The Sports Curmudgeon®

Today, I want to clean up a few odds and ends on my clipboard starting with the reputation St. Louis enjoys as a “great baseball town” where the fans are knowledgeable and appreciate the innovative ways of their St. Louis Cardinals. A couple of weeks ago, the new Cards’ hitting coach, Mark McGwire appeared at a team promotional event. He received a standing ovation just days after finally admitting that he had been a lying weasel for years regarding his steroid usage and continuing to deny that his steroid use played any part in his record-setting seasons. Proximal to those accolades, another former Cardinal, Jack Clark, was booed by Cards’ fans when Clark said that he had “zero regard” for steroid users whom he considers cheaters.

The Cardinals’ fans here seem to have chosen to eschew their “knowledgeable” label in favor of homerism. And booing Jack Clark for these comments means that their appreciation of Cardinals’ “innovation” is not all that laudatory. Sadly, this will not likely prevent baseball poets from continuing to refer to Cards’ fans in glowing terms. What they did here was to soil their own sheets.

Speaking of sheets, Ben Sheets was a free agent pitcher this winter until he signed with the Oakland A’s a few days ago. Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune thought Sheets might be a fit with the Cubs on the following basis:

“Oft-injured All-Star pitcher Ben Sheets would be a perfect Cub: He could win 15 games or tear his rotator cuff signing the contract.”

The LA Times reported that the Dodgers have eliminated their VIP Section for Spring Training games this year. Last year, seats for Spring Training games in the VIP section cost $90 each. For that price, you got to see a meaningless game with free parking, “food coupons”, sunscreen and “cool towels to wipe your brow. One of the Dodgers’ spokesthings told the LA Times:

“Based on fan feedback, we determined that premium seating in spring training wasn’t necessary.”

Even so, tickets for Dodgers’ games this spring will be pricey. Seats will go for between $26 and $47 for a game and it will cost $10-12 for a “spot on the outfield grass” - - where you will surely need to bring your own sunscreen and cool towels.

Rich Gosselin writes for the Dallas Morning News; he covers the NFL as a beat. After last weekend’s loss by the Vikings in the NFC Championship game, he had these two stats in an offering earlier this week:

“Counting playoffs, Favre has started 309 NFL games. He has avoided interceptions in 111 of them, and his teams won 99 of those games. His winning clip when he doesn’t throw an interception is 89.1 percent.

“But Favre threw at least one interception in his other 198 starts. His record in those games is 94-104, a 47.4 percent clip.”

Bob Molinaro of the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot had an interesting item regarding an early mock draft from Mel Kiper Jr.

“Tribal Matters: Mel Kiper Jr.’s first mock draft for ESPN has the Redskins using the fourth pick to take Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford. This could be a reach because Bradford is considered by many to be anything but a slam-dunk as a pro. It would also create an interesting situation wherein a player who is 1/16th Cherokee, but has acknowledged his inclusion in the second largest tribe in the U.S., would be playing for a team that, in the opinion of some people, features a Native American epithet for a nickname. Maybe it would be better for everybody if the Skins took Jimmy Clausen.”

Leaving aside the ethnicity of Sam Bradford and its possible clash with the team nickname, the selection of college QBs for the NFL is a dicey proposition at best. The draft class from 2006 has had some “time in the barrel” so to speak. If this were a wine vintage, Robert Parker might call it an undistinguished vintage that does not look as if it will turn into anything more than mediocre. I don’t pretend to recall every QB taken in 2006 but here are the ones I do recall:

Vince Young: First QB taken with #3 overall pick. Started out promisingly, then disappeared for a year and a half, and then played very well at the end of 2009. Probably the best of this lot.

Matt Leinart: Second QB taken with #10 overall pick. So far, he has yet to reach the level of “mediocre”.

Jay Cutler: Third QB taken with #11 overall pick. Still waiting for him to lead a team to a winning season. Has not happened since he was in high school…

Kellen Clemens: Taken in 2nd round. Last year the Jets signed Brett Favre to avoid playing him; this year they drafted Mark Sanchez to avoid playing him.

Brad Smith: Taken in a late round. Jets use him as a running back and kick returner and not a QB.

Tarvaris Jackson: Taken in 2nd round (I think). Someone said that suspense is worse than disappointment. In Jackson’s case, the suspense is over; he is in fact a disappointment.

Bruce Gradkowski: Taken in a late round. Started for a woeful Bucs’ team and started for a woeful Raiders’ team. He pulled neither team from the “woeful” level.

The 2007 QB crop wasn’t all that much better:

JaMarcus Russell: Taken first overall. If he entered the 2010 draft, I’m not sure he would be drafted by anyone.

Brady Quinn: Taken in the late first round. Has not yet wowed anyone with any of his performances.

Drew Stanton: Taken in 2nd round. He was so impressive that the Lions drafted another QB in 2009 - - that time in the first round.

Kevin Kolb: Taken in 3rd round. He is the darling of Eagles’ fans at the moment proving that the most popular person in just about any NFL city is the backup QB.

Trent Edwards: Taken in 3rd round. Decent player but hardly a star.

Troy Smith: Taken in a late round. Has not yet found his way to the field on a regular basis.

The watchword for the Redskins - - should they behave the way Mel Kiper Jr. projects they will - - or any other team that spends an early draft pick on a QB should be caveat emptor.

Finally, a note from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“Hear about a bunch of 1985 Chicago Bears getting together to film a remake of their ‘Super Bowl Shuffle’?

“Not that these guys have gotten old or anything, but music aficionadoes are calling it the birth of Artificial-Hip Hop.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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As you can tell from the headline here, I have done a few of these before. In the past, I could always count on one reader sending me a long and thoughtful response to my suggestions as to how the NFL can improve itself and its game. That reader was someone that I met in the third grade and with whom I graduated from high school. For some reason, this genre of Topical Rants resonated with him. He suggested several times that I take all of them and boil them down and offer them to a newspaper somewhere as a major piece around which that newspaper could build its football issue just before the season started. He even offered to be my editor and to help me find an outlet for the condensed tome. I will not get a response this time; my friend died just before Thanksgiving last year. Since he will not be here to read this one and comment on it, I will just dedicate it to him. RIP, Gerry…

The premise here is that the NFL is the 800-pound gorilla of professional sports enterprises in the US. It is the league that generates more revenue per contest than any other; it is the league that commands more television viewers than any other; it is the league that is run – generally – with an enlightened view regarding its position in the society and how it can maintain that position in society. In other words, it is pretty damned good just the way it is.

Having said that, there are things that the NFL could choose to do that would make it even better. Aperiodically, I offer up my list of things it could do to make itself better knowing fully that no one at NFL Hqs will break any world land speed records to make any of them happen. That realization has not stopped me in the past and will not stop me now.

I think that the NFL could make a significant improvement by changing the way that teams draw their bye weeks during the season. Teams that do not get their bye week until Week 10 will have been playing weekly football since the start of the exhibition season about three months ago. If they face a team in Week 8 or Week 9 that is coming off a bye week or is only one week removed from its bye week, the team that is still waiting for a week off is at a competitive disadvantage. There is no order to the assignment of bye weeks. In some weeks, only two teams are off; in other weeks, as many as six teams are off. I would make the following changes to the way bye weeks are assigned:

1. All of the teams would have their bye weeks in a consecutive four-week span during the season – preferably in weeks 5 through 8. On each of those weekends, 8 teams would be off.

2. The way the eight teams would be given a week off would be by division. On each of these four bye weekends, two full divisions would take a break.

3. Upon returning from the bye week, all of the eight teams who had last weekend off would face another team who also had last weekend off. No “rested” team would ever face a team “needing a rest”.

Despite the overall economic condition of the NFL – some have characterized the 32 franchises as a license to print money – there is a gulf forming in the league between “haves” and “have nots”. Such a divide is not beneficial in the long run; the league needs to find a way to assure that the now forming gulf does not become so large that teams on one side cannot ever get to the other side. The current economic climate is hardly robust; nevertheless, the Jacksonville Jaguars only sold out one game this year and the Jags were in the playoff race until Christmas; the Oakland Raiders played a home game to a crowd of 39,000 people this year and sold out only one game; the Buffalo Bills have been trying to expand their footprint – and their market demographics – for several years with exhibition games in Toronto and last year with a real game in Toronto; the St. Louis Rams played to less than 75% of capacity for the season. These are not good signs; this is not healthy for the NFL if it continues into the long term.

To an outside observer, it surely seems as if the gurus in NFL Hqs are focused on trying to establish an NFL “presence” in Great Britain given the annual game there and statements that maybe there will be more than one game per year in London in the future. I have no quarrel with a game or two played over there but there are more serious market building and promotional activities that need to be done here at home for the franchises I mentioned above and perhaps a couple of others too. Shoring up existing franchises is more important than a “UK footprint”. The NHL - - seeking a national footprint - - put teams in places where hockey just does not flourish and now faces the failure of a Phoenix franchise and serious problems with the franchise in Miami. The NHL did not stick to its knitting; the NFL should go to school on those events.

I thought this next item was something that only bothered me until I was watching a game with friends earlier this year, someone else complained about this happening, and everyone agreed with him. It has become hugely annoying when a player entreats for a penalty to be called by going through the pantomime of throwing his own imaginary flag. Tolerating such on-field behavior imports to the NFL one of the single most annoying behavioral aspects of the NBA. The league should move to marginalize such behavior by convincing coaches to get it out of the game. Here is how:

1. As soon as a player begs for a penalty or mimes throwing a flag, the referees should throw a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct.

2. All such penalty enforcements will come with the loss of a down in addition to the 15-yard penalty if on the offensive team.

3. All such penalty enforcements will be an automatic first down in addition to the 15-yard penalty if on the defensive team.

I suspect that such a new rule by the league would motivate coaches to focus on taking that kind of behavior out of players on game day. The penalties would not be easy to accommodate…

I understand the need for the NFL to protect QBs from being ravaged by defensive players. There are not enough quality QBs in the league to begin with so the NFL’s product is diminished when too many starting QBs go on the shelf for long spans of time. Having said that, the interpretation of the rules seems now to reward teams with marginal offensive lines; they leave the “protection” of their QB in the hands of the referee and his yellow flag. Take a look at teams with bad offensive lines and ask yourself why they set up in formations that have an empty backfield. Unless that QB gets rid of the ball in under 1.5 seconds, he is likely to become a turf pizza; part of his continued ability to get up from such hits relies on the referee throwing a few flags to cut down on the vigor with which the defensive players go after the QB. That seems to me to be a kind of abdication of responsibility on the part of coaches and offensive coordinators and referees should not aid and abet such abdication.

If parity is so important to the NFL, I wonder why the rules governing the injured reserve list are the way they are. Once a player goes on IR, he is out for the season. Why?

In the past, some teams “stashed” players on injured reserve - - some with only minor injuries - - as an insurance policy against a future severe injury to another player on the roster. That did not make the “stashed” players available league-wide and generally favored “haves” over “have nots”. Therefore, the rule changed such that as soon as a team put Joe Flabeetz on IR, he was ineligible to play in the league again that season. However, the season is a long one and some injuries do heal in 6 or 8 or even 10 weeks. A team would be at a disadvantage if they had to “carry” a player on the active roster for that long with no hope of production from him.

So why not allow a team a maximum of 3 players per season on a “Returnable Injured Reserve List”. These players would count against the salary cap and would have to be on this new list for a minimum of 8 games - - to include playoff games, but once they passed that point and were deemed physically fit to return to football, they could do so. Obviously, that rule would be ripe for abuse without a strict limit on the number of players who could go on that list in any given season; that is why I would limit it to no more than 3 players per team - - and I could be talked into reducing that number to 2 players per team as a way to see how the rule worked out.

I suggest that the rules governing pass coverage have tilted too far in favor of the receivers. I believe that defenders should be able to jam receivers and try to knock them off their routes within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage instead of the current 5-yard rule - - so long as the contact ends when the ball is in the air. In addition, the league needs to make it a point of emphasis for officials to call offensive pass interference in those cases where contact or “hand checking” is initiated by the receiver and not the defender.

The final area I want to discuss here is one that seemingly has drawn the attention of Commissioner Roger Goodell. As this last season drew to a close and teams pretty much knew where they would be in the playoff seedings a couple of weeks before the season ended, playoff teams ceased to try hard. Top ranked teams pulled their starting players and other playoff bound teams gave less than full effort in late season games. Pull a tape of the Cincinnati Bengals effort in their last game against the NY Jets. In the second half, I thought someone had slipped some Quaaludes into the Bengals’ Gatorade on the sidelines. They were somnambulating…

The Commish has a task force looking into ways that the league might incentivize top teams from resting their starters in late season games. One idea that floated around for a moment was that top teams would get extra draft picks if they kept their stars on the field. Say what? You are going to take top teams and give them extra draft picks? I thought the purpose of the draft was to help the bad teams get better so that parity would prevail. That is one bad idea.

I think that the NFL should view that “problem” as an assault on the NFL brand. Teams are charging top dollar for a watered down product even though the games do count; these are not exhibition season games; these are for real - - even if the outcome of the season has already been decided mathematically. The league should look at that kind of team behavior as an infringement on the value of the NFL as a brand and beat up on the teams that behave that way with the same vigor that the NFL might go after an enterprise that sought to sell “counterfeit” hats or shirts with NFL logos on them. I think this is an economic issue and not an “integrity of the game” issue as many has tried to portray it.

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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I think it was clear that the Indianapolis Colts were the better team on the field last Sunday against the Jets. Obviously, I do not have the coaches’ tape for the game, but I cannot recall a single time in the second half when Peyton Manning was hit - - even slightly - - by the Jets’ pass rush. And, in the absence of a huge pass rush, Peyton Manning and the Colts’ receivers took turns abusing Dwight Lowery, a second year cornerback from San José State.

Oh, while I was typing that last paragraph, the Vikings fumbled again…

Back about Thanksgiving, the Colts and the Saints were still undefeated and people were already beginning to “debate” the merits of the teams resting starters at the end of the season or trying for an undefeated season. In the midst of that debate, I suggested that Jim Caldwell and Sean Peyton probably knew their teams well enough that they would make a decision that would not hurt the team. However, I said that either or both coaches would be second-guessed to death unless their teams made it to the Super Bowl. Voila! The Saints and the Colts are in the Super Bowl so whatever calculus each coach used to arrive at his decision, the one thing that is for certain is that it worked.

Meanwhile, we do have to endure the Pro Bowl this weekend. As I have been watching the ESPN promo for the game where they say that “86 NFL Stars” will be on the same field at the same time this Sunday in this classic match up, I have to say that I resonate with that promo. It does not make me want to see the game - - you would need to have me at gunpoint and in shackles to get me to do that - - but it does resonate.

There are 86 players in the game and more than anything, I would like to “eighty-six” the game. It resonates…

The Pro Bowl is in Miami this year. That might lead you to believe that the Pro Bowl game would cut some slack by Greg Cote in the Miami Herald. I do not think that is the case, but you make the call:

“Miami’s only Pro Bowl selection, tackle Jake Long, dropped out because of an unspecified injury, continuing the long-standing NFL tradition of players bowing out with fake injuries because being selected is great on account of incentive bonuses, but actually playing in the Pro Bowl is worse than an anterior cruicate ligament tear.”

“I don’t wanna say a lot of players drop out, but because of the attrition, your neighbor, Fat Eddie, is now the first alternate to start at left guard for the AFC.”

Last week, I said that the story that Tiger Woods had checked into a rehab program for sex addiction had the whiff of a PR move all over it. I got this e-mail from a sometimes reader whom I will identify only as a “pressbox wag”:

“Tiger? Makes sense. He already had a swing coach; now he has one for his putts.”

I doubt that would make it into any edition of any fine family newspaper around the country so I include it here because it is meritorious. However, that leads me to pose another question for your consideration regarding the sex rehab therapy angle to this matter:

When/If Tiger Woods emerges from that clinic and ultimately proclaims he is in recovery from his affliction, will that be sufficient to rehab his public image?

On the other hand, will he need to invoke a newly focused religious commitment in addition to the secular therapeutic cure and apply that salve to his image?

People talk about the coaching carousel in college football every year for good reason. There is a lot of movement within those ranks. In fact, there are 120 Division 1-A head coaching jobs out there and of those 120 head coaches only two have been in the same job for 20 or more years now that Bobby Bowden has ceded his job to his successor. Obviously, Joe Paterno is one of them. Paterno started as an assistant coach at Penn State in the Truman administration and became the head coach in the early days of Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty”. It took me a while - - and a hint that the other college head coach with 20 years in the same position was in a BCS Conference - - to get the second member of this club. Frank Beamer at Va Tech has been the head coach there since 1987. As Tony Kornheiser would say:

“That’s it. That’s the list!”

Ooops, the Vikings just fumbled again…

In the world of college basketball, might the folks who run the Big East suggest to DePaul that the Blue Demons should consider competing in a slightly less strenuous conference? DePaul is 1-7 in conference this year having won their only Big East game a week ago today over Marquette. The last time they won a Big East game, the Dow Jones Industrial Average may have been around 14,500…

Finally, Florida International University’s record in men’s basketball stands at 7-16 in Isiah Thomas’ first year as the head coach there. A couple of weeks ago, Greg Cote had this comment in the Miami Herald:

“FIU basketball was 5-13 entering Saturday’s game. I looked to the Bible for comfort, turned to the Book of Isiah (Thomas), and read my favorite psalm: ‘Thou shalt develop an exit strategy that, lo, saves face while getting thou the hell out of here.’ “

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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I will be off the air until the middle of next week - - probably Thursday. I will be attending to some family business involving a visit to Ann Arbor to move some furniture and to see my grandson.

Check back next week, please…

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From last week’s mythical picks, I got a few gold stars and a few embarrassing moments. Here is how they stacked up:

1. I liked the Cardinals plus 7 points against the Saints. They did not even come close to covering. Embarrassing Moment!

2. I liked the Saints/Cards game to go Over 56. It did. Gold Star!

3. I was tempted by the Cards on the money line at +270. You have to learn to resist temptation…

4. I liked the Ravens/Colts game to Under 44.5. It did so comfortably. Gold Star!

5. I liked the Vikes/Cowboys game to go Over 45. The Vikes did their part but the Cowboys’ offense took the day off. Embarrassing Moment!

6. On a hunch, I liked the Cowboys plus 3 points. The Cowboys would not have covered at plus 23 points. Embarrassing Moment!

7. I liked the Jets + 7 points against the Chargers. The Jets won outright. Gold Star!

8. I was tempted by the Jets on the money line at +270. Sometimes you just have to give in to temptation to see how good it feels…

Obviously, the picks above are no better than coin flipping or asking your Magic 8-Ball what you should do. So, clearly no one should think that any further information here would be even marginally useful in selecting which side to take in an NFL wager this weekend involving real money. If you think anything here springs from a font of wisdom, I would have to say that all men sprang from apes - - but you didn’t spring quite far enough.

Comments:

Here is Meaningless Factoid #1 for the week: Brad Childress and Sean Payton are both alums of Eastern Illinois University. So is Mike Shanahan. So is Tony Romo. That is a whole passel of Panthers…

Given the way Tony Romo played last weekend, I started to wonder how long it would be until the cameras located Jessica Simpson in the stands. That must have happened when I was visiting the “facilities”.

Have you ever wondered why Jerry Glanville never made it back to the NFL as a coach after he took some time off from coaching when the Falcons let him go in the mid-90s. [He is now the head coach at Portland State.] Maybe NFL owners and GMs have taken note of the fact that he was the head coach in Atlanta when the Falcons drafted Brett Favre. Glanville was less than enamored with the selection and said something to the effect that it would take a plane crash for him to put Favre into an actual game. The Falcons traded Favre to Green Bay a year later and since then …

Speaking of “aged” quarterbacks, the story is that Kurt Warner is taking time to ponder whether or not he should retire or come back to play with the Cardinals again next season. Here is a piece of advice for Messr. Warner:

Get a real commitment from the team that they will shore up that defensive unit. If the defense continues to give up 40+ points every time it goes up against a top-shelf offense… You get the idea here.

Here is Meaningless Factoid #2 for the week: The last time the Minnesota Vikings played in the NFC Championship Game, it was 2001 and they lost to the NY Giants by a score of 41-0.

The reason the Cowboys have a “designated kicker-offer” and a regular place kicker on the squad is that the “designated kicker-offer” is not considered sufficiently accurate to be trusted with the placekicking duties. Excuse me, but Nick Folk was sufficiently inaccurate that he got his ass cut in mid-season and Shaun Suisham was less than accurate in the game against the Vikes last weekend. So, here is the question for the geniuses who run the Cowboys and the Cowboys’ special teams:

Are you sure you can’t teach David Buehler to be accurate?

If the answer to that question is in the negative then how about this follow-up question:

What do special teams coaches in Dallas do for a living?

I believe that the jury is back from its deliberations now regarding the trade that the Cowboys made with the Lions last season to acquire Roy Williams. The Cowboys gave up three draft picks - - including a first round pick - - and then lavished a large contract on Williams. Last week, Roy Williams did a very good imitation of Claude Rains with regard to pass-catching and run blocking.

Mr. Foreman, will you please read the verdict …

Reggie Bush had his best game of the year against the Cardinals last weekend. Was it due to the Cards mediocrity on defense or was it - - as a friend suggested to me last Monday - - that Bush was warming up to get out of the Superdome quickly after the game because there was someone there from the NCAA with a summons…

The Chargers’ fans cannot be thrilled by the outcome of last weekend’s game. However, those that want to see how the AFC season plays out can tune into the Jets/Colts game this weekend and those Chargers’ fans will notice that there is one aspect of this weekend’s game that is identical to last weekend’s Chargers/Jets game. Nate Kaeding will not make any field goals this week either.

However, next weekend Kaeding will be kicking in the Pro Bowl so he will probably get to try at least one field goal with nothing important riding on the outcome.

Here is Meaningless Factoid #3 for the week: Norv Turner is the only coach ever in the NFL to have won 90 or more games and still have a losing record overall.

As the NFL season draws to a conclusion, I want to bring something to the attention of the honchos at ESPN. Have you noticed how FOX, CBS and NBC manage to have their top announcing crews limited to a two-man booth? Have you noticed that ESPN’s three-man booth is significantly worse than any of the lead teams on the other networks with two men in the booth?

Memo to the “World Wide Leader”: Any chance you might find a way to fix that?

By the way, just thinking about the superiority of all those two-man booths made me realize that NBC created a three-man booth to do its doubleheader duty on wildcard weekend. Tom Hammond, Joe Theismann and Joe Gibbs represented a Marconi Migraine; they gave listeners a giant headache. The only thing that kept that crew from hitting Level 10 on the Suck – O – Meter was that it lacked Eric Dickerson reporting from the sidelines.

Jim Armstrong has this assessment of the Denver Broncos season in 2009:

“Not that the Broncos were, like, totally average this season, but their final record read like this: 8-8 overall, 3-3 in the AFC West, 6-6 vs. the AFC and 2-2 vs. the NFC. Before you go thinking they scored the exact same number of points as their opponents, they didn’t. They outscored them 326-324.”

The Games:

(Sun 3:00 PM EST) Jets at Colts – 8 (40): Shop this line. You can find it as low as 7.5 and as high as 9 at one Internet sportsbook. The most prevalent spread in 8 points at the moment. I think it is a mistake to say that because the Colts’ defense throttled the Ravens’ running game last week it will similarly throttle the Jets’ running game this week. The fact is that the Jets are a better running team than the Ravens are and so the Jets will likely be able to run more effectively than did the Ravens. I think the real question for the Jets is which QB will take the field on Sunday - - “The Sanchise” or “Broadway Schmoe”? I think the Colts feel a bit more certainty as to which QB will take the field for them on Sunday. The Over/Under line opened at 40.5 and has dropped to 40 in many places and to 39.5 in some places. Unless there is a special teams TD and a Pick-6 in this game, I do not see it hitting 40 points. If one team scores a winning TD in the final minutes to win 16-13, that will not shock and amaze me. I like the game Under 40. I like the Jets with the points. I also think a flyer on the Jets on the money line at +300 is worth a shot.

(Sun 6:40 PM EST) Vikings at Saints – 3.5 (52.5): Right at the outset, let me say that I like this game Over; I think it has the potential to go into the 70s. I also want to say that Sidney Rice may be the most underrated WR in the NFL at the present time. Having disposed of that, let me say that I have a lot more confidence in the Vikings’ defense to play with solid resistance than I do the Saints’ defense, which gives up yardage in bundles and hopes to create a big turnover. I say that knowing full well that the Vikings pass defense was in the bottom half of the NFL rankings this season; but if the Vikes can generate pressure rushing only 4 or 5 men - - as they did routinely last week - -, they should prevent the Saints from getting their signature big plays on Sunday. If the Saints can get a couple of gifts from Favre in the passing game or from Adrian Peterson fumbles, they will win here; if not … I’m going with “not”. I’ll take the Vikings with the points here because I think they have a legit shot to win outright.

Finally, Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle has given us something to look for in terms of assessing the chances that the Raiders will return to a position of prominence in the NFL shortly:

“Prediction: If JaMarcus Russell is the Raiders’ quarterback for Game 1 of 2010, Al Davis has officially kissed the Super Bowl goodbye for his lifetime.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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I keep partisan political comments out of these rants; that does not mean that I ignore happenings in the political arena. It is just that I have no interest in having any dealings with the fringe elements - - on both sides of the political spectrum - - that seem to dominate the political blogosphere. I say that to draw a clear line at the outset; I have no intention for anyone to take anything in today’s rant as a partisan political statement.

One other scene-setting note needs to be put forth at the outset. One can be sent to jail for the crime of “contempt of Congress”. Fortunately for me, there is no crime involved when a law-abiding citizen has a huge contempt for Congress; were I charged with thinking that the 535 folks who claim to be working for the betterment of the United States on Capitol Hill every day are nothing but a pack of self-aggrandizing, egomaniacal weasels, I would have to plead guilty.

Now, imagine how happy I was to pick up this morning’s Washington Post and turn to the Sports Section so that I could read about 26 column-inches on a Congressional hearing that dealt with the NFL negotiations with the NFLPA on a new collective bargaining agreement. The union says it anticipates a lockout in 2011; the league says they are working toward an agreement and thinks one will be reached in time to avoid a lockout. And, here is the paragraph that set me off:

“Rep Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) said during the hearing that ‘we need to monitor this lockout potential very closely …I certainly hope we’ll have a steady watch of this.’ “

OK, I am calmed down; I think the meds are kicking in.

Let me say that no one - - not a single member of the Congress of the United States - - should monitor the lockout potential for the NFL in 2011. Even if the member is an avid football fan, the “importance quotient” for an NFL strike in 2011 relative to the problems that should be the full-time concern of the Congress of the United States would need to be magnified a million-fold to reach the level of “Irrelevant”.

The hearing reported in today’s Washington Post was a grandstanding waste of time that should never have happened. Were I the arbiter of such things, any Congressthing who even suggested any future hearing or monitoring of this issue would spend all of eternity neck deep in scorpions.

Memo to Congress:

1. There are significant issues that you need to address in 2010. Some - - but not all - - of them are economic recovery, joblessness, two ongoing wars, terrorism, health care reform and the improved efficiency/effectiveness of the US Government agencies and departments. Keep your eye on those balls and not on baseballs and footballs.

2. Stop the grandstanding; stop the procrastinating.

3. You, members of the Congress in 2010, are not what Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Madison had in mind…

Before the medullae of my adrenal glands return to a quiescent state, let me express some skepticism about one other thing that is happening on the periphery of the sports world. I said I was skeptical; that means I have doubts about the veracity of this but reserve the right to change my mind if confronted with credible data on the matter. I am referring to the reports in the National Enquirer that Tiger Woods has entered a clinic in Hattiesburg, Mississippi for sex addiction treatment.

I understand how people can – and are – addicted to substances including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, nicotine, caffeine, chocolate and many others. I recognize that scientists have traced the chemical interactions of those kinds of substances with body chemicals to bring about changes in the brain/central nervous system and a person can come to desire those changes so significantly that the changes become necessary for their happiness or functionality. I am just not sure that sex addiction falls in the same category.

In fact, if the reports are true that Tiger Woods is actually undergoing treatment for this affliction, I get a distinct whiff of PR shenanigans here. In US society today, addicts are victims; they cannot help themselves; they need the intervention of others and support groups to keep them from returning to their addicted ways. For substance abusers, I get that; if you keep those chemicals out of their bodies, then their central nervous systems will not react in the way that brought on the addiction.

But sex addiction? Really? It seems an awfully convenient thing to claim for a celebrity with virtually unlimited resources. If he and his people can convince the public he is an “addict”, then no blame can attach itself to him and we will all be asked to bestow our pity and our support on him for what has happened so that it will never happen to him again. I will stop short of calling “Bulls*it” here - - but not too far short.

#1 son has a PhD in Evolutionary Biology/Paleontology and his focus to date has been to study mammalian carnivores. I am certain that I will get a lecture from him about how simplistic the following argument is; unafraid, I will push on… It seems to me as if “sex addiction” is an excellent survival strategy for mammalian males. There are lots more polygamous species than there are monogamous species - - even if you limit your search to the Primates. Males within Homo sapiens may not be as hard-wired for polygamy as a survival strategy as say, lions or baboons; however, it certainly appears to me that monogamy is socially and culturally imposed behavior on most men.

Now comes the important part: Lots of men have adapted to that social and cultural norm. Those men have exercised sufficient self-control over a genetic heritage for polygamy that they do not need to find ways to copulate with myriad females all of the time. Until further notice, I think “sex addiction” is a new code word for lack of adult self-control.

Tiger Woods’ treatment has been linked to comments made by a “recovering sex addict” named Benoit Denizet-Lewis. I do not know Benoit from a beignet but in his writings for the NY Times, he has claimed that the therapy offered at this clinic for sex addiction includes “group therapy sessions and family and couple’s therapy”. I am still waiting for the reports that Elin Nordegren has checked into the same clinic in Hattiesburg to be part of the “family and couple’s therapy…”

In 2010 when an athlete/celebrity does something wrong or gets in trouble, it is convenient to paint oneself as a victim of something beyond the control of the athlete/celebrity. “Addiction” to something is a clear path to “victimhood” meaning that a claim of “addiction” has a beneficial end-point. Sex addiction has a particularly attractive aspect in that one does not engage in felonious activities while succumbing to this addiction as one might with an addiction to heroin. The issues with sex addiction are moral ones - - and victim status applies a social balm to one who avers that he/she is fighting to get to the right place on those moral issues.

I cannot prove it and I would not waste a moment of time in an attempt to prove it, but the sex addiction claim makes me think it is far more about image-polishing than psychological counseling and that it has been orchestrated by the folks at IMG.

Finally, here is what Conan O’Brien had to say about Tiger Woods’ alleged check in at a clinic to treat his sex addiction:

“Actually he’s checked into three sex clinics, but they don’t know about each other.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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The NBA season is half over. Imagine that. One of the major sports in the US has played about 50% of its scheduled games and only a few sports fans have paid any attention. Think about it; if you stopped 100 sports fans on the street and asked them to name the teams in any division of the NBA and where they rank in the standings as of this morning, you would be lucky if you found 5 people who could do that. Since most folks have not been paying attention, let me bring you up to date on one issue swirling around at the moment.

There is a suggestion out there to change the way teams get into the NBA playoffs. Instead of 8 teams from each conference, the idea is to take the 16 teams with the best records and put them in a playoff bracket seeded according to record. The impetus for this suggestion comes from the woeful state of the NBA Eastern Conference where – as of this morning – there are only 6 teams with records over .500 and the “eighth seed” from the East if the playoffs were to start today would have a record of 17-24. Meanwhile in the West there are 11 teams with records over .500 and the 3 teams that would be “out of the playoffs” if they started today would have records of 21-19, 23-18 and 23-18. On the face of it, this idea seems to have merit but if there is going to be a change and to turn the NBA playoffs into a meritocracy, there would need be at least two other changes:

1. The divisional structure has to be abandoned because it will have no meaning whatsoever.

2. There has to be a balanced schedule where every team plays every other team the same number of times to assure a level playing field. My first rough calculation says that you cannot do that with 30 teams in the confines of an 82 game schedule.

Here is an even better idea - - one that has exactly zero chance of coming to pass:

Do not allow more than half of the teams in the league into the playoffs under any set of rules that the league might concoct.

Another ongoing NBA issue involves the persistent rumors that the Washington Wizards are going to blow up the squad and start over. It will take some amazing turns of fate ever to see Gilbert Arenas in a Wizards’ uniform again; there are more than a few whispers that Antwan Jamison will be swapped even up for the Cavs’ Zydrunas Ilgauskas who has an expiring contract; Caron Butler has trade value. Getting new players there should not be a problem. The problem for the Wizards is not finding someone to take Jamison or Butler; the problem is that the rest of the squad is very young and very undisciplined. Jamison and Butler provide the only “adult presence” on the team and if they disappear, coach Flip Saunders will have to be a combination coach and daycare provider.

Am I the only one who recalls that Stephon Marbury declared that he was taking the 2009/10 basketball season off to look after his business enterprises? I did not realize that meant signing with a team in the CBA - - that is the Chinese Basketball Association - - in an attempt to expand the marketing potential for his low-cost shoes. When he signed, Shanxi was the 12th place team in a 17-team league. It will be interesting to see if Starbury can change the team’s fortunes.

No, I do not know if the 12th place team in the Chinese Basketball Association makes it to the playoffs. It would seem to me that in a Communist system, everyone should make the playoffs…

In one of the myriad Batman movies, The Riddler used the line, “Riddle me this…” OK, so tell me why lots of people have jumped all over Lane Kiffen for being classless and disloyal to the University of Tennessee when he left Knoxville to go and coach USC, but those same people have not jumped all over Derek Dooley’s case when he just left Louisiana Tech to go and coach at the University of Tennessee. You will get no argument from me that Lane Kiffen has had a few “smarmy moments” in the past couple of years; nevertheless, what he did is exactly what Derek Dooley did. If one is worthy of scorn, then so is the other in approximately equal measure.

Who knew that Danny Boy Snyder was a family-togetherness activist? Clearly, he must be because of the history of the coaching staffs for the Washington Redskins while he has been the owner. When Mike Shanahan took over a few weeks ago, one of the first things that happened was that Kyle Shanahan also joined the coaching staff. That is no coincidence when you consider:

Marty Schottenheimer and Brian Schottenheimer coached the Redskins together.

Steve Spurrier and Steve Spurrier, Jr. coached the Redskins together.

Joe Gibbs and Coy Gibbs coached the Redskins together.

Al Saunders and Bob Saunders coached the Redskins together.

Too much has been made about Keith Brooking’s complaint that the Vikings ran up the score on the Cowboys last weekend scoring a completely meaningless touchdown in the final two minutes of that playoff game. I can understand in the emotional context of a “loser goes home” playoff game how a player can say things on the field that might best be left unsaid. I can even take that to the locker room for a period of decompression from a big loss. What I cannot ignore is for people to give that kind of behavior a life of its own way beyond the limits of its natural existence.

The Cowboys took all of their timeouts in the game with about 5 minutes to play and trailing by 24 points. Any rational observer would say that the game’s outcome was not in doubt at that point, but the Cowboys chose to extend the game and hope for a miracle. In no way could anyone believe that the Cowboys had waved the white flag at that point. Therefore, in any rational sense, Keith Brooking has no room to complain. In addition, in any rational sense, no one commenting on the game or Brooking’s show of anger at the end of the game should have paid any attention to his venting.

I am definitely not an “MMA guy”. I have said in the past that with all the hype and all the posing by contestants and handlers, it gives me the impression that it is the WWE with real blood in place of ketchup. Having said that, compared to boxing the folks in MMA come off looking good. Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao had the opportunity for a fight that would have allowed them to take down $20M+ apiece - - some put the figure as high as $30M. The fight fell apart because of bickering over the kind of blood tests and PED testing that might be done prior to the moment when each of them would step into a ring with the singular intention of knocking the other one senseless. That would not happen in MMA. It certainly would never happen in the WWE…

Finally, since I led off today with NBA stuff, here are two NBA related comments for your edification and enjoyment:

“The New York Knicks blamed a haunted hotel for a road loss. Seriously. Thinking that pretty much means every available excuse has now officially been spent.” [Greg Cote, Miami Herald]

“Shaquille O’Neal and his wife have split up. Was it something Kobe said?” [Scott Ostler, SF Chronicle]

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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When I was a teenager - - just prior to the ultimate extinction of the saber-toothed tigers - - Perry Como had a hit song titled Love Makes The World Go Round. Perry may have been onto something there in a general sense; but in the world of sports, it is money that makes the world go round. In the early 1970s, “Deep Throat” urged Woodward and Bernstein to “follow the money” as they sought to unravel the secrecy surrounding Watergate. In the end, they succeeded. Today, I want to look at a few “money matters” that are floating around in the sports world.

The Tennis Channel believes that it is a victim of economic discrimination. You read that correctly; the folks who run that enterprise believe that the reason they can hold a meeting of all their regular viewers in an area slightly smaller than a restroom in a McDonalds in your neighborhood is that they are discriminated against. The Tennis Channel has accused Comcast of this dastardly practice in a complaint filed with the FCC.

According to The Tennis Channel, Comcast “isolates” this programming on a premium sports tier within the Comcast lineup and gives preferential treatment to other sports-related channels such as The Golf Channel and Versus because Comcast has an ownership stake in both of those channels.

This has nothing to do with discrimination; this has to do with money. The Tennis Channel wants the broader exposure that it can get in “basic cable” without taking the lower access fees that cable companies tend to pay for their “basic cable channels”. Broader exposure might offer better ratings leading to higher ad rates for the Tennis Channel. They have wrapped themselves in the sackcloth and ashes of victimhood here, but it is only about the money.

The NFL and the NFLPA supposedly are negotiating for a new CBA. The NFL is – roughly – an enterprise that generates $8B annually. That is not bad for an enterprise that is only “open for business” five months of the year and within that “open period” it presents its product about once a week. One might think that with roughly $8B a year to apportion, it would be easy to come up with a way for everyone involved to walk away happy. Obviously, with money involved, that is not the case.

The NFLPA reportedly made a hugely sensible proposal last month – one that the league should have jumped on in a flash so that negotiations could move onto other matters. The NFLPA proposed a rookie wage scale - - a formula or a cap on what rookies can be paid - - with the proviso that the “savings” from imposing that rookie cap be folded back into the monies paid to veteran players under the general salary cap for the teams. Congress would call this proposal “revenue neutral”; I call it “common sense”.

The rationality of this proposal is unassailable. Teams would not have to fork over huge salary guarantees to new draftees who may or may not be worth a dime but can use the same dollars to pay proven performers whose contributions to a team – while not certain – are more predictable. Last year, the Lions had to guarantee Matthew Stafford something north of $40M to sign him. A couple of years ago, the Raiders paid JaMarcus Russell more than $30M to sign. At the time of signing, neither QB had played a down in the NFL and predictions of their future success were plagued by the nemesis of all predictions - - they deal with the future and not the past.

No NFL team would pay JaMarcus Russell $30M today; his performance has not been worthy of anything near that figure. The Lions probably feel as if Stafford is not going to be a “Ryan Leafesque failure”; but if someone saw performance this year indicating that $40M was a sound investment, I was not that someone. What did the league do with this proposal - - one that the NFLPA supposedly calls a “proven performance plan”? They made no comment on the plan.

Obviously, the driving force in these negotiations is the total amount of money that goes toward the salary caps that each team aims at - - and the loopholes that teams and agents can use to circumvent the cap as a hard and fast number. Once those issues are resolved, everything else will fall into place in short order. Nonetheless, it would not hurt the process to recognize a good idea when it arrives at the negotiating table even if it comes from “the bad guys on the other side of the room”.

People who watched the Eagles/Cowboys game in the wildcard round of the playoffs saw the new Cowboys Stadium. It cost about $1.5B to build it and a friend of mine expressed the idea that Jerry Jones was using the stadium as a boost to his ego by calling it “Cowboys Stadium” and not selling naming rights as did everyone else in the league. My friend thinks it is merely Jones’ way of “one-upping” his fellow owners. I think not…

Back before the new stadium opened, there were reports that Jerry Jones was shopping the naming rights for the edifice and that he was asking for $20M per year for some corporation to affix their name and logo and that he wanted a ten-year deal. With the economy in a less than robust state, he got no takers at those terms so I think he simply is holding out for better economic times to get his price.

A similar situation exists in New Jersey where Giants Stadium has seen its last days. The new stadium next door will open its gates next season - - with the Giants and the Jets as occupants - - and the name of the place at the moment is New Giants Stadium. The reason for that name has nothing to do with “linkage to the past”; it has everything to do with the fact that the asking price for naming rights is reportedly $25M annually and no one has expressed interest at that price. It is all about the money…

In Miami, the football stadium that houses the Dolphins will undergo a name change between now and the Super Bowl, which will be played there in about two weeks. That stadium has had about as many name changes as Madonna has had “partners”. I believe it started out life as Joe Robbie Stadium; in later incarnations it was Dolphins Stadium, Pro Player Park and most recently, Land Shark Stadium. Sun Life Financial reportedly bought the naming rights for $7M a year over the next 5 years and the stadium will have its name changed to Sun Life Stadium in time for the Super Bowl telecast in less than three weeks. If the deal in Miami is any kind of a yardstick for the value of naming rights these days, Jerry Jones and the folks in New Jersey may have to wait a while until the kind of money they seek shows up.

On a much smaller scale, the geniuses who run General Motors decided to end the arrangement that they had with Tiger Woods whereby they would furnish him with vehicles to drive. That is where Woods got that Escalade - - the one that managed to find the fire hydrant and tree in his neighborhood last November. Meanwhile, the fiction was that Tiger Woods drove Buicks - - yeah, right! - - as a result of the sponsorship money that GM through Buick paid to him. How effective was that sponsorship? In 1999, Buick sold just over 445,000 vehicles with their nameplate on it. Since then – and with the rub that Tiger Woods imparted to the brand – sales have declined to about 250,000 vehicles for 2009. If that looks bad, consider that Buick sales were up significantly in 2009 as compared to 2008.

Naming rights and celebrity sponsorships have always been risky propositions for corporate brands and have had dubious value in more cases than not. Just as there was a “dot-com bubble” and a “real estate bubble”, perhaps there has been a “branding bubble” in terms of the magnitude of the money thrown at buildings and celebrities to be latter day billboards for corporations. If that source of revenue shrinks or even dries up, the effect on the sports world will be significant and painful.

Since I mentioned Tiger Woods’ Escalade above, the fate of that vehicle is that it has been repossessed by General Motors and reportedly will be repaired and sold. Now if all they do is to repair the front end of the vehicle that lost the argument with the fire hydrant, it would be interesting for a new owner to get some “CSI types” to go over the back seat and rear compartment of the car to see what DNA residues might be there. Who knows? Tiger Woods may have been spending time at the local IHOP in addition to the local Waffle House. Like the song says, “Love makes the world go round…”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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Last week, I said we needed to thank the Green Bay Packers for making a game of it with the Arizona Cardinals after three blowout games on “mildcard” weekend. This week we need to say thanks to the AFC. Both NFC playoff games last weekend were colossally boring. Ignoring the score and the possibility of this-or-that other-worldly thing happening, was either game seriously in doubt at halftime? How about with 5 minutes to play in the second quarter? Both games were horribly uninteresting except to the mouthbreathers who painted their faces and bodies in the colors of the winning teams.

The two AFC games were interesting – and in doubt – into the second half. Granted, the outcome of the Indy/Baltimore game was certain earlier than was the outcome of the Jets/San Diego game, but both were far more interesting and riveting. Ergo, thank you, AFC playoff teams…

Greg Cote summarized some of the big sports news stories of last week succinctly and cogently in the Miami Herald this weekend:

“Extraordinary back-to-back revelations in baseball last week: One day, Mark McGwire reveals he used steroids. Next day, MLB reveals the Marlins are cheap and should spend more on players. I cannot recall The Miami Herald ever before running the following banner headline on consecutive days: ‘NO DUH!’ “

“The [Miami] Heat has banned card games and all gambling on team flights. Players immediately set 18-1 odds against the measure actually succeeding.”

“Answer: Herschel Walker making his mixed martial arts debut at age 47.
Question: What is the saddest thing you heard in sports the past week?”

Meanwhile, Gregg Drinnan of the Kamloops Daily News provided an interesting heads-up for people who are into sports collectibles - - and perhaps perverts of a whole different stripe - - with this note:

“The big football news this week is that the Lingerie Football League is soon to begin selling game-worn uniforms.”

The University of Tennessee hired a new football coach after Lane Kiffen split for the better climate offered in Los Angeles. By the way, Kiffen may be “all hat and no cattle” as a coach and he may indeed be a weasel, but if you had a choice to live and coach in Knoxville, Tennessee or Los Angeles, California, which one would you choose? If you say Knoxville, you probably also believe that Moby Dick was a book about venereal disease.

Having said that, how far has Tennessee fallen in the perception of the college football-coaching world? I do not know if all the people who are reported to have turned down the job at Tennessee actually did that, but the Vols actually hired a guy who had a losing overall record (17-20) and a .500 record (12-12) in conference in the Western Athletic Conference. In case you do not follow college football all that carefully, here are some of the powerhouse programs in the WAC:

San Jose State, Utah State, New Mexico State, Hawaii and Idaho.

Yes, Fresno State and Boise State are in there too, but the five schools listed above are hardly what you would call “perennial powerhouses”. Derek Dooley was at Louisiana Tech and managed to split even in his conference games. How that makes him a bona fide hire as an SEC coach is an exercise left for the student…

Before I get nasty notes from Boise State fans - - who obviously have never read anything I have written on the positive side about Boise state in the past - - let me observe that the Broncos got their second win in BCS Bowl games this year. I believe that is the same number of BCS Bowl game wins that Alabama has on its record…

I have mentioned in the recent past that the UCLA football program has come down a great distance from the heights it has previously enjoyed. If you are a Bruins’ fans, please do not look now but the UCLA basketball program is also in a bad way. Last weekend, the Bruins lost to cross-town rival, USC, by a score of 67-46. That was the biggest win for USC in that rivalry since January of 1945. As a point of reference for you, John Wooden had not yet taken the job as the coach of the UCLA basketball team back then; he did not get there until 1948. The score of that USC win in 1945 was 53-25.

UCLA is 7-10 so far this year and only 2-3 in the Pac-10. I just hope that UCLA fans do not jump to the conclusion that these problems are the result of inadequate coaching on the part of Ben Howland. UCLA has been to the Final Four in three of the past four tournaments (06, 07 and 08). In previous coaching incarnations, Howland led Northern Arizona to the NCAA tournament for the first time and then got Pitt into post-season tournaments in four consecutive years. The UCLA basketball program seems to have hit a few speed bumps this season, but the problem surely is not that Ben Howland is in over his head.

Finally, Dwight Perry had an item in the Seattle Times recently that falls squarely in the category of “so let it be written, so let it be done”:

“The husband-and-wife Hasselbecks will do a one-day job swap this month, with Elizabeth spending Jan. 19 as an NFL analyst for ESPN and Tim serving as a co-host of ABC’s “The View” on Jan. 28.

“Here’s hoping John Daly never marries a Playboy centerfold.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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Here are the pluses and minuses from last week:

1. I liked the Bengals to win and cover. They lost outright. Minus!

2. I liked the Cowboys to win and cover 4 points. They did, handily. Plus!

3. I said the Ravens had a legit shot to win outright so I took them with 3.5 points. They won outright. Plus!

4. I took the Packers with 1.5 points. They lost by 6 in OT. Minus!

That performance should tempt no one with an IQ greater than a bowl of lentil soup to take anything here has authoritative information regarding which side one should take regarding an NFL wager this weekend. Got it?

Comments:

The New England Patriots had won 11 consecutive playoff games in Gillette Stadium and had been undefeated at home this season; then the Ravens came to town. They did not merely lose last weekend; the Ravens hammered them on offense and on defense. Tom Brady is an elite QB; there is no denying that. Even with a broken finger, Tom Brady is a formidable opponent. Last week, the Ravens’ defense got him to turn the ball over 4 times (3 INTs and a lost fumble). As a point of comparison, Kurt Warner – another elite QB – playing against the Packers threw only 4 incomplete passes.

By the way, the reports that Brady played with a broken finger on his throwing hand would seem to have a basis in fact given the way Brady threw the ball. Almost all of his throws over 15-20 yards wobbled badly. That is not commonplace.

At halftime of the Ravens/Pats game, the score was 24-7 despite the fact that the Ravens’ passing attack had generated a total of 9 yards. It was the domination on the line of scrimmage that made the difference in the game.

The Jets also used a running game to win last week. Mark Sanchez outplayed Carson Palmer significantly for the simple reason that Palmer misfired on his throws on those occasions when his receivers were actually open; Sanchez hit his open receivers reliably completing 12 of 15 attempts.

The NY tabloids have fallen back in love with Mark Sanchez this week; the adjectives and adverbs associated with his name and his performance have swung wildly positive. Indeed, he played extremely well last week - - better than Pro Bowl QBs, Brady, McNabb and Palmer - - but can we please hold off on his canonization for a few moments? During the regular season, Mark Sanchez was a very ordinary QB. He threw 12 TDs and 20 INTs. In his 15 starts, he failed to go over 200 yards passing in 11 of those games. Those are not John-Unitas-style numbers. If he is really going to turn out to be a great QB, just sit back and wait for 12-24 months and you will not need to scream it out so people might possibly believe you. It will become obvious all by itself…

Given the nature of the NFL as a “copycat league” and given the success of the Ravens and Jets this year by pounding the ball in a power running game, is it possible that other teams will try to emulate that kind of play and begin a “back to basics” kind of old school offensive football next year? It will be interesting to look for that…

The Cowboys dominated the Eagles for the second week in a row. While they were more inclined to throw the ball than either the Jets or the Ravens, the Cowboys also used their running game to control the game. After the game, Jerry Jones declared that the team had exorcised all of the demons that had infested the team during its 13-year playoff win drought. This week will be a measure of the effectiveness of said exorcism…

I wonder what it is like for St. Louis Rams’ fans to watch these playoffs. Do they look fondly in a nostalgic sort of way at Kurt Warner in a Cardinals’ uniform as a former Ram or do they grit their teeth at the fact that he is no longer a Ram? Recall that there was point in Rams’ history where Mike Martz replaced Warner with Marc Bulger setting in motion the events that led Warner to go to the Giants and then to the Cardinals. Indeed, Bulger is younger than Warner but in terms of achievement, Warner is likely going to the Hall of Fame and Bulger will never be the subject in that kind of discussion.

Speaking of Warner, last week he had more TD passes than incompletions in a playoff game. I wonder if anyone had ever been done before?

The Games:

(Sat 4:30 PM EST) Cardinals at Saints – 7 (56): The Saints are not exactly on a roll. They lost their last three regular season games and had to go to OT to beat the less-than-fully-effective Washington Redskins late in the year. The Cardinals, meanwhile, just scored 51 points in a playoff game against a team with a highly rated defense. These are two very similar teams. They both have offenses that can score from anywhere on the field; they both have defenses that can make big plays - - and give up big plays. The Saints scored 510 points this year - - about 32 points per game; the Cardinals scored a measly 375 points this year - - only 24 points per game. I just do not see how this game turns into a defensive struggle. The Over/Under line can be found as high as 58 in some sportsbooks so if you are betting the total, you need to shop that line. I like the Cardinals here with the points and I like the game to go Over. I am also sorely tempted by the Cards on the money line at +270…

(Sat 8:00 PM EST) Ravens at Colts – 6.5 (44.5): Low probability events happen all the time. Nevertheless, it is not likely that the Ravens will jump to a 24-0 lead again this week and have the luxury of running the ball 75% of the time and playing defense with a big lead. Last week, Joe Flacco only accounted for 34 yards passing in that easy win over New England; I suspect that if he throws for only 34 yards again this week, the Ravens will be a bunch of unhappy campers. Here is a stat that surprises me; Peyton Manning is 0-3 when he has a first-round playoff bye. Here is a stat that is mind-boggling: the Colts converted 49% of their third down situations this season. The Colts finished dead last in the NFL this year in running the football; and against the Ravens, it would seem as if that would not be a preferred mode of attack. All that means is that Peyton Manning will need to throw more often - - and Colts’ fans should not object to that. I like this game to go Under.

(Sun 1:00 PM EST) Cowboys at Vikings – 3 (45): If you like the Over/Under here, you must shop the line. It is as low as 44.5 at one sports book and as high as 46.5 at others. The line started the week at 47.5 and has dropped in most places all week long. Brett Favre has not fared well in the past against the Cowboys; in his career he is 2-9 against the Cowboys and has lost all three times he faced them in the playoffs. By the same token, the Vikings have never lost at home with Brett Favre starting at QB. Let me channel an old-time TV show here and ask: “Will the real Minnesota Vikings please stand up?” Are the real Vikes the team that clobbered the bejeepers out of the Giants in the final game or the team that lost to the Bears and Panthers just prior to that final game? I think the team whose defensive backfield plays better will win this game. Both teams need to stop the other team from running effectively because both can do that well. That means that defensive backs will probably have a lot of man-coverage moments out there and those can turn into TDs quickly. By the same token, both starting QBs in this game have been known to put the ball in the hands of the “guys in the wrong colored shirts” once in a while. I like the game to go Over. Purely on a hunch, I like the Cowboys here with the points just because I like their defensive secondary better.

(Sun 4:40 PM EST) Jets at Chargers – 7 (42): The spread on this game opened the week at 9 points; for the line to drop two full points can only mean there was a tsunami of money coming to the Jets’ side of the ledger. I do not know if that is “smart money” or just money from a boatload of exuberant Jets fans in NYC. Here is stat that Jets’ fans probably know but I did not: the last time the Jets won two playoff games in a season was in 1982. People worried about how SoCal-boy, Mark Sanchez, might handle the single-digit wind chills in Cincy last week. There should be no such worries this week in San Diego; the last time they had single-digit wind chills there, wooly mammoths were roaming the plains. The Jets’ defense should keep them in this game despite the fact that the Chargers have won 11 games in a row and are healthy. A real key for the Jets is to emulate last week’s performance and yield zero turnovers. I like the Jets with the points here. Once again, I am tempted by the Jets on the money line at +270…

Finally, here is an item from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“Stork-market report

“Tom Schonberg of Westchester, N.Y., is such a big Jets fan, the New York Daily News reported, that he named his son Jake Edward Thomas Schonberg — as in J.E.T.S.

“Next up, no doubt: Philadelphia hails the arrival of one Ben Otto Olson.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…

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