Conference Championship Picks

New Orleans (+3) over CHICAGO

If you think about it this way, when you add up that Dallas should have beaten Seattle who barely lost Chicago, do you think Dallas would have any chance at beating New Orleans? Of course not because we remember what happened when New Orleans walked into Dallas and killed the legend of Tony Romo. So after considering that, is there still a reason why you would pick Chicago this weekend? Their defense isn't as healthy as they need it to be, Devin Hester is a non-factor if you kick the ball away from him and Rex Grossman is, well Rex Grossman.

Also, don't forget that everyone in America outside of the Chicago area is rooting for New Orleans after last year's Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Pick: New Orleans 24, Chicago 13

Patriots (+3) over INDIANAPOLIS

This weekend, we're all lucky enough to witness the nearly annual Pats-Colts playoff game. The worst part about this is the media coverage that has been going overboard on the hype-machine. I also realize the hypocrisy of myself writing about the game, but how else am I supposed to make a pick?

On paper, the Colts look like they have a superior team. New England's linebacker core is as slow as molasses. In their secondary, Rodney Harrison is banged up but will probably play even though he's still nursing shoulder and knee injuries. Their wide receivers may very well be cut if they played on the Colts and Corey Dillon looks like he's moving in slow-motion. Also, don't forget that Adam Vinatieri is on the Colts side of the ball.

So why would I pick the Patriots? Well, first of all, this is going to be a close game, trust me. This game is most likely going to come down to a field goal and while Vinatieri is kicking for the Colts, the Pats rookie kicker Gostkowski has been on the money as of late. Secondly, Belichick and Brady are 12-1 together in the playoffs. Most of the time, it's easy money putting your money behind them. Last but not least, I actually flipped a coin assigning heads to the Colts heads and tails to the Patriots. It came up tails, ergo, I'm taking New England.

Besides, the game will probably come down to a field goal; in that case, everybody ties with a +3 line if Indy kicks the game winner.

Pick: New England 23, Indianapolis 20

As for Alyssa, she's going with New England and New Orleans. Is this good luck or a curse for my picks? We'll see.

Are the Pats turning the difficulty level up?

It's mid-January and the NFL playoffs are in full swing so this must mean one thing: The New England Patriots are on a roll towards the Super Bowl. It seems to happen almost every year now (3 Super Bowl wins over the past 5 seasons) and quite frankly, it's getting a bit tiring. This year it seems they've thrown a wrinkle into their run.

Like most young males, I enjoy playing video games; I mainly endulge in sports games, especially the Madden series. Usually when you start out, you don't want to jump to the hardest difficulty, you start around the lower difficulties until you get your feet under you. Once you feel confident enough to move up levels, you do and the challenges get harder. You keep on moving up levels and there are more and more challenges ahead of you until you've ultimately mastered the game.

What was the point of that last paragraph? Well, it sums up what the Patriots are doing this year. Brady and Belichick have moved up the difficulty level this year to see if they're still up to the challenge. It's happened a few times but I just haven't noticed until now.

Do you remember all of the stories about how Troy Brown is filling in defensive back because of injuries and lack of depth? That would be a challenge to work around. Losing the clutches kicker in NFL history to your rival in free agency? That would be a challenge. Resigning Brady to a massive extension, yet failing to sign a quality wide receiver for him to throw to? Another challenge (and don't tell me that Reche Caldwell would be starting on any other playoff team. Not to mention that the Patriots are several million dollars under the salary cap this isn’t transferable to the next season.

With Belichick being crowned the genius that he is, doesn't it seem more plausible that all these moves were calculated decisions? I think so. There's no other reason why they wouldn't be. Can they beat the Colts this Sunday? That remains to be seen

Some NBA Thoughts

Webber brings it for Detroit

What he brought, I don't know, but it ended in a loss to Utah. Number 84 wound up with an outstanding line of 2-5-3 on 1/5 shooting over 17 minutes. I guess the new Michigan Fab Five aren't going to be nearly as good as the previous incarnation(s). In a related note, He's also on the verge of being cut from my fantasy team.

Huge NBA Trade

Yesterday, Indiana acquired Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy Jr. as part of an eight-player deal that sent all-head case team Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington to Golden State. I'll be honest. I didn't even know Murphy was white until I saw his highlights when I heard the trade. As for Dunleavy, a former top 3 draft pick hasn't lived up to that billing, but then again, the 2002 NBA Draft wasn't the most star studded of all time.

The best part about this trade is the fact that Stephen Jackson has been traded to an area of California known as "The Bay Area." This consists of San Francisco and Oakland. Can you even begin to imagine what kind of trouble someone as insane as Jackson can do in a club in Oak-Town? I'm actually giddy thinking about it.

The Suns Keep On Shining

Shawn Marion and the Phoenix Suns rolled to their 11th straight victory last night with a 100-91 victory over Houston. Bill Simmons of ESPN.com brought to light in his article yesterday that if it weren't for two plays, Nash missing a 3 near the end of regulation against Washington (a game they lost in OT) and Dirk Nowitzki hitting a jumper with less than a second left on the clock, from being on a ridiculous 29-game winning streak. In a new world of sports where parity reigns, it’s becoming surprisingly and increasingly difficult for teams to put together strings like this. We’ll have to wait and see what happens in Washington on the 23rd to judge how long this streak may last.

Finally, remember when Jalen Rose was arguably one of the best players on the Raptors? He now is racking up DNPs on the Suns bench.

The Joyous Season of Arbitration is Upon Us

Every year around this marvelously frosty time, after most of, if not all, the marquee free agents have been signed for too much money, restricted free agents get their chance at the owner's pockets. This year, this is very much to their advantage as they got to see one of the most ludicrous off-seasons in memory. Huge contract extensions were signed, awful starting pitchers cashed in, Boston paid $52.2M for the rights to simply talk to a player. This is definitely a good year to be a free agent of any sort.

Carlos Zambrano made $6.65M last year, this year he wants a raise after being one of the best pitchers in the National League last year, quite understandable given the circumstances. The problem is that he wants $15.5M next year and the Cubs have only offered up roughly $11M for next year. Considering how much cash the Cubs have tossed out this off-season and the fact that Gil Meche finagled a deal worth a similar amount from the Royals, it seems pretty backhanded that Chicago would even offer up a deal that low.

In the twin cities, super kids Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer are both going to arbitration and stand to get quite a raise. After earning near the league minimum last year, Morneau and Mauer are asking for $5M and $4.5M respectively. The always frugal Twinkies countered with $4M and $3.3. Coming off seasons in which one earned the AL MVP (Morneau) while the other won the batting crown (Mauer) and should have easy cases. If (read: when) the arbitrators rule in the players' favour (I don’t see why not), the Twins will still have two young studs on their team at a considerable discount.

All Freddy Sanchez did last year was lead the N.L. in batting average while playing for the sad sack Pirates. Apparently $3.3M is too much for the Pirates to pay out to one of their few bright spots. They've only offered him $2.1M.

Three-time all-star Miguel Cabrera has asked for a raise from less than half a million to $7.4M. The Florida Marlins have offered $6.9M and will probably have to pony up after Cabrera’s third consecutive 110 RBI season.

The most remarkable difference between player and team is that of Alex Escobar vs. the Washington Nationals who are an outstanding $90,000 apart and stand to waste more time and money in arbitration than it's worth. While $90,000 is quite the amount of money for Joe and Jane Everyman, it's nearly nothing in the sports world.

Even More Thoughts About All-Star Games

Wait, the NHL's All Star Game is on a Wednesday? Better ratings than last two year's contests!

While in the past the NHL's All-Star game has usually been played on a Sunday afternoon or evening, that set up is basically a recipe for failure. If you were a sports fan and faced the option of watching the AFC or NFC championship games, or a meaningless contest of hockey, most would tune into football.

You're naming the site of the 2009 game before you've confirmed where the 2008 game will be? Makes more sense than hall of fame voting!

While it was still unconfirmed that Yankee Stadium would host the 2008 MLB All-Star game, Bud Selig didn't hesitate to name Busch Stadium in St. Louis as the host of the 2009 contest. What also struck me as odd in this turn of events is that the decision to hold the game in New York is a 180 of what has been occurring in recent years of the All-Star game. Commissioner Bud Selig has been making it a point, of late, to award the midsummer award to cities with recently built stadiums, as opposed to older venues. The Yankees last season in the house that Ruth built will be 2008 and I understand that this will be a celebration of the history behind the grounds. But with the current trend of newer stadiums as hosts, would the league not be better served by having the new Yankee Stadium host the game in 2010? Either way it is a good choice to have one of the Yankee Stadiums host in either '08 or '10. The real question is which one?

Chris Webber Signs With Detroit

Does this move make the Pistons better or worse?

If Webber plays the way he did in Philadelphia, Detroit will be worse; especially in the defensive end. Does he even have incentive to play for the next two seasons? With Philadelphia buying out his massive deal, he'll be making $25M for NOT playing for the Sixers. How hard would you play knowing that you didn't have to work for your salary? Especially a lottery sized amount of money.

But, in the off chance that playing where he was born and in the same state he played college ball (and made the most memorable time out calls in history), can somehow rejuvenate him to the 20 and 10 player he was, needless to say, Detroit may become the toast of the East again. Also, wouldn't you want to prove to your former team that releasing you was a mistake? The classic quote is "Living well is the best revenge," so why wouldn't Webber adopt a "Playing well is the best revenge," mantra? Time will tell how this move turns out, but one thing is for certain: the Philadelphia 76ers are pulling out all the stops to win the Greg Oden sweepstakes.

On the side, He has to be the first NBA player to wear number 84 right? Is there anyway to find this out? Even if there was a previous player, would C-Webb not be the de-facto best ever in the NBA?

I Can't Help It That Beckham's Always In The News

What was lost in the hub-bub of the size of David Beckham's contract and the fact that he's coming to play in Los Angeles is that he and the L.A. Galaxy committed collusion. Since when has an athlete been able to sign a contract with a team while still being under contract with another team? I'm surprised this deal is legal. With months still on the Spanish league's schedule and Beckham's contract, there should have been no way that negotiations even took place.

In the least surprising turn of events of this Beckham saga, Real Madrid's manager has decided to bench Becks until his contract with the team ends. Real Madrid had no other choice than to do so. Beckham, if he's smart, wouldn't be playing all out when he's set to start his new contract a few months away. There's no reason for him to risk injury. Breaking his foot, tearing something in his knee or suffering a concussion would seriously affect his arrival and ability to play for his new team.

This news should make the L.A. Galaxy, MLS and North American soccer fans rejoice even more about his arrival. With his benching in Spain, an early arrival to the U.S. may be closer to spring than his previously stated July debut. That is, of course, if Real Madrid will consent to him doing so.

Another All-Star Controversy!

Is there any way that the sporting world can do away with the ridiculous every-team-must-be-represented rule for all-star games? Some of the snubs from the game this year are completely egregious. The game, like I've said before is supposed to be a showcase for the fans; shouldn't they be treated to watching the best players in the league rather then a slouch playing on St. Louis who has 33 points (Bill Guerin).

Marc Savard has 56 points and is by far the highest scorer on Boston, but with Zdeno Chara on the team and the Islanders needing to send someone, Jason Blake got the nod.

Yanic Perreault can now write NHL all-star on his resume, even though he's fourth on his own team in scoring. Both of the Sedin twins still don’t have that title, but should this year.

Usually Detroit has a high scoring team, but this year they haven't been lighting the lamp as often. Somehow, even after Nicklas Lidstrom was voted as a starter, Henrik Zetterberg was picked with a less than impressive stat-line.

Jarome Iginla was left off the squad but Brian Rolston wasn't. Chris Pronger, who is second in the league in defensemen scoring, will be watching the game from home, but Philippe Boucher will be playing.

There are some horrible choices to represent the teams with the poorer records. From Carolina, both Eric Staal and Justin Williams were selected over both Ray Whitney and Rod Brind'Amour. Both Whitney and Brind’Amour, two cagey veterans, have more points then Williams and Staal.

Superstar Jaromir Jagr was held out of the game in favour of line-mate Brenden Shanahan. Jagr has been playing great and is in the top 10 scorers, Shanahan isn't that bad, but Jagr's snub is highly noticeable.

As for goaltenders, it turns out leading the league in goals against average (Hasek) or goaltending your team to the best record in the west (Giguere) won't get you a ticket to Dallas. Cristobel Huet got the close call over Ray Emery who could've made it as well.

It's understandable that the game means nothing (unlike baseball's midsummer classic) and people get too worked up over snubs, but some thought should be put into it. The NHL is still trying to draw fans in the U.S. but having inferior players in the all-star game isn't going to help.

Division Wrap-up

In a fairly unpredictable weekend of playoff football, I’m happy with the fact that I didn’t lose any money by entering a playoff pool or putting down (too many) bets. For some reason, I managed to forget the one constant of gambling on the NFL this season. Take the underdog and reap with rewards. All four dogs covered the spread this week and in case you didn’t notice, the Patriots and Colts won outright. 2-2 isn’t something to be ashamed of. Alyssa had her streak of unprecedented luck snapped by going 1-1 straight-up and 0-2 against the spread.

A few things of note from the weekend’s slate of games:

It turns out that Marty-Ball did effectively kill the Chargers, just not in the most obvious way. On a fourth-and-ten, the Chargers went for the first down instead of putting up a field goal attempt. Needless to say, I wouldn’t be writing about this if they made the first down. Perhaps the entire week of hearing about how his conservative tactics have cost him games in the past and Schottenheimer decided to over-compensate by making that move.

Just to prove that I’m nearly clairvoyant, note that I proclaimed that the NE-SD game would come down to a missed field goal. Nate Kaeding missed a long attempt with time dying to give the Patriots the win. Too bad I had said that San Diego would win because of the miss.

Oh, and in case you missed it, that LaDainian Tomlinson some guy? He’s pretty damn good.

Apparently, you don’t need to score touchdowns to win. Just ask the Colts, winners of the kicking showcase that took place in Baltimore. Finishing 15-6, Saturday’s game was the first playoff contest since 1979 in which no touchdowns were scored.

In a touch of irony, the Ravens-Colts game, which had seven field goals kicked, was the only game that wasn’t decided by three-points.

It’s actually a fact that being too good can only hurt your team. Super-linebackers Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher played so well and were so quick, they both unknowingly swatted down balls about to be caught by their teammates. Lewis, in fact, did this twice. Being good can be a curse.

After getting absolutely jacked early in the game by Sheldon Brown, Reggie Bush fired back the only way he knows how: breaking off huge plays and slicing through the Eagles D. Deuce McAllister came through huge as well tallying 143 yards on the ground.

Too the woman wearing the “Fuck Da Eagles” cut-off shirt, I give you a thumbs-up. Acknowledgement must also be given to the cameraman who found this woman and decided to put her on television. He’s probably been fined or suspended by now.

The surprise of the week turned out not to be the Patriots winning in San Diego, or Indy’s high powered offense not scoring a touchdown or even the Eagles hanging around in a close game in New Orleans. What really shocked me was that Rex Grossman didn’t single-handedly kill his team like everyone expected. Next week against the Saints it should be a different story.