“In Bodybuilding, the posing routine will no longer be scored. This will value the Prejudging and Finals Posedown at 50% each,” was listed as one of the rule changes included as part of the IFBB Advisory Notice 101409 prepared by Chairman Jim Manion. (http://www.ifbbpro.com/news/advisory-notice-101409/)

This may be viewed as a step backwards for a sport that has been finding the terrain difficult growing from its hardcore fan base. Back in its heyday, bodybuilding could promote many superstars who were classic posers. Men such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ed Corney, Frank Zane and Chris Dickerson made it an art form. But that has not been the case since the end of the 1980s.

With the new rule, competitors will no incentive to even prepare a posing routine and that will do the fans a disservice. As it was, there were only  few who even appeared as if they worked out a presentation. One of the reasons why Kai Greene made such a splash on the scene was because of his unique and incredible posing routine. Hopefully the 2009 Arnold Classic champion will not just go through the motions knowing that his score cannot be improved even though he is head and shoulders above the rest of the pack as a poser.

Besides all of the verbal barbs being traded during the week leading up to the game, Ryan made a plea to the fan base to step it up a notch, too. A recorded telephone message went out to all of the Jets season ticket holders telling them to make some noise and the 78,312 in attendance didn’t disappoint. The Patriots had four delay of game penalties called on them and the crowd was a major factor in the Jets snapping a home eight-game losing streak to their division rivals.

“The fans were huge in this victory,” said Ryan. “We’re giving them a game ball and putting it in our trophy case. This was a great win.”

The Jets offense put up just enough points to earn the victory while their staunch defense pitched a shutout as far as giving up touchdowns for the second consecutive game. “We’ve been preaching the whole time that if you do your job good things are going to happen to everybody,” safety Jim Leonhard, who finished the day with four tackles. “In the first two games, there have been guys all over the place making plays…different guys. No one is trying to do extra right now. Everyone is just doing their job.”

The mentality going into the game was to get New England quarterback Tom Brady off of his. Giving the perennial All-Pro different looks up until the last drive accomplished that. “If he knows what kind of defense you’re in, chances are he’s going to find the right spot to throw it to. You have to try to confuse him as much as you can. It doesn’t happen very often.

“On that last drive, we weren’t going to just sit back,” added Leonhard. “We were coming after him.”

Brady finished 23 for 47 for 216 yards, one interception and – most importantly – zero touchdowns. He led the Pats (1-1) to three field goals on drives that never seemed to get going. “We just didn’t do a good enough job,” Belechick said of his team’s struggles in the red zone. “They did a better job than we did.

A game of field goals resulted in a 9-3 halftime lead for the Pats. The Jets came out throwing in the second half when quarterback Mark Sanchez (14 for 22, 163 yards, one touchdown) found wideout Jerricho Cotchery open for a 45-yard gain to the New England 11-yard line. Two plays later, the rookie out of Southern Cal hit tight end Dustin Keller in the end zone and the Jets found themselves ahead, 10-9.

The Jets extended their lead to four points with 8:26 left in the third quarter but were close to making it more with an apparent six-yard touchdown pass from Sanchez to wide receiver Chancey Stuckey. The Patriots challenged the play and it was reversed after instant replays showed that he only had one foot in bounds. Although they had to settle for a short field goal, Sanchez did not see that as a negative.

“Those two drives coming out of halftime were great,” he said. “We really responded.”

Feeley hit his fourth field goal of the game, a 39-yarder, with 9:48 to go to extend the lead to 16-9. That is when the Jets had to bear down and hold on in a one-score game. Perhaps the biggest play of the day came on the ensuing drive. New England was facing a third-and-one situation at their own 37-yard line with 7:51 left in the game. Running back Fred Taylor tried to go left but was swarmed by linebackers Bryan Thomas and Bart Scott for a one-yard loss, forcing them to punt the ball away.

“That was a big momentum changer,” Thomas said. “They tried to load our defense to the right side so we knew at that time that they were going to try to do something to get that quick first down.”

The Jets improved to 2-0 on the young season and will face Tennessee next Sunday at the Meadowlands. The Titans are surprisingly winless so far after going 13-3 a year ago. As Ryan put it, “I get to enjoy (this win) for about a half an hour.

Although the Jets did win in Tennessee in 2008 to snap the Titans 10-game winning streak, there isn’t the same intense rivalry like the match-ups with the Patriots. So don’t expect a lot of bulletin board material this week.

“The big deal is, we’re a football team that should be respected,” said Ryan. “Sometimes we talk a little bit, but only because we have confidence in our football team.”

With two impressive wins to begin the campaign, as well they should.

Photo by Jim Leary

Call it jealousy, envy or whatever word you can conjure up to describe why the Yankees are so beloved by their fans (and themselves) but despised by everyone else with a pulse. Not only has the organization spent money like a shipload of drunken sailors on leave during the worst economic situation in 80 years, but even outbid themselves during this free agency free-for-all.

Other organizations have made their feelings well known and have publicly denounced many of the Bronx Bombers’ moves, dating back longer than just this past offseason. Perhaps one of the more colorful ‘nicknames’ came out of a 2002 New York Times interview with Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino, who berated the Yankees for outbidding his team for Cuban free agent pitcher Jose Contreras. Lucchino initially did not want to comment on the issue but then stated, “No, I’ll make a comment. The evil empire extends its tentacles even into Latin America.” The name has taken on a life of its own, even being mentioned in the Wikipedia page for ‘Evil Empire’ to reference the Yankees. Not surprisingly, the fan base of the Yankees embraced the nickname and wear it as if it were a badge of honor.

This past winter, southpaw CC Sabathia was the biggest fish on the open market as far as staring pitchers went. After blowing everyone else out of the water with a six-year, $140 million offer, the Yankees added a year and $21 million to the contract, as well as an “opt-out” clause after three years. Why top it out at $161 million instead of an even $160 you may ask? That’s an easy answer, if you subscribe to the Yankee mentality. You see, they had to ensure that Sabathia would average $23 million per year, topping Johan Santana’s paltry $22.9 million average he received from the cross town Mets a year ago.

The Milwaukee Brewers, who traded a bevy of youngsters right before the trading deadline last July to acquire Sabathia from the Cleveland Indians, obviously wanted him back. The small market club offered five years and $100 million and were even contemplating adding a sixth year when the Yankees began courting the near 300-pound hurler.

Brewers general manager Doug Melvin was not too thrilled at the Bombers for upping their offer by 40 percent. “They could have offered him 110,” he said to reporters in November. “There was no reason to go up to 140. It sounds to me like they’re overbidding.

“(The Yankees) have been pretty adamant about bidding on everybody,” continued Melvin. “That doesn’t mean that’s what the market is. That’s just one team’s offer.”

Read between the lines with that last part of Melvin’s statement and you can understand why it always seems like ‘us versus them,’ with ‘them’ being the Yankees and ‘us’ the other 29 teams.

After the Yankees signed Sabathia, they also inked righthander A.J. Burnett and first baseman Mark Teixeira for a shopping spree that cost them $243 million for all three new players.

As if you really needed to be  told, the Yankees also have the top four highest paid players not only in baseball, but in all of sports. Alex Rodriguez, who wasn’t satisfied earning $25.2 million a summer, opted out of that monster deal he originally received from the Texas Rangers and resigned with the Yankees for $275 million over 10 years. Up next is shortstop Derek Jeter with his $189 million/10-year deal he signed in 2001. Newbies Teixeira (8 years at $180 million) and Sabathia follow to give the impression that there is a printing press pumping out $100 bills somewhere in the bowels of that new ballpark.

Speaking of the Bombers’ new digs, a mere $26,325 will buy you a full season seat in the Field Level. For those without a calculator handy, that comes out to $325 per game, of course not counting the gas, tolls, parking lot, hot dog and beer. Add at least another $100 per nine innings for all the extras and who do you think will be sitting in Sections 115 through 125

On second thought, even those guys are feeling the recession these days. Perhaps if things get worse before getting better, the Yankees one day will have to do things the old fashioned way, just like the rest of the country.

The Yankees becoming ‘commoners?’ Don’t bet on it.

Photo by Bill Menzel

Are you ready for some (more) football? I’m sure the answer is ‘yes,’ especially with the “one-year hiatus” of the Arena Football League. Back from the dead comes the reincarnation of perhaps the best rival to the NFL since the AFL merger, and this time we won’t even have to deal with that annoying Donald Trump trying to be a sports guy.

Scheduled for 2010, the New USFL (www.newusfl.com) will be on the landscape. Break out the mullets and Duran Duran albums! Gridiron from the tackiest of decades will be making a triumphant return after a quarter century. And I must admit that I’m a little pumped up for it.

Games will be played in the spring and I suppose that they can use that $1 court settlement to get things off the ground when Trump and the boys sued the NFL back in 1985 to play in the fall. States awarded teams so far are: [Western Division] – California (2); Nevada; Portland; Texas; Louisiana. [Eastern Division] – Florida; Arkansas; New York; Michigan; Ohio; Alabama.

According to the league website, there will be a 16-game regular season, no touchbacks on kick-offs (ball spotted at the 15 if it goes out of the end zone), 4 points for a field goal over 50 yards, 3-point PAT from 10 yards out, one foot inbounds for a catch, no kneel downs, 4-point safeties and the ssame OT rules as in college.

Also, fans can buy stock in any of the teams. That sounds like something the United Football League has been trying, but still hasn’t gotten off the ground.

Can this work? Absolutely, as long as the league knows where it stands. The NFL will never be touched by any league in any sport in this country. So keeping that in mind, they can play a full schedule during the offseason and maintain some type of fan base.

What will be key is where the teams will play. Full-sized arenas are very important and with the shaky economy, paying rent at a 70,000-seat venue hoping to get good attendance may be too much to ask for. If teams play at small or D2 college stadiums, that will take a lot of the energy and ‘mystique’ away that this is a serious professional league. The XFL and the original USFL played in large venues, but much of the time the dreaded ‘black drape’ was part of the upper deck.

The league has set up an Advisory Committee that includes some former NFL and USFL players, Jack Youngblood (former LA Ram) being the most recognizable.

Capital was never an issue with the original league until the end and many an NFL star began his career playing in the USFL. Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, Doug Flutie and Reggie White just to name a few. That probably will not be the case this time around.

The guys taking the field will be back-ups who have been released from an NFL team, hanger-ons, AFL and CFL players. Without NFL Europe and the likelihood that the AFL is gone for good, there will be a talent pool. The USFL can make a slight dent, as long as they stay away from the “He Hate Me” gimmicks.