Schwarzmarkt » people in the region become tour guides for

FRISCO, Texas -- Because they were on opposing teams at the Senior Bowl, Carson Wentz and Dak Prescott didnt spend much time together talking about the future.Even if they had, its hard to imagine the soon-to-be rookie quarterbacks in Philadelphia and Dallas could have come up with this doozy: Exactly nine months after that showcase, they would face each other in a key NFC East prime-time game as the toast of the town in both cities, as one of their coaches described it.Thats a lot of what ifs and a lot of different things happening for this to all play out like this, Wentz said. Its exciting for him, for me. Obviously, its going to be played up into something. Its cool to see another young guy like him that Ive come to know and to see the success hes having.Wentz starting the opener wasnt really a stretch by draft time because he went No. 2 overall to the Eagles. But there was still the surprising trade just before the season that sent Sam Bradford to Minnesota, clearing Wentzs path to the job .Prescott was a fourth-round pick who started training camp competing for the No. 3 job.Backup Kellen Moore got hurt first, breaking an ankle in camp. Then 10-year starter Tony Romo broke a bone in his back in a preseason game, and the 135th selection in the draft had shown enough in the preseason for the Cowboys to believe he could handle the starting role .Now that the Cowboys (5-1) have won five straight and are tied with the Vikings for the best record in the NFC, the question is whether Romo gets his job back when hes ready to play again.That issue can wait at least one more week. Meantime, these longtime rivals get to watch the apparent futures of their franchises square off Sunday night after an early season stretch when they kept trading the rookie record for pass attempts without an interception to start a career.Its great from an NFL standpoint because obviously these two kids are the talk of the town, lets say, first-year Eagles coach Doug Pederson said. It is fun. Its fun for a coach to watch. I think its fun for players to watch it. Its exciting for the fans.Prescott said the pair got to know each other better at the NFL combine after spending more time together. The Dallas rookie said they stayed in touch via text as the offseason continued, but havent been in contact since the season started.I dont really think too much of it or make it a big deal out of the opponent or who Im playing if its another rookie or not, Prescott said. Carsons doing a great job and as I said, I wish him all the luck except when we meet up.Wentz cooled off a little sooner than Prescott, throwing his first interception on the final pass of his fourth game, the start of a two-game skid for the Eagles (4-2). Prescotts only pick of the season came in the sixth game, a win at Green Bay.And while Wentzs passer rating has dropped significantly each of the past two weeks, Prescott has a franchise rookie record of five straight games with a rating of at least 100.The bottom line is wins, though. And these are the top two teams in a division thats stronger than expected.They know how to win, Pederson said. They know how to lead their teams. Nothing seems to be too big for either one of them. They take it in stride. The ability to protect the football I think through these first six, seven games like this has been crucial.The biggest difference is the college background. Prescott came from Mississippi State and the SEC, specifically the SEC West, which earlier this season he jokingly called the third-best conference or division in all of football behind the AFC and NFC.Wentz had the small-school tag coming out of North Dakota State, although its not like most small schools. He was the starter for the last two of five straight lower-division national championships. In his mind, that was just part of it.I was at the line making audibles, calling the protections, run-game checks, in the huddle, all those things that correlate to the NFL, he said. The games very similar. We just call things different in this offense. I think that was actually an advantage where I went to school.As for the similarities, many of the same words come from Pederson and Cowboys coach Jason Garrett, whose staff had Wentz on its team at the Senior Bowl: preparation, maturity, leadership.The Eagles knew they were drafting their future at quarterback. The Cowboys were hoping. Its looking like both franchises did.We got to know each other during some of the other rookie things and the combine and everything, Wentz said. I thought we got along great. I thought we were good friends. Who knows? We might be playing each other for a long time.But they cant exactly say they saw it coming.---Online:AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow Schuyler Dixon on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apschuyler Air Max 270 React Canada . Then the Pacers gave Oladipo and his Orlando teammates the cold shoulder. Paul Georges buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter spurred a 21-4 run, finally sending Indiana past the Magic 97-87 in a tougher-than-expected opening night matchup. Air Max 270 Sale Canada . -- Jimmie Johnson held off a teammate, passed a pair of Hall of Famers, and dominated once more at Dover. http://www.clearanceairmaxcanada.com/air-max-270-canada-sale/max-270-womens.html . Schenn scored the game-winning goal and added two assists to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday. Air Max Tavas Canada .Y. -- Sabres defenceman Tyler Myers had no intention of changing his hard-hitting style before taking part in a disciplinary hearing for his illegal check to New Jersey forward Dainius Zubrus head. Air Max Thea Canada . The Montreal Canadiens announced on Friday that the veteran forward will return to the teams line-up on Saturday night when the Habs visit the Nashville Predators. RIO DE JANEIRO -- It is one of Rios most renowned favelas, the Cidade de Deus made infamous in a film that helped cement a stereotype of the other side of the Marvelous City that is host of the Olympic Games -- one where ghettos are ruled by drug lords and baby-faced criminals shoot to kill.The City of God of today, located mere miles from Olympic Park, is not so easily defined. It is a place of contrasts that defies oversimplification, where poverty and violence persist alongside modest programs that aim to get some kids off the streets and offer a path that keeps guns out of their hands.It is also the former home of Brazils first gold medalist of the Rio Games. Judo champion Rafaela Silva grew up in Cidade de Deus. If not for the sport that helped her climb up and out, I could still be living in City of God now, she said through tears after winning on Monday.The shantytown of nearly 50,000 people became globally known after Paulo Lins novel Cidade de Deus was made into a critically acclaimed movie by Brazilian film director Fernando Meirelles, who also helped create the Olympic opening ceremony that featured a segment depicting the citys favelas. Lins lived in City of God, and both the book and the movie tell a tale of poverty and violence and of youth faced with choices that could lead to an early death -- or a fresh start.While much of Rio was transformed for the Olympics, City of God is a community left behind and still mired in the many problems that were the basis of the movie that introduced its brutal realities to the world. Where other neighborhoods can take advantage of improvements in transit, housing and security, the only thing Olympic in this slum is the painted lane for accredited vehicles to drive past it as fast as they can.Here at City of God, our feelings about the Olympics are like a famous hip-hop song, said one local, Sergio Leal, known as DJ TR. `Look at the black kid watching it all from the outside. We are all watching it from the outside here.In some ways, Cidade de Deus is unlike the hundreds of other favelas in Rio. On the western edge of the city, its far from the beaches where tourists soak in the sun and spreads horizontally across a maze of streets rather than vertically up a hillside. It originally was a housing project, built in the 1960s during Brazils military dictatorship when the government evicted residents from favelas in tony Ipanema, Leblon and Lagoa, and destroyed the shacks to make way for visitors.At that time, not too different from today, the state was determined to `beautify Rio de Janeiro by eliminating favelas from attractive areas of the city and moving the poor to isolated locations, said Mariana Dias Simpson, a researcher at the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analyses (Ibase) who has studied Rios slums for more than a decade.City of God, she said, is what local leaders call a re-favela -- a settlement created to house evicted families that kept on growing until it became a favela again.The community was among the first where the government dispatched its so-called police pacification units, or UPPs, which were created in 2008 to curb violence in favelas dominated by heavily armed drug gangs. Police set up local stations, took over territory once controlled by criminals and confiscated weapons, while the state of Rio invested in community centers for children and worked to expand basic services for residents.In the lead-up to the Olympics, the UPPs were expanded to hundreds of favelas across Rio, and many say it felt as if authorities had succeeded in restoring the peace. President Barack Obama, along with the first lady and their two daughters, even paid a visit to Cidade de Deus in 2011. The president rolled up his sleeves and played soccer with some local kids as his family looked on.Here was President Obama coming to this community that once was a symbol of violence, said Juliana Barbassa, a former Associated Press reporter and Brazil native whose book, Dancing with the Devil in the City of God, examines Rios many challenges. She recalled one jubilant store owners reaction: `We used to go to them (the U.ddddddddddddS.) to ask for money, to try to establish a relationship. And now they come to us.Despite that high point, with police forces spread too thin among too many places, the lawlessness that had diminished in City of God and other slums has regained strength.In the most violent section of Cidade de Deus -- a place called Karate -- criminals shot at police just one day before last weeks Olympic opening ceremony; no officers were injured. Several residents interviewed as part of a study by the Ibase group reported that shootings between dealers and the police happen on almost a daily basis, sometimes when children are walking home from school.Violence levels were better all over for a few years ... we had no incidents for months, Leal said. Now, every week, there is a shootout somewhere in City of God. It is not what we saw in the movie, but it is not promising either.Children in the roughest parts of Cidade de Deus often become what the traffickers call avioezinhos, or little planes. Avioezinhos keep watch and alert the drug bosses when police are near. Its considered a first step into the organization, like an entry-level job. Its not unusual to see thugs pointing guns at visitors to the neighborhood even as schoolkids come and go, unflinching because its all customary to them.Still, Dias Simpson and others noted that the vast majority of those living in City of God and other favelas have no involvement in crime at all. Go to the most dangerous favela on a weekday, and youll see ... moms going to work, guys dressed up for their construction jobs, Barbassa said. This is essentially home to the working class of Rio.The film, added Dias Simpson, is a good entertainment piece, but its a fictional film. The reality of City of God is a lot more complex than that.Leo Sagat lived in the neighborhood for 28 years before finally moving out. But he still comes back three days a week, morning and evening, to teach boxing to 270 people, mostly kids, out of a donated room with no air conditioning and three broken fans in one of the safer parts of the slum, appropriately called Switzerland. Even still, next door, is a boca de fumo where dealers sell cocaine and other drugs, and some hang around to use them.Sagat doesnt get paid; he gives his time because he knows sports could help inspire some to find a way out of the slum. His proof can be found in Judo champion Silva. The legacy that I want is to stop kids like these from becoming criminals, he said.In December, amid Olympic preparations, the government donated some boxing equipment to the community, a few gloves and bags that Sagat uses at his gym. But to those here, the gesture is meaningless given all that could have happened these past several years.People of City of God were promised more mobility, more investment in sport and security. They were also promised to be part of a tourism program that would help people in the region become tour guides for Rio, just like in other communities, said Christopher Gaffney, a University of Zurich researcher who spent six years in Brazil studying urban development. But none of those materialized. The rapid-transit bus that could have integrated that region to the rest of Rio doesnt have any stops in City of God. With no integration, there is even more segregation.Despite their beloved Silvas victory, the people of City of God will tell you the revelry surrounding these Olympic Games is not really felt by them. Jessica Santos is just 12, a resident of the shanty for two years who already dreams of more. Standing next to a creek tinged gray with pollution, she spoke wistfully about becoming an environmentalist maybe one day.Look at this creek here, it is completely dirty -- and the water is being more treated than when my family arrived, but people throw their sofas, plastic, a lot of toxic things here.People wanted the Olympics to change things here, too, said the girl. But they did not change much. ' ' '