“How can you say that Alabama is the Champion, when Boise State is undefeated too?” J.A. Adande, Around the Horn
Here we go. Everyone’s favorite little one trick Bronco gets to be carted out once again to give all national pundits a chance to throw a hissy fit about how the BCS is evil, the world would finally be at peace with an eight team playoff, and poor little Boise, whose offensive line doubles as the dance team, will be denied the chance to get their orange ass throttled by a ridiculous Bama front line.
By the way, playoff supporters, in a eight team format, where the conference champion in the big six in plus two at large bids, the Broncos STILL wouldn’t have gotten in. Florida and TCU would have gotten the at large bids, and Boise would be moaning about wanting a 16 team playoff.
What’s wrong with a 16 team playoff? Well, why does Penn State get to go to the playoffs? Oklahoma State has a better resume, but they don’t get a chance? Maybe we should go 32.
But, why does Houston get to go? They play in the C-USA. Arizona was one win away from the Rose Bowl, It’s not Fair! Get congress involved, we demand a 64 team playoff!
College has a 64 team playoff in basketball. Every March we watch the brackets get set up, as a Michigan gets left out, and the pundits reach to find an argument about how it’s not fair that McNeese State gets in because of a puny conference title, while a .500 powerhouse gets “robbed”.
Then, instead of putting money in an office pool, I use the cash to buy a bullet and rent a gun.
“It’s a little bitter sweet, I mean, you could be looking at the end of a dynasty….” Keyshawn Johnson, NFL Live
I thought about writing “better sweet”, because I am still convinced that he butchered the term. I chose to take the high road. Johnson was talking about Pete Carroll leaving USC to become the Uncle Moneybags of the Pacific Northwest. Full disclosure, I am not a USC man. I can’t remember the last time I wanted a Trojan victory. From Reggie Bush getting pushed into the end zone, to Matt Leinhart stating that they were still the better team immediately after the Vince Young show in 2006, USC has been under my skin. Maybe I just hate winners.
Regardless of my Southern Cal disdain, I still do everything I can to hate the facts and not fabricate negatives in my head. Johnson’s statement has a three-fold problem.
1.) Keyshawn, although you played for USC, you never played for Carroll, simmer down.
2.) The only way you could be looking at the end of a dynasty is if it was a dynasty in the first place. USC won one BCS title game under Pete Carroll. One. The last time I looked, a dynasty was winning 3 in 4 years.
3.) USC is falling apart, regardless of Carroll leaving or staying. We live under this false assumption that college football programs will dominate for thirty years if given the chance, but Carroll’s Trojans started to take the Florida State route this year. Not to mention the sanctions that are going to cut USC football off at the knees in February.
“It’s hard to pick against the Cowboys, they are the hottest team in the playoffs…” Chris Burman, NFL Live
How far does heat really travel? Does the hottest team at the end of the season really burn through the payoffs on heat alone, or are they called hot because of the scorched earth the leave through the playoffs? Instead of resting Manning at the end of the season, should he be forced to take another hundred or so snaps? Maybe, sit him for the first four games of the season? Does Chris Burman ponder these thoughts at night when he’s alone in bed with his bucket of nutrasystem approved boneless wings? Or, does he just use the term “hottest team” to allow himself to eat instead of do research?
It amazes me how we can decide who will be in the Super Bowl based on last week’s performances when the four best teams have yet to even play in a playoff game. I’ll admit, I like the Cowboys this week, but it has more to do with the fact that AD has gotten AP’ed everytime he has gotten the ball in recent weeks because of an offensive line that is lining up five George’s.
It seems that everyone has their preseason Super Bowl picks based on loose merit then, with four weeks left in the season, pick solely based on which teams are fun to watch a.k.a “hot”. I believe the three hottest teams in the NFL a month ago were the Titans, Packers, and Eagles. Where is that heat now?
p.s. Don’t bring up the Chargers, they hurt my argument.
“I still contend that, even though he has admitted to using steroids, it doesn’t help you hit a baseball.” Peter Gammons, SportsCenter
Let’s get something straight. I, like you, don’t want to talk about steroids anymore. The sport that raised us is forever tainted. We have known it as a definite for over a decade now. When Manny tested positive for it last year, we talked about it for a day, and moved on. The days of Bonds, Sosa, and Big Mac shitting all over baseball were working their way into the rearview mirror and we were at least pretending to move forward. A-Rod didn’t help, but you know what I mean.
Then Mark McGwire, in a fraudulent attempt to diffuse the steroid circus bomb before he goes into this spring’s training camp as the hitting coach of the Cardinals, decided to make his rounds through the interview chairs of a selected few to “confess” his career of steroid abuse. Never mind that he used his family and God as a shield to excuse his actions. Never mind that he downplayed his use to a few scattered doses here and there. Never mind that he refuses to acknowledge that his cheating had anything to do with breaking any records. I could burn a thousand words on picking apart McGwire’s bullshit with ease but, It’s been done in thousands of blogs already and Mark is an athlete (sort of) and I try to keep my focus on the people paid for their opinions.
When the McGwire circus came back into town earlier this week, it was Gammons poor attempt to, yet again, defend a player’s steroid abuse by stating that if Peter Gammons had used steroids, he still wouldn’t be a baseball player. He wants them all in the hall of fame because of a misguided loyalty that allows him to believe that the Roid Bunch would be hall of famers if they never used the stuff.
The minor leagues are littered with half-skilled players who would be all around baseball dynamos if they could just hit the ball forty feet harder. IF you trim forty feet off each homerun McGwire hit, he might not have broken any records, but he still would have had a solid career. Gammons seems to think that everyone believes that a roidless McGwire would have spent his life digging ditches, wondering what life would have be if he could have just stayed healthy. I prefer to use the Pete Rose argument. Gambling never helped Rose get a single hit, but it kept him out of the HOF.