HOMESTEAD, Fla. Josh Sitton Jersey . -- Nearly five years after an intense battle on the racetrack for the Sprint Cup championship, Carl Edwards found himself in the middle of a different kind of firestorm.The afternoon show on Boston sports talk radio station WEEI was broadcasting live from New Hampshire Motor Speedway. A day earlier, the hosts of the show started plugging their trip to the racetrack. The hosts, including a former major league baseball player and former NFL player, debated whether NASCAR drivers are athletes.They had some harsh words, with former NFL tight end Christian Fauria saying Carl Edwards is not an athlete.Right off the bat with Edwards on the air, the hosts came clean about what they said the day before about Edwards, who got to hear some of the comments. Fauria, one of the hosts, also said a day earlier that Joe Gibbs was the worst football coach he ever played for in his 13-year NFL career. Fauria and the other hosts laughed about that comment as well in welcoming Edwards to the show.Edwards, nearly on cue, smoothly joined the brofest: My god ... and this is the best Boston has?And then he rationalized with them: No. 1, you dont have to be an athlete to drive a race car. ... I might argue that guys in both of your sports are probably not the best athletes. Edwards explained that he believes his fitness level helps him on the hot, taxing days -- that it allows him to relax and focus instead of feeling worn out.Its hand-eye coordination, you have to be somewhat brave. There are a lot of risks, Edwards said. You have to be pretty technical. ... Its a semantic thing.Heres the deal: You want to get in my car and give it a shot? Its a skill set. Lets say Im the best athlete in the world, the decathlete gold medalist, I cant go line up in an NFL game and do it.Afterward, as he walked back to his hauler to get ready for qualifying, Edwards said he enjoyed the segment.It was great, Edwards said. At the end of the day, its cool for those guys to come to the track. Theyre not race savvy and ... to be able to talk to a new crowd and have those guys ask those questions and talk like that and bust right through the door, I think thats cool.In other words, Edwards appreciated the opportunity to promote his sport and perform at his best in a public setting.Now four months later, he gets to do that on the track. Just like that radio show, he appreciates the opportunity he has to add a Sprint Cup trophy to his mantel and participate in what could be an epic finish to the season.Hes had championship opportunities in the past, ones that ended in epic disappointment. He finished tied for second in points behind Tony Stewart in 2005. He was second behind Jimmie Johnson in 2008. And then in 2011, he finished tied with Stewart, losing the title on a tiebreaker as Stewart had five wins in the Chase. The final Stewart victory came with Edwards on his tail at Homestead-Miami Speedway.Edwards is one of the four drivers with an even shot at the title Sunday at Homestead. Whoever finishes best among Edwards, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano will be crowned the champion.Its an opportunity to go do that again, to go be a part of that weekend with everything on the line -- thats as good as it gets, Edwards said. When that race was over in 2011, I wanted to line it up again and do it again. Obviously I wanted the outcome to be different.I really enjoyed that competition, leading up to it, the whole week, qualifying, it was great.The 37-year-old Edwards ranks fifth among drivers with the most wins (28) who have not won a title. He is one of three drivers who have finished second multiple times in the standings without winning a championship.That could feel demoralizing, but its not too shabby for a driver who once passed out business cards looking for a ride before he got his start on a part-time basis in a truck in 2002.He can remember those days and what they taught him. Hes no Busch, who drove for Roush Fenway Racing at age 16. Hes no Johnson, who had some backing from Chevrolet to break into NASCAR and then joined Hendrick Motorsports at a time when it was one of the top teams in the sport. Hes no Logano, who signed a major NASCAR deal before he turned 18.Edwards crew chief, Dave Rogers, also knows what its like to struggle. His initial Cup crew chief job, with Jason Leffler in 2005, ended in 12 races, and he wound up in the Xfinity Series before working his way back atop a pit box in Cup.We have two things in common, Edwards said about him and Rogers. We have experience. We understand how to do the job.Because of everything weve done, were really grateful for the opportunity. We really value this chance to go win a championship. Thats cool. Its pure racing.Rogers, crew chief for Denny Hamlin last year and for Kyle Busch from late in the 2009 season through 2014, has never had a chance to win a title at Homestead.Weve both been in situations where weve come up short, and we know what its like to lose, Rogers said. Now we want to go down there and try to figure out how to win it. ... I know Carl was disappointed last year that he fell short.The 11 [team of Hamlin] was disappointed last year that we fell short. But now were teamed up together, our first year together, were going down there with the option to win it, and were just excited about it.If Edwards learned any lessons from his past championship runs, especially from 2011, hes not detailing them.I learned a lot [in 2011], he said. Not going into specifics about my mindset, Im really grateful for that experience. Yeah, I wanted to win just as bad as I want to win every year. But that experience -- I wouldnt trade it for anything else.Edwards wouldnt, however, say that he had to lose a championship in order to win one.You dont have to, he said. We happened to. One way to look at it is in 2005, we had a chance and I was like, Oh we will win it next year. In 2008, I was like, That one hurt a little bit.In 2011, I was like, I want to go again right now. [It means] I will be really appreciative of the championship. It will mean a lot to me because of those battles.Edwards and Johnson are the two drivers among the four who have not competed in the elimination-style Chase championship event. In each of the last two years, Edwards has been knocked out in the semifinal round.He has the best average finish of any of the finalists at Homestead as he tries to join an elite group of drivers -- Busch, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Bobby Labonte -- who have won titles in both the Cup and the Xfinity Series.Really, this whole thing for me is simple: We have a shot to win the championship and weve got the team to do it, Edwards said. Im excited for the opportunity. The last two years ... you go to Homestead and youre like, Damn it, I know if we just were in that group we could have a shot at this.So now we get the chance. Thats as good as it gets. Its like passing out those business cards saying, Somebody just let me drive the car, please. Now we get to be a part of it. Its cool. Jakeem Grant Jersey . PAUL, Minn. Sam Young Jersey .4 million title. Ryan Riess emerged with the title after a session in which he started behind, but used expert skill to gather the chips to his side amid the unpredictability of no-limit Texas Hold em. Riess put his final opponent Jay Farber all-in with an Ace-King. http://www.cheapdolphinsjerseysonline.com/ . Bryzgalov stopped 25 shots on Saturday in the Oklahoma City Barons 4-1 victory over the Abbotsford Heat. The Oilers signed Bryzgalov to a one-year $2 million contract last Friday after shedding payroll by dealing defenceman Ladislav Smid to the Flames. RIO DE JANEIRO -- When Simone Manuel touched the wall to clinch a gold medal Saturday night, it was a moment 120 years in the making.The U.S. womens 4x100-meter medley relay team of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Manuel -- winners at the Rio Games on Saturday night -- is being recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee as delivering the nations 1,000th gold medal in Summer Olympics history.By their count, anyway. Keeping count of the gold total is not as exact a science as one might think.The count accepted by the U.S. Olympic Committee coming into the Rio Games was 977 gold medals, and even that was adjusted a bit in recent weeks over a debated medal from the 1904 St. Louis Games. That means the gold medal in the womens eights on Saturday morning was the 21st for the Americans in Rio, and No. 998 overall. Some sites say theres a few more, some say a bit less. The USOC count is the accepted one.And the relay win was No. 23 in Rio, so by the USOCs count that made it official.A gold medal is like a newborn baby, said long jumper Jeff Henderson, who put the U.S. on the brink with gold No. 999 earlier Saturday night. Its just lovely.Lovely, 1,000 times over now for the Americans.A remarkable achievement made possible by the culture of sport that is the fabric and foundation of Team USA, USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said Saturday night.James Connolly won the first for the U.S. in 1896, and of course no one has added more to the total than Michael Phelps, a 23-time gold medalist. Illustrating how not-so-simple this medal-counting business is, the official info portal for the Rio Games even has a different number than the USOC, saying the one the Americans will recognize as No. 1,000 is really No. 1,001.Whatever the real number, the U.S. is the first to reach four figures -- in a landslide. The Soviet Union remains No. 2 on the all-time summer gold list, and no other nation has even reached 500.Heres the significance: The next four best nations had 1,004 gold medals coming into Rio, said Bill Mallon, an Olympic historian. You add up the next four and they barely have more than we do.At its current rate, China wouldnt reach 1,000 golds until 2100. Germany wouldnt get there until 2204.But there have been some very interesting story lines on the U.S. road to 1,000. Consider some of them:THE DEMONT CASEIf Rick DeMont had his way, gold medal No. 1,000 would really be identified as gold medal No. 1,001.Or maybe even No. 1,002.DeMont was 16 when he won gold in the 400-meter freestyle at the Munich Games in 1972. But he tested positive for ephedrine, which was part of his asthma medication, and stripped of the medal days later along with a chance to compete in a 1,500-meter event.His saga, however, doesnt stop there.DeMont tried for decades to get the medal back, saying he was wronged because the USOC did not properly disclose to Olympic officials that he was on medication -- and that if they had done so, his ephedrine level would not haave led to his ban. Raekwon McMillan Jersey. In 2001, the USOC recognized DeMont for his achievements and said it was bringing him back into the Olympic family.But the International Olympic Committee -- in part out of concern for setting a precedent that could lead to enormous numbers of athletes contesting results -- declined later that year to consider restoring DeMonts gold over the USOC paperwork mix-up. So the gold remains awarded to Bradford Cooper of Australia. Cooper now owns a swimming school in his homeland while DeMont is the swimming coach at Arizona.It was so long ago that it almost seems like it happened to another person in another life, DeMont said Saturday. I dont carry it with me.THE ST. LOUIS GAMESNo matter how well the U.S. does in these Rio Games, the medal count this year wont come close to the St. Louis Games in 1904.Officially, heres the count from that Olympics for the U.S.: 79 golds (it had been 78 until recently, when one medal that was counted as being won by a mixed-nationality team was added to the U.S. total because five of the six members were Americans, along with one Austrian), 78 silver and 79 bronze -- 236 medals in all.Germany was second in the medals standings, with 13.There is no wrong or right, Mallon said. Its an interpretation.The Olympic website describes those St. Louis Games as being lost in chaos. They lasted nearly five months, had a marathoner disqualified for using a car on the route, saw gymnast George Eyser win six medals despite having a wooden leg and featured events such as dumbbells and tug-of-war.About half the official competitions in those games had only American entrants, and some historians have suggested that even some of the athletes who are listed as part of the U.S. team likely were newly arrived immigrants who either hadnt become citizens yet or never actually completed that process.THE 1906 GAMESYou might not know about them, since they dont count.Held in Athens, Greece, they were considered an Olympics at the time -- though arent now recognized by the IOC, so the medal counts appear in no official lists. Though unlike the St. Louis Games two years earlier, this had more of a normal Olympic program.There were 78 events and medals were awarded; there even was a true opening ceremony. The U.S. was second to France in the medal standings, winning 12 golds to their 15.So while little debates and differing counts will likely continue, the U.S. dominance isnt in question. And maybe it was fitting that Phelps, the most decorated Olympian ever with 28 medals helped start the march toward the next milestone Saturday night, when the final swim of his career -- part of a win in a relay -- delivered gold No. 1,001.Its the Olympics, said U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky, a five-time winner of Olympic gold. Its the pinnacle of our sport ... and we feed off of each other. 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