Interesting development in the world of football sponsorships, as New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady decided to leave Nike (NKE) and jump ship to Under Armour (UA). This is a rather interesting decision for Brady, as NKE is a true heavyweight in the world of performance athletic apparel. But Brady's jump to UA shows that the company is here to stay.

Brady is set to appear in different in-store and advertising promotional campaigns. As part of the new deal, Brady will wear UA apparel and footwear while training and he will debut the new UA Fierce cleat.

So, I am not much of a soccer fan. I far prefer football to soccer (you know, having played and coached football). That said, I was sucked into the World Cup thanks to national pride. I watched the U.S. lose to Ghana and beat Algeria; but I also watched the referee blow a call against Slovenia, forcing the game into a tie.

I said, I am not a huge soccer fan; but it sure seems that this World Cup is fraught with refereeing problems.

The Washington Redskins football team is hearing it from all sides lately.

Last week they were criticized -- unfairly in my opinion -- for suing season ticket holders who had lost their jobs and could no longer afford their seats.

Now a coalition of tribes -- Cheyenne and Arapaho, Oneida of Wisconsin, Cochiti Pueblo, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, Navajo, Oglala Sioux and Standing Rock Sioux -- is asking the United States Supreme Court to revive a challenge to the team's trademark.

Way back when there was this idea called the United States Football League. It had a few good years and a few big names (Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, and Reggie White) before it failed. Then there was the World League of American Football, featuring teams across the U.S., but no true big-name players. Eventually the World League became just that, with expansion into Europe and the moniker NFL Europe;then that league failed.

Then there was the once-popular Arena League, which boasted Kurt Warner and owners like Jon Bon Jovi. The Arena League lasted nearly 20 years before it took last season off and appears ready to fade into oblivion. Oh, and let's not forget the Extreme Football League (XFL), run by Vince McMahon (of WWE fame). I mean who can forget "He Hate Me?" This terrible business decision lasted one season (and I was suckered into an XFL fantasy league).

Solid performance in the earnings spotlight from Under Armour (NYSE: UA), as the company reported a surprising profit of three cents per share. Under Armour's earnings topped the consensus estimate for a loss of two cents per share and matched the company's year-ago results. Quarterly revenue increased to $164.6 million from $156.7 million a year ago.

The results were driven by a 16.5% increase ($112 million) in clothing revenue, which compensated for an 18.4% drop ($37.5 million) in footwear from a year ago. Looking ahead, Under Armour forecast 2009 earnings between 80 and 82 cents per share, better than the consensus estimate for earnings of 79 cents per share. As far as revenue is concerned, the Maryland-based firm expects $810 million compared to $804.9 from the Street.

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that the Arena Football League is "closing in on a new collective bargaining agreement with its players union. The new deal, expected to be finalized in the coming weeks, is likely to cut the players' share of revenues substantially. But without the change, owners were not willing to revive the operation."

The AFL canceled the 2009 season back in December because of financial issues and at the time, there was talk about moving single-entity ownership structure -- where one investor group would own the league and all its teams. If the Wall Street Journal report is correct, the league looks like it will be able to hang on without such a draconian move.

One billion people will be watching the Super Bowl, but 5.7 billion others couldn't care less. In the United States, we love football -- the rest of the world, loves futbol (soccer).

Grupo Televisa SA (NYSE: TV) produces television channels that reach subscribers in 60 countries throughout Latin America, the United States (via Univision), Canada, Europe and Asia Pacific.

This company won't be blinded by the Super Bowl hype.

Last year, TV yanked NFL games, including the Super Bowl, off the air in Mexico for the whole season after a 35-year run because they felt they were overpaying for the broadcast rights. The NFL felt the Latin heat and entered into new deal terms for the season that began in September 2008.

TV has shown steady revenue and earnings growth during the past several years and is expected to keep growing through 2010. With its advantageous market position and growth characteristics, it is trading at a P/E of about 12.

Ay, caramba!

Nick Atkeson and Andrew Houghton are contributors to OptionsZone.com.

The Kansas City Star reports that the Arena Football League will cancel its 2009 season. Pete Likens, the director of communications for the Kansas City Brigade, told the newspaper that the players union agreed to the move last night and the owners will hold a final vote later today: "It's pretty much a done deal to suspend the 2009 season and work toward a single entity-league. We plan to start up again in 2010."

In 2006, the league sold a stake to ESPN and hoped that the increased television time would put it on solid financial footing, but clearly that didn't happen. The AFL had reportedly been working on a deal to sell a 40% stake to a private equity firm back in October in exchange for $100 million, but that didn't happen. The league has been without a commissioner since July.

The league has apparently decided that its survival will depend on a transition to a single-entity ownership structure, where a small group of investors own the league as a whole. Currently, the league is operated similar to the way the NFL is, with individual franchisees owning each team.

Bored NFL fans will now have to find something more productive to do with their summers.

File this one under "Get over yourself you washed up former running back."

Jim Brown, a former star running back for the Cleveland Browns, is suing Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) because a football player on the All-Browns team in a video game wears his number and looks like him. He's seeking an injunction and unspecified damages to punish the company for "taking a free ride on the trade value" of his name.

Oh please. Mr. Brown, no one is going to buy or not buy a video games because it contains or doesn't contain your likeness. The "trade value" of your name is precisely zero. Somewhere between starring in The Dirty Dozen, serving as an announcer for Ultimate Fighting, and numerous arrests related to assault and spousal abuse, people just kind of lost interest.

This isn't a material event for Sony or Electronic Arts, but it's an interesting tale of the long half-life of a former star's ego. It's also a great waste of the legal system's resources.

You can say a lot about the Swiss (sorry Mom!), but at least they are always on time. There is a great article over on the BBC that details Switzerland's obsession with time. Everywhere you turn in Switzerland, there's a watch, a clock, or a timer of sorts. I love visiting my Mom who's a recent transplant to Zurich. The trains, the shows, food service -- everything is exactly on time.

It's going to be interesting when hordes of tourists from across Europe and hinder pour into Switzerland June 7 for the start of the European football (that's soccer to you and me) championships. Extra trams and trains are already being rolled out to make sure fans make it everywhere they need to go -- on time.

So, how does one think about "playing" the Euro 2008?

This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and check out other Battle of the Brands posts.

Imagine that you were only allowed to watch one sport on television for a whole year. Worse yet, imagine that you had to choose between two very popular sports all by yourself. The choice is up to you. Which will it be, NASCAR or the NFL? Will you select the gridiron wars or the need for speed? I shudder just at the thought of having to make such a life-altering choice.

On the one hand, I revel in the bone-crunching, close contact rivalries that play out every week on those hundred yard fields. The talent, the strategy, the sheer brutality of it. On the other hand, horsepower runs in my blood. The tension is palpable when watching those precisely tuned cars fighting for inches of superiority at the hands of fearless drivers. How could I choose between the pavement or the mud? How unfair would that be?

Hoping to capitalize on the shuttering of NFL Europe, the All American Football League is scheduled to kickoff its inaugural season on April 12 ... or, it was.

In a statement on the league's website, the AAFL stated the following:

Since inception, the League's finances have been indirectly tied to the $300 billion federally guaranteed student loan asset backed securities market. [...] Every effort is being made to insure that the '08 season will be played as planned, but this depends upon a locating new majority owner with the needed liquidity [...] Otherwise, the inaugural season will be postponed to '09.

Eek. Is there no end to the reach of subprime's wretched tentacles? Is nothing sacred? Not even football? The league was set to pay its players an average of $100,000 for year-round players, and $50,000 for part-timers. The goal is/was to attract the best non-NFL players in the world, but instability could make that tough. In addition, the league has not yet secured a TV deal -- which could also be made difficult by the uncertainty.

Maybe we can get Ben Bernanke on this one. If we're going to help people stay in homes they shouldn't have bought in the first place, then Uncle Sam should definitely intervene to give football fans something better than Arena Football during the long off-season.

While sagging global music sales may be down, spelling hard times for music labels and the like, the proliferation of cribbed (read, downloaded illegally) music is actually driving concert sales to record levels.

Anyone heard of Live Nation (NYSE: LYV)? It only happens to be a real player in this industry. Live Nation recently announced its global ticketing initiative, which is set to debut next January. Live Nation is partnering with European firm CTS Eventim, which will provide the back-end technology and other related services for LYV's ticketing business.

So, what does this new business mean to a company that is a mover and shaker in the the promotion and production of live music shows, theatrical performances, and specialized motor sports events?

With weather forecasts predicting frigid conditions for this weekend's NFC championship game at Lambeau Field, here are two stocks that are sure to warm up the shirtless Packer fans.

China Water and Drinks (NASDAQ: CWDK) is China's leading supplier of bottled water. Obviously for football fans, this water will be used to make piping hot coffee to drink at the game. The company is growing very quickly, and while other high-flying Chinese stocks have gotten slam-dunked, CWDK is actually trading up 50% YTD.

Maybe the shirtless faithful should take a trip to the nearest mall and go shopping at American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO). American Eagle has gotten hit along with the rest of the retail sector, but the company sports a P/E of 10.4, a PEG of just 0.74, and a nice little dividend of 2.1%. With the expected economic pick-up in second half '08, retailers should benefit, and American Eagle is well poised to help investors profit as well.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. Disclosure: Writer has no position long or short in any stock mentioned as of 1/18/08.

With New Year's in a few days, everyone is busy making their resolutions. The most popular of all New Year's resolutions is the need to lose weight. So with that in mind, here are two stocks that could benefit from weight-loss resolutions.

Nike (NYSE: NKE) engages in the design, development, and marketing of footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessory products worldwide. You can't start your exercise program without going out and buying a pair of shoes, and a sweat suit. The stock is trading just off their all time high and with a P/E of about 19 the stock look attractive. With '08 being an Olympic year, Nike is sure to benefit from all the exposure. With its recent 19.9% purchase of the UK Umbro, Nike looks to grow its European business, which has been growing strongly anyway. Expect Nike to continue moving higher in '08.