The biggest fine I've ever heard of

Yesterday, on the same day that the punishment for the Patriots camera-gate was announced, the governing body of Formula One racing, the FIA, announced the McLaren team is in VERY deep. If you thought the fines that Bill Belichick got ($500,000 announced yesterday) or that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has piled up were big money deals, you should be sufficiently blown away to hear what McLaren-Mercedes is forking over.

$100,000,000.

That's a lot of money. And to make matters worse, the team is also being stripped of all its constructor's title points, which is quite the amount considering their two drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are 1-2 in the driver's points rankings. It's actually been estimated that the team will lose another $100 million in income due to that decision as well. All of this happened because the team was found to have plans from their rival, Ferrari. Now that is some heavy fine-age for spying; the NFL should've stepped it up to that level and Belichick should thank his lucky stars he chose to get into football instead of F-1 and instituting his cheating ways.

More on Belichick / Camera-gate later with my week 2 picks.

Oden done for the season

How much of a shame is it for Portland Trailblazer fans, or even basketball fans in general that Greg Oden will be out for his entire rookie season, most likely, after undergoing micro-fracture surgery on his knee. Reports are stating that Oden will be on crutches for eight weeks while a full recovery will take anywhere from six months to a year.

As if the comparisons to former Blazer Sam Bowie — yes, the guy drafted before Jordan and ended up playing four injury-prone seasons for Portland — weren't bad enough, they're only going to get worse, exponentially.

Fans of the game are also being robbed of the potential rookie of the year race between Oden and Kevin Durant, who was drafted number two by the Trail Blazer's division rival Seattle Super Sonics. In retrospect, it was too good to be true.

This is a huge blow to the Blazers, who passed on the superstar-waiting-to-happen Durant to take the phenom centre first overall in June's draft. On the bright side, without Oden and including the fact that they traded away Zach Randolph - one of their best players last season - Portland should land another top-5 pick in next year's draft. Team up that with Oden (if he recovers fully in time) and the Blazer will be even better in the 2008-09 season. See, there's always a positive side to the news.

Convenient timing

With more and more players coming up in steroid talk over the past week, one of the accused has decided to duck the spotlight for a while. Troy Glaus has decided to undergo shoulder surgery that will sideline him for the remainder of the season. With the Jays effectively out of the playoff hunt, it seemed like a smart move for Glaus as well the organization to get the healing process out of the way as well as sidestep the steroid spotlight.

The other players named in this current probe into a doctor/pharmacy are the Orioles Jay Gibbons and the Cardinals Rick Ankiel, who pretty much just destroyed all the good will he accumulated from his recent comeback as a power-hitting outfielder. Ankiel, if you recall, was a stud pitching prospect for St. Louis a few years back. That was until he lost all control and command of his pitches, which never bodes well for a man on the hill. Very few people believed he could feasibly make a comeback as an outfielder and even less could've guessed he'd be able to hit the way he has since his call up. With 9 home runs and a .301 batting average, who wouldn't want this guy in their line up. Now, he's just a prime suspect for those who are on the juice.

By the way, I was completely set to write a "Wow, look at a Rick Ankiel!" post last week; now I'm posting this.

Filthy spies

It looks like the New England Patriots aren't as worthy of praise as previously stated. As it turns out, the Patriots have been accused of spying on the New York Jets by recording their defensive signs on video. So are the Pats owed their due? Is Belichick a better coach than his former student Mangini? Does Tom Brady truly deserve that 100 awareness rating he got in this year's Madden? Who knows; but what we do know is that commissioner Iron Fist Goodell is not looking very kindly on this alleged infraction. If he feels it's right, the Patriots are looking at a stiff fine and losing several draft picks in the future.

Elsewhere in the NFL;

Charlie Frye didn't just get pulled out the Browns line up on Sunday in favour of Derek Anderson; it's a bit more permanent. Cleveland dealt Frye to the Seahawks today for an undisclosed draft pick. This means nothing really for Seattle seeing how Seneca Wallace is entrenched as their number two man behind Matt Hasselbeck, but it does mean something for a nice, young boy named Brady Quinn. With Frye gone, Quinn is one bad Anderson performance away from taking the reins of the Browns offence. And you know that a QB like Derek Anderson can't last too long without screwing up.

In Oakland, Jamarcus Russel finally has his deal and money in order. The number one overall pick of this year's draft sealed a six-year, $61 million US deal late Monday night and has already started practicing. Too bad he'll more than likely lose the rookie race to number one on the depth chart with Quinn.

Finally, the best news of the day comes out of Buffalo and it's not often you can hear that sentence. Kevin Everett, who was severely injured on Sunday and was ambulanced off the field after attempting to tackle Domenik Hixon of Denver on a kick off return. After hours of surgery and sedation, it's now being reported that Everett has voluntary movement in his arms and legs. The doctors are optimistic that he'll be able to walk again after rehabilitation, of course. Can you get better news than that after the report calling the injury "catastrophic" and life-threatening on Monday?

Week one is in the books

So what did we learn? Quite a bit actually; but principally, New England is the real deal. They just plain embarrassed the Jets in Jersey and walked away with a 38-14 win. I actually feel kind of bad that I put so much confidence in the Jets being able to at least win while getting 6.5 points; I was sadly mistaken. Looks like I didn't give the Patriots their respect. Also, Ellis Hobbs ran back a kick off return of 108 yards. If I was his coach, I would ream him out for not taking a knee that deep in the end zone. That was a completely wreck-less move.

Even scoring 38 points wasn't good enough to be the highest scoring team of the week though; Dallas came up with 45 against a now injury-decimated Giants squad that is looking like they're in shambles and it's only one week into the season. With Brandon Jacobs, Elisha Manning and Osi Umenyiora out of their line up, even getting to .500 this season is looking fairly unlikely, although it does bring up Ewing Theory possibilities. Sadly, Eli was actually looking like he was in control of the offense before going down with a separated shoulder. I'm looking forward to betting against their fat-as-a-lineman QB Jared Lorenzen next week.

Speaking of injuries, Bills fans (and any football fans really) witnessed a scene you always hate to see. while attempting to make a tackle on a kick off, Bills tight end Kevin Everett sustained a nasty looking neck injury and was ambulanced off the field and taken into surgery. Word is that he'll most likely be paralyzed, but to what extent is still unknown. It's a horrible shame to see that type of thing happen to anyone.

The Bills-Broncos game did feature an exhilarating ending that featured Jason Elam running onto the field with time dying to just nearly get the game-winning field goal off and through the uprights in time. That guy is one of the best kickers in the business.

Elsewhere, two other kickers also put game-winners through in the clutch. Sean Suisham won it in overtime for the Redskins, but really it took you guys overtime to beat the Dolphins? That's weak. Rookie Mason Crosby won the game in front of the Lambeau faithful in an upset over Donovan McNabb's Eagles. If this Eagles squad goes on a losing streak, how long will it take for Andy Reid to turn to Kevin Kolb?

The Rams suffered two losses on Sunday; while losing the game to the Panthers, their all-pro left tackle Orlando Pace went down and is done for the season. This will be a long season for St. Louis fans and especially Marc Bulger.

Then to wrap up the week, we were treated to two Monday nighters. Ocho Cinco scroed a touchdown and celebrated in style by donning a hall of fame style jacket while the extra point attempt was blocked. The high-powered Bengals couldn't overcome the tenacious Ravens though who took it 27-20.

The late game featured everybody's sleeper, the 49ers, who pulled off a late come-from-behind victory over last year's chic-pick the Cardinals. It was only fitting that they showed up after a pre-game ceremony remembering legendary coach Bill Walsh.

All in all, after week one, my record, against the spread is 5-6-2 which I can deal with. I also noticed that I didn't actually make picks for the Seahawks-Bucanneers or the Philly-Green Bay games and honestly, I would've gone 1-1 in picking those ones. So the first tally is:

Week 1: 6-7-2
Season: 6-7-2