By Chris Littmann

Sports don't start and end with a referee's whistle. FirstCuts, a blog dedicated to sports culture, will cover everything outside the lines, from games to gear.

Your usual shoe guide, Rich "MaZe" Lopez, is busy this week getting another episode of The Stockroom ready to preview all the hot footwear for the month of March, so I'll be filling in for this weekend. And it's not a bad weekend at all.

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Chris Paul is coming off an All-Star appearance and has the Hornets nipping at the Spurs in the Southwest Division. Now he's got another thing going for him: his first signature shoe with Jordan Brand.

The beauty of this shoe is in the details:

[quote="KixAndTheCity.com"]* “61” Heel graphic to honor the memory of his grandfather, Nathaniel Jones
* New Orleans Hornets stinger heel pull tab
* Bowling pin configuration perf detail on the ankle for CP’s love of bowling
* Triangle represents the Trinity
* “SP” detail on the backside of tongue in memory of CP’s Wake Forest Coach Skip Prosser
* Hexagon perfs and stitching referencing a Hornets nest
* “Chris Paul” signature stitch
* “Papa Chilly” hidden shank detail[/quote]
The Jordan CP will be available at all major retailers this weekend in the colorway pictured above. You can also order a Hornets-based version as well as one other at PickYourShoes.com right now. The Jordan CP retails for $115.

If you're into more limited -- and in my opinion, ugly -- kicks, check out the 23 501 Levis X Air Jordan pack, which comes with a pair of shoes, jeans and a shirt for the not-so-reasonable price tag of $395. These are limited to select Jordan Brand retailers, and, well, that's probably a good thing.

And one last note, if none of this fits your style, head over to the RBK Custom site, where the Answer III is available. The customizability so far surpasses the new-to-NikeID Zoom BB II that Nike ought to be ashamed -- probably force themselves to rethink how they do NikeID.

Bonus picture: Chris Paul in the Hornets version of the Jordan CP.
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> Jordan CP | KixAndTheCity
> 23 501 Levis X Air Jordan | KixAndTheCity

By Chris Littmann

Sports don't start and end with a referee's whistle. FirstCuts, a blog dedicated to sports culture, will cover everything outside the lines, from games to gear.

A little more than a month ago, I gave everyone the heads up that the demo for FIFA Street 3 had landed on Xbox Live. I poked and prodded at the game for a while, but it was only restricted to a quickplay game between England and Brazil. I had hopes for a lot more when the full title dropped on Feb. 18, but I was wrong.

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Let me start with what I enjoyed. Animations and graphics were decent for this sort of cartoony game. There are more than 250 real soccer stars in this game, but they’re more or less caricatures that actually looked good.

The trick system is solid, and particularly fun if you get a few players on your team who are “Tricksters” (there are four types of players: Tricksters, Enforcers, Playmakers and Finishers). And as much as I enjoyed the tricksters, I was utterly frustrated by the Enforcers.

It’s the same problem you’ve run into if you ever played any of the NBA Street titles. Ultimately, the guys who can do the tricks and get your Game Breaker meter full, which makes your virtually unstoppable on offense, are the guys you want on your team. As a result, the clunky Enforcers are almost useless. Don’t even bother trying tricks with ‘em, just get it to one of your quicker players. And that’s the other problem with the Enforcers. None of them seemed quick enough to even catch the Tricksters. Only when the ballhandler would run directly into one of them would a solid tackle occur.

But really, the trick system won’t appeal to the people playing FIFA 08 or Winning Eleven, who love to space it out and pass like real soccer. Like all of these arcade-style titles, you’re playing a button masher that just leaves your thumbs sore.

A lot of the other allegedly big features – online versions of things like Playground Picks (a mode where you assemble an All-Star team) or World Challenge (where you represent your country) seemed like they ought to be standard at this point. That is to say, they’re nothing to brag about. But maybe its progress that these seemingly obvious things are making their way into more titles. And actually, the World Challenge was cool, although getting stuck playing as the United States doesn’t lend itself to as much fun as if I lived in, say, Brazil. Plus, they’ve got Adriana Lima.

The music is horrendously, outrageously annoying. After running through one game, I just went and shut down all the music from EA Trax. EA generally does a killer job with tunes – and I know they were trying to give it this international street vibe – but I’m not into techno synth beats, so that was a swing and a miss for me.

So the real question is this: Who’s the audience for this game? Well, for one I think big soccer fans will at least appreciate the realism involved in having so many real-life players. The list is so much more extensive than the number of NBA guys you could’ve gotten in an NBA Street title a few years ago. These games just always strike me as rentals. They’re never particularly deep titles – at least to a sports gamer rather than an avid soccer fan. If you’ve enjoyed previous Street-style titles in the past, you will like this game because they don’t fumble the control system. It’s done about as well as it can be done. Outside of the NBA titles, this Street offering feels the most natural. But in my estimation, you can only see so many trick combinations before getting bored.
FIFA Street 3 is available in stores now for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo DS.

By Chris Mottram

Whether you hate Michael Moore or simply can't stand him (OK, that's not totally fair, Bowling for Columbine was a semi-important documentary), you have to appreciate a photo of a large man who is in the middle of a colossal belly laugh.

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After the disappointment that was Talladega Nights, I'm quite certain nothing Mr. Moore saw inside the theater at the Semi-Pro premiere was as funny as whatever he is laughing at in this photo.

By Dave "Large" Larzelere

Ultraviolent Viddies
Tomorrow night Israel Vasquez and Rafael Marquez square off at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA in one of the most anticipated fights of the young year.

Someone once said, Jerry Izenberg I believe, that in the Thrilla in Manila, Ali and Frazier weren’t fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world, but for the heavyweight championship of each other. I think similar sentiments could be echoed for tomorrow night’s bout. Although The Ring and WBC super bantamweight titles are on the line, what’s primarily at stake is the rubber match of a boxing trilogy that is almost certainly destined to join the great fistic three-peats of all time.

The first two Vasquez/Marquez bouts were in 2007, both of them head-snapping, jaw-dropping FOY candidates (in fact, I gave my personal FOY award to Vasquez/Marquez II in an interview at Jarry Park). Marquez won the first fight when Vasquez was forced to retire because of a nose injury that interfered with his breathing. In the rematch, Vasquez stopped Marquez in the sixth. The third meeting promises to be just as much of a rock-em-sock-em robotic display as their previous encounters, so if you’re looking to erase the image of Klitschko and Ibragimov pawing at each other like two kittens at play, well, this fight is guaranteed to turn the trick.

To whet your appetite, peruse below, and then go call the cable lady and order yourself some Showtime:



Only If You Promise Not to Bite My Other Ear
Rumors have been swirling for months that a third Holyfield/Tyson fight was in the works, and though most people dismissed such talk as rubbish, it seems now that there was some truth behind it all.

Evander Holyfield came out in a recent interview and said that Tyson’s people indeed had contacted him to ask if he would consent to a third fight. Holyfield said he would take the bout only if Tyson got into proper condition. According to The Real(ly Old) Deal, this conversation was months ago and he hasn’t heard anything about it since.

Holyfield is 45, showing clear effects of his many wars in the ring, and missing part of an ear. Tyson is 41, miserable, broke, utterly lost in the world, and missing most of his mind. At this point, I’d say it’s even odds.

The Baby Bull and The Wrath of Khan
I realize that with bouts like Pacquiao/Marquez and Calzaghe/Hopkins on the not-too-distant horizon, it may seem premature to bring this up, but nevertheless I must say I am incredibly excited at the prospect of a lightweight title fight between Juan “The Baby Bull” Diaz and British wunderkind Amir Khan later this year.

Of course, both young stars have bouts to win before that can happen, with Khan facing Martin Kristjansen of Denmark on April 5th in a WBO title eliminator, and Diaz facing none other than The Galaxxy Warrior, Nate Campbell, on March 8th in Cancun. True to form, Mr. Galaxxy came up with some interstellar analysis of Diaz recently, saying, “Juan Diaz is not a demigod. A demigod is half mortal, half god and I just don’t see that.” Now I appreciate Nate clearing up for us exactly what constitutes a “demigod” and I agree with him – Diaz does not fit the definition. Then again, he ain’t no Ricky Quiles either, and my money has him stopping Campbell in seven or less.

By Brian Powell

March Madness:
The Madness doesn't officially start until the conference tourneys kick off, but as soon as March 1st rolls around I start getting excited. All of the cleverly named "Weekends" and "Weeks" (Bracket Buster, Rivalry, Judgment, etc.) are past us and every team is jockeying for position in their conference standings heading into Dick Sporting Goods Championship Week (OK, so I forgot one "Week"). This weekend is huge for the Big East and Big 12, and if you need to catch up on your college basketball before t