with four interceptions in 2011; Rogers had six and went to the Pro Bowl.

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About This Blog

Matt Barrows was born in Blacksburg, Va., and attended the University of Virginia. He graduated in 1995, went to Northwestern for a journalism degree a year later, and got his first job at a South Carolina daily in 1997. He joined The Sacramento Bee as a Metro reporter in 1999 and started covering the San Francisco 49ers in 2003. His favorite player of all time is Darrell Green. Reach Barrows at mbarrows@sacbee.com.
Twitter: @mattbarrowsBy David McArdle –

On Tuesday 20 August, Shakhter Karagandy welcome Celtic to Kazakhstan’s Dubai-inspired nouveau capital Astana for the honour of competing in European football’s premier tournament – and European football’s only-game-in-town – the UEFA Champions League. However, beneath the glamour that Kazakhstan attempts to exude, or at least today purports to be to would-be investors, the story of Shakhter Karagandy is a far more modest one.

Ominous for Celtic, is the story of Flora Leipman – the Glasgow-born painter of Russian parentage and author of The Long Journey Home – who fled her apartment in Charing Cross in 1933 for what she believed would be her new socialist utopia, the Soviet Union. Having been detained in Stalingrad, Flora was deported to a notorious camp in Karaganda built to