Super Bowl XLII

It's the biggest annual sporting event in the world and its taking place tomorrow. The NFL's championship — the Super Bowl — is set for kick off at 6:17 p.m. ET at the home the Arizona Cardinals in Glendale. It’s the Giants of New York representing the NFC against the undefeated* Patriots of the AFC and, if it all goes down like I expect it to, it’s not going to be a close game.

Sure, you can convince yourself that the New York’s front-seven will but enough pressure on Thomas Brady to force some bad throws. Sure, you can convince yourself that maybe Thomas won’t be at 100% because of his ankle injury. You can also try talking yourself into Elisha Manning turning the corner and becoming the quarterback the Giants expected him to be, or that New York’s thunder-and-lightning running game can wear down the Pats even to control the clock and game. Gambling-wise you can also remind yourself that the Patriots have won three Super Bowls by a total of nine points and that they’ve only covered two spreads since Thanksgiving Thursday.

But then you have to remind yourself that you’re wagering on Eli Manning and in the Super Bowl. Remember how Eli has those up weeks where everybody forgets that he stinks up streaks of games at a time? This is happening right now. Just earlier this year Elisha tied a record for interceptions returned for touchdowns in a game. Are we sure enough that we want to put our money on a hot quarterback who just had a week off to possibly cool down?

Another key factor is where the Big Game is being played: sunny Arizona. The past few games have been in poor conditions; in rain, wind, sleet, snow and generally cold weather. This greatly affects passing teams, even the best of passing teams. In relatively good conditions, the Patriots are set to have a great day passing the ball, despite the Giants fabulous d-line play.

And how dare Plaxico Burris make a prediction – that slowly turned into a guarantee by the media – that the Giant would win 23-17. Did he really need to fuel a team that was already hungry? It makes no sense. Don’t poking the sleeping bears you moron! And then missing two days of practice really helped back up that statement, which also gave your defence way to much credit.

Lastly, the fact still remains that for this cycle of the universe, Boston teams rule over New York teams. It’s just plain dumb to take a New York team when these cities match up any more. The Red Sox are going to be great for a long while, the Celtics and Knicks don’t even have to be discussed because Isiah Thomas is involved and then there are the Patriots. The NFL’s New York teams (Giants and the Jets) have less wins combined than New England. I think the pick here is obvious, but if you bump the line to Pats minus-22, I’d give you some action.

Congratulations New England on your undefeated* season. May you live with that asterisk forever, cheaters.

Dan’s Pick: New England (-12) over New York.
Dan’s Score: New England 38, New York 21.
Dan’s MVP: Asante Samuel

The playoffs: 3-4-1
The season: 111-117-10

And just for fun:
The tech guy: New England 24, New York 17.
The Intern: New England 35, New York 3. MVP: Randy Moss.

The Intern's Hard Wood: All-star teams '08

Amongst all the Super Bowl hoopla this week, the NBA all-star reserves were announced. While going through the list, the obvious first thing I noticed was that one of my favourites, Jose Calderon got the royal shaft and was not named to the team. This got me thinking who else is on the All-Snub team. Definitely the biggest travesty is Hedo Turkoglu not being an All-Star. He is putting up career stats and is one of the biggest reasons why Orlando is third in the East and so far this season he has already nailed three game-winning buckets. But alas, Joe Johnson got the nod even though his Hawks are six games under .500. In the west,two players also on the snub list are Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson. Both players are having great seasons and I would love to see Captain Jack and The Baron as All-Stars but in a conference with an overabundance of talent, it’s inevitable that there will be some would-be all-star casualties. But really who would you omit. The obvious choice would be David West, but in all honesty, he is having a fantastic season and the Hornets are the top team in the west. Plus the All-Star game is being played in New Orleans. He gets my vote (also, I have him on my fantasy team).

In other news around the NBA Jason Kidd has openly admitted he wants out of the swamp. Right now Dallas seems to be in the lead in the J-Kidd sweepstakes. We shall see in the upcoming weeks were this future Hall of Famer will end up.

The Spurs acquired former Memphis Grizzlies point guard Damon Stoudamire. This is a very good signing considering their current back up point guard is Jacque Vaughn and seriously it’s pretty hard to get worse then Jacque. Well, then again, there’s always Darrick Martin. Intern Out

BoSox, Yanks lose sweepstakes

I would like to extend a big thank you to the Minnesota Twins for a) not dealing one of the best pitchers in the MLB to the Yankees or Red Sox (especially Boston — could you imagine a Santana-Beckett front end?) and b) getting said pitcher out of the AL entirely.

With Johan headed to Shea, where he will no doubt anchor the Mets to the playoffs for the next few seasons barring some sort of curse, he is set to be better than ever. Imagine the best pitcher, especially a lefty, in an inferior league with a good defence behind him and a good offence supporting him.

The Twins now will have to work hard to impress their fan-base which should be devastated after giving away yet another one of their stars to a major market. It really makes no sense to get rid of Santana without putting in an honest effort to keep Torii Hunter or Carlos Silva for when they open a new stadium for the 2009 season. A lot will be resting on the surgically repaired elbow of Francisco Liriano.

The only concerns I have at this point are how Santana will be at the plate and whether the Mets will have a solid future after dealing four prospects. But anybody can be taught how to bunt, right? And the Mets can just continue signing guys while keeping around their home-grown talents (Reyes and Wright).

And these "KKKKKing of Queens" headlines regarding Johan Santana's arrival at Shea must die now. Every once in a while something as "clever" as that head graces the pages of every sports-related site on the 'net and it becomes instantly sickening. So can we be a little more creative guys? Aren't you being paid to do so? Thanks in advance should you heed my advice.

Report: Reports aren't always accurate

I'm taking a stand right now to not get riled up about reading anything that begins with "report:" any more. After reading a report stating that Orioles ace Eric Bedard had been dealt to the Seattle Mariners, the newsroom where I work went aflutter, trying to find out if it was true and trying to find someone to write about it before deadline. Well, apparently it's not even close to going through for one simple reason: the guy who runs the team hadn't even heard about it yet and certainly didn't ok the move.

Does the Bedard trade make sense? Sure it does. The Orioles would be in full rebuilding mode and still may even be able to beat out the Rays for fourth in the AL east. Actually, if the trade had gone through, the headline here would have been something like 'Jays clinch third in AL east.' Or something to that effect.

The package Baltimore is reportedly getting from Seattle includes Adam Jones who is seen as a terrific outfield prospect. The Mariners gain a good young ace to complement King Felix and they could dethrone the Angels and win the AL west with the Bedard addition.

But, this is probably not going to happen because Bedard is a guy that Peter Angelos covets; but then again so was Miguel Tejada who's lacing up his cleats for the Astros next season.

What is wrong with the NHL. Jan '08 edition

With the NHL's all-star weekend passing by, I had to write a few notes that came up explaining why hockey is dying in North America, more specifically, the states:

The slam dunk competition in hockey form. Are you serious? How dumb is it that they're holding a competition where scoring doesn't matter, people — like Dominique Wilkins — who have little-to-no knowledge about hockey, are judging and goaltenders treat the event with enough seriousness that they're rushing players and poke-checking them before they can try their moves? Yet another idiotic idea by the NHL.

How sad is it that the NHL held their all-star game in Atlanta and the majority of hotel rooms booked in the city were not for hockey fans, media or players, but for a poultry convention in town the same weekend. That's pretty much all you have to say about why the NHL is slowly fading into obscurity, especially in the southern states. Get the Thrashers out of Atlanta already.

Next season, for the second straight year, the NHL will open their season with games in Europe. This time around, Stockholm and Prague will host a pair of games each. The only problem is that the league shouldn't be worrying about marketing the brand overseas like this, they should be working on getting more people in the United States on their bandwagon. Canada's always going to have a population of hockey nuts but with the majority of the teams located state-side where popularity is dwindling, it's no wonder why the league is in rough shape. North America should be the NHL's target audience, not Europe.

Finally, while it is understandable that in pretty much any sport's all-star game, defence isn't the aspect to be showcased, it should still be brought up that these guys should at least be trying on the back end. Now, I know that hitting is "outlawed" in the all-star game to prevent injuries and I'm not saying that the teams should deploy a Devils-style trap but come on guys, you're the best players in the league and you can't show a tiny bit of hustle to get back? But this isn't so much of the NHL's problem as it is all sports' all-star games, with the exception of baseball that is.