professional football

By SCOTT ADAMSON
Scripps Howard News Service
Monday, July 23, 2007

My name is Scott, and I'm a footballaholic.

There, I said it. And by saying it I have finally admitted to you, my three loyal readers, that I have an addiction.

For years I either denied it or didn't really think about it, but I was forced to face my demons just a few nights ago when a leisurely channel surf found me on the CSS network watching the Montreal Alouettes take on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Week 3 action of the 2007 Canadian Football League.

Now I could tell a white lie here and say that I tuned in because Clemson's Will Proctor plays for the Alouettes and South Carolina's Jamacia Jackson is on the Hamilton roster, but that wasn't the case.

By JEFF LEGWOLD
Scripps Howard News Service
Thursday, July 12, 2007

In his get-it-done, here-and-now football life, Denver Broncos receiver Rod Smith always has been served well by doing a little more, pushing a little harder.

By RAY McNULTY
Scripps Howard News Service
Tuesday, July 03, 2007

NFL Europa e morto.

It sleeps with the fishes.

It's gone.

And nobody will miss it.

Because nobody ever really cared -- except, of course, the NFL brass, who foolishly thought playing second-rate football in Europe would open up an international market for a strictly North American game.

Football fans here didn't care.

Football fans over there didn't care, either.

Not for our brand of football.

Let's face it: If they cared, if our football meant as much to them as their football, they'd riot.

Just like they do at their soccer matches.

So it was a bad idea from the start.

Scripps Howard News Service
column
By BERNIE LINCICOME
Scripps Howard News Service

Sad stories from violent sports, from football, from boxing, from hockey, from games where angry men smack other angry men, are almost clichis, the addled old jock far from the glory he chased.

By SCOTT OSTLER
San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, June 25, 2007

Apparently I am not hip. Nor hop.

When I heard that Pacman Jones and his pals were trying to "make it rain," in Las Vegas, I assumed they rented a plane and were seeding the clouds.

By MATTHEW BARROWS
Sacramento Bee
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Marques Douglas will go behind bars at exactly 3:30 Tuesday afternoon. But don't worry, San Francisco 49ers fans, this isn't the athlete-goes-rotten story line you've grown weary of reading all offseason.

This is the opposite.

Douglas, you see, is a solemn man.

Nolan should go all the way with retro appearance
Scripps Howard News Service
column
Must credit the San Francisco Chronicle
By RAY RATTO
San Francisco Chronicle

By RAY RATTO
San Francisco Chronicle
Saturday, June 16, 2007

There is no word yet on whether coach Mike Nolan also wants to wear a fedora on the sidelines, give up his headset or drive to San Francisco 49ers games at the once-and-always Candlestick Park in a '52 DeSoto.

By SCOTT OSTLER
Thursday, June 14, 2007
How long will it take, how deep into his first NFL season will it be, before JaMarcus Russell is allowed to take his first meaningful sack?

Oops, I mean snap.

By JASON JONES
Sacramento Bee
Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Dominic Rhodes started and came off the bench effectively as a running back for the Indianapolis Colts.

The free-agent acquisition's preference with the Oakland Raiders is simple.

"Getting the ball," Rhodes said earlier this week at the team's voluntary mini-camp.