My first reaction was that Garcia had a point but didn't have much leverage. The more I think about it, though, the more I wonder if this is part of a growing trend in Tampa for owner Malcolm Glazer and GM Bruce Allen. They tend to kick to the curb veterans who, in their opinion, have outlived their usefulness. Witness the cutting of Simeon Rice last summer, which many Bucs players didn't appreciate. Warren Sapp was not re-signed by the team in 2004, either, even though he still had some gas left in the tank.
The end result is that the Bucs have tons of room under the salary cap. They could afford to give Garcia a good-faith raise, which they gave B.J. Askew. Askew, however, is only 27. Does age play a role in these decisions?
Or can Glazer simply not afford it right now? I know I keep bringing up the fact that Glazer's other team, Manchester United, just posted a £58 million loss. You can certainly argue that they're separate entities, but nothing happens in a vacuum, and dropping $114 million with one team might make Glazer hesitant to spend on another team. Maybe if Garcia gets his raise a week after Cristiano Ronaldo gets sold to Real Madrid, we'll know just how connected those two franchises really are.
Of course, the Chelsea striker isn't actually joining the New York Giants. He's just doing his part to promote the Giants-Dolphins game in Wembley Stadium on Sunday -- as is Chelsea, which is hosting Giants practices this week. If nothing else, Drogba in a Giants uniform is probably a better promotional tool than that giant Jason Taylor statue.
If you're looking for the most meddlesome team owner in sports, you may want to step outside the country, let alone the NFC East, and take a look at Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.
This came on top of the Russian billionaire's insistence that Mourinho play Andriy Shevchenko more, which was one of the primary bones of contention between the owner and now-sacked manager.
Abramovich had been very hands-off with his club prior to this. Has he suddenly decided that only he can manage Chelsea properly? He already has a reputation for overspending on players who may not be worth it, like Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. Does he now want control over all aspects of the club like Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who made himself general manager just after buying the team?
It turns out that Patriotgate isn't the only example of a team accused of stealing signs. The Chinese women's national soccer team is facing accusations of its own.
The day before their match with China, Denmark team officials found two men with video cameras sitting behind a two-way mirror in the hotel conference room where the team was about to hold a strategy meeting.
"It's like a spy movie," Danish team press officer Pia Schou Nielsen said Thursday. She said the men were Chinese, although Denmark coach Kenneth Heiner-Moller told reporters he did not know their nationalities.
Somehow I think this one is going to get a bit less attention in the media than the Bill Belichick scandal, mostly because I think the average American sports fan cares just a little bit more about the NFL than the Women's World Cup.
But while I find the "everybody does it" defense that some Patriots fans have offered rather unconvincing, it is interesting that we've learned just today that both women's soccer and Formula One have spying scandals of their own. I don't think everyone does it, but I think spying in sports is a lot more prevalent than I realized three days ago.
The Futbol Meets Football ad campaign gave Reggie Bush and David Beckham a chance to try each other's sports, and they seemed to enjoy each other's company. In this outtake, however, Bush delivers a hit and talks a little smack:
That was Bush telling Beckham "This is a man's game," and Beckham replying, "F--- that hurt."
By far the most annoying thing ESPN does with its NFL coverage is invite people who know nothing about football into the booth during Monday Night Football games. Hearing the announcers ignore the game on the field so they can talk on and on and on (and on) with Jamie Foxx about his latest movie is unbearable.
Now ESPN is going the other way, planning to put a football player in the booth while its viewers are trying to watch another sport. On July 21, when ESPN broadcasts David Beckham's first match with the LA Galaxy (against the English team Chelsea), Saints running back Reggie Bush will be in the booth.
Bush will discuss adidas' ad campaign featuring Bush and Beckham playing each others' football games. Because whether it's football or futbol, it's all about the marketing, not the game on the field.
Beckham's spiral may not be all that tight, but he's probably still a better option for the Saints than Aaron Brooks. The fact that he hit a route-running Bush in the hands with a kicked soccer ball ought to make his future L.A. Galaxy teammates smile, too.
Starting this week, users will be able to watch Beckham and Bush match their skills at www.futbolmeetsfootball.com. On a field marked half for football and half for soccer, the video shows Beckham teaching Bush how to kick a soccer ball with the curve that inspired the movie Bend It Like Beckham.
Bush tutors Beckham on kicking, throwing and catching an American football. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid player shows he has the makings of a placekicker or punter, but he heaves a wounded duck when attempting to throw a pass. "You sure you're right-handed?" Bush kids.
In Beckham's defense, there's no shame in heaving mallards -- Chad Pennington has made a very successful career out of it. Anyway, the pairing and cross-promotion of Bush and Beckham is more significant than it might seem. Beckham is seen as the tipping point MLS needs to get going. Bush has the on-field ability and personality to become the company's leading spokesman. This campaign acknowledges the two as Adidas' big money-makers for the forseeable future.
I don't think Bush or Beckham brought the requisite cross-sport skills to challenge the other seriously (unlike Kim Kardashian vs. Victoria Beckham, which is a legitimate competition). Still, it's got to be more entertaining than watching Bush take on a vending machine.
The former Baltimore Colts linebacker Mike Curtis was a four-time Pro Bowler, but to fans younger than 40 or so, he's known almost entirely for a tackle that didn't count in the statistics. When a fan ran on the field during a game, Curtis leveled him with a vicious hit, knocking the fan sprawling. The title of Curtis's autobiography, Keep Off My Turf, is a reference to that moment.
But check out this soccer player, who delivers a hit to a fan on the field that rivals Curtis's shot:
According to The Offside, that's Kobi Mossa of Maccabi Tel Aviv during a game against Hapoel Tel Aviv. I agree with The Offside: It's a good thing Israeli TV doesn't follow the American practice of taking the cameras off fans who run on the field. If it did, we would have been deprived of some great video.
It's so rare to see a sports league that knows how to use existing Internet tools effectively. Most of them just scream bloody murder about copyright violations and file lawsuits -- especially when it comes to YouTube, big media's favorite whipping boy. The NFL cracked down on YouTube clips. The English Premier League filed a lawsuit against YouTube earlier this month. Even the Australian Football League and the New Zealand Rugby Union are getting into the act. It's as if you're not a real sports league unless you're throwing lawyers at the Google subsidiary over "unauthorized" video clips.
That's why it's a breath of fresh air to see a sports league actually embrace the online video site. Major League Soccer announced yesterday that it has struck a revenue sharing deal with YouTube. The site will host an MLS Channel that features highlights, interviews and clips of Alexi Lalas lovingly kissing the butts of league investors. (Well, maybe not that last part...)
This deal is exactly what MLS needs right now. Soccer gets more run on YouTube than just about any other sport, so putting MLS front and center in that slipstream will only help the league increase its publicity and perhaps get a few more people out to games to watch players not named Beckham. Soccer is still growing as a pro sport in America, and anything that helps MLS reach out to fans will only boost the league's popularity in the long run.
What a shame that only marginalized leagues like the NHL and MLS recognize YouTube for the promotional vehicle it can be. I guess that's what happens when you don't have big-money TV contracts that you think need protecting...
Our old pal MJD had some interesting things to say about Jeff Garcia's retirement threat. The 38-year-old quarterback, who is due to make a $2 million base salary in 2008, has been asking for a raise after leading the Bucs to the playoffs last season.
It turns out that 
By far the most annoying thing ESPN does with its NFL coverage is invite people who know nothing about football into the booth during Monday Night Football games. Hearing the announcers ignore the game on the field so they can talk on and on and on (and on) with Jamie Foxx about his latest movie is unbearable. 
Adidas
It's so rare to see a sports league that knows how to use existing Internet tools effectively. Most of them just scream bloody murder about copyright violations and file lawsuits -- especially when it comes to YouTube, big media's favorite whipping boy. The NFL 
