I only follow a few sports teams, but for the teams I do follow, Sportacular (that's the iTunes link for the free version, and here's the paid version, sans ads) is definitely my app of choice. For nearly every professional sport you can think of, the app will track scores, plays, schedules, standings, and anything else you need to know about everything from NFL to college football to the English Premier League and the PGA.

Right after iPhone OS 3.0 came out, the developer added in push notifications, and now I've got push updates coming whenever the Cubs have a game starting and ending (or at least, when they did -- there's always next year) and whenever a Bears quarter ends. Sportacular even has a few social features happening -- you can make picks and discuss each game with other fans using your Facebook login, as well as read news and updates about each team in the games you check out.

The app was updated to version 1.6 last night, and the new features include better game pages for NFL and NCAA football, and option to manage and track your fantasy football team in conjunction with their fantasy football app on Facebook. The one bummer I have is that they don't have actual media of the games -- for that, you'll probably have to go for an official app. But especially as a free download (the ads are definitely non-intrusive), Sportacular is really impressive with everything it does to help you track your favorite sports and teams.

DirecTV, which I love dearly and which supplies signal to eight screens in my house, has just announced the NFL Mobile app [iTunes link] which doesn't go live until September 13th (although you can download it now). Once working, the app will let you watch live streams of all NFL Sunday Ticket football games, including the Red Zone channel. The Red Zone channel changes from game to game as the ball gets inside an opponent's 20 yard line while a narrator explains just what's going on.

The app also will display scores, statistics for players and teams, as well as video clips and highlights from each game. So far there has been no word as to whether video streaming will be available on 3G as well as Wi-Fi, but we'll know soon enough.

This is wonderful news for football fans who are already jonesing during pre-season, but it's not all hearts and flowers. For the privilege of using this free app, you need to plunk down $379.95 for programming. The NFL Season Ticket will run you $299.95 but that's not good enough to run the app. Additionally you'll need to toss in another $80 to buy the SuperFan package which gives you games in high-definition, stats and the Red Zone Channel, making the NFL Mobile app the most expensive free app in the world.

As I haven't seen the streaming yet, I can't comment on how good it might be, but I'm very encouraged due to the amazing implementation of the DirecTV Scheduling app [iTunes link], that Mel Martin covered upon its release.

I really love this app. It's much easier to use than the often arcane DirecTV web site for scheduling programs. Searching for programs is a snap. Just type in a few letters and all matches come right up. From there you can decide which receiver you would like to have record the show, set the recording, and even record a season pass which grabs every instance of the show according to rules you set up. Rules include recording only new shows, new and repeats, etc. It can also be set to 'record if possible' meaning that if shows are already set at that time they have precedence over your request, or to 'definitely record' which gives your newly searched show precedence over your record queue.

The only glitch I found isn't in the app, but most likely in the DirecTV system itself. If you have a DirecTV box running the TiVo OS, you cannot record season passes. My DirecTV 10-250 is one of these, but it's getting long in the tooth and doesn't record hi-definition shows from the MPEG-4 transponder in any event. More modern DirecTV OS machines like my DirecTV 20-700 will record season passes and anything else you can throw at it.

If you have DirecTV and an iPhone or iPod touch, you need to go and download the DirecTV app. With all the added functionality, you'll feel much better about paying your monthly bill.

Here are some pictures of both apps.

With apologies to our friends across the pond who have their own take on what "football" really is, the first full day of a new season of American football got underway yesterday with a whole host of league games that stretched late into the night. The only thing better than watching a football game is having some really cool football-related apps on your iPhone or iPod touch while you watch. Keep reading to learn more about my favorite five apps.

Pro Football Live - Here's where to go for all the latest updates, scores, and news around the NFL. Customize your own page to the upcoming schedules of your favorite teams and the latest photos from around the league. Individual team page give great breakdowns of team and individual stats on every game -- including preseason. If you're a stats junkie, this is the app for you.

Fantasy Football Cheatsheet '08 - Keep track of everything that's going down with your players and team with this cool app. It's got the rankings of 400 players and their defenses, so you can easily through data while you assemble your draft wish list. Search players by name or team, and choose the My Team tab for instant info on how your players are doing. Sweet.

AP Top25 College Football 2008 - Not strictly related to the NFL, of course, but how else would I keep track of how well West Virginia played (or not) this week, and how those Heisman candidates are looking? Use this app to get weekly AP poll info, view team progress and scores, get rankings, and even view photos of recent games.

Paper Football Lite - Jonesing for a football fix but stuck at the office? Play a few quick rounds of Paper Football instead. It's not the same thing as a fun game of pickup in the backyard, but it'll do in a pinch.

Don't have an iPod touch or iPhone? Not to worry, I've got you covered.

UPDATE: I pulled an app at the last minute and, as an eagled-eyed reader who counts better than I noticed, that knocks the count down to four. For an extra App-By-Default, check out comment #4. :-)

With 237 (and counting) almost universally glowing reviews, iFooty is one app that's scoring well on the UK iPhone App Store, riding high on the Top 25 Free apps list.

What it does it pretty simple -- aggregating football league data and news articles from a variety of BBC sources -- but it does it very well and with great style. As many of the user reviews [App Store link] point out, it's one of those apps that's really, genuinely, use-it-six-times-a-day useful.

I should point out, for the vast American majority of readers on this site, that when I say "football," I mean it in the UK sense of the word. I suspect you know it better as soccer. But over here it's football, or just footy, and iFooty's comprehensive coverage of the uppermost football leagues in England (Premier League, Championship, League One, League Two) and Scotland (Premier League) offers something for many millions of fans. And, better yet, it does so for free.

The official iFooty web site doesn't tell you much; you're better off going to the App Store for more info.

Inside Mac Games reports that one of their readers, while registering FIFA '08 for the PC on the Windows side of Boot Camp, noticed that EA has both PC and Mac versions of the uberpopular soccer -- sorry, football -- videogame listed for registration. And that's a pretty good indication, of course, that FIFA '08 is on its way for the Mac.

Personally, I've never really gotten into videogame soccer-- the last soccer game I really loved was Nintendo World Cup way back in 1990. And while I hear that Winning Eleven is the biggest star in the genre right now (although Sensible Soccer, I know, has its fans), FIFA is definitely still competitive. Lots of football fans, I'm sure, would love to see it on the Mac.

So we'll see. Obviously no release date yet (although a good guess would be by the end of '08 -- snicker), and we'll see if EA just slipped up or if they really plan to release this one. But FIFA '08 would be yet another nice addition to the growing line of games for our platform.

As I write this, there are 12 excruciatingly long days until the start of the 2007 NFL football season. This year, the best-dressed Macs will have spiffy new dashboard widgets to help us follow our fantasy picks, favorite teams, league stats, and every game nuance we can think of. Here are the top five widgets every football fan needs to have:

• NFL Kickoff 2007 Countdown 4.0 - If you need to know right down to the nanosecond how long it is before kickoff, this widget is for you. Okay, it doesn't offer quite that much detail, but it will get you within the minute range. The rest you can figure out on your own.

• WagerWidget - If you like a friendly bet to go with your game, the WagerWidget gives you point spreads, odds updates, and other tips you might need to know before you make that call to Johnny NoFingers.

• Apple's widget directory - There's all sorts of goodies lurking here, like news feeds for the Cowboys and Raiders.

• Fantasy Control - If you've got a fantasy football team of your own, than this you need this. It offers real-time news and analysis for teams all across the league. (NOTE: Requires the Yahoo Widget installer for Mac)

• Football Widget 1.1.2 - The granddaddy of all widgets, this cool tool keeps you up to date on everything you need to know: Current scores, previous weeks' results, conference standings and more.
  

• Sky Sports Football News Widget - In the interest of fairness, this one's for the Brits among us. I hear your teams play football with their actual feet. What's up with that?

You know how some commercials give you a sense of deja vu? All over again, as the great Yogi Berra might add? TUAW reader Matt S. found this Euro 2012 football championship commercial over on Youtube and passed it along to us. It's not exactly Costello-level-Music but it's certainly Flathead-esque, especially with the la la la's at the end. And the animation with its desaturated main figures on an animated background evokes the feel of Apple's recent iPod commercials. One of the YouTube commenters states that the song was performed by the Ukraine's TNMK band.

Thanks Matt S.