Tony Romo passed for a NFL career best 353 yards and threw three touchdown passes as the Dallas Cowboys got their 2009 season off to a good start with a 34-21 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Cowboys answered a lot of questions about how their receiving corps would respond to the absence of Terrell Owens, now with the Buffalo Bills.

The Cowboys easily covered the pointspread as -4 road favorites, and improved to 16-12 over the last three years when laying points. Tampa Bay dropped to 17-17 over the same timeframe as an underdog.

After the game Roy Williams couldnt resist a wisecrack at his former teammates expense:

“Career-high passing yards? Without T.O? “No, it’s good. It’s good for him. It’s good for this team. It was a team effort. Everybody contributed.”

Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said he wasnt surprised:

“They are playmakers, and we knew that going in. But until you do it, the naysayers are going to say: ‘Hey. You don’t have this or that.’ But I think we do.”

Romo, meanwhile, preferred to focus on the victory instead of his individual accomplishments:

“You don’t think about yards. You’re not judged off of yards. You’re judged off of winning and losing at this position.”

Raheem Morris spoke of the defeat in his regular season NFL coaching debut:

“Obviously, we’re disappointed. But there were a lot of good things on offense.”

Perhaps the brightest silver lining in the dark cloud of the loss was the performance of Cadillac Williams. Williams appeared fully recovered from serious knee surgery and rushed for 97 yards and a touchdown.

Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber suggested that the final score masked the fact that the team played well:

“We had our chances. The final score is definitely not indicative of how good we played at times. Those big plays absolutely destroy you football team.

The Cowboys will open their season at their plush new $1 billion plus stadium this Sunday, hosting the New York Giants. The Bucs will head to upstate New York to face T.O and his new team, the Buffalo Bills. Theyll return to Florida the following week to take their turn hosting the New York Giants.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

Tags : football, hobbies, National Football League, NFL football, pro football, Sports

Although many of his offensive records have now been left in the dust by Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, former Boston Bruins/New York Rangers center Phil Esposito is still regarded by hockey experts as one of the greatest players in NHL history. He’s forever enshrined in hockey’s hall of fame along with brother, goaltender Tony Esposito.

Esposito was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario and his prodigious hockey talent quickly became apparent. He was signed by the Chicago Blackhawks as a teenager, and made his NHL debut in’64. In’67, Esposito was traded to the Boston Bruins along with Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield. Within a few years Hodge and Stanfield blossomed into All Stars, while Esposito quickly took his place alongside his former teammate Hull as the best scorer in the league.

Esposito began to shred the NHL record book in Boston, prompting Bruins fans to display car bumper stickers that read Jesus Saves; Esposito scores on the rebound. In’69, he became the first NHL player to top the 100 point mark (combined goals and assists) for the season”he obliterated the record with 126 points, which would be the first of six times that hed top the century mark. He topped 100 points in five straight seasons between’71 and’75, missing a sixth straight season by a single point with 99 in’70.

In the’70-71 season, Esposito smashed the NHL record for most goals in a season with 76. That record stood for over a decade until Wayne Gretzky scored 79 for the Edmonton Oilers in’81-82. Gretzky also broke Espositos single season points record of 154. Even now, only four other players including Gretzky have scored more than 150 points in a season and only five others have scored more than 76 goals in a season. Perhaps the most amazing element of Espositos game was the frequency with which he put the puck on net”Espo had 550 shots on goal in’70-71. No one has since come close”in fact, just last Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals became the first player to come within 100 shots of Espositos mark.

In’75, Esposito was traded with Brad Park to the New York Rangers for Brad Park, Joe Zanussi and Jean Ratelle. By that point, he had been slowed considerably by knee injuries but his experience, intelligence for the game and nose for the puck made him a valuable component of the Broadway Blueshirts offense and he was named team captain. Until the very end of his career, he remained a dangerous scoring threat that all opposing teams were forced to reckon with.

After his retirement in’75, he remained active in hockey. He served as the GM of the Rangers before helping secure an expansion team for Tampa, Florida in’92. Esposito served as the President and GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning until’98. After stepping away from formal duties, he’s remained a very visible member of the hockey media. He hosts a daily hockey radio show on XM Radio, and has even done some acting appearing in a recurring role as a fire chief on the TV series Rescue Me.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on World Cup betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

Tags : celebrities, entertainment, hobbies, hockey, NHL hockey, pro hockey, recreation, Sports

Your linen closet is a great place to get some organizing experience. It’s an easy enough organizing job, and quick to do. You get a lot of satisfaction for a little investment of time and effort.

That is, of course, if your linen closet just has linen in it. If it has other things in it as well such as cleaning products or towels, you need to take a look at your space available. You need to decide if everything you keep in there actually fits, and if the space is usable. There may be a better place for items elsewhere in your home.

After you have figured out what will go in the closet, you can then decide how to configure your storage.

Linen closets generally function best with a series of shelves. A hanging rod, and shelves, is also a usable configuration. Try using hooks and small baskets also. If you use these for smaller items, the items won’t get lost and the closet won’t start looking all cluttered.

Remember that it is best to keep the things you use most frequently at eye level. This allows easy access so you can get to sheets, and to towels you use frequently, easily and quickly. You may also store other things in the closet such as out-of-season coats, or bedding. If you do, these items do fine on a less accessible shelf. Keep them in proper containers or bags, this keeps them fresh during storage.

Are you a person who keeps cleaning products and appliances in the linen closet too? Are your ironing board and iron, and your vacuum cleaner, in there? If so, you need to decide how to store the cleaning products you use. First, you need to take safety into account if you have children.

With children in the home, safety becomes the first concern. All cleaning products should be out of reach. Store them up high on a shelf. Then, put a child-resistant latch on the door of the closet.

Finally, hang a nice lavender sachet or another scented item in the linen closet as a finishing touch. This makes it very pleasant and also keeps your sheets and towels smelling great.

Besides linen closets, this writer additionally regularly shares knowledge on cheap silver rings and engraved silver bracelet.

Tags : advice, Business, Cleaning, closets, family, furniture, hardware, hobbies, home, home accessories, home improvement, home stuff, lifestyle, organizing

When golf legend Jack Nicklaus was still a young upstart in the sport and only starting to tear up PGA courses, legend Bobby Jones commented following ‘The Golden Bear’s’ 65 Masters win that “he plays a game with which I am not familiar”. Following his absolute destruction of Rashad Evans in the main event of UFC 98, there’s likely a few MMA fighters saying the same thing about the new light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida. Machida completely befuddled Evans en route to a 2nd round TKO victory after which ‘The Dragon’ looked as if hed barely worked up a sweat.

The fight started slowly, with each man trying to get a feel for his opponent and wait him out to see who blinked first. Evans, who prefers to counter punch, quickly began to become uncomfortable with facing an adversary who didn’t come right at him. Late in the first round, Machida went on offense with frightening suddenness, flooring Evans with a nice straight right hand. Evans was able to recover and survive, but it only delayed the inevitable as Machida used another right hand to send his opponent down again and did so for the third time in the fight with a crisp combination that displayed the handspeed that hadn’t before been seen from ‘The Dragon’ . Evans gamely tried to fight back, but a final right hand from the Shotokan Karate master left him out cold.

After the fight UFC announcer Joe Rogan proclaimed the start of the Machida era and this is not just mere hyperbole. Machida is unlike any fighter before him, rooted in mastery of traditional martial arts but with the versatility of a modern MMA competitor. He’s essentially a Mortal Kombat character come to life–in a more realistic cross disciplinary comparison he shares many of the same characteristics as boxing great Floyd Mayweather, Jr. as he combines insane handspeed, underrated stopping power and nearly impenetrable defense into an unorthodox and extremely lethal package.

Outside of the cage, Machida is a modest and respectful gentleman who is quick to give credit to his father and his karate teachers for his MMA success. He spent most of his UFC 98 postfight interview not singing his own praises, but imploring others to strive to realize their dreams. In the past, his limited English was seen as a potential marketing liability here in the US but on this occasion he demonstrated vastly improved fluency in the language as a Portuguese translator stood by.

An odd trivia note about Machida serves as further repudiation for MMA neophytes who think that the sports kinship with pro wrestling began with Brock Lesnar: Machida was discovered by Japanese wrestling legend Antonio Inoki, and became something of his protege. He trained for some time at the New Japan Pro Wrestling dojo in Tokyo.

Perhaps the most frightening thing about Machida is that hes only now reaching his full potential as an MMA fighter. In other words, hes only going to get better which is a scary prospect for opponents given the fact that hes never lost in MMA competition. In his recent bouts hes shown a downright lethal ability to end fights. He stopped Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou at UFC 79 with an arm triangle choke, and blitzed Evans and previous foe Thiago Alves with punishing punching combinations en route to TKO victories.

Machida will very likely face Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson at some point and its difficult to see him faring much differently than Evans did. One thing working in ‘Rampage’s’ favor is his greater experience and a resume filled with high level opponents of various fighting styles. Still, everyone comes back to the fundamental reality that no one has ever really seen a fighter quite like Machida before.

In the co-main event of the evening, Matt Hughes defeated Matt Serra by unanimous decision to gain the upperhand in their long running feud. It was a surprisingly entertaining fight, with Serra taking the first round with his power punching before Hughes used his takedown and ground control abilities to win rounds two and three. The two men embraced after the fight so, for now at least, their well known dislike for one another that began during their stint as rival coaches on The Ultimate Fighter may have ebbed.

Ross Everett is a widely published freelance writer and highly respected authority on soccer betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Northern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

Tags : Business, entertainment, hobbies, mixed martial arts, recreation, Sports, UFC

If you’re the lucky owner of a PSP there’s a good chance you have heard about the ability to download games, movies and music and use them on your system. It’s a great way to keep your PSP stocked with all the newest games and make sure you never get bored! One of the most common questions we get from PSP users is “How Do I Download PSP Games?”

To download PSP games, there are a few different ways to go. Some are free, some not, some even potentially hazardous to your computer’s health! We’re going to briefly look at these options.

You will probably run across a few website that offer “free” PSP game downloads. However, the old saying “you get what you pay for” comes to mind here! Since you aren’t paying a dime, these websites have all sorts of problems associated with them. In fact, several have been shut down in recent months for distributing viruses, spyware and other infections.

Since these websites don’t pull in any profit, the files are usually just provided by random people on the internet. They aren’t “official” game downloads and often end up being corrupt (meaning they don’t work at all). The download speeds are incredibly slow and you will often find that what you download ends up being a completely different file than you searched for.

As I’m sure you can tell, I’m not a fan of these so-called free PSP download sites. They can harm your computer, waste your time and cause a lot of headaches.

The best way to download PSP games is to join a “membership” site that specializes in PSP downloads. You will have to pay a small fee, but it easily pays for itself after a download or two. By joining this type of website, you are dealing with a reputable business that invests money in making sure that all downloads work, are downloaded quickly and are guaranteed to be 100% virus and spyware free.

Really, more PSP users should be members of these sites. Usually costing less than just one new PSP game, the membership entitles you to download PSP games, movies, audio and more anytime you want. The best of these also furnish members with the needed software to move these files to their PSP units.

The membership sites charging a one-time fee are your best bet. For as little as $30, you can have a lifetime membership and download anything at any time. There are others that offer monthly fees, or on a per-download basis, but these are not such a good deal.

One of the best features of the PSP is the ability to download games, movies and music instead of having to but them at the stores. Not only will it save you a lot of money in the long-run, but you will als be sure your PSP is fully stocked with the newest games without ever having to make a trip to the store. Happy gaming!

Click Here Now to learn how you can get a free trial at some of the most popular PSP download websites. It’s the easiest way to find PSP Game Downloads that you can instantly get using on your system!

Tags : Computers, game consoles, Games, hobbies, playstation, PSP, Technology, video games