Ah, the NFL. ProfessionalFootball. The National Football Leaguereturns this weekend. From now untilearly February, 2018, it will be almost possible to eat and sleep nonstopFootball, at the pro, university, and even high school levels. Pro Football has already returned, in fact,with Thursday night's contest, a shocker, between the Kansas City Chiefs, who triumphedvictorious over reigning champs the Patriots of New England. It was no surprisethat fans at Foxborough, Massachusetts, at the Patriots home stadium, rightlybooed Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner. Goodell should realize by now that commissioners have to make unpopulardecisions, but shouldn't always make them for the profit motives, so his vanitywas probably touched. The real action was on the field, where Rookie running back Kareem Hunt upstaged TomBrady as the Kansas City Chiefs launched the new National Football Leagueseason with a stunning 42-27. Huntrecovered from a fumble on his first possession to make three touchdowns duringthe game. Chiefs quarterback Alex Smiththrew for 368 yards and four touchdowns to puncture the festive atmosphere asthe Super Bowl champion Patriots raised their championship banner in thetraditional season kick off at Gillette Stadium. Friday's game, scheduled forTampa Bay, was postponed due to Hurricane Irma. With the traditional pause Saturday, for College gameday, we willcomment on tomorrow's games, tomorrow.
Shaving on race day is considered by many pro cyclists to beunlucky. Some prefer only to shave ondays when they will not be racing, or haven't already. So, pictures of the winners of stages for theTour de France, the Vuelta a Espana or the Giro d'Italia often picture themwith whiskers, or at least a five o'clock shadow. Racing has been a close shave all during the currentVuelta a Espana, with a surprise eachrace day, escapes, and some shakeups in the GC. Although African Chris Froome and his British SKY team are dominating,impelled as they are by boatloads of cash, and hopefully nothing elseperformance enhancing, riders such as Italians Vicenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru, aswell as Spaniard Alberto Contador, who is riding his last race beforeretirement, have made the race very challenging and interesting. Belgian rider Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) came out on topin a pulsating stage 19 of the Vuelta a Espana yesterday. He has been on theattack throughout this Vuelta, and won at the finish in a tightly-foughtsprint. De Gendt and his group had broken free in the opening minutes of therace. De Gendt managed to stave offthese challenges from his breakaway throughout the race, and, unshaven, bustedthrough to win Lotto-Soudal’s fourth stage win of this year’s Vuelta. In the overall competition Chris Froome (TeamSky) retained his lead over Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) in second place.Alberto Contador (Trek Segafredo) attacked with great gusto, but was reeled in,ultimately, by the Team Sky. With two stages to go until the finale on Sunday, Today's criticalstage finish on the fabled Angrilu mountaintop climb become much more important. Has Froome tired or not? Saturday's stage will tell! In International Rugby, South Africa head into Saturday'smatch against Australia in first place in the Rugby Championship standings butwithout a win in Australia since 2013. TheSpringboks are 2-0 after consecutive wins over Argentina. Australia have lostboth matches to New Zealand, including a 35-29 defeat two weeks ago afterleading 29-28 with four minutes left and after opening up a 17-0 lead in thefirst half. South Africa coach AllisterCoetzee couldn't resist taking a subtle poke at the Wallabies over that closeloss in Dunedin, New Zealand. "Tonot to have won that one, I don't know how it slipped away in the last threeminutes when you get so close to winning a Test," Coetzee said. "Theyput themselves in a position to win it; you should win it." DespiteAustralia's recent weakness, it should be an exciting match. The winless Wallabies host the Springbokstonight in Perth. This Saturday, though, rugby must certainly be almost anafterthought in Perth, as this is the opening weekend of the Aussie RulesFootball Season playoffs. The top 8teams from the "ladder" are playing each other this weekend, seekingspots in the Grand Finale game, which will be held in a matter of weeks. The Adelaide Crows have already beat the GWSGiants in action Thursday night, a "home game" at the Adelaide Oval, and last night the Geelong Cats lost to the RichmondTigers in an exciting game at Melbourne Cricket Grounds. The Tigers had not won any game in theplayoffs since 2001, and had not won a game in the first week since the early1980s. Today's action include two games. The Sydney Swans will take on the Essendon Bombers at the Sydney Cricket Grounds. The Swans are clearly dominant, and have onlylost twice in the last 16 matches. NoBombers team has beat a Swans selection since 2011. In the final game of the weekend, the PortAdelaide Power will take on the West Coast Eagles at the Adelaide Oval. Although Port Adelaide won the last meetingbetween the teams, during the regular season, the AdelaideOval holds no fear for the Eagles ahead of Saturday night's elimination finalagainst the Power. The Eagles have won five of their six games at the venue,including a victory over the Power in round seven this year. However, the Powerturned the tables on the Eagles in Perth in round 17. The Power won threestraight to end the season, while the Eagles squeezed Melbourne out of the topeight on percentage courtesy of their amazing win over minor premier Adelaideon the last day of the season. The Eagles will be looking to make the most oftheir unexpected opportunity. -- Posted By Rex to SR at 9/09/2017 12:09:00 AM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
