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ATLANTA: Facing millions in claims from banks, creditors and prosecutors, suspended Falcons quarterback Michael Vick has put his seven bedroom, 8 1/2-bath house in Duluth, Ga., up for sale. The asking price for the sprawling home and $1.5 acres grounds? $4.5 million. Only buyers with proof of income sufficient to buy the property and house are provided access to the home. The Web listing for the house has attracted more than 10 million page views. Vick is in a Virginia jail and awaiting sentencing Dec. 10 for felony dogfighting charges. CAROLINA: Memo to Saints fans: As you watch Panthers quarterback Vinny Testaverde (Nov. 13, 1963) do his thing today at the tender age of 44, keep in mind that he is 46 days older than Saints Coach Sean Payton (Dec. 29, 1963). TAMPA BAY: Today's game between the NFC South-leading Buccaneers and Washington will be the Redskins' fourth at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., in less than 25 months and the sixth between the teams in five years.
NFL: What's next for our conquering heroes?
WHEN IT rains it pours, or so it is said. Then again, sometimes the rain results in flowers. For the Raiders and 49ers it was a bouquet of roses Sunday. Finally. Last time both Bay Area teams won on the same day was Oct. 30, 2005, when the 49ers knocked off Tampa Bay, while the Raiders were winning at Tennessee. Home-and-away scheduling has something to do with this, but the last time both teams won on the road was Dec. 8, 2002 back in the playoff days. It's been a long wait but, for one day, worth it. Everything the 49ers and Raiders thought they were going to be turned out to be what they were. The Raiders thought they were a running team but over 10 weeks of the season what they were running was a rather grotesque six-game losing streak. Then they ran. Justin Fargas and even LaMont Jordan were given holes.
TV-RADIO NOTEBOOK: NFL is very fortunate how schedule plays out
In the spirit of this holiday season, let us resolve to take NFL commissioner Roger Goodell at his word regarding the eight-game NFL Network schedule that began Thursday night with the Colts-Falcons. That means we will stipulate to Goodell's assurances that the NFL did not rig the schedule to ensure the league-owned network would have attractive matchups and, more importantly, games it could employ to apply maximum pressure on cable carriers that don't carry the service, such as Time Warner, Charter and Cablevision. And so, given that assumption, we are left to conclude that the NFL this season is not conniving, merely fortunate. Next Thursday, NFL Network will air Packers-Cowboys, a potential preview of the NFC title game. The game will air on over-the-air TV in the teams' home cities but not in some of their most important secondary markets � among them Waco, Austin and San Antonio, all serviced by Time Warner Cable, and Madison, Wis., a Charter Cable market.
Pele: England lacks good players
Pele believes England is too quick to blame its managers for underachieving - instead of admitting that the soccer-mad country is starved of talent.
The national team's only significant triumph remains the 1966 World Cup, which it hosted, and is now in danger of missing its first major tournament since the 1994 World Cup after last month's defeat in Russia maintained a patchy qualifying campaign for the European Championship.
Manager Steve McClaren, fighting for his future after 15 months at the helm, needs Israel to deny Russia three points on November 17 and for his team to beat Croatia four days later at Wembley.
"England has few very good players," three-time World Cup winner Pele said on Wednesday.
"When those players get injured in a tough, long tournament they don't have a player to replace them - that is the big problem in England.
California partners with Brownsville for soccer team
California is now partnered with Brownsville in a co-op varsity soccer team. However, the California School Board voted Nov. 15 to allow California to form its own soccer team next year. The co-op was originally formed because California didn't have enough players to form a complete team, which requires about 22 players. Terri Doman, a California School Board member for four years, said when the co-op began, it was with the understanding that when California had enough players to form a team, it would move back to California and play for its own school. The next step California needs to take in order to form its own team is to secure the approval of the WPIAL. Since WPIAL already approved the co-op team for another two years, California needed to send a letter stating that it has formed its own team.
Wood is first-team All-American
• Penn State's Kiersten Wood, a senior from Warwick, was named to the NCAA Division I All-America first team in field hockey last week.
Wood, a midfielder, had six goals and five assists for 17 points for the Nittany Lions (16-8).
Penn State (16-8) beat No. 3 Maryland and No. 2 Wake Forest before falling to No. 1 North Carolina 3-0 in the NCAA title game last Sunday in College Park, Md.
Wood was one of four Lancaster County players named to the All-America team, which is voted on by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association.
Temple's Alli Lokey, a senior from Elizabethtown, was a second-team selection. Lokey, a midfielder, led the Owls with 18 goals and 10 assists for 46 points.
Iowa's Meghan Beamesderfer and Michigan's Paige Laytos, both sophomores from Warwick, were named to the third team.
Romani puts a pretty face on Rotary, but music lets it down
It certainly isn't the glitziest service organization on the planet. Nor one of the most cutting-edge. But its rather humble image notwithstanding, Evanston-based Rotary International is still a worthy global group of concerned citizens who wishes to make the world a better place. For the last several years, Rotary has entrusted Romani Bros./Chicago with the task of helping the world at large better understand what RI is all about. Denny Hebson, a Romani partner, once jokingly noted that many people steadfastly cling to the notion Rotary is nothing more than a bunch of old men who gather for lunch every month. But the Rotary campaign with the tag line "Rotary. Humanity in Motion" that Romani has been evolving clearly suggests otherwise. Each of Romani's two newest executions comes at the aforementioned theme in quite different fashion.
Cruel defeat snuffs out European dream
IN THE end, the emotions were not so much mixed as scrambled to the four corners of Hampden. We had seen Italy score in 70 seconds, we had seen them dominate the early minutes with some chilling football that not only took the fire out of the home support but also shocked Alex McLeish's team to the core. But in the final stages of the game it was the world champions who had the heat coming on them, their lead wiped-out by a scrambled Barry Ferguson goal just after the hour, their assurance of before in danger of being stripped away. With ten minutes remaining, Scotland drove forward once again, the substitute Kenny Miller linking with James McFadden and sending the most delicious ball across the Italian penalty area. The Azzurri were at sixes and sevens, Fabio Cannavaro and Gianluca Zambrotta, two of the game's pre-eminent defenders from two of the world's most glamorous clubs, were over-run.
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