SportsVL - The Greatest Thing In Sports Since The Remote Control

I have set up the SportsVL.com almost 11 years ago (boy, it sure does seem like it was just yesterday...) - and the design and interface haven't changed a BIT since then. I've been running it along with members of my family and some volunteers, and by our joint efforts it has become quite a valuable resource for people looking for concrete and thorough information about sports, but well, to tell you the truth - it's no eye candy, I mean, c'mon, it's year 2007, and plus, the website itself is getting harder and harder to keep under control because it's expanding so fast. I'm certainly no computer wizard, and there's not much that can be done about it - I guess I'm just too old to learn about all these brand new computer technologies. So one day...

...One day I was flipping channels on my TV and I came across this show on MTV called "Pimp My Ride", where they take old bucket cars and turn them into real fancy ones. So I thought to myself, I gotta find some people to help me do just that to my website. The thing is, I'm retired, and I don't want to shell out hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars for a website created at a professional web design company, AND this website is my baby, so to speak - I don't want to be left aside while renewing it.

So what I'm looking for then? Well, my wish is really simple - the first thing that I wanna do, is to reach out to all the sports enthusiasts, who are willing to help me out by signing up to be the so called "librarians" - people with inside knowledge about certain sports, who act as editors for the corresponding sport sections of the SportsVL. Since we cover a LOT of sports in our website, we need a lot of manpower too, to keep the information fresh, properly organized and relative to each section of the SportsVL.

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The pro-football league's in-house service was awarded an eight-game, late-season primetime package, beginning with the 2006 season on Thanksgiving night. The package runs concurrent with the six-year pacts the league renewed through the 2011-12 season with Sunday-afternoon carriers CBS and Fox.

Comcast had been pitching the National Football League hard for the Thursday/Saturday package, looking it as gambit to grow and bring more value to its OLN property, which inked a two-season rights deal this past summer for the National Hockey League. Sources said Comcast's bid for the "run-up to the playoffs package" was somewhere between $400 million-$500 million.

Instead, two-year-old NFL Network -- which has been offering year-round league programming, including preseason fare -- will use the eight regular-season contests as a lever to add distribution.

Moreover, beginning with next season, NFL Network will wield another high-profile first: full replays of the previous weekend's games, according to sources familiar with the NFL's new TV contracts.

Despite holes in its distribution roster with Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications Inc. (which pulled the service last year) and Cablevision Systems Corp., NFL Network counts some 40 million subscribers.

According to sources, Comcast received word Friday that it would not get the package. MSO officials could not be reached for comment.

During the course of negotiations, the NFL, according to sources familiar with the proceedings, considered a number of options, including the creation of a multisport network and a new network. Expressions of interest over the months also came from News Corp., ESPN, Turner Sports and NBC Universal.

"After discussing this new package of games with many potential partners, we decided that it would be best presented on our own, high-quality NFL Network, which has developed so rapidly that the time had come to add live regular-season games to the programming," NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said in a prepared statement. "In the end, we wanted these games on our network, which is devoted 24/7 to the sport of football, and not on a multisport network."

A separate digital-rights package was not part of the recently concluded negotiation, according to league sources.

The deal sets the NFL's linear TV lineup well into the next decade. In November 2004, Fox and CBS extended their National Football Conference and American Football Conference packages through the 2011-12 season at some $4.3 billion and $3.7 billion, respectively.

Last April, ESPN displaced sister service ABC as the Monday Night Football carrier with an eight-year pact valued at $8.8 billion, while NBC returned to the NFL lineup, taking ESPN's place on Sunday nights via a six-year, $3.6 billion pact.

Tagliabue announced Saturday that the primetime package will kick off on Thanksgiving night, Nov. 23, as the nightcap of a Turkey Day tripleheader. It was carved up from games previously held by CBS and Fox, which, in previous campaigns, had aired a number of Saturday games late in the season.

Despite published reports indicating that the first contest will pit the Washington Redskins at the Dallas Cowboys, league officials said the 2006 schedule has not yet been configured.

NFL Network will make all of its games available on free, over-the-air television in the participating team markets, according to officials.

Hi there! My name is Patti LaRue and I've been an advisor or Librarian, as some like to call it, for SportsVL for a couple of years now. My specialties I guess you could call them would be American Fantasy Football and the St. Louis Rams of the NFL including Fantasy Football. Doing this for SportsVL gives me the opportunity to give advice or information on these two topics as best as I can as well as explore new sites that would like to be included on SportsVL. This gets you exposed to some very interesting sites as well as some sites that could make your head spin. On the whole though, I've had the opportunity of visiting many wonderful and informative sites that have been included here on SportsVL. I have also been able to display some of my graphic art.

SportsVL is a great opportunity for those who have quality sites to get International exposure, I for one have been able to take advantage of that with a couple of my sites Planet Rams, Planet Rams Forum, which show my undying love for the St. Louis Rams, where we also offer free Fantasy Football each year as well, for all those diehards that just can't get enough of football just by watching it. With the NFL season starting 7th Sept 2007, July is the time to set up your fantasy league, ready for draft in August.

SportsVL is a site that gives everyone and their favorite sport an opportunity to be found on one site. Instead of searching for hours on the Internet for just the right site and just the right sport, SportsVL puts all these sites right at your fingertips. A daunting task for those who put it together, but a wonderful end product for YOU!

Bodybuilding's Jay Cutler wakes up to a breakfast of 15 egg whites, a couple of whole eggs and some toast. He's just getting started. A steak dinner comes a couple hours later. He then heads to the gym for an intense weight training session. After that, meals of chicken, buffalo meat and turkey are on the schedule. In between meals he's taking in various supplements for extra protein and vitamin coverage.

Tomorrow's schedule isn't going to get any easier.

Cutler is a disciplined trainer. He has to be. In 2006 he took pro bodybuilding's most prestigious title, Mr. Olympia, away from a legend - Ronnie Coleman, perhaps the most recognizable bodybuilder since Schwarzenegger, had won the title 8 consecutive times. Word is that Coleman wasn't at all pleased to relinquish the title and is focused on taking it back in 2007.

When these guys walk on stage, it is an impressive sight. They weigh in excess of 260 lbs. with body fat percentages so low they aren't even worth
mentioning. It's a display of just how far the human physique can be pushed. It's a battle of nutrition and training strategies.

But, most of all, it's a battle of dedication.

Bodybuilding's rise in popularity can be traced not only to the professional ranks but to a health-conscious public that is discovering the benefits of natural bodybuilding.

The dedication put forth by the sport's top pros may be a bit much for the average person -- a daily diet of 5 lbs. of meat and truly gruelling training
is a lot to ask. However, everyday trainers are seeing some impressive results with a more tempered approach.

People willing to put in a few intense hours a week in the gym and show some diet savvy are finding that natural bodybuilding training techniques have
true power. They are feeling and looking younger. They are getting stronger and experiencing the thrill of having their physiques demand double-takes.

To keep up with competitive bodybuilding's best and discover some of the web's best training resources, a great place to visit is The Virtual Library
of Sports' Bodybuilding Section.

About the Author:
JP Clifford is Sportsvl.com's bodybuilding librarian and the creator of The Build Muscle and Gain Weight Fast Guide, a bodybuilding site focused on the mass gain phase of training. For some guidance on bulking, check his
Bodybuilding Tips.

As announcer Bob Pompeani went through his pre-game checklist before the Philadelphia Eagles-Pittsburgh Steelers preseason game, he added a task to his usual routine of memorizing player numbers and talking to key players.

He made an extra trip to the makeup department.

"It's in high definition," he said. "People are going to see me like they've never seen me before."

No doubt every player and coach in the league will soon feel much the same way - NFL games have been televised for a half- century, but never before have they been seen like this.

High-definition television's integration into the American sports landscape speeds up this fall with three NFL games per week - one each on CBS, ABC and ESPN. For the first time, every Sunday night and Monday night will be in high-definition, as well as a weekly CBS Sunday game in selected markets. Most playoff games on ABC, CBS and ESPN are expected to be in HDTV.

Why the rapid expansion, only a year after not a single NFL regular-season game was in high-definition? Simple. Just as the driving force in real estate is location, location, location, in the TV industry it's picture, picture, picture.

HDTV is the first technological breakthrough since the color set that has spurred millions to buy new TVs - an estimated 4 million are expected to be sold this year.

"NFL games are such unscripted drama, with a backdrop of stadiums filled with vibrant colors and enthusiastic fans, it's a touchdown for HDTV," said Brian McCarthy, the NFL's director of corporate communications. "It's very intense, and it's very crisp."

It's also very startling for those who haven't previously watched a game in high-definition. The picture is six times more detailed than those on traditional analog sets and lacks the scan lines so visible when a viewer stands close to an analog TV. Tiny blemishes invisible on normal screens - a cut on a player's hand, a paint fleck on a helmet - are very evident in HDTV.

It's a perfect picture, but never before will so many of the NFL's imperfections be seen by its fans.

"Since HDTV gives you a wider shot of the field, you are able to see more action," said Scott Kemper, an HDTV set owner in Lawrence, Kan. "You can choose to watch the wide receiver lock up with the defensive back as they fight for position down the field. Or you can watch the safety adjust as the quarterback barks out the play at the line of scrimmage. ... It makes watching football more realistic."

It's not just the picture that is better, but the sound, too; the technology also accommodates digital surround sound, a format familiar to moviegoers. As Rob MacKenzie of Alexandria, Va., said, "You are surrounded by the noise of the crowd, the action on the field, the PA announcements."

Even in a society where changes in technology and popular culture that once took years now take only months, the rapid move to HDTV for NFL telecasts is a dramatic metamorphosis for America's most popular TV sport.

Last season, only three playoff games and the Super Bowl were in HDTV. This season, there will be 60-plus HDTV games even before the playoffs, not counting local productions such as the Eagles- Steelers game that was shown on Pittsburgh station KDKA's digital channel.

"We think the high-definition games will further drive consumer acceptance of the technology, just as the NFL has a long- standing tradition of doing so," McCarthy said. "In the '60s, it was expanding the game nationally with the networks. In the 1970s, it was Monday Night Football. In the 1980s, it was the NFL on cable on ESPN. In the 1990s, it was DirecTV and satellite. HDTV is the next logical technology that we think our programming will further drive."

Count NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue among the converts. He has a fancy plasma set in his New York office to watch games in high- definition when he's not at a stadium.

Clearly, the fast-expanding availability of NFL games in HDTV is increasing awareness of the technology; sales of big-screen HDTV sets spiked sixfold just before the Super Bowl last winter. It also helps that set prices have dropped quickly; 57-inch rear- projection sets that cost $5,000 in 2000 can be found now for $1,500, about what an analog big-screen set cost five years ago. Sets with 40-inch HDTV screens sell for as little as $1,000.

According to The Yankee Group, a Boston-based research firm, as many as 9 million U.S. households will have HDTV sets by the end of this year. That number is expected to double again by 2005 and should reach 41.6 million by 2007, when every U.S. TV station is supposed to be broadcasting a digital signal.

One of HDTV's early problems - making the high-definition signals available to a mass audience - is also fading as sales take off. ESPN's high-definition channel went on the air six months ago, but already is available nationally via DirecTV and locally on numerous cable systems, some owned by industry giant Comcast.

A year ago, only a handful of cable systems were HDTV-capable; now, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association estimates one-third of the nation's TV households have access to HDTV programming. That's a key to HDTV's growing acceptance since cable TV wires pass through 70 percent of all U.S. households.

Within a couple of years, every NFL game could be shown in high definition, a breakthrough that could result in higher revenues for the league. More games in HDTV would likely translate into greater sales of NFL Sunday Ticket, a pay-TV package that makes nearly every NFL game available to those willing to pay slightly more than $200 a season.

Sunday Ticket can be seen only on DirecTV - more than one-tenth of the satellite service's 11 million subscribers are believed to buy it - but it is expected to move onto digital cable tiers within a couple of years.

Because league research shows HDTV converts are among the most likely to buy the NFL package, all of CBS' HDTV games can be seen by Sunday Ticket subscribers, as long as they don't violate local blackout restrictions. All future Sunday afternoon games in HDTV are expected to be made available to Sunday Ticket purchasers, as well. The ABC and ESPN games, which are played at night, have never been included in Sunday Ticket so those networks' HDTV telecasts won't be, either.

Fox, which owns the rights to most games in NFC stadiums, is currently on the high-definition sidelines but plans to begin HDTV programming by fall 2004. Since its NFL rights are among the network's prime assets, it's logical to think Fox's expansion into HDTV will include the NFC games.

However, the NFL isn't relying on its broadcast partners to be the only producers of high-definition programming. The league's first 24-hour-a-day, 7-days-a-week channel, The NFL Network, will launch on DirecTV and some cable systems in November, featuring an hour-long, tape-delayed "game of the week" shown midweek in HDTV.

Numerous HDTV set owners said it took only one look at an NFL game in high-definition to spur their friends and family to also buy sets.

Mike Poindexter of Selma, Calif., so loves watching games and movies he bought four HDTV sets.

"Get a guy in front of an HD football game and ladies, you can kiss the new car or pool goodbye," said Rob Miller of Lancaster, Pa.

If you want to ask some further questions, or if you would like to volunteer to help me out, please don't hesitate to contact me. AND, while you do it, check out my favorite songs. They ROCK.