it’s over.

It’s just damned close. I told everyone I know that the coming week would determine the Braves playoff hopes–whom everyone (except Braves fans) had taken for granted as a done deal once we got Teixiera.

Prior to the Mets series we were 69-65, 4.5 back of a Mets team who were coming to town and we damned near owned them. We were 8 of 11 at one point this season then blew the last to make it 8 of 12 coming in.

Mets, in our house. Sweep, and we’re 1.5 back with the Phillies up next. Win the series and we’re 3.5, still with the Phillies left afterwards. The only thing we could not do is get swept.

And with one time darkhorse Cy Young candidate Hudson and John Smoltz pitching you wouldn’t bet that was even a possibility.

Anyone who’s followed the Braves pre-1991 knows what happened next.

Sweep. Even with Smoltz only giving up 3 runs (two of which were because of a lost pop up in the sun) and Wagner doing his damndest to blow the game in the ninth. Braves scored one run in the bottom of the ninth to make it 3-2, guy on first, no outs. Looks like it’s another meltdown for Mr. Wagner. Of course, we promptly can’t move him over, can’t steal, and then can’t single him home from second which he reaches on a (gift) throwing error that would have ended the game.

One inning and it’s the difference between 5.5 games and an outside chance and 7.5 games and a mathematical chance.

According to the Braves website some of the players think we’d have to go 19-6 down the stretch to have a shot at the playoffs.

Maybe.

We’ve got no shot at the wildcard unless the NL West is banned for points shaving, and 19-6 puts us at 89-75. Beating the Mets is our only possibility.

The Mets only need to go 12-15 to end up with the same.

Our only hope, realistically, is to sweep the Phillies, win/sweep the Nationals, and hope that going 6-1/5-2 puts us within 5 of the Mets.

Because that’s who we’ve got after the Nationals.

It’s not impossible.

But it ain’t likely, either.

The most famous Norwegian soccer player is retiring today.

Despite this vaunted position, he spent most of his career as a second choice player for Manchester United. Once he got on the field, thought, he played at a level that indelibly marks him as one of the greats for the fabled club and perhaps the greatest ever for Norway.

His most famous moment for the club? Scoring the injury time winner against Bayern Munich to clinch the treble and the European championship, a winning goal merely seconds after an equalizer also in injury time. Had Liverpool not come back from 3-0 down to win the 2005 championship this would be remembered as the greatest moment/comeback in recent finals history.

But much like his career, Ole Gunnar, nicknamed the baby faced assassin, for obvious reasons–see this picture–plied his trade and quietly was one of the best.

And don’t think other clubs didn’t notice. Countless clubs came a beggin’ for Ole Gunnar, promising him a starting spot and building their team around him.

His response? Nope. Sir Alex plucked me from the club Molde (I’m not making that up) at the tender age of 24 and I’m quite happy where I am thank you very much.

Can you imagine? The only American example I can think of that even comes close is Steve Young prior to Joe Montana leaving the 49ers and even that isn’t quite right because he knew he’d get the job eventually–it was just a matter of time. Ole Gunnar always knew he was second choice–consigned to being a super sub and starting the odd midweek or champions league game unless an unforeseen injury pushed him up the ladder–but he didn’t care. He didn’t complain. He didn’t whine. He didn’t demand a trade He didn’t ask for more money. He just waited for his shot, and once he got it, he quite literally took it.

With all the nonsense going on in America right now about athletes behaving badly we should all take a second and celebrate a remarkable teammate and a remarkable career unfortunately cut short by injury.

I’m from Atlanta, GA, born and raised.  My specialty in my real life partially involves theories of identity and I ain’t never going to say race doesn’t play a part.

Of anything.

That being said, I’m tired of people turning this into stark racial terms.  African-American’s may have a different reaction–a reaction that takes into account a history of persecution.  Fine.  I’d expect nothing less.  And that’s not a snarky comment.  All I can do is listen and engage these positions respectfully.

But here’s my take on it.  And I’ll out myself as a middle class white boy to boot.  He did it.  He killed dogs.  He committed multiple felonies.  And the feeling I got when I saw him apologize on TV was that he was ashamed.  He was sorry.  But not for the dogfighting.  He said he “rejects” it.  Present tense.  Didn’t talk about how awful what he did was.  The countless dogs that he killed.  Anything other than saying that he was sorry was pretty much out of bounds.

And for me, that wasn’t enough.  Not that he owes me a damned thing, but there’s a reason this thing blew up.  Systematic drownings, hangings, beatings, rapes, and electrocutions all in the name of building a successful professional dogfighting operation.

I came home one day when I was twelve-ish and found my neighbors driveway filled with cop cars.  That’s right, multiple cars.  Because I lived in one of the first subdivisions way out during the beginnings of Atlanta’s sprawl.  Their house was huge, their grass was green, and the driveway was large.

And their neighbors were white.  All white.

Scores of dead and abused dogs and cats were found in their house.  They were arrested and thrown under the jail, near as I can tell.

Does this little anecdote prove race don’t matter?  Not a chance.  In fact, I think it proves the opposite, but for me it helps to put Vick’s self confessed actions in some sort of context.

Vick’s actions were worse.  He should be treated as such.

According to the AJC, Michael Vick is still liable for up to five years for each dog he killed under state of Virginia animal cruelty laws.

Still possible, however, is prosecution by the state of Virginia on animal cruelty charges that could carry up to 40 years in state prison.

As everyone with electricity knows by now, Vick pleaded out to a conspiracy charge, but chose to negotiate a deal where he does not admit gambling, agrees to act as an informant for the government, and admitted to the killing of those eight dogs via hanging and drowning/electrocution.

Am I missing something, or is he now hoping to escape jail time in VA by cooperating with the federal government or praying that they don’t read the papers in the prosecutor’s office?

I’m genuinely stumped. No one seems to be making a huge deal about this who’s covering it but this little detail could cripple Vick for years to come. For state prosecutors, there’s no case to prove–he already provided them their case in the statement he gave to the feds. Now, it’s just a question of sentencing.

Unless I’m missing something, this is where the question of celebrity is really going to come into play. The animal cruelty is an open and shut case, so why–other than special treatment for a former VT football star–would they choose not to pursue it? The only possible reason I can think of is his status as an informant–which admittedly, given how difficult it is to find, let alone prosecute, dogfighting operations–is a huge thing.

But is it big enough to get a free pass on the brutal killing of eight dogs? Killings, lest we forget, that presumably weren’t even exceptional given his stipulation to running a large scale dogfighting operation.

I’m baffled.

Snickering will get you nothing, folks.

After the amount of money that ESPN/ABC has poured into MLS, the World Cup, and Euro 2008, it amazes me that many of the Sportscenter anchors utter disgust and disdain for the sport is allowed to remain so obvious.

The tape.

In Beckham’s last game, he was responsible for three goals, nearly got into a fight, and took a ball off his face trying to block a cross, as well as played head and shoulders above anyone else on the field.  Given that over 66,000 showed up in Giants stadium to watch, you’d think the network that has thrown so much into soccer would treat this with the typical over the top treatment they’re known for.  Or at least the same respect they’d show a WNBA or NHL game which drew less than a quarter of that.

Nope.  Instead, we get two anchors acting like bratty teenagers forced to speak in front of the class who think they’re too cool for whatever project is at hand.

Now I’ll admit that I’m sensitive to these issues, but no less an authority than Michael Wilbon of PTI and the Washington Post has begun to recognize that something special is happening when Beckham takes the field and defends the Beckham “project” at every opportunity.

For a network who’s main problem these days is the blatant leveraging of what otherwise would be conflicts of interest between their reporting (and reporters) and the sporting events they cover (sponsor), you’d think that they might do the same with this investment.

Instead they’d rather cut off their nose to spite their face.

We should all make a pact to end any speculation on the effect the dogfighting and gambling charges will have on Vick’s football career.

And this isn’t even mentioning the potential racketeering/conspiracy charges–the “superseding indictment” that a grand jury is meeting on as I write this–or the possible animal cruelty charges he could face in Virginia.

There are only a few ways this can play itself out. None of them end well for those owning a number 7 Vick jersey–especially Vick himself.

1. He pleads guilty to lesser charges. Although I have talked to one former FBI agent who disagrees it seems likely that he’s guaranteed to get at least the 12-18 month sentence the three others have received. However, common sense indicates that if the government has accepted pleas from three co-defendants and that Vick is the man who provided the facility, the money, and the organization to stage and promote dogfighting events as well as ran his own “stable” of dogs, I find it hard to believe he doesn’t go at least a step up in sentencing. Originally, the co-defendants were to be sentenced to 18-24 months (step 15 in the federal sentencing guidelines) but they got leniency for their cooperation. I can’t imagine him getting less.

*Wildcard number 1. The judge, the honorable Henry Hudson, when receving the guilty pleas warned the defendants that despite the governments recommendation he could sentence him to “five years” if he wanted to. A bit ominous for anyone considering a plea deal.

*Wildcard number 2. Virginia…is for lovers. Of dogs, apparently. There are some reports that VA prosecutors want to charge Vick with animal cruelty. In the statement the defendants plead out to, they spoke of Vick either killing dogs either by hanging, drowning, electrocuting, and/or slamming them into the ground. If he stipulates to that, he has to plead out to VA charges, and while I don’t know anything about sentencing in VA, I can’t imagine you get less than 2 years for no less than 8 counts of killing dogs simply because they don’t fight good.

2. He could choose to plead innocent and go to trial. Regardless, at least a year is gone from his football life and he can’t do any type of real training while it’s going on. At best he could be back for 2008-9, but we know it won’t be with the Falcons no matter what happens, Arthur Blank has pretty much made that clear.

*Wildcard number 1: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Even if a jury finds him innocent of these charges, Goodell is not bound by their decision. So does he go ahead and punish Vick in toto while a trial–where he is presumed innocent–runs its course? More likely, he punishes him under the Pacman Jones/Tank Johnson hairtrigger personal conduct laws and waits for the outcome of the trial. So although he could just accept an innocent verdict, he could also say the parallel investigation run by the NFL finds him guilty and put him out of football for even more time.

Wildcard number 2: Short of some home run bit of evidence that proves the 3 are lying, plus, let’s not forget the entire case that gave rise to the charges against the four in the first place, this trial is going to be trench warfare for the defense. There won’t be some “if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” moment. The defense is going to have to fight each part of the prosecutor’s case as well as put up their own theory of the crime. In ca se like this, people are going to keep their own opinions almost regardless of outcome. Plus, let’s not forget that he is not up for animal cruelty charges, so there may not even be specific refutation of the most gruesome and, as one commentator put it, “radioactive” elements.

Even if he were to get off, who would pin their hopes on him now. For Vick, there’s a real danger of OJ part deux where even a not guilty verdict does little to alter his conviction in the court of public opinion. One other thing. It’s easy to stand behind a guy now–as many of the Falcons players are doing–but after this is all said and done, players are going to have their opinions as well and I bet there are more than a few veterans who will look at their team’s potential acquisition of Vick, look at their dog and say no. Rightly or wrongly.

If he takes it to trial and loses, it goes without saying that he’s done. The sentence will be too long, he’ll be too polarizing a figure, and he might not be physically capable. Vick is, after all, 27 years old and won’t be back till he’s at least 28. If he’s pushing 30 or more after two years in the federal pen, who’s going to take a chance on a QB known primarily for what he can do outside of the pocket, not within? Physical ability is one of his chief assets and the combination of atrophy and age will affect him more than most.

Make no mistake, I’m not saying we should ignore the story. The Vick situation exposes a great deal worth thinking about. The rise of dogfighting within America and the subculture it’s created. How celebrity alters our perception of justice. The media’s desire to turn everything about a black quarterback into primarily an issue of race. Our outrage at the treatment of dogs while health insurance companies treat “customers” in a similar fashion or the ability to legally buy DVDs of entrepreneurial geniuses who pay homeless persons to fight (like dogs) and then tape it for fun and profit.

Pay attention to the Vick controversy. Just stop analyzing the football end of it, because guilty or innocent, we only know one thing for sure.

His football career has already received a death sentence.

Beckham proved to God and the world why he is the most hyped player in the world. Or at least in North America.

For those of you who missed it, Beckham started his first game and in the mere 60 minutes he played, earned a yellow card, stole the captain’s armband from Donovan, assisted on the goal that put the game away, tackled, fought, and scratched for an LA victory.

Oh yeah, and he scored, too.

2-0, LA. Beckham responsible for both goals and much more.

This ain’t no hyped up prima donna without talent (unfortunately, that’s his wife).

Beckham has a tendency to score dramatic goals off of free kicks. They did make a movie about it you might have heard of.

Free kick, 25 yards out. Everyone in the stadium knows who’s taking it and how it’s going to be–swerving angrily right to left, the only question is where does it end up?

Like most people, DC’s goalkeeper guessed it was going over the wall to his left.

He took one step and got wrong footed. That’s all it took.

Beckham announces himself in the most appropriate way possible. Devastating free kick that left the goalkeeper rooted to the spot.

And apparently, according to him, he’s only “78%” fit.

MLS has suddenly acquired a new fan.

Apparently GW was just asleep when 756* got hit.

He has now actually congratulated Bonds.

I got fooled.

But I’ll bet serious money that Condi never would have made that call.

According to the Washington Post Barry Bonds was not called by El Presidente after hitting his 756th home run*

*Note: I will not refer to this as “breaking the home run record”. Henry Aaron owns that record. He did not cheat. Like “majors” in golf and tennis, as well as Paris Hilton’s status as a celebrity, we decide records, not the commissioners, and I have decided that Bonds’ does not measure up. Deal with it.

That’s well done.

I’ve heard some people say that both George W. and Condi (I’m not on a first name basis with her I just can’t spell her name and they haven’t jury rigged Microsoft Word to autocorrect. Yet.) are using their respective jobs in politics merely as stepping stones to the jobs they really want.

MLB commissioner and NFL commissioner.

As a president, I’m not a fan of his, but when it comes to the sports, I may give him a little love. I can see him working out with Leo Mazzone for 30 days so he can be the first commish to snap a curve ball over for a strike on the ceremonial seasonal first pitch, eliminate the DH (because it’s communist), and unilaterally revoke Bonds’ record.

And when the reporters come calling about why he didn’t “wait for more evidence” before taking out Bonds, I want him to look the cameras dead in the eye and say..

You saw what I did in Iraq, didn’t you? There may not have been very much evidence about the WMDs and Al Qaeda and the what not, but I declared war and for the most part y’all supported it. You mean to tell me you honestly think there’s less evidence that Bonds used steroids? How did he hit 300+ home runs after turning 35? Just look at his friggin’ head?!! How did his shoe size go from 10.5 to 13 *AS AN ADULT*?!!

All I’m doing with Bonds is banning his records–I laid the smackdown on Iraq, US of A style when I got my chance. I ain’t passing this record business up because y’all are going to question me about Bonds’ due process and a bunch of other nonsense. That’s government stuff. I got MLB privilege now, fool. Ain’t no Supreme Court to get in my way here.

Next question.”