Sure, most minds aren’t on NEXT year’s NFL season, but you can bet that New England fans (coming off an 11-5 season without making the playoffs), are thrilled today.  The reports are official that their Hall of Fame quarterback, Tom Brady, will be ready by the season opener next year.  They lost Brady to knee injury in the 2nd quarter of the first game of the season.  Even though back-up Matt Cassel had a brilliant season, and has agreed to return to a back-up roll next season, the Pats fans still want their Brady.  To them, this year’s Super Bowl is nothing but an exhibition game en route to next year.

And in a similar story, LaDainian Tomlinson, the Chargers future Hall of Fame running-back, is uncertain about his future in San Diego.  Coming into this season, Tomlinson was the hottest RB in the NFL.  Anything short of greatness would have been a disappointment.  Well, he fought a nagging toe injury, and finished well short of perfection.  Now, rumors have been flying that his time in San Diego might be up.  On his website, Tomlinson said he “wants to be a San Diego Charger”.  He started his career there, he feels a loyalty to them because they drafted him, and he wants to finish his career in So-Cal.  But, he said he knows it’s a business, and understands that the Chargers might have other plans for next season.

NBA

It was another huge night for LeBron James.  He put up his third triple-double of the season.  He had 23 points, 15 rebounds, and 11 assists.  However, believe it or not, LeBron James wasn’t the key story in the game.  No — it was his teammate, point-guard Mo Williams, who had an unbelievable night.  He put up 43 points, 11 assists, and had 8 rebounds to go with it.  This is primarily notable because the Cavs clearly have another weapon, and Mo Williams just might be the missing piece that gets LeBron and the Cavaliers an NBA title.  Cleveland 117, Sacramento 110.

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER

Finally, in the running theme of departures, it’s possible that soccer phenom David Beckham may be done with his United States vacation.  The Los Angeles Galaxy brought in Beckham to try and create more excitement for the MLS.  Beckham didn’t put on a clinic, but he played decently.  However, there are rumors that Beckham might move on to play for Italy’s AC Milan.  He’s been on loan to them for the last two weeks, and he just might be staying.  (yes, that’s right, in soccer you can loan players to other leagues.  Imagine if the Colts loaned the Steelers Peyton Manning for the Super Bowl.  Yeah right).  Alas, soccer might be forever relegated to a niche sport in the US.

Legendary and often controversial NFL Players Association Executive Director, Gene Upshaw died Thursday from pancreatic cancer only a few days after his doctor diagnosed him. Prior to the NFLPA, Upshaw was a hall of fame guard for the Oakland Raiders.

Olympic Update

U.S. Women’s Soccer won the Olympic Gold with a 1-0 victory over Brazil in overtime….that’s the good news!

After a 22 consecutive game winning streak and 3 gold medals, the U.S. Women’s Softball team lost to Japan and had to settle for a silver medal.

And, to top it off, the Men’s and Women’s 4x100m relay teams dropped batons in the preliminaries. Both teams did not advance to the next round.

Watercooler Discussion: Which teams do you think will make the playoffs?

Tennis

Speaking of history books, Roger Federer just keeps getting better and better. At only 26 years old, he just won his 50th tournament title (5th youngest player ever to do this).

Watercooler Discussion: Is there anyone playing today that can rival Federer?

Soccer

Beckham seems to be on his way to earning his exorbitant salary. Saturday night at Giants stadium against the Red Bull New York, Beckham played a full 90 minutes and attracted a crowd of 66,237 people. Even though he didn’t play all that spectacularly (apparently he’s still getting used to artificial turf), he did manage to make some good plays and the game (by soccer standards) was unusually high scoring. With a total of 9 goals (5 for Red Bulls and 4 for the Galaxy), this game marks the first major league soccer match this year and the 10th in League history to record this number of goals.

Watercooler Discussion: Is Beckham changing how soccer is viewed in this country yet?

Football

Pre-season games are here and we can’t help but join the hype in who’s hot and who’s not (and I do mean their performance on the field and not who’s currently dating Paris Hilton). I’m loving the hype, but really more concerned right now with pre-season injuries. I can’t even watch my favorite players take the field in fear that they’ll twist their ankle (which happened a lot around the League this weekend) or worse. With that said, September 6th is the first game of the year and you can be sure I’ll be glued to the TV then!

Watercooler Discussion: Is the Pre-season too long? Does it unnecessarily create more injuries?

I happened to catch the moment soccer history was made in this country when David Beckham entered the field in the 78^th minute of the LA Galaxy exhibition match against Chelsea on Saturday night.Chelsea won the match 1-0, but no one seemed to really care. It was all about watching Beckham, who was mostly on the sidelines due to an ankle injury. I hadn’t planned my evening to watch Beckham (sorry LA Galaxy) but when I looked up at the bar and saw the match on TV, I watched intently like everyone else in the room. I’ve got to admit, the most exciting thing about the game was watching the cameras follow all the celebrities in the stands, but I’m willing to keep an open mind. I played soccer growing up, my Kids play soccer now and I think it is an incredible sport. With that said, I just don’t see myself getting all that excited on a Sunday afternoon to watch 2 plus hours of a match where we might only see one goal scored. Another indication that soccer has a long way to go in becoming one of our “mainstream” sports is by looking at the navigation bars on any of the major sports internet sites. Soccer is hidden in the “other sports” category and not displayed prominently at the top of the page like NFL, MLB, NHL, Nascar, Golf and Tennis. It will be interesting to see if Beckham can help change this.

Watercooler discussion: Will Beckham change the way we view soccer in this country? Will soccer every overcome baseball or football as

Danica Patrick finished 5^th in the Honda Indy 200 this weekend. This was her best finish so far in an Indy car race, although she might have finished even better if it were not for Tony Kanaan knocking her into the grass for a few seconds in the first lap. Kanaan excused himself by claiming that Danica was sliding.  For his third straight time (and on his 27^th birthday), Scott Dixon won the race.  

Watercooler discussion: Should Danica be getting this much attention just because she’s a woman? 

SF Giant Barry Bonds could break Hank Aaron’s prestigious home run record this week while he’s in his hometown of

Watercooler discussion: Is Bud Selig making the right decision in not attending the game?