Should I go Bowling on BCS Bowl day?

I would like to explain the BCS and how it is fair....but since it isn't, I am not going to waste the breath or the energy typing it out. BCS = Bull Crap Shiz. Period. The BCS claims it is fair. Of course it is fair! - to the six BCS conferences, since they get the payout and the bigtime games. Look at it from black and white. The "BCS Division FBS National Championship" (formerly Div. 1-A) does not include all conferences in the FBS. Period. So how can that possibly be a National Championship game? It can't. Period. I like how they label it "BCS National Championship". They can't give any credibility to the system by just calling it "National Championship". So they have to stick the BCS part in front of it to label it as such. I can't believe the NCAA allows this. The NCAA has the NCAA Men's College Basketball championships, and the label NCAA before every other championship....except Football. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. I like the bowl games. Love 'em. Hate the BCS. Love watching the big bowl games. Hate watching the BCS rule college football instead of the players ruling college football. Should I go bowling on BCS day? Yeah.... 10-pin bowling is calling my name.

Tis the Season to be Bowling

In years past at this time we'd be roasting chestnuts over an open fire and laughing with a warm mug of hot chocolate in our hands, instead we're sitting huddled freezing on our couches for two reasons, 1: "spare the air" warnings make it illegal to have an open fire and 2: (the more important) we're too busy watching the College Bowl Games!

The Brett Favre Conundrum

Brett Favre this.
Brett Favre that.
Wait, whats the big deal with this guy anyways? Oh right.... he is a leading NFL MVP candidate at age 41. Whats all this hoopla about?

Unfortunately, most of this hoopla is NOT about his stats on the field, but the events that transpired off of it during the off-season. 2 years ago, Brett Favre was leading Cheesehead nation to a 13-3 regular season record and a playoff berth. They fell in the NFC championship game to the NFC wildcard New York Giants.... yes, those New York Giants who beat the Packers at Lambeau Field....and then went on to play, yes, those New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.

Back to the story though. After the season, Brett begins thinking about retirement, and if he should finally retire or if he should continue to play. Packers management approaches him in March (remember that the Super Bowl just ended), and gives him a deadline to decide his retirement.

A deadline?

To decide when YOU want to retire? I thought that was the players choice to decide when to retire, not the front office's. In any press release you have ever read, has it ever said, "Team chooses to retire player" or more specifically in this case "Packers decide to retire Brett Favre".

I can understand the Packers' wanting to know if he was coming back or not. Favre was 39 at the time, but had just led the Packers' to their best season since losing in the Super Bowl to John Elway and the Broncos in 1997. Favre's backup, Aaron Rodgers, was waiting in the wings. But Favre is a first ballot Hall of Famer, still has plenty left in the tank (his rocket arm still works pretty well), and had just led your team to a 13-3 record. But give Favre a break, he should be able to determine when he will retire.

So he ends up giving that emotional press conference where he retires. But 3 months later, he comes back. And the Packers' still own his rights. And he wants to play. Now if you are the head coach, who do you want to play? Rodgers is very unproven. Favre is legendary. When the 4th quarter comes, I will take the old gunslinger any day of the week.

So now that Favre is back, he wants to play, he doesn't want to be a backup. So management is now in a tough spot. Do they play Favre as a backup, even though he led them to the NFC championship the season before? They decide to have Rodgers take over....which means they needed to trade Brett Favre. So they did. They traded him to an AFC team. They did not want Favre to go to the Minnesota Vikings, an up and coming division rival, who featured superstar runningback Adrian Peterson and a stifling defense.

For one year, Favre ends up playing for the New York Jets, leading them to a startling 7-1 record before losing 6 of their last 7 and missing the playoffs. Those last six games, Favre played with a torn ligament in his throwing arm. The blame for that shouldn't all fall on Brett Favre. His team could have stepped up. Following the season, Favre retires....again.

Now for the fun part. The Jets release Brett Favre. And then Brett Favre is approached by, guess who, the Minnesota Vikings. At first, he decides to forego playing with them, but at last he arrives. He signs a two-year deal with the team. And the Packers are furious, not to mention their fans as well.

Too bad Packers, you had it coming.

You let him go, he was free to do whatever he wanted. Brett wanted to stay. He wanted to play and go for another Super Bowl. But he couldn't, because you were going to play his backup as the starter.

So what did you expect?

Of course Brett Favre was going to sign with a contender when his contract was up (New York knew that, even though they looked like contender the first 8 weeks). Why wouldn't he? He wanted to play with a team that he could possibly win a Super Bowl with. Wouldn't you if you knew that you were a dinosaur in football age?

The Packers could only delay the inevitable by one year.

So to all detractors of Brett Favre and those who hated his decision to play for the Vikings, you need not be angry at #4. Look to Ted Thompson, your GM. He was the one who started the process, and he was the one who traded #4. The Packers weren't going to have Brett Favre anymore, they wanted to move in another direction. The Brett Favre era was over in Green Bay. If the man was going to play, he obviously was going to need to play for another team, because his old team wasn't going to have him.

So to Green Bay fans who now hate Brett Favre for going to the "Dark Side", that's what your team gets when it lets go of its best player of all-time. He doesn't play for your team anymore, your management traded him. Be upset with your management. When Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the LA Kings, Edmonton fans were (and still are) upset with Peter Pocklington, the Oilers former owner and GM. Why aren't you upset with Ted Thompson, your GM who MADE the trade?

Is part of it the fact the Brett Favre has more than enough left and continues to lead his new team to success? Is it that Packer nation is mad that he is still better than their new quarterback, Aaron Rodgers? Or was Packer nation really cheated? Who cheated them? Was it Brett Favre or Ted Thompson?

Brett Favre wants one more Super Bowl. He went to the team that was one quarterback away from becoming a serious contender to win the Super Bowl. They are now 11-2 this season and firmly in control of gaining a first round bye. He hammered on his old team, the Packers, with near perfect efficiency in the two games the Vikings played against them. The old gunslinger has still got it.

Has he got enough to get by his detractors and lead the Vikings to the Super Bowl?

Only time will tell.

Agreed and Disagreed

Agreed: Nellie is a joke and he has destroyed the Warriors. He needs to retire.... and never come back.

Disagreed: Toronto is an unwanted market. "No one is rushing to play there". There once was this guy named Hedo, who was sitting pretty in Orlando. He chose to play the free agent market, verbally committed to Portland before spurning them to go to.... Toronto? Yeah, he went to Toronto....in CANADA....cold ol' Canada. Why? Well probably 2 reasons: #1 was money, but #2 was culture. Toronto has huge international culture. Why else are there a few other European guys there? (Namely Jose Calderon, Andrea Bargnani).Not to mention that the fan base comes from a national standpoint, since there is only one NBA team there you have a whole nation behind the team. Ok so you may say that its one guy, but that one guy happened to be a primary player in leading Orlando to the NBA finals last year.

Disagreed: Me stating that the Golden State Warriors were your team. Where did I say that?! I just read my entire last post, it ain't in there. I simply referenced your current whereabouts to the closest NBA basketball team. But still, Nellie does suck (I agree with that!).

Disagreed: Jazz are not good. If the playoffs were to start today, the Jazz would take the #5 seed in the uber-competitive Western Conference, and they would be matched up against the #4 seed, the Phoenix Suns. Your man Steve Nash (I like watching him too) and his Suns have been on fire this season, so for the Jazz to only be one seed lower than they are is saying something. That's without some of their key role players (some of whom (Kyle Korver) are still not back)and a slow start to the season. They have been playing well as of late (with of course the game vs. Minnesota), and with their record of 16-11, they have gained a lot of momentum.

Agreed: You are a basketball fan. I know you are. So am I. Even if the Jazz are "my team", I will watch whoever is playing, because I am a fan, and so are you.

Who Cares?

First things first, I can't stand the Warriors and Nellie is quite possibly one of the worst coaches in the league right now.

Now moving on...who cares how many conference championships a team wins?!? Who cares if they win a game or two against big teams? In the playoffs, they fold like a chair. Jerry (Sloan) is a winning coach in the regular sean. I'm just saying that, not basing it on stats so don't give me any of that "they won blah blah blah games/series," and there was two years in there where ole Mikey wasn't in the mix. What happened those two years? And it's not like there aren't other awful basketball markets. Oklahoma City??? I don't see anyone begging to play in Toronto either. I'm sure there are more then a few doing all they can to get out of New Jersey (okay, not a small market but they are just outright baaaaaad). The jazz knew what they were getting into when they moved to SLC!

Jerry West coaches the Jazz??

First of all Mack, Jerry West has never been apart of the Jazz organization.... EVER. Jerry Sloan has though, and he is a pretty good coach, one of the winningest all-time in NBA history, so if you're saying he couldn't win with Stockton and Malone, you are horribly misinformed (see 19 straight playoff appearances, 8 division titles, and 2 conference championships). Second, the only thing keeping the Jazz back from having championship banners in the rafters of the EnergySolutions Arena was one Michael Jordan, and he probably kept about 4 other teams from having another championship banner raised to their rafters (see 90-91 vs Magic and the Lakers, 91-92 vs Clyde and the Blazers, 92-93 vs Sir Charles and the Suns, and 95-96 vs Shawn, Gary, and the Sonics). Think about it too, Utah is one of the SMALLEST markets in the NBA. Not a whole lot of players tell their agent, "Hey get me in contact with Utah, I wanna play there", predominantly because of the area. Salt Lake isn't the most attractive place to NBA players who like night-life or warm weather. So that fact the Jerry Sloan has done so much in a market like that is AMAZING. Lets not forget that the Jazz have recently been to the Western Conference Finals (and stomping your Warriors on the way). They have a game to step up! If they didn't have one, I am pretty sure they wouldn't have beat Kobe and the Lakers, Dwight and the Magic, TImmy D and the Spurs, etc. Those are championship caliber teams right there. I agree with you on the point about possibly caring.... The intentions of Boozer worry me (he wants to go somewhere warm, like Miami, he is playing well to up his trade value). Players change, aspects of the game may change, but the basics don't change, and that is what the Jazz run. If you look at their offense, its all just basic pass and screen away. That's all it needs to be, especially in a defensively deficient NBA. And you know what's great about his offense? You know it's coming, and you STILL can't stop it! Tell me this Mack, it's interesting to see your thoughts on Jerry West (I mean Sloan), what about Nellie out in Oakland? What hasn't he done to absolutely alienate every single player on his roster? Gimme some smackdown Mack!

That's TWICE Now!

Dear Utah Jazz,
I love those green jerseys. I love the players on your team. I love the system that you play in. But why and how on this green earth can you go out and successively manhandle the Spurs, Lakers, and Magic, and then go out and lose to the second WORST team in the NBA, the Minnesota Timberwolves, TWICE?! TWICE!!!! The Timberwolves record is an absymal 4-22, for a .154 winning percentage, only slightly above the grandeur of the .080 winning percentage of the New Jersey Nets (what a disaster that franchise is).

Monday Night Continuity

So I watched about a minute of the 49ers/Cardinals game, not gonna lie about that. If it was Steve Young still throwing to Jerry Rice, I would have watched it, but the hardwood courts were calling my name. However, there is one topic I want to talk about: Alex Smith.

Monday Night Football

What a game tonight...kind of. To an outsider (not a 49er fan) that was a terribly ugly game played by the Cardinals from Arizona, but to me, what a performance! What I saw was a defense who really stepped up their game tonight. They did what they were taught since pop-warner, put your helmet on the ball when you tackle someone.

Writing about Sports

Writing about sports is a little more difficult than I had imagined...especially when I work nights till 1:30 AM during the most important sports nights. I find most of my information comes from talk radio or SportsCenter. I've also become a huge internet story reader, I've definately become a lot more respectful of people who do it well.

Live Sports

So last night Mrs. Mack and I went to the San Jose Sharks game where they were defeated 5-4 in OT. The game was well played and much enjoyed, but that is not my purpose in writing today. I just have one question, can anything get better then actually being at a sporting event? Especially when your team in the home team, (although being the visitor has it's perks too)! I've been to my fair share of sporting events in my life (I went to my first game when I was two weeks old). I've been to games from Oakland (Let's Go A's!!!) to New York. From Seattle to Boston. I'm not here to go through the long list, but every game I've been to has been an awesome experience.

Will the real Tiger Woods please stand up?

Dear Tiger Woods,
You lying, cheating, club-throwing, multi-billionaire scumbag. How could you do this? Like honestly, did you think you wouldn't get caught? Let's think about some of the events that have transpired the past few days.
1. ESPN reports that you get in a car crash. Everyone is concerned. Concerned about your health, concerned about your family, concerned about your career, etc.
2. ESPN and FHP report that it was a single car accident. You plowed over a fire hydrant and smashed a tree in your $100,000 car.
3. ESPN and FHP report that your windows are smashed, you don't have any shoes on, and that you will not be playing in your Chevron World Challenge tournament during the coming weekend.
4. FHP seeks a subpeona for hospital records to find out what information Tiger's blood samples had in them.
5. Reports coming from ESPN, TMZ, and other sources stating that you had been having affairs with up to 7 DIFFERENT WOMEN, which list includes bar waitresses and porn stars.

BCS

Can you believe that BCS??? How much garbage is this system.  I'm okay with the championship game, those two teams are good, but putting TCU and Boise St. together is just wrong. I heard someone say it's like the kids table at Thanksgiving. Yeah, they'll let you be there, but you're not going to get respect and you'll be with those who they don't respect either. The BCS is afraid to admit they have a flawed system by having a non-BCS team beat a BCS team again. Utah did it last year, BYU beat Oklahoma earlier this year. Boise St. beat Oregon this very year! And Oregon's in the Rose Bowl! I don't know how to do any better, I've heard some good ideas in the past, but it's going to take the entire nation to be together for it to work.

Weekend Sports

Alright so I'm sitting on my couch right now, enjoying the fine game that Alabama is playing in the SEC title game against Tim Tebow...I mean Florida. Now I don't consider myself an Alabama fan I just think people need to lay off Tebow. Yeah he's good, but he's not an NFL quarterback. In a game where everyone is just as fast or faster he will not be able to succeed. His arm isn't that great and his motion is terrible.

But enough negativity, how about the greatest closer in the NBA right now Kobe Bryant? There are some who call that lucky, but I disagree. Watching that shot he didn't just throw it up, he leaped, squared his shoulders and drilled the shot. Sure it was a bank, but it was game winning. Play on playa!