Another reason to ♥ NY



The first-ever football player to be featured as our Monday Man is Mark Sanchez, a third-generation Mexican-American from California. 

This 23-year old is doing well in his second season in the NFL.  He is the quarterback for the New York Jets, and they've won 2 of their 3 games so far, including a victory yesterday over the Miami Dolphins. Before being drafted by the Jets, Mark played football for the University of Southern California where he earned a degree in Communications.

Off the field Mark does charity work with inner-city kids, and has become quite the hero to the Hispanic community.  In order to better communicate with his many Spanish-speaking fans, Sanchez - who is not a native-speaker - studied the language at university.



Mark at the Tonys



He's also a big musical theatre fan (yes, you read that right).  He was even a presenter at the 2010 Tony awards, where he introduced a number from the show Memphis.  It was at the awards that he confirmed that he and Jamie-Lynn Sigler of Sopranos and Entourage fame are an item.  Apparently the two like to go the baseball games and Broadway shows - the best of both worlds in my opinion!

Enjoy the photos below.... I told you there were some things to love about football!



Blue Steel?



Having a Baywatch moment



Love and lust in the NFL

Miles Austin & Kim Kardashian

Even if you’ve never watched a football game, chances are you know a couple of players. That’s because they often grace the pages of gossip magazines on the arm of some starlet or celebutante. Kim Kardashian is one such lady who loves her some NFL meat. Unfortunately for Miss Kardashian, her latest football love, Miles Austin, reportedly ended their fling last week. The two dated over the summer but apparently now that the season has started, Austin, a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, has no more time for the high-maintenance Kardashian.

Kim with former flame Reggie Bush

Austin is not Kardashian’s first NFL conquest. You probably remember seeing her former flame, Reggie Bush, on the cover of every celebrity news magazine last March. These two loved attention, but apparently Bush, 25, was not ready to cave to Kardashain’s demands for a ring, so he called it off. Bush’s luck seems to have taken a turn for the worse since the breakup, however. Last February, while still with Kardashian, his team the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl. But last Monday just a week into the season, Bush broke his leg on the field.

Cutler & Cavallari

Leinart & Cavallari

The two were introduced by Matt Leinart in 2007. Leinart is the back-up quarterback for the Houston Texans, and has dated/drunkenly groped Paris Hilton as well as Kristin Cavallari. Cavallari has now moved on to Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler. They’ve been dating since August, and according to a recent interview with Cutler “It’s working out so far.” Not exactly a gushing response, but I guess she has to take what she can.

Boller & Reid



Boller & Prejean



As you can see, these people seem to date within groups – like high school. Another group has a couple that actually made it to the altar this summer. Former beauty queen Carrie ““that’s just the way I was raised” Prejean tied the knot in July with Oakland raiders quarterback Kyle Boller. Before Prejean, Boller had the misfortune of being linked to Tara Reid.

Reid, meanwhile, once dated Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots and three time Super Bowl champ. He’s moved up in the world since then, and nowadays is known as Mr. Gisele Bundchen. The two married in February 2009 and had son Benjamin last December.



Tom & Gisele - these pretty pretty people get an extra big picture



Tom and baby mama #1 Bridget Moynahan



In between Tara and Gisele, Tom had time to date and impregnate Bridget Moynahan, best known as Carrie Bradshaw’s romantic rival and Mr. Big’s wife on Sex and the City. The two broke up about the same time she got pregnant with their son, Edward, who was born in August 2007 (by which time Gisele was already in the picture). Gisele has said some pretty annoying things about Edward being her child too, which I’m sure doesn’t sit too well with Ms. Moynahan.

Romo & Underwood

Another player you may remember from his association with celebrity women is Tony Romo, quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. In 2006 and 2007 Romo had an on-again off-again relationship with Carrie Underwood (whose summer wedding to NHL star Mike Fisher we talked about here).



Simpson & Romo



Simpson & Johnson



Romo then moved on to Jessica Simpson. They started dating in Novemebr 2007, and shortly thereafter she showed up to a game wearing a pink version of his jersey. Romo had a terrible game that day, and Jessica earned the ire of Dallas fans. After a rocky few years Romo dumped Jessica on the eve of her 29th birthday. Apparently Papa Joe Simpson was trying to become his agent, so I can’t say I blame him. Still, the timing was a little rough. You may have recently read that Simpson is now dating former football player Eric Johnson. Any bets on how long that will last?



Kendra & Hank



Our last couple of the day has also been in the news lately. Former playmate and girlfriend of Hugh Hefner, Kendra Wilkinson, married football player Hank Baskett in June 2007 at the Playboy mansion. Their life together and the birth of their son in December 2009 have been featured on their reality show Kendra. But last May a sex tape starring Kendra and an unidentified man was leaked, and apparently Hank was not too happy about it. Then last week, he was released from his team the Philadelphia Eagles. He has just been picked up by the Minnesota Vikings though, and they won today, so maybe things are looking up for him.

Tomorrow our Monday Man will feature another NFL/celebrity couple, and this is one relationship that I personally am rooting for to last. Stay tuned!

Back in the game

After a longer than anticipated hiatus, In the game is back! As the summer and all its distractions wind down, I will now be posting fairly regularly, so check back often.

Football season is now underway and I recently had a request for some posts to help make sense of this sport. I will warn you now: football can be very confusing. It is not your basic “put ball in net” game, and there are a ridiculous amount of rules and positions and plays etcetera, etcetera. The good news is, I will not bore you to death trying to explain the nuances of the game. Rather, I’ll give you some general explanations, keep you updated on any big events, and introduce you to some fine looking athletes along the way. Deal?

I’ll start us off today with some basic information. American football is the second most popular sport in the United States (behind baseball) and has millions of fans around the world. College football is huge, but we’ll mostly be talking about professional football here – the NFL, or National Football League.

Each team plays once a week, almost always on Sunday or Monday. This is just one of the unique things about football – unlike other sports like baseball (162) or hockey (82), each football team plays only 16 games a year. So while the NFL season may seem interminable to those of you who have a football-addicted spouse, it actually only runs from September to February.

So how does football work? Though I previously said this was not a “put ball in net” kind of game, in a way it is. Imagine that the net is a big section at the end of the field (called the end zone). To score points, a team has to get the football into that area. The difference is that someone on that team has to be holding the ball while it’s in the end zone; you can’t just shoot it or kick it in.

Another difference? In football the teams take turns trying to score. First one side tries to get to the end zone while the other team tries to stop them. After a certain number of tries, they switch.

At the end of 60 minutes (though with stoppages in play and timeouts games usually take 2 ½ hours to play), the team with the most points wins. Simple, right?

I think that’s enough football for today. I promise you that the next football post will be a little less informational and a little more colourful. And I should also let you know that American football stars seem to like to get naked even more than their counterparts in European football, so look forward to Monday!