Celtic shocker!

Did anybody outside of the Charlotte Bobcats locker room honestly expect the lowly 'cats to even stand a chance against the Celtics IN Boston? If you saw that coming you must be clairvoyant. Sure Ray Allen wasn't in the lineup and Big Baby also sat with a sore right knee, but that is no excuse to lose to a lottery-bound team when you have the best record in the league and Kevin Garnett still on the floor. So, let's not go pencilling in the Celtics for the NBA finals just yet, tonight they were proven vulnerable.

The Clemens mess

Despite everything that's been written — in and out of the Mitchell report — I believe Roger Clemens. After all, are we not supposed to believe that people are innocent until proven guilty? This stance has nothing to do with a personal bias either. While I do like Clemens and consider him the best pitcher to ever toe the slab, I'd like to see some proof before hanging him.

Now that he's filed a defamation lawsuit against the man who pointed the finger at him, Brian McNamee, we will actually get to see this whole scenario play out in a court of law. If Clemens is indeed innocent, he will be vindicated. If he loses the lawsuit and lies on the stand about his use of banned substances, then he could be facing a perjury indictment a la Barry Bonds.

And why couldn't Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes ask the best question that a lot of people want to know: "Roger, why would your supposed friend try to frame you for this?" That's the one thing that could get me to turn against Clemens. There's no 'why'. Where is the motive? We will hopefully find out soon and get this out of the way before it takes press away from the upcoming season. A long dragging case will only hurt the game of baseball further.

But out of all of this one thing is certain: This situation, as a whole, was very poorly handled.

Wild Card Wrap

The Chargers didn't even need a big day from LaDainian Tomlinson to defeat the overmatched Titans. 42 yards on 21 carries is not your average day from LDT and had Vince Young not sucked it up, the outcome may have been in his team's favour. But how different would this game have been if Pacman Jones was allowed to play? Having a good corner out there like him could have made the difference in stopping Chris Chambers and Vincent Jackson down-field.

Earlier in the afternoon, the Bucs did pretty much everything they could to give Elisha and Co. the win and the right to face Dallas next week. After looking strong — nearly unbeatable — in the first quarter, Tampa Bay proceeded to fall apart and placed the game nicely in Manning's lap. The Bucs shoddy offensive line did little-to-nothing in trying to the stop the Giants' pass rush which looked unspottable.

Now, do I believe in Elisha now that's he's won on the road in the playoffs? Hell no. I'm probably jinxing it by saying this but Dallas should tear him a new one next week. I'm looking forward to — for the first time in my memory — a team beating a rival three times in one season. And let's all remember that the only road game that New York lost this season was in Dallas.

This week: 1-2-1

Wild Card weekend

What a great finish to the Jacksonville - Pittsburgh game. First, Big Ben leading his team back from 18 down to grab a one point lead. Then David Garrard marching the Jags down the field — including a sick fourth down scramble — to set up a gift-wrapped, chip-in field goal. If it weren't for that failed two-point conversion that the Steelers botched, we would've seen a great overtime showdown. This game was the perfect example of why playoff football is better than any other type of game. The intensity, the physicality and the emotion were all topped up. Right down to Big Ben waiting around for Garrard to finish his post-game interview to congratulate him. You would never see Tom Brady even think about doing that.

Did anybody honestly think that Todd Collins would keep his hot hand going in Seattle, arguably one of the toughest places to visit in the NFL? There was a reason why this guy was riding the pine for the past ten years. If you pinned your money on a 36-year old back up quarterback against a team that is somewhat good, you might be an idiot.

I'm just going to bring this up briefly because I'm sure I could go on about this for a long, LONG time; Bill Belichick winning the coach of the year award is every bit as despicable as Shawne Merriman making the Pro Bowl last year after being suspended for steroid use. How does someone who was caught cheating and admitted to it awarded for his work? Anyone who voted for Belichick should mark down Barry Bonds on their hall of fame ballot when it comes in the mail. Thanks for supporting cheating everyone.

The man who deserved to the coach of the year the most was Green Bay's Mike McCarthy. What he's done with the youngest team in the league is nothing short of remarkable. Jacksonville's Jack Del Rio deserves some credit as well for his fine job in Jacksonville and Tony Dungy has had a lot of injuries to deal with this season and still has Indy on the right course.

As for today's games:

BUCS (-3) over Giants

Eli Manning on the road, more than likely playing without his usual starting centre is not good for the Giants of New York. They do have a chance if Elisha can limit his turnovers and their powerful defensive line can knock around Jeff Garcia which is entirely possible considering the Bucs are on their third string left tackle now. But Garcia has a habit of beating the Giants in the playoffs and I see that continuing.

Titans (+10) over San Diego

The way I see it is that Tennessee actually hung with the Chargers in San Diego a few weeks back and legitimately could have won the game. I also think that it would be better for the Titans if Kerry Collins starts in place of Vince Young. But, I really don't believe that the Titans can actually win this game. I just think ten points is too much to be giving in this match up.

This week: 1-0-1
This season: 111-117-10