FIA to rule on F1 race in Bahrain

MADRID (AP)Formula One's governing body will decide Friday whether toreschedule the Bahrain Grand Prix for later this season, with somedrivers and team officials saying the race should be scrapped,ドラクエ10 RMT.Bahrain organizers say they are ready to host the race, whichwas to open the season but was postponed following anti-governmentprotests in February that eventually left at least 30 deadfollowing a brutal crackdown.The Bahraini government lifted emergency rule on Wednesday,maplestory RMT. TheFIA's World Motor Council will decide on rescheduling when itgathers in Barcelona on Friday.Local organizers are hoping for a date around the Nov. 13 AbuDhabi GP,arado rmt, which could push the season into December. F1 boss BernieEcclestone is in favor of the proposal.

NFL draft weekend When hello means goodbye

The NFL draft weekend is a time for entrances both grand andquiet. On the first night, the phone rings, the television lightsgo on, the players ascend the stage in Radio City Music Hall, andthe path to professional football is wide open.By the third day, the phone calls are taken on the living roomcouch, but the players are just as excited to receive the news.Some team somewhere liked them and they are on their way, ready toprove they belong."It's a dream come true," linebacker Casey Matthews saidSaturday afternoon after the Eagles took him with the 19th pickof the fourth round. "They drafted me and now I'm just lookingforward to getting out there."You could cut that quote and paste it onto a couple of hundredplayer reactions from the three-day span. A lot of dreams cametrue. A lot of guys were just happy for the opportunity. A lot ofguys tried not to have too many expectations, but now that wasover, well, it was great to be a team-name-here.The draft is a time for exits as well as entrances, although theexits are never announced and hardly celebrated. Teams select newplayers they hope will jump over incumbent disappointments orreplace departed players, some of whom are not yet officiallydeparted. The smoke signals usually indicate whose career isdrifting away with the wind.While the drafting binge heralded the start of a new chapter forthe team, it might have also officially closed the book on AndyReid's greatest season with the Eagles. By drafting a safety in thesecond round and a kicker in the fourth round, the Eagles kept sawing through thesplintering limb that held veterans Quintin Mikell and DavidAkers.Mikell and Akers were the last remaining members of the SuperBowl team, the final links to the Eagles' greatest days under Reid.Some of the others fell away quickly after the 2004 season, somehung on for quite a while before departing,RMT. And now it seems Mikelland Akers are about to join them.As usual with the Eagles, and with the other 31 NFLteams that operate as a business, it is about the money as well asthe football. This offseason, with uncertainty as to the rules thatwill be in place when the league finally resumes operation, teamsare trying to cover every eventuality.Mikell is a 30-year-old unrestricted free agent, which means theEagles probably weren't going tokeep him regardless. He'd like a long-term contract, but understoodthat is unlikely here. It got a lot more unlikely when the Eagles chose to ignore more apparentneeds on the defensive line and at cornerback and used their firstdefensive selection to take safety Jaiquawn Jarrett fromTemple.Reid said Jarrett reminded him of Brian Dawkins - "If you goacross the middle, he'll blow you up" - and did everything but slotJarrett as the strong safety of the future, perhaps the very nearfuture. According to Reid, the Eagles haven't really focused onwhether Mikell will be back, which is probably a littledisingenuous, but it's not the sort of answer he's ever going togive.As for Akers, the handwriting has been on the wall in bold sincethe ugly end of last season. The Eagles placed a transition tag onAkers, which - if the tag even exists in the future - gives themthe right to match any offer he receives. But that isn't going tohappen.Akers has played 189 games for the Eagles, a record at his position,but he missed two field goals in the playoff game against Green Baylast season, a game the Eagles lost by five points."We can all count. Those points would have helped," Reid said.It was an uncharacteristic slap under any circumstance, but when itcame out that Akers was playing while his young daughter facedimminent cancer surgery, the bond between player and team wasobviously torn,カバル RMT."It's been a nice run. It's not really the way I wanted to goout as an Eagle," Akers said that day, a valedictory that waschiseled in stone when the Eagles drafted kicker Alex Heneryfrom Nebraska on Saturday.If a team cuts a fourth-round pick, the player is owed about$450,000, so kickers are not selected lightly that high. Henerywill make the team,pso2 RMT. He was the best college placekicker in thecountry, making 63 of 65 field goals inside of 50 yards over hisfour-year career."It's not coming in to replace [Akers.] It's coming in to do myjob this upcoming year, is really how I look at it," Henerysaid.The new guys come in. The old guys go out, or perhaps just fadefrom the roster without fanfare. Those are the changes that thedraft set in motion. This year, the last on-field links to theSuper Bowl are among the exits, and their replacements seem to beamong the entrances.It was time for a new Super Bowl year, anyway. At least that'sthe way it seems.Contact columnist Bob Fordat bford@phillynews.com and read his blog atwww.philly.com/postpatterns