A noble effort by the NY Giants Saturday came up just short of blemishing New England’s season.  You have to tip your hat to Tom Coughlin and Co. for going for it.  New York had absolutely nothing to gain, and I would point out that healthy starters and a deep playoff run would be much more valuable to Coughlin and Eli Manning who are running out of goodwill in the Big Apple.

The talk today is about how much confidence the Giants gained by turning in a good performance.  I can’t go that far.  Sure they looked great until about halfway through the third quarter.  And then it was like they all of a sudden remembered that they were the Giants.  Manning became his ineffective self, eventually killing one of his team’s final chances to stay in the game with a pick.  In general, with a double-digit lead you could sense New York shifting into “just hang on” mode.

The template is out there.  Several teams have demonstrated how to beat New England, (more…)

This is awesome!

You know, it occurs to me that every time I come out here it’s to rail on about some serious thing.  Even when I’m talking sports, which should be fun, it doesn’t seem to have a fun tone to it.

Remember when you were a kid and Christmas was pure, uncut fun.  What is it now?  Even for those who proclaim that they love giving gifts more than getting them?  This doesn’t even seem to be much fun anymore once you are done worrying about getting the “right” gift, and farting around with actually getting it, and wrapping it, and figuring out what to write on the card … yeah, fun.

And what about us Christians, supposed keepers of the “true meaning” of Christmas. (more…)

Wow!  You just can’t make this stuff up.  Turns out the downside of Jamie Lynn Spears’ pregnancy at age 16 is that it has delayed the release of Mom Spears’ book on parenting.  It’s a shame that this one little thing has to blemish her record as a parent.  Prior to little sister’s brush with fertility, I think we all looked at Britney and thought, “What’s your secret?  Dr. Spock, Dr. Phil, look out!”

I’ve always wanted to write a book.  Turns out I was going about it all wrong.  I mean, there are many things I am bad at, but I need to search for that one thing, my Achilles Heel, the thing at which I triumphantly suck, and share it with the world.

So, now TO is weighing in on the Tony Romeo / Jessica Simpson situation.  This past Sunday, with girlfriend Simpson in attendance, Romo put on a career-worst performance in Dallas’ loss to Philadelphia.  Unfortunately his previous low came last year with then-girlfriend Carrie Underwood on hand.

No doubt it was a new low for Romo, but TO is hardly one to talk.  The return of the QB’s romantic issues happened to coincide with the return of TO’s not catching passes issues.  In a quarter and a half I saw three TO drops.  Two of them were huge – he makes the catch, the Philly “D” would still be chasing him.

For TO the real issue, I suspect, is that someone else is threatening to steal the love of his life. (more…)

Paladin has an awesome YouTube link:  check this out!

On the way home I heard an interesting comment on all the coaching flux going on around the college football ranks right now.  The host was complaining, in particular, about Rich Rodriguez heading to Michigan while the team he is departing, West Virginia, is preparing for their bowl game.

Well, maybe if there weren’t a month and half between the end of the regular season and the big bowls it wouldn’t be such a problem!  You’ve got to remember, if their new position is in the college ranks they need to hit the ground running when it comes to recruiting.  If Rodriguez’s first thought was, “Michigan … awesome!” his second was, “Shoot!  I bet Tressell is in Detroit right now trying to steal my next star tailback!”  And once he knows he’s leaving he can’t do much for his old team.

You can’t blame these guys for getting itchy, and I would think that their schools would, at least partially, appreciate them getting out so a new coach can be secured and get busy.

And, shrinking that gap would provide more quality games, as opposed to random contests between teams that have been idle for weeks.  Here again, a playoff would be a big help.

Another big name going after Rosie.  Promoting his new show, a re-make of American Gladiators, Hogan identified Rosie as the celebrity he’d most like to see a Gladiator pummel:

“Without a doubt Rosie O’Donnell. Somebody needs to shut that big mouth up,”

First of all, I just love the Hulk-ster and Donald Trump for this.  If you or I were going to go after Rosie, it would be with carefully crafted sentences, and a fair amount of diplomacy even though nothing about Rosie inspires such in her detractors.  But these guys, they just let rip with what everyone is thinking.

Now, when reading about this I learned that Rosie has a blog, and in it responded to Hogan like this:

the wrestler guy
wants to pummel me
isnt that sweet
and wildly odd

its like a gang of gross guys
a club almost
old dumb white and on tv

Well, I thought it was kind of weird to do it that way.  A poem, maybe?  I sort of get the point she is trying to make in “paragraph” 2, but not quite.  So I investigated further. (more…)

It’s a shame Volleyball doesn’t get better run.  I have to admit, if I hadn’t been working out when the Final Four was on, I would have missed it myself.

This one was a classic.  In the semi’s Stanford and USC battled for five full games.  Well … actually four and a half.

The NCAA, in its haste to speed things up, moved to rally scoring several years ago.  Games 1 – 4 are played to 30, so that part was almost an even trade.  But, should the match go to 5 games, as it will when the teams are evenly matched, for some reason the deciding game is only played to 15.  That’s 15 serves and done!  It’s the volleyball equivalent of the NFL’s overtime setup where a team can lose without ever touching the ball.  Same thing here.  One team can go on a minor run and their opponent may not have the chance they would have in a standard game to regroup and respond. (more…)

The big question of the week:  Can the weather accomplish what no team has been able, and stop the Patriots?

Ummm … no.  Because they are playing the Jets, and the Jets are horrible.  And, I got this secret tip from someone in the know just before game time.  Turns out the weather is also going to be ugly when the Jets have the ball.  And speaking of ugly, have you seen the Jets?

But the big reason that the weather won’t make the Pats lose:  All week long everyone has been saying that it will, thus giving them one more thing to prove.

OK, this has been going on all season, so will you all, please, just shut up!  I want these guys to lose.  But every week someone comes up with a theory as to why they’ll lose their next game, everyone runs with it, and, having been told that they can’t overcome something, New England goes out and blows away the imagined obstacle.  So please, please just start talking about how they are going to run the table.

– B –

Personally, I think they may get whacked in the playoffs, but don’t tell them that. (more…)

After having caught the gist of the report (admittedly, I didn’t read it cover to cover) and watched things unfold for a few days, I have a few thoughts:

First my main thought on Selig and Fehr.  Spare us the thought that this was an eye-opener for you.  The problem was obvious.  The magnitude was obvious.  I’ll reiterate my previous post in one sentence:  except, maybe, for a few names there are no surprises here.  You two were willing accomplices in this whole thing.  You saw it.  You knew it.  And you sat on it because you were making money off the testicles of your players.

And I really have no respect for Fehr.  You talk about defending your players right to this and that.  How about their health and well-being in the years after they are done lining your pockets?

And while he may have momentarily paid lip service to the need to take this seriously and re-double efforts to fix the problem, make no mistake – Fehr is posturing for business as usual.  He defended his role in the past, and as to the future he stressed that agreements that are in place need to be honored.  The man is slime. (more…)