The game ball for?Tennessees battle against?Virginia Tech at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday is currently in the process of traveling 112.7 miles by foot.The Tennessee ROTC program, escorted by the Knoxville Police Department, is running the ball from Knoxville to Bristol, Tennessee:Stay tuned as we update the status of the balls delivery or follow #VolsRunToBristol on Twitter. The trek started early Friday morning, and the goal is to arrive in Bristol in time for Saturday nights kickoff (8 p.m. ET on ABC).-?John Wilmhoff Miles Mikolas Jersey . Any real chance at payback wont come until the playoff. Still, Pittsburgh knows its taut 3-2 win over the Bruins on Wednesday night is a pretty good place to start laying the groundwork. "They are a very good defensive team," Penguins forward Brandon Sutter said. Paul DeJong Jersey . The parade and rally were held to celebrate the Saskatchewan Roughriders 45-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Sunday in the CFLs championship game. http://www.authenticcardinalspro.com/cardinals-harrison-bader-jersey/ . Rousey will put her perfect 8-0 record and hardware on the line against another undefeated fighter, 7-0 Sara McMann in the main event of UFC 170, which will be held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas Nevada on February 22nd. Drew Robinson Jersey .Y. - Jerome Samson scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the St. Whitey Herzog Jersey . The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the Lions have not announced the hiring, which was first reported by ESPN. Lombardi, the grandson of former Green Bay Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi, has been an offensive assistant on Sean Paytons New Orleans staff since 2007. Jurgen Klinsmanns hiring five years ago was supposed to make America a great soccer nation.Didnt happen.Worse, its not going to change anytime soon.Klinsmann talked a great game. He promised skilled, ambitious, attack-minded teams instead of relying on the tried-and-true formula of athleticism, luck and overworked goalkeepers that marked the nations modest climb in the world rankings up to that point. And he smartly looked back to his native Germany for a plan to make soccer sexy in his adopted homeland.He vowed the U.S. teams youth programs would leave no gem undiscovered or community overlooked in its search for talent. He urged fans to hold him and his players accountable. He made clear that anyone with a valid U.S. passport would be welcomed on-board to develop a uniquely American style of playing the worlds game.What Klinsmann left behind, though, is a team with no discernible style that is even less American -- measured by home-grown-or-developed players -- and hardly more competitive than the one he inherited. Dont expect that to change under Bruce Arena, who is even more of a pragmatist than he was during his first stint (1998-2006) in charge.U.S. soccers best hope, at least for the foreseeable future, remains the Immigration and Naturalization Service.Theres no reason to blame either Klinsmann or Arena for that. The problem with soccer in America is much bigger than either man. For all the initiatives and money thats been poured into the game over the last three decades, from kids recreational programs to colleges to Major League Soccer, we still havent produced even one field player good enough to crack the starting lineup for traditional powers like Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Argentina and Brazil.Nothing will change until that does.America still hasnt developed a real soccer culture. It was supposed to happen after the 1994 World Cup was played here, or after the launch of the MLS, or after the U.S. team under Arena reached the quarterfinals in 2002, even after millions began tuning in each season to watch the matches in the Premier League and Bundesliga, and turning out in droves for World Cup viewing parties every four years.But having dedicated fans doesnt necessarily translate into developing great players. Predictions of a soccer boom has done more to hamstring the real development of the game here than all those well-organized, well-meaning parents who became youth coaches with no more than a vague idea of how its played.dddddddddddd If you want to know how great a deficit that puts youngsters growing up here, think of it this way.If you gathered a handful of 10-year-olds from the remote corners of Brazil and dropped a ball at their feet in a 10-by-10-foot room, theyd position themselves quickly enough to pass the ball three times before rolling it through the doorway without a hitch. Hand a basketball to a similarly selected group of American kids and make the hoop the target and youd see much the same organization.Whether soccer will ever be on an equal footing with the big American sports is anyones guess. The best athletes in this nation of 300-million plus are still headed to the NBA or NFL first. Soccer is finally competing with the NHL, Major League Baseball and a few other sports for talented youngsters.But the most promising prospects -- like Christian Pulisic, only 18 and arguably already the most skilled player in the U.S. program, and a regular for Borussia Dortmund in Germanys Bundesliga -- only develop by going outside the U.S. national teams grasp.Both Klinsmann and Arena understood that long ago. Ever the optimist, Klinsmann believed he could meld all those different individual talents and playing styles in the short time the team was called in for national team duty, the way the other world powers have always done. He even doubled down on the idea by importing as many German-Americans as he could find, ruffling plenty of feathers in both the squad and the U.S. federation.Arena wont repeat that mistake. Instead of a grand plan to make America great, hell quickly cobble together a team that is long on veterans and will cut down on mistakes. Hell pack the defense, count on good-to-great goalkeeping every time out and take his chances in a sudden counterattack.It wont make anyones heart race, but it may be enough to turn around Klinsmanns disastrous 0-2 start in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup and produce the occasional upset, much as the 2002 team did.Toward the end of his re-introduction to the U.S. media on a conference call Tuesday, Arena was asked whether there was an American style of playing.You style is dictated by the qualities of your players, he replied. We are who we are.---Jim Litke is a sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org and https://Twitter.com/JimLitke . ' ' '