1. The Longhorns’ pre-season rank is number 4 in one poll and 5 in the other. Too high with an unproven QB.  I will be impressed if Texas makes it through October 17th without a loss. If they do, look out.  My official prediction… Beat Rice, Wyoming, Tech, lose to UCLA, beat OU, Nebraska, Iowa State, Baylor, then drop one to an unranked team… either Kansas State, OSU, or Florida Atlantic and finish the year with a win over A&M but miss the Big 12 Championship game with OU winning the South. Texas is taken at large and plays either the Sugar or Orange Bowl.
2. Boise State is number 3??? Really? Hey Boise… let me make something perfectly clear to you… NO ONE WILL TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY AS LONG AS YOU ARE PLAYING ON A BLUE FIELD.
3. Texas suddenly dropped Minnesota (a Big 10 (12) team) from its future schedule and replaced them with BYU… hmmm. BYU to the Big 12 (10)?
4.  USC cheer leaders are really hot.
5. Notre Dame did not appear in the Pre season top 25. If they win their first game they will be. Probably top 15. The media just can’t resist and NBC makes any voters on NBC affiliates vote for them.
6. Shiner Bock is the perfect College Football beer. Just saying.
7. I’m pretty sure that Nick Saban and Urban Meyer are the same person.
8. I think college football coaches go to class that teaches them how to say stupid things. Mike Leach is now teaching the class.
9. Why is Alyssa Milano selling College wearing apparel?  http://www.fandalia.com/NCAA-Shop_72205769_PG.html
10. Bobby Bowden  feels FSU forced him out… I guess he is so old that he has forgotten that they kept him on for a decade longer than they should.

And of course we need the rap song to bring it all together…

This goes to show you the power of not only the American sports market but of the NFL in particular. Need more proof? Forbes valued 25 teams worth a billion dollars or more. 20 of them are NFL teams. The other 5 are Manchester United and Arsenal in the English Premier League (soccer), Real Madrid and Barcelona in La Liga (Soccer) and Ferrari in Formula One racing. Even more proof? Of the top ten paid athletes in 2009, 4 are from predominately American sports (basketball,   football) and 3 others are Americans at the top of their sport (Golf, Boxing).

With all this money floating around the American sports marketplace, it is no wonder that F1 and Soccer are trying to realize the American sports dream.

From Forbes Magazine:

Top 10 Most Valuable Franchises

1. Manchester United – $1.84 billion
2. Dallas Cowboys – $1.65 billion
3. New York Yankees – $1.6 billion
4. Washington Redskins – $1.55 billion
5. New England Patriots – $1.36 billion
6. Real Madrid – $1.32 billion
7. New York Giants – $1.18 billion
8. Arsenal – $1.18 billion
9. New York Jets – $1.17 billion
10. Houston Texans – $1.15 billion

Top 10 Athletes in earnings

1. Tiger Woods – Golf – $105 million
2. Floyd Mayweather – Boxing – $65 million
3. Kobe Bryant – Basketball – $48 million
4. Phil Mickelson – Golf – $46 million
5. David Beckham – Soccer – $43.7 million
6. Roger Federer – Tennis – $43 million
7. LeBron James – Basketball – $42.8 million
8. Manny Pacquiao – Boxing – $42 million
9. Eli Manning – Football – $39.9 million
10. Terrell Suggs – Football – $38.3 million

The link: http://bit.ly/afNcK3

We have fought some and laughed a lot and solved some very (and not so) serious problems “One Beer at A Time” and we are going to celebrate at an upcoming show. We are in the process of pulling our favorite cuts and writing down our favorite stories about our first year. We want to know yours! Please comment below or email or even better, call us at 214-44GUYS4 (214-444-8974) and tell us what you think.

Look for the announcement of the date of the anniversary show soon! Cheers Bitches!

A tall, cold glass of economics: The Toyota Prius makes me laugh. Well, not the Prius itself, it is an innocent machine, but rather the drivers amuse me. Hybrid drivers take it on faith that they are saving the earth by driving a car with better gas mileage. The Prius inherently assumes that an investment in an extra motor (the electric motor in addition to the gas motor) and an investment into an enormous battery system is somehow is compensated by the savings of gas. Even with $4 gas it will not pay off financially comparing the cost of a hybrid to a similar non-hybrid plus the cost of the extra gas. Now, our smug, earth-saver types might argue that the hybrid reduces the “carbon footprint”. Whether this is true is far from obvious. The electric motor must be built, which requires resources and energy. The battery is made from nickel that is mined in an energy-intensive process and shipped to Japan and then to the US in the Prius. Calculating the net-impact of the extra motor and battery relative to the gas saved is extremely difficult and any attempted calculation would require heroic assumptions. So Prius owners spend a lot of money for an environmental impact that might be negative for all we know. But the real reason for owning a Prius is to show the world that “I care”, which makes me laugh.

And a tall, cold glass of economics: Obama is back threatening to change tax law on US multinationals. The US has an unusual tax regime where all profits are taxed worldwide for US-based firms. Virtually all countries other than the US only tax profits within their borders regardless of where the firm is headquartered. Thus, if a firm has a factory in Japan and another factory in the US, the firm’s taxes will be lower if the firm is incorporated in Osaka rather than Omaha. Current tax law has a partial fix to make the playing field somewhat more even for US firms relative to foreign firms by not taxing the US firm’s foreign earnings until the funds are repatriated to the US. Obama has railed on this provision as giving tax breaks to firms that “ship jobs overseas”. Nonsense. This will make US multinationals less competitive as compared to foreign-based multinationals in a vain attempt to generate more revenue to help fund an ever-increasing federal budget. This is possibly good politics but lousy economics.

La Roja vs La Furia Roja
La Furia Roja started strong and put several efforts toward the net in the early moments. However, the first real chance of the game came from a clinical Chilean movement that almost caught Spain napping at the back in the 9th minute. I think that startled Spain a bit as for the next 15 minutes they looked pretty insipid – frightened almost at the prospect of elimination. It has to be said though, that David Villa never truly looked out of sorts, he just couldn’t muster it all himslf. That is until the 24th minute. Goal to David Villa. Goal to Spain. Chile, however, never fazed. In fact, they took control of the game for the next little bit and still looked to be the better team on the pitch. That is until Iniesta, fully recovered and apparently fully fit, dropped one in the bag from a beautiful David Villa cross, giving Spain a 2-nil advantage. Then it went all pear-shaped as Marco Estrada Quinteros received his second yellow card, and thus a red card (unless your official happens to be Graham Poll) sending him to an early bath and making Chile’s task that much more difficult. Switzerland’s hopes slowly started ebbing away. Chile will feel very hard done by as they have been the better team. Lady Luck is fickle that way sometimes. I know as a player, I’ve frequently been on the losing side when our game was so much better and astute then the winner’s game. This was Chile’s story today because it really was their game to lose. At the half, It was still Spain up 2 goals and one man in Pretoria. But, Chile’s never-say-die attitude reared it’s head again and within 90 seconds of the re-start, Rodrigo Millar Carvajal, a substitute on for Mark Hoffman, pegged one into the net. Game was on once again. The Chilean fans in the East end of Loftus Stadium were delirious with hope and desire. Could 10-man Chile step it up and beat the odds-on La Furia Roja to finish top of the table? That’s certainly what the La Roja faithful wanted, but Chile seemed content with second spot in the table and let Spain have long periods of pass-after-pass-after-pass possession.
Final: Chile 1 – 2 Spain

Nati vs Catrachos
The Nati took to the pitch and immediattely set at the Catrachos. Obviously, they were intent on winning this match. But, the Hondurans have proven to be no slouch in defence and it wasn’t until 18 minutes in that the Swiss really got a good glimpse at goal. It wasn’t a very clear glimpse and the score remained at 0, but the movement the Swiss conjured up is some of the best we’ve seen today. Certainly better than anything that happened in that droll Portugal v Brazil match. By half time, it looked clear that it was Spain & Chile who were going to advance because the only thing exciting that happened in this game were the two yellow cards. After the break, the Catrachos seemed a bit more spritely. Maybe Tequila shots at halftime? Only the acrobatics of the Swiss keeper (who plays for Wolfsburg in the German league), kept the score zero to zero. The second half was SO much better than the first. Maybe it was the tequila shots I did? A couple more chances for the Nati. A couple more chances for the Catrachos. Crikey. Switzerland & Honduras are going home. I’m going for more tequila.
Final: Switzerland 0 – 0 Honduras

Spain play Portugal on June 29th
Brazil play Chile on June 28th.

Chollima vs Elephants
The North Koreans, on the backside of a 7-nil drubbing, did not start well. Or should I say that the Elephants simply started much more brighly than Chollima. In fact it took less than 2 minutes for the Ivory Coast to deliver a stinger that needed a good save. What a dream start that would have been. Even still, the Elephants were first on the scoreboard from a Drogba header. No never mind…as it’s so frequently happened, the officials disallowed that goal. But Yaya Toure could be denied just two minutes later and the Elephants went one goal to the good. Minutes later, Romaric nodded a rebounded Drogba shot into the back. Barely twenty minutes in and the Elephants were up 2 – 0. Nine goals no longer seemed unreasonable. Unlikely, but not unreasonable. But, halftime arrived with no further goals. Back to unreasonable, I fear. It began to look like no matter what, yet another African country would be knocked out of the tournament. Solomon Kalou had other thoughts and got the Elephants one goal closer in the 82nd minute, but they still needed 5 more goals to make it through. In the 85th minute, they had another goal disallowed. Heartbreak and elimination were inevitable for both teams from that point on.
Final: North Korea 0 – 3 Ivory Coast

Seleccao vs Selecao
The excellent Portugese side took on quadrinneal faves Brazil at the Moses Mobhida Stadium. On paper, this was always going to be one of two matches. Either a high-intensity, beautiful match or a droll, grim ebb & flow match with neither team really wishing to stretch themselves as they were both pretty much already assured of going through. I fear we came closer to the latter than the former. While it’s impossible for either team to play non-beautiful football, they both played cautiously today. But, even from that it was obvious that Brazil was the better of the two teams. Combine the cautious play with the officials penchant for cautions (7 yellow cards in the first half? In a timid match? I wonder what would have happened if both teams came out and really put their heart into it) and the game really just drug on too long. By halftime there’d been precious few shots – but a lot of cards. Interestingly in the second half, there no cards delivered. I wonder if the official got a talking to? A rash of late-on substitutions ate up some time, but did little to spur the energy level. The Brazilian coach was animated in his furious disappointment, but I frankly don’t think the prima-players cared at all. They were going through and they knew it. An interesting note to make at the end is that the boos of the crowd drowned out the vuvuzelas. At the core, football players are there to entertain. This was not entertainment and could be tantamount to match-tampering. Certainly all the excitement I’ve felt about this match for months & months was brought to a tepid, boring, disillusioned end.
Final: Portugal 0 – 0 Brazil

Group E played out with Netherland going top of the group following a decent outing against Cameroon. Japan came in a surprising second after a thorough demolishing of the Danish Dynamite. Cameroon, the first team mathmatically eliminated in this year’s tournament took 0 points out of 3 games. Denmark heads home after securing only 1 win out of 3. A poor showing from Olsen’s Eleven this time out. Japan won 2 of their 3 to earn passage to the next round, but it’s the Netherlands that are the talk of the group. They are only the second team thus far to take all 9 points (Argentina is the other) and are looking good for continuation.

Netherlands will play Slovakia on June 28
Japan will play Paraguay on June 29

Azzurri vs Repre
This game took a very lively start as both teams tried to make an early mark. Fouls galore from both sides, and it only took 16 minutes before the first card was issued to Zdeno Strba of Slovakia. Scrappy, scrappy stuff. But the biggest shock came when Robert Vittek scored for the Repre on the 25th minute. A dream for the Slovakians, a nightmare for the Italians. That had to have set nerves rattling and emotions boiling. Fabio Cannavaro obviously got rattled and received a yellow card for his efforts. Italy fell onto their back foot with that goal, and could not shake themselves. Halftime couldn’t possibly get here quick enough for Lippi and his team. Strba forced a fine save out of Marchetti. Without that save, the Slavs would have gone two up on the Italians in the 35th minute. Another yellow card for the Repre as goal-scorer Vittek got put in the book at 40 minutes. At half-time, the Italians slunk to their holes, while the Slavs left the field with spring in their stride. Italy restarted the match with two fresh bodies on the pitch. Quagliarella and Maggio came on for Gattuso and Criscito respectively. But, their immediate impact was negligible and Italy continued to chase the game. Then, on the 73rd minute, the Slavik hero, Robert Vittek scored again putting Italy’s collective backs against a very solid wall. At 2 – 0 to the positive, it was all going the way of the Repre. That is until Di Natale hauled in a life-line for Italy at the 81st minute with a quick stabbing shot that just got by Mucha. Three minutes later, Qualiarella scored again for Italy, but it was adjudged to be offsides and was ruled out. Now Italy know how the USA felt yesterday. Italy continued to dominate as the Slovakian’s pulled all men to the rearguard, but in typical underdog fashion, a precision counter-attack gave Slovakia a 3 – 1 lead on a brilliant strike from Kamil Kopunek in the 89th minute of the match. Surely, Italy were taking the early plane home. But, it wasn’t quite over. A quite simply superb lob from super-sub Fabio Quagliarella caught Mucha off his line and pulled the game back to with one goal. But, unfortunately for Italy, there was only one minute left and that just wasn’t enough.
Slovakia finished in Group F on top, and the Azzurri head home. The Champions World Cup finished in a torrid display of grim football.
Final: Italy 2 – 3 Slovakia

Guaranies vs All Whites
By contrast, the game ‘twixt Paraguay and New Zealand started fairly lifeless and remained that way to the half. One yellow card was issued in the 10th minute, but neither keeper was challenged and neither team seemed too anxious to expose their back while formulating an attack. Even the vuvuzelas were less excited than we’ve seen. Finally, in the 75th minute of the match, Benitez, for the Guaranies, took the first shot on goal and the second after Paston made an excellent save was also stopped. That seemed to wake up the Paraguayans a bit and you could see their attacking wheels start to churn a little. They looked considerably more dangerous than the All Whites who looked a bit bemused. I don’t believe that New Zealand even got a real shot off until the 87th minute such was the woefullness of their game today. In the end, they did seem to try a bit harder, the All Whites. After all, all they needed was a single goal at this point, but Paraguay didn’t let that happen and New Zealand follow Australia back home to Oceania.
Final: Paraguay 0 – 0 New Zealand