Countdown to Manning Bowl -and the SuperBowl

By Michael Eisen at Giants.com and the Clubhouse staff

It’s an honor to have two of them playing.” - Archie Manning

This was Archie’s answer to reporter’s questions about the Colts/Giants game on September 10th.

Will he say the same thing if they manage to square off for the SuperBowl?

Archie may love them both no matter what happens. But the fans take sides. And the sports bettors are ready to wager. Will the Colts make the SuperBowl this season? Or will the Giants become the NFL champions at the end of the year? Is a Manning versus Manning SuperBowl in our immediate future?

At YouWager.com, you can bet on it.

In our NFL Futures section, you can wager on this season’s wins for each team. You can even bet on the possibility of a Peyton vs. Eli SuperBowl. And of course, when the Giants and the Colts face each other on September 10th, you can also bet on that here, too.

Archie Manning will feel a strange mixture of pride and anxiety when his two NFL quarterback sons meet for the first time to open the 2006 season.

Eli Manning of the Giants and Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts will be the first brothers to start the same NFL game when their teams collide in Giants Stadium on Sept. 10. That, of course, makes Archie Manning – an NFL quarterback with New Orleans, Houston and Minnesota from 1971-84 – the first father to have two sons starting in the same contest.

“We’re just going to deal with it,” Archie Manning said this week. “It was inevitable it was going to happen. I think Olivia (his wife) and Cooper (his oldest son) and the rest of our family look at it as – it’s pretty neat. It’s an honor to have two of them playing.”

Manning made his remarks in Ponta Vedra Beach, Fla., where he attended the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation Golf Classic. Eli Manning was also at the dinner and golf tournament.

Archie Manning usually spends his autumn weekends rooting for his sons and their teams. Peyton was the first overall pick of the 1998 NFL Draft and has started all 137 regular and postseason games in his career. Eli was the No. 1 selection by the San Diego Chargers in 2004. He was traded to the Giants about an hour later. Manning has started each of the last 24 games, including one in the postseason.
In 2005, both Mannings led their teams to division titles before losing their first playoff games. The NFC East champion Giants were 11-5 but lost to the Carolina Panthers in an NFC Wild Card Game. Indianapolis won the AFC South with a 14-2 record but fell to eventual Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh in a divisional playoff game.

“A good weekend for us is when the Colts win and the Giants win,” Archie Manning said. “And last year was a great year. We had a lot of double wins. And it gets even better if the Saints win and Tennessee (Peyton’s alma mater) wins and Ole Miss (where Archie and Eli starred) wins. But it doesn’t happen very often.

“But that night, one’s going to win and one’s going to lose. It’s the first game of the year. Somebody is going to get off to a good start and somebody’s not. But we’ll deal with it and move on.”

The central figures in the game have done their best to downplay the drama. They spoke on the phone the night the matchup was announced, but Eli made a point of telling reporters they didn’t discuss the opener. And Peyton issued a bland statement about the game, which will be the first Sunday night telecast for NBC, the league’s old/new television partner.

“I know those two guys are going to low-key it,” Archie said. “They know they’re playing a team sport and they’ve always done that. We’re looking at it that way, too, so we don’t want too much attention. We’re just going to get through it and hope for a whole lot of offense that night.”
Although the elder Manning has watched his sons play football their entire lives, he still gets nervous before one of their games.

“I do a little bit, especially when it gets tough out there,” Manning said. “In Peyton’s early years I was very nervous for him. He’s gotten more comfortable, so I get a little more comfortable. Eli’s early years, I’m nervous for him. But I’m not a big emotional guy. I kind of sit there and let it get inside of me, probably.”

Manning said he had similar butterflies in his belly when he played. But this is different.

“They don’t go away when you’re watching,” he said. “When you’re playing and somebody knocks the hell out of you, they kind of go away. When you’re watching, it’s kind of there the whole game. But we make it all right.”

Last season, Peyton Manning led the NFL with a 104.1 quarterback rating. He completed 67.3 percent of his passes and threw 28 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. His less-experienced brother completed 52.8 percent of his passes while throwing for 24 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.

“Eli made some strides,” Archie Manning said. “But he was still a second-year guy. When you’re a second-year guy and you have some success early – these defensive coordinators are really good. Don’t ever underestimate them. One thing about Eli, when you’re young – I call it a yo-yo. You’re up, you’re down, you’re up and down. What you try to do as you mature is level off and remain steady every week. I know that’s what he wants to be and I hope he can.”

Archie is perhaps prouder of how Eli Manning has responded to challenges and how he has handled himself off the field. Eli is unfailingly gracious and cooperative with fans and the media. The young quarterback is seemingly impervious to pressure. Last Sept. 25, a loud and heated crowd in San Diego did everything but storm the field, and Manning kept his cool. He threw for 352 yards and two touchdowns without an interception that night.

“A blitz may get him or some coverage may get him, but the media and the fans aren’t going to get him,” Archie Manning said. “I’m telling you, they’re not going to get him. I’m proud of him, he handles it.”
The elder Manning expects his sons to remain similarly unruffled throughout what promises to be a frenzied buildup to their initial NFL meeting.

“I feel blessed. I feel fortunate,” Archie Manning said. “They’ve given us a lot of joy. I don’t want it to be an Eli-Peyton thing. It’s a team sport. But I hope they both stay healthy through the preseason. And I hope there are no kinks. It will be good for the NFL.”

To bet on future wins for the Colts and the Giants this season, and the possibility of a Manning/Manning SuperBowl, Just click here!

NFL Football Draft

Every February at the Indiana’s RCA Dome, college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of NFL’s coaches, scouts and general managers. This 3-day display is what we know as the NFL Draft. The athletes tested show up by invitation only.

Each university has a pro day; NFL scouts are allowed to come and watch players participate in the events that take place at the Combine of their own school. This is done as it is believed that players feel more comfortable at their own campus than they do at the Combine, therefore, they should perform better. Major college teams like USC, Ohio State, Miami Florida, Notre Dame and Texas, produce a large quantity of NFL prospects and this generates huge interest from scouts and coaches.

The tests and evaluations that take place during the NFL Draft include: interviews, broad jump, injury evaluation, 40 yard dash, vertical jump, 20-yard shuttle, three-cone drill, 60-yard shuttle, bench press, position-specific drills, physical measurements, drug screen, the Cybex test, the Wonderlic test and others.

The athletes must perform their best since it can affect the perception, draft status, salary and ultimately his career.

The NFL Draft has taken place in New York City since 1965 and has had to move into bigger digs as the event has gained in popularity. Madison Square Garden had hosted the event for a number of years before moving to the Javits Convention Center in 2005. The 2006 draft was held at Radio City Music Hall, it was the first time this venue hosted the gala.

Each team has its representatives attend the draft. During the draft, one team is always "on the clock". In Round 1, teams have 15 minutes to make their choice. The decision time drops to 10 minutes in the second round and to 5 minutes in Rounds 3-7. If a team doesn't make a decision within this time, the team still can submit its selection at any time after its time is up, but the next team can pick the player they have been eyeing.

The drafted players are paid salaries corresponding with the position in which they were drafted. High first-round picks get paid the most, and low-round picks get paid the least. There is a pay scale for drafted rookies. After the draft, any non-drafted rookies are allowed to sign a contract with any team in the league.
The NFL allows each team to spend a limited amount of money from its salary cap to sign rookies, not only drafted players. Teams with higher picks get a higher rookie salary cap portion. In recent years, the salary cap increases from the year before, so there is more money apportioned to teams for signing rookies.

The NFL also holds a Supplemental Draft in late summer to accommodate players who did not enter the regular draft because they thought they still had academic eligibility to play college football.

NFL Football History

NFL football history begins when the American Professional Football Conference was in formed in 1920. Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians, and Dayton Triangles were represented. A second organizational meeting was held in Canton, September 17. The teams were from four states: Akron, Canton, Cleveland, and Dayton from Ohio, the Hammond Pros and Muncie Flyers from Indiana, the Rochester Jeffersons from New York, and the Rock Island Independents, Decatur Staleys, and Racine Cardinals from Illinois. The name of the league was changed to the American Professional Football Association.

Scheduling was left up to the teams, and there were wide variations, both in the overall number of games played and in the number played against APFA member teams. Four other teams: the Buffalo All-Americans, Chicago Tigers, Columbus Panhandles, and Detroit Heralds joined the league sometime during the year. On September 26, the first game featuring an APFA team was played at Rock Island's Douglas Park. A crowd of 800 watched the Independents defeat the St. Paul Ideals.

By the beginning of December, most of the teams in the APFA had abandoned their hopes for a championship, and some of them, had finished their seasons, disbanded, and had their franchises canceled by the Association. Four teams-Akron, Buffalo, Canton, and Decatur-still had championship as-pirations, but a series of late-season games among them left Akron At one of these games, Akron sold tackle Bob Nash to Buffalo for $300 and five percent of the gate receipts-the first APFA player deal.

In 1921, at the league meeting in Akron, the championship of the 1920 season was awarded to the Akron Pros, as the only undefeated team in the Association in 1920. The APFA was reorganized, with Joe Carr as president. Carr moved the Association's headquarters to Columbus, drafted a league constitution and by-laws, gave teams territorial rights, restricted player movements, developed membership criteria for the franchises, and issued standings for the first time, so that the APFA would have a clear champion. The Association's membership increased to 22 teams.

In 1922 the American Professional Football Association changed its name to the National Football League (NFL), June 24. The NFL Football fielded 18 teams. In 1925 the NFL football established its first player limit, at 16 players. Late in the season, the NFL football made its greatest coup in gaining national recognition. On Thanksgiving Day, a crowd of 36,000, the largest in NFL football history, watched the Chicago Bears play the Chicago Cardinals at Wrigley Field. At the beginning of December, a crowd of 73,000 watched the game Bears played against the Giants at the Polo Grounds and 75,000 fans watched them defeat the Los Angeles Tigers in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

In 1926 Grange started the first American Football League. It lasted one season and included Grange's New York Yankees and eight other teams. At the end of the season, the AFL folded. The NFL Football grew to 22 teams, and Halas pushed through a rule that prohibited any team from signing a player whose college class had not graduated.

At a special meeting in Cleveland in 1927 Carr decided to secure the NFL's future by eliminating the financially weaker teams and consolidating the quality players onto a limited number of more successful teams. The new-look NFL football dropped to 12 teams, and the center of gravity of the league left the Midwest, where the NFL football had started, and began to emerge in the large cities of the East. The NFL football was reduced to only 10 teams in 1928 and in 1929 the NFL adde

d a fourth official field judge.

NBA Finals (6 game)

No whiners! Mavs need to shut up ... now

Special to FOXSports.com

As the basketball troops head west from the AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami to Dallas' American Airlines Center for the conclusion of the 2006 NBA Finals, it's time to stop the all-American confusion.

So with apologies to American Airlines, the AAC shall be dubbed the "Whine Cellar" for the remainder of this series. We're not talking white, red, sweet, dry or any other variation. We're talking pure, unadulterated whine.

OK, as the Mavs lost three games in a row, along with their grip on a 2-0 lead that was on the verge of becoming 3-0, all we've heard about is the officiating. All we heard out of Dallas after Sunday night's thrilling one-point overtime victory was how Heat guard Dwyane Wade committed an offensive foul and was not fouled by Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki, thus making his two free throws that clinched the 101-100 victory unworthy.

And oh yeah, there was the rather large circumstance of Mavs forward Josh Howard calling timeout before Wade's second free throw — thus expending Dallas' final timeout and preventing them from advancing the ball beyond midcourt with 1.9 seconds left as opposed to having to travel the length of the floor.

Sure, they can claim all they want Howard was telling the officials they wanted a timeout after the second free throw if he made it. But what was the point of that? In an incredibly raucous building with so little time on the clock, why would he walk to an official who may or may not hear an entire sentence, look at him and signal timeout?

It was in plain view of everyone, including a national television audience. There was no reason for it, and it will forever be a historic moment in Finals lore.

Of course, Dallas owner Mark Cuban was going to complain. That appears to be at least 30 percent of his job description, to complain about everything. He even admitted in his blog that he's a whiner. Well, that's just fine Mark. And while you were espousing the finer intricacies of Mavericks braggadocio on late night television with your team up 2-0, it did nothing but incite the Heat.

And one more thing we might like to make clear. Wade made his two free throws. Had the Mavericks not missed four of their last eight free throws — and this is from a great free-throw shooting team, not the rock tossing Heat — this wouldn't have mattered. You guys would have been returning home to the Whine Cellar up 3-2 instead of down 3-2.

Even more so, had Nowitzki the superstar who was shooting 94 percent from the free throw line much of the playoffs, not missed a late free throw in Game 3 and in Game 5, chances are the series never would have been returning to Dallas. It would be over.

It's kind of like Al Gore complaining he was robbed by the hanging chads of Florida in the 2000 election. All he had to do was carry his own state of Tennessee and allow Bill Clinton to help him get Arkansas, and Florida wouldn't have mattered.

That's not justifying the Florida political shenanigans. That was handled dubiously any way you look at it. And that's not to say it was fair the way Wade was 21-of-25 from the free throw line Sunday (the exact same numbers as your entire team, while the Heat overall was 32-of-49.
But hey now ... if y'all hadn't missed four in the final minute of regulation and overtime, y'all probably wouldn't be so steamed right now.

Even though the one-game suspension of Jerry Stackhouse for his hit on Shaquille O'Neal in the second half of Game 4 was ludicrous during previous eras of basketball, it was right on the money in the NBA, circa 2006. It may pale in comparison to the clothesline Raja Bell put on Kobe Bryant, but realistically Bell should have gotten multiple games if they were being consistent based on the act itself. At any rate, Stackhouse did not attempt to make a basketball play. O'Neal, all 325-plus pounds of him, was airborne and vulnerable. Stackhouse came at O'Neal high and hard with a shove that could have injured him.

Had Ron Artest or Danny Fortson made that play, people would have been calling for a season-long expulsion.

The bottom line is, according to the present day interpretation of the rules, he earned a suspension.

So now, Stackhouse will be back for Game 6 at the Whine Cellar with another level of energy for a team seeking some version of controlled rage because they are convinced they've been hosed.

Funny how whenever the San Antonio Spurs mentioned officiating briefly during the early losses of their seven-game loss to the Mavs, everybody said they were nuts. Give the Mavs credit.

Well, it's time to give the Heat their due for bouncing back from the verge of extinction in Game 3 to take a 3-2 series lead. Had the Mavs taken care of business the way they should have, all of this officiating conjecture would be moot. In fact, that's virtually always the case when it comes to tough losses on a shaky call. There are plenty of other reasons for the loss that had more to do with the outcome than blaming it on an official.

So as the throng heads for Big D, and the strong possibility of this series being extended to a seventh game in the Whine Cellar, there is just one more bit of advice for the Mavs.

Y'all may be proud of your knowledge of fine whine, but this is a beer-guzzling series — survival of the toughest. Just shut up and play.

Argentina 6-0 Serbia & Montenegro

This match will be replayed at 1700 and 2000 BST on BBCi. To access, press the red button on your TV remote control.

Argentina put one foot into the last 16 by demolishing Serbia and Montenegro.

Maxi Rodriguez fired Argentina ahead from Javier Saviola's pass before Esteban Cambiasso rounded off a flowing 24-pass move, finishing from 12 yards.

Javier Saviola set up Rodriguez for the second and after Mateja Kezman saw red for a late lunge, Hernan Crespo made it 4-0 from Lionel Messi's cross.

Carlos Tevez rolled home the fifth and then teed up Messi who completed the rout with a low finish for the sixth.

Argentina took an early lead with a beautifully constructed goal that typified their flowing style.
Juan Pablo Sorin's cute backheel opened Serbia up down the left, allowing Saviola to cut inside where he eased a perfect pass into the path of Rodriguez who stabbed a first-time shot past Dragoslav Jevric.

Argentina gave a masterclass of passing skills to double their lead with the sweetest of goals.
They patiently strung together 21 passes before Juan Pablo Riquelme fed Saviola who slipped a pass inside for Cambiasso. Cambiasso knocked the ball into Crespo who backheeled a return pass into the Inter midfielder who thumped the ball home from 12 yards.

Predrag Djordjevic vainly attempted to prompt Serbia & Montenegro from midfield but there was already an air of resignation from his strikers and they were the architects of their own downfall as Argentina scored a third just before half-time.

Mladen Krstajic's attempts to shepherd the ball out for a corner ended in embarrassment as Saviola took the ball off him and cut inside where his shot was parried by keeper Jevric into the path of Rodriguez who scored from a tight angle via the post.

Savo Milosevic provided Roberto Abbondanzieri with his first test in the opening minute of the second half and the former Aston Villa striker was inches away as he lunged at Kezman's knock-back.

Serbia & Montenegro became increasingly frustrated as Argentina strutted their stuff and Kezman boiled over with a wild lunge on Javier Mascherano which earned him a straight red card.

There was even time for Messi to make a contribution as the substitute latched on to Riquelme's quickly taken free-kick and crossed for Crespo to tap in at the far post.

Another substitute, Tevez, scored a fine individual fifth as he beat two defenders in drifting in from the left before rolling the ball in.

Tevez then provided the pass for Messi to run on and beat Jevric at his near post to complete the rout with Argentina's sixth.

Argentina: Abbondanzieri, Burdisso, Ayala, Heinze, Sorin, Maxi (Messi 74), Mascherano, Gonzalez (Cambiasso 16), Riquelme, Saviola (Tevez 58), Crespo.Subs Not Used: Coloccini, Aimar, Cruz, Cufre, Franco, Milito, Palacio, Scaloni, Ustari.

Booked: Crespo.

Goals: Maxi 6, Cambiasso 31, Maxi 41, Crespo 78, Tevez 84, Messi 88.
Serbia & Montenegro: Jevric, Duljaj, Gavrancic, Krstajic, Dudic, Koroman (Ljuboja 49), Stankovic, Nadj (Ergic 45), Predrag Djordjevic, Kezman, Milosevic (Vukic 69).Subs Not Used: Basta, Nenad Djordjevic, Dragutinovic, Ilic, Kovacevic, Stojkovic, Vidic, Zigic.

Sent Off: Kezman (65).

Booked: Koroman, Nadj, Krstajic.

Att: 52,000

Referee: Roberto Rosetti (Italy).

Seven winners - and France

Spain’s 4-0 win over Ukraine in FIFA World Cup Stadium Leipzig today meant that only France, of the eight top-seeded teams at 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™, were unable to win their opening fixture.
France were disappointed with their 0-0 draw with Switzerland in Stuttgart but for all the rest – Germany, England, Argentina, Mexico, Italy, Brazil and Spain – a winning start justified their ranking ahead of the tournament