The NFL from Iraq

The second dispatch from my brother-in-law Mitch , came at about 9:30 p.m. (PDT) Monday, or about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in Iraq, where he's serving a tour of duty for the Marines and feeling a little smug that his Peyton Manning-led Colts are 1-0 already, even at the expense of Eli Manning. Mitch also caught some of the Chargers-Raiders game live while he was at breakfast today. He's also making a point that his dad's favorite team, the Boston Red Sox, aren't doing so hot:

"I did see the Colts game live in the chow hall at around 07 in the morning (on Monday; it was on at 5 p.m. Sunday night PDT). Of course, my buddy was going for N.Y., and he was not to happy with the outcome, or the fact that he now owes me a vanilla smoothie. We started to watch the Raider game (this morning), but had to leave because it looked like every other Raider game of the last few year. I think now even Johnny Depp is ashamed to be a pirate.
"We watched the U.S. Open and saw Federer win it for the third time ... way to go. My roommate Armando is ecstatic that the Yanks are 10 games up on Boston. My dad is a restocking so I am sure he feels the opposite.
"Saw the Lakers signed their second-round guard, his numbers looked good in the Summer League.
"You asked about whether we get to see the Ultimate Fighting Championship ... yes we get it eventually because that is usually a PPV show, we have to wait for a tape/DVD edition to be mailed to someone out here. We also get to see the "Ultimate Fighter" (a reality TV show) just before they air "The Contender."
Take care-- Mitch

Here is the link to Mitch's first email sent late Friday night: