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8) How bad did the NFL look when referee Pete Morelli picked up the flag that had signalled pass interference against the Dallas Cowboys? Awfully bad, but not bad enough to support a conspiracy theory. If thats what youre thinking, and that is what youre thinking, Ill bet. 9) So what should the NFL have done? Well, Morelli admits he shouldnt have been so quick to announce a penalty he wasnt prepared to enforce. But thats immaterial, really, because the flag "announced" the penalty and an explanation was still required. If the NFL isnt prepared to add pass interference to its list of calls that are subject to review via coaches challenges, a la CFL rules, it can and should take a simple step to make sure the embarrassment in Dallas is not repeated. It should automatically require a final ruling from the replay booth whenever a penalty flag is thrown without a penalty being assessed. Another look at the play in question in Dallas would surely have resulted in a penalty against the Cowboys. 10) Not to get too technical, but are you wondering why the post-game explanation given by Morelli was so puzzling? He said the back judge threw the flag and the head linesman objected to the call and claimed he had a better view of what he determined was "minimal contact". Heres the thing--many of the penalty flags thrown by back judges are for pass interference and many of the penalty flags thrown by linesmen are for offside. 11) Is it a good idea for the NFL to increase the number of playoff teams from 12 to 14? Based on what I witnessed this past weekend, the answer is "no". Three of the four games, especially the Carolina-Arizona clunker, were hard to watch. For me, the playoffs start now, with Brady vs. Flacco, Manning vs. Luck, and Rodgers vs. Romo. I realize that wild-card teams have won four of the past 14 Super Bowls and this years first-round playoffs wouldnt have looked any worse if San Diego and Philadelphia had been included, but Im pretty sure more playoff games will mean more bad playoff games. 12) Is Terry Pegula, the owner of the Buffalo Sabres and the Buffalo Bills, a good owner simply because he might be the only owner willing to operate those teams, or is he capable of building organizations that can produce winning teams? The saga of departed coach Doug Marrone has painted an unflattering picture of the Bills internal workings. Pegula has a lot of fixing to do and his teams have a lot of winning to do before he can be deemed successful in his sports endeavours. 13) How good is Andrew Luck and how good are the Indianapolis Colts? I think Luck is a whole lot better than the team around him. The Colts wont be able to run against Denver and the Broncos will be able to run against Indys defence and Luck will probably pass for 350 yards in defeat. The Colts are a playoff team for three reasons-- the weakness of thei AFC South division, their coach Chuck Pagano, and their quarterback, Andrew Luck. 14) Oregon beats Florida State; Ohio State beats Alabama. Oregon meets Ohio State for the U-S college football title, thereby proving the worth of the playoff system, because neither school would have qualified via a two-team vote. So heres the question--why did it take so long for the four-team playoff to become a reality? 15) Did Oregons resounding win over the Seminoles remove all doubt about the number-one draft pick, if it is used by the Tampa Bay Bucs to select a quarterback? Oregons Marcus Mariota was favoured to go number-one even before the meltdown by Jameis Winston and Florida State, and the gap could only be wider now, especially because of Winstons off-field issues, but you will still hear that Winstons mechanics fit the NFL quarterback mould better than Mariotas. 16) If Canada iced an Olympic or World Cup mens hockey team tomorrow, would Tyler Seguin be on it? Especially as he is the NHLs highest-scoring, Canadian-born forward at the moment, and just one point behind the league leader, Jakub Voracek, it figures he would be, but there wouldnt need to be too much tinkering with the group of 14 forwards at Sochi. And the first addition would be a healthy Steven Stamkos. And dont forget Claude Giroux. 17) Remember when Emilio Bonifacio was supposed to play second base for the Blue Jays? Well, next season, hes supposed to play second base for the Chicago White Sox, and theyre supposed to be a factor in the American League Central Division. Im not sure those two suppositions should go together. 18) Should the Boston Bruins trade Milan Lucic? Well, they could use a big, tough winger who scores 30 goals, but I doubt theyd get that for Lucic. 19) How much do you know about the leading goal-scorer on the NHLs top team? Shall we start with his name? Its Matt Beleskey. The Anaheim Ducks winger, whose previous high in one season was 11 goals, has scored 17 times. Of further interest is the fact he is not signed beyond this season.The native of Windsor, Ontario and graduate of the OHLs Belleville Bulls is in his 6th NHL season and if you thought he could keep scoring like this, you might predict that hed have a chance to finish with 35 or more goals, in which case he would equal or better his career total prior to this season. 20) Are you wondering where Max Scherzer will pitch next season? I was, but Im rapidly losing interest. And as for James Shields….. Cheap Chiefs Jerseys . Specifically, thumbs up to the Canadian-based teams in the NHL, or at least most of them. Wholesale Chiefs Jerseys . 42 sitting next to the bench. The 57-year-old with greying hair couldnt box out or grab a rebound, but owner Ted Leonsis waved his red towel and egged on a cheering crowd that chanted "Free Nene!" The Wizards did just fine without the suspended Brazilian forward. http://www.cheapchiefsjerseyselite.com/. The Rays hope to stay alive for the postseason and salvage the finale of this series Sunday at Rogers Centre, where they dropped a 7-2 decision Saturday. Chris Archer lasted 2 1/3 innings in the no-decision, charged with a run and five hits, and Alex Torres suffered the loss in relief. Cheap Chiefs Jerseys China .com) - A chant of Zeke reverberated around AT&T Stadium before Ezekiel Elliott powered into the end zone for his fourth and final touchdown. Cheap Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys . -- Caris LeVert had 14 points and a career-high 11 rebounds for his first career double-double, and No.Vincenzo Nibali put his lungs and legs to work one last time, marching up to the winners podium of the Tour de France and sighing deeply before the Italian anthem echoed over the Champs-Elysees. Chants of "Vin-cen-zo!" rang across the famed avenue for the Sicilian, who dominated the race nearly from the start three weeks ago and on Sunday became the first Italian to win cyclings greatest race since Marco Pantani in 1998. Marcel Kittel of Germany won Stage 21 in a sprint, his fourth victory this year. Nibali cruised in 24 seconds later, easily retaining a lead of more than seven minutes on his closest rival. He received pats on the back, kissed his wife and infant daughter and was mobbed by cameras. "Now that I find myself on the highest step on the Champs-Elysees podium, its more beautiful than I ever imagined," Nibali, the Arc de Triomphe behind him, told the crowd. "Ive never been this moved in all my life." Nibali, likened by some as the emperor of the pack, conquered where others did not: notably Chris Froome of Britain, the 2013 Tour winner, and two-time champion Alberto Contador of Spain. Both crashed out with injuries before the halfway mark. As if mountain climbs, bone-jarring cobblestones, crashes and rain-splattered rides werent enough, Nibali faced the scrutiny that comes with the yellow jersey in a sport long damaged by drugs. Nibali, who calls himself "a flag-bearer of anti-doping," noted that his success came through pinpoint focus on this race as the season began and opportunistic attacks in which he was able to nibble seconds on his rivals. There were no eye-popping performances, as was the case when doping was so prevalent. The Astana team leader is only the sixth rider to win all three Grand Tours -- France, Italy and Spain. His win comes 10 years after Pantani, a flamboyant rider, died from a drug overdose. Nibali won four stages -- a feat not equaled by a Tour winner since Lance Armstrong won five a decade ago. The Italian wore the yellow jersey for all but two stages since Stage 1. His 7-minute, 37-second margin over runner-up Jean-Christophe Peraud equals that of Armstrong over Swiss rider Alex Zulle in 1999 -- a result nullified because of doping. Before that, the biggest margin was that of Germanys Jan Ullrich: He beat Richard Virenque by just more than nine minutes in 1997. In one of the subplots of this race, Peraud and third-placed Thibaut Pinot became the first Frenchmen to reach the Tour podium since Virenque in that year -- a fact not lost on many homegrown fans. Pinot was 8:15 behind. Armstrong, Ullrich and Virenque were caught in nearly a generation of doping scandals. Armstrong, in cyclings biggest scandal, admitted to doping and was stripped of his recorrd seven Tour titles.dddddddddddd Nibali and many others in the peloton say that era is past. But his own victories in the 2010 Vuelta and the Italian Giro last year were tarnished by doping involving other riders. Cyclings governing body has made great efforts to halt drug use, but few cycling experts believe the pack is fully clean. Authorities in Italy and France have been among the most aggressive in cracking down on doping, and the victory of an Italian, followed by two Frenchmen, could be a sign the peloton is getting cleaner. Some suggested that Nibali was just the best among the riders still in this Tour. Colombias Nairo Quintana, who won the Giro dItalia in May, didnt ride. Bradley Wiggins, the 2012 Tour winner, was passed over so his Sky Team could focus on Froome. Then Froome and Contador pulled out. But even before they left, Nibali had a two-second lead on them by winning Stage 2. Then, in Stage 5 after Froome crashed out, the Italian excelled on cobblestone patches that slowed Contador, who lost more than 2 1/2 minutes to Nibali. The Spaniard felt compelled to attack. On a downhill in Stage 10, Contador fractured his shin. But Nibali -- known as "The Shark of the Strait" in a nod to the waterway near his hometown of Messina, Sicily, and his attacking style -- didnt stop there. He went on to win that stage, up to the super steep La Planche des Belles Filles. It was the first of three stages with uphill finishes that he won, adding one in the Alps and another in the Pyrenees -- each time dealing small but cumulatively significant blows to contenders. This 101st Tour began in Yorkshire, England, and guided riders over 3,664 kilometres (2,277 miles), with high-mountain rides in the Vosges, Alps and Pyrenees. Tejay van Garderen, the top U.S. rider, said on Twitter this was the hardest of his four Tours. He finished fifth overall, 11:24 behind Nibali, after climbing a spot in Saturdays time trial. Nibali said the Tour layout was "almost made to measure for me." He also noted that crashes are part of the race, and hes been such a victim in the past. As he stepped down from the podium, Nibali hurled the winners bouquet into the crowd, and a fan handed him an inflatable shark. Many waved French and Italian flags. "I think its very important for cycling in Italy because at the moment there isnt a lot of trust," said spectator Massimo Solaroli, a 47-year-old physical education teacher from the Italian town of Imola. "We dont believe an Italian champion can win an important race without doping." But Nibali, he added, gives reason for hope. "I think he can be a good champion for all the people, not only for Italian people, because hes very humble," he said. ' ' '