There are plenty of game changing players that will be available come July 1^st, but the two big-name free agents that everyone will be paying attention and watching their every move is the Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade and LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

At this point in time, it seems like D-Wade will most likely stay in Miami if Pat Riley can convince either Amare Stoudemire or Chris Bosh to play alongside him with the Heat, but if he can’t then the New York Knicks or the Chicago Bulls have the best shot at signing him.

LeBron James on the other hand, has given no indication on what his intentions are for this summer, but he may have dropped a hint recently after being interviewed on Larry King Live.

Obviously, anyone who can get any information out of LeBron James about his future right now might have big paycheck headed their way and one guy that is good at doing just that is Larry King. Even though LeBron didn’t say that he was going here or there in his interview with Larry King, he did say that the Cleveland Cavaliers have the “edge” over all the other teams pursuing him this summer.

Personally, I believe LeBron James is done in Cleveland. After two straight seasons of failing to live up to expectations in the playoffs, I really can’t see LeBron being motivated to come back once again, but you never know.

In my opinion, the New York Knicks will be too tempting for King James to pass up as it is the biggest market in the league and he already has said his favorite place to play is New York. The Chicago Bulls are also an intriguing place for LeBron as they already have some talented players to surround him with, but he will be in the shadow of Michael Jordan the entire time.

Even though soccer is the most popular sport in the world with the most passionate fans, the sport just hasn’t been able to take off in the United States. Many people in the US believe that it is just a boring sport that many people in this country cannot identify with because they didn’t play it growing up like they did with American football or America’s past time (baseball). Despite the consensus that soccer is “boring”, it would be hard to argue that football in this country or baseball is not just as “boring” if not even more so due to all the downtime between plays, pitches and or innings.

No matter what this country does to make this sport more popular, soccer will almost certainly never reach the level of NBA basketball, NFL football or MLB baseball, but the sport has definitely made an impression on this country over the past couple of years with superstars like David Beckham coming to the states and the success of US soccer on the international level.

This summer the United States will see more interest in soccer than ever before as the US national team looks to actually be a force to be reckoned with in World Cup in South Africa. They still are a longshot to win the World Cup as they will be competing with the likes of England, Brazil and Spain, but with the team’s recent success, people will be watching to see what happens this June.

With this sudden interest in soccer coming to the US, a few big name players on the international stage have actually considered making the move to the MLS for some big bucks. David Beckham was the most recent addition to the MLS, but hasn’t really been able to turn around the sport in this country single handedly. The next soccer superstar inline will be Thierry Henry from Barcelona.

Over the years, Henry has been arguably one of the best and brightest players in Europe with some impressive campaigns with the Arsenal Gunners in English Premier League and most recently with Barcelona playing alongside football great Lionel Messi.

Even though Henry is just 32 years old, he is considered to be on the downside of his career and with one year left on his contract with Spanish heavyweight Barcelona, Henry has decided to sign with the New York Red Bulls.

Before Henry suits up for the Red Bulls, he will be trying to lead France to World Cup glory this summer in South Africa. During his time with the French national team, Henry has become the all-time leading goal scorer with 51 goals to his credit.

Last season the Los Angeles Lakers were able to dominate the competition in the Western Conference for the second straight year and make it all the way to the NBA Finals. Even though the Orlando Magic had knocked off the Eastern Conference favorites in the Cleveland Cavaliers during the Eastern Conference finals, the Lakers were by far the better team in the NBA Finals and finished off Dwight Howard and company with relative ease.

Once head coach Phil Jackson had won his tenth NBA title last season, six with the Chicago Bulls and fourth with the Los Angeles Lakers, he had officially past legendary head coach Red Auerbauch for most NBA titles by a head coach in NBA history. Needless to say, the Zen Master had done it again and has finally surpassed the Boston Celtics legend as arguably the best head coach of all-time.

Not only had Phil Jackson become the most successful head coach in NBA history with his tenth NBA title, but he also had a great opportunity to add to his grand total as he had relatively the same championship team intact and ready to compete for a few more.

Coming into this season, the defending NBA champion had finally started to show signs of the wear and tear they have sustained over the last two years as they were bitten by the injury bug. Although no stranger to injuries to Andrew Bynum over the past two seasons, this time around it was Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol that would miss time and the team would truly be tested without their two best players.

Fortunately, even though the Lakers did struggle at times during the regular season, the defending champs hav

e been able to get back to form in the playoffs and seem poised to make another run at a second straight NBA title.

Despite the future looking bright for the Los Angeles Lakers, head coach Phil Jackson seems to be ready to finally call it quits as he was quoted as saying that retirement after this season, win or lose, is looking “pretty good”.

Even though the Zen Master has said things like this in the past, somewhat in Brett Favre-like fashion constantly changing his mind, this time around I actually believe he feels his career needs to come to an end.

Obviously, this is something that the Los Angeles Lakers do not want to think about right now, but it will definitely be something on every Lakers fan’s mind this summer as it will be extremely difficult to replace the Zen Master.

During the regular season, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers were the cream of the crop in the NBA and were able to clinch the number one overall seed in the NBA playoffs with the league’s best record.

Heading into the playoffs, the Cavs were the odds on favorites to win the NBA title. The Los Angeles Lakers were considered their biggest hurdle, but it looks like the Boston Celtics are now as this Semifinal matchup will head back to Cleveland tied up at 2-2.

As usual, LeBron James has been the one player on the Cleveland Cavaliers that has been damn near unguardable, but the key to this series has arguably been the Celtics young point guard Rajon Rondo.

In game one of this series, Rondo was the X-factor fo the Celtics as he put up 27 points to go along with his 12 assists and six rebounds. Unfortunately, LeBron came out firing on all cylinders and finished with a game high 35 points, seven rebounds, three steals and two blocks to lead the Cavs to the game one victory.

Game two, Rondo had another dominant performance with 13 points, 19 assists and two steals. The Boston Celtics ultimately went on to win in convincing fashion104-86. It was becoming more and more obvious that the Cavs simply didn’t have an answer for the lightening quick Celtics point guard.

During game three, LeBron James had his best game of the playoffs so far by putting up a game high 38 points, with 28 of those points coming in the first half, as the Cavs just cruised to a blowout victory124-95.

Heading into game four it was basically a must win situation for the Boston Celtics, but despite many people believing that the Cleveland Cavaliers had retaken control of this series in game three, Rajon Rondo and company showed they aren’t done yet by beating the Cavs 97-87 win.

Rondo had his best game of the series in game four with a triple-double which included 29 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists. Those are monster numbers to say the least, but all that has done is anger the two-time MVP LeBron James who says that he will take on the challenge of guarding Rajon Rondo from here on out!

Every single season there are three teams in the NFC East division that could easily be Super Bowl title contenders and at the start of this season, that was exactly the case as the Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants were getting hyped up as teams to beat in the NFC.

Coming into week 17, the New York Giants have fallen off after recent losses, but both the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles have clinched playoff berths and will face off in yet another head to head battle at the end of the regular season for the NFC East division title.

As of right now, online betting sites have the Dallas Cowboys favored with -3 point spread. This game will be an absolute battle in my opinion as the Cowboys will be looking to finally top the Eagles in a big game. Not only will Dallas be trying to prove they can play with anyone in the playoffs with a win over Philly, but this game will be huge for quarterback Tony Romo more than anyone as he has consistently played terrible in big games like this.

Obviously, both of these teams are moving to the playoffs regardless of the outcome of this game, but the momentum shift with a victory for the Dallas Cowboys or the Philadelphia Eagles as they try and make their way towards a Super Bowl appearance.

Personally, I believe this is the Dallas Cowboys time to shine and the result of this game could have huge implications and what is to come for Tony Romo and company.

Not all that long ago the Kansas City Chiefs absolutely loved Johnson because he was basically the entire offense as he was as good as any running back in the league, but after his impressive season in 2006 his numbers started to decline and his ego started to emerge as he constantly caused problems for arguably one of the worst teams in the NFL.

These two backs could change a game’s outcome all by themselves as both players were the core of the offenses in San Diego and Kansas City. Despite the big numbers by LJ he didn’t really improve the Chiefs record as the Chiefs were rarely involved in the AFC playoff picture because even though LJ could have two or more TDs a game, Kansas City still struggled to get wins on a consistent basis.

Back in 2006 when people talked about who was the best running back in the league two names came to mind first in the San Diego Chargers versatile scoring machine LaDainian Tomlinson and the Kansas City Chiefs Larry Johnson. Both these backs lit up the scoreboards on a weekly basis, but over time LT keep producing and LJ slipped into mediocrity.

With LJ’s declining numbers the once superstar running back turned from Pro Bowler to virtually nonexistent in the Kansas City offense.

Coming into this season the Chiefs had some light at the end of tunnel with the addition of Matt Cassel who had an amazing season filling in for Tom Brady last season in New England. Cassel was traded to Kansas City and immediately signed a huge contract keeping the young quarterback in Chiefs uniform for the next six seasons.

With Cassel behind center things were starting to look up as the Chiefs finally had the franchise quarterback they desperately wanted. Unfortunately, the addition of Cassel hasn’t resulted in wins as Kansas City has only won one of their first eight games of the season.

It may be a disappointing season for the Chiefs, but after releasing running back Larry Johnson they may have gotten rid of the biggest distraction on the team and can now look forward to a promising future and possibly a promising running back in the next draft.

Well, in week six these three quarterbacks Brady, Favre and Brees showed why they are three of the best quarterbacks in the league as they combined for 13 touchdown passes on Sunday.

Drew Brees had arguably the toughest challenge of the week between all three of these quarterbacks as he led his undefeated New Orleans Saints against the undefeated New York Giants. The Giants came into this game with the best defense in the NFL, but even though they were considered the best defense before this game they definitely won’t be after week six.

Brees has been tearing apart opposing defenses in his first four games, but his performance in week six may have top them all as he threw for 369 yards and four touchdowns. Brees did throw for six touchdown passes in week one against the Detroit Lions, but honestly that is not even as close to as impressive as tearing up arguably the best defense in the NFL in the New York Giants.

Believe it or not, Brees’ unbelievable performance against the Giants wasn’t the best game by a quarterback this week as Tom Brady had another career game against the Tennessee Titans where he threw for five touchdowns in one quarter, six touchdowns total and 380 yards passing in just three quarters. Oh, did I mention he did all of this while it was snowing at Foxboro?

Pretty remarkable! I guess we can say that Brady is officially back to form and Patriots fans out there are cashing in thanks to his outstanding performance!

Then we come to Brett Favre who had another memorable performance as he led his undefeated Minnesota Vikings to victory over the resilient Baltimore Ravens who refused to die on Sunday in Minnesota. Favre play brilliantly all game long as he finished with 278 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions to keep his new team undefeated at 6-0 on the season!

The Browns are down in the dumps right now and honestly no matter what move they make this season I believe this season is lost for Cleveland. Both Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson can’t seem to get it done, their defense is awful and after just four games the season is quickly turning into a disaster.

At one point in time, about two years ago, Braylon Edwards was one of the best wide receivers in the NFL and the go to guy in Cleveland for quarterback Derek Anderson. Times have changed since his breakout year in though as he has just not been able to get it going the way he did in 2007. Instead of hearing about Edwards putting up 100 yard games and catching touchdown passes all you seem to hear is that he drops passes and is no longer a prime time receiver in this league.

Even though Edwards had no real impact on the Browns this season, he could potentially be huge for the New York Jets and rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez who hasn’t really had a down field threat in his passing game this season.

The Jets will almost certainly be much improved with the addition of Edwards if he can turn it around, but the Browns will most likely continue to struggle as they try to find the right pieces to the puzzle and get some consistency at the quarterback position.

In return for Braylon Edwards the Cleveland Browns will get wide receiver Chansi Stuckey, special teams player Jason Trusnik and a couple of draft picks.

In week one of the new NFL season only one really big name went down for the season in the Chicago Bears superstar linebacker Brian Urlacher. That was a major blow to the Bears defense in which they may not be able to recover on the defensive side of the football. The offense, although not dominant, is starting to click with new starting quarterback Jay Cutler behind center, but the defense will never be as good as it is without Urlacher staring down opposing quarterbacks.

In week two there were a few players that sustained a few bumps and bruises like the San Diego Chargers star running LaDainian Tomlinson who had to watch from the bench against the loss to the Baltimore Ravens after suffering an ankle sprain against the Oakland Raiders in the previous week. The injury is still taking it’s toll on LT as he had to sit out week three as well against the Miami Dolphins and his status for next week is still uncertain.

Week three was not immune to the injury bug as it struck hard against the Miami Dolphins who have lost their starting quarterback Chad Pennington for the rest of the season. Pennington’s status for the rest of the season still has a little hope as he is looking at getting another opinion on his injured shoulder, but the rest will most likely be the same.

It has been a rough few weeks for the Dolphins to open the season as they have dropped three straight in games they could have won. Against the Falcons in week one the Dolphins struggled to reach the endzone scoring only one touchdown, but they started to make in the fourth quarter and came up short.

When the Dolphins took on the Colts in week two the wildcat offense was running to perfection and Indianapolis had no answer for it as Miami racked up about 200 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, but Manning’s late game heroics were too much for the Dolphins as he finished the fins off with a touchdown pass with a little over three minutes to go.

Week three was more of the same with 130 yards on the ground and one rushing touchdown, but Phillip Rivers was just a little too much for Miami to handle as he threw for 303 yards and had a rushing touchdown of his own to seal the 23-13 win over the Dolphins.

As if going 0-3 to start the season wasn’t bad enough for Miami they will now have to deal without Chad Pennington behind center who has been able to keep this offense kicking and has been more than willing to sit on the sidelines to watch the Wildcat offense go to work. Chad Henne will take over for the time being, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the versatile rookie Pat White from West Virginia get some more playing time and possibly be the Dolphins permanent starter at the end of the season.

The NFL, unlike the MLB or NBA, is a brutal sport in which injuries and age become a huge factor. Few running backs in the NFL are able to stand the test of time and many believe that after they hit 30 years of age it is all down hill from there.

The quarterback position the only one in football that seems to be able to have players of advanced age play for a long period of time and Brett Favre of the Minnesota Vikings is the perfect example of that at almost 40 and still playing at a high level.

LaDainian Tomlinson on the other hand is at a point in time in his career where he is coming off a disappointing season, which ended in injury and watching from the sidelines in a playoff game once again, and he has finally hit the 30 mark which has everyone talking about the rise and fall of the future hall of fame running back.

Is LaDainian Tomlinson finished as an elite running back in the NFL?

In my opinion, yes he is and for two reasons. One, Darren Sproles looks to be the next best thing at the running back position and he is already stealing carries away from LT. Two, LT is injury prone and just cannot stay healthy anymore.

Last week against their hated rivals, the San Diego Chargers were barely able to beat the Oakland Raiders with a last minute drive that ended with a Darren Sproles rushing touchdown and instead of a LT getting the football and finishing off the Raiders like he has done so many times in the past.

Supposedly, the reason LT was on the sidelines on that last drive was due to an ankle sprain and all LT could do is look on from the sidelines as the Chargers worked their way up the field in the closing minutes which seemed like to me was the passing of the torch to Sproles as he rushed for the game winning touchdown.

A few thing are for certain in San Diego, Phillip Rivers is their franchise quarterback, Antonio Gates is the go to guy in the passing game and Darren Sproles is not going anywhere!

So what happens to LT?

Well, unfortunately I think LT will be on his way out sometime during the season either on the IR, a trade or let go in the offseason. This is the beginning of the end of LaDainian Tomlinson, at least with the San Diego Chargers.

LT will also not play against the Baltimore Ravens in week three due to a ankle sprain he sustained against the Oakland Raiders on Monday Night Football last week.