A happy Thanksgiving to football fans

Every fan who wanted to see some good, one-sided football must've been thankful for yesterday's first two match ups. Starting the day off was old-man Favre and the youngest team in the NFL lighting up Ford Field in Detroit, beating the Lions 37-26. Brett also showed, once again, that this season he's not going to be heaving the ball wherever he wants. Favre completed 20 pass attempts in a row at one point and picked up his seventh 300-yard game of the season.

In Big D, God's team trounced the lowly Jets 34-3 and set up next Thursday's match up of the two one-loss teams in the NFC (Green Bay in Dallas). Kellen Clemens even did his best Chad Pennington weak-arm impression by floating a pass to a receiver running a hook pattern. Needless to say Terrence Newman easily picked the ball and returned it for an easy touchdown.

Then in Atlanta, the Joey Harrington-led (yes, that felt weird to write because really, has Joey Harrington actually led a team before?) jumped out to a surprising 10-0 lead over the Indianapolis Colts. The joy that Falcons fans may have felt didn't last for long though. Peyton and Co. rallied to take the game 31-13. Good try though Joey.

As for next week's de-facto NFC Championship match up, let's just look at it this way: The Cowboys' loss came at home at the hands of the New England Patriots, who've beaten all comers so far, while the Packers lost at home to the Chicago Bears. On that fact alone would you not take the Cowboys?

Also, can we call this the game of the year? I think I will. You have to consider that any contest involving the Patriots should be ruled out considering that all games should involve sportsmanship, something that Bill Belichick and the Pats egregiously lack. So, game of the year! Packers — Cowboys! Nov. 29! Watch it!

So far this week: 2-0-0
This season 69-71-9

Good bye Priest, again

After suffering another injury to his neck, Priest Holmes has retired from the NFL just a few games into his comeback. Holmes will always be remembered as a fantasy juggernaut after posting huge numbers running behind great offensive linemen Willie Roaf and Will Shields for years, not to mention blocking fullback extraordinaire, Tony Richardson — now seen paving the way in Minnesota for Adrian Peterson. Holmes was always seen as an underdog in his early football years, playing back up in both college and with Baltimore. When he got his chances in those situations, he shone, but it wasn't until moving to the Chiefs he truly broke out. You could never count out Priest, even this year, but now his wild ride has come to an end. Cheers to a great career.

And a Happy Thanksgiving to football fans this year! Coming into the season, I figured that Dallas / New York Jets would've been the game to watch but with the surprises of Green Bay and Detroit, a match up I wouldn't have woken up for (so what if I sleep past noon?) turns out to be a pivotal match up with division title hopes possibly riding on the outcome. And then there's that mess in Atlanta...

Packers (-3) over LIONS

All-American Brett Favre losing on Thanksgiving? Yeah right! Unless he reverts to his gunslinging ways against this Detroit defence that leads the league in picks, Green Bay could blow out Detroit.

Jets (+14) at COWBOYS

The Jets didn't beat the Steelers, the Steelers beat themselves. Kellen Clemens did look alright and may put some points on the board today, but you can't seriously think that the Jets can contain the Cowboys offence, even without Patrick Crayton out and Sam Hurd starting. There's still T.O. and Witten catching Romo's passes while Barber and Jones pound the Jets front-seven.

Colts (-11.5) over Falcons

Wow, this should be a dud of a game. Indy might still be banged up but these Falcons are starting Joey Harrington. I don't even see this one being close and it's good that the Colts will have an extended time off between here and their week 13 game.

Last week: 9-4-1
This Season: 67-71-9

Ouch

Fans of the Gilbert Arenas. the Washington Wizards and basketball in general took a blow yesterday when Agent Zero went under the knife and had two different surgeries on his banged up left knee. He's expected to be out for three months.

This leaves the Wizards in a bit of a bind. Even in the weak (not as weak as last year) East, the Wiz are going to have to really push themselves to make it into the playoffs without their star.

Everyone who drafted Gil in their fantasy leagues, expecting him to anchor the point and but up points in bunches will now have to look elsewhere as well.

As for Agent Zero himself, how does this affect his upcoming free agency? Coming off a season in which he missed three months worth of games and wasn't playing too well before sitting isn't going to bode well. But knowing what he can do when he's healthy almost insures that he'll receive a long, max-deal from someone around the league.

The MVPs

So, predictably, Alex Rodriguez took home the American League MVP award on Monday, yet somehow didn't manage to get all 28 first places votes like he rightfully should have. Magglio Ordonez pried the final two votes away from A-Rod and while he did deserve to finish second in voting, there should have been no comparison to how well A-Rod played this season.

Then yesterday, in a much tighter race, Jimmy Rollins of the Phillies took home the National League award, narrowly edging Colorado's stud Matt Holliday by 17 points and 5 first place votes. Rollins nearly led the Phillies into the playoffs while putting up huge, five-tool numbers across the board. Rollins hit 30 and had almost 100 RBIs — which are great numbers for a leadoff man — while hitting .296 and swiping 41 bases.

So congratulations to all the MLB award winners and now the real nitty-gritty of the offseason starts with free agent signings and the winter meetings coming up. I can hardly wait.

The jerks are the back

The headline and this clarifying sentence are all the print that the Patriots deserve.

Adam Vinatieri finally didn't blow a kick and managed to secure a tight win over Kansas City. After watching the game, it's very plain to see that there is something wrong with the Colts' offence. They need Harrison and even Gonzalez back if they want to go somewhere in the playoffs.

Cleveland won a wacky one in which Browns' kicker Phil Dawson nailed a kick through the uprights which then bounced back through onto the field. After the officials huddled up, they decided the long field goal counted and the game would be sent to overtime. Fittingly, Dawson put away the Ravens with a field goal.

T.O. grabbed four touchdowns against the Redskins who hung around with God's team until the very end. Kind of like I said how it would happen...

Michael Strahan got to Jon Kitna several times in the Giants' win but it looks like New York is going to be down two key players for at least a bit. Mathias Kiwanuka broke his left leg meaning his season is more than likely done and Brandon Jacobs left the game with a hamstring injury. And that crunch-time pass to Shaun McDonald that he bumped into the air, only to be picked by New York, was flat out awful. Where's your hands man?

So McNabb was injured and they put in Jay Feeley? What the hell? Where's the future? Where's my Kevin Kolb?

The Packers were able to keep pace with the Cowboys in the NFC hunt for home-field advantage thanks to Brett Favre out-dueling fellow old man Vinny Testaverde. Both the 'boys and the Pack play on Thanksgiving this Thursday and should be a treat to watch.

So with a short week ahead, the Thursday teams won't have much time to prepare. Good thing the schedule makers made it easy for the good teams by pitting the Jets and Dallas while giving Green Bay a surprisingly exciting match up against Detroit which could settle the NFC north race.

Finally, the afformentioned Jets, with Kellen Clemens at the helm, defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers on a late field goal. That's right, the Jets won their second game of the season and it wasn't against a scrub team. Who knows what might happen in the coming New England-Pittsburgh match up.

This week: 9-4-1
This season: 67-71-8