Is this what it feels like if you hate the Patriots?

For the past several years after the Patriots first Super Bowl victory there has been a lot of media coverage surrounding the team. I know for sure from living with fans of the Broncos, Jaguars, Eagles, etc that this gets old.

Can we call agree that this Favre thing over the past 3 years is the worst NFL storyline in that time frame?

This is especially ridiculous for one reason. That is because he is hurting his own organization. The organization that he has been a part of for over a decade.

Selfish, very selfish.

Van Gundy Strikes Again

I'm glad I came across this, Van Gundy saying more dumb crap. I noticed the Nick "Lachey" comments last night but missed some of Van Gundy's other gems.

Review: The Strangers

This movie was worth seeing. That is generally the first way I rate a movie, was it worth seeing? In this case, yeah I believe it was.

The beginning was filled with a little back story and a good build-up to the action. However, the first problem with the movie comes before you even get into the theater. The tag line "inspired by true events" is pretty much bull. It couldn't be anymore loosely based on any event. That is a bit aggravating to find out.

It's nice to see Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman pull off the main two roles. I didn't even know that it was Liv Tyler at the beginning.

It is refreshing to see the casting go away from just the hottest P.O.A. that walked into the casting room.

Bottom line: Check it out when it hits DVD.

Tyler Hansbrough seems fun

Screw all those people who hate on Hansbrough. He seems like the kinda dude I wanna chill with. I guess it mainly comes down to Dukies doing most of the talking. The proof is in the pictures.


This last one I just saw the other day. I don't know that it is new but it's new to me. I'd be doing the same crap if I was Tyler, that is for damn sure.

C's/ Lakers Part 3

Must win?
Definitely for LA but I do not think it is for Boston. The C's would certainly love to win the first game and damn sure want to win one of the first two. Winning one of the first three is where the must win comes into play.

Odom vs. Powe (and everyone else)
Lamar was clearly shaken this past Sunday. He was way off his game. Things aren't going to be as easy for the Powe and the rest of the C's this time around. Bottom line, Odom took out his frustration is an awfully babyish way and for a guy that I never liked, that did not help.

3-2 or 2-3
With the 2-3-2 format, the NBA is obviously pushing for a game 7 or at least a game 6. It is really tough to think that the team with home court could be down 3-2 heading into game 6. All that without even losing a game at home.

Griffey Hits Number 600

My favorite baseball player from 1993 until the Reds sabotaged his career was Ken Griffey, Jr. Don't get me wrong I still consider myself a huge fan of his but damn he could have been SHATTERING records he is still no schmuck.

From 2001 to 2004 he only hit 63 round trippers. Imagine if he had hit just an average of 35 HR's in those 4 seasons. That is 140 HR's minus those 63 is 77. That means that with an average of a "measly" 35 HR's he would be at 677 and be on the verge of 700 already. That is without even thinking about if he had also been healthy the last 3 years.

What 20 something year old male today didn't absolutely watch this man's every move as a child.

Well, congratulations to Ken on a great accomplishment. I know we are all rooting for him to hit 700 in the next several years.

Google g'd up

I don't know who else noticed this past week, but Google changed their favicon logo. The favicon is the image that appears next to the url field on your browser and also in your favorites.

The reason I am posting this is because right off the bat when I noticed this I though that this new 'g' logo was really ugly. It doesn't make me think... 'Google'.

As a matter of fact when I first saw it on my laptop I though that there was a problem with my Mozilla browser and restarted it.

Big Brown finishes in last place?

Wow, that's a lot of money lost today. You could hear the air let out of the track as Big Brown fell back from 3rd place.

Da'Tara took first place. That horse was a 38/1 favorite. That's a nice payday for whoever had that inside info.

Celtics vs Lakers Game 2 betting

Today the Celtics vs Lakers game 2 line has moved from Lakers +1 to a pick em. The game 1 line was Lakers +5. That is a big swing. I still like the C's in game 2 and what a big win that would be!

Also I missed this Bird/Magic commercial on Thursday:

Red Sox first round pick likes Khaled

The Red Sox first round pick yesterday was Casey Kelly. Kelly is from Florida (thus explaining his affinity for DJ Khaled). He is a shortstop and a pitcher. On top of that he was a top 30 QB prospect according to ESPN.

More imporantly Kelly's MySpace page has surfaced. His background song is DK Khaled's new song and he has a good looking girlfriend. That is the way it should be but there are some other notable things I found.

Someone from Pawtucket left this message for him shortly after he was drafted. Classic. ---------------->

But maybe the best thing is below:

Who he'd like to meet?
"Mike Vick , any Victoria Secret model, LC from laguna beach and you"

Haha, that's some good stuff. Mike Vick... hilarious. Victoria Secret model... of course. LC... questionable.

Some more from Kelly:

About me:

"My name is casey kelly i play football and baseball for the saliors. Sports come very easy to me. i like to hang out with friends and listening to nice ass music.My favorite number would have to be 9 all the greats wear it.haha.... i am just trying to pass" highschool so i can go to college.if you like what u read hit me up on sargey9k@aol.com

Screw college huh?

UNC's Lawson Arrested For Driving After Drinking

"A Chapel Hill police officer arrested Lawson, 20, at 2:33 a.m. on North Columbia St., in the heart of town. The officer stopped Lawson in a 2005 four-door Chevrolet with Maryland plates after hearing loud music coming from the car, said police Capt. Chris Blue.

The officer suspected that Lawson had been drinking, conducted a field sobriety test and found probable cause to charge him, Blue said."

How much you want to bet that he is still a fist round pick? That's the life damn it.

Dana White: Major announcement coming soon

From ESPN The Magazine:

“There’s something no one else has heard. You have no idea some of the stuff that we have planned. I’m going to make an announcement next week that is going to blow people’s minds. That deal is done, but my employees don’t even know yet. I’m renting out a place next Thursday and I’m going to tell them. Then we’ll make the announcement later that day. It’s an indicator of where this business is going over the next five years.” -Dana White, UFC President

Can't wait for this one.

UFC 85; still a mess

Thiago Alves weighed in at a whopping 4 lbs. over his targeted 170 lbs weight maximum for his main event fight with Matt Hughes.

It is always somewhat shocking when a main card UFC fighter fails to make weight. They have months generally to prepare for a fight. However, this case is a bit different.

Alves did take this fight on short notices after 8 fighters had been taken off the card for a number of reasons. This was the card that was suppose to have Chuck Liddell facing Rashad Evans in the main event.

Another reason why this might not be a huge surprise is the fact that after Alves' victory over Tony DeSouza he tested positive for a banned substance, Spironolactone. This substance is commonly used to help fighters cut water weight.

I was and I suppose am still a pretty big Alves fan but that is damn embarrassing. Of course there could be a ton of other outside factors that caused this but we do not know for sure.

Here's the card for tomorrow night:

170 lbs.: Matt Hughes (170) vs. Thiago Alves (174)
185 lbs.: Michael Bisping (184) vs. Jason Day (184)
185 lbs.: Nate Marquardt (185) vs. Thales Leites (185)
170 lbs.: Mike Swick (170) vs. Marcus Davis (170)
265 lbs.: Brandon Vera (228) vs. Fabricio Werdum (247)
185 lbs.: Martin Kampmann (186) vs. Jorge Rivera (185)
155 lbs.: Thiago Tavares (154.5) vs. Matt Wiman (155)
170 lbs.: Roan Carneiro (171) vs. Kevin Burns (170)
205 lbs.: Jason Lambert (205) vs. Luis Arthur Cane (204)
170 lbs.: Jess Liaudin (169) vs. Paul Taylor (169)
265 lbs.: Eddie Sanchez (244) vs. Antoni Hardonk (247)

NOTE: Matt Hughes did agree to fight Alves even though he did not make weight.

Lord Stanley's Cup back in "hockey town"

Apparently Detroit won the cup tonight. I'm admittedly not the biggest of NHL fans. I'd rather watch a good college hockey game any day. However, I do know a few things about the Red Wings and the NHL.

--The Red Wings were always a tough match-up in NHL 93. They just had so much speed up front with Federov and Yzerman.




--Sergei Federov banged a lot of European super models.

--I can name a bunch of 90's Wings: Federov, Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom, Paul Coffey, Brendan Shanahan, Gordie Howe, the goalies Hasek and Osgood, and coach Scottie Bowman.

--The name Red Wings contains some innuendo.

--Detroit is called "hockey town". I would never want to live in a city thats most proud sports accomplishment is being known as hockey town. I wouldn't even want to live in a hockey town let alone the hockey town.

LG stretches out

Look at this thing... its LG's new 38-inch LCD "stretched" monitor. Who in the world needs one of these?

Apparently they are being marketings in Europe. Also the monitor can be used vertically or horizontally, which is actually pretty damn cool.

Randy Johnson is good

Randy has been around since the heyday of those great, everyone's childhood favorite, Seattle Mariners teams. Taking a look at his statistics show just how impressive a player Johnson truely is.

He is second all-time in strikeouts and there is no player in the top-100 that has any type of chance at coming even close. Randy is also first among active pitchers in the hit batsmen category and he is third all time.

Seriously, check out that career ERA and those 288 career wins. Only 12 away from 300, as if he wasn't a shoe in Hall of Famer anyway.

Big weekend for MMA

It was an MMA packed weekend. Saturday we had the EliteXC debut on CBS and Sunday WEC held it's biggest event ever in Sacramento.

EliteXC: Primtime
The whole point of this show for those who want to see MMA succeed and press forward was to put on a good show that the casual fan can relate to. So did CBS and EliteXC pull it off? No.

The fight that mattered was the Kimbo fight. The best thing that could have happened to get the casual fan hooked was a semi-quick KO or TKO by Kimbo. That is far from what actually happened.

In the first round, everyone who watched, saw what appeared to be Kimbo tapping. This was not unbelievable under the circumstances, Thompson had a front standing guillotine locked in relatively tight. I honestly thought he tapped. Luckily, on a second look he does appear to be giving a thumbs up to the official.

Now, regardless of the fact that the fight was not great, it was not a disaster. Kimbo did win and did win by TKO.

The mainstream media, particularly ESPN, have been all over this historic event. It is somewhat painful to listen to uneducated, non-fans thoughts of the event but it is something that is clearly expected.

This is why only Barry Melrose talks about hockey, no one else knows shit about it on ESPN. So unless you are an authority on the subject, preface your comments with a statement explaining that you are nothing of the sort.

WEC 35: Faber vs Pulver
Now for the more hardcore MMA fans this was the event of the weekend. We knew that going in. I thought that this would not go to a decision the same way both fighters did. That ended up not being the case either.

Both Faber and Pulver put on a great 5 round show. Faber clearly came out on top. As a fanof BH Penn and Joe Lauzon I was a bit biased towards Faber since he has been training with them recently. At the same time, Pulver is a great comeback story and it would have been great for him if he could have pulled this one out.

The fight of the night was the other "co-main event" (whatever that means) Miguel Torres vs. Yoshiro Maeda. The fight ended on a doctor stoppage on the count that Maeda's eye was so swollen that I could not even see the eyeball one bit. This was a war. Not the technical battle that it could have been on the ground if both warriors had wanted to go that route but rather a stand-up slobber knocker that showed the disdain they had for each other. Entertaining to say the least.

Conclusion
The ratings for EliteXC are starting to come in and they look pretty good, especially for the most important 18-34 demo. I've heard the XFL-experiment mentioned in the context of having a big opening weekend and then absolutely falling apart from there. That is an awful comparison because the XFL was not a special event it was a weekly and bi-weekly broadcast. On the other hand, EliteXC will be a quarterly thing with the next event being in the Fall. So, for EliteXC and CBS the wheels have not completely fallen off the carriage just yet.

Save the ASU Cheerleading Program

Due to some "racy" photos that surfaced recently, ASU has disbanded their entire cheerleading program.

"The school's athletic director, Lisa Love, made the decision Thursday evening.The pictures on the blog feature 6 of the cheerleaders posing in nothing but their bras and panties. Although only six members of the squad are shown in the photographs, the entire 16-member squad will suffer the consequences, MyFOXPhoenix reported."

This is really unfortunate for everyone. ASU is a university that in recent years has made great strides both academically and athletically.

These are the photos:




I do not see what the issue is. Would I want my girlfriend or daughter, etc taking these type of photos... no. However, is it enough of a reason to get rid of the entire program.... hell no.

It is also funny how FOXnews.com kinda blurred the photos on their website.

The quick decision may have something to do with the 2005 scandal of Courtney Simpson who starred in a porn film while wearing her ASU cheerleading getup.

WEC 35: Faber vs Pulver

A great 1 minute preview for the fight at 145 lbs tonight on Versus.

I can't promise that this fight goes more than 1 minute but however long it does go, it is going to be a hell of a fight. Most importantly it is going to be damn entertaining and fast paced.

Second base shockers

It doesn't look like Lance Berkman is going to slow down anytime soon but how amazing is it to see two second basemen, Dan Uggla and Chase Utley battling for the first and second place in the National League home run standings.

Anyone who participates in fantasy baseball can attest to this; second base is the weakest position offensively in recent years.

In my league I drafted Uggla in round 16 out of 21 to backup Chone Figgins.

Besides Utley in round 1 there was only a handful of 2nd basemen taken in the next 10+ rounds, showing the uncertainly at the position.

Celtics/Pistons Game 6

Who doesn't want to see a Boston vs. LA NBA Finals?!

Suite up Scal and Go C's!

EliteXC: Primetime guide for new fans

Tomorrow marks the national broadcast television debut of the sport of mixed martial arts. There is a ton riding on this and a ton of things that people should know before watching (if you aren't a big fan).

First, what is mixed martial arts? It is not "ultimate fighting". UFC has done an incredible job making the terms "ultimate fighting" and "mixed martial arts" or "mma" the same. Not only are they the same but the term "ultimate fighting" is likely more often used in the mainstream media.

Now, who or what is EliteXC? EliteXC is a MMA promotion that is a partnership between Proelite.com, and the Showtime Network. Th company is well under two years old but has clearly made massive stride in the right direction.

People need to know that this sport is beginning to be backed by some major, important people. I will start with one member of the announce team this Saturday; Gus Johnson. Gus is an accomplished announcer, most notibly from his work with the NFL and the NCAA Tourney. What many people do not know is that he has trained for years in the discipline of boxing and has recently taken up ju-jujitsu. Also on the announce team is famed MMA combatant Frank Shamrock. Having these two names in the booth is important for a show on CBS.


Everyone should also know that this card is not even that great. This is especially true from the "storyline", "mainstream" side of things. This makes me nervous as someone who wants to see EliteXC succeed.

EliteXC and CBS do have Kimbo Slice and they have been marketing him and him only.

I don't watch CBS, almost never do I really, so I don't know how often or when they are playing these things but it is a great attempt to gain some viewers based on curiosity.

That is the whole reason that CBS is taking this risk. They need to gain the coveted male 18-34 demographic. The are, I believe, the oldest of the four major networks as far as viewership.

The most important thing for the success of EiteXC and thus the growth of MMA in general is simple. Kimbo Slice must win. To take it one step further he must knock James Thompson out in a thrilling fashion.

Kimbo is a clear favorite at -600 on Bodog. Thompson is not exactly a tier 1 mma heavyweight. He has lost 6 of his last 8 fights. One of those two wins was against a very old, out of his prime Don Frye. However James Thompson is a solid 6'5 and will give way to a great match-up appearance wise, especially for those who do not know much about Thompson.

In any case, a loss by Kimbo will be devastating.

UFC 84 Payouts

BJ Penn got $250,000 in his victory over Sean Sherk, Tito Ortiz made $210,000 in his loss to Lyotpo Machida and Wanderlei Silva made a base of $150,000.

None of these numbers are a surprise.

The cool things that UFC has been re-instituting as of late is bonus pay. There are bonuses for fight of the night, submission of the night and knockout of the night. Each carries a worth of an additional $75,000 to the fighters purse.

Goran Reljic defeated Wilson Gouveia in what was deemed the fight of the night. Goran Reljic took home $81,000 and Wilson Gouveia took home $93,000.

Not a bad payday for fighters who would have received $6,000 and $18,000 respectively.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster (Trailer)

This is a new film from Mark Cuban's Magnolia Pictures. It is in limited release currently. The theaters that are showing the film can be found here.

Rock Band Stage Kit

First of all, yes that is a smoke machine.

That is really, really, really friggin' dumb.

I have only played Rock Band a couple times and it's fun. This, on the other hand, is absurd. I've heard that kids are renting out halls to have "rock band concerts". That is also very dumb but I guess that is the audience that EA is looking to target with this joke of a product.

Michael Jackson at UFC 84

Wow. Apparently Michael Jackson was at UFC 84 this past Saturday night. Word is that this is real from some pretty reliable sources.

I never would have seen this one coming. It leads me topnder a couple questions.

Word is he came in a wheelchair, what happened to Michael's mobility?

Does this hurt the public image of MMA?

Is that Jesse Jackson in front of him?

Money, Money, Money... Money -- Ted DiBiase, JR

I just drove home from UMass this evening and as I was watching the Celtics/Pistons game I flipped the channel during a commercial and stumbled upon RAW. I heard Ted DiBiase's trademark laugh and had to see more.

Turns out his son was making his WWE TV debut.

The good is that anything that related to DiBiase is awesome but the bad is that his son didnot do the DiBiase laugh. This leads me to believe that he cannot do the DiBiase laugh.

Also, his name is indeed Ted DiBiase, Jr.

Here is the video from WWE.com.

The Josh Hamilton Saga

I guess we should have seen this one coming, Hamilton had a solid half season last year in Cincy. He hit .292 in 90 games with 18 HR's and 17 doubles.

Not that no one is following this but what a story...

A drug addicted athlete with potential superstar talent who was selected #1 overall by the Devil Rays (back when they were the Devil Rays) has a breakout season.

The only thing that could make this more interesting (besides a tripe crown run) would be if he falls off the wagon.

Omar Vizquel still plays?

I brought Omar up to a buddy the other day because I saw that he was leading off for the Giants and I thought that was peculiar.

He has only played 14 of 51 games for the Giants this year but this week he become the MLB's all-time leader of games played at short.

I never thought I would be talking about Omar but stranger things have happened.

Resident Evil 5 Trailer

I wanted to post this since Resident Evil 2 is one of my favorite games of all time.

Ashley Harkleroad to pose in Playboy

Ashley will be the first tennis play to grace playboy. Who knew?


She's like an American Kournikova or do all (attractive) female tennis players look the same?

Facebook facelift

New tabbed Facebook redesign coming soon.

Man-Links (5/22/08)

The NHL Has a Sense of Humor

"In honor of the Flyers officially going Golfing you can get a free sleeve of Golf Balls with the purchase of a hat! I'm sure Philly fans are saying thanks a**holes right about now."

--Awful Announcing

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Ultimate fighter Tito Ortiz shows many sides

"THE GUY knows how to entertain, no argument there. Early on in his career, he whooped someone, and made like he was pulling the guy into a grave and burying him. As Soliz says, "Love him, hate him, you have to watch him."

Ortiz, 33, puts on a T-shirt after every win, in the beginning adding to his opponent's misery with a crude remark, but in recent years he's toned it down, paying tribute to the military. He's already made two trips to Iraq to visit soldiers."

-LA TIMES

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-SexySoxGirls.com

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YouTomb.MIT.edu

"YouTomb is a research project by MIT Free Culture that tracks videos taken down from YouTube for alleged copyright violatio

-YouTomb

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Big night for NBA fans; Draft Lottery!

Things to watch for:

• The Sonics have 2 first round picks and 4 second round picks; of course their first pick has the second best chance of getting that #1 spot. Only Miami has a better shot.
• The Knicks to get the 1st or 2nd pick. If Stern has his way (and why wouldn't he want it) the Knicks will have Beasley/Rose and LeBron in 2010.
• Jay-Z representing the Nets.
• This years 2006 Portland Trailblazers; just down the road in Seattle (for now):

• Hopefully no Stephan A. Smith.
• Hope. Even if the Heat or Sonics fall from 1 or 2 there is still hope. (see 2007 Boston Celtics draft)
• More Seattle shenanigans: Here is a clip of David Stern at the Key Arena in Seattle, this is irony, irony that is only 15 years old nonetheless.

Two great superstars

This picture of Mario Lopez aka AC Slater is on the 20th page of a Google search for "ken griffey jr". Proof here.

Gus Johnson to announce EliteXC on May 31st

Gus Johnson will be the lead play-by-play man for the national broadcast television debut of EliteXC. The only thing I like more than Gus Johnson is Mixed Martial Arts... seems like a match made in heaven.

The Happening (2008)

TAGLINE: "We've Sensed It. We've Seen The Signs. Now... It's Happening."

PLOT: A paranoid thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity.

Rampage taps

CB Dollaway gets Rampage to tap. A funny clip from the upcoming (5/21) TUF episode. (SPIKE.com)

Jon Lester throws a no hitter

Jon Lester throws a no-no. So he has officially done more in his 24 years on this planet than any other human alive. This has to put a smile on your face, I don't care who you are.

ESPN botches MMA headline

ESPN's main mixed martial arts page (here) screwed up a headline today. The headline had Tito fighting at UFC 85 as opposed to at UFC 84 this coming weekend.

UFC on PS3 and XBOX 360

With a new trailer rumored to debut at UFC 84, I figure it's about the time where this game should blow up and people will really start talking about it.

It is the driving factor that has convinced me to purchase a PS3 in the near future.

MMA Live: Debut on ESPN.com

Man-Links (5/15/08)

Why Sega should release a new console

"Sega is in trouble. According to its latest filing in Japan, the company incurred a loss $501 million during its 2008 fiscal year and its video games division lost about $56.3 million. And as the company was quick to point out, something needs to be done on the video game front."

--The Digital Home Blog (cnet.com)

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Dana White Calls Tito Ortiz 'A F---ing Idiot. One of the Dumbest Human Beings I've Ever Met'

“Tito is a f—ing idiot. He’s one of the dumbest human beings I’ve ever met. Everything that comes out of his mouth makes no sense…. I put up with his s— when he was a good fighter. He’s not anymore…. He’s not in anybody’s Top 10. I have no interest whatsoever in being in the Tito Ortiz business…. I’ve never wanted to see anyone get their ass kicked worse than I want to see Tito get his kicked next Saturday night.”

--Fanhouse (AOL)

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BlackBerry Bold: No Mere iClone

The Bold's most striking features are the screen and the keyboard. The screen displays 480 by 320 pixels, the same resolution as the iPhone, though it is significantly smaller and can be used only in a horizontal orientation. The image is sharp and bright with attractive white icons that jump out of a black background. The Bold falls between the Curve and the 8800 series in size, and its keyboard, featuring sculpted and well-separated keys, is as good as those on any handheld.

--Tech & You Blog (Business Week)

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Long time no post

March Madness. The absolute best time of the year.

Carlo Prater Vs. Carlos Condit

Carlo Prater Vs. Carlos Condit is tomorrow night

How about this one. Prater beat Condit in 2004. Now Condit is the champ at 170 lbs. The fight tomorrow is in New Mexico. Condit is from New Mexico. When Prater beat Condit it was in New Mexico (in the actual ring that Condit trains in daily).

Condit, from what I've seen, is a tough kid. On top of that, he is only 23. On top of that fact, that means he was about 20 the first time these two faced off.

On a personal note, I don't know if I root for this kid Condit or not. The last few times I watched him fight I go into it rooting for his opponent but then by the time the fight is underway he haswon me over.

What I do know is he is fun to watch and I look forward to this one.

Webber to Warriors, bring back old jerseys

Tons of big news today. However, my favorite might be Webber going back to Golden State.

The reason is simple; those old uniforms. Not to go all "uni-watch"...

But they were so simplistic yet so classic. They have to start wearing them as throwbacks now. Everyone had a Webber jersey on Golden State.

Weekend Wrap-Up (1/28)

College Hoops Picks
Went 3/5 on my locks. I still would go with Dayton in that game, what a bizarre conference the Atlantic-10 is proving to be. Seems like no team can win the games they "should" win.

The USC game was interesting. That team has played really well against some good teams. They went into "the pit" and played a mediocre Oregon team and were winning the whole game only to let it slip away and be taken into overtime. Overtime was a good thing once they had fucked up the game. The overtime session ended up saving anyone who bet as they covered the spread in OT (how often do you see that?).

Super Bowl
I know I haven't been talking about the big game too much (oddly enough). I suppose it's a combination of nervousness and complacency. Lets just hope the Patriots are not feeling either of those emotions come Sunday.

NHL All-Star Weekend
Yes, it was this past weekend. And, yes I watched some of it. The skills competition was moderately entertaining on Saturday. The highlight had to be Zdeno Chara smashing a slapshot at over 103 mph. Other highlights included listening to Doc Emrick (you know him as the great play-by-play guy that is the best part of watching NHL on TV) try and hold the train wreck of a broadcast together. I really started to feel for the guy. Microphones wouldn't work, the color guy was forgettable and it's tough enough to understand many of the players. When you can understand them; you realize they really have nothing to offer you that you want to hear.

UFC Fight Night
UFC held a live Fight Night on Spike on Thursday that I have yet to mention. As a whole the card ended up not disappointing. The three main fights for me were Swick defeating Burkman, Cote defeating McFedries, and Nate Diaz defeating Robinson. Somewhat predictable outcomes, although Burkman is a great fighter. The entire card did, for the UFC, just what they wanted, get people pumped for UFC 81 on this coming Saturday. More on that this week.

Super Bowl Line
The line continues to shrink. Some online sites have it down to Giants +11. The over/under is solid at 53.5. I could easilly see a shootout.

Picks -- College Basketball (1/26/08)

UCONN +8 at Indiana
Indiana has not played the toughest schedule as of yet. UCONN can keep this one close.

Wisconsin -1.5 at Purdue
I like the Badgers to continue winning. Both teams have beaten a bunch of the same lower level teams in their conference; I just think Wisconsin needs this game to make a small statement. This would be their best win on the road in a while (the only other good one was their 1-point victory over Texas).

Dayton -4 at Richmond
I feel as though this line is way too small.

Georgetown +3 at West Virginia
Georgetown getting points? I'm down. But seriously, this is a huge statement game for the Hoyas. Yes, WVU has won several in a row but against less then stellar competition.

USC +3.5 at Oregon
This one makes me nervous but Oregon is on the way down while USC with a win tonight can get themselves back in the national spotlight.

Wilfork fined (again)

Yeah, that's number 4. The original headline I saw did not include the reason for the fine. I had no idea what it could be for. That face-mask penalty? Really? Since when is that a fineable offense? I think this is a case of the league reacting based on prior infractions. Now Wilfork has a reputation as a dirty player and he will have to be careful because officials and league officials alike will be gunning for him and this is a perfect example.

Patriots' Wilfork fined $5,000 for face-mask infraction against Chargers(ESPN.com)

Gheorghe Muresan was a media darling

In my research I came across a link to the Giant Basketball Academy. No offense Gheorge (what's the deal with the 'h'?) but I never thought of Muresan as fundamentally sound. If the camp can teach kids how to become 7'7 freaks of nature then he would have a distinct advantage over other former players camps in that regard. Until then I would not send my kid.

Matt Ryan vomits

The Eagles do need a QB, but I just don't see Ryan falling till pick #19. Beyond that, this is now my favorite video to poke fun at BC sports fans (all 85 of them).

Stay classy, Seymour

This is the video of Richard Seymour's "headbutt" delivered to a Chargers coach. I say, bull. First of all I don't believe Seymour touched him. And if Seymour did then McCree is a douche for not doing anything about it. Way more importantly what kind of "coach" comes on the field to jaw with a player. This is exactly why an organization like the Chargers will achieve no longterm success; they have no direction and leadership in upper management and clowns in middle management.

I think even LT has realized these facts (maybe in different words). That is why you did not heard a peep from him prior to the game. Good luck in the Wild Card game next year San Diego.

PS, the best thing (ok, well maybe not best) about this video is the fact the fan that put it on YouTube did not even mention this incident in the summary.
NE Patriots 300 Entrance Video AFC Championship Game (YouTube)

College Basketball RPI Factoids

If you look at the top-50 teams based on RPI there is only 1 that doe not have double digit wins. That team is the 8-8 Temple Owls who come in at #47.

The next team that does not have double digit wins is #53 Miami (OH), who are 7-9.

After that you have to go all the way down to #65 Texas Tech, they are 9-7.

I did not expect to see Temple that high. What if they have beat Duke at home the other night? They played them close the first half. They could be 9-7 and be in the 30’s. I would have loved to have seen that.

Tennessee jumped to #1 this week. The Vols have 7 wins against top-50 teams. This is by far the most. Memphis has 5, while 5 other teams have 4 wins against the top-50 opponents.

Indiana is 16-1 and is ranked 7^th in the current AP Poll. However, they are merely 1-1 against top-5o opponents.

Massachusetts sticks out as the only top-30 RPI team with 2 loses versus opponents ranked 101-200.

Baylor is now ranked 25^th in the AP Poll despite having no wins against top-50 opponents (they are 0-2).

Arena Football Hottie and Pamela's Punch

Don't ask why, but I found myself on the Arena Football website this morning. Couple of things, first of all afl.com goes to some women named Pamela's personal blog. Second, the best thing on the offical AFL website (arenafootball.com) is this picture below. Smokin'.


AFL.com or PamelasPunch.com
ArenaFootball.com

UCONN and Joe Lunardi

ESPN's Bracketology (courtesy of Joe Lunardi) currently has UCONN as a 10 seed. I want to say right now that there is no way UCONN finishes any better then in the middle of the Big East. Therefore, they should not and will not be a 10 seed.

Don't get me wrong they will be around 5th to 8th, or at least should but if they get a single digit seed then that's awful.

Also I do enjoy Joe Lunardi. This is probably more for his ties to the Atlantic 10 via his St. Joe's degree and current position as the Hawks color guy.

Hey, he has a proven track record of picking all the teams correctly, so he is doing something right.

Dayton's Baby Blue Alternates

Dayton wore these alternates on Wednesday at home against UMass. I think I really like them. I'm not 100% sure of it though.

$100,000 Buy-in at Aussie Millions

From CardPlayer:

Howard Lederer is the winner of the Aussie Millions AUD $100,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament that took place Saturday. He was one of 25 players who made the big purchase and played in this event. He won AUD $1.25 million.

This one-day event attracted 18 players last year. This year’s field included Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, Eli Elezra, Mark Teltscher, last year’s AUD $100,000 champ Erick Lindgren, and others.

Lindgren entered the final table as the chip leader, making a repeat likely, but he wouldn’t even finish in the top five to cash. Teltscher finished second for AUD $650,000; Michael Sampoerna, third for AUD $350,000; Jeffrey Lisandro, fourth for AUD $150,000; and Nikolaus Jedlicka, fifth for AUD $100,000.

$100,000 buy-in? Holy shit. I know that FOX has covered the Aussie Millions event in the past and I know that the phase of poker being huge is on it's way down but I hope that there is a show made out of this. It's rare to see that much money on the line and there were 25 great players in one room, what's more entertaining than that?

An interesting thing though, Lederer was the only American to finish in the top 5.

Lesnar vs. Mir

UFC 81: BREAKING POINT will be live Saturday, February 2 from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

College Basketball RPI Factoids

Conference Power Rankings based on RPI.
(1)
The Big East has 2 teams in the top-25, 5 in the top-30, and 8 in the top 40.
(2)
The Atlantic-10 has 4 teams in the top-20 and 5 in the top-50.
(3)
The Big-12 has 3 teams in the top-25 and 4 in the top 40.
(4)
The SEC has 3 teams in the top-25.
(5)
The Big-10 has 3 teams in the top-25.
(6)
The Pac-10 has 2 teams in the top-20 and 4 in the top-40.
(7)
The ACC has 2 teams in the top-25 and 3 in the top-30.
(8)
And as for Conference-USA, Memphis is #1 and Tulane is #75.

What should be taken away from these rankings? Well, first of all the Pac-10 is going to sky rocket up as will the ACC. The Big-12 and Big-10 will fall. And as for the Atlantic-10 at least they are in the conversation again. Lastly, the biggest thing you should take away from these rankings is that the Big East is once again solid up and down, although this year they likely do not have a team to go real deep in the tourney.

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Who has the #1 Non-Conference SOS?

No, not Arizona, they are #2. North Carolina A&T.

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Who's still undefeated?

Team (RPI) - Record
_______________________
Memphis (1) - 13-0
UNC (2) - 15-0
Vanderbilt (6) - 15-0
Kansas (11) - 13-0
Mississippi (20) - 13-0
Washington St. (31) - 13-0

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Other Non-Conference SOS oddities?

Coppin St. has the third best Non-Conference SOS but has gone 1-11 and is therefore 172 in RPI.
Mississippi Valley St. has had a similar run with a Non-Conference SOSof 5 and a 0-10 start they are 245 in RPI.

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NJ Inst. Of Technology

The New Jersey Inst. of Technology is already 0-17. Something that I did not know; they are independent and have no conference affiliation.

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Bottom of the Top

Taking a look at the lowest ranked teams from the top conferences, this will not include the A10 or CUSA. The first team you find from the BE, ACC, B10, B12, SEC and Pac-10 is the Pac-10's Oregon State at 252.

RPI - CON - TEAM
_________________________
252 - P10 - Oregon State
212 - SEC - Kentucky
210 - B10 - Iowa
187 - BE - Rutgers
185 - SEC - Georgia
182 - B10 - Northwestern
177 - SEC - LSU
175 - B12 - Colorado

Don't we all know how this story ends...

Rumor has it that Pete Carroll may head BACK to the NFL. Pete Carroll is a great guy, a great recruiter and a good (college) coach.

They only thing dumber than Arthur Blank offer Pete Carroll a heading coaching job would be if Carroll accepts.

Carroll would be leaving a USC team that could be even better than they were this year, as long as they stay healthy and receive some good QB play from Mustang or whoever they have down there.

Don't you think Blank would be a bit reserved about offering this job to a college coach after what Petrino just did to him?

Carroll has already been in and out of the NFL and when things get tough in Atlanta (and oh boy are they ever going to get tough) couldn't you see Carroll bouncing for the first sunny, weather college job he sees?

This will only prove how intelligent Carroll is when he does not take the job and show just how incompitent the Falcons orginization has become.

The Bottom Line (1/03/08)

Orange Bowl
Kansas (+4) vs Virginia Tech
I'll admit it. I thought that the Hokies would absolutely, positively cover that spread. As I type this they are down 10 with under 7 minutes to go. Luckily, I somehow avoided wagering on this for the past few days. I honestly thought that this was one of the worst spreads I'd seen in a while. And there is no bias here; if anything I actually like Kansas and absolutely hate VT. I'm shocked.

Bowl games BLOW
Sticking with bowls; they suck. Ohio State/LSU better be one hell of a game to save this bowl season.

"Today, Everyone's a Patriot"
Apparently the season finale Patriots/Giants game was the highest rated regular season game since a Cowboys/Chiefs game in '95.

Who was the Chiefs QB?
You got it. Well I hope not. Steve Bono. If you thought to yourself I wonder what QB played in the most watched regular season game ever Aikman might come to mind, Young, Montana, Farve, Elway, Bono... yeah, right.

Who is: Jeff Ireland?
First, in case you aren't aware he is the new Dolphins GM. But why? Who is he? Well he's Parcells buddy, of course. But he is much more than that; a former PLACE KICKER at Baylor and special teams coach at North Texas.

So when Cam Cameron was fired today, no one should have been surprised. No way will Parcels hire an established Head Coach, at least not after this move.

UCLA vs. Stanford
First PAC-10 game. I got UCLA by 2 and I like it. Yeah, even on the road. This team should be real good. I'm not saying they CAN'T lose this game. And I'm not saying it won't be close, it will. But I thought Stanford (+1)? Really? In Love and Collison's first conference game together. They can't let Stanford take one from them.

Houston vs. UMass
A very entertaining game, just as it was billed to be by everyone including UMass' Head Coach Travis Ford. Houston should be the only even close to interesting game for Memphis. They play each other twice. The first time is in Houston, a few days after Memphis has to deal with Gonzaga at home.

More importantly, the Atlantic 10 looks to be on it's way back up. With 4-5 teams fighting for post season play, if all goes right they could have as many as 3 back in the dance. Much more on this and all things college b-ball for the rest of the season.

NFL Wildcard Weekend Picks

Saturday 4:30 PM
Washington (+3.5) @ Seattle
I really like Washington is this one especially with the 3.5. Even though they have to go into such a "tough" environment they are still the hotter team.

Saturday 8:00 PM
Jacksonville @ Pittsburgh (+2.5)
The Steelers are not playing well. They have no Willie Parker. Although Polamalu missed practice again today, I believe he is playing which is big even if not 100%. But back to the run game, we have seen the Jags run in Heinz and I think that will happen again. Garrard will do his best Big Ben impression (from a couple years back) and not make mistakes and that will be enough.

Sunday 1:00 PM
New York Giants (+3) @ Tampa Bay
Jeff Garcia beat them last year, and I think he will do it again. I am not even an Eli hater but I can not bank on him in a big game, no way. On top of that, the Bucs defense is solid. The 3 point spread really does not worry me.

Sunday 4:30
Tennessee (+10) @ San Diego
Ten is a lot in a playoff game. HOWEVER, what is Vince Young's status? How will he react to not being 100% and to a big playoff game on the road? This (with the spread) is the toughest game for me to pick. It's all Tennessee's D. If they can keep it within reach then Young has proven that he is a big game player but I wouldn't want to rely on him to make it happen. I'll take the Chargers to cover. Damn, I hope they lose though.

Parcells going in a new direction

"I don't want thugs and hoodlums on the team," Parcells said of the types of players he'll try to acquire. "I really don't. I don't want bad-character guys. I don't want problem children."

So, no Joey Porter $20 million guaranteed deal. No Marcus Vick gamble. No Ricky Williams gamble (twice). No David Boston return. No Michael Vick in 23 months. Good call. Now that we have that clear...

I need Parcells to address moving Wes Welker (in the division), as well as the Ginn, Jr. draft pick. Come to think of it you know who Ginn reminds me of? A poor mans Welker. So, brilliant move not gambling on Quinn... good luck with John Beck though.

NHL Winter Classic

Ever since I remembered that the NHL was doing this really cool thing, holding a game outdoors on New Years Day -- I thought, "Wow, this is gonna be awesome. 70,000 fans in Ralph Wilson Stadium!" But then you remember what you're talking about... hockey.

So I justed turned it on and, just as it is here, it's snowing there. I'm talking some serious snow. That's really awesome but again it's hockey.

So this begs the question how much of this awesome (in theory) game can I watch?

Observations:
--Bob Costas is there and that makes me smile as always.
--The Penguins are wearing some atrocious throwbacks. This is the one game that more than a handful of people outside of Pittsburgh will see -- this is not putter your best foot forward.
--I wonder how much AMP payed to be the title sponsor.
--Holy crap those Penguins uni's are as awful as I pictured them. And those Sabres ones are freakin sweet.
--What a mess this would be in Crosby got badly injured due to these conditions.
--This game might hit double digits -- goal 19 seconds in...

Enjoy.