All Day, rookies are Chuck Strong.

Around this time of the year, you always hear people say "this year flew by fast!" We say that every year, but I do believe 2012 went by extra fast. May be it's because I was busy this year and had some good times. And that includes me making the Super Bowl in both my fantasy football leagues. I won one and lost one if you are wondering. I wanted to win both because the odds of somebody making 2 Super Bowl in 2 fantasy leagues in the same year is so slim and winning both would have only made the story that much more impressive. But I can't complain and I don't want to bore people with my fantasy stories either. In the real NFL, the regular season concluded today. Another year in the books, though the calendar year still has one more day. The story today was Colt's head coach Chuck Pagano returning to the sidelines. It's a heart warming story made better by the fact that the team seems to truly respect and like him and are winning for him and with him. They made it to the playoffs after the horrible season in 2011 - before Pagano, Luck and the gang got there. How good are these guys to make this kind of an immediate impact!

There are 3 rookie QBs playing next week in the playoffs with RG III and Russel Wilson joining Andrew Luck. That might be the most impressive stat of the year. Gone are the days when rookie QBs, even future hall of famers, were good for 10 to 12 losses. Now, if you get the right one, you can win 10+ with some good coaching and decent talent around them. These 3 QBs have been fantastic all year and they are all different. Wilson started slow, but is finishing very strong. He evolved from a game manager to a game changer right in front of our eyes. Wilson, Marshawn Lynch, and their stellar defense carry each other and the Seahawks may be a scary team in the NFC playoffs. Andrew Luck is the most traditional among the 3 rookies. He is an incredibly good passer for a rookie, but he does have some ugliness with his interception and completion percentage numbers - much like you would expect of a rookie QB. But his 4000+ yards passing and the innumerable 4-Th quarter comebacks have put the Colts in the playoffs despite a bad defense and a non-existent running game. 

RG III is the most sensational of the gang. He has put up some impressive numbers both with his arm and legs all season and is part of a balanced team much like the Seahawks, but very different. The Redskins, led by the 2 rookies - RG III and RB Albert Morris, eliminated the Dallas Cowboys today in the very last game of the regular season to win the division and make the playoffs. Romo and the Cowboys are staring at another miserable off-season as Romo threw some horrible interceptions and lost an elimination game once again. They are in trouble. They can't be doing this every year. Something has to change. They need a real GM and a new head coach. Romo is talented, but needs to be reined in. That simple! The strange part of that division was the Giants missing the playoffs altogether. How does that team with a supposedly buttoned-up, disciplinarian coach in Tom Coughlin and so much talent be so inconsistent and wildly unpredictable? They did end the year at 9-7 - better than the Cowboys, but no playoffs for either team.  The division was won by the Redskins whose coaching staff deserve a lot of credit for building an unique offense that perfectly leverages their rookie QB's strengths.  They won 7 straight to make it to the playoffs and will host Russell Wilson at home. That means at least one of the rookie QBs will be playing in the next round of the playoffs too, which will be amazing. 

With all that said, the real story of this season was All Day, Adrian Peterson. He almost obliterated Eric Dickerson's long standing yardage record with that reconstructed knee. For him to come back from that gruesome knee injury in less than a year with the ferocity and effectiveness he displayed leaves me speechless. Too bad he fell just 9 yards short of the record, but rushing for more than 2000 yards is always impressive, with or without a damaged knee. I can't wait to watch this guy in the playoffs. His performance almost put the unbelievable story of Peyton Manning's amazing comeback in the back burner. How about Manning leading the Denver Broncos to the top seed in the entire AFC behind a 11 game winning streak? He went from a shaky 2-3 start to a 13-3 record in no time! With the Texans choking away their season-long lead in the last 2 weeks, the Broncos are now owners of home-court throughout the playoffs. The rookie QBs and All Day are over-shadowing Manning now, but won't for long. A Manning-Brady AFC championship game seems very likely and I can't even imagine the attention and hype that game and Manning will get if and when that happens. To quote the Jets linebacker Bart Scott, "can't wait." 

Bizarro NBA

Christmas defines the holiday season and on the sports calendar, it also signifies the unofficial start of the NBA season. People start caring about the NBA starting with the Christmas day games on network TV. Actually, given NFL's popularity these days, it's more like the NBA gets some momentary attention on Christmas day, but sports fans still don't really care about it - or anything else for that matter, until the Super Bowl is over.  It has gotten to a point where Nuggets coach George Karl actually suggested NBA should permanently open on Christmas day like they did after the lockout in 2011. That will never happen, but we did get our filling of 5 games on ESPN and ABC on Christmas day. The Lakers seemed to be energized by Steve Nash's return and won their fifth straight against a tough Knicks team but they lost again on boxing day. This team is still in a flux. There is widespread belief that they will right the ship and be there at the end, but experts are also coming around to agreeing this Lakers team may not be a contender after all and they are probably staring at a first round exit. I think the ceiling for this team might be the second round or may be the Western conference finals if they get lucky, but nothing more.

The real story in the league is LA's other team. The LA Clippers have won 15 straight and have the best record in the league. It's truly the bizarro world in the NBA this season with not only the Clippers but also the Golden State Warriors in the top 5 in the Western conference. Whats happening to this world? Actually, both these teams are for real and legit. The Warriors have a great collection of young talent in Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green, and Festus Ezeli to go with their potential All-stars in Steph Curry and David Lee. They have good chemistry, great shooting, and David Lee's activity and smarts keeps the painted area friendly and hospitable. The Clippers on the other hand have totally taken the next step from last season when they gained legitimacy with the Chris Paul trade. They lost a  lot of their depth in the trade for him, but they have built their bench back up in less than a year.  Now they have Lamar Odom, Jamal Crawford, Eric Bledsoe, Grant Hill, and Chauncey Billups with some of those guys still not even back from injuries. I don't consider them to be contenders or better than the Thunder, but they should be in the final 4 in the West, which basically means the final 5 in the entire league counting the Heat.

With Nash aging and balling with the enemy in Laker-land, Chris Paul might be my favorite player in the NBA right now. This guy has an amazing attitude and phenomenal leadership credentials to go with a superstar game and is fun to watch when he is running with those athletes he has on his roster. CP3 is the best PG in the league right now. He is always connected to Deron Williams because of their draft class, but Deron seems to be getting more recognition for being a coach-killer than for being a point guard as the Nets fired their coach Avery Johnson today after their slump in December. I was expecting the Nets to be a force this year, but it looks like the East will still be a playground for the Heat and the Bulls, once Derrick Rose is back. The other team I am wishing well is the Houston Rockets. I like both James Harden and Jeremy Lin. Harden is having a great season and Lin seems to be turning it around lately. Thats a fun team to watch and I hope to see them giving some contenders a lot of trouble in the playoffs. NBA is always fun. It would be even better if my Phoenix Suns are winning, but we will be entertained by the NBA this year anyways.

NFL needs some elbow room

2 straight weeks in the NFL, 2 tragic deaths with serious collateral damage. Kansas City Chiefs' Jevon Belcher killed his girlfriend last weekend before taking his own life and orphaning his baby daughter. This weekend, Dallas Cowboys' Jerry Brown, a practice squad linebacker was killed in a car crash. The driver was Josh Brent, who ended up in jail for intoxication manslaughter. But the NFL kept playing like nothing ever happened. Games were not even postponed for an hour, let alone canceled for the weekend. Football is big business and every game is like an event of epic proportion. Aside from the national TV impact of these games, there are many other problems with postponing any single game. There are a lot of people who travel long distances for watching these games. The travel impact for regular season baseball and basketball should be so trivial compared to football, though I would guess baseball travelers out-number the basketball travelers. Fantasy football is a huge part of football's popularity whether or not the NFL wants to accept it and missing a game this time of the year will screw up a whole lot of fantasy playoff races too. Of course, the fantasizers have to handle it like the player was injured or the team was on a bye and I think it's manageable.

The biggest problem NFL has when it comes to postponing these games is that, at this point of the season, the schedule has absolutely no slack. The bye weeks are over and it's wall to wall games until the hype week leading into the Super Bowl. I suggest they give up the hype week and introduce an extra bye week between week 17 and the playoffs.  That way, NFL can postpone some games to "week 18" if need be and the Super Bowl will still be on the same weekend and the season doesn't have to stretch further out. The hype week is overdone anyways. The Super Bowl guests can afford to have one less playboy party during that week. NFL needs that extra week in-season. I believe they should have rescheduled both the games affected by deaths the last 2 weekends. It's just basic decency to do so. Especially last week when Belcher killed himself in the parking lot of the stadium in Kansas City. I was surprised the NFL didn't postpone that game to Monday night. That would have at least been minimally symbolic and NFL didn't even extend that courtesy. In the NBA, they could play games on back to back nights and in MLB, they could even play 2 on the same day. And there are empty days during their long seasons to squeeze games when necessary. NFL season is just 17 weeks and is a brutally physical game. It's impossible to play more than once a week and there are no slack weeks in the schedule. Time to introduce that slack at the end of the season.

As for the on-field action, the Cowboys won the game against the Bengals on a last second field goal on this emotional day and I could only imagine the pressure the kicker was in as he lined up for that kick under those strange circumstances.The Cowboys continue to be one of those enigmatic teams and they win when they should lose and vice versa. The New York Giants, the other enigmatic team from the same division crushed the New Orleans Saints and pretty much confirmed that Drew Brees won't be in the playoffs this season. RG III has a knee problem which threatens his status for the next game. Not a great news for yours truly who was counting on him for the fantasy playoff run. The Redskins definitely need him to continue the magical run as well in the nation's capital, where he is being rightfully accused of single handedly reviving football. The other rookie who is making magic in Indy won again. It's going to be an interesting rookie of the year contest between Andrew Luck and RG III. The MVP contest is also going to be tight the way Adrian Peterson has been performing lately. He is an amazing specimen. He is going to give Peyton Manning a serious run for his money. Coincidentally, both are eligible for the comeback player of the year too since they are both back from serious injuries. After 14 weeks, I would split the vote between those 2. I pick Peterson for the MVP and Manning for the comeback player, though the final vote, I suspect, will go the other way.

To Kaep or not to Kaep

The call Jim Harbaugh had to make a couple of weeks back was indeed tough. He decided to switch to Colin Kaepernick, who finally lost a game today against the Saint Louis Rams. Kaep made 2 or 3 costly mistakes that betrayed his inexperience. This is not to say Alex Smith is a better QB or even that he would have won the game against the Rams, but Smith probably wouldn't have made those exact mistakes. He could have made 2 or 0 or 10 other mistakes, but not those specific ones. Kaep ran back almost 20 yards and ended up in his own end-zone taking a safety. Even if Smith wanted to make that same stupid play, he couldn't have because he is not as athletic as Kaep to run away from the pass rush for 20 yards backwards. The other big mistake was Kaep's pitch to Ted Ginn Jr. deep in his own territory that flew over Ginn's head resulting in a fumble recovery and a TD for the Rams. That was a bad play-call more than anything else, but it was still Kaep's fault for not executing it right. It's hard to speak in hypotheticals, but a seasoned QB like Alex Smith would have had a lot more experience making such pitches, or any other play for that matter. Kaep is inexperienced and that increases the exposure to risks of all kind as we saw today.

This was the most baffling part of this whole saga for me especially if we rewind the clock 2 weeks back going into the Saints game, which Kaep eventually started, played well, and won. I was surprised at the media and some fans even asking for Kaep. Young QBs are going to lose you some games just on their own. That's true for even top prospects like Andrew Luck and RG-III. You pay that price and accept that risk for the rewards down the road. Colts, for instance, are hoping to be a perennial playoff contender between 2014 and 2025 or whatever and they are more than happy to let Luck take his lumps in 2012 and crash and burn and learn. They probably cheer every time he throws a pick because a smart, talented QB like that is going to learn from it and get better every day. They don't care a whole lot about their win-loss record this year, though that is changing fast with the way Luck is already leading them to the playoffs. Same with the Redskins and RG-III. Kaepernick is in the same growth phase too, but the difference is, his team is not. The niners are a legitimate super bowl contender in 2012 and they cannot afford losing a game or 2 because of Kaep's immaturity. A single loss could be the difference between the niners hosting the NFL championship game or a playoff game at the stick versus going to a hostile environment on the road. That's no joke. The safe option would have been to stick with the veteran Alex Smith and mitigate the risks. Why fix something that ain't broken?

On the flip side, I do agree with all the expert's analysis that Kaep's upside is probably better than Alex and he has the potential to be a deadlier, better, and a more accurate passer than Smith. Harbaugh obviously agrees with that given that they traded up to draft him last season and he has been sneaking him in through those wildcat packages all season, much more than Rex Ryan has been doing with Tebow. Harbaugh finally slowed down the wildcat experiments when it clearly started affecting Alex Smith's rhythm, but then Smith got hurt and we all got to see Kaep play complete games. Harbaugh couldn't resist putting his boy in and taking the risk hoping for the rewards of the higher upside. I am sure he agonized over this decision. On the one had, he had a QB in Smith who had won him a tonne of games including the playoff game against the Saints last season where he was brilliant, and was completing over 70% of his passes this season. On the other hand was the perceived limitations of Smith which were exposed by the NY Giants in the other playoff game last season and the hope that Kaepernick does not suffer from the same limitations. If Kaep was going to be the future, why not start the future today? But the safer choice would have definitely been to stick with Smith for this year and if he loved Kaep that much, turn the reins over to him next year right from the start.

Super Bowl contenders don't change their starting QBs halfway through the season. Most super bowl contenders are not led by first year starters either. I am not saying Kaep cannot do it for sure this year and it will all play out soon in front of your eyes. Dan Marino and Tom Brady have taken their teams to the Super Bowl in their first year as starters - Marino as a rookie and Brady won the Super Bowl as a second year, injury replacement much like Kaep. But it's definitely not a common occurrence. My gut says it won't happen with these niners either. I pick Kaep and the niners to fall short of the Super Bowl again making us wonder what would have happened with Smith at the helm. I think Kaep will play well, show flashes of brilliance, and realize some of that potential everybody sees, but won't go all the way this season. The real unlucky guy is all this is Alex Smith. Not only did he lose his job to a concussion, he lost it while having the best season of his career and as a league leader in completion percentage. Things always seem to work against this guy. Harbaugh doesn't seem like the sentimental type, but many people say he should have gone back to Smith out of loyalty and fairness. But some people agree with him and say he should stick with the guy he thinks gives him the best chance to win the Super Bowl and that clearly is Kaepernick in Harbaugh's mind. So he went with the bottom line - loyalty be damned. Nice guys finish last. Harbaugh is a lot of things, nice is not one of them. But he might now have to deal with some bad karma.

5 games does a season make.

ESPN can go overboard with a lot of analogies, comparison, and obscure stats. But it was interesting when they drew up analogous situations in other sports to illustrate LA Lakers coach Mike Brown's firing just 5 games into the season. It's apparently equivalent to a NFL coach getting fired before the end of the first game of the season or a college football coach getting fired in the 3-Rd quarter of their season opener. Or a baseball manager getting fired after 10 games. They got him even before I got around to my first NBA blog post of this season - it's just been over a week into this NBA season. All crazy stats, but I still can't totally condemn the Lakers brass for letting Mike Brown go this early. Granted, it's totally mind boggling that a coach with a brand new team in terms of it's key players got fired after just 5 games - way before those guys even got to learn to play with each other with any level of comfort. One of the key guys, Steve Nash had been hurt for 3 of those 5 games, Dwight Howard is returning from a serious back surgery, Kobe is hurt and both Kobe and Dwight missed most of the preseason. I think we have all heard enough on ESPN about them implementing a new offense too. Give all this, it should not surprise anybody that they started the season 1-4.

But their talent is so good and the expectations are so high, Brown got popped even in these circumstances. I have never been a big fan of Mike Brown. He is supposed to be defensive minded and seems like a decent guy, but I have always found him to be completely unimaginative, especially on offense. Nothing path breaking on defense either, but I find him to be really clueless on offense. It's now fashionable for these so-called experts to knock on the Princeton offense that Mike Brown tried to incorporate this season. I don't mind the Princeton offense, but Mike Brown seemed to have adopted it just because he wanted something and had no clue what to do on offense with the pieces he got. Of course with Nash, Kobe and Howard, Princeton is a not a great fit anyways. It's not just the losses that got him fired but the fact that he was generating less than the sum of the individual parts he had on his hands with his unimaginative coaching. To quote Bill Simmons, Mike Brown single handedly stopped LeBron James as his coach for years in Cleveland. That would be funny if it were not so close to the truth. Throwing the ball in LeBron's hands at weird spots on the floor and having the other 4 guys watch it from even weirder corners was his offense for years.

There is only one basketball and it's never going to be easy to get the most out of all 4 stars the Lakers have on their roster. But if you can't win with both Kobe and Howard shooting more than 55% from the field, there are some basic structural issues. I wouldn't trust Mike Brown to fix those even if he is not responsible for creating those. To be fair to Brown, the Lakers do have some issues with this roster despite all it's talent. Nash is not very useful if you don't let him generate a lot of your offense, which he sure can. But with Kobe and Howard, is that the right way to go? May be, may be not. One approach would be to run more and let Nash be the creator, and when they do go half-court, let the system, Howard and Kobe take care of things with Kobe also being the closer. Whatever it is, I think they have to maximize their productivity on offense to be able to win. Nash is a defensive liability and Pau is not an asset on the defensive end either. Even MWP is not what he used to be as a defender. I think there is an opportunity here for the Lakers to be great offensively and halfway decent defensively and it's going to take some coaching to make that happen.

Laker faithful is already begging for Phil Jackson to come back. They were chanting the Zen master's name as the Lakers blew the Warriors out tonight. I would personally love to see them hire Mike D'Antoni, who should have Nash and even Kobe's blessing given his familiarity from Italy and from the recent Olympics. Granted, defense wins championships and D'Antoni will only make them weaker there but he will solve their offensive problems. There is also an argument that though D'Antoni would have more talent in this roster than he ever had with the Phoenix Suns, these are not the same athletic types that will do well running up and down in his system. Plus, Kobe and Nash are older and may not survive that system and this roster doesn't have the three pointing shooting he needs either. MWP bricking another three is probably the Laker fan's worst nightmare. With all that said, Nash and D'Antoni operating with Kobe, Pau and Dwight will be a lot of fun to watch! If it doesn't work, who cares. It's the Lakers' problem anyways. It's a win-win as far as I am concerned.

Giant Pitching

The typical post-season script in baseball reads "pitching wins championships". It may not play out that way every year, but the San Francisco Giants definitely stuck to the script in these playoffs. The Giants have now won 2 out of the last 3 World Series and one more in the next 2 years, we will be using the D word - dynasty. They are already in the New York Yankees territory. In roughly the last decade (since 2002), the Giants have been to 3 World Series and that's one more than any other team including the Yankees. They were clearly powered by their pitching in 2010, led by Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, carrying a sub-par offense which came alive a little bit during the post-season. This season was different, almost weird. The Giants pitching was still good, but the dominating ace we expected in Tim Lincecum was nowhere to be found the entire season. In fact, he ended up in the bullpen for the post-season while Barry Zito was named a starter. That was something we could have never guessed 6 months back. The pitching staff still had enough bullets even with a mediocre Lincecum, but all of them seemed to slip up and struggle a little towards the end of the regular season. Their offense was not stellar, but they scored a few more runs in the 2012 regular season than 2010, though with the help of far fewer home runs.

The Giants looked shaky because of these reasons going into the playoffs and they promptly fell behind 0-2 against the Reds after 2 home games. They then came back and shocked the Reds by winning 3 straight. They again fell behind 3-1 to the Cardinals and that's when things shifted decisively in the Giants favor. Barry Zito, of all people, was slated to start the elimination game on the road. After giving the Giants close to nothing in 6 long, expensive years, Zito inexplicably shut the Cardinals down. The Giants never look back from that point on. Their pitching took off from there as every starter wanted to and believed he could do what Zito did. Beginning with that Zito start in Saint Louis, the Giants pitched 4 shutouts in 6 games and gave up just 1 run in another game during that stretch. Ryan Vogelsong recaptured his form and was dominant throughout the playoffs and the rest of the rotation joined him at different points led by Zito. When Detroit rolled into town for the World Series, they were punched in the mouth by a pitching staff that was nasty at the start, nastier at the end with their closer Sergio Romo and everywhere in-between via their stellar bullpen. The big, bad Detroit lineup just looked fat and out of shape in this series as triple crown winner and potential AL MVP Miguel Cabrera hit .231 and Prince Fielder hit .071.

The Giants survived a strange season and a mediocre Tim Lincecum. They survived losing closer Brian Wilson at the start of the season and Melkey Cabrera to steroids in the middle of the season. They survived all the money spent by their division rival Los Angeles Dodgers and crazy trades. They survived 6 elimination games - 4 of them on the road, and a triple crown winning opponent in the World Series. Buster Posey can now say "I win the World Series if I play more than 100 games in a season, period!" He turned their 2010 season around and was a big part of that World Series run. He will probably win the NL MVP this season and the Giants have another ring. Buster got hurt and played in only 45 games in 2011 and the Giants promptly missed the playoffs. Posey is the real deal. For all the talk of Brian Sabean not drafting a decent position player, he might have found a hall of famer in this guy. I am happy for Sabean. As an A's fan, there is no question in my mind that Billy Beane is the best GM in the league. But I have always believed the Bay Area is home to the best 2 GMs in the entire league. I am glad Sabean has been vindicated twice in the last 3 years after a long wait. I am also happy for Ex-A's and Beane find Marco Scutaro. He stood tall and carried the Giants in the NLCS. Great team work, great season. Congrats to the San Francisco Giants.

NFC Best

Parity is the word that makes NFL great. Lots of good things come out of parity, though it does have some negatives like it enables mediocrity across the league more than greatness in some teams. But one of the things parity leads to is last-to-first and first-to-last transformation of teams overnight. As rosters are bunched together so closely on the talent-scale, an addition here or a subtraction there of a couple of talented players or even some solid experience can alter the NFL landscape dramatically. This is why we see a whole bunch of new teams making the playoffs every season. The best example of this phenomenon this year is the NFC West. This conference was the worst just 2 years back. Seattle won it with an unheard of 7-9 record in 2010. A rookie quarterback, Sam Bradford, in a bad team almost won that division that year. Then in 2011, Seattle moved sideways, St. Louis took a step back, and Arizona went nowhere like they have been doing since Kurt Warner hung up his cleats. Jim Harbaugh grabbed the division by it's throat and made the niners the team to beat.

But this season, the NFC West has been the best division in all of football. Everybody expected the niners to be a Super Bowl contender. The seahawks were expected to be slightly better.  We knew Jeff Fisher will make the rams better, but not right away and we didn't know what to expect of the cardinals. Fast forward to the here and now, this division has the most wins in all of football - 15, with 3 teams tied with a 4-2 record at the top before the Thursday night game. The niners are still an elite team, their embarrassing loss to the New York giants last weekend notwithstanding. I am not even sure if there is anything embarrassing at all in any kind of loss to the Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning led giants. They are still the most under-rated coach-QB combo in the league. The seahawks and the cards are much better than originally expected and the rams have improved dramatically, at least on the defensive side. And all these teams will have some staying power through the season since they are all built on solid defense. All the offenses in this division are shaky, but defense wins championships and defense doesn't disappear easily either.

The niners-seahawks game tonight took on an added meaning because of the records and how difficult this division is expected to play the rest of the season. The game was a defensive struggle as expected, but the physical running game of both teams had some success against the other defense. It was fun watching Marshawn Lynch and Frank Gore run wild on great defenses, but that's what winning teams do. Frank Gore ended up with the better numbers and the niners won the game, but this game is going to repeat itself multiple times this season as the niners, cards, rams, and seahawks defenses lock horns. This was the niners first division game of this season, though the seahawks are already done with all of their road, divisional games. Nice win for the niners before they go in to the desert for a Monday night showdown with the cards. This game was a little bit of a letdown for the Seahawks after their impressive win over Tom Brady and the Patriots, but this season is still going according to plan for them for the most part. Their quarterback Russell Wilson is no joke. I have been waiting for him to lose his job to Matt Flynn, but he is a fighter and is here to stay.

In baseball, yankees lose, the-e-e-e yankees lose!

Busy Weekend

This is a fun time of the year when baseball playoffs intersects with America's real past-time - football. Playoffs are the only time when we really pay close attention to baseball these days and there were quite a few interesting baseball games the last few days starting with the new wild-card games on Friday. The weekend was packed with baseball playoffs competing with college and pro football. I navigated away from the NFL to catch the A's play and lose a tough one Sunday afternoon, a game decided by wild pitches and a costly error. Both the A's and the San Francisco Giants have pulled one back today to stay alive at 2-1. The giants are in a tough spot with 2 more to go on the road. The A's are at home, but might have to face Justin Verlander in game 5 - that's no fun. But the A's had a great win today with Brett Anderson coming back from a 20-day injury layoff to pitch great right under the playoff glare and Coco Crisp robbing Price Fielder with a great catch to make up for his 2-run error on Sunday. The other 2 series are both tied at 1-1 going back to their respective home fields for 3 games. Those home teams - Nationals and the Yankees, are feeling good about themselves.

Can you believe that the NFL season is almost 1/3 of the way done already! The niners re-established themselves as the favorites again after back-to-back weeks of dismantling AFC East teams. Neither the jets nor the bills are respectable teams, but the way the niners embarrassed them speaks volume about the capabilities of the niners and Jim Harbaugh. I am a big Harbaugh fan, but he is truly a psychotic football nut. He is probably impossible to deal with in person and looks like an arrogant and haughty control freak. But he is a football genius. The niners have this athletic quarterback Colin Kaepernick who is even rumored to be the future of the franchise beyond Alex Smith. They drafted him in the second round in 2011 and he has a big arm too. So Harbaugh unleashed his legs on the Jets to out-Tebow them. While ESPN has been waiting for Tebow-time with the Jets for the past several months, Harbaugh shows them how it's done. He posts a shut-out on the Jets and Tebows them for good effect. Of course, that made some of the niner faithful - those who are always looking to get rid of Alex Smith, ask for Kaeprnick to take over. So Harbaugh unleashes Alex Smith against the Bills at home. He completed 18 out of 24 for 303 yards and 3 TDs - very un-Alex Smith like numbers. Looks like Harbaugh has made this year his personal experiment and he is not even using all his weapons yet. I am sure he is saving Randy Moss for the later half of the season and the playoffs.

Niners do have one loss, but it's on the road against the Vikings, a Vikings team that looks increasingly legitimate with every passing week. They have Adrian Peterson back running effectively and Percy Harvin doing everything. Christian Ponder is playing good too. The play of young quarterbacks has been a great story of this season. RGIII, who got hurt this week, may have the most impressive numbers, but several young guns are lighting it up. Playing quarterback has never been easier in the NFL, and these talented guys are taking full advantage. Andrew Luck defeated Aaron Rodgers and the Packers and is looking like the real deal. Ryan Tannehill also looks like the guy Miami has been searching for ever since Dan Marino retired. Tannehill is finally known for more than just his beautiful wife. Even 0-5 Cleveland's Brandon Weeden looks good and the Browns fans might finally have some hope. Second year guys Dalton, Ponder, Locker, and even Gabbert are all looking solid. The only 2 guys that I don't trust are Cam Newton and Russell Wilson. But Russell Wilson is winning now, though I feel Seattle may be slightly better off with Matt Flynn. That day might be coming, but for now, all is well in the rookie land. With 10 out of the 32 teams in the league featuring either a rookie or a second year QB, the league is looking like a Chuck E. Cheese.

Moneyball II

The Oakland A's swept their final series of the season against the big, bad Texas rangers yesterday and ended up at the top of the AL West standings - the only day the entire season they were at the top and not a bad day to be in that position. With a 55 million dollar payroll and a bunch of kids, they did the unimaginable against teams with twice or thrice their payroll. I don't think anybody except Billy Beane and I expected this! That's a shameless plug for myself, but I did expect this team to do better than what most people predicted. That was just based on my trust in Billy Beane's approach last off-season and had nothing do with my knowledge about these players. After all, apparently even Billy Beane didn't recognize some of these players when he crossed paths with them for the first time inside Oakland Coliseum. Of course, I would not have been surprised if they went 62-100 and finished last either because that's what the experts told us. It's a great story that the team came together and achieved this with a bunch of rookie starting pitchers. I can't remember any team succeeding at this level with so many rookie starting pitchers and pitching was and is their strength.

Billy Beane deserves all the credit for this team, even more than the original moneyball teams. He traded away kids to acquire even younger kids and accumulated so many quality arms. The pitching depth of the A's is quite impressive and I am sure most baseball fans around the country can't even name 2 or 3 of A's starters - even today, not just when the season started. All of their veteran pitchers are either hurt or suspended, but they still have enough depth to keep winning. Beane deserves a lot of credit because he seems to have acquired the right kind of arms. Pitching prospects are dime a dozen, but successful prospects who turn out to be good are rarer than you think. Beane seems to have found the prefect group and seem to be paying even less than a dime for his dozen. The baseball establishment is not on board with all things Billy because of the moneyball hype, but he earned this one the hard way. And his quote at the end of the season ain't bad either. “We set out to create a team whose future was better than its past,” Beane said. “In the process, we made a team for the present.” And this team looks good for the future too. America better get used to names like Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Reddick, Daniel Straily, AJ Griffin, Jarrod Parker and Tommy Milone. They are here to stay.

This team had no business even being one of the 2 wild cards according to most experts, but they ended up winning the division at the end, that too after trailing the Rangers by 13 games at one point in the season. Their gift for all this - a tough series starting on the road against the Detroit Tigers and Justin Verlander. They actually have a better record than Detroit, but they still have to start the series on the road because of the unique 2-3 format this year to squeeze some time for the extra wildcard games by cutting the travel day out of the old 2-2-1 format. This new format will be dangerous for all these higher seeds opening on the road, but especially for the A's since they have to face Verlander and Max Scherzer. But they will come back home and I am sure will make a series out of it. Speaking of the one-game wildcard series, the idea made no sense to me at first, but now I realize I missed the point. Of course nobody from MLB did a good job of explaining the logic behind it either at the start of the season. Now that I saw it work through the entire season, I get it and actually love it. It totally restores the prestige and value of winning the division, which the first wild card took away back in the day. In fact, that was Bob Costas' argument against the first wildcard for years. With the addition of the second wildcard, of course teams want to win the division just to avoid that dangerous one game elimination game. Texas and Oakland swapped places on the last day and are in completely different worlds right now. The wildcard world is not fun for the teams involved.

A's are now getting ready for the playoffs to deal with Verlander and Miguel Cabrera. Congrats to Miggy on the triple crown. It's a special achievement that clinches the AL MVP for him. Sorry Mike Trout.

NFL Replaced!

The thing replacement referees are replacing very effectively is all the on-field stories happening in the NFL. They are the singular story right now in all of sports, especially this Monday night when one of their calls decided and ended the game. Considering this game involved 2 good NFC teams, both looking to be playoff bound, that call could very well have a significant impact on this entire NFL season. With all that said, my summary of this issue is as follows. I am not completely on board with the theory that this call conclusively proves that the replacement refs are responsible for everything that ails our society from cancer to world hunger. The reason I say this is because everybody makes mistakes and this particular "simultaneous possession" call is not that easy where we can assume the regular refs would have nailed it. I can easily see the regulars missing this too. Plus, the replay review didn't help here either due to a variety of reasons. So beating up the replacement refs is not the point of this incident for me. Of course, there are several other calls over the last 3 weeks that are more worthy of beating these refs with than this particular one. But if the point is beating the NFL up at a philosophical level over this whole fiasco, then I am 100% on board.

The important point here is, the referees are a very significant part of this game and the league has woefully underestimated both their importance to the game and the difficulty of their jobs. Today, a call decided a game and possibly playoff positioning and this is what the NFL has been claiming and assuming will never happen. It can no more deny the fact that the referees are way too important and the league has to get it's act together and employ the best referees running their games. It's no different than having the best players playing in this league as opposed to some high-school kids. These replacement referees are trying their best and have the best of intentions, but they are put in a difficult situation. The game is fast, the pressure is unrelenting, and the scrutiny is intense for these referees. They are rookies with no experienced shoulders to lean on.The problem is not them, but it's the league that thinks these refs are more than enough to police these games. Even I thought the concerns over player's health because of these replacement referees were a little over-stated, but the calls they make do decide these games and it's no joke. After seeing how skirmishes are breaking out all over the field because the players think the refs are too scared to throw flags on them, I am coming around on the safety issue too.

In this day and age of twitter and 24 hours talk radio, there is so much negative focus on these guys and the issue is over-hyped. But the underlying message is simple and valid - NFL needs to fix this issue NOW. It is totally taking away from the action on the field, which is always great in the NFL, but has been especially entertaining in the early part of this season. Take for instance this Monday night game. The Seattle Seahawks defense was spectacular and they sacked Aaron Rodgers 8 times in the first half. The Packers offense definitely don't look the same and have some issues. But they showed us why they are still a great team when they came back in the second half and started moving the ball behind a new game-plan - no-huddle and running with Cedric Benson. They went ahead and would have won but for the bad call at the end, which may not have even been  the worst call of the game. There was a roughing the passer and pass interference call - both also against the Packers, that were also controversial. It was a good game culminating an awesome, but now controversial NFL weekend. The NFC West looks like the best division in all of football as Arizona is one of 3 teams in the entire NFL that are still 3-0. The Niners lost a bad one in Minnesota, but they are still good and between them, Arizona and Seattle, it should be a fun, tough, defensive struggle out west. Hopefully we will have real referees calling these games this fall.

Cutler sometimes plays like he deserves to be cut.

Week one of NFL is in the books and now that we have Thursday night football every week, we are already in to week 2. The bad part about Thursday night football is that I seem to be 25 points behind in my fantasy league even before Friday arrives. That used to happen in the second quarter of the first set of Sunday morning games. The only thing worse than losing in fantasy is losing it early on a Thursday. But that apart, Thursday night football is beautiful. Especially this week with Chicago and Green Bay renewing their divisional rivalry. Cutler kicked off the fun by wishing the Packers' secondary "good luck" for stopping his awesome passing game. I don't know if that fired up the Packers defense, but what we saw Thursday was a defensive unit that looked very different from the one Frank Gore and the Niners gashed last week. Clay Matthews and the secondary made Cutler and his offensive line look confused, clueless and mediocre. Cutler threw 4 interceptions and yelled, screamed and bumped J'Marcus Webb, the offensive lineman who was over-matched against Matthews.

While I do think the media is over-reacting to the bump, Cutler's general demeanor and attitude is very objectionable and sometimes his game is even more unacceptable. He has a cannon for an arm and plays like he is the Bears' savior from heaven on some days and then looks like one of those million-dollar arm, 10 cent brain QBs on other days. This Thursday was one of those 10 cent days for Cutler. Green Bay avoided a 0-2 hole and is now sitting much more comfortably than last week. Cutler on the other hand is again on an island with all kinds of question marks hanging over his head. He is over-rated and dumb. He has to fix his mental approach to the game if he ever hopes to maximize his immense physical talents. Green Bay proved they are a good team and their win this week makes the Niners win last week look even better. Of course, the Niners have to beat the Lions this week at home in the original bump-gate contest to cement their status. It's week to week in the NFL and the Thursday game proved that again. We don't know for sure if the Niners are that good or are the Packers got that much better in a week or are the Bears that bad. Time will tell.

Lots of scoring in week 1. That made the fantasy football owners feel good. The Niners, Ravens, Patriots, Texans, Cowboys, Falcons and the Broncos are some of the teams that looked good. The Falcons-Broncos game this Monday is going to be a great one. Speaking of the Broncos, it was good to see Peyton Manning play well and win. I still felt like his arm was not where it used to be, but his mental capacity is so good, he managed the game well and seems to have adjusted to whatever his new physical realities are. The other QB who caused a lot of excitement was RG3 who went into New Orleans and outplayed Drew Brees. Luck threw for 3 interceptions and lost the game in his debut, but I saw some good things from him too. I expect both these rookies to be great by the end of the season. Flacco and the Ravens showed us their no-huddle offense as advertised and it looked great against the Bengals. Great test for them in week 2 at Philly. If they can handle that secondary and that defense, they will join Niners as the other favorite and both teams will try to make Harbowl a reality. But the season is long and I am just happy that the fun has started.

My Fantasy

Fantasy football - the only male fantasy that we can openly talk about, is in full swing. So here's my top-5 for 2012-2013.

1. Ray Rice (RB, Baltimore Ravens): Stud running backs are scarce in this draft and they don't come any more reliable than Ray Rice. He is young, in his prime, and is on a really good team. While there is some concern about him losing motivation because of his recent long-term contract, I think he is too mature and smart to let that happen. On the field, he is a true workhorse. He is also a good receiver and should easily come close to his production last year - around 2000 yards and 15 TDs combined. He doesn't have a whole lot of competition for carries either. Ravens mostly serve rice with very few sides in that backfield.

2. Arian Foster (RB, Houston Texans): This guy did in 13 games last season (1841 combined yards and 12 TDs) what most top running backs struggled to do in 16. A prolific receiver and a scorer in addition to being a great runner,  Foster gives you everything. This vegan hurricane will be sweeping through Houston this fall as usual. Being in the AFC-"Rebuilding" division where the other 3 teams are starting a first or second year QB, Texans will have a successful season that bodes well for Foster. This division may be so easy that Foster will not be required to do a whole lot - especially since he has a capable backup in Ben Tate. This is the only reason he is ranked second and not first in this list.

2. LeSean McCoy (RB, Houston Texans): "Shady" McMcoy was one guy who played like a true dream teamer in that Eagles team last year. While I personally think it's sacrilege to compare him - or anybody else, to Barry Sanders, "Shady" is definitely the only one among today's RBs to come close to creating poetry in motion. He is explosive, shifty and is a TD threat every time he touches the ball. Sharing the backfield with Mike Vick should be a cause for concern when it comes to red-zone touches, but McCoy still scored 20 times last season and his rushing and receiving yardage total of more than 1600 yards wasn't too shabby either. With Vick being a year older and smarter, I would draft LeSean McCoy without any concern.

4. Aaron Rodgers (QB, Green Bay Packers): The NFL is more QB friendly today than it has ever been and this means the top-tier QBs are valued even more than in the past. And of course A-Rod is at the top of the heap. He has been top 2 in fantasy points per game in each of the 4 years he has started for the Packers. There is no indication that his production will come down this year and if the Packers' running game improves even a little bit, A-Rod should be even more lethal. A better division will also push him and you as his fantasy owner will benefit the most from it.

5. Drew Brees (QB, New Orleans Saints): The only thing better than Drew Brees might be an angrier, more motivated Drew Brees. He is angered by bounty-gate and the year-long suspension of his head coach and friend. And he is also motivated to live up to a new 100 million dollar contract that his own front office seemed to doubt if he deserved more than the rest of the world. It would be hard to match his 2011 numbers when he obliterated Dan Marino's record, but I would never put anything past this guy.  In Jimmy Graham,  the Superdome, and a loaded backfield, he has some amazing sidekicks and it's going to be another offensive juggernaut on display in the Big Easy.

Sleeper
Titus Young (WR, Detroit Lions): Two words - Madden Curse. The Detroit Lions have a lot of things going for them. A great offense, a stud QB, and Calvin Johnson. But Calvin Johnson is also on the cover of Madden 2013 and this means that he is probably going to have an underwhelming season. There is a reason why so many Green Bay Packers fans were voting for Calvin Johnson over their own Aaron Rodgers to be on the Madden cover earlier this year. You may call it superstition, I call it self preservation. Somebody still has to catch those rockets fired by Stafford. That will be Titus Young.

Indiawest: Olympic Games 2012: The Tech Evolution Since Beijing

Indiawest: Olympic Games 2012: The Tech Evolution Since Beijing

The indecision is over.

The good news is, Dwight Howard takes Steve Nash closer than ever to a championship. The bad news is, another big market, high profile, large payroll team took a superstar away from the small market Orlando Magic. The worse news is, that rich team that just got richer is the dreaded LA Lakers. If Nash made them better, Howard definitely makes them a legitimate contender. Howard tried his best to help LeBron out by taking over the title of the "most hated player in the NBA". He has been a disaster the last 9 months or so with all the drama surrounding his on-again, off-again trade requests and his upcoming free agency. Everybody was tired of this garbage, but it is finally over now. On the court, Howard is a legitimate superstar, though the player he is replacing - Andrew Bynum, is not bad either. Bynum is actually better than Howard in terms of offensive post moves, but Howard is better in every other category. Dwight is more athletic, is a better rebounder, a better defender, and an awesome shot-blocker.

The biggest benefit for the Lakers that Dwight brings might actually be the intangibles - especially in 2012 when he is expected to miss some time and will hopefully and slowly get back to his original form coming back from that back surgery. As messy as Dwight's divorce from the Magic was, he is still much more mentally stable and mature than Bynum. Bynum comes off like a immature punk and doesn't inspire a whole lot of trust and confidence despite his immense physical gifts. Dwight also has the hype of a superstar and that raises the championship profile of the Lakers. This can translate into better focus and performance on the court since the players, along with the fans, now believe they are true contenders. Belief is a necessary, though not a sufficient condition for success and the Lakers, including Kobe Bryant, definitely believe they are better today than they were last week. Now it's up to Dwight and his teammates to make it happen.

The Laker fans better be happy they didn't have to give up Pau Gasol in this trade. I like a nucleus of Kobe, Nash, Gasol, and Bynum better than Kobe, Nash, and Howard. Of course Kobe, Nash, Gasol, and Howard is even better. Add Metta World Peace, Antawn Jamison, Jordan Hill, and Steve Blake to this mix, it's a pretty impressive roster. I think a healthy Dwight Howard makes them a contender and puts them on par with the Heat. The biggest loser in all this might be the Oklahoma City Thunder. They lost a golden oppurtunity to win a title when they lost to the Heat and LeBron, who was under so much pressure. They did have a good draft, but they have to rely on their youngsters maturing and getting better to compete with this super-team now in LA. The Lakers are old and aging, but it's definitely a super-team now. Nash has not lost a whole lot and Kobe is still very good. So both the Thunder and the Heat better be scared of them.

The other issue here is that the NBA spent a lot of energy this time last year trying to come up with a system that creates a level playing field and prevents these super-teams in big markets. LeBron's "decision" has really created this culture of stars trying to gang up with each other and hoping to win a championship while also making the big bucks. The problem with this is, these consolidations are usually posbbile only in the big markets due to both logistical and financial reasons. Also, it creates a bigger gulf between the haves and have-nots as talent accumulates in a few NBA cities. So this trade has fans questioning the NBA's new system. But to be fair to the NBA, the full effect of their new rules will take effect only in 2013-2014. In fact, the only saving grace here for the Laker haters like myself is, even the filthy rich Lakers may not be able to afford the luxury tax for this roster in 2013. This roster is purely a play for Kobe's 6-Th ring and they have to deal with the fiscal issues when they show up. My early guess is, they may try and get rid of Gasol when they have to eat the luxury tax poison pill, which is definitely coming. But for now, all is well in LaLa land. As for the rest of us, nobody cares!

Billy is Back!

Oakland Athletics have won 7 straight. They are one of the best teams in the league right now. They are 16-2 in July and the East Coast is finally noticing after they swept a 4 game series against the Yankees - all one run wins, some of them walk-offs. Speaking of walk-offs, thats the specialty of this team. They have so many walk-offs that fans actually expect them to win a game if they enter the 8-Th or 9-Th inning tied or trailing by a couple of runs. They hit timely homeruns, though it's a different guy every time. Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Reddick can hit for power, but the rest of the team actually can't hit to save their lives, unless it's the ninth inning. People were confused about the Cespedes deal at that time, but Billy Beane knew what he was doing. What great pickups both Cespedes and Reddick were. The other A's hitters can't really hit, but they do take a lot of pitches and the A's pitching is phenomenal. In other words, a typical Billy Beane team.

Billy has been off the radar for a few years now. In fact, the movie moneyball did very well, but it came off as being a little untimely for baseball fans because Billy had not done much in years and the A's were pretty bad when the movie came out. They have not done much since going to the ALCS in 2006, towards the end of the big-3 era. Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson were already gone. Barry Zito was still around, but we knew he would be gone soon too. We were hoping there would be a new big-3 in Rich Harden, Joe Blanton and Dan Haren - Haren coming over in the Mulder trade. But then Billy let them all go too. He then went on a rebuilding spree as one rebuilding led to another and thats never a good sign. That only means your first rebuilding (or the second) didn't work. Territorial rights and San Jose became the defining concepts for the A's. The A's attendance and their revenues were falling and the team was spending even less than the original moneyball days. 

Billy almost looked like a sadist as he seemed to trade away anybody the fans liked and developed an attachment too. And last off-season was almost comical as he traded Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez and Andrew Bailey to get even younger and cheaper talent. It's one thing to let expensive stars like Albert Pujols or Roy Halladay walk, but Billy was saying he can't even afford young guys whom the rest of America barely even knew. He was clearly trying to rebuild the big league roster while also stocking his farm system, but these things are always a hit or miss and fans were understandably skeptical. It looked like the A's were just going younger and cheaper hoping to move a decent version of the team to San Jose a few years down the road. But Billy's moves have come to fruition much sooner than expected. These kids, especially the pitchers, are winning and dominating in the bigs while there is more talent hiding in the minors. Some of these rookies got promoted due to injuries and when the injured pitchers come back, Billy is going to be loaded with pitching.

And the great thing about Billy is, he will always go for it in the middle of the season if they have a shot. It's been a while since he rented a Jermaine Dye or a Johnny Damon for the stretch run, but he didn't have a need for it. Now that they are within striking distance, he is working the phones again. He almost got Hanley Ramirez before the Dodgers stole him. It will be interesting to see what he does and which bat he gets and who he trades away. I think he wants to retain the cheap, young talent for a few years but is also interested in winning this year. His street-creed is back and it's great to hear the media singing his praises again. Billy has done a great job this season and his eye for young talent is unparalleled. I expect great things from him both at the trade deadline this year and the next couple of years. It is also a challenging situation this year with the stupid, 1-game, wild-card playoff. But like somebody said, it's better for the weaker teams than a long series - similar to march madness. I think Billy is buying this theory as he is going after it, though he knows this roster is not a legitimate contender.

One of these days, we will see Billy Beane operate with a bigger budget. It will be a fascinating sight.

Double Whammy

All good things in life must come to an end, but I didn't know some bad things begin at the same time. Thats what I call a double whammy. We all knew Steve Nash's time in the desert was winding down. The ownership group pretended like they wanted to extend him, but even as suns fans, we didn't know if we even wanted him to stay with the suns. It was a vexing issue as the cheap suns made sure that Nash won't be able to retire as a sun and a champion. We had to pick one or the other. We wanted Nash back with the suns because we love him. Also, who doesn't want a point guard who can dish out 10.5 assists a game to wannabe NBA starters? God only knows what he would have done last year with real NBA talent around him. 

The other part of me did not want Nash back because the suns ownership didn't deserve him. They have refused to build a talented roster the last couple of years despite several opportunities to do so and why waste more of Nash's time here? He is clearly chasing a championship - the only thing missing from his stellar resume, and the suns are just not in a position to help him with that. Also, even from the team's perspective, given where they have dragged the team to at this juncture, whats the point of having a 38 year old Nash in the roster? They are probably better off going on a full rebuilding mode like they are doing right now. Mediocrity is a bad place for NBA teams. You better be very good or horribly bad - win now or accumulate high draft picks. The suns ownership seemed to be committed to making the team horrible last year and Nash single handedly thwarted their plans with his brilliant play.

It turns out the suns didn't really want to keep Nash anyways. While Toronto offered him 36 million over 3 years, the suns offered him 12 million for 2 years. I thought thats what the suns Gorilla made! It's hard to call a 6 million dollar a year salary an insult, but this one truly was. So it was up to Nash to pick either money and nationalism in Toronto or settle for marginal and imaginary championship hopes in New York. Or thats what we thought until he dropped a bombshell out of nowhere. He decided to go to the lakers. How can that be? How can the sun's most revered star be playing for the lakers of all the teams, a team he himself said would be tough to suit up for. Nash's current stint with the suns was defined by a hot rivalry with the spurs and the mavs at times, but the lakers are the perennial villains. A powerful division rival like no other and Steve Nash ends up there. 

The trade itself is not bad for the suns and I guess thats why they agreed. 2 first and 2 second round picks are decent for an aging star, though the lakers picks are only going to be in the late 20's. Nash's age makes this easier for the suns because they are strengthening the lakers just for 2 or may be 3 years and not for the next 10 years and the suns will be rebuilding for the next couple of years anyways. It gives Nash a legitimate shot at the championship. Good for him, but I am not rooting for the lakers. May be this makes it easier for me to root for the lakers if they do end up meeting the heat in the finals, but I dont know what to do with Nash now. I will definitely be watching the lakers - they just became one of the most entertaining teams in the league. But I can't say I will be rooting for the lakers to win day in and day out. That just goes against my basketball DNA.

It's going to be weird seeing him in a lakers uniform and even weirder to see the suns without Nash. He defined the Phoenix suns for the last 8 years way more than any single player including Charles Barkley did during their time. He controlled the game on the court and was the face of the franchise off it. Something tells me Michael Beasley is not the replacement for Nash that the fans were looking for. Thank god at least Goran Dragic is back! A familiar face and a decent point guard who learned under Nash. I will be watching the suns with a detached attachement next season. I am sure I will come around soon, but it will be strange for the first few weeks. 

On the court, Nash's impact on the lakers will be huge. He will make life easier for everybody around him like he has always done in his career. Gasol and Bynum will be much better on offense. He will even make Kobe better if he lets him. Nash will definitely take some pressure off of Kobe and will help keep him fresh and even possibly help extend his career. Nash is not an asset on defense, but the lakers have 2 seven footers to protect the rim. He does not make them the favorites or put them ahead of the heat or the thunder, but I will pencil in the lakers and the thunder for the western conference finals next may. The NBA regular season is long, but Nash just made sure the other teams in the west don't have much to play for. We might as well start the thunder-lakers series tomorrow.

The shock of seeing Nash in a lakers uniform will take a while to wear off and I will never totally embrace it. I was going to root for him to win a championship if he ended up with the knicks or even the mavs and I was hoping the thunder will come after him for selfish reasons, but he is now with that one team I can't root for. I am not going to wish him good luck, but I will whole heartedly thank him for all those brilliant years with the suns. He will always be a Phoenix sun and one of the best ever.  We are all witnesses to the end of a glorious chapter in Phoenix and the beginning of another inglorious chapter in Los Angeles. They say it will get worse before it gets better. And it just did for us suns fans. Double whammy indeed.

King's Court

NBA has finally become the king's court. King James is now a champion and has put an end to a burning, 2-year debate about his true worth as a basketball player. His physical tools and basketball skill-set were never in question, but fans and experts alike questioned his will to win and mental fortitude to take and make shots in the clutch. Honestly, a lot of it was wishful thinking on the part of the fans as LeBron lost their support with the "decision" and they were rooting for him to fail more than they were convinced he was a "failure". It has taken a herculean effort from LeBron to win the championship and change that perception. If you think about it, it din't take long for him to win in Miami. The heat made it to the finals in his very first year in Miami and won the championship in year 2 - pretty impressive if you ask me.

But 3 things made this a rough 2 years for LeBron. The moment the big 3 came together, anything less than a championship was not going to be enough. So a finals appearance last year did nothing for them. Secondly, when LeBron stupidly insinuated they will win "not 6, not 7", but 8 championships, he had to get started from year 1 to get anywhere close to it. So a finals loss to Dallas last year sent the league into a anti-LeBron frenzy unlike anything we have seen before. Last but not the least, LeBron was tentative and ineffective at crucial times last season raising all kinds of question about his toughness. But year 2 changed everything. The guy had a phenomenal regular season and backed it up with a legendary post-season. He put up some ridiculous numbers and carried the heat in these playoffs. It was not an easy playoffs by any means and LeBron stepped up several times to push them over.

Things started going LeBron's and Heat's way when he clearly established himself as the Heat's alpha-dog. DWade was the Scottie Pippen this season and that clarity unleashed LeBron in both tangible and intangible ways. The Heat coaching staff deserves some credit too since I am sure they rolled the ball LeBron's way this season during some situations where the ball would have probably gone to Wade last year. One of the funniest chants targeted at LeBron last year was when they shouted "Scottie Pippen" at his face. I was not even sure who should feel more insulted by it - LeBron or Scottie! Pippen is one of the all-time greats in this game and his name was routinely used as an insult. That tells you how talented LeBron is and how impactful Michael Jordan was as Pippen's teammate. A determined LeBron at the wheel this year was just unstoppable and the thunder and Durant had no answers for him in the finals.

LeBron is now a champion and winning shuts up a lot of people. The question now is, will the so-called haters disappear? I don't think so. They will be quiet and won't be able to trash-talk as much, but they are not going to wake up tomorrow and become LeBron fans. I am a LeBron-hater myself and I still don't want him to win any more titles with this heat team. Ironically, we became haters only because we loved his game more than LeBron himself. I wanted him to stay in Cleveland and I was convinced he could have won a championship there with any front-office with half a brain. In fact, it was LeBron who didn't think he could win in Cleveland. I had more faith in LeBron's game and his future in Cleveland than LeBron himself and I was upset at him only because he quit on the Cavs and ganged up with other stars in Miami. So how much of a hater am I? The haters are going nowhere. But the NBA should be a little concerned about some people not watching the NBA now since the biggest story in all of sports over the last 2 years is now history.

The other interesting question is, are we staring at a dynasty here?  My gut says no. I would have been more willing to bestow dynastic powers on the thunder if they had won the championship, but the heat don't look like a dynasty to me. I am not sure if this is just wishful thinking on my part, but I do feel like they had a few lucky breaks go their way in the east this season and their salary cap situation is obviously not great either. Given LeBron's immense talents and with Wade in his supporting cast, this can easily become the next dynasty, but I don't see a big gap between them and the other contenders. The thunder and even the bulls and the pacers will be chasing them with all they got, not to mention teams like the Lakers and the Spurs. Next year will be the key to see where LeBron takes them and how the thunder improve and take the next step. Also, dynasties have been hard to come by in the NBA since the days of the Spurs and the Shaq-Kobe Lakers. LeBron can change it all, but he has to show us he is a dynastic star.

Another NBA season is in the books now. It was indeed fun. The end result was what I expected and dreaded at the beginning of the season. The enduring image of this season will be LeBron's game 6 at Boston. Thats when he took the next step and eventually cemented his legacy with a finals MVP to go with his regular season MVP, first team all-NBA, and first team all-defensive awards. Great season by a great player. It took him a while to get here, but the information age and the twitter generation made it feel longer than it actually was. LeBron owns the NBA right now. He is no fluke and we may never see another LeBron in the future. It is must-see TV when an athletic freak with immense talent wins it all and claims his rightful place at the top of his sport. But MJ has set the bar so high, LeBron's chase of greatness has only started and will continue next year. Where he goes from here will be as fascinating a story as how he got here. And we will all be watching and following this journey.

For all the marbles

Sports is supposed to be unpredictable.  We love it because it's the ultimate reality show. You don't know whats coming next except that it will be something new. But an Oklahoma City Thunder V Miami Heat NBA finals does not score a lot of points for unpredictability, though it does work at every other level. NBA, more than any other league throws a predictable championship series at us more often than not. A 16 team tournament where every series is a 7-game marathon tends to promote consistency, excellence and is not very upset friendly. As much as every playoff game is fun and exciting, the better team always finds a way to win the series. Spurs surpassed the Thunder in the Western standings and became a legitimate contender during the regular season while the Celtics tried their best to derail the Heat in the playoffs, but we eventually got what we expected and wanted at the beginning of the season. This is the logical finals for this year. LeBron and Durant were 1 and 2 in the MVP voting and are going to be the stars of this generation. It's about time we got this matchup in the NBA finals.

We never got a Kobe-LeBron NBA finals - which would have killed at the box office, but it's just hard to create a cross conference rivalry. Celtics-Lakers with Bird-Magic were the exceptions, not the rule. It's far more easier to have intra-conference rivalries like Bulls-Pistons,  Pacers-Knicks or Kings-Lakers. One of my many problems with LeBron's "decision" was that he deprived us of potentially epic LeBron-Wade match-ups in the eastern playoffs. So it's great if a Durant-LeBron rivalry starts rolling right now.  Durant is in the mould of Tim Duncan a little bit and I am not sure if he is as big a draw as LeBron or Kobe, but he is definitely the second best player in this league. His team is young, athletic and well-rounded - much like himself. He is a humble superstar who has carried his team farther every year and anything less than a finals appearance would have disappointed a lot of the Thunder fans this year. Finals is where he belongs and as much as I would have loved to see the golden oldies of Spurs and Celtics go at it one last time, this is the series that has the potential to set the table for the next decade of the NBA.

The Heat were always expected to get here and even win. The Celtics gave them all they can handle but they couldn't handle LeBron. NBA needs the Heat in the finals. I don't think the league office cares who wins the finals, but the ratings will be good as long as LeBron plays the last game of the season. In fact, I would make an argument that if the NBA is just looking at future ratings, a Heat loss in the finals would be better than a Heat win. It keeps the stories and controversies going. Last year was the perfect recipe for the NBA. Heat makes it to the finals, but loses. Another 5 years of that, David Stern will be smiling his way to the bank every July. Of course LeBron will probably kill himself if that keeps happening. He will try his best to put an end to the finals losing streak tight now. He seems ready to roll and his game 6 against the Celtics shut a whole lot of people up and probably put some fear into the Thunder as well. If he recreates that even a couple of times this series, it will be over in a hurry.

LeBron will continue to be an enigma until he wins it all, but we knew that game 6 was very much in him. As a matter of fact, he showed us that side of himself way back in 2007 against Detroit as a 22 year-old when he scored his teams final 25 points. That was when we all loved the King. Along they way, he seemed to have lost more than he gained and now people question his capabilities in the clutch and call him a choker. To be fair to the critics, LeBron does disappear sometimes and one has to wonder how much of that last year was him not realizing his role in the team and wondering how he should work with Wade in the 4-Th quarter. But as this year winds down, it's becoming very clear that Wade is the second fiddle and this is LeBron's show. Coach spo will still roll the ball to Wade in the clutch once in a while, but LeBron can do whatever he wants with the ball in this finals because he has earned that status throughout these playoffs. He is an unique talent and the Heat are better if he is Batman instead of Robin.

All of this adds up to one thing - no more excuses for LeBron. The haters and doubters will always be there - may be I am one too, though I do realize and respect his immense basketball talents. But it's LeBron's job to shut us all up. He has the game, and now he has the authority and the credibility to dominate for his team and it's his job to carry Wade and Bosh to the finish line. If there is any doubt in his mind about this reality, history will repeat itself and it will be Durant lifting the trophy at his expense like Nowitzki did last year. Isn't it ironic that those 2 guys have very similar game? Nobody has LeBron's game and lets see if he maximizes it in this series. Of course, it is not all about LeBron since the Thunder are no chopped liver. They will have a big say in what happens in this series and they do have a legitimate shot at winning this. All I am saying is, LeBron can win it all and the only way he wins is if he realizes that only he can win it for the Heat. I personally don't want him to win - I would rather see Durant celebrate. But this is a golden opportunity for LeBron to seal the deal after 2 failed tries in the finals.

If LeBron lets this one slip away, his championship future is uncertain and unpredictable. It won't be as bad as losing to the Celtics but the Heat might still have to break-up the big 3. If the Thunder win, the Heat and the rest of the league are in big trouble because OKC is young and will only get better. At least the Mavs last year were old and all of us predicted accurately that they are on the way out. But this Thunder team is very different. If they win now and lock up my man James Harden and Serge Ibaka, this is a dynasty in the making. The Thunder have home court in this series and Vegas is picking them to win. They are a far more well-balanced team than the Heat, but they don't have LeBron. Plus, they are a jump shooting team. They have to minimize those 6 for 26 games that Westbrook and even Durant sometimes throw at us. The other concern with a team like this woud be that they are not ready and are just happy to be in the finals. I don't think thats the case here. Durant and his city are ready and hungry. So we should get a killer finals between a hungry Durant and a desperate LeBron. I can't wait

Oh, Thunder in 7. Thats what I want. Thats what I expect.

The Heat is on!

For all of us Heat-haters, the heat is really on. The Bron-Wade show is in full swing now as the Indiana Pacers seem to have unintentionally hit the activate button on them. Things looked bleak for Miami as the Heat lost Chris Bosh to injury. They then lost 2 playoff games at home and on the road to go down 1-2 to the Pacers. Wade couldn't throw a stone into the ocean standing on south beach, but he could scream at his coach in public causing a minor scandal. All the talk was about him and how he was injured and possibly close to being "done". One hack even wrote about how he is a 30 year-old going on a 33 year-old body because of all the reckless forays in to the paint throughout his career. He has always played like a bigger Allen Iverson, but it looked like all the injuries were beginning to catch up to him. Slowly, the talk about breaking up the big-3 started creeping in and it might have even become a reality if the upstart Pacers eliminated them in the conference semis.

But game 4 against the Pacers might have turned the entire history of the Miami Heat around. Suddenly, Wade started playing like a 30 year-old in a 25 year-old body after starting the game horribly. And for the first time ever, LeBron and Wade were completely in sync and playing off of each other. They have traditionally been taking turns on offense and just watching the other guy do his thing if it was not his turn. Not anymore. They are blending very well and setting each other up like never before. The Heat have not lost ever since. 3 straight wins against the Pacers and another one against the Celtics in the conference finals. Suddenly, Wade could do no wrong - except for the pink pants in the presser, and LeBron of course has not done much wrong all season. The Pacers were not mature or talented enough to challenge the Heat. And now it looks like the Celtics are not young or talented enough for that task. LeBron is literally laughing at their faces like they are some JV team. Of course, this is the playoffs and the momentum can swing with every game. And I sure hope it swings Boston's way after game 2.

As a LeBron fan turned LeBron hater since the day he took his talents to south beach, these are some scary times. When Chris Bosh got injured and the Pacers gave them a lot of trouble, it seemed like this was going to be another lost season for the Heat. You never want teams to lose because of injuries, but it was only Bosh who was injured and the world wants LeBron to lose. Now, it looks like Bosh's injury has brought the Wade and Bron closer and made them scary good. The only hope now is for the Spurs or Thunder to beat them in the finals just like the Mavs did last year. Spurs are the better team, but I feel like the young Thunder team might give the Heat more trouble. Even as a Suns fan, I have a lot of respect for Tim Duncan, coach Pop and the Spurs. I wouldn't mind them winning another ring as the Duncan era comes to an end. But now, I want the Thunder to advance just because I think they will match-up well with the Heat. Whoever makes it, I will be rooting for them against the Heat. The hatred for the Heat is way down from last year, but the dislike for LeBron still continues.

LeBron won the MVP this season, but he is actually having one of the least appreciated, best statistical seasons ever. Nobody really cares to sing his praises all that much because this is LBJ post "The Decision". This guy on the court is just amazing. There is nothing he can't do. I am totally surprised at how easily and thoroughly he has made the Heat his team. Dwyane Wade is a top-5 talent in this league and LeBron makes him look like a much-inferior side-kick. I was wrong about LeBron when he moved to the Heat. I predicted that he would take a back-seat to Wade in scoring while dominating every other category. But LeBron is so good that he is dominating everything on both ends of the floor including scoring without really trying to be selfish. Even he was saying that the big-3 wouldn't win too many MVPs because they had to share everything. Well, LeBron just won his 3-Rd and neither the other 2 nor the rest of the league could do anything to prevent it. All that he is missing right now is a ring and the question is, can the Heat pull it off this year? I think it gets much tougher if they don't seal the deal this post-season. I still don't want them to win. I have not forgotten or forgiven "The Decision" and neither has America for the most part. Lets see if the basketball gods have forgiven him.

Football, RIP 1869 - 2020?

American football as we know it is in deep trouble. It's at the crossroads and the irony is, it's also at it's zenith as far as popularity and revenues are concerned.  How is this sport so popular and also deathly sick at the same time? It's basically in this predicament because of safety and health concerns and rightfully so. One of my favorite football players, Junior Seau, passed away last week and it's suspected to be a suicide. It was a sad day made worse by the images of his mom crying in front of the camera. Why can't the media at least leave the family alone for a few days? Lets save that topic for another day and time. But, we still don't know if his suicide was due to a concussion induced brain damage. Football players dying young is a sad reality thats getting a lot more attention these days. The shocking suicide of Dave Duerson last year and his text message asking for his brain to be researched for football related damage were chilling reminders of what happens to these athletes post-football.

The NFL, just over the last 9 months, has gone through a big cultural change both on and off the field right in front of our eyes. The rules have evolved over the last few years where safety and security have become a primary concern - especially with hits on the QBs and the receivers. People have been complaining for over 10 years now about how you can't even touch the QBs anymore. These safer rules have also slowly expanded to cover helpless receivers coming over the middle. We have heard many arguments over "dirty hits", "the new flag football" and suspensions, but the cumulative effect of all these rule changes showed up glaringly on the field during the 2011 season. Dan Marino's single season record of 5084 passing yards stood for 27 long years, but was broken by 2 QBs this year. Marino was the only QB until 2007 to have ever thrown over 5000 yards in a season and there have been 4 such seasons since then. Both Brees and Brady beat his record in 2011 and Stafford was the third QB to go for more than 5000 yards. Eli Manning and Aaron Rodgers were not too far behind and even a rookie QB, Cam Newton, threw for over 4000 yards. All this in a lockout affected season where the offenses were expected to take longer to come together. If this does not tell you that the game has changed on the field, nothing will. The new rules have made the pass offense way too easy.

Then came the "bountygate" during this off-season. Many NFL players will tell you that bounties are and were common in the NFL. But this controversy is another proof that the game has to and is changing. After all the suspensions and the commissioner's non-stop rhetoric for years about player safety, they just could not keep quiet when the news came out that the coaches put bounty on player's heads. So the Commish did come hard on everybody involved as expected. With a bunch of court cases already lined up against the NFL for concussions, this is not something they could ignore. It was about protecting themselves from more lawsuits more than anything else, though I am not sure if they accomplished that. Can you imagine Brett Favre or Kurt Warner suing the league over the "bounty" hits? The NFL has always been facing lawsuits concerning health and also facing criticisms about it's pension and insurance support for retired players, but the recent spate of concussion and head-trauma related lawsuits are far more serious. Over 1500 players claim that the NFL hid the dangers of concussion from them. This includes several prominent retired players like Jamal Anderson and it's sad to hear their stories. Jamal Lewis and Dorsey Levens retired fairly recently and they say they suffer from a lot of bad side-effects already. 

We live in a different world today. The knowledge and the research around health and our body is way more sophisticated now than it was even 15 years ago. The strides the health sciences have made during that time is pretty impressive and football as a sport may just not be a good fit for the new world. We can even think of this as a part of our evolution. A brutal and violent sport like football may become untenable soon as we reach new levels of awareness and consciousness. That is why football as we know and love today may be dead soon. It is already a different game than it was 15 years back, but is going to look a LOT different soon. All it takes is for the NFL to lose one or two of these multi-million dollar concussion lawsuits and it will be a full-on crisis for the league office. They have to get creative and make the sport a lot safer while still keeping it interesting for the fans. The sport is incredibly popular right now, but the abuse it subjects it's athletes to cannot be justified for long. This is why talk shows and ESPN are spending hours this week talking about this issue. Popular topics include asking parents if they will let their sons play football. 

In fact,we will start seeing changes at the grassroots level soon. Some high-school might discontinue their football program due to safety concerns and soon, it will be 10's of high-schools and who knows where the momentum takes us from there. Nobody wants to see young men suffer traumatic head injuries knowingly. NFL athletes are dying young at an alarming rate. They are getting bigger and stronger by the day and the heavier athletes are more likely to die before 50. It's not all about the head injury, but NFL has a bunch of issues that seem to kill it's millionaire men long before their time. NFL's popularity is at an all-time high and is making multiple billions of dollars. They will try not to kill the goose that keeps laying the golden eggs, but sooner or later, they have to re-invent this sport. I will personally put the over-under on football's demise at year 2020. We will still have a game that resembles football, but it will look a lot different. We will miss the current version of football, but we will be glad to see young athletes walk away with most of their faculties in tact.  I know I will be OK with it. 

Is this the end?

The Suns were eliminated form the playoffs yesterday. It's actually pretty impressive that they were even in contention given how the season started, but the schedule makers did them no favors in the last week. Going in to Utah and grabbing the playoff spot from the Jazz was not going to happen, but the real problem might have been the bad losses against horrible teams through the season, especially before the all-star break. This made the Suns season and home finale against the Spurs irrelevant, but I watched it completely for one reason. This game could have potentially been Steve Nash's last one in a Suns uniform. All good things comes to an end at some point, but I am not ready to close the book on Nash's Suns career. He had an amazing season and but for Rajon Rondo going nuts in the last month, he would have won the assists title at age 38. To quote Delonte West, "how playa is that!" Steve Nash has done a lot for the Suns, but having this roster at .500 this season and almost in the playoffs should be his signature accomplishment.

Suns owner Robert Sarver didn't give Nash much support either this year or last and I consider that to be a criminal waste. Now, he is hoping to retain him next season. How exactly is Nash supposed to convince himself to stay in Phoenix? As a Suns fan, I hope he does stay, but should he? The roster is barren and Sarver has not shown any inclination to spend and chase free agents. The Suns salary does drop from 64 to 31 million this off-season, but that also excludes Nash and Hill. Worse still, it includes 17 million for Josh Childress, Hakim Warrick and Channing Frye. 6 mill for Frye is not horrible, but the rest is dead money. The upcoming free agency class is not stellar either so I am not sure what "darth sarver" is going to do. The good news is, it doesn't take a lot to build a playoff team if Nash is in the mix. All they need to do is re-sign Nash plus sign a couple of young studs - preferably a power forward and an athletic wing. They will be back in business.  Marcin Gortat is an asset and having him in the middle makes things a lot easier when it comes to rebuilding this puppy.

But the Suns still won't be a championship contender next season in all probability and how do you make Nash stay for this project? Especially if other real contenders like Miami come after him. Nash is so good, he will instantly add to any team - even a bonafide contender like Miami. We won't know for a couple of months, but I wish Nash the best of luck as he navigates this final free agency of his illustrious and amazing career. He not only played great and put up some amazing numbers, but also constantly entertained and captivated us. It was great to hear the Suns faithful chant "we want Steve" when he was sitting on the bench in the 4-Th against the Spurs. Suns fans have been a little spoiled with Nash and have not ben showing up in force to see him this season. The Suns have been drawing much better on the road than at home. Coach Gentry put him back for a minute just for a curtain call. Hope it's not Nash's last one in a Suns uniform. He says he wants to ball for 3 more years, I will give him 2, but I will take all 3 years if it's in a Suns uniform.

The other intriguing part of this game was that the Spurs were in town and they rested their big 3 for the game. No big surprise there, but the interesting story was that they were in Phoenix and they left earlier in the morning back home with coach Pop. Spurs already have the best record in the West and they decided to completely skip today's game and tomorrow's @ Golden State for some solid rest back home. And Pop joined them too for "personal reasons". I don't know what Pop is dealing with, but it appears to me like they would have played the big 3 if the Suns were still in the playoff hunt. The usual controversy about resting stars at the end of the season is how it affects the other teams fighting for a playoff spot. For instance, if the Suns were still in the running and the Spurs rested their studs, Utah Jazz would be really unhappy about it. So may be Pop was willing to play them to avoid that whole controversy. Or may be he genuinely wanted to eliminate the Suns given all the old rivalry. Unlikely, given that I would rather play this Suns team than handle the crowd in Salt Lake city. But since the Suns were already eliminated, it all became a moot point. So Pop could rest them all with a clear conscience, and he decided to do it. Thats my read of the situation. I could be totally wrong, but I thought it was interesting how they all flew back home earlier in the day.

Day after Manning

March Madness is in full swing, but it is getting squeezed a little bit this year with all the other things happening this march. Because of the off-season lockout, the NBA trade deadline slipped into mid-March and the tiring Dwight Howard saga dragged on and on. Finally, there were a few interesting trades, but nothing earth-shattering happened. But the Peyton Manning courting really is the news of the season and it made the NFL free-agency infinitely more intriguing than usual. Not only was he the big name on the market, but he was also blocking many other QB signings since every team that needed a QB and some that didn't went after him with gusto. Finally, he has made the decision. He has decided to suit-up for Denver. The Niners were a late entrant - at least officially, as they clandestinely worked Manning out and now are caught up in a drama involving Alex Smith. Denver is the winner here as they get Manning despite having a phenomenon named Tebow on their roster. Manning is going to cost way more than what I would have originally guessed for a 36 year-old guy coming off of a neck injury. But he is still going to excite the Denver fan-base and the other suitors can only wonder what might have been if he had picked them.

The Niner situation is interesting. Denver had a good, choir boy QB under contract and if Manning had flaked out on them, they just had to kiss and make up with Tebow. He is the type who would have said all the right things and played his rear-end off as always. The problem with the Niners is, they didn't have a starting QB under contract. Alex Smith was a free-agent himself. So they were going after both Manning and Smith after a season of love affair between coach Harbaugh and Smith. Hence the secret workout with Manning that eventually leaked. It did stay a secret rather long for this day and age. The fact that they did it in secrecy tells you they wanted to hide it from someone and Smith is the only possible target of this secrecy. Ordinarily, going after Manning is a great PR move for the team and thats something the team would want on the front pages. So the assumption here across the bay is that the Niners wanted to hide it from Smith. The only reason I am not entirely sure about that is that Manning and Smith also have the same agent - another nice twist to the story. I can't imagine Smith's agent helping the Niners double-cross him like that. Either Tom Condon is the worst agent ever or the Niners kept Condon out of their courtship of Manning as well by dealing with Manning directly and asking him to keep his own agent in the dark so that Smith is in the dark too.

We may never know what happened behind closed doors and how much Alex Smith knew or if he was upset about the whole drama. But it is providing an interesting sideshow to Manning's free agency. Now, the focus is on what happens to Alex Smith and the Niners. There is a 3-year, 24 million contract on the table and he may have to settle for it eventually. The leverage has been shifting every 6 hours in this story and right now, since the Dolphins signed David Garrard, the Niners seem to have the upper hand again. This should be resolved in a day or two. I almost want Alex Smith to sign with another team and stick it to the Niners. He can also fire Condon while he is at it. But I don't think any of that will happen. Also, I like both Alex Smith and coach Harbaugh and want them to continue their marriage by the bay for at least one more year. It will be interesting to see what they do next season with that defense back in full strength and with Randy Moss and Mario Manningham added to the receiving core. The Niner fans are in a funny situation here too as they desperately wanted their team to go after Manning. I guess they were not careful what they wished for. The Niners did chase Manning and lost. Now the fans are reduced to sweating the Alex Smith signing and understandably so. Hope all ends well for them. As for Manning, the next steps are about figuring out the number of zeroes in his contract. There will be many, but the details will be interesting. Then the Tebow trade drama can begin in earnest.

In the NCAA tournament, we have the sweet 16 all setup. For all the talk of madness, all four 1 seeds, two 2-seeds, two 3-seeds and three 4-seeds are still dancing. There is a 6 and 7 seed in the mix, but the interesting ones are 10-Th seed Xavier, 11-Th seed NC State and 13-Th seed Ohio. There are also 4 teams from the state of Ohio - the first time any one state pulled that off. There is also the remote possibility that Xavier and Cincinnati - the two teams that had an ugly fight earlier in the season, may end up meeting in the championship game. There are enough 1 seeds that will prevent that from happening, but keep an eye on that. The best day so far in the tournament was the Friday when Lehigh and Norfolk State took care of two 2-seed including the hated Duke. Unfortunately, both those 15-Th seeds got blown out on Sunday in the round of 32. Thats how the tournament rolls. You never know who's going to win and when. Thats why you watch it and watch it closely. As for my bracket, Missouri shredded it when they lost to one of the aforementioned 15-Th seeds, but I can take solace in the fact that even President Barack had Missouri going pretty deep.