Cards suck

Today's monday night football was one of the worst performances you will ever see by the Arizona Cardinals, even by their unbelievably low standard. There is really no reason for the Cards to suck like this against a mediocre Niners team at home. With Fitz and Breaston on offense and decent talent on defense, it's really hard to see what ails this team. QB Derek Anderson is not even that bad, but he is no Kurt Warner and Warner's retirement has completely changed the complexion of this team. Anderson was also caught smiling with a teammate on the sidelines and that became an issue later. Some reporter questioned him on that and he flipped. I feel for this guy. I am sure he works had, but the talent is just not there. I think he was just smiling with his teammate on the sideline and I always find it funny that the media makes a big deal out of losing players smiling on the sideline. You are supposed to sit there looking like one of your close relative just got shot. It's OK if that's fake remorse - which is what it is with most players, but you are just not supposed to look normal or have any kind of fun if you are losing. Not sure why the demeanor matters so much, but it just does for some folks.

DA definitely didn't do anything to earn the right to laugh tonight. He made most fans cry watching his throws and this offense and the Cards defense was even worse. They couldn't stop the run to save their lives. Gore got hurt in the first 5 minutes of the game, but he already had 50+ yards rushing and backup Westbrook ended up with 130 yards rushing. They didn't get any pressure on the young QB Troy Smith or the old RB Brian Westbrook. Niners looked like World beaters after looking like the Cards last weekend against the Bucs. The NFC West is horrible and the rookie QB Sam Bradford might end up leading the Rams to the playoffs. He is very good for a rookie and they beat the Denver Broncos on the road while Seattle lost at home. It would be awesome if a team wins this division with a 7-9 record. I always want a team to win a division with a losing record. And what would be even funnier if that team also goes onto win the Super Bowl. That probably would never happen, but the first request might actually be satisfied this year in this horrible NFC West.

There were a few indelible images from this football weekend, and some of them were from shockingly bad plays. Buffalo's Steve Johnson's drop of the game winning TD pass in the end zone should be on the top of the list. It was hard to watch his emotional post-game interview after the loss. At least the Bills have nothing to play for and that should help him handle this better. It would have been much worse if he lost the game with playoff position or a Super Bowl trip on the line. He was open and Fitzpatrick's pass fell right on his hands. He just dropped it inexplicably. The good news for the Bills fans is that they might have the QB of the future in Fitz. This dude is good. The other disturbing image of the week was the Boise State kicker missing gimme field goals that would have won the game both in the 4-Th quarter and OT thereby losing the game for Boise State and putting an end to a supposed championship run and an undefeated season. I was pulling for Boise State and TCU to stay unbeaten and crash the BCS party. Now that dream is gone though TCU is still in the run. The best play of the weekend, if not the entire college football season was made by Oklahoma State defensive back Broderick Brown who jumped outside the lines and tapped an attempted out-of-bounds pass onto the field of play where his teammate caught the ball for an interception. Heady, unselfish and athletic - the very attributes that define a good football player.

Wild wild west

The Western conference in the NBA is supposed to be finally slowing down this year after some talent movement to the East. But there are some crazy records in the West right now and it looks scarier than ever. San Antonio is 10-1 for the first time in their history and they are still not even leading their division! The Hornets are 10-1 too and are finally realizing the potential they showed us 2 seasons back. We were all wondering what happened to them the last 2 years and CP3 even wanted out. But now they have come back strong. The Spurs are as good as ever and slightly better that last year because Richard Jefferson is looking better than before in their uniform and Parker looks a little more focussed with all the divorce news floating around. Duncan just surpassed the Admiral Robinson to become the franchise's scoring leader. As usual they have their yearly steal from the draft - James Anderson contributing.

The Lakers are of course 11-2 with their 2 losses coming against the Suns and the Nuggets back-to-back. They are still the best team by far and are pretty much making the NBA regular season look meaningless. But these other teams in the West are threatening them just a little bit. The Jazz at 8-5 are barely holding onto the 7-Th spot, but they have had a bunch of impressive, come from behind wins including a shocker in Miami where they embarrassed the small 3. But today, the Jazz lost to the Spurs big 3. Dallas, OKC and Portland are as good as expected and the Warriors are looking surprisingly good at 7-5. Watch out for this Warriors team. They are no joke. They score a lot as always, but now they can also rebound, especially when David Lee is healthy and available.

This leaves the Suns and the Nuggets looking in from the outside. I think things will change, especially with the Suns having such a brutal start to the schedule, but the West will be rough as always. The Suns have already played the Spurs, Jazz, Lakers - twice, Heat, Denver and the Magic with a lot of those games being on the road. This combined with the fact that the team is new and still learning to play with each other and the fact that Nash has missed a game already, it's not bad that they are 6-6. The schedule will loosen up eventually and if they are still healthy, they should be fine. I was hoping they will beat the small 3 and the Miami Heat, but it was not meant to be. Bosh and the Heat crushed them. Hopefully we will get them in Phoenix later. Speaking of the Heat, one of the few funny catchphrases in the stupid sportscenters these days is when one of the anchors always introduce the team visiting the Heat as "The Charlotte Bobcats took their talent to South Beach today". I love the pun! I am still amazed Bron "took his talents to South Beach". I used to be such a "believer" in this guy, but now I want them to lose every game.

Vick is sick

I couldn't believe my eyes when I glanced at the score of the Eagles-Redskins game during Monday night football towards the end of the first quarter. It read 28-0. I don't think I have ever seen such a score in Q1 of a pro game. Michael Vick just went nuts. I can't believe how good this guy is playing right now. The entire sports media is in awe of this guy today and I have to say, rightfully so. He threw for 333 yards and 4 TDs and rushed for 80 more and 2 TDs. Are you kidding me? What's this, Tim Tebow and Florida versus Cincinnati? This didn't look like a pro game against a semi-decent Redskins team.

Vick actually looked like himself from his good old college days at Va Tech. Ironically, this is exactly what I thought he would become when I used to be his fan when he was in College. But that potential was never realized and as if to add insult to injury, he ended up in jail. Just when we thought his career was done, he comes back out of jail and coach Andy Reid seems to have completely resurrected his career. Of course, Vick himself I am sure is a changed man after that stint in the jail and that helps. But he was never the kind of passer he is right now before he hooked up with Reid.

I hate to admit this, but Vick might be unstoppable after all. Took him a while to get here and there were some unsavory detours along the way, but he might have finally arrived. Of course he has just played a few games this season and it's way too early to put him in the hall of fame, but he sure looked impressive Monday night. Just his fantasy numbers was newsworthy considering how ridiculous it was - close to 50. One of the record breaking nights for a QB and he missed just 8 passes. Now there's talk of a MVP award and his games have become must-see TV again already. May be time for Favre to retire for the 15-Th time and turn over the reins to Vick.

MLB has started handing out it's stupid off-season awards. Actually good awards but stupid timing. Roy Halladay won the NL Cy Young. Well deserved for sure. So was the Rookie of the Year winners - Neftali Feliz in the AL and Buster Posey in the NL. Buster Posey was the biggest no-brainer ever. The guy pretty much turned around the season for the Giants, a season that eventually ended with a championship for them. I don't know if people understand his impact on the team, but it was humongous. It was his call-up that turned around the hitting, the attitude and the excitement surrounding the team. He brought both tangible and intangible benefits to the team. R.O.Y indeed.

In my favorite league, the association, my favorite team is doing great. Suns' early season schedule looks like something a die-hard Suns hater would have come up with in his copious free time, but they are still 6-4 with 2 strong wins recently. Just when I was wondering if the Lakers would win 72 games, they lost to the Nuggets on the road. The Suns then beat the Fakers right in LA using 22 3-point bombs and followed it up with a win against Denver at home on a back-to-back night. Now onto Miami to take on the Heat. The only problem is, beating that Heat team may not be as impressive as the previous 2 wins! Great quote heard on the radio - "is it just me or does Pat Riley really look closer to the bench every time they show him on TV during Heat games". Riley might come down and steal another championship, but this team may not be good enough to win one this year. The only bad news for the Suns is that Robin Lopez is injured and they got even smaller if thats even possible.

Programmatic non-fit

Vikings coach Brad Childress might have come up with the quote of the year, if not the decade in the NFL. When asked why did he cut Randy Moss, he said Moss was a programmatic non-fit. Thats so cool! I am going to start using this term everywhere. I have always wondered if I was a programmatic non-fit in this World. But thats neither here nor there. Coming back to Chilly, I have always disliked him since last year. I thought he has been sounding a little arrogant and way too self-important ever since he started winning with Favre last season. But I love him now! As weird as it sounds coming from a football coach, thats the best description for Moss. Considering that Moss's recent issues range from disrespecting the head-coach to yelling and screaming at the caterers, "programmatic non-fit" sounds fitting - pun intended. I was shocked that they actually went ahead and cut him after trading the Pats a 3-Rd round pick for him. Moss is still a threat in the field and of course a threat to caterers and other off the field apparently, but still, Chilly had no business cutting him. Apparently he didn't tell his ownership either. So the ownership went out and interviewed the players to see if they should hold onto Moss and fire Chilly instead! Chilly better put his house in Minnesota on the market. Even before the Moss mess, Chilly's time there was coming to an end soon, but the Moss fiasco will seal his fate for sure. Favre is done too. That team is in a world of trouble, and most of it self-inflicted by either Favre or Chilly or both.

This has been a strange week in the NFL newswire. Mike Shanahan benched McNabb last Sunday for the final 2 minutes and gave a weak excuse that Rex Grossman, of all people, had a better handle on his 2-minute drill and hence was inserted into the game. The only good handle Rex has his own - sexy Rexy. Dude usually takes planned 10-minute drives and makes them a quick and dirty 2-minute drill - typically featuring a 3 and out. So Shanahan's comments were strange at so many different levels. Shanahan sounded like a "programmatic non-fit" after that comment. He then came back next day and made it worse. He said he pulled McNabb because he was not well-conditioned for a 2-minute drill. Now Terrell Owens is referring to McNabb throwing up during the Super Bowl and is agreeing with Shanahan. Here's a good rule of thumb in the NFL. If TO is agreeing with you, you are saying something stupid. I think Shanahan could have just said McNabb was benched because of his performance and things would have been so much better. It sounds like Shanahan came up with something initially to make it sound better than a good old benching, but later decided to throw McNabb under the bus anyways. Weird! Even Tom Brady got sucked into the stupidity of this week as he suggested he doesn't make any decisions in New England and if they listened to him, Lawyer Milloy and Deion Branch would have never left. He was answering a question about whether the Pats should claim Randy Moss off waivers. Brady said all this with a smile and didn't end up stirring any controversy, but it sounded a little odd coming from a "programmatic fit" like Brady from the ultimate program - hoody's Pats. Hoody is go well put-together, even Moss had high praise for him after last week's loss and that was actually the start of the issues for Moss and Chilly - at least publicly.

If only the games tomorrow are as good as the action during the week, life will be good.

A Giant week

The San Francisco Giants actually sealed the deal and won their first championship in SF after 52 years. It was great news for the Bay Area that has been in a sports funk the last few years. There are a lot of teams in the area, but most of them have been extremely mediocre lately since the great run by the niners in the nineties. The Giants have been pretty bad since Bonds left and this year was not supposed to be any different. They had built a good pitching staff the last couple of years, but their hitting has been downright garbage since Bonds retired. The most over-used phrase in baseball is probably "playoffs are all about pitching". While this is true, you will often see games in the playoffs that are 8-6 or 11-3. This is because the playoff teams often feature good hitting in addition to good pitching and on some nights, hitting trumps pitching and thats especially true in the American League. But this year, the playoffs were truly about pitching. Between the Giants and the Phillies, the NL pitching was out of the world and Cliff Lee basically carried the Rangers through the AL playoffs.

Not to take anything away from the Giants' timely hitting, but their pitching was awesome - both starters and their bullpen were phenomenal. They had 2 shutouts and a one run game in the 5 World Series game thanks to Lincecum, Cain and Bumgarner. Their entire starting rotation is comprised of talented, young and most importantly, home-grown pitchers. The aforementioned three studs were all first rounders and Jonathan Sanchez was a 27-Th round pick by the Giants. This is a rarity in this day and age. No wonder the Giants fan base feels this good about their team. While I am not a Giants fan, I have to admit that this team is the exact opposite of the mercenary Yankee model and I like that about this team. Their most expensive pitcher, Barry Zito didn't even make the playoff roster. Their biggest offensive weapon - Buster Posey, is also home-grown and young. He is clearly the MVP of this team. It's his call-up to the bigs and the subsequent promotion to every-day catcher status after the trade of Bengie Molina that was the turning point of this season. The team's hitting was so bad on paper, that a lot of the pieces were accumulated over the course of the season and they were not even part of the starting day roster. Posey was called up, Pat Burrell was signed late and the playoff hero Cody Ross was added in August. Thats the exact opposite of the 200 million dollar Yankees lineup for instance since it was assembled last December and January by spending millions and zillions of dollars.

Of course the youth and pitching on this roster has the fans dreaming about a dynasty and multiple championships. While the Giants are going to be good, nothing is guaranteed in life, especially with pitching. Doesn't it feel like just yesterday we were all gushing about Kerry Wood, Mark Prior and Carlos Zambrano? Forget a championship or the Cubs, these 3 dudes are barely even relevant as individual pitchers anymore. Thats how fickle pitchers and their arms can be. But even assuming the Giants studs stay strong and Posey improves, championships are not easy and thats what makes them special. Dynasties have become a thing of the past in both football and baseball and it happens only in basketball these days. Baseball at least has some notion of dynasties because of the high-spending teams like the Yankees and Redsox that are at least expected to have a winning season and a possible playoff berth most years. Otherwise, for the most part, teams that make it to the Super Bowl or the World Series don't even get back to the playoffs next year. The Phillies made it to 2 straight World Series and the NLCS this year and thats as impressive a 3 year stretch as you will see these days with teams not named the New York Yankees. It's doable, but the Giants fans can't assume it's a given. Not to rehash a old theory, but the Giants still need some hitting. It's one thing to catch lightning in a bottle over a 10 or a 15 game stretch and win the championship, but they can't assume this will happen every October. They still need a lineup that scales to handle a 162 game season. They need to upgrade their hitting, but they may not be as far off as we originally thought, especially with the development of Buster Posey.

With all this said and done about baseball, we all know football is the real national past time as Sunday night showed us. The Steelers-Saints regular season game outdrew game 4 of the World Series on TV and I was not even surprised. Of course the one million or so Giants fan who gathered at the parade yesterday don't care. They are just happy their Giants won.