Jackson was selected in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft at 20th overall.  The cornerback is expected to begin immediately since he’ll be taking over for Dunta Robinson opposite Glover Quinn.  During the offseason, Robinson left the Texans and signed with the Atlanta Falcons as a free agent.  As a junior at Alabama, Jackson recorded 13 passes in addition to 49 tackles during the Crimson Tide’s national championship.

In addition, the Texans were able to sign their second-round draft pick Ben Tate.  Drafted out of Auburn at 58th overall, he will battle for running back position with both Arian Foster and Steve Slaton.  In 2009 at Auburn, Tate recorded 1,362 yards for 10 touchdowns and on 263 carries.  His career at Auburn landed him fifth on the all-time list in the school’s history with 3,321 ground yards.

The Houston Texans have also released Pierre Singfield, a rookie cornerback.

Odrick, selected 28th overall in this year’s draft out of Penn State, is currently expected to contend for a starting position for defensive end since DE Philip Merling is lost for the upcoming season.  Odrick recorded 43 tackles as well as 7 sacks during his 2009 season with the Nittany Lions and was the 2009 Big Ten Player of the Year.

Miami will open up their training camp Friday and Odrick is expected to attend.  The training camp commences at 2 p.m. in the afternoon at Davie, the location of the team’s training facility.

The Dolphins have also signed their second round draft pick, 40th overall draft selection, Koa Misi out of Utah, to a four-year deal that is reportedly worth a total of $4.5 million with $2.6 million of that guaranteed.  Last season for the Utah Utes, Misi recorded 71 tackles as well as 5 sacks.  In college, he played mainly as a defensive end, but with the Dolphins, he will play an outside linebacker.

The Dolphins ultimately hope that Misi will be able to fill the void that was left with the decision not to re-sign Jason Taylor and Joey Porter.

With the signing of Odrick and Misi, the Dolphins have now inked all of their 2010 NFL Draft selections to contracts.

Picks 1-5

The Rams drafted Sam Bradford with the first pick and have signed him to a six-year contract.  As for the no. 2 overall draft pick, Ndamukong Suh, the Lions have yet to ink him to a contract.  Gerald McCoy who went third in the first round to the Bucs has signed a five-year contract.  The Redskins drafted Trent Williams and signed him to six-year deal worth $60 million and the Chiefs signed Eric Berry to a six-year contract respectively.

Picks 6-10

Russell Okung went to the Seahawks but has yet to sign a contract with the team.  The Browns drafted Joe Haden and the Raiders drafted Rolando McClain as the 7th and 8th overall draft picks respectively and each have signed a five-year deal.  The Bills drafted C.J. Spiller and the Jaguars drafted Tyson Alualu for 9th and 10th overall picks, both of which remain unsigned.

Picks 11-15

The San Francisco 49ers drafted Anthony Davis with the 11th pick and have successfully signed him to a five-year deal worth nearly $27 million.  Drafted 12th was Ryan Matthews for the Chargers who remains unsigned.  Brandon Graham was drafted next by the Eagles and has signed a 5-year contract.  The Seahawks drafted Earl Thomas and the Giants drafted Jason Pierre-Paul 14th and 15th respectively and both remain unsigned.

Picks 16-20

The Titans took Derrick Morgan with their 16th overall draft pick and haven’t reached a deal with him yet.  The 49ers took Mike Iputai with their 17th pick, the Steelers took Maurkice Pouncey at 18th, the Falcons took Sean Weatherspoon at 19th and the Texans took Kareem Jackson with their 20th pick, all of whom have agreed to contracts for five years.

Picks 21-25

Jermaine Graham for the Bengals and Demaryius Thomas for the Broncos remain unsigned.  The Packers drafted Bryan Bulaga, the Cowboys drafted Dez Bryant, and the Broncos took Tim Tebow at 23rd, 24th, and 25th respectively and have signed all three to five-year deals ranging from just under $12 million to $33 million.

Picks 26-32

The Cardinals drafted Dan Williams at 26th overall pick but haven’t signed him yet.  Devin McCourty went to the Patriots and Jared Odrick went to the Dolphins 27th and 28th respectively and have both agreed to five-year deals.  The Jets drafted Kyle Wilson with their 29th overall pick who remains unsigned.  The Lions drafted Jahvid Best who has agreed to terms and the Colts’ 31st overall pick, Jerry Hughes, remains unsigned.  Last but not least, Patrick Robinson was drafted by the Saints and has signed a 5-year contract with the team.

The 2011 MLB season will start on a Friday, with April 1 as the official start date for majority of the teams, and the season will end on a Wednesday, reportedly September 28.  Therefore, the playoffs will begin around September 30 or October 1 making the World Series debut be sometime around October 19 on a Wednesday, which is ultimately an entire week sooner than the past two MLB seasons.

In other words, the MLB would get exactly what they wanted – no World Series in November.  In addition to the MLB getting what they want, the players will be able to start their offseason an entire week earlier than usual.  For the most part, it seems that the majority of the players are all for this change.

This entire new game and season setup is primarily based upon complaints of those teams that partake in the World Series.  The weather seems to always be an issue when they play in November so ending a month sooner helps to avoid that inclement weather.  With the schedule that has been created right now, Game 7 of next year will end on October 28 – this year’s Game 7 is November 4.

According to a few sources, the Giants and Diamondbacks have a two-game series that takes place in Taiwan and the season is likely to start on March 25 or 26 when the series begins.  This hasn’t been approved by the MLB just yet but it is expected to be.

What do you think about the proposed 2011 MLB season schedule?  Do you think it’s a positive step or a step backwards?

Per Bwin.com, the Miami Heat have 2.50 odds to win the NBA Finals even though they haven’t won a title since back in 2006.  The only major concern with the Heat is that they used majority of their cap to get the trio so if one of them gets injured this season, there likely won’t be enough depth and skill on the bench to cover the skill of one of the three.

The Los Angeles Lakers are the next NBA team to beat with 4.75 odds on Bwin.com.  In franchise history, the Lakers have 17 world championships and have secured the past two NBA titles.  The Lakers have a very solid and skilled team all the way around with players like Kobe Bryant as well as Pau Gasol.  Other essential players to the Lakers include Andrew Bynum, Derek Fisher, Ron Artest, and more.  Coach Phil Jackson has 11 NBA Titles to his name (or team) and when he has led his team to win two NBA titles, the third just drops in his lap.

The Orlando Magic are considered the third favorite NBA team to win the 2011 NBA Finals with 11.00 odds. In franchise history for the second time, the Magic reached the NBA Finals in 2009.  This season in the Eastern Conference finals, Boston beat them out for the advance.  Orlando still has skilled key role player Dwight Howard as well as players Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis so they have the ability to play ball with the Miami Heat.

The Boston Celtics are at 12.00 odds to win the 2011 NBA Finals.  The Celtics have 17 world championships to their name in addition to the NBA Finals title from 2008.  Boston reached the NBA Finals this year but came up short in the seven games against the Los Angeles Lakers.  As with the other three teams, the Boston Celtics have a strong and skilled starting team including Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo, and Paul Pierce.  Although the Celtics have lost a key player to retirement (Rasheed Wallace), Boston has replaced him with newly signed Jermaine O’Neal.

For more NBA Finals odds to win, check out Bwin.com.

Just in December, 30-year-old Atkins and the Orioles agreed to a one-year contract deal that was worth $4.5 million.  He had previously been a player for the Colorado Rockies where he appeared in 773 games with 98 homers and a batting average of .289.

His record fell, though, causing him to lose his starting position last season.  His batting average went down to .226 with 48 runs batted in and 9 home runs – this coming after a 2008 season where he was hitting a .286 with 99 runs batted in and 21 home runs.  Obviously, you can see that something went wrong!

Atkins was designated for assignment by Baltimore so that the Orioles could make room for right handed Koji Uehara (pictured) coming off of the 15-day disabled list that Uehara was placed on last month on May 20 due to a right forearm strain.  He has been in six games this year and Uehara has an ERA of 1.80 for five innings pitched.

Goalkeepers include Diego Pozo from Colon, Mariano Andujar from Catania, and Sergio Romero from AZ Alkmaar.

Defenders include Ariel Garce from Colon, Clemente Rodriguez from Estudiantes, Nicolas Otamendi from Vélez Sarsfield, Gabriel Heinze from Marseille, Walter Samuel from Inter Milan, Martin Demichelis from Bayern Munich, and Nicolas Burdisso from Roma.

Midfielders include Javier Pastore from Palermo, Jonas Gutierrez from Newcastle, Angel Di Maria from Benfica, Mario Bolatti from Fiorentina, Maximiliano Rodriguez from Liverpool, Juan Sebastian Veron from Estudiantes, and Javier Mascherano from Liverpool.

Strikers include Lionel Messi from Barcelona, Gonzalo Higuaín from Real Madrid, Carlos Tevez from Manchester City, Martin Palermo from Boca Juniors, Diego Milito from Internazionale, and Sergio Aguero from Atlético Madrid.

Let’s take a look at the final and complete 23-man roster for Greece’s World Cup team.

Goalkeepers include Kostas Chalkias from PAOK Salonika, Alexandros Tzorvas from Panathinaikos, and Michalis Sifakis from Aris Salonika.

Defenders include Stelios Malezas from PAOK Salonika, Nikos Spiropoulos from Panathinaikos, Vasilis Torosidis from Olympiakos, Avraam Papadopoulos from Olympiakos, Sotiris Kyrgiakos from Liverpool, Socrates Papastathopoulos from Genoa, Evangelos Moras from Bologna, Loukas Vintra from Panathinaikos, and Giorgos Seitaridis from Panathinaikos.

Midfielders include Sakis Prittas from Aris Salonika, Christos Patsatzoglou from Omonia, Sotiris Ninis from Panathinaikos, Giorgos Karagounis from Panathinaikos, Alexandros Tziolis from Siena, and Kostas Katsouranis from Panathinaikos.

Strikers include Giorgos Samaras from Celtic, Theofanis Gekas from Hertha Berlin, Pantelis Kapetanos from Steaua Bucharest, Dimitris Salpigidis from Panathinaikos, and Angelos Charisteas from Nuremberg.

Goalkeepers include Martín Silva from Defensor Sporting, Juan Castillo from Deportivo Cali, and Fernando Muslera from Lazio.

Defenders include Maximiliano Pereira from Benfica, Mauricio Victorino from Universidad de Chile, Martín Cáceres from Juventus, Jorge Fucile from Porto, Andrés Scotti from Colo Colo, Diego Godín from Villarreal, and Diego Lugano from Fenerbahce.

Midfielders include Alvaro Fernández from Universidad de Chile, Nicolás Lodeiro from Ajax, Ignacio González from Valencia, Alvaro Pereira from Porto, Diego Pérez from Monaco, Sebastián Eguren from AIK Stockholm, Egidio Arevalo Rios from Peñarol, and Walter Gargano from Napoli.

Forwards include Sebastián Fernández from Banfield Argentina, Edinson Cavani from Palermo, Sebastián Abreu from Botafogo, Diego Forlán from Atlático Madrid, and Luis Suárez from Ajax.

Goalkeepers include Cédric Carrasso from Girondins Bordeaux, Steve Mandanda from Olympique Marseille and Hugo Lloris from Olympique Lyon.

Defenders include Anthony Reveillère from Olympique Lyon, Gaël Clichy from Arsenal, Marc Planus from Girondins Bordeaux, Sébastien Squillaci from Sevilla, Eric Abidal from Barcelona, William Gallas from Arsenal, Patrice Evra from Manchester United and Bacary Sagna from Arsenal.

Midfielders include Abou Diaby from Arsenal, Yoann Gourcuff from Girondins Bordeaux, Florent Malouda from Chelsea, Jérémy Toulalan from Olympique Lyon and Alou Diarra from Girondins Bordeaux.

Forwards include Mathieu Valbuena from Olympique Marseille, Djibril Cissé from Panathinaikos, Sidney Govou from Olympique Lyon, Franck Ribéry from Bayern Munich, André-Pierre Gignac from Toulouse, Nicolas Anelka from Chelsea and Thierry Henry from Barcelona.

France opens up against Uruguay in Cape Town, South Africa, on June 11.