And In Other NFL News...

Contrary to ESPN, and most other major media outlets, there were other football games played last week besides the Colts and Patriots. Other NFL teams were in action, and no the Super Bowl was not played last week. After about two weeks of buildup, I woke up Sunday morning looking forward to watching my team, the Detroit Lions. As I was watching Sunday NFL Countdown, I became so frustrated that I had to change channels. There were countless segments about a certain "big" game, and about one minute of coverage for every other game. Don't get me wrong, I understand the significance of two undefeated teams facing each other so late in the season. There were some important implications, and the game turned out to be pretty entertaining. I just thought that some of the other NFL stories of the past week deserved more than a thirty second spot of attention. So I wanted to shed some more light on a great weekend of football action.

Many teams continued great years by improving their records and proving doubters wrong. The Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, and Cleveland Browns all added another win this week, and continued to shock fans. The Packers improved to 7-1 after finishing 8-8 last year, and Brett Favre beat his 31st NFL team. The Lions destroyed the Denver Broncos and improved to 6-2 for the first time since 1999. This comes after a disappointing 3-13 season last year. Finally, the Cleveland Browns improved to 5-3 after defeating the Seattle Seahawks in overtime. All three teams have made vast improvements from last year, yet they did not get very much attention for their accomplishments.

There were two NFL records broken this week. First, San Diego Chargers defensive back Antonio Cromartie broke the record for the longest play in NFL history. He ran back a missed field goal by Minnesota's Ryan Longwell for a 109 yard touchdown. Cromartie broke the record of 108 yards that was shared by Devin Hester, Nathan Vasher, and Ellis Hobbs. There were also two other plays of 100 yards on Sunday. Maurice Jones-Drew of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Glenn Holt of the Cincinnati Bengals each ran a kickoff back for 100 yards. It was truly a day of big plays. The other record broken this week was the record for most rushing yards in one game. Rookie running back Adrian Peterson ran for 3 touchdowns and 296 yards, breaking Jamaal Lewis' record of 295 yards. These are just a few examples of other news around the NFL. This was a great day in NFL history, unfortunately it was not very well covered. Sure, we got some highlights, but the bulk of the coverage was on the big game. It just would have been nice to see some of these stories covered more thoroughly. Thanks ESPN.

UM Soccer the best team on campus

What would you say if I told you that there was a team on campus that had beat 2 top-10 opponents and one of those opponents was the defending National Champion? This same team also features a freshman on a record setting pace and a senior that set a UM career record last week. Would you be interested in checking them out. Well apparently not to many would because that team is the University of Miami women's soccer team. A large percentage of the student population probably doesn't even know that we have a soccer team here much less that they are having a very successful season.

In my opinion this is all a great shame. I have been to every home soccer game this year but one and it seems like I am one of a very select few from the student body. It's free for students to get in so I'm having a hard time understanding why. Some might say that women's soccer is to slow or boring but to those people I say come and check out just one match. You won't see slow boring soccer you will see fast paced physical soccer that is great to watch and very exciting.

Earlier this year UM defeated the defending national champions the North Carolina Tarheels 1-0 in a very good game and they just last Thursday they beat the then 4th ranked Boston College Eagles 1-0 in a physical closely contested game. The Canes are currently tied for 2nd in the ACC with FSU, who they play Sunday in Tallahasee. A win there could propel them into first place if league leader North Carolina either ties or loses to Boston College on Thursday.

I won't write to much about their accolades here but I write quite a bit about the team in my own blog. I want to talk a little now about why I think the student support is so lacking for the team. I think a lot of this is due to a lack of information. Besides the athletic website the only place you can find out if their is a soccer game is on the back of the Hurricane and that page gets overlooked a lot of times. Most of this falls on the marketing department in the athletic department. They seem to show a complete lack of interest in bringing people to soccer games. In my opinion this should not be the case. In order to create a strong athletic department every team needs to be strong and not just football like the marketing department seems to think.

If you would like to check this team out yourself you only have one more chance this year. That is on October 27th at 7:00 PM. This is senior night and these girls deserve a good showing of support from the students. They play at Cobb Stadium which is right next to the baseball field on San Amaro Dr. I would also be interested in hearing other people's opinions on why there is such a bad show of student support at soccer games. Alright I'm done now.