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The offensively struggling Kansas City Chiefs have finally found a way to win-play a team with a more stagnant offense than their own. The Chiefs gave Todd Haley his first win as a NFL head coach on Sunday with a—6 win over the Washington Redskins. Kansas City won despite not scoring a touchdown, compiling their– points via 4 Ryan Succop field goals and a game ending safety.

To successfully bet on NFL football you occasionally have to put aside W/L records and look at the underlying statistics. Those who did that found reason to take Kansas City as +6′ road underdogs and were rewarded with the outright victory. Kansas City is now 2-4 against the NFL pointspread and has covered two straight while Washington is a dismal 1-5 versus the money. The 20 combined points went well UNDER the posted total of 36′. The Redskins have gone UNDER in five of their six games this season, while Kansas City has curiously posted a NFL totals mark of 3-2-1 to the OVER despite not scoring more than 24 points in a game all season.

After the contest, Haley sounded more relieved than excited about finally putting a “W” on the board:

“We made it pretty difficult, right down to the end. We’ve pushed through a very difficult period. We needed to get some positive reinforcement with a win.”

Kansas City QB Matt Cassel also won for the first time since coming over from New England in the off season. His postgame comments were more upbeat:

“There’s been a lot of change, but this has definitely been special. We rose to the occasion. We made some big plays. We put ourselves in a position to score points.”

Embattled Redskins’ coach Jim Zorn was stripped of his offensive play calling duties by team management after the contest. In one of his last decisions in that role, he pulled starter Jason Campbell at halftime and went with Todd Collins. He explained his move as follows:

“I felt the need to create a spark on our football team offensively and went with Todd. I think the guys responded well. We kept our spark, at times, and then we refizzled.”

The Redskins have managed to win only two of their first six games despite being the only team in NFL history to play their first six games of the season against winless opponents. They’ll get another chance to silence their doubters next Monday night as they host the Philadelphia Eagles. The Skins are +6′ home underdogs with the total set at 38′. They’ll have a bye the next week and return to action on November 8th against the Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome. Kansas City will try to string together back to back wins as they host the San Diego Chargers on Sunday.

On a historic night for the UFC and the sport of mixed martial arts, Brock Lesnar avenged his early loss to Frank Mir with a TKO victory and in the process unified the promotions heavyweight championship at UFC 100. Mir/Lesnar was the main event of a stacked card and the culmination of an insane week in Las Vegas.

The anticipation surrounding UFC 100 was unprecedented among the fight sport media and, more significantly, among mainstream sports media. MMA has long has been an object of scorn, disdain and ignorance among traditional sports media, and in this context the fact that every major outlet including ESPN, SI.com and Fox Sports featured UFC 100 as their top story of the day is downright amazing. The broader implications of UFC 100 remain to be seen, but it could very likely become a turning point for the sport where MMA transcended cult or niche status to burst into the mainstream consciousness.

While the big metric of the events success will be its PPV buy rate”which will almost certainly shatter existing UFC records”the attendance numbers and other tangible measures that are already known underscore the significance of the event. Fridays weigh in was a standing room only affair with over 2,000 fans turned away. A Fan Expo held in conjunction with UFC 100 counted over 30,000 visitors on Friday and an equal or greater number on Saturday. Even veteran fight media experienced in covering big boxing and MMA events worldwide have reported that the energy and general vibe around this event is like nothing theyve seen.

The main event established Lesnar as not only the UFC heavyweight champion, but the most hated ‘bad guy’ in the sport. He implemented a perfect gameplan against the BJJ mastery of Mir, leveraging his strength and power to pummel his foe while not placing himself at risk of submission.

Mir, on the other hand, made a tactical mistake by letting Lesnar put him on his back and pound away. He clearly underestimated Lesnar’s ability to defend his submissions and by the end of the first round had already suffered a nasty beating. Lesnar quickly took Mir down again at the start of the second round, ending the fight with a punishing ground and pound assault that prompted referee Herb Dean to call a stop to the contest at 1:48 of the second round.

Lesnar diminished his dominating performance with his postfight antics”he taunted Mir after the stoppage, prompting the crowd to boo him mercilessly. He responded to this with a double handed middle finger salute before a short and arrogant postfight interview that would have been much more at home in the WWE than in this setting. Mir was the consummate professional in defeat, giving credit to his opponent and generally displaying all of the class that Lesnar lacked.

It may be a bit of a stretch to call Satoshi Ishii the Michael Phelps of Japan, but not by much. His victory in the heavyweight judo competition at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing was easily the defining moment of the games for his countrymen and was considered by most media outlets the #1 highlight of the year in all of sports. Though Japan does well at the Olympics for a country of its size and has won gold medals in a number of sports, its important to keep in mind that until the late’70s judo was the country’s most popular sport.

Ishii himself is also a marketing dream. Hes especially big by Japanese standards with 240 pounds packed on his bulky 511 frame. Not surprisingly, hes tough as nails and a terror on the mat but away from the gym he comes off like an awkwardly cheerful overgrown boy. He definitely seems younger than his 22 years, but gives off the vibe of a nice neighbor boy who youd gladly pay to mow your lawn. Unlike his telegenic American gold medalist counterpart Phelps, who acts as if he spent as much time working on media relations as his backstroke heading up to the Olympic games, Ishii’s demeanor is of an athlete who literally spent the bulk of his life in a gym only to emerge and find himself a national hero and superstar. He alternately seems to be having the time of his life at the vortex of a media frenzy as he is somewhat overwhelmed by the attention.

With the ability to offer him the most money and exposure, it seemed almost a fait accompli that Ishii would sign with DREAM and K-1 parent group FEG. Obviously its a good idea to keep your options open in negotiations, so he also reportedly talked to Sengoku parent World Victory Road and Antonio Inokis Inoki Genome Federation pro wrestling group.

Ishii then shocked the Japanese fight sport world by categorically rejecting FEGs offer, saying that it was his lifelong dream to fight in the UFC. While this rationale might sound plausible to a US based fan, its akin to a top college baseball player from a SEC school turning down a big offer from the Atlanta Braves saying that its his lifelong dream to play for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan Central League. It frequently comes a shock to US MMA fans when immersed in Japans culture for the first time just how low the UFC ranks in the countrys fight sport pantheon. In MMA, their profile is lower than DREAM and Sengoku, but even smaller groups like Shooto and DEEP. Overall, the interest in and prestige of the UFC is well below not only boxing but even Japanese pro wrestling (puroresu). The UFC is making some progress, and big fights like GSP/Penn and Lesnar/Couture now get higher profile coverage (Lesnar/Couture owed most of its interest in the Japanese press to Brocks run as IWGP pro wrestling champ) but by no means is the #1 US MMA promotion considered on par with any of the major Japanese fighting groups.

Ishii then travelled to Las Vegas for UFC 92, with the Japanese media in tow covering his every move. Upon his return to Japan, he appeared at the Sengoku card in January addressing the audience from the ring and wearing his ubiquitous UFC shirt; his message was that he was going to fight in America for awhile but would eventually return to Japan.

At age 22, Ishiis got plenty of time to develop as a fighter. His biggest downside risk from signing with Zuffa is financial since hed be lucky to get a fraction of what FEG is willing to pay him. The competitive logic of learning his craft slowly notwithstanding, theres a huge risk in automatically assuming that he can fight for the UFC for a few years and then cash a big check when he returns to Japan as the potential of injury and changing market conditions could seriously impact his market value. On the other hand, it could be a risk hes willing to take given that hes got his celebrity both with the mainstream public and in the judo community to fall back on.

Theres another very realistic scenario that it was all a negotiating ploy by Ishii. The UFC was likely willing to play along, figuring that their investment of a few plane tickets and hotel suites would be worth the resulting PR surge in Japan. Ishii and the UFC develop a cordial relationship which could be to the benefit of both parties down the road.

With the recent revelation that Ishii has broken off UFC negotiations to entertain offers from other parties thats starting to look like the plausible explanation for the once hot and heavy courtship between Ishii and Zuffa. Ultimately, the Ishii/UFC affair could simply prove to be a fling that accrued small benefits to each party, but both realized that there was no long term future for the pairing.

As a postscript to the Ishiis relationship with the UFC, it apparently opened the doors for his move to the US where hell be training with the American Top Team in Florida. That alone is a positive for his future development as a fighter, as hell be training with a whos who of professional fighting.

In a matchup between two of the worst offenses in the NFL, someone had to win. Despite producing only 9 first downs and’3 yards of total offense, the Cleveland Browns got a late game field goal from Billy Cundiff to defeat the Buffalo Bills 6-3 and win their first game of the season. The Bills had the more productive afternoon statistically, with- first downs and 288 yards of offense but were undone by three costly turnovers. Both teams are now 1-4 on the 2009 NFL season. Neither team appears to be headed anywhere but down in the NFL standings.

To successfully bet on the NFL, one needs to find opportunities to play underdogs”this is particularly true in games where neither team is expected to put many points on the board. Such was the case here, as Cleveland easily covered the pointspread as +6 road underdogs. Both teams are now 2-3 against the number on the season. The Browns have now won and covered the last three head to head matchups between the teams. The 9 points scored came nowhere near the total of 41 for an easy UNDER. The Browns have now gone UNDER in 3 of their 5 games this season, while Buffalo has OVER on three of their five posted NFL totals.

It was a game without many highlights. The Browns got on the board first with a 24 yard Cundiff field goal in the second quarter, and took that 3-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. Buffalo would tie the score in third on a Rian Lindell 36 yard field goal. That would set the stage for Cundiff to nail the game winner from’ yards out with: 23 left to play. Despite todays victory, Cleveland is averaging a woeful 11 points per game this season. Buffalo’s PPG numbers are slightly better thanks to decent scoring output in their first two games of the season–theyre averaging just over 15 points per contest. In the Bills last three games, however, theyre averaging a meager 6.6 points per game.

The real loser in Sundays contest may have been Buffalo head coach Dick Jauron. Many were surprised that he was retained after the Bills third straight 7-9 season last year and things have gone from bad to worse so far in the 2009 NFL season. Buffalo has lost to winless teams in back to back weeks, part of a three game losing streak. Overall, the Bills have wound up losers in 12 of their last 15 games. Not that Cleveland has done much better–the win today ended a 10 game losing streak, one short of the all time franchise record.

Cleveland will have a tough road assignment next Sunday, heading to Pittsburgh to face the World Champion Steelers. Theyll return home for a game against the Green Bay Packers on October 25th before playing the Chicago Bears in The Windy City the following week. Buffalo will play the next two on the road, heading to the Meadowlands next Sunday for a game against the New York Jets followed by a trip to Charlotte, NC to take on the Carolina Panthers. Theyll return home on November 1st to face the Houston Texans.

The sport of bodybuilding requires absolute dedication and massive amounts of self control. To help you in reaching your full potential it is important to find the right kinds of food that will help you to build the body you want. And in doing so, you will have to leave junk food behind.

No matter what level you are of muscle growth you are aiming for eating the right foods will help you to develop the way you want.

The production and growth of muscles comes from protein. The following foods are rich in protein that you need to build and maintain muscles, Meats, nuts and dairy products. It is the most important aspect of the food groups for body builders. Exercise is the catalyst that helps your body to utilize the protein from your food, turning it into healthy strong muscle tissue. Protein rich foods such as Chicken, Tuna, eggs and lean red meat will be where your body draws most of the protein it needs for new muscle growth. These foods have a down side though, as well as being extremely rich in protein they are also sources of trans fats which are not essential and promote cholesterol within the body. First thing in the morning and right after a workout are great times to have a protein shake of an added supplement of protein. Many of the protein shakes on the market are up to 90% less effective than you would think. If in doubt, ask you trainer which brand they prefer.

To fuel your body with energy you need both simple and complex sugars, known as carbohydrates. It is worth noting that if eat more carbs than your body can burn the surplus will be stored as fat. Whilst cutting out carbohydrates altogether is not what you want to do it is best to makes sure that you keep an eye on the amount of carbs you are taking on during your training. Remember that you are trying to build muscle, so watching your carb intake is important. This is where you iron will and dedication come into play. If you cut out carbohydrates altogether you simply won’t have the energy required to train, you just need to makes sure that you don’t go overboard whilst refilling the tank. How many carbs is too much depends solely on your metabolic rate. If you think that you would benefit from and increased of decreased intake of carbs it is wise to discuss it with your personal trainer who can give you a clearer view of what you need to be doing.

Eating the right types of foods isn’t enough to ensure that your body building vision will come true, mix dedication and willpower with the right amounts of bodybuilding foods that you need will get you along way toward your aspirations.