Thanks for telling us!

Damn, I just heard the Miss America pageant was last night. Just as I'm ready to be interested--and I am!--they make it disappear like the NHL all-star game. Hey I live for bizarre contests, after getting into the Dakar Rally and the Velux 5 this year I felt like I was just getting ready to really appreciate the Miss America pageant.

I love competition to be as capricious as possible and I figure Miss America is even more capricious than college football! Dude, it's out there with figure skating and heavyweight boxing. Well I'll be ready next year.

Miss America Pageant

Congrats, Miss Oklahoma.

Jordan's Best Dunks

#1 is great but #2, the unbelievable throwdown in Ewing's face, is to me the all time greatest dunk ever of all time. Ever.

Jordan's 10 Best Dunks

Velux 5 Update

Looks like Bernard Stamm is pullingaway in the Velux 5 Race on day 16. This is the perfect follow-up to the Dakar Rally, no? Desert then ocean then what? Any marathons coming up? Spelling bee season? Boxing?

Hippie kids frolic in snow, news at 11

Here's your Winter X Games recap . Did you see that dude flip a snowmobile? When they start flipping riding lawnmowers in the summer version, I'm there.

Tiger's garage gets another fucking Buick

Damn, dude, Tiger's won 7 straight. I caught a little bit of the Sunday action and it was typical Tiger Sunday: steady stackin' birdies while the rest of field gets jittery. He goes about his business, nothing special, but for some reason he's the only one that can pull it off. Can he win 11? Yeah, sure, I don't see why not.

Poor Russian Cutie Pummeled Repeatedly

Serena Williams got to do this weekend what men all across the western world have fantasized about: spank Maria Sharapova. Gentlemen, we get to live vicariously through Serena's racket. It's as close as I'll ever get and that's cool, I'm not bitter or anything.

Sharapova lost the first set 6-1 on 4 unforced errors. Four! That's fewer than Serena! In the talk radio rush to minimalize every outcome to a quick and easy meme, people will say Sharapova didn't bring it, she sucks, she's a choker. All incorrect and further degrade the true appreciation of Serena's win. This was perhaps the most thorough beatdown of a great player I've seen since the Bills murdered Bo Jackson's Raiders in the AFC title game or the Red Wings dismantled Lindros's Flyers. Dude, Serena didn't beat a choke artist. She went toe-to-toe with the #1 player in the world and dominated her, outlasted her, outhustled her, just all round kicked her ass. Sharapova had trouble with her first serve (her doom) but while her return game was excellent, Serena's was even more excellent and it ate the Russian up.

There was a point in the second set where Sharapova was playing pretty well and was in position to make a run at grabbing the second set. She labored through 3 deuces before finally taking the game and it wore her out. Like watching a pitcher who can't get off the mound you realize that time of possession works against you in some sports. It was there that Serena went Arnold on her, gave Sharapova that eye of the Tiger and Maria got Ferrigno-ed. Serena is clearly back and that's fine with me.

Hingis has warning track power these days, Henin-Hardenne will go as far her injuries will let her go (she played in all 4 finals last year), Kim Clijster is apparently 'pulling a Tiki' and letting everybody know she's ready to hang it up. There's a slew of Russian girls but, apart from Sharapova who is the real deal, they all seem like they came from the Safin school of head cases with big games. Sharapova-Serena in the finals of the slams and again at the end of the year tourney, that'll keep me as interested in women's tennis as I can get. They're the two best players and the two most interesting ladies. I'm ready for the French.

Ladies' Finals

Sharapova in 3 sets. We'll see.

Aussie semis

Watched most of Serena Williams beating Vaidisova last night and, man, those two girls are heavy hitters--they were beating the crap out of the ball early on! When Serena has her feet set and her knees bents, the ball comes off her racket like the guns of Navarone. Vaidisova had her chance, up a break early in the first set and she couldn't finish the deal. As for Serena: you know some women are a Botticelli, some are a Gauguin, Serena is more of an R. Crumb.

I thought Clijsters would give Sharapova a match, actually I thought she'd take her. But the Russian swept her aside. Serena-Sharapova is definitely the match up NBC wanted.

Roddick, buddy, you had it all going your way. You just beat Federer in the tune-up, Connors was back by your side, you were ready to make it happen. Well, guess not. Better luck next year. At least the spanking didn't take long: NBC says it was just an hour and twenty-three minutes--damn, Steffi Graf used to take longer than that. The match was not your best but hey, the press conference went better than expected. (There's a little article on ESPN about Federer's parents, nice that unlike all the other proud parents, Federer's folks only have to jet in for the finals instead of slogging around Australia for two weeks!)

NHL season highlights

I was looking for highlights of last night's NHL all-star game (I didn't get to watch it because I don't get, as I call it, 'the hockey channel'), and while I didn't find any on You Tube, I did find this collection of highlights from the first half of the NHL season.

The NHL is much maligned for their pyrhhric work stoppage a few years back that cancelled an entire season and devastated the viewing public's connection to the game. That's a shame because hockey is a good game. And the All-Star game should be the cornerstone of their season. Instead it is in vast Siberian reaches of cable TV exile. Too bad, it looked like a great game.

Incidentally, during the work stoppage I had two thoughts, neither of which came to fruition: 1) perhaps with the NHL declining, NCAA hockey might get more popular, and 2) with NHL billionaires waffling it was a perfect time for European billionaires to step in and steal the best hockey players on earth for a European super league. #1 didn't happen because honestly college hockey (like college soccer) isn't very good and #2 didn't happen because...I don't know why. I would've thought hockey would be popular enough in Europe but I guess not.

Aussie semis

Getting down to the wire in Australia. Federer and Roddick will face off in the first semi-final. The other semi will be the winners of Haas-Davydenko and Nadal-Gonzalez. Gonzalez took out James Blake, too bad, I think Nadal-Blake would've made a pretty good quarterfinal match.

On the women's side, Serena Williams and Nicole Vaidisova meet in the semis. In the other half of the draw, Hingis and Clijsters go at it, they've both been playing well. Sharapova meets #12 Chakvetadze.

Blake gets bounced in Sydney

American James Blake was looking pretty good, I thought, came up with the big points against Ginepri the other day and looked like he had his serve and his groundies rocking well. But he got swept in three tight sets by Chilean Fernando Gonzalez. Gonzalez has looked good so far, too, it was a tight match. Too bad for Blake.

Americans Mardy Fish and Andy Roddick face off today. Federer takes time out of his practice schedule this afternoon to destroy some dude in straight sets. The red hot Andy Murray goes up against Rafael Nadal today. Should be good stuff.

Sharapova, Clijsters and Hingis cruise on the women's side. Serena Williams plays #16 Peer today.

Dakar Rally complete

Peterhansel and Cottret take the top spot beating out Mitsubishi teammates, Alphand and Picard, by a slender 7 minutes. Peterhansel & Cotret win their third Dakar in the last 4 years, (teammates Alphand & Picard were the defending champs). The Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart team certainly showed this year winning for the 7th straight year (12 wins in 25 years--Red Auerbach running that team?). They took 2nd & 5th to boot. American Robby Gordon in the Hummer H3 finished in 8th a full 7 hours off the lead. Cars Final Leaderboard

On the motorcycle side the Gauloises KTM team took the top 2 spots. American Chris Blais with Red Bull USA finished 3rd. Shame to see Marc Coma, who dominated the first 10 stages or so, fail to finish the race after crashing on Friday. Bikes Final Leaderboard

The Dutch Exact MAN Team dominated the trucks with a full 3 hour lead on 2nd place. That's a Chicago Bears style beatdown right there. Trucks Final Leaderboard

Bears-Saints Preview

The Bears D is the stoutest, stiffest thing this side of Ron Jeremy's early films. Or that's what we’ve been told. It sure didn't look like it last week when Shaun Alexander gashed them straight up the middle again and again. Without Tommie Harris the Bears just haven't been as good. Feint in one direction and then run straight at Urlacher, that's the Saints game plan in a nutshell. The Saints have plenty of weapons and if they can move the ball on first down, they will get up to all kinds of mischief. (I think we can safely say that Drew Brees was the best free agent signing last year)

Rex Grossman has been the most maligned QB since…well, Kyle Orton. His problem, I think, is that the criticism gets to him and he tries too hard. As a result he puts himself in situations he can't get himself out of and he loses crispness in his delivery and decision-making. I don't think he's that bad. But he will be on Sunday. And as the 'choke' collar comes off of Peyton Manning, I think it will be firmly affixed to Rex. The Bears overall problem is they can't wait to blame everything on the QB, they ride down on the one guy that ought to ease up on. That D will get even better next year and the cries of Rex's incompetence will get louder and louder.

That's right: not only do the Bears lose this game, they lose their souls and descend into the quagmire of searching for the right QB as their vaunted D crumbles around them. Today they look like Tony Dungy's Buccaneers, tomorrow Matt Millen's Lions. (Ouch!) Saints 24-17.

Pats-Colts Preview

The Chargers last week nickel-and-dimed themselves out of a chance to move on. They were the better team but they turned the ball over and committed dumb penalties and Brady was able to steal it back. The Pats aren't really that good but they always have a shot at beating teams that fold--I mean even with as bad as the Chargers played they still should've won!

The Colts mushed the Chiefs two weeks ago, not a surprise. I thought the way they mushed the Ravens last week was a bit more surprising. Peyton didn't run wild, they only put up 15 points, but they were better and they stuck that Ravens running game in the mouth.

The Pats really shouldn't be here. They're overachieving like nobody's business. Really I think they can only beat the teams that beat themselves. Belicheck is the clever who takes from the dimwitted. Are the Colts stupid? Will they fold? Will they choke? Will that run defense that stacked up LJ and Jamal Lewis in back-to-back weeks vanish under the Moroney-Dillon onslaught? Will Peyton throw 4 interceptions? I think the answer to all of the above is no. So how do the Patriots win? I don't think they do.

I think what looks like it should be the best game of the year (but wasn't Ravens-Chargers supposed to be the best game of the year?) will turn into a monstrous beatdown on the Pats. It'll be 14-0 by the end of the first quarter, 28-7 by halftime and that'll be all she wrote. Peyton Manning will unleash all of his fury on Belicheck and Brady and as the Colts gallop into the Super Bowl we'll opine that it was the end of an era. Or the beginning of a new one. Colts 41-17.

Cut day at the Bob Hope Classic

Is Phil Mickelson coming back strong in 2007 or is he done? I bristle at the 'choker' tag on anybody in sports (except Duke basketball, my personal nemesis) and for years the media jackals followed Phil around asking him when he's gonna win a major. Think about that...what's it like at your job? Do people follow you around the office nipping at your heels wondering aloud when you'll finally get the corner office?

Well he won one, then another and it looked like he was up where the air is rarified. He had everything going his way: Els was injured, Vijay was off his game last year, Tiger was in mourning and when he first came back he missed the first cut. The world belonged to Phil. And he pushed it wide. He Van de Veld-ed himself right out of a third major.

They say he's dedicated himself to fitness and getting 'it' back but that sounds like desperation has taken hold and that can't be good for golfer. Maybe a boxer or a middle linebacker can do that but golf and tennis are such head games that if you have to trick yourself into being great, then you ain't gonna be great. I'm rooting for Phil. But if he comes back it'll be a bigger story than the Tigers making the World Series.

Bob Hope Classic Leaderboard

Dakar Rally Update

The Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart team is tightening their grip on the top 2 spots. Cars

Marc Coma holds his position on the top spot after day 12. But the latest update on day 13 is that Coma has crashed and is on his way to the hospital. He appears to be out of the race after dominating the field for almost two weeks. Tough business, yo. Bikes

The Exact-MAN team is still pounding the field in the truck division. Hey, the race isn't over, leaders have fallen by the wayside throughout this race. Trucks

Only 2 stages left after today. Rally Route

Oak Hill goes down

I saw Oak Hill Academy play years ago in Charlotte, NC. Their star was Jerry Stackhouse and they were going up against Charlotte Christian, whose star was Todd Fuller. (Fuller was a bust as a pro because he had no skills on D whatsoever, but I thought he actually had a little more offensive potential than anyone ever coaxed out of him) Charlotte was #1 in North Carolina at the time, were the defending state champs and reigning player of the year in the state (not Fuller, a little PG who was awesome). Oak Hill pounded them, ran them out of the gym, won by 25 at least, it was over before the 4th quarter started.

Watched them last night against the Chicago squad, Simeon. Oak Hill looked like one of those teams with so much confidence that they just never bothered to start playing. It's a shame, it's clear they have tons of talent and they're probably the best team in the country (again) but Simeon showed up and wanted it more and controlled the game. But Oak Hill's PG (blanking on the kid's name), man, that dude was killer. He was draining 3's long after the game looked to be over and kept it close all by himself. Oak Hill kids gave up in the 4th, I'd say.

Aussie Update

Roddick sweeps out my boy Safin, but the big goofy Russian pushed him to tie breaks in the 1st and 4th. Federer dispatched Youzhny. American Mardy Fish gets a nice day off as his opponent, the Aussie Wayne Arthurs, retires in the first set.

I watched some of Serena Williams's comeback last night and I got to say, she didn't look fit. She only had 18 unforced errors but it sure felt like more than that watching her. She wasn't crisp around the lines and lucked out a bit in that her opponent, Nadia Petrova, was a panicky head case.

American Ashley Harkleroad continues her run today. And the Americans Blake and Ginepri face off. Brit Andy Murray plays the Argentine, Chela, could be fireworks. And hometown fave, Leytwon Hewitt, playing Fernando Gonzalez, who is 'hot' according the commentators, although the season just started--how 'hot' could he be? Hewitt will find out today.

Aussie Update

Watched a bit of James Blake dusting off another American, Alex Kuznetsov, and he looked pretty strong. He's up against yet another American, Robby Ginepri, next. Ginepri looked so good a coupla years ago at the US but he just hasn't built on that. Blake looked good at the US that year too and he's elevated his game. Look for Blake to tool Ginepri.

The Brit, Andy Murray, looking hard to beat.

Serena Williams is up against #5 Petrova today.

Roddick goes against Marat Safin today. Safin is the most unpredictable guy in all of sports: he may be brilliant and this may be an instant classic or he might suck and get horribly smoked.

Warriors-Pacers trade

ESPN says:
Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy, Ike Diogu and some dude to the Pacers;
Al Harrington, Steven Jackson, Sarunas Jasikevicius and some dude to the Warriors.

I think I like this for both teams. The Warriors get a little more offense to go between Baron, J-Rich and Pietrus. And they're ditching three of their more high profile draft picks, but I think its best to cut bait on all three. They're not bad players but they don't serve what the Warriors need right now.

The Pacers gets inside presence and they ditch one high profile annoyance. O'neal is free to run wild now but to win they'll need more scoring. Are they in the Greg Oden/Kevin Durant sweepstakes? I can see the Pacers making another trade with these guys. Dunleavy was an overhyped college product and a waste of a #3 pick; that's not to say that he's a terrible player, he can handle the ball and hit jumpers, he can eat up useful minutes as a backup PG, I think, not sure if anyone would use him that way. Murphy is a tenacious inside presence but an inconsistent scorer and potentially injury-prone. Diogu is similar to Murphy but a little more offensive. Neither of them will score much with O'neal around. They don't need both, wouldn't be surprised to see them try to pick up a realiable SG or something.

I think the big winners are probably those Fantasy players with Jermaine O'neal, his numbers might take off.

Aussie Update

Remember Jonas Borkman? Well, yesterday he was Federer fodder. Tomorrow he'll be on a plane back to Sweden. But last year's finalist, Marco Bagdatis, got bageled in the 5th.

Amaericans Mardy Fish, Sam Querrey and Andy Roddick keep it going, while Americans Vincent Spadea, Zack Fleischman and Amer Delic all heading for the beach.

My boy, Safin, all that skill, that big game, that imposing entourage of eurotrash bimbos that follow him everywhere, good to see that in the second round he still needs 5 sets to finish off some dude I never heard of. I love this guy!

On the women's side: #14 Schiavone, #18 Bartoli, #23 Sugiyama and American Ahsha Rolle all out. None of these strike me as big upsets. And Serena Williams keeps chugging along, bouncing Anne Kremer, the pride of Luxembourg, yesterday.

Dakar Rally Update

The Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart team, currently sitting in #1 and #2 in the Cars division is starting to pull away from the pack.

Marc Coma putting everyone to sleep in Bikes division.

The Exact Mann team is laying a whooping on everybody in the Trucks division.

But leads can evaporate pretty quick in the Western Sahara.

Sosa is back

Rememer Bobby Higginson? With the Tigers he was a pretty good player on a really awful team. Years ago in my very first baseball fantasy league, Higginson was on virtually every manager's roster at some point during the season. Why? Well, he wasn't great but he was better than that deadbeat reliever that wasn't getting it done or that injured outfielder but he wasn't good enough to keep when the guy got healthy or somebody else got hot. There were 18 players on each roster, 8 teams, that would make Higginson basically the 145th best player in the league that year.

Sammy Sosa, a spring training invitee of the Texas Rangers, will be 2007's 145th best player. In your fantasy league--book it--every single coach at some point will desperately scour the free agent pile looking for that guy that might get hot and do something useful. And they'll all pick Sammy Sosa at least once. And then they'll dump him back on the pile for the next guy. Kind of a pay it forward thing. Sammy Sosa, I dub the 'Hig'.

Hot Chess Action!!!

Topalov Press Conference

Where's Ronaldo headed?

Al-Jazeera bringing the sports meat again this morning, with an article about Real Madrid set to de-activate aging Brazilian legend, Ronaldo.

Just back from showing David Beckham the door, Real Madrid club president Ramon Calderon has stated that Brazilian striker Ronaldo is now surplus to requirements. "The situation with Ronaldo is different to that of David Beckham as he still has another year left after this one," Calderon told radio station Onda Madrid. "But he is going to be inactive because the coach has made it clear he doesn't count on him and it would surely be better for the club and him if he went if there are offers. If not, he will stay with us. We have to find an exit that's good for him."

Is he on his way to the MLS? Don't be surprised. Again, the predictable anti-soccer rhetoric will be jumping the gun: Ronaldo is washed-up, he was terrible in the last Cup and he's only here to make money because he can't play any more. Wrong, wrong and wrong. The reason they'll say these things is because aging stars coming to USA to collect a few paychecks on the way out was a predictable development for American soccer. But Beckham and Ronaldo still have plenty to give. (Realistically I suspect this has more to do with Real Madrid finally hitting their payroll limitations, not unlike the Yankees desperately getting rid of Sheffield and Randy Johnson this season, or MLS billionaire benefactor, Phillip Anschutz, making some bid for his own international publicity campaign)

Look, will soccer get more important in America? No, it won't! But as MLS becomes higher profile in Japan, Australia and South America then maybe USA will be able to steal away the younger talent from Brazil and the older talent from Europe. (My nightmare scenario is that USA does have a world class league and the Americans still don't get it. That would be unfortunate)

With Beckham next to Landon Donovan in LA, Ronaldo might fit snugly next to Reyna and Djorkaeff in New York. If they could get somebody to go with Tyler Twellman in New England then we might get something going here.

Aussie Update

American Robby Ginepri advances, been waiting for that guy to take off. #4 Lubcjic goes down on day 1. And my boy, Marat Safin, still alive after one match day. Hometown fave, Layton Hewitt is struggling at the moment.

Hewitt was so close to being a badass a few years back when he, Safin, Roddick and Federer were battling to be the successor to Sampras and Agassi. Federer won the battle royale and the other 3 are swirling in his backwater. Safin went nuts, Roddick just never got over the hump and now Hewitt is pretty much just the Aussie Tim Henman. And now Nadal has passed them all. Still plenty of tennis to play in Sydney.

Australian Open Scoreboard

30 minute lead like dust in the wind

My man De Villiers was up 30 minutes on 2nd place at the end of Day 8, I figured it was all over. But by the end of Day 9 he was stuck in the desert waiting for help.

After a malfunction of the turbo set the engine of his car on fire at the 129 km mark on Monday, overall Dakar Rally leader Giniel de Villiers was stranded at the foot of the Elephants' Rock and waiting for his assistance team.
De Villiers was runner-up on last year's event and the South African had already won three of the eight special stages run so far and had been in the overall lead since Saturday.

Damn, how would you like to have an engine fire at a place called Elephants Rock? Blogging is better than long distance racing.

Cars Bikes Trucks

Am I Crazy?

I picked Chris Webber in my fantasy league on Sunday for Ryan Gomes. I figure Gomes is as good as he's gonne get whereas Webber might have some upside (jeez, he can't be worse than he was in Philly!). Good move?

RB Ranking, 1994-2006

Interesting article over at Wages of Wins. The one that stood out to me at first was Charlie Garner. He has, according to this metric anyway, the 7th best season (right ahead of the LT's towering performance this year) without even getting 1,000 yards rushing. Garner was an underappreciated RB back in the day, his legs never stopped moving and he never turned it over. Also, I was surprised to see so little of Curtis Martin (#37) and Jamal Anderson (#30), the former a consistently good player for a long time and the latter a really great player for only a few years.

This ranking omits TD's which seems to me is a significant stat. The purpose of the game isn't to run up and down the field, the point is to score touchdowns. It can be misleading like the season Jerome Bettis had a few years back where he had 5 TD's on 4 yards rushing or something wacky like that. Or likewise some workhorse guys that just don't get the ball near the end zone, like Chad Johnson or Tiki Barber. But still, as I much I liked Charlie Garner, he wasn't ever as good as Tomlinson was this year. Tomlinson shattered the scoring record--shattered the record. Garner was a hard working overachiever but he never shattered nothing. Like virtually all work of econo-metric-ists, this ranking strikes me as of a dubious stripe.

Here's the overall chart. Remember how good Marshall Faulk was? RB Ratings 1994-2006

More MLS News?

What the hell is up with Al-Jazeera busting out the sports mojo? They're reporting that Edgar Davids is on his way to the MLS now too. With Claudio Reyna coming back, I'd say that ramps up the push to poach Ronaldo too. Wait a minute, MLS is looking pretty interesting next year.

Look, I love ESPN, I think all sports should be ESPN. They're funny, they're classy, they're smart, they're on top of it. But why do they go out of their way to hate on soccer? Is that really necessary? They hate on the NHL, too, and they've had to learn over the years to not hate on NASCAR and I don't get it. Stick to what you do (and incidentally they do plenty of soccer!) and quit hating on what your listeners and viewers don't know anything about.

Will Beckham (or Reyna or Davids, for that matter) make soccer relevant in the USA? I will say this: if LA is in the Championship (and they probably should be) it'll be the highest rated MLS Championship ever. Impressed? No, me neither. That's like saying that signing Terrell Owens would make the Arena League final intriguing. As a soccer fan--a sports fan--I must readily admit that one good star can't really carry a team for an entire year, soccer just doesn't work that way. But that's no reason to say that he's already a washed-up failure. Jeez, let the guy play a few games first.

Al-Jazeera scoops ESPN

Funny, none of the American outlets mentioned the riots at the Aussie Open. Al-Jazeera has the face off between the Serbs and Croats down under.

Bernard Stamm jumps out to an early lead

The Velux 5 Race (used to be called The Around Alone Race) is pretty cool stuff. A solo yacht race around the world, the race just re-started over the weekend for the next stage.

I'm not a yachstman, I dig boats. But, dude, how do you fall asleep on a solo yacht, not a huge boat by any means, when you're out in the middle of nowhere? I don't mean how do you sleep, how do you fall asleep, how do you pull a blanket up around you and close your eyes and restfully drift away when no one's driving the boat?

Velux 5 Around Alone News

Von Zitzewitz De Villers laying down the West African beatdown

He's stretched his lead to 30 minutes, that seems pretty huge, even in a long distance race like this. I suppose in the Sahara you can loses 30 minutes pretty easy but I'd say he's looking pretty good. DAKAR RALLY Day 8 Leaderboard

Marc Coma has an even bigger lead among the 2-wheelers.

Blogging is better than gambling

I was 100% on my NFL picks, did you notice? I got all 4 wrong. I had it backwards, I had the road dogs in the NFC and the home faves in the AFC. This is why I don't gamble. I enjoy trying to predict the future but I'm smart enough to recognize that I'm not really very good at it (and have met very few people who are as good as they think they are). Save your money, get yourself a blog.

Pats-Colts reminds me a bit of the last World Cup final: Italy had always been hanging around but hadn't finished the Cup since 1982. France was the juggernaut in 1998 and returned to form in 2006 only to come up (one head butt) short. I think the Colts (Italy) get it done and finally flush the Pats (France), the old guys hanging around out of the system.

Flush them out? Well yeah. The Bills and Jets both made meaningful improvements this season and if the Dolphins can get a decent coach, it might spell the end of Belicheck's dominance in the AFC East. The Pats are getting rickety, they can still get it done but the have that Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon look about them (they did make 80 of those movies so maybe I'm being premature--but Chris Rock would be better at wideout that all the schlubs they got now!) The Colts, on the other hand will be back next year, no problem (like Italy).

The Colts the fave?

Colts 15, Ravens 6

The Colts are finally winning--by playing the most boring football possible. (Sigh) There's always some kind of trade-off like that. For years they were all action-packed offense but just ran into more bad luck than they could overcome in the playoffs. Now they pack it in the box, play the plodding D and Marty-Ball (three yards and clump of turf? Divet of turf?).

I predicted early that they'd win as the underdog but when the time came I didn't think they'd actually do it. So who are they rooting for? Belicheck and Brady or LT with the rookie QB? They've finally got their run defense in order, I guess they'd rather see a running attack. Be carefuly what you wish for. LT is the deal.

Roddick Tunes Up Federer

Sweet. Roddick finally gets the monkey off his back. Well, unofficially.

The defending champion picked up a confidence boosting 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win Saturday over top-ranked Federer in the final of the invitational Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament.

Why play unofficial tournaments? Everybody's warming up for the same Major, why not play tune-ups that count? Technically he's still 1-12 against Federer but damn, dude, Federer only lost 5 times last year so any win against him counts.

I'll root American but I'll still take Federer--and I doubt he'll drop a set to Baghdatis this year.

Henin-Hardenne goes for 5 straight major finals. That a record?

Fearless NFL Picks

Baltimore (-3.5) Indy
At the beginning of the year I picked the Jags to win their division pushing Indy into the underdog role which would spur them to the Super Bowl. I'd love to stick by my early season prediction especially since it has (sort of) come true. But that Raven D can stop even Peyton Manning and they've got an offense that can score too. They look ready to win. I'll take the Ravens.

New Orleans (-4.5) Philly
Philly is one of the most underappreciated team of this year--and the last decade! They've won under tough circumstances and contrary to the 'choke' label they've erroneously received, they've only lost to good teams over the years. I think they're better than the much-improved Saints for now. I'll take Philly to win straight up.

Bears (-8.5) Seahawks
Coming into the playoffs I thought Seattle actually had the best chance to pull it all together and poke their way through an unspectacular NFC field. The Bears are good on D but they've had their troubles (14 4thQ points to Tampa Bay? Pushed to the limit by the Lions?) and though they manhandled Seattle earlier this year, I think that offense lets them down. I'll stick with Seahawks to win straight up in the big upset.

Chargers (-4.5) Patriots
This should be a great game. I'm not a frontrunner, to be honest I'm a bit of a hater on the good teams (I went to great lengths to convince my friends that the Shaq Lakers were the lamest team to ever win 3 straight--hey, I'm dedicated!). But I like the Pats. There's nothing overwhelming about them, they just figure out to beat everybody. Can they do it again? Tomlinson is the stud of the year but will Rivers hold up to the Belicheck onslaught? I think he can. I'll stick with the Chargers who murdered everybody all year long (hmmm, except the Ravens). Chargers and the points.

There you go. Future foretold. Sleep in.

Cars, Becks, Tennis

Dakar Rally Leaderboard
Check out the Dakar Rally Route . Looks dusty.
Dakar Rally day 12 report

BBC thinks Beckham is a big story
Will he be great here in America? Well, make no mistake Beckham was always overrated. He's a celebrity more than a player and being gloriously photogenic is worth more than putting the ball in the back of the net--even in Europe! He and the little missus (nee Posh Spice) have both played it for all it's worth and that's ultimately why they're here.There are cries that Beckham is washed-up, that he was terrible in the 2006 Cup. I disagree. He was fine in the Cup (it was England's forwards that were disappointing) and if he can still play in Spain, which I think he can, then he can certainly play here.

These complaints are premature: it has long been MLS's dream to snag aging Europeans to generate interest (Lothar Matteus, anyone?). And Beckham was surely their biggest target of opportunity. Beckham, too, sees the reality of sucking a few bucks out of America on his way to his second career as a schlubby Euro mega-star. But they've both jumped the gun. Beckham can still play and hopefully he'll fulfill this 5 year deal because he'll be a contributor.

Will he make soccer relevant in America? No. But for those of us that already love soccer, he'll improve the quality no doubt. Before World War II USA played soccer just like everybody else--a semi-finalist in the inaugural World Cup. But after the war soccer increasingly seemed like a foreign sport, an international sport, and the American public were becoming more self-absorbed, Amero-centric, and it just fell out of favor. It's resurgence in the last decade is largely because soccer is seen as a girl's game in America, a Title IX counterweight to football.

There are 3 reasons why soccer will never be huge in America. 1) It's not conducive to advertising so programmers will never shove it down our throats like they do with, say, reality TV or crappy game shows. 2) USA will never have the biggest, bestest stars in the world, the sport is just too popular around the world for there to ever be the most money available here. If we did have the biggest stars, then the sportswriters would slobber over them the way the slobber for D-Wade or A-Rod or LT or Kobe. The fact that sportswriters don't like soccer means nothing, what they like is celebrities to fawn over. 3) Stats don't mean squat in soccer so there's no nerd culture to slip in the way we've seen the sports economics crowd take over baseball and football. Only the score gets remembered from a soccer game, not the time of possession, the amount of corner kicks or even the touches of the star player.

Welcome, David Beckham. I for one am more interested in MLS than I ever have been before. For once I get to be the target audience! All right!

Australian Open on the way
1. Roger Federer (SUI) 1. Maria Sharapova (RUS)
2. Rafael Nadal (ESP) 2. Amelie Mauresmo (FRA)
3. Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) 3. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
4. Ivan Ljubicic (CRO) 4. Kim Clijsters (BEL)
5. James Blake (USA) 5. Nadia Petrova (RUS)
6. Andy Roddick (USA) 6. Martina Hingis (SUI)
7. Tommy Robredo (ESP) 7. Elena Dementieva (RUS)
8. David Nalbandian (ARG) 8. Patty Schnyder (SUI)
9. Mario Ancic (CRO) 9. Dinara Safina (RUS)
10. Fernando Gonzalez (CHI) 10. Nicole Vaidisova (CZE)
11. Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) 11. Jelena Jankovic (SRB)
12. Tommy Haas (GER) 12. Anna Chakvetadze (RUS)

On the women's side: now that Davenport and the Williams sisters have disappeared, I keep waiting for Martina Hingis to re-emerge, is she still young enough to dominate? She always had trouble against the bigger girls and Sharapova and Mauresmo both have big games. I think she can hang with them. That's just a gut pick, I think Kim Clijsters may be the favorite.

On the men's side: who but Federer?

Sports Editor's Blog

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