| John Nicholson
If the football media was a bodily function, this week it would have been projectile vomiting. It may turn out to be a defining week in English football so what better time to start a weekly trawl through the highways and byways of football media in all its twisted glory. Monday morning comes on heavy like an illness and so I ease into the international week with the excellent Times podcast, The Game, presented by Gabriele Marcotti and Guillem Balague. Marcotti is the primo pundit and journalist around at the moment. His gig is to be arsy, argumentative and be well armed with facts, figures and anecdotes. Everything he's involved with has a real spark about it. An ongoing theme of the week is the increasingly tedious 'are there too many foreigners' debate. Carragher speaks the most sense on this saying it's not the quantity, it's the quality of them.
Madison left in the dark for big game
You've fumed at the NFL Network. You've vented about Charter. So now what, Green Bay Packers fan? If you're a Madison cable subscriber, you're not going to be able to watch Thursday night's game -- quite possibly your team's biggest game of the regular season -- from your living room. But you've exhausted your rage on the involved parties, so what's left to do besides go out and find a place to watch the game? Maybe while you're doing that, you can think of people in the Green Bay, Appleton and Milwaukee areas that aren't going to be so inconvenienced. That's because NFL broadcasting rules give those markets the right to show the game on over-the-air television stations. WFRV/Ch. 5 bought the rights in the Green Bay/Fox Valley market; WISN/Ch. 12 was the highest bidder in Milwaukee.
Same teams, boring result
Since the NHL resumed play after becoming the first major professional sports league to cancel an entire season in 2004-05, players have been reticent to criticize their sport. After all, the more tickets the league sells now — or doesn't sell — the more it affects their take-home pay. But players can no longer stifle themselves about the league schedule, which has each team playing a divisional opponent eight times. In the Avalanche's case, it will play a Northwest Division opponent for the 10th time in the past 11 games when it hosts the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center. "I'm against the eight games against your own division. That's just too many times," Avs veteran Andrew Brunette said before .
Outlaws move to 11-1 at home
MASON CITY — Great hockey teams find a way to win.The North Iowa Outlaws proved they could be a great team, escaping with a 3-1 NAHL Central Division victory over the Fargo-Moorhead Jets on Saturday at the North Iowa Ice Arena."We’re doing everything we can to win," North Iowa forward Ross-Ring Jarvi said. "Great teams always find a way to win games, and that’s what I think we are, a great team."North Iowa defenseman Matt Morin put North Iowa in front 1-0 heading into the first intermission, scoring a power-play goal with 31 seconds remaining in the opening period.Fargo-Moorhead’s Mark Johnson tied the score with 2:46 left in the second leaving the third period to decide the outcome."We were a lot better in the first period (Saturday) than we were (Friday) and then kind of got a little uninterested in the second period," said North Iowa coach Dave Boitz, whose team improved to 6-0-0 against the Jets this season.
BG's Ayoub shows guarded optimism
As a freshman, Buffalo Grove's Ellen Ayoub was smooth as silk. Today, she's solid as gold. That slick-shooting freshman guard is now a senior for Buffalo Grove's highly-regarded girls basketball team, which returns four starters from a Class AA Elite Eight qualifier. The 5-foot-10 Ayoub makes no secret about how she would like to finish her career. "It's crazy but we're not satisfied yet," said Ayoub, referring to her team's back-to-back Elite Eight appearances. "I literally think about that loss to Bolingbrook (in overtime two years ago when the Bison lost it in the final seconds on a steal). I definitely want this to be our year." If it is, Ayoub will have to be a major factor. Earlier this week, she made a verbal commitment to play for Loyola University.
NFL Notes
MIAMI -- Ricky Williams' latest comeback lasted one game. The Miami Dolphins running back will miss the rest of the season with a torn chest muscle, according to his agent, Leigh Steinberg. Williams was hurt Monday at Pittsburgh, when he played in his first game in nearly two years. He returned following a 1 1/2 -year suspension for his latest violation of the NFL drug policy. He played for the Toronto Argonauts during the 2006 season. The team was off yesterday, and a spokesperson for the Dolphins said they had no comment on Williams' status. Williams was injured in the second quarter after he fumbled. After being tackled, he was accidentally stepped on while chest-down on the ground. Williams finished with 15 yards in six carries, and the Dolphins lost 3-0 on a last-minute field goal. CARNEY LATEST CHIEFS KICKER KANSAS CITY, Mo.
NFL notes
EAGLES: Quarterback Donovan McNabb will miss Philadelphia's game today against New England because of a sprained ankle and injured thumb.
McNabb hurt the thumb on his throwing hand early against Miami last Sunday and left after injuring his ankle in the second quarter. He has not practiced all week.
A.J. Feeley, who led the Eagles to a pair of touchdowns in a 17-7 win over the Dolphins, gets the start for underdog Philadelphia.
McNabb has started every game since returning ahead of schedule after a torn knee ligament ended his season early last year. Injuries ended his regular season three times in the past six years. The Eagles are 13-8 without him, including 1-1 in the playoffs last season.
Feeley will make his first start since he led Miami over Cleveland on Dec.
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