More Basketball and All

This is a lousy way to end the NCAA basketball tournament. A Final Four composed of four teams that I really don’t want to win it. If Ohio State wins, more teams may decide that Big 10 basketball is the way to go. It isn’t the way to go. A win by Georgetown means way too much face time for the elder John Thompson. I don’t think that’s good for anyone. UCLA gets in, and here comes all the re-deification of John Wooden with no mention of how dirty his program was. If Florida repeats, we get Yoakim Noah simultaneously whoring himself to the camera and wondering why no one likes him. I used to wonder how someone that unattractive could have been spawned by a Swedish beauty queen, but then I saw this picture and began to realize she might have some hidden genetic problems. Overall, I just wish they would all lose, but I’m not predicting anything. My picks suck.

There’s another Final Four going on that I admittedly hadn’t paid attention to except to note that LSU is in the women’s Final Four even though their head coach abruptly resigned before the tournament started when it was discovered that she apparently did a former player. By “did”, I mean she apparently coached her down instead of up. Actually, word is that there was more than one. I’m assuming the appropriately named Pokey was having her “inappropriate relations” while the former player(s) was an active (no pun intended) player. Truthfully, I am curious to know who it was because I would like to see if she was worth throwing away a very lucrative career for. UL just hired a women’s basketball coach for $300K a year. Pokey had Final Fours on her resume, so she just lost a lot of money. Then it was how it was portrayed. I guess nothing should surprise me, but the level of support for Pokey within the press is pretty astonishing. From blaming LSU for the problems to glowing bios to my personal favorite – a story telling how LSU's tournament resilience is a tribute to Pokey. What? After years of fending off Pokey's advances, LSU was great at team defense? Give me a break. The fact that these reporters are tip-toeing around this story is a bit ridiculous. You know full and well that a male coach caught laying pipe to one of his female players would be crucified. And rightly so. I never thought college professors should mess with students, and I don’t think college coaches should mess with their players. Too much area for abuse.

I almost forgot. There was another Final Four this week – the NIT. Actually, there may have been a women’s NIT, but I’m not 100% sure that it really exists. There was a time that the NIT was as big as the NCAA tournament, because it was played at Madison Square Gardens while the NCAA was played in places like Kansas City. Then the NCAA squeezed the NIT into the background. Then they bought it to keep it from going under (presumably for the same reason they sanction enough bowl games for every team over .500, more teams in the postseason). They were supposed to improve the product, but much like every other thing the NCAA does, they screwed it up. Case in point, West Virginia won this year’s NIT, but the T-shirts provided by the NIT spelled it “West Virgina”. If they were going to misspell it, they could have at least made it interesting with “West Virginney” or “America’s Butthole”. Give it a spark. Or at least be more descriptive.

One last point on Tubby Smith’s job change. Originally, I thought the reason for his move was because he let the talent level drop and didn’t want to be stuck with it next year. Then I heard his son Saul was going to be hired there as an assistant, and it makes even more sense. Nobody in Lexington liked Saul, so no way he could ever be Tubby’s successor at UK. Minnesota’s a different story. Bet Tubby won’t have a problem dumping his staff with the Gophers. At least the ones who might be between Saul and the head coaching job when Tubby’s ready to retire. Hell, I bet youngest son Brian transfers from Ole Miss to be Minnesota’s starting point guard in 2008.

In other sports related news, I got great news the other day. Joe Theismann has been bumped from the Monday Night Football with Ron Jaworski taking his place. Unfortunately, Tony Kornheiser will still be there so I’ll probably still have to have the volume down. I wish they would replace him with pretty much anybody. Well, except Joe Theismann. A cinder block would be acceptable though. Since I watch a lot of college football, I was concerned when I heard that because he was still under a general contract with ESPN, Theismann might be moved to NCAA games. Fortunately, he says he won’t do college games, because “he’s an NFL guy”. I forgot how fundamentally different the college game is from the NFL.

Now, this was an odd story. A Toledo football player was busted for trying to bribe teammates to shave points for a local gambler. The oddity is that enough money was bet on Toledo football games to make bribing players worthwhile.

Okay, this is odder. They had hooligan riots in Greece over women’s volleyball. And apparently, it’s not the first time. Kind of proves my point from before. Americans don’t take sports near as seriously as other countries. I’m hard pressed to recall our last volleyball riot.

Who's Next?

Well, Tubby has left the building which brings up the question – who’s next? Dick Vitale said Minnesota got the better end of the deal with Tubby moving there, but Dick's a moron. How can you rate who got off better when UK hasn't hired a replacement? Contrary to popular belief that good coaches will avoid the pressure of a UK job, I think most would love to have teh fan support, facilities and salary that go with UK basketball. Several names have been put forth. As a UL fan, my suggestion would be Saul Smith. He’s probably available. One person who has already declared himself out of the race for UK head coach is Rick Pitino. Of course, coaches routinely say they aren’t interested in another job without meaning it, plus he’s liar and a mercenary so I wouldn’t put anything past him. He did say it was because he’s too old to switch jobs, but he left out the fact that his roster at UL looks a lot nicer which is really why. Actually, I was shocked by two things – how many UK fans want him back and how many think he will actually be back. I think that may be Tubby’s greatest accomplishment. He got UK fans to forgive Pitino. As for Pitino going back, I find that unlikely. Have UK fans forgotten all the traitor based nicknames they gave him? The signs at Rupp Arena telling him how much they hated him (and his wife)? Do they think he doesn’t know what fanbase was spreading the rumors that he was leaving his wife to move in with a cheerleader he knocked up? The rumor that his trip to the Cleveland Clinic was because he had AIDS? Might have been some burnt bridges from that one.

Obviously, Billy Donovan is the first choice. Wonder if Vitale would still think UK lost something if they get Donovan, his title (and maybe another next week), and three Final Fours? Some people think UK doesn’t have a shot at him. Along the lines of “why leave a good thing without the pressure.” One columnist guaranteed Donovan wouldn’t leave because he is building a legend at Florida, and why make a move that entails higher expectations. To begin with, that’s silly. Ambitious coaches like Donovan believe they can win anywhere. Even though high profile college coaches often struggle making the jump to the pros, new ones keep trying. As for Florida being a better job than UK, he’s nuts. Being a legend in Florida basketball is slightly better than being an American legend in curling. I think Florida only sold out a few games this year, and that was in a 12,000 seat arena. UK gets twice that for Midnight Madness. Florida is the defending champs, but they only took 500 people to their first round game in New Orleans. UK probably took more to Maui. Sure, the UK coach has to deal with some wackjobs, but he also has de facto home games in the tournament. Florida’s AD says he’ll fight to keep him, but can he? The problem in getting into a bidding war with UK is the question of whether or not Florida is willing to alienate football coach Urban Meyer by paying their basketball coach more. Not likely, so Florida will have to pay out quite a bit in money to keep both happy. Donovan might like being at Florida (where girls from Playboy date basketball players), so he could just be using UK’s interest to get a pay bump, but I don’t think he would rule it out of hand.

Of course, if Donovan doesn’t take the job, there are some other candidates. Like Saul Smith. Two guys they should consider are Rick Barnes and John Calipari. Barnes is in the same situation at Texas where he plays second fiddle to football, so he might be interested in moving. He did a good job taking a mediocre Texas program to the Final Four and turning them into a yearly contender. He certainly can recruit. Calipari probably won’t even be asked because his rep is sketchy which is something I've never figured out. The only NCAA problems were at UMass, but that was Marcus Camby taking money from a wannabe agent. It was determined Calipari didn’t know anything about it, and common sense says he wouldn’t want some two bit agent around. The thing with Calipari is he can recruit and coach. Look at his present team in Memphis that was a solid 2 seed in the tournament. Only one senior on the roster which means almost all of them agreed to go there knowing all the other good teams in CUSA were going or gone. And his players just flat out play hard for him. As for coaching, I’ll never forget that UMass Final Four team. It’s only legitimate star was Camby. Donta Bright was the only other high recruit. Only four other players ever saw the floor much - a garbageman forward, one guy off the bench and two Puerto Rican guards. That year, UK had one of the most loaded college teams of my generation, but they lost to UMass in the regular season and had all they could handle beating them in the Final Four. I’d love to see what kind of team he could put together with UK’s resources. So, as a UL fan, I must say Calipari is an evil man and UK shouldn’t associate with those types. However, it's probably not an issue because while I think Calipari would take the job in a heartbeat, I doubt he even gets an interview. And he probably knows it which is why he says he's happy at Memphis.

If Calipari is ignored and the other two say no, there are plenty of others. Tom Izzo is a stretch (he’s from Michigan), but he’s a winner and may want a change of scenery. Thad Matta has been a success everywhere and look where he’s got Ohio State. Plus, he’s always shown a willingness to leave a team. Only problem with those two is Big 10 basketball is boring. That’s why Tubby-ball will fit in. A couple of younger guys who might get looks are Jay Wright at Villanova and Billy Gillispie at Texas A&M. Both have done well enough that you wonder what they could do with UK’s resources. Travis Ford and John Pelphrey aren’t ready. Two names that I heard some UK fans mention on sports radio were Coach K (no, I won’t spell it) and Bob Knight which reinforces my belief that too many UK fans haven’t got a clue about basketball outside of Kentucky. I’m surprised I didn’t hear Roy Williams’ name. Some people are set where they are.

There is one guy whose name hasn’t really come up much who I think would be perfect for UK, and I’m being serious. If I was UK, I would go to Knoxville and get Bruce Pearl. He doesn’t have a long time connection to UT, so what would hold him there? Some people might think he should show more loyalty since he’s only been there two years, but Tubby was at Georgia only two years before moving to UK, and apparently I’m the only one who doesn’t think Tubby’s a saint. I’ve watched Pearl since I was at Kentucky Wesleyan, and he coached our biggest rival Southern Indiana. The guy can coach. He has at every place he’s been. He finished ahead of UK in his two seasons at Tennessee. He took over a 14-17 UT squad that lost its two leading scorers and was pretty much Chris Lofton and a bunch of nobodies. They won the SEC East his first year. With UK having a thin roster next year, a coach who can win with little talent would be handy. He’s already putting together top recruiting classes, and hiring him not only means they’ve got a good coach, it means UT doesn’t have him. I think the sky is the limit for him at UT. It would be even higher at UK.

But it’s not just coaching. Pearl’s personality indicates that he can handle the pressure that comes with coaching UK. The fact that he would go to a woman’s game with his chest painted gives me the impression that he won’t shun the fishbowl existence. He’ll embrace it. That was half Tubby’s problem. He found his media responsibilities to be a chore (although happily accepting the part of his pay that comes from media responsibilities), and fans to be a hindrance. The fact that he said he thought UK had a good season after the SEC tournament shows he was really out of touch with his base. Pearl won’t be. He’ll promote the Hell out of the program, and he’ll also do something that made Pitino quite popular here. He’ll tell the fans what they want to hear – UK is the greatest job on earth. He may not mean it, but he knows how to play the game. So, you have a guy who can recruit, win and win early, and keep the fan base happy. Why doesn’t he get more mention?

Don't Let The Door Hit You

I must say I am surprised. I said Tubby Smith wouldn't be fired or resign, but it never occurred to me that another school would offer similar money to what he was making at UK. I guess people will overpay for name recognition. As a UL fan, I’m sorry to see him gone. Especially now that we’ve gotten the excessive whining that the people of Kentucky care too much about basketball to the detriment of more important things. Mark Story of the Herald-Leader wished more people cared who would be the next governor (but I'm sure he wants people to continue reading the sports page so he can keep his job where he gets paid to watch basketball games). Pardon me for not spending my time looking into the minutiae of Bruce Lunsford's opinions on the tax code. Truth be told, most people understand fundamental differences between the parties which is why they don't obsess over politics. They generally have a pretty good idea what they are looking for, and besides, elections are infrequent while basketball is always there. Plus, I find it ironic that anyone from the Herald-Leader is complaining about uninformed voters when I've found their coverage of candidates to be pretty damn sad. They'll have a page where they list the responses from the campaigns to a handful of generic questions without any real in depth coverage so you can’t really find out their stands on smaller issues. Basketball is much easier to get information on.

So, is Kentucky too obsessed with basketball? I don't so. Contrary to popular belief, Americans are not that wacked out when it comes to sports. At least compared to other countries. Try watching a soccer game in Latin America. A soccer match sparked a war between El Salvador and Honduras (probably one of those boring 0-0 ties). U.S. cities sometimes have riots after championship games, but in Europe, they have a lot of soccer fans who travel to away games just so they can riot. So, while I will admit the state does have a basketball obsession, I don't think it's that big a deal. Sports are pretty easy for the regular person to follow. Besides, is it better to be obsessed with basketball or blonde bimbos who suddenly drop dead (I want to state for the record that I am not the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby) and US Weekly covergirls who have problems wearing underwear in public?

The funnier part of the whole episode was the belief that Tubby Smith leaving was somehow unprecedented, but that's crap. It doesn’t happen so much in basketball, but that’s because UK is one of the few schools that have such a strong basketball orientation. There are a lot in football. Bill Curry left Alabama for UK after a 10-2 season that ended in the Sugar Bowl. Smith won 76% of his games at UK plus a national championship. At Miami, Larry Coker won 80% of his games, a national title and went to three BCS bowls in six years. He even changed the image of Miami as they no longer dominated police blotters as often as the AP polls. He just got fired for the same reason people bitched about Smith. The program was declining, and the future no longer looked bright. In fact, Coker had a better record, but less time. Yet, while there were some who questioned it (like me), there wasn’t the hyperventilating that happened when Tubby left (and he left on his own). So, no, this is not unprecedented.

We've also got the argument that Smith was treated shabbily. Sorry, I almost never feel sympathy for someone making millions of dollars. I don't care what kind of spotlight or pressure is on them. That attention to their position is the reason they get that kind of money. So deal with it. If he left because he wanted to coach a place with lower expectations, UK is better off without him. This is big time sports. You don't want a coach who wants to take it easy. As for high expectations at UK, why is this seen as a problem? He makes $2 million a year. What other business pays their top man more than just about all their competitors and then doesn't care if he keeps the team on the top? I think the closest case to Smith is Lloyd Carr who been head coach at Michigan since 1995. He’s also won 76% of his games, a title, been to four Rose Bowls, never missed the postseason and been a coach in some capacity at Michigan since 1980. Yet, there are one or two websites devoted to firing him, because he’s recently struggled in bowl games and has fallen behind conference rival Ohio State. Substitute tournament for bowl games and Florida for Ohio State, and you’ve got Tubby Smith. So, other schools have these expectations.

I think that is the point a bunch of people were making that floored me. They said Smith one of the best coaches in the country and was a classy guy. Is Smith a top 10 coach? I don't think so. What are you measuring? He has a title, but so does Rollie Massimino. Coach K, Bob Knight and Jim Calhoun are active coaches with multiple titles. There are several more with one title, but more than one trip to the Final Four. Tom Izzo, Billy Donovan, Jim Boeheim, Lute Olsen and Roy Williams come immediately to mind. Plus, there are some without titles who I believe have coached better than Smith because they weren’t taking over a team at the top like he was. Smith took over a program that had just been to two straight title games. I think Rick Barnes getting a mediocre basketball program at a football school like Texas into the Final Four took better coaching. Ben Howland just hit his second Final Four in four seasons at UCLA. Yet, look at what Smith has done since the title? Yeah, he makes the tournament every year, but so what? UK had been to three Final Fours in the previous five years of his tenure, so maintaining a tournament presence for 10 years is a minimum. Does anyone think if Pete Carroll left Southern Cal that if their next coach won a title in his first year, but never made it back to a BCS bowl, he wouldn’t be on the hot seat?

Now is Smith a classy guy? He doesn’t seem like a bad guy, but I certainly don’t consider him some moral paragon in coaching. In fact, he has shows a lot of traits that get other coaches criticized while he often gets a pass. When the first NCAA Academic Progress Report came out two years ago, UK basketball was 63rd which would be fine if it was out of all division I basketball schools. However, they were 63rd out of the 65 team tournament field. Earlier this year he locked out callers on his call in show. He took Marquis Estill off scholarship because he over signed a recruiting class. He conveniently “found” a fax that got Randolph Morris eligible again. I’m still trying to figure out how he got the Commonwealth Attorney’s office to hold off prosecuting Wayne Turner whose car was used in a hit and run. Oh right, the tournament was starting, and that could have been a distraction. He supported UK’s (admittedly stupid) athlete alcohol policy as long as baseball players were in trouble, but got it done away with once his players started getting in trouble. Which was quite often. Not once, but twice Smith had teams so out of control that they were nicknamed Team Turmoil. His players feared his discipline so little that when he declared he’d had enough, two of them got busted for using fake IDs to get into a bar the next day. His idea of discipline was to kick Corey Sears off the team for getting beat up on the team bus by Gerald Fitch, but never did much to Fitch who was constantly in trouble. Difference? Fitch was a much better player. It doesn’t make Smith necessarily a bad person. Just no better than any other coach who looks the other way while trying to win.

Actually, the way Smith left was anything but “classy”. Some people are still insisting he was forced out, but the evidence makes it pretty clear that wasn’t the case. Hell, apparently UK didn’t even insist on changes to his staff. When he went to Minnesota, he didn’t even have the common courtesy to call the UK administration or possibly even his players. They found out from media reports. Then I found out his agent had been talking with the Gophers for six weeks. Go back six weeks on the UK schedule and you find an 18-5 UK team about to face Florida. Then they finished 4-7. Not saying Tubby was mailing it in, but when you have to start little used walk-on Dwight Perry in a tournament game because you put his name instead of his cousin Bobby Perry’s on the lineup card, you either don’t care anymore or you’re incompetent. Plus, look at the shape Smith left UK in. Randolph Morris signed a contract within a day of Smith leaving which means he was already in negotiations. Smith was probably aware of that. As I’ve mentioned before, without Morris, UK is probably going to struggle next year. So, Tubby’s half-assed recruiting has put UK in this position, but he takes off for Minnesota so that the new coach gets blamed for the mess he leaves behind. In fact, I think this is the reason Smith really left. He saw the roster and knew he probably couldn’t do enough to save his job next year, so why not go elsewhere and get five years with a fresh start?

Truthfully, I don’t do it often, but this time I’ll stick with the UK fans. Smith wants to be paid like a big time coach, but doesn’t want the expectations that go with. So, he puts a program in decline and leaves. I’m not convinced he’s going to do all that great at Minnesota. Remember, he’s coached at two major conference teams, Georgia and Kentucky. At both schools, he peaked his first year with someone else’s recruits. I’m not saying that I agree with Gregg Doyel who thinks Smith will be a miserable failure in Minnesota, but he is dead on about one point – if Smith can’t recruit at UK, who is he going to get to go to Minnesota? The assumption is that the type of recruits he got to UK may not have been good enough for the Wildcats, but he can be successful with them at Minnesota. Only thing is will he be able to get the same recruits at Minnesota? Maybe teh Sheray Thomas' of the world, but do you really think Tayshaun Prince and Keith Bogans would have gone to Minnesota instead of UK to play for Smith there? Look at his last ditch recruiting efforts at UK, Patrick Patterson and Jai Lucas. Both have indicated they probably won’t consider UK without Smith (bet that changes if Billy Donovan ends up there), but I notice neither is even considering Minnesota with Smith there. Since his style fits in the ugly Big Ten (and the Big Ten sucks right now), I can see Smith putting together a team good enough to contend for an occasional Sweet Sixteen, but I think Smith may be in for a rude awakening if he thinks the expectations will be really low. The coach he's replacing had a winning record at Minnesota, and a school that commits that much money to a coach won’t be satisfied with an occasional Sweet Sixteen.

NCAA First & Second Round Thoughts

I'm actually doing quite well this year even with my first round upsets flopping for the most part. VCU and Winthrop winning the first round wasn't that big an upset because Duke and Notre Dame were seeded too high. However, round two was really good to me as I got 14 out of the Sweet Sixteen correct. Even better, I still have seven of my elite eight alive. Damn Texas screwed me. I was concerned they relied too much on Kevin Durant, and to be honest, I had no idea Southern Cal was that good. I hope they stay good enough to beat UNC and bust up some more brackets. My best pick of the whole tournament so far has to be UNLV. For one, I had seen them play a few games, and they were better than a seven seed. Plus, I thought the Big 10 was trash, and Wisconsin was an overrated team that build up a nice resume only by beating up scrub Big 10 teams. That's why Ohio State is the only Big 10 team left, and quite frankly, they should have lost to Xavier. If Xavier's Justin Gage hits both free throws with 9 seconds left, it's a four point game. Actually, if the referees had the guts to call Greg Oden for a intentional foul (you can't really say someone is going for the ball when they body block someone four feet out of bounds), the miss wouldn't have mattered because Xavier would have had the ball. Then those dickheads from McCarthy's would have gone home unhappy.

Well, I was right about the local teams not making it past the weekend. Eastern Kentucky almost embarrassed themselves by getting down 27 points in the first half. Then they completely redeemed themselves by pulling within four points in the second. Unfortunately, they couldn't hold on and ended up losing by 19. Still, it was an impressive comeback and further shows North Carolina's weakness in holding a lead. The future looks bright for Eastern Kentucky as they made the tournament for the second time in three years, and they did it with only one player who played in both games. Previously, Eastern hadn't been in the tournament since 1979. Of course, coach Jeff Neubauer could now be hot property to move up just like his predecessor Travis Ford. So, who knows where the program goes.

Louisville surprised me by playing Texas A&M as well as they did. I knew they would beat Stanford, because Stanford had two 7 footers and crappy guard play. I thought they would have a lot of trouble with the Aggies who have one of the best players in the country in Acie Law IV. UL still made a game of it with a chance to go ahead on free throws with 30 seconds left (both missed) and again on a last second three (missed). They stayed in the game because they had a ton of screaming Cardinal fans in attendance, and Edgar Sosa scored 31 points. By scoring 31 points, Sosa kept the ball out of Terrance Williams' hands which means he couldn't jack up a bunch of stupid threes. Since I consider Texas A&M to be a Final Four caliber team, a three point loss to them isn't exactly devastating. Especially since the future looks so bright. Assuming no one transfers or makes a stupid jump attempt to the NBA, the only senior who did much was Brandon Jenkins, and he spent much of this year hurt. Their late season spurt was keyed by four freshman who needed maturing, and I expect as sophomores, they will really step up. If they do, and David Padgett and Juan Palacios don't die from another series of freak injuries, I think UL will have one of the deeper, talented teams in the country next year.

Unfortunately (not for me, but for UK fans), I don't think things are too bright for UK. They did have a good win over Villanova, because they kept feeding Randolph Morris instead of taking stupid, hurried shots (completely surprising me). They acquitted themselves pretty well against Kansas, although even when they pulled within four points in the second half, it really didn't seem likely they were going to come all the way back. Especially when Morris got into foul trouble and Bradley, Crawford and Meeks reverted to the stupid, hurried shots. Actually, I think UK did well considering how bad a matchup Kansas was for them. I said before that UK has enough talent to knock off a big boy, but I thought they needed to play their best game and have a bad one from Kansas to pull that off. Actually, I was surprised how many people thought UK was going to upset Kansas. It wasn't just the doofus at McCarthy's (UK's stout perimeter defense held Kansas to 63% shooting from the 3 point line), a woman I work with guaranteed at the end of the Villanova game that UK would beat Kansas because "they wanted it bad". Yeah. Kansas wins by 40, while UK outlasts a decent, but not stellar Villanova team. Only one of those teams really wants it. That's like me saying Phil wants a hooker without herpes really bad, but Jon doesn't care what she's got (strategically placed comment to enrage Phil; unconcerned about Jon who can't control his punches and only attacks garbage cans). Rick Bozich of the Louisville Courier-Journal actually thought the "March pressure" would get to Kansas after being bounced in the first round the past two years. Excuse me? While I don't really believe it, media reports have probably convince the UK players that they are playing for their coach's job. That's pressure. The fact is that Kansas has the kind of player UK used to have about 10 years ago (and lots of them). UK's only chance was to turn it into a half court game and feed Morris. They did and still lost by 12. They just don't have the horses that Kansas has. Besides, I just saw Kansas come back from a huge deficit to win the Big 12 tournament. Lately, I've been watching UK come from ahead to lose to the Mississippi States of the world.

And I'm not sure if UK will have the horses next year. The big problem is that Morris came on strong to finish out the season, and he can sign with an NBA team at any time. I don't know that he will, but it's certainly a possibility, because I'm not sure if his stock will be higher. If he goes, UK is in trouble unless they can get some recruits. That means their only centers would be Jared Carter, a redshirted project that I almost forgot was on the team, and an incoming freshman whose name I forget and looks like another project. The lose the only two power forwards who got much playing time in Bobby Perry (who had moments) and Sheray Thomas (okay, they might be better off without him). Smith apparently doesn't like Perry Stevenson, because his playing time dwindled bad, so I wouldn't be all that surprised if he left. Well, unless they don't get Patrick Patterson, because then Stevenson will be the only power forward on the roster. They bring back Joe Crawford, Ramel Bradley, Jodie Meeks and Derrick Jasper, but that's not necessarily a good thing. None of them seems to be a true point guard which means another year of turnover city unless they can pick up recruit Jai Lucas. If they can keep Morris and pick up Patterson or Lucas (or even both), I think UK will be about the same as this year (best case scenario). If Morris bolts, and they pick up Patterson and Lucas, I think they slip into the NIT. If Morris bolts and they don't get those two recruits, I'm not sure the NIT is in the picture next year.

After watching four days of basketball, I like my Kansas pick even more (which means they on't win it all). Florida and North Carolina took a while to put away Purdue and Michigan State. Other top seeds have struggled. I think talent-wise that Kansas has the athletes. It's kind of interesting that the ACC was rated the top conference this year, but North Carolina is the only one left. The SEC and PAC-10 are doing well with three teams each. The Big 12 and Big East have two each. The Big 10 has one which means they tie the ACC. And also the Mountain West (UNLV), Conference USA (Memphis), Horizon League (Butler) and Missouri Valley (S. Ill.) who all have one team still alive for the Sweet Sixteen. Of course, it's even worse for the Big 10 and ACC. The four mid-major teams combined to beat four other mid-major teams, plus four teams from major conferences. Those four major conference wins were over a Big 10 school and three ACC schools. Does this mean the ACC is a mid-major conference?

Basketball, Bagpipes, Buckeyes and Beer

It was pretty ironic that I flew to Miami to watch Louisville play a football game, but when the basketball team played in their NCAA tournament games in Lexington, I only made a token effort to find a ticket. Actually, I had valid reasons. Stanford was garbage and had no business being in the tournament, so paying $153 for a full day pass when I probably wouldn't have been able to make the other three games didn't make economic sense. I did look around for a ticket for Saturday, but (unfortunately, as I was to later learn) Ohio State fans had flooded Lexington to go with a very large contingent of Louisville fans. I wasn't going to pay an inflated price, especially since I hurt my knee bowling (my first bowling related injury) and sitting in a tight ass arena seat designed for someone half my size with a knee that wouldn't bend completely didn't seem too appealing. So, I took a two hour lunch and watched the Standford game at Donato's.

I did watch UK's first round game at McCarthy's Irish Pub with a bunch of people from work where a couple of Ohio State fans showed up and turned me into a big Xavier fan. Pretty sad because the first Buckeye fan I ran into there was a nice guy representing his state well. Then, Tweedledum and Tweedledumber showed up. First they wanted to argue basketball (take heart Tubby Smith fans, they said Tubby was one of the best coaches in the country, but they waffled when I asked if they would trade Thad Matta for him). I was kind of surprised they wanted to talk trash about OSU refusing to schedule Xavier in the regular season, because Xavier wasn't on OSU's level. Real bright. Last year was Ohio State's first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1992. Real good basketball pedigree there. Xavier made the tournament nine times since 1992. Then the dickweed said Xavier had no shot of staying close with OSU (Xavier makes a late free throw, they win in regulation instead of losing in OT). If it weren't for the fact that I would have to see him again, I would have taken his 12 point spread. Then, the Dumbass Duo started arguing with a Michigan/UK fan because they were too stupid to realize all the UK fans were going to side with a cross-bred UK fan even though I'm still not sure what Michigan can crow about since they lost in the NIT and fired their coach. Then to top it off, these guys practically dry humped a couple of girls in our group before being invited to take their little party elsewhere. Needless to say, they were making the more obnoxious UK fans look good.

Well, the UK fans were looking good until "The Guy" showed up. This is the type of person who makes normal fans cringe with embarrassment. I know because all the hardcore UK fans in my group were praying to God that he would leave. To begin with, he was demonstrative to the point that you thought it was more for show as he would get down on the floor and pound it with his hands just because UK hit a shot. For God's sakes, he cheered when UK called a timeout because they got trapped. He was completely wasted, and he wasn't a funny drunk. He was a dumb drunk who stumbled around and kept getting in the way. Apparently, he was unaware that it really wasn't that crowded in there (it has TVs, but isn't the best place to watch basketball) or loud, because whenever he felt like talking to you (which was constantly), he leaned in to yell in your ear. That wasn't the worst part about him leaning in and opening his mouth. His breath was. At first, I thought he was drinking something funky, but I don't know of any alcohol that leads to that stench. My next thought was he had eaten something with a lot of onion flavor, like maybe a bag of onions. Or maybe he just likes to eat ass before going out. Or maybe he was talking out of his ass, because he made the statement that UK has more talent than any other team in the country and would win it all because of their perimeter defense. Not real sure what planet that theory came from. While UK may have enough talent to upset one of the big boys, I can't see them beating more than one of them. Fortunately, he developed a man crush on one of the others in the group, and I could avoid him.

One cool thing about the night was that the Irish Defense Forces Pipe Band showed up. They were in town for the St. Patrick's Day parade and decided to do a little impromptu concert at the local Irish pub in their full regalia. Which is great because I love to listen to bagpipes. They figured out the local customs pretty quick too. They knew to wait until after the basketball game before going on. They bitched about going outside to smoke. And they had a ready answer to the question about what they were wearing under their kilts (they said it was some form of flip-flop which I didn't stick around for a better description).

Sadly, Lexington doesn't seem to be too smart about hosting NCAA tournament games. The St. Patrick's Day parade still went off at 1:00pm which is about the same time that the first game at Rupp Arena began. Didn't anyone look at the calendar and think about moving the parade a couple of hours earlier? Then, there was the Weekender section of the Herald-Leader which listed places to go for out-of-towners coming in for the games. Under the "places to go dancing", they listed one - The Bar. I'm beginning to think that place has the Herald-Leader on retainer because it was also mentioned prominently in an article about how gay-friendly Lexington is. It would have been one thing for the paper to list them under places to dance, but it's quite another to not list any other place. Since I can't dance, I don't know the dancing hot spots, but I'm pretty sure there have to be others. I'm also pretty sure that your average Ohio State fan who wants to dance still doesn't want to a gay bar. I'm very sure the average Xavier fan wants nothing to do with a gay bar.

And I still haven't mentioned the tournament much. Most years I have a few questions about the choices the tournament committee makes, but this year, I couldn't believe a couple of the decisions. As I already pointed out, Stanford (18-12) had no business in the tournament. Sure, they had a couple of nice wins in the PAC-10, but they lost to Air Force by 34 points. This team was so confident going into the tournament that they left their pep band, cheerleaders and mascot at home. It wouldn't surprise me if they had Friday plane tickets. Another team that had no business being in the tournament was Arkansas. Not only were they fourth in the SEC West, they finished 7-9 there, and I don't think any team should get an at-large bid if they had a losing record in conference. I can think of about eight teams offhand that I would have put in before Arkansas (Miss St, Ole Miss, Drexel, West Virginia, Kansas St, OK St., Air Force, Syracuse), and I don't care if any of these teams didn't do squat in the NIT. It's a nothing tournament. A lot of teams that thought they were tourney bound don't want to be in the NIT. They've seen Girls Gone Wild. They want to go on spring break, not to a tournament no one will remember two days after it's over. Sure, the NC States of the world get up for it. They struggled before turning it up late, and this is something to build on for next year. Syracuse is the team that really got shafted. They were 10-6 in the Big East with wins over Georgetown, Marquette and Villanova. I wouldn't just put them in ahead of Arkansas or Stanford. I would have put them in before Arizona, Purdue, Illinois, Georgia Tech, Villanova, and Texas Tech.

Now, the luckiest team in the country was Louisville. Rick Pitino said that playing their first round game at Rupp Arena was not an advantage. Then his nose grew about six inches. How can he say this crap with a straight face, and how does anyone believe it? No team had a first/second round site closer to their home gym than Louisville, and their first round opponent was coming from California for a 9:30 Pacific time game. No wonder Stanford didn't bring anyone. It was a straight up home game for UL. Some people thought UK fans would go just to boo Pitino, but how many UK fans would spend $153 to boo someone, especially when they can probably re-sell the tickets with a nice little mark-up to UL and Ohio State fans? Texas A&M really got the shaft. For now. Why should a 3 seed have to play a 6 seed in what was basically a home game? I think having a home game feel is the main reason UL almost upset the Aggies. Of course, now Texas A&M has the advantage over 2 seed Memphis (assuming Memphis beats Nevada) because their Sweet Sixteen game is in San Antonio.

And I can't talk about the tournament without mentioning CBS' piss poor coverage. To begin with, the audio sucked on Saturday. The volume kept going down, then back up, then down again. I'm beginning to think they forget they have the ability to show replays. During the Ohio State/Xavier game, Greg Oden was called for basket interference, and instead of showing a replay to see if it was a good call, we got to watch OSU coach Thad Matta scream at the refs. Five minutes later, they finally show a replay, and it was a good call as the ball was in the cylinder. Then, at the end of the half, Oden did it again, but this time it wasn't called. One of the retarded announcers then said it shows the calls even out. So, the correct call in Xavier's favor needs to be offset with a bad call that goes against them? How stupid is that? Then there was the schedule. Okay, I understand that the local affiliate isn't going to flip to another game when UK is playing, but why not do it with other games? UNC and Michigan State were going at it in a back and forth game, but we had to watch a brutally ugly Indiana/UCLA game (although they did eventually switch, but at that point UNC had pulled ahead). And in Lexington, we should be in good shape for game watching because WKYT apparently has an arrangement to show games on the CW channel too. Yet, I don't know how many times I flipped to CW to see if a better game was being shown, and the same game on WKYT was on. Don't they coordinate this crap?

Pre March Madness

A few days before March Madness begins, and I still don’t know who to pick to win it all. There’s been too much mediocrity in college basketball this year. At some point during the season I was high on Florida, UNC, Kansas and UCLA. Then all, but Kansas picked up some ugly losses although Florida and UNC redeemed themselves in their conference tournaments. I think the Big 10 sucks so I don’t trust Ohio State or Wisconsin. Some second tier teams have warts like Memphis (CUSA schedule) and Texas (while Kevin Durant is incredible, Texas is too dependent on him). So, does that leave me with Kansas? I don’t know. They were knocked out of the NCAAs in the first round the past two years which concerns me. However, a year’s seasoning may make a difference. One drawback to Kansas doing well is every time they mention their starting center, the song “I Feel For You” will run through my head. Piss on it. I may go with Georgetown.

One thing I do know is that I’m not predicting a local team past the Sweet Sixteen, if they are lucky enough to get there. Louisville had been on a roll to end the season, but started showing their bad habits in the Big East tournament. Actually, I still wasn’t sold during their winning streak, because most of it was against scrubs. Unless bubble teams Toothless Redneck Central Tech and Syracuse get a bid, UL would have only beaten two teams (Pitt and Marquette) who are considered NCAA locks. And they needed a miracle three pointer to beat Marquette. Now, considering that earlier in the season, UL dumped games against Dayton and UMASS which questioned their ability to compete in the Atlantic 10, I’m pretty happy where they ended up. At that point, I didn’t think they would make the Big East tournament, let alone the NCAA. Still, I don’t see a big NCAA run, because they are not mentally tough. They’ve let too many teams come back when they’ve had a big lead because they stop doing what got them the lead (mainly Terrance Williams starts jacking up bad three point shots).

On the other hand, UK is just mentally inept. They protect the ball about as well as a crackwhore does her dignity. They struggle to hold a lead against bad teams while letting good teams build an insurmountable lead. They just find a way to lose. The loss to Mississippi State is UK basketball in a nutshell this year. I won’t get into whether the lane violation call should have been made (I think we all know there is a grand SEC conspiracy against UK because the last thing the league wants is UK playing on the weekend of the tournament), because the Bulldogs aren’t very good, but UK just couldn’t put them away. Then, on the last play of overtime, they didn’t even get a shot off. Really, does UK even run plays out of a timeout? Ironically, while watching the first half of UK/MSU at work, we were discussing whether or not Edgar Sosa walked at the end of regulation when tying up the UL/WVU game (he did since three steps is a violation even in the NBA), and my boss said I should feel lucky because UK wouldn’t even have gotten a shot off with only 4 seconds left. Then, an hour later, no shot.

While their 3-6 record to finish the season has some people listing UK as a bubble team, I will be very surprised if UK is left out. Of course, based on their digression at the end of the season, I will also be very surprised if they make it past the first weekend. Which brings up the big question – What happens to Tubby? Actually, nothing. He may be forced to change his assistants, but he isn’t resigning (why lose the $4 million buyout) nor will UK take the PR hit and fire him. This isn’t Mike Shula getting canned by Alabama a year after a 10 win season, because he only had one good season there. To begin with, Smith does have the title, is two years removed from an Elite Eight and has never missed the NCAA tournament at UK (assuming I’m right about them getting a bid in about an hour). That alone would make firing him hard, but the real reason is Adolph Rupp U. is not going to fire their first black head coach with that kind of record, especially a year after Glory Road came out. So, unless we find out Smith has been having an "inappropriate relationship" with Sheray Thomas (which would explain how Thomas averaged almost 20 minutes per game), he’s not going to get fired.

I’ve actually been surprised by the lack of real anger at Smith for another rather depressing year. Most UK fans I know are just resigned rather than pissed. Sure, you get such fun groups as the Dynasty Defenders and the irate hillbillies may not have access to message boards and radio talk shows probably screen the truly angry so not to lose access to UK athletics (Tubby’s show just stops taking calls), but I still think the reaction has been subdued. Sure, I wasn’t expecting a cross burning in Tubby’s front yard. Okay, maybe I was, but outside of one newspaper ad and Dave no longer singing that Tubby’s the best black coach in America, it’s pretty tame. I remember when Bill Curry was at Alabama. Forget his UK career for the moment. In three years at Alabama, Curry won the Sugar Bowl and compiled the highest winning percentage of any Bama coach in the post Bear Bryant era. Yet, people were hiring moving vans to go park in front of his house because they were so unhappy with him.

I think the only way Smith goes this year is if UK flames out in the first round, Mitch Barnhart publicly insists on specific changes and Smith says no. So, does Tubby need to go? Rick Pitino says no, but Tubby’s his former assistant, plus the longer Tubby coaches UK to relative mediocrity, Pitino’s record at UK looks better and better (ironically, Pitino is struggling to beat him while at UL or it could be worse for Smith). Truthfully, if he coached UL, I would want Smith gone. There is a list being emailed around comparing Tubby’s UK career with Pitino’s (win percentages, games ranked in top 10, Final Fours, etc), and what’s remarkable was how poorly Tubby’s record compared even when the two years UK was on probation are included in Pitino’s record. Tubby took over a team that had been to back-to-back championship games, won a title and hasn’t been back to the Final Four since. Since then, they’ve been just as likely to have a team mired in controversy as a good one. Tubby says he’s the man to get UK back to the top, but he didn’t really do it the first time. It’s been a gradual slide since, and they’ve often been pretty ugly to watch too. So, why would I think Smith is the one to turn it around? Yet, as a UL fan, my suggestion is sign him to an extension.

Another Ski Trip Recap

Once again Phil has chastised me for not writing up the ski trip. Apparently my various mentions in my Super Bowl recap were insufficient. As he pointed out to me on the phone, everyone wants to read about the ski trip. I notice when he finally posted about it, he got five comments over the next two days. Of course, I also noticed two West Virginians who complained about his lateness in posting have blogs of their own that haven't been updated in quite some time. Still, as everyone knows, I hate to disappoint Phil, so I have decided to whip something up about the ski trip while watching the UL/Marquette basketball game which I don't expect to hold me up for a week and a half.

Ski Trip Factoid - UK is 1-3 since beating Arkansas during the ski trip. UL is 3-1 since losing to Villanova on the same day. What does that mean? Probably nothing.

All in all, it was another fine time. On the trip down, the Indian (Asian type, not Native American) selling Megan Hendicks cold medicine at Walgreens was willing to tell me how to make crystal meth. He seemed to be flirting with Megan so apparently he had learned early that the easy way to pick up girls in eastern Tennessee was to know the recipe for white trash crack. Fortunately, that stop also caught us back up with others who stopped for overpriced coffee at Starbucks. This allowed me to follow Jon through the backroads which means if we had hit a Klan rally and bad things happened to Brett, it wasn’t my fault.

Cabin situation - I had originally planned on irritating Phil by carping all weekend about going from one giant cabin to one big one and two small ones over the hill. But a good samaritan talked me out of it by saying Phil wasn't taking it too well (and I also forgot about it pretty quickly). So, based on that, I won't complain about it here, because Phil didn't take it too well as he got drunk early and tried to kill himself in the hot tub. I think I speak for all of us when I say that I'm happy Phil didn't drown. Do you realize how much explaining you have to do when the cops show up about a dead body? Plus, I know people would have called me insensitive for insisting that we carry on with the ski trip (Phil would have wanted it that way). Oh yeah, and we'd all miss Phil, be very sad at his passing et cetera, et cetera. But, God, think of the paperwork.

Actually, I can't really complain too much about the accommodations. Sure, it was a pain in the ass to walk to the other cabin when it was dark out because you had to avoid construction equipment and a port-a-can. Solved that problem Saturday night by going back to the cabin at sunrise Sunday morning. The good thing was I had a bed to myself and my roommate, Vic, didn't snore on the futon. The one drawback to the room was the lack of curtains when the sun came up. Plus, there wasn't a door so anyone could walk in and jump on a sleeping Vic. Then, you never know who you end up in bed with. On the plus side, not having a door meant that unlike Griffin (you know, I'm still not sure if that is a first or last name), I wasn't going to have to move to a couch after a paranoid Amber Whatever-Her-Last-Name-Is-Now takes my room with a lock because she's convince people are out to get her. Ironically, she was right as Matt was out to get her at five in the morning.

Ski Trip Factoid - Phil wasn't the only one to drunkenly climb into the loft the first night. When I got in that night, I saw Vic where Phil had been earlier and was concerned that Vic hadn't seen him and fallen asleep on top of Phil. Rather than wake Vic (who might be cranky when he wakes up and take it out on me), I climbed into the loft to see if Phil was there because it was the only place I figured he might be. I didn't actually see Phil, but I figured the lump was him, and the ladder was pulling away from the wall so I didn't check further.

Speaking of Matt, I don't know what the big deal was. So, he got drunk, fought with everyone, scared Amber into hiding, broke Phil's camera and a wall, got his face markered, passed out anywhere and everywhere and kicked my nose when he and Vic tumbled over the couch. It happens to all of us at some point or another. It wasn't like he peed off the balcony (I don't think) or tried to drive the forkift next door (it wouldn't start). I was happy Vic was on the trip because I knew there he was a Louisville fan which was welcome in a house full of bluebellies. I didn't realize he would become the designated bouncer. When I heard screams of “Vic, Vic, Vic”, I had flashbacks to “Steve, Steve, Steve” from Springer’s show. Maybe we need to get a “Security” shirt for him next year. Actually, Matt was easy to handle. When he rubbed his (thankfully clothed) ass on me, I just pushed my chair back, yanked on his shirt and watched him fall on his ass. Drunk people have poor balance. Which is why people think I’m perpetually drunk when in fact, I’m just clumsy. But Matt’s behavior did show me the true meaning of a loving marriage when Kara cleaned the marker off his face while he was passed out. Either that or she was trying to protect herself from being viewed as the woman married to the guy with the stuff written on his face.

Ski Trip Factoid – I was glad that Phil posted pictures from the previous ski trips because I have to see the group shot of ski trip IV to believe that Kevin Belcher was actually there.

Once again, there was a video. Usually, this is Phil’s pride and joy, but this year he wanted people wasted before it was shown. It was a bit shorter which Phil seemed to blame me for. Among other things. The video did include two mentions of me. I was fine with being compared to future robots that are beer swilling smart-asses even though I can out-drink and out-smart-ass any robot made. Now, being compared to Ben’s anus was a little hard to take. And Phil wonders why I don’t trust him on videos.

I don’t know why people went to bed so early. Sure, late nights of drinking could lead to someone letting others messing with their hair, but it also means that you miss when people mess with Marc’s hair. I blame the hair gel incident on Neighbor Dave because I was taking “truth” every time in Truth or Dare, but he said I should take “dare” which led to a bunch of crap in my hair. But I survived. Besides, sleep is easy to catch up on. I averaged about fours a night, and I was fine except for a heart palpitations I would have as I finally went to sleep. I even went into work for a half day (1 hour of actual work and dozing off the other three) on Monday. I used to think my ability to stay awake was due to the massive amounts of coffee I drink. The lack of coffee on Sunday pretty much shot that theory down.

Ski Trip Factoid – I don’t think Dave Schanding still believes Tubby Smith is the “Best Black Coach In America”.

Well, I wasn’t too perturbed to see Gatlinburg Idol and the Pool Tournament go by the wayside. I can’t sing (at least not well) so karaoke is not something I should engage in. After the broken pool cue incident of last year, I probably should stay away from pool tables. At least the Newlywed Game hung around another year. Granted, I’m a spectator because I wouldn’t go along with Phil’s silly notion of everyone being a contestant. I certainly wasn’t going to pair up with Brett, especially when so many answers involved private parts being in odd or not so odd places. Still, I wasn’t near as uncomfortable by that request as I was the first two days when Phil kept demanding I take my shirt off. What is he, a retired basketball player from England?

Now, there were some games that gained popularity this year. Darts seemed to pass pool, and cornole no longer meant a sex act illegal in Muslim countries. Then there was Guitar Hero which will probably be the ruin of relationships everywhere. I’m not ashamed to admit that I wasn’t very good at it. It called for two handed coordination which is apparently not my forte. Then there was that game (I’m still not sure if it was Password or Catchphrase) that drove me friggin’ nuts. When the word is “Picasso” and my clues are “Pablo” and “painter”, how in the Hell does someone come up with Escobar?

Yes, fun for the whole family.

The Super Bowl: A Retrospective

I thought it might take me longer to get around to a Super Bowl recap, but snow has intervened. My wussy bowling league postponed tonight’s games before it even started snowing. So, after a meal of frozen waffles and Vienna sausages (I haven’t shopped for groceries in two weeks, was too tired after coming back from Gatlinburg and I figured the panic prone populace of Lexington would be looting the stores of food at the first mention of snow today), I’m sitting down to recap the Super Bowl which with the extra time and some help from my good friend Evan Williams could be a really long one. I'm beginning to think that Super Bowl Sunday is now my favorite holiday which means Phil and I have the same favorite holiday since it falls on ski trip weekend. Are you happy that I incorporated a ski trip reference? Actually, it was another fun year (in spite of having to walk down the street to my bed which goes against my anti-exercise philosophy), and I want to think Phil for again setting it up. And I also want to think Megan H. for staying awake on the ride back (unlike Phil and Brett last year) which helped keep me awake so that I didn't run off the road killing us both. Too bad Jennifer Miller missed the trip or I might have said something nice about her. But I digress. Really this is more random thoughts about the pregame, commercials, game, whatever than a full recap.

Looking back at the Super Bowl, I still can’t get over the colossal ineptitude shown by one of the main participants. For the love of God, this is the Super Bowl and some moron is turning it into amateur hour. This is when the professionalism of the NFL should be on display, but instead we get a staggeringly atrocious performance of a bumbling fool. Who the Hell decided Phil Simms should be the color analyst at the Super Bowl? How does someone declare before the game that the wet ball won’t affect anything then blame every mistake (possibly including all the ones his son Chris made whenever Texas lost to Oklahoma) on the wet ball?

The irony with the Phil Simms pregame comments is that Steve Young said the exact opposite (you know, that a wet ball is harder to handle) on the ESPN countdown show (which aired about 10 hours before the Super Bowl). It’s pretty much par for the course since despite having Michael Irvin, ESPN has always had better pregame than CBS. The only relevant info that came out of CBS’ pregame was that Stevie Nicks has aged badly. In fact, the only worthwhile part of the whole pregame show was the poignant segment about the early deaths of Bear running backs Brian Piccolo and Walter Payton and the lasting impact they had in Chicago. Since the original Brian’s Song is one of my favorite movies, and Payton was my all time favorite NFL player, I simply can’t make a smart ass remark about that segment. In fact, it was too bad that I was the only one in the room watching it (you jerk-ass drunks). Or maybe it was better that way since something, probably the dust in the cabin, was making me misty eyed. Or maybe it was caused by Melissa smoking two cigarettes at once.

Then as if to prove that CBS can botch a human interest story, they trotted out Katie Couric to show why CBS Evening News is in the ratings toilet. In an effort to promote that worthless wench, they let her do a piece on Hines Ward’s trip back to Korea. Of course the trip was almost a year ago and every NFL show throughout the season reported on it. Outside the humor of them using subtitles when Ward’s mother was speaking English (shouldn’t they do the same for Shannon Sharpe or maybe just let him stamp his foot?), it was a pretty piss poor segment. If that’s the kind of poorly done schmaltz that Couric is doing for CBS News, I don’t see them getting out of the gutter anytime soon. I’m sure Dan Rather could have come up with some photocopied documents to prove that Ward is related to Kim Jong-il to make it more interesting. At least I wandered off during Cirque Du Soleil because I’m sure I’m the only football fan who doesn’t care about crap like that.

Billy Joel did a nice job with the national anthem. I have always preferred the traditional singing of the national anthem rather than someone "making it his/her own" or else forgetting the words. It probably means they kept Joel away the pregame open bar.

Random thought completely out of left field - Whose version of Amanda is better: Waylon Jennings or Don Williams? Waylon is top 5 as far as my favorite singers. Williams isn't that far behind. Yet, even then, I think the nature of the song almost calls for the more subdued vocals of Williams over Waylon.

Oh, and there was also a game being played which I must say was the most poorly played Super Bowl I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen a lot of games played in the rain that didn’t include this much bumbling around. I think the grass was the leading tackler for both teams, and players treated the ball like it had herpes. Four turnovers in one quarter. Back-to-back fumbles. Twice. Hey, we’re all professionals here. Let’s put it this way, the Colts won, and while doing so, they had three turnovers, missed a short field goal, botched an extra point, false started about three times, blew a challenge because somebody counted 12 players instead of 11 and let a kick returner tip toe through them for 95 yards and a touchdown. Ironically enough, this was the Colts’ first Super Bowl win since 1971 which was called the "Blooper Bowl" because of how many turnovers and penalties and screwups occurred. I guess the long term Super Bowl tradition for the Colts is to hope the opposing team makes two more mistakes than you do. Also ironic is this crappy game was the second most watched Super Bowl ever.

Should I consider Dan Marino a product placement when he works for the network carrying the Super Bowl and the designated coin flipper? Obviously Adam Vinatieri should have watched the CBS pregame show when Marino said it hit heads every time he tossed it in practice. Vinatieri called tails and later missed a field goal. Coincidence? Probably.

There are certain commercials that should not be on a Super Bowl broadcast. The salesgenie.com (no, I will not link that crap) commercial shouldn’t even be aired during a public access high school football broadcast. I was all set to go out and buy Doritos after the funny car crash Doritos commercial, but immediately changed my mind after the ugly people having sex at the supermarket one. On a side note, I think I speak for everyone when I lament the lack of that John Mellencamp song in a commercial. I haven’t had a good ear bleed in a while.

CBS also did a great job with the audio. Normally, I don’t really pay attention to player interviews, but I do think if a network is going to waste time showing them, at least make sure the sound works. Of course, I was beginning to think they only had three cameras in the whole stadium considering how long they stayed with one that had rain all over it, so audio and video were a problem. Maybe next year the CW channel can get the game.

Peyton Manning won the Super Bowl MVP which isn’t surprising since most of the sportswriters were probably wearing a Manning jersey under their barbecue stained, ill fitting polo shirts. However, a lot of people (including the NFL) thought Dominic Rhodes was going to get it which was foolish on their part to think that on field performance should trump the better storyline. I realize I’m biased because I think Manning is an ass, but I really don’t believe he did anything to merit the MVP. Reason #1 Manning didn’t deserve the MVP: He accounted for two of the Colts’ three turnovers with an interception and botched handoff to Joseph Addai.

While there were a lot of people giving Rex Grossman the credit for such an awful display of football, I prefer to start higher up the food chain. What the Hell was Chicago thinking with their game plan? Or execution? Or time management? Or decision making? Coach Lovie Smith joined Tony Dungy in burning a timeout with a challenge that was unlikely to be overturned (showing he did learn something from coaching under Dungy). I’m not real sure how smart it is to blow a timeout because the play was a "backbreaker". Sure, it worked for the Chargers earlier in the playoffs when they didn’t have an extra time out for Marty Schottenheimer to make a decision. A missed field goal is probably less embarrassing than whatever Marty would have called, but most teams find having timeouts late in a game to be a good thing.

Reason #2 Manning didn’t deserve the MVP: When Cedric Benson fumbled, Rex Grossman dove into the play trying to recover it. When pansy ass Manning fumbled the handoff to Addai, he tiptoed away like a little fairy so he didn’t have to make a play for it.

The Bears certainly ran a stellar offensive game plan. That running game thing sure didn’t work as Thomas Jones only averaged 7.5 yards per carry, so let’s scrap it and throw deep. Everyone knows long passes by an error prone quarterback are the best option in a downpour. At least everyone on Chicago’s coaching staff. Most of the rest of us thought short passes and runs were a better idea. Really, what’s the worst that can happen, Grossman drops back, falls down and turns 2nd and 1 into 3rd and 13? At least the Bears figured it out late when they tried to run a hurry up offense with no timeouts. Nothing like draw plays and short passes in the middle of the field when you’re down 12 points and only have a couple of minutes left. They also had about as much pizzazz as a wake. No reason to run a trick play (or, Hell, even a screen pass) when your offense can’t move the ball. On a side note, does the fact that I capitalize Hell mean I'm more religious than I thought?

Between the two guys eating the Snickers from both ends and the guys washing a Chevy HHR means this Super Bowl had the gayest commercials ever. Editor’s note: on the drive down, Megan and I were behind an HHR and neither of us could figure out what one was. Sadly, I had to find out by watching a commercial with guys in their underwear washing one.

Reason # 3 Manning didn’t deserve the MVP: I think they should have gone with what happened after the Colts won Super Bowl V when they gave it to Chuck Howley on the losing Dallas team. That game was so poor, they gave it to the player with the most impact regardless whether his team won. I think a Chicago player had the most impact (in all seriousness, I don’t mean Rex Grossman). After Devin Hester’s touchdown return to start the game, the Colts completely changed their kickoff philosophy to the point they were willing to let the Bears start around the 40 yard line than take a chance of Hester running one back. I’ve never seen a player have that much of an impact when he’s only going to be handling the ball a few times (those on the ski trip might remember I said to put him in at quarterback and have him run from the shotgun). Did Dungy think he was going to run 6 kicks back?

The defensive gameplan for the Bears was just as spectacular. All week, every analyst (including former coaches and players) said that Peyton Manning would do well against the Cover 2 defense because he can throw underneath. I realize the Bears run the Cover 2 defense which is putting safeties way down field to take away the big play (you know, so Reggie Wayne isn’t 30 yards behind every defender), but they don’t run it all the time. They had two weeks to prepare. Why not come up with something new? Actually, they did. It was the Cover 2 on steroids. It was almost like they were running the prevent defense (which ironically struggles to prevent anything). Let’s put the safeties way back, the linebackers way back and the corners, well you get the picture. That means five offensive linemen are blocking four defensive lineman with virtually nothing behind them. You only have to go 10 yards, so any play that gets past the line of scrimmage is halfway there, and not that hard to do when they aren’t stunting or blitzing. It’s actually pretty easy to go on long time consuming drives that way. But, it does take away the long pass (unless no one guards Reggie Wayne) which is the staple of every team in a downpour. Well, every team from Chicago. Chicago’s defensive coordinator actually said they didn’t expect the Colts to pull back their offense. The fact that they ran the ball more in the playoffs than the regular season is no reason for the Bears to think they keep doing that when it was raining. And when the Colts did, the Bears made no adjustment. Is Dallas really considering Ron Rivera for their head coaching job after that little admission?

Reason #4 Manning didn’t deserve the MVP: He threw for 247 yards on 38 completions with a touchdown and pick. Whoo-hoo. A lot of players (maybe not Grossman) can throw for 247 yards against a prevent defense. Outside of the Wayne touchdown on a blown coverage, I can’t think of any memorable pass that Manning completed because most were dumpoffs right over the middle where no one was due to an inept gameplan. Addai had 10 catches (Wayne & Harrison combined for 7). Picking apart a defense isn’t hard when you’re throwing 6 yard outs and the defense is 15 yards back.

However, what happened when the Bears couldn’t play Cover 2? The Colts marched right down the field constantly, but they only managed two offensive touchdowns, and one was a screwup. The four other times they settled for field goal attempts. I have this bizarre theory that the short field meant that the linebackers and defensive backs weren’t way back so there wasn’t a half mile of empty space for the Colts to play in. Maybe if the Bears had tightened things up, the Colts wouldn’t have been marching up and down the field. Maybe the Bears’ defense doesn’t wear down. Maybe they get more offensive opportunities. Scratch that. Maybe Hester gets a chance to run back a couple of punts.

Reason #5 Manning didn’t deserve the MVP: 1 for 6. That was the Colts’ red zone efficiency. That’s how many times they scored a touchdown in the red zone. Once the Bears linebackers couldn’t stand 12 yards off the line or scrimmage, Manning struggled to move them.

And with all the celebrities in commercials, who thought Robert Goulet would have the best one.

Random thought completely out of left field - I think I just heard the song Violent Femmes song Blister In The Sun playing as background music for a Burger King commercial. Now, I realize that it's probably an urban legend that the song is about the "sin of Onan", but should a company like Burger King (Sanskrit for lousy food) use a song that a lot of people associate that way?

Let’s see, Tony Dungy’s such a boob that he apparently forgot that kicking it out of bounds would put it at the 35 instead of giving the ball over at the 40. He wasted a timeout and challenge because he couldn’t count. Yet, Lovie Smith was completely outcoached by him. I already pointed out the flaws in the gameplans, but the worst part is he changed what was working (running the ball) but not what was failing (Cover 2 defense). I still can’t believe they didn’t seem to factor in the rain at all. Making the Super Bowl was going to skyrocket the price of his contract extension, but this performance should bring that back to earth. I don’t want to give too much credit to Dungy although not kicking to Hester shows how to make an in-game adjustment. The Bears had no offense, and were giving up a ton of yards on defense. Yet, for all the talk of Colts’ domination, it was a five point game until Grossman’s fourth quarter interception.

I must also mention Prince's halftime performance when he didn't seem to actually get wet in a driving rain. Nice rocking performance. Reiterating a theme from the Orange Bowl, I don't know why they had to drag a marching band onto the field. People pay $125 to watch a Prince concert. Why do you bring in something that few people would actually pay to see? Still, it was an enjoyable 12 minutes. Some people bitch about the NFL now picking halftime shows that aren't newer acts, but that's pretty silly. The Super Bowl doesn't need a hot pop act to draw viewers. In fact, anyone who only watches for the halftime show isn't going to pay attention to the rest. I remember when Ashlee "Coattail" Simpson was booed while singing halftime at the Orange Bowl. Gee, the stadium was three quarters full of Oklahoma fans who I'm sure were thrilled to see her. Of course, a lot of blame for the nostalgia acts goes back to the Janet Jackson halftime show a few years back. I'm not advocating censorship or anything like that, but some of us were highly offended by what happened then. There is no way that Justin Timberlake should be singing in public.

Reason #6 Manning didn’t deserve the MVP: Rhodes deserved it. Granted, he was also helped by running against a prevent defense (you can average five yards a carry when the second line of defenders are eight yards away when you get to the line of scrimmage). Still, he had the same number of touchdowns (without needing a badly blown coverage) as Manning, ran for 113 yards and put away the game in the second half. No way in Hell should Manning have gotten the award over Rhodes, but too bad the voters for it are a bunch reporters who can't get enough sniffing of Peyton's jock.

Crap, this is long, and I didn't use any of the pictures I copied from Phil's camera. Apparently I can stil type 60 words a minute.

Super Bowl Prediction

Now, I've heard some valid reasons why the Colts will win. I've heard some invalid ones too. Things like Peyton Manning is due to win one. He's a much better quarterback than Rex Grossman. One columnist pointed to Manning's record against the NFC being 8-1 over the past three years in "games that mattered". A guy at work told me the Colts will win because the AFC is better than the NFC. Another writer mentioned that #1 seeds (like Chicago) are 1-5 in the Super Bowl this decade, and he believes it's because they have an easier path to the Super Bowl which makes them complacent.

Peyton Manning is due is a completely invalid argument. No one is "due" to win a title. That's why Mark Rypien and Jeff Hostetler have started Super Bowl wins, but Dan Marino and Dan Fouts haven't. That would be like me saying Grossman played for Florida, and Manning couldn’t beat Florida, so that’s why the Colts will lose. It is a team game which is why Manning being better than Grossman may be a factor in who wins, but certainly not the deciding one. As for Manning's record against the NFC, there's a reason why the writer only picked the last three years. The previous three, Manning was 6-6 against the NFC. Besides, how many NFC teams has Manning beaten in the playoffs? Oh right, he hasn't played an NFC team in the playoffs. You have to get to the Super Bowl for that. As for the AFC being better than the NFC, that’s subjective since they only played four games against the opposing conferences, but even if correct (and I would say it probably is), it doesn’t matter. Chicago’s only playing the Colts, not the whole AFC.

The last one about the #1 seeds is almost laughable. To begin with, by decade, he apparently meant since 2000, not 1996 because going back to 1996 would have included three Super Bowls won by #1 seeds in four years. However, even sticking with the past six games, it’s still disingenuous. Last year’s Pittsburgh team was actually an exception. They were the 6 seed in the AFC and knocked off the #1 seeded Seahawks. Three of the other four #1 seeds to lose to a lower seed from the other conference actually had a worse record than the team they lost to. For example, Baltimore was a wildcard team in 2000 when they beat the NFC’s #1 seeded Giants, but Baltimore had a 13-3 regular season record to New York’s 12-4. The belief that playing a harder road to the Super Bowl gives you the edge is silly. In the past ten years, seven out of ten Super Bowl winners had first round byes. That’s advantage Bears since the Colts were a wildcard team. Of the three winners that didn’t have a bye, Baltimore and the ’97 Broncos were wildcards who still had the second best record in their conference (they were wildcards because the team with the best record was in their division), so once again, Pittsburgh is the exception as they won three road games in route to the Super Bowl. Of course, I’ve always felt a big factor in the Steelers going all way last year was they got hot at the end of the season (had to win four straight just to get into the playoffs). The Colts lost three of their last five.

Can the Colts win the Super Bowl? Sure. I think Grossman is a good quarterback with bad moments, but if the Colts get to Grossman and he has a bad moment, the Bears could get hammered. Or Manning could get hot. The Colts defense could have really turned it around. However, there is a fallacy that the game will be the high powered Colts’ offense versus the stout Chicago defense. Chicago actually scored the same number of points as the Colts. Now, I’m not going to say the Bears are in the same class offensively. They are ranked 15th in total offense to the Colts’ 3rd. However, the Bears excelled at scoring on defense and special teams with nine touchdowns to two for the Colts’. The Colts’ special team coverage during the season was atrocious, so it’s my guess that the Bears won’t have to go as far to score their points. Besides, Grossman has good games. He’s won 74% of his starts. Manning’s only won 63% of his. And Peyton has bad games, especially in the playoffs. Last week’s win over the Patriots was really the aberration. He had played well in early round games, but played poorly in big ones. Last year, Manning had a 90 passer rating against the Steelers, but they only scored 18 points. In his three previous playoff losses, his passer ratings were 69, 35.5 and 31.2 plus the Colts only scored 17 total points. Look at these playoffs, Manning may have won it against New England, but they won in spite of him at Baltimore and Kansas City. Even with the New England game, Manning has thrown six interceptions to two touchdowns in the playoffs this year. I really think the best bet for the Colts would be to go no huddle to keep the Bears from substituting on defense. Wear them down. They also need to protect him because if Manning starts taking hits, he gets jumpy in the pocket.

Now, one bright spot for the Colts has been the play of their defense in the playoffs, although they gave up 34 points to the Patriots. However, that’s where I think they will lose. Chicago is the superior team on defense and special teams. Chicago’s defense did struggle some at the end of the year, but it really only lasted two games. Then, in the NFC Championship game, they held the league’s number 1 offense to 14 points with only one other drive even having a shot at scoring. Even while struggling, their defense made the plays when it counted. It’s not a myth that defense wins championships. Good defense and special teams mean shorter fields for your offense. Plus, the biggest advantage in football is a forced turnover. You usually get good field position and your opponent’s defense starts out on their heels because they weren’t expecting to get back out there so soon. The Bears were the best at creating turnovers. The Colts weren’t close. Plus, I think the Colts have played better in the playoffs on defense, but I’m still not sold. I did a quick look at the past Super Bowl winners (since the 1970 merger) on the basis of Points Allowed and Total Defense which indicate how good your defense is (and it’s easy to look up). I found only a couple of teams that were outside the top 10 in either category, but the ’76 Raiders (12th in Points, 19th Total) were the only Super Bowl winner to have finished the regular season outside the top ten in both categories. Most teams were top ten in both. The Colts aren’t just outside the top ten in both. They are outside the top 20 in both (21st in Points, 23rd Total). The Colts’ defense did look good in the playoffs, but a bad defense can look good for a few weeks. I just don’t think a team that was as bad as the Colts’ defense was can turn it around permanently like that. If they can do it for one more game, they'll have a good chance of winning.

Of course, it could all come down to whether or not "Bad Rex" makes an appearance. Grossman hasn't played poorly in the playoffs. He's averaging a 75 passer rating which is almost 12 points higher than Manning. I think Chicago can establish the run to take pressure of Grossman, and that will open up the play action passing. While Chicago may not have receivers as good as the Colts, I remember Muhsin Muhammad blowing up for 140 yards and a touchdown when he was in the Super Bowl with Carolina. I think Grossman has been focused in the playoffs. He hasn't made mistakes, but he has made plays when needed. I'm saying Chicago by seven.

A Few Thoughts Leading Up To The Super Bowl

It would be easy to say that I'm picking the Bears over the Colts in the Super Bowl because I like the Bears and don't particularly care for the Colts. And it would probably be true. However, I have several reasons that I think Chicago wins which I’ll get into later. However, it appears for the second weekend in a row, I'm in the minority in picking the Bears. At least for the NFC Championship game, Chicago was favored, but the point spread over the Saints was eventually under three, and three is how many points are factored in for home field advantage. Most "pundits" went for the Saints, and the trend (and 7 point spread) seems to be going Colts. Of course, I thought a lot of support the Saints got was from sportswriters wishing they would win because the New Orleans rebuilding story was much better copy. And I think it's the same reason the Colts are being pushed.

To begin with, if I hear one more time that "everybody wants Peyton Manning to win a Super Bowl", I'm going to vomit. I would actually be fine if the favorite son of Tennessee Mountain Trash never wins a Super Bowl. Yet, sportswriters love the guy. Seth Wickersham writes a NFL blog on ESPN.com, and he said after Manning’s post-AFC Championship press conference, all the reporters were more concerned with congratulating Manning than asking questions. I’m not real sure if sports "journalists" should be so openly rooting for a player. I think one reason is they love sports legacies. Chris Simms is a mediocre quarterback, but his father is Phil Simms, so he gets favorable media coverage (he was hyped as an early first round pick in the draft, but he somehow fell to the end of the third). It's the same with Manning who is the son of Archie Manning who was well loved for losing as a pro quarterback. I actually saw him referred to as a legend. Yet somehow, he managed to play fifteen years without playing for a team that finished with a winning record. I guess that is legendary.

Then there is the Tony Dungy situation. I don't know if it's been mentioned anywhere in the press, but both coaches are black. So, apparently, we now have proof that a black man can coach a team to the Super Bowl, although I've seen a lot of bad white coaches make the Super Bowl, so I would assume a good black coach can do it. Of course, out of 12 playoff quarterbacks, Steve McNair was the only black one. Does that mean teams should try to start white quarterback? Maybe Bobby Petrino should bench black Michael Vick for white Matt Schaub. Actually, he should, but not for skin tone reasons. Anyway, I find sportswriters have obsessions with "social justice" or their perception of it, so it's been pretty clear they've been rooting for a black coach to win a Super Bowl so they write heart warming stories about the American Dream. And Tony Dungy was their beloved guy (find me an article focusing on Tony Dungy that does not include some variation of the word "class") early in the process. That's why I find it ironic that technically Lovie Smith was the first black coach to make the Super Bowl. He's only been on the scene for a few years, so I think after so many years of rooting for Dungy, the press will stick with him. If Dungy wasn’t coaching the Colts (and by definition Peyton Manning), I could certainly root for him since he did play for the Steelers. In fact, next year I will be rooting for a black coach to win the Super Bowl as long as it’s the one who coaches the Steelers now. As for what two black head coaches in the Super Bowl means now, not really that much. Just remember this little fact – very few coaches have made the Super Bowl period. From the 1970-79 seasons, nine coaches filled the 20 possible head coaching slots in the Super Bowl. Four coaches (Chuck Noll, Tom Landry, Bud Grant and Don Shula) filled 15 of them. I think a bigger event for black coaches was when ex-Philly coach Ray Rhodes got the Green Bay job. He proved that even lousy black coaches can get another job because of their "head coaching experience".

I knew this column was coming. Bill Simmons is once again crying about where the Super Bowl is being played. He’s happy now that the game is in Miami, because it’s a real city, not like Jacksonville. He whined incessantly on a blog two years ago about it. Every day was some other complaint about the Super Bowl being in Jacksonville. He honestly seems to believe that the Super Bowl should be held in places he wants to go. He made it worse by skipping the Super Bowl last year because it was being held in Detroit and he had already been to the last three. Which basically means he’s telling his readers (very few who have probably ever been to the Super Bowl) that he skipped the biggest sporting event in America (on someone else’s dime) because the party scene in Detroit is not up to his standards. I think we should all stand up and cheer for Bill Simmons having the guts to stand up to the NFL because they chose to let Detroit host the Super Bowl. What an ass.

Random Thoughts During AFC Championship

I had hoped it would snow here so I could break out my favorite cold weather drink that I discovered at the Liberty Bowl while I was in college (the weather was 20 degrees with freezing rain). Hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps. Then I realized I could drink it anyway.
That didn’t take long. The CBS pregame show just made a big deal about Lovie Smith being the first black coach to make the Super Bowl. Shannon Sharpe just said owners should remember that when hiring their next coach as if the determining factor is Smith’s blackness. Well, by the same token, I can point to the fact that two of the worst coaches this year, Denny Green and Art Shell, are also black. So, based on that, you should never hire a black coach.

Patriots running well early. Gonna need it because Tom Brady looks like crap.

Colts not running too well. Or catching.

Patriots are running the ball like intelligent people should. Don’t run right up the middle. The Colts have good pass rushers, but they aren’t squat against the run (I don’t care what Phil Simms says; he went to Morehead). Play action and outside runs seem to be doing the trick. Corey Dillon is 80 years old, and he just picked up 35 yards on fourth down.

Those lucky bastards. A piss poor handoff becomes a fumble which is recovered in the end zone by an offensive lineman. Was pretty funny watching a pile up on the two yard line and none of them see the ball in the end zone. Surprised playoff choke artist Tony Dungy didn’t do something stupid like waste a challenge on it.

Colts respond with a field goal. Whoo. They made a big deal on ESPN Countdown about the Colts signing Adam Vinatieri in the offseason. Discussed whether it helped the Colts or hurt the Patriots more. Kicking has never made a difference when these two teams have met in the playoffs. After all, the Colts have never been close enough where a field goal would make a difference.

Another big gain on fourth down for the Patriots. And a touchdown.

Phil Simms just said the Colts didn’t figure to be down 14-3 so early. That’s insightful.

Excuse me, make it 21-3 as Peyton Manning lived down to my expectations with an interception returned for a touchdown. I wonder if he got some pointers from Eli. Especially since he just got sacked twice and threw a Hail Mary pass.

Colts defense held. And they showed a crowd scene with two guys celebrating like they just won the game. Hey, the ball is in the worst possible place during the playoffs – Peyton Manning’s hands. Sure enough, happy feet on his first play.

Of course the Colts are moving the ball. Prevent defense again.

That’s a pretty funny commercial where Vinny Testaverde (third stringer) is in line at the concession stand buying food for the coach and he keeps getting calls with new orders.

Phil Simms is almost as dumb as the guys from the earlier game. The Colts were whining about a non pass interference call in the end zone where the referees ruled it was incidental tangling of the feet. Simms bought that line through five replays before he noticed that Reggie Wayne tripped over his own feet. Oh, and Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy went into the locker room still griping about the non-call as they go to the locker room. Get a grip. Your receiver is clumsy, and you are down 21-6 at the half. And your vaunted offense hasn’t scored a touchdown in six quarters.

And Shannon Sharpe says that Chicago winning was a good thing because now a black coach will be in the Super Bowl. Bigot.

Uh oh, the Colts are coming out hot. Went down the field and scored a quick touchdown. Now Brady is throwing the ball low. But he did that in the first half too.

That neutral zone call is crap. Richard Seymour jumped and someone on the Colts’ line jumps too. Except that someone wasn’t across from him. He was on the other side of the line. How do you claim to have been drawn offsides when he’s 15 feet away from you? Man, the Colts’ president must have gotten through to someone with his incessant whining as they call Ellis Hobbs for pass interference. I don’t care if the defensive back never turns around. He should never be called for pass interference if he never touches the receiver and the ball simply hits him in the back. Why should a quarterback get bailed out for making a bad pass? Face guarding? What kind of stupid rule is that?

Way to celebrate tying the game. Give up an 80 yard kickoff return. Then let them throw a touchdown pass at the back of the end zone. Ruled a pushout, and Tony Dungy is challenging it. Not the pushout, because a pushout ruling can’t be challenged. He’s challenging whether or not the receiver had control all the way through. The announcers are also wondering if he was out of bounds before jumping for the ball (he wasn’t). Simms is really showing his genius by saying sometimes you have to challenge just guessing you’re right. Sure. What’s the worst that can happen? You lose a timeout that you really wish you still had late in a close game? What are the odds of that?

Not much defense being played in this one. If I was the Bears, I would start feeling pretty good about my chances in two weeks.

Another recovered for a touchdown by an offensive lineman. These guys can’t hang on to crap, and they are playing in a dome.

I can’t figure out why the Colts are using Maroney so much. He keeps standing around and dancing in place instead of just running the ball. Dillon was doing better in the first half.

These guys are falling down more than the ones in Chicago. They are in a dome not on a cold, wet field. The worst part is that it’s the Colts who are falling and they’re the home team.

Those Geico caveman commercials suck.
Speaking of sucks, Reche Caldwell was out wide with exactly nobody covering him. Yet, he didn’t run into the end zone. He stood around about five yards downfield then dropped the pass.

Another good return by Hobbs for the Patriots, but the commentators keep saying how tired the Patriots’ defense is, so why are they using a starting cornerback to return kicks?

Under three minutes left and the Colts go three and out. Manning first pass was at Clark’s feet. His second missed Aaron Moorehead by 20 yards. His third was broken up before it got to Moorehead by Ray Mickens who I wasn’t aware was still alive, let alone still playing. Let’s see, two highly paid receivers in Harrison and Wayne and you go to Moorehead in crunch time?

Nice pass by Brady to a covered receiver who he then bitches at for not going to the outside. If he was out of place, why did you throw to him?

Smart move by the Colts to run it in. I remember last year when the Colts were in (long) field goal range, but Manning almost threw two straight interceptions rather than play it safe. Of course, if he played it safe, they could have picked up a few yards to make the tying field goal closer.

Brady throws a pick on an atrocious pass. Being clutch isn't so easy when the defensive back refuses to fumble the ball for you. Actually, I made the point on the fantasy football reports (I think it was last year) that Brady had made his reputation for clutch play by driving into field goal range. I don't remember him ever having to drive for a last minute touchdown. This may have been his first opportunity, and he failed. I guess they'll be taking his statue from Mt. Olympus.

Well, it wasn't a particularly well played game, but certainly entertaining. Maybe they'd seen each other so much that they knew each other's moves. However, the team that played the best game this weekend was Chicago, so the AFC winning the Super Bowl no longer seems a given. Hey, Shannon Sharpe just touched himself in his private parts at the thought of two black coaches in the Super Bowl. God, he won't know who to root for.