While in a pub in London I was listening to someone talk about an emotional hedge. This happens fairly often I believe. The fellow was a die hard Arsenal supporter. Your gut would be, if you were a betting kind of chap, to bet big on the team that you love.

However, he did the opposite and bet on the OTHER team beating his beloved. The amont of the bet was defined by “winning X amount would make me feel OK about losing the match”. So, if Arsenal win, he is happy as his team one (and who cares about money!). If Arsenal lose, bugger. But, at least he wins a few bob.

I started to think about this emotional hedging and how you can go Agile, and “turn it to 10″. What about hedging your marriage? “I bet $X that I will get divorced” To calculate the amount you need to add up how much you will lose if you are divorced (special note in California!) and add to that the amount of money that would allow you to have a midlife crisis and give you a chance getting another woman with a fancy red car ;)

I think about paying for Sam’s college. Maybe a hedge here could work? You can go down the list and hedge against it all!

NOTE: Getting someone to take your hedge when you are involved is a lot harder!

I have to admit it. I was bored in the superbowl until the last 5 minutes or so. I was enjoying chatting with friends, but the game was going right over my head. Of Eli had been intercepted there, this would have gone down as a boring sloppy game, but instead….

And, then we have Freddie doing silly things involving drink and warm weather, and other people getting injured and such.

A movie in the making, and not about the good side of things (the sport itself).

It is playing on their myspace page and you can tell their genius from the lyrics.

Don’t make us pray for rain

Watch out for Monty he’s gonna make the ball bounce, Nixon’s behind you and he’s ready to pounce

Kevin Peterson is as English as the rest of us, the Aussies wont get him out for a duck billed platypus.

Michael Vaughn Is our skipper Plunkett bowls a dipper won’t try the local herbs but might smoke a kipper

The wicket might be sticky, bowling will be tricky, .

If you wanna watch the match gonna have to throw a sickie

The ground might be slippy

The Aussies might get lippy

They’re gonna need some help, they should send for Skippy

So come on now lads, time to pull on your pads

don’t’ put us through a months worth of pain

Aint won it before time to even the score

Don’t make us pray for rain

Remember hit the ball run and then we will all have tea!

Freddie flint offs a hero, he says it’s no biggie

But he can bowl and bat while rolling a ciggie

Anything’s possible if you follow your dream

Even Scotland have got a cricket team

The ball will be spinning, throughout the innings, And up in the stand Fletcher will be grinning

No heat rashes No rash dashes come on everybody let’s forget about the ashes.

You score there’s no kissing can’t argue with dismissing In the commentary box Geoffrey boycotts reminiscing

So come on now lads, time to pull on your pads

don’t’ put us through a months worth of pain

Aint won it before time to even the score

Don’t make us pray for rain

We don’t need, the rain, don’t need, the rain, don’t need, the rain, don’t need, the rain

Only “we” could lose ~15 games, and then somehow win a couple in a row to end up victorious.

This will be a huge deal for the MLS. I would love to see the stats pre/post Beckham.

Maybe more adults will be bending it like Beckham over here, instead of playing until they are twelve and then moving on to more lucrative sports.

While talking about the popularity of the sport, I got thinking about how there is no way for people to know that you are a tennis fan.

If someone walked past you wearing a Lacoste t-shirt you probably aren’t thinking “I bet that is an andy roddick / tennis fan!”.

Roger Federer is wearing the bizarre jackets, but I doubt people will start wearing those. Some of the players have unique style, but again, the public are as likely to pick this up as they are to wear clothes from the runway.

What can tennis do to change this? Cricket had the same problem. At one time we all had boring white outfits (at least we had the crests of teams!). Then the marketing machine got in action and with shorter cricket, we started to see countries and counties having their own brands, and players names were put on the back. Then you could get an England outfit with ALMAER on the back to show your pride.

Is there anyway that tennis could do the same? Hmm.

Also, the players could become more NASCAR-esque:

… just think of the money they are leaving on the table.

I really wish a team couldn’t lose the final of the World Cup via penalties. It just doesn’t seem right.

What else could they do?

I think they should keep playing for a golden goal. Every 5 minutes a player has to come off, until it is keeper vs. keeper :)

Anything but penalties.

And why the hell did Zidane finish off like this. I can’t think of anything that someone could say that would make you do that, not even foul things that I have heard in Croatian.

Zidane Explains

Instead, we played continental footy instead of our premiership style. Slowing the game down isn’t going to do anything for us. I thought we were better than Portugal, but Rooney got silly, and a lot of players didn’t show up. Aaron Lennon, Stevie G, Terry and even Crouch aside.

Now we need to show up in South Africa in 90 degree heat? ;)

France were personified by Zidane who was a master again.

The World Cup now looks like the draw for Euro 2008.

At least Andy Murray will win Wimbledon? ;)