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CFL Uses Lenny Kravitz to Deliver a Message to Roger Goodell

Posted: Nov 26th 2007 11:42 PM ET by David J. Warner (RSS feed)
Filed Under: NFL Media Watch, Toronto, International Football

8 COMMENTS

You might have noticed a lot of chatter lately about the possibility of an NFL team moving to Toronto -- and how many believe that an NFL team in Toronto might end up killing the Canadian Football League. Well, CFL officials quietly let everyone know their stance on an NFL team in Toronto -- by hiring Lenny Kravitz to perform at the Grey Cup Final halftime show on Sunday.

This had me scratching my head when I heard about it. After all, Kravitz is definitely not Canadian, not to mention hasn't been particularly relevant since the 1990s. Why was he playing the CFL halftime show?

The second song in his three-song set revealed all:

American woman, said get away
American woman, listen what I say
Don't come hangin' around my door
Don't wanna see your face no more
Coloured lights can hypnotize
Sparkle someone else's eyes

There is no possible way that was an accident. Message sent, CFL. You realize, though, that you just made Roger Goodell even more determined to destroy your 12-man, 3-down, 110-yard gridiron game before decade's end. Good luck fending off the impending invasion.

Giants Beat Dolphins In London ... Now Let's Go Home

Posted: Oct 28th 2007 4:26 PM ET by Sportz Assassin (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Dolphins, NY Giants, AFC East, NFC East, Miami, New York, International Football

10 COMMENTS

Look, I'm not one of those guys who says that the NFL should never play a game in a foreign land. I just don't think that it needs to be a regular season game.

Nothing against London or Wembley Stadium, really. Or even the idea. The fans were kinda, sorta into it [though booing the Giants kneeling on the ball at the end of the game pissed them off]. And as I honestly expected, there was a streaker. But most in the crowd were Americans making the jump across the pond and the field was awful; I mean, who woulda thunk it woulda rained in England!?!?! It clearly affected the play on the field ... and we didn't send our best product out there.

I know that owners get their jollies ripping the money out of fans with pre-season games at regular season prices ... but that's where this international stuff needs to go. We used to have those "American Bowls" in Tokyo, London, Mexico City, etc. Bring that back. Look at the NBA playing their preseason games in non-NBA cities. Do that. Go back to Germany with preseason games. Just don't place a real game there.

The one positive is that Roger Goodell got to see this up front before placing a Super Bowl away from home. It rained in Miami during the last Super Bowl ... but the field looked pretty darn good. Wembley Stadium looked like a horse track before the game even started. The most ironic thing about this game was Goodell talking about setting a "grass roots" movement internationally ... while the "grass roots" on the field of play were turned upside down.

CFL Team Releases Akili Smith

Posted: Oct 11th 2007 11:06 AM ET by Sportz Assassin (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Bengals, AFC North, Cincinnati, International Football

0 COMMENTS

Former Cincinnati Bengal and forever NFL Draft bust Akili Smith has been released by the CFL's Calgary Stampeders:

Smith spent most of the season backing up Burris before being promoted to the No. 1 spot when Burris injured his shoulder. But injury and ineffective play prevented Smith for finishing either of his two starts.

He left in the second quarter of Calgary's 42-9 loss to B.C. with a groin injury, forcing the Stampeders to go the rest of the way with inexperienced rookie Nealy. Smith started last week's 33-21 loss to Saskatchewan but after completing 4-of-12 passes for 37 yards in the first half, Smith was replaced by Sankey to start the second.

Smith went just 22-of-47 for 219 yards with 0 TDs and 5 INTs in his illustrious Stampeders history.

Could Anthony Rocca Follow Brother Sav from the AFL to the NFL?

Posted: Sep 11th 2007 2:00 PM ET by David J. Warner (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Eagles, NFL Gossip, NFL Real Talk, Philadelphia, International Football

1 COMMENT

By his own admission, Saverio Rocca didn't have quite the NFL debut that he wanted, averaging about 40.4 yards a punt and dropping only two of seven punts inside the 20. All told, his little brother Anthony, who still plays for the Collingwood Magpies of the Australian Football League, had the better weekend. However, Sav suggested over the weekend that Anthony may follow him to America one day.

"I think there will be more players come from Australia. How many, I don't know,'' Rocca said. "But the likes of my brother, I think he'll give it a go. ... If he gets offered another contract back home, he'll take that. So it's hard to know when he'll actually come over but I think it's (a matter of) when.''

Why should you be excited about that? Because Anthony Rocca can do this:

That's two goal kicks from more than 75 meters out. Clearly, big legs run in the family. If Sav has a good season in Philadelphia, there might be a few NFL teams out there willing offer Anthony a contract that could be worth more than he might make staying in the AFL.

It's actually kind of a shame Anthony is already 30. He's a big guy who make some excellent marks inside the 50 in Saturday's win over Sydney. If he were 24 or 25, he might be considered a prospect at tight end, too.

Previously at FanHouse:
Sav Rocca Makes Philadelphia Eagles Roster
Eagles Look Average in Pittsburgh, Save Sav!

NFL Network to Show Replay of American Football World Cup Final

Posted: Jul 28th 2007 11:35 AM ET by David J. Warner (RSS feed)
Filed Under: NFL Media Watch, International Football

0 COMMENTS

It took 'em long enough, but the American Football World Cup final is finally going to be shown on TV. NFL Network just announced that it will air a replay of the final game between the USA and Japan at 1:00 PM this afternoon.

No word yet on whether it will be replayed again, so if you really need a football fix before the preseason starts, go and set your DVRs right now -- especially since you probably won't see too many of those guys on NFL Network again.

USA Needs Overtime to Defeat Japan at American Football World Cup

Posted: Jul 15th 2007 10:05 AM ET by David J. Warner (RSS feed)
Filed Under: NFL Fans, NCAA FB Fans, International Football

8 COMMENTS

You wouldn't have thought it would go to overtime. You would have expected anybody from the birthplace of the gridiron game to waltz into a competition like this and beat down everyone in their path. It appeared the ragtag bunch of college grads that made up Team USA were going to do that, too -- until they reached the final against Japan and needed two overtimes to cap a 23-20 comeback victory to win the American Football World Cup.

A wild string of events led to that win. With the score tied at 10-10 early in the 4th quarter, Japan's 42-yard field goal attempt was blocked by Kenny Chicoine, and Diezeas Calbert picked up the ball and ran with it ... only to fumble it in USA territory and give the ball right back to Japan. Quarterback Yuichi Tomizawa then calmly led Japan 5 plays and 46 yards down the field for a touchdown, giving Japan a 17-10 lead.

Statistically speaking, Tomizawa (14 for 20, 140 yards, 2 TD) appeared to have a much better day than former Arizona quarterback Adam Austin. (12 for 25, 109 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT) It was the running game, however, that brought the USA back.

USA to Face Japan in American Football World Cup Final

Posted: Jul 12th 2007 11:30 AM ET by David J. Warner (RSS feed)
Filed Under: NFL Fans, NCAA FB Fans, International Football

1 COMMENT

How wide is the gap between the USA and the rest of the world in the gridiron game? Well, if the group stage results of American Football World Cup are any indication, it's pretty darn wide.

In its first game on Tuesday, the USA Football squad leveled South Korea, 77-0. The Koreans were held to -31 yards total offense, yet according to USA Football head coach John Mackovic, they actually tried to convince the Americans to keep going instead of taking a knee to run out the last few minutes of the clock.

Of course, USA Football had to save up its energy for Thursday's game against Germany, whom they easily defeated, 33-7. Clearly, the USA players weren't used to playing two big games in three days. Quarterbacks Jeff Ballard and Adam Austin combined to complete only 12 of 32 passes, and Ballard threw an interception interception that Matthias Weil returned 94 yards for a touchdown, Germany's only score.

Austin and Ballard will have to do better than that in the Final on Sunday against Japan, who easily dispatched both France and Sweden by the same final score of 48-0. Japan won the American Football World Cup in 1999 and 2003, but it didn't face an American team in those tournaments. Those wins definitely helped American football's popularity among Japanese sports fans, though. 12,336 people attended the Japan-France tilt at Todoroki Athletics Stadium, and there are some who believe Japan's best gridiron heroes might actually have a shot against this ragtag bunch of Americans.

If Japan does somehow pull off the upset, you can bet that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will pay much more attention to the Japanese market in the next few years. We already know there are a few LaDainian Tomlinson fans over there.

USA Football Looks to Share the Wealth at American Football World Cup

Posted: Jul 4th 2007 9:00 AM ET by David J. Warner (RSS feed)
Filed Under: NFL Fans, NCAA FB Fans, Pressing Issues, International Football, The Word

8 COMMENTS

Most people see stories about the collapse of NFL Europa and the language barriers the league faces in China and have a good laugh at what appears to be America's clumsy attempt to spread its brand of football outside its own borders. What most of them may not know, though, is that the NFL is just a small part of a larger grass roots effort to spread the gridiron gospel around the world.

USA Football, which bills itself as "an independent non-profit organization whose purpose is to galvanize, support and promote the sport at all levels," is leading this charge as one of the key members of IFAF, the International Federation of American Football, which meets next week in Kawasaki, Japan, to discuss how to further the gridiron game at the grass roots level.

Oh, and Kawasaki also happens to be the site of the 2007 American Football World Cup, a six-nation international competition that runs from July 7th through 15th. USA Football organized the country's very first national football team, and Scott Hallenbeck, the non-profit's executive director, couldn't be more stoked after seeing this team practice.

"By design, we reached out to all levels of college football, from Division I and II down to the NAIA," Hallenbeck told me in a brief phone interview, "and our coaching staff is comprised of all levels of diversity as well.

"This team has really jelled. They got out here on the 20th June, and I just got out here yesterday, and it's amazing to see how far they've come in such a short time."

NFL Eyes China: After Anaesthesia, Knees Or Punt

Posted: Jul 2nd 2007 12:44 PM ET by Orson Swindle (RSS feed)
Filed Under: International Football

1 COMMENT

The NFL is moving in on the Chinese market, albeit deliberately and using a microenterprise approach in doing so. In addition to sponsoring flag football leagues and sneaking in game broadcasts where it can, the league recently sent members of the New England Patriots to China to popularize the game, one that lags far behind the NBA and Premier League soccer in popularity. (Let's pray it was Randy Moss. An international incident surely can't be far behind, with the Chinese Joe Buck solemnly saying "Hao e shin!" behind him. )

The NFL even has a website in Chinese, from which we can sample some fine mistranslations. (Thanks, Google Translate!)

From the Rules section:

Defensive unit holding the other team members will be thrown on the other side to stop the advance.

That sounds...violent. And difficult, especially considering throwing Ted Washington is simply not physically possible. (Seriously, it's against the laws of nature.) More:

When the offensive players anesthesia or knees to touch that was called to intercept the end of this offensive opportunities.

Gassing the opposition does tend to end their offensive progress. Bret Favre tried to self-anesthestia himself for most of the 1995 season, if memory serves us well. But here's the choicest cut of all: the reverse translation for the Washington Redskins, according to Google Translate:

Washington Erythroderma NFL teams in the history of one of the veteran teams, in 1932 in Boston establishment...

We've been looking for a way to sum up what Daniel Snyder's done to a once fine franchise. Calling them the Erythroderma is as good a summary of the whole sad process as we can muster.