| Groban Gets Oprah Bounce, Jordin Sparks Doesn't Fly
The Grinch might be stealing Christmas from music retailers, but thanks to Josh Groban and Oprah, there's still some singing in Whoville. For the sales week kicked off by Super Tuesday—the release date before Thanksgiving when record labels typically schedule their big guns—the figures were abnormally bad, with only one Top 10 bow and a seven-week-old album topping the charts. Still, that album, Groban's Noël, can thank last week's performance on The Oprah Winfrey Show for driving it past Alicia Keys and into the number one spot. Noël crowned the Billboard 200 by selling 405,000 copies for the week ended Sunday, according to SoundScan numbers released today. The holiday disc, featuring Groban's take on "Silent Night," "O Come All Ye Faithful" and other wintery classics, originally debuted in the 10 spot in mid-October.
England's McClaren given boot
England has the wealthiest soccer league in the world, with matches screened across the globe and business tycoons from the United States, Russia and Asia lining up to own the clubs. So why can't England put 11 Englishmen on the field to succeed on the international level? Steve McClaren became the latest coach to pay the price Thursday, getting fired after England's 3-2 loss Wednesday at home to Croatia meant the team failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championship. While the likes of World Cup champion Italy, Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Portugal will be out to try to take the title away from Greece, England's stars — including David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen — will have to watch the games on TV. The Football Association now has plenty of time to search for a coach who can lift the nation credited with establishing the modern game to the same level.
Spoil sports
The Gulf has more petrodollars than it knows what to do with and is spoiling the world's sports stars with lavish prizes and tournaments, and even paying Africans to switch passports. In the third part of our ground-breaking globalisation series, we focus on the spend, spend, spend sheikhs Next Monday a select group of British golf journalists will be flown from London to Dubai on a private jet. They will be royally entertained before listening to the announcement of a new addition to the European Tour schedule. Not just another golf tournament, but one that Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and all the world's top players will not want to miss - the richest in the world. The prize fund is expected to be $20million and appearance money about as much again. .
Beckham deal dissed by Pele
SHEFFIELD, England -- Pele believes American fans were misled about what David Beckham could bring to Major League Soccer. Amid great fanfare, the former England captain signed a five-year, $32.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Galaxy and was unveiled in July. But his greatest impact this season has been on ticket sales and merchandise, not on the field. .
Sam Donnellon | Bold standard works, Andy
A.J. FEELEY'S passer rating suffered greatly from his three interceptions Sunday. Which is why the passer rating is one of the silliest statistics in all of sport. Because Feeley could just as easily have thrown six picks the way he was slinging it out there against the Patriots. That touchdown throw to Reggie Brown in a crowd just inside the goal line, the one Greg Lewis practically picked from the hands of two defenders in the back of the end zone, and about a half-dozen others he completed could easily have gone the other way, and led to the final score oddsmakers had in mind. Which leads us to Andy Reid - doesn't it always? The Eagles' play-calling was so wonderfully bold and unpredictable that by the end of the third quarter you felt someone had dropped a big, unexpected holiday package at your doorstep.
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