July 17-24

Before I begin to comment on the week in sports, I would first like to say that this past week was one of my favorite weeks of the year. The reason for this is that NCAA 2008 was released. Since coming home from college I have enjoyed playing endless hours of FIFA 2007, but NCAA Football has always been my favorite game to play on PS2. Not only do I enjoy playing it, but more importantly its release means that the college football season is just around the corner. As a college football fanatic, I always enjoy the month leading up to the first week of September where people being to talk about the upcoming season. I would also like to note that I give props to ESPN for finally starting "College Football Live," which will be a weekly college football show. "College Gameday," has always been one of my favorite shows, but as a college football fan it has always been tough to go through the 6 other days of the week with very little college football coverage. It is my hope that "College Football Live," will be able to close this void.

Well enough of College Football talk for now, as it was a very busy week in sports both on and off the fields, courts and now with David Beckham's coming to America even pitches. Since I just mentioned David Beckham, I will give my two cents on his coming to the MLS.

Many people in the MLS say Beckham will be the saviour of the league, but I personally do not agree with this. Yes, David Beckham is a world wide star, and in some parts of the world he is even the most popular athlete. I remember when I spent a summer in Thailand a few years back, and how Beckham was by far the most talked about athlete. People even had shrines of him in their homes, with Beckham posters and action figures. Yes, Beckham brings a face to the league that people all over the world will recognize, but David Beckham is 32 years old, which in terms of an athlete, especially in a sport such as soccer where one needs to be in tremendous shape, means he is past his prime. Another problem with Beckham is that he isn't the glorified goal scorer and human highlight reel that the MLS is trying to bring the league. Beckham is a player who sets up goals, not scores them. If the MLS really wants to make their product more exciting then they will need to bring in a player like Ronaldinho. I personally think Victoria Beckham's show "Victoria Beckham Coming to America" will receive higher ratings on television than any MLS game David Beckham plays in.

The two top stories of the week in sports however have to be Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick being indicted and NBA referee Tim Donaghy being accused of betting on games, including ones that he worked in.

As for Vick, the stories involving him being involved in dog fighting are utterly disgusting. As a dog owner, I can't even imagine doing the stuff to dogs that he is being accused of. I will not go into the details of the allegations, but they are very disturbing. If convicted I believe NFL commissioner Roger Goodell should ban him from the league. I do think Goodell telling Vick not to show up to camp is a good first step, but in order to maintain his authority and credibility Goodell has to be firm with his handling of Vick. Goodell has shown to be very strict so far with his dealings of players like Adam "Pacman" Jones and Chris Henry, but those two players are second level players compared to Vick, who some regard as on of the top faces of the league. I am sure Falcons fans are now wishing that they did not trade former backup quarterback Matt Schaub to the Houston Texans this off season.

I will not comment to much on the Tim Donaghy situation since it is still a very new story and not all the details have come out. I will say though that the NBA better hope that Donaghy was an isolated situation and not the beginning of a larger problem. If it comes out that other referees and players were involved in similar situations than it could be a huge black eye on the league. NBA commissioner David Stern will begin to think that the Ron Artest incident of going into the stands in Detroit a few years back was a breeze compared to what he would have to deal with in trying to restore the credibility and integrity of the game.

Closing Thoughts: As a die hard Red Sox fan this week has been a week of ups and downs. The Sox lost 2 out 3 to the lowly Royals, but took 3 out of 4 from the White Sox. Since the All Star break the Red Sox have seen great increases in production from players like Julio Lugo and Manny Ramirez (who did not deserve to be an all star this year), who struggled throughout the first half of the season. The problem with the Sox for the past month and a half where they have been playing .500 baseball after such a hot start is that they have not been able to get clutch hits with runners in scoring position. I will say though that their pitching continues to impress. Kason Gabbard had two tremendous starts this week, and it was really great to see John Lester take the mound last night. Lester's great start last night could be the highlight of the year for some Sox fans as he was able to quiet the Indians, one of the league's most potent batting lineups, just 6 months after being diagnosed with cancer. As the Sox approach the final 2 months of the season it will be interesting to see if their bats can get some clutch hitting, because the Yankees bats are really starting to get hot as was seen this past weekend against the AAA Tampa Bay Rays and the once 14 game lead is now cut in half. It should be another exciting end to the season as division and wild card races heat up.

I hope you all enjoyed the first edition of "Boyce's Weekly Rant," and I hope you will all come back next week.


Sincerely,

Yessir Boyce

Introduction

Hello everybody, my name is Brendan Boyce and I am recent graduate of Boston College. I decided to start this whole blog thing because since graduation I have found myself to be bored and not have the ability to voice my thoughts and opinions on a lot of matters, especially when it comes to sports. In college I, along with fellow co-host Dara Bierne, produced a weekly sports talk show on BC's campus radio station WVBC called "Tuesday's with Boyceee" to discuss the weekly top sports stories. Since I currently do not have the luxury of being able to host my own radio show I figured a blog would be the next best thing. What my blog will mostly consist of, is just a weekly recap of sports with my thoughts and opinions, as well as the occasional pop culture anecdote here and there. I hope you all will enjoy it and feel free to voice your own opinions to any of my rants.

Sincerely,


Yessir Brendan Boyce