Week One Games

Sky Sports has announced the NFL games that will air live in week one of the upcoming season.

Ignoring the games that are obvious like the Thursday, Late Sunday and Monday games, the ones of note are the 6PM and 9:25PM Sunday meetings.

We'll see San Francisco versus Minnesota at 6PM and then this will be followed by Dallas visiting the Carolina Panthers.

Not long to go now!

Jim Neidhart Passes Away

World Wrestling Entertainment announced yesterday that Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart has passed away.

If you followed professional wrestling in the 1980s or 1990s, you'll know that Neidhart is famous for being the tag team partner of Bret 'Hitman' Hart. The duo - known as The Hart Foundation - was one of the most successful teams during the WWF's initial boom period.

In 1997, Neidhart was also part of The Hart Foundation stable that was prominently featured on WWF TV as they feuded with American wrestlers. It is - in my opinion - one of the best stories in professional wrestling history and made for great TV back then. 

With Neidhart's passing, the eerie footnote of the 1997 Hart Foundation .vs. USA feud is that Bret Hart is the only survivor of that faction. The other members who have passed away are Brian Pillman (1997), Owen Hart (1999) and The British Bulldog (2002).

Whenever a wrestler dies, I like to write a small bit about an angle or match that they were involved in during their career. With Neidhart, I have more than that.

I could write about the time I was chuffed to see him return to the WWF during the King of the Ring event in 1994. He was in Bret Hart's corner as he defended the WWF Championship against Diesel. Neidhart was there to prevent Shawn Michaels from interfering in the match. 

Neidhart's job was successful. Hart retained the title that night. However, later on, Hart's brother - Owen Hart - was in the tournament final against Razor Ramon. Neidhart, who was married into the Hart family, assisted his other brother-in-law to become that year's King of the Ring.

From there, Neidhart and Owen - who had previously teamed up to form The New Foundation in 1991/92 - went on to feud with Bret Hart and another brother-in-law - The 'British Bulldog' Davey Boy Smith.

I can't write about Neidhart's passing with another personal memory I have.

In 2001, only days before the 9/11 terror attacks, a colleague and myself bought tickets to see the British Bulldog and Neidhart at a small wrestling event here in Cardiff. 

The night before, we were out drinking and I had a humongous hangover for the entire day in the lead-in to the show. It was touch-and-go whether I would get there. Anyway, I did manage to make it. The promoter was a con artist as, just before the show, he announced that - due to family commitments - the Bulldog was unable to make it. This was later proven to be false and Bulldog was never booked for the show in the first place.

Neidhart was there, though.

During the intermission, the promoter allowed the audience to have their picture taken with Neidhart at £5 a pop. Remember how I said I was hungover? Well, I was still ill and decided not to get the photo in fear of throwing up. So, we sat there watching the line of people have their pics with the wrestler. As the line began to shorten, I turned to my friend and said the following. 

'Sod it, I'm going to have my picture taken with him.'

I joined the queue and walked away with a Polaroid pic with 'The Anvil'. I am glad I did.

The End Of The Standoff

The Mexican standoff between UKTV and Virgin Media came to an end over the weekend.

The two sides agreed to a new agreement and the UKTV channels, that were pulled by Virgin Media over two weeks ago, are all back.

Admittedly, I hardly watch any of the programmes on these channels. However, my family loves quite a lot of the content on these channels so it's a pleasing result.

Scratchin' 2018 : Week 32

I am now £109 in the red after playing at least one scratch card a day so far in 2018.

This week's results saw me lose on a £5 Monopoly card on Monday along with breaking even on a £1 red on Wednesday and then returning £2 on a red card yesterday.

This was day 224. so it could be a lot worse. With that said - it could be a heck of a lot better!!

City's Return To The EPL

I have spent part of today watching the LiveScore website refresh with Cardiff City's return to the Premier League the focus.

The team was playing Bournemouth and they went down 1-0 in the first half.

There was a final goal right at the end of the game...

Unfortunately, it was another for the home team.

The last time City played in the Premier League, they beat Manchester City in their first game of the season. Oh, how times have changed.

A Rocky Analogy

Jurgen Klopp made a really interesting analogy today when he was comparing his Liverpool to Manchester City.

He said that the powerhouse Manchester City - in his eyes - is like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV.

Then, he went on to say that Liverpool FC is more like Rocky Balboa.

It's like something I would come up with when describing an uphill struggle. Only, in Rocky IV, Balboa ends up beating Drago. I can't see Liverpool doing that to City.

Therefore, Liverpool - in my eyes - is Apollo Creed.

The Comeback Begins Tonight

I am looking forward to finding out how Andrew Luck performs in his return to the Indianapolis Colts later on tonight.

The Colts will play Seattle in their first preseason game of the year.

As I've written many times, Luck is returning after missing all of last season. He's due to play a quarter of tonight's game. I really am hoping it all goes well for him.

He's my pick to be the Comeback Player of the Year. My money is on it!