Round One in the Books, Holmgren Still Team President

I'd like a show of hands from people who thought that the Browns would bungle their first round draft pick. Shame on all of you! Mike Holmgren is in charge now! There is no way anything like the last decade of "drafting" would take place again. Ok, ok, I admit it. I was sweating bullets too. Up until the long "o" sound that came after the "j" sound, I thought the Browns would be the biggest blunder of the draft by taking Jimmy Clausen. Instead, the Browns shored up their defensive secondary a bit by taking Joe Haden from Florida. As for Clausen, Round 1 came and went and he stayed in the "Available" column. Wow.

Even more surprising was the fact that Tim Tebow, who some predicted as a late 2nd/early 3rd round pick, was taken by the Denver Broncos after they traded UP to get him! All in all the first round went pretty much according to plan. That is, until the Oakland Raiders went on the clock. JaMarcus Russel has been a complete bust for the Silver and Black ever since his holdout ended his rookie year. So we're all sitting there, waiting for the Jimmy Clausen pick to be made, but remember, I said he's still available. The Raiders seem to be moving towards an "11" defense where they use 11 Linebackers, no D-Lineman, no Secondary, just Linebackers. Granted, the Raiders are more than just one player away from contending again, but Linebackers rarely touch the ball. They can't effect the outcome of a game the same way a Quarterback can. I texted my friend the following after that pick: "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Al Davis! I think he just makes picks to try to be that one Funny Guy Owner who is always like 'Hey ya'll, watch this pick! It's gonna be hilarious!'" and every other owner is thankful that Davis will never give up control because he will always make their pick look a little less dumb.

Sam Bradford went to the Rams as expected, Ndamakong Suh went second as expected and Gerald McCoy went third as expected. After that, it was pretty clear which players would be chosen it just wasn't very clear as to which order they would go in. Of course, ESPN ruined all the drama of the pick being read by Commissioner Roger Goodell by showing the player about to be picked either crying, on the phone, jumping up and down, hugging his family members or any combination of the four. Please, ESPN, lose about three cameras, move the draft start back to Saturday afternoon and keep it a 2-day affair.

In day two, I look for the Browns to find a Quarterback, and I'm hoping it's Dan LeFevour from Central Michigan. I think with with tutelage of Jake Delhomme, LeFevour can eventually take over the reigns a la Aaron Rodgers, minus the Hall of Fame waffler he's replacing. I also think the Browns will try to grab another couple guys on the defensive side of the ball and maybe a long shot offensive play maker. Whatever the case, Mike Holmgren will make sure Cleveland doesn't take Al Davis' title anytime soon.

12 Games In and my Head Hasn't Exploded

As I watched the Indians play their first game of the 2010 campaign, against the White Sox in Chicago, I thought it wouldn't be long until my blood pressure reached a point where I could be in the danger zone for a heart attack. Then they won the next two games. I was able to calm down. Things were looking good. A trip to Detroit followed which saw the Indians blow a 7-run lead and lose in the 9th inning. I can remember shouting at the television and thinking to myself "This team is going to lose 100 games and I am going to have to start smoking five packs a day." When the got home for their Jacob's Field opener against the Texas Rangers, I was a bit more optimistic, until the bullpen brought out their gas cans and matches.

After a five-game losing skid, I was ready to write-off the season. But that's how we Indians fans are. It's how we've always been. We, as Clevelanders, are conditioned to expect the worst at the first sign of trouble. Things turned around though. The Tribe was sitting at 2-6, had one game left with the Rangers and then a three-game set with the ChiSox. That last game with Texas was looking grim heading into the 8th inning, that is until the Rangers remembered that they are the Rangers. Two errors and a ChooBomb later, the Indians were on top, 3-2 and David Huff told the men of fire to stay in the 'pen and let him get a complete game. Victory for the Tribe, first career complete game for Huff. Nice.

Now the Sux come into town and we're looking at our number five starter, Mitch Talbot (I never heard of half these guys!) against the perfect-game wielding Mark Buehrle. Paul Konerko, who has been KILLING the Indians for a couple years now, led off the second inning with a homer and every fan had that "Here we go again" feeling. But Talbot retired the next 12 South Siders that came to the plate. Then, in the 4th, the Tribe got on the board with an RBI from Austin Kearns and a 2-run blast from Luis Valbuena (Who had a Grand-Slam wasted in the Motor City). The White Sox got another run in the top of the 6th but Cleveland responded with three of their own in the bottom half, with help from some suspect defense. Talbot shut Chicago down the rest of the way and got HIS first complete game and first victory.

That was two in a row. One more, and we call it a "Winning Streak!" The Indians did just that. After scoring a run in the first inning, the Tribe bats went silent until the 8th inning when Asdrubal Cabrera smacked one out to right field and then Choo doubled home Grady Sizemore to give the Indians a 3-2 lead. Chris Perez then came on, but didn't bring flammable things with him. It was great. The only scary part was the long fly-ball by Konerko but Grady tracked it down.

On Sunday, the Indians went for their, get this, FOURTH straight victory. They started off the game hot, getting three runs in the 1st and then a ChooBomb good for four runs (we call that a Grand-Slam) out the Indians ahead 7-0. After that though, the Indians couldn't find a way to get another run home. The White Sox scored three runs in the 5th and then another in the 9th before Chris Perez came in to finish the job. I don't know what he did to fix himself after the s*** show in Detroit, but he's got four saves now and looking very good.

So, we sit at .500 with a great test over the next nine games as the Indians travel to Minnesota, Oakland and Anaheim. These games will tell us all we need to know about the season. I just hope that it's a positive message that gets sent to the fans, rather than one that shows us just how bad this team really is. If the Indians don't start hitting soon, it's going to be a bad year. This pitching is not going to carry us for the whole season. I hope my blood pressure can take it.

Quick Hits V

I've got quite a few things on my mind so it's time for another edition of Quick Hits!

First, the Olympics are over after two weeks of very good action. I thought that I didn't like the Olympics but it's really just the figure skating I can do without. We saw some amazing highs including Apolo Ohno becoming the most decorated Winter Athlete in U.S. History and team Canada winning the hockey gold on their home soil. I would have rather seen Team USA win, but if they couldn't do it, I'd rather have it be Canada than anyone else. We also saw some lows including the death of the Georgian luger just a day before the games started and the horrible attitude of some Olympians including Evgeni Plushenko complaining about the judging in figure skating. All in all, I enjoyed the game this year.

Next, the NBA regular season is starting to wind down and we find the Cavs and Lakers still battling for the home court advantage throughout the playoffs. The Cavs won both regular season meetings with the Lakers so they hold the tie breaker as well. The Cavs just learned that Shaquille O'Neal will have surgery on his thumb that will most likely shut him down for the rest of the regular season. That shouldn't be too much of a problem though as the Cavs have a fairly easy schedule down the stretch with just two games against San Antonio and single games against Boston and Orlando (both home games) that stick out as possible pit falls. My playoff preview and predictions will be out in April when the seeds are set.

MLB's Spring Training is underway and games get underway later this week. A ton of players were on the move this offseason and you can read an in-depth season predictions article over at http://headsortailsdebates.blogspot.com that I write with my buddy Jason Kaminski. My predictions for the Indians will be coming soon but I wanted to at least wait until a few of the Spring games have been played to decide just how bad this team will be. I really hope I'm wrong and Manny Acta is the savior we've been waiting for but I'm not too optimistic.

March Madness is almost here too! I love the tournament. It's one of my favorite sporting events of the year. Three weeks of hopes, dreams and upsets. There is really nothing like it. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the defending National Champion Tar Heels are going to make it to the dance. It's been quite the disappointing year for them and Roy Williams can't wait for the season to be over, it seems. I'll have predictions for the tournament in the next few weeks as well!

The Hockey regular season can resume now too. In the Eastern Conference, three teams (Tampa Bay, NY Rangers and Atlanta) are all within two points of the eighth playoff spot. The West is even more congested as five teams are within five points of the final spot in the playoffs. It will be interesting to see how the Olympic players come back from the tournament, whether they are energized or tired. All I know is that I can't wait for the NHL playoffs!

I went to Bowling Green this past weekend and got to see the men's Hockey team beat the #12/13 Michigan State Spartans 3-2 in a shootout. What a game! Bowling Green has struggled all season but have been putting up great fights in their last few outings heading into the CCHA playoffs. They are looking good at just the right time as they head to Omaha to take on the Mavericks of UNO. I like the Falcon's chances. While I was at the game I got to meet BG Alumni and member of the 1980 Miracle on Ice team, Ken Morrow. Awesome experience!

I think that covers things for now but I will be back soon with all those previews I've promised!

Hey Tiger, I Don't Care!

By now, everyone has heard what Tiger Woods had to say in his pseudo-press conference this morning. About how sorry he is, about the mistakes he made and that he doesn't know when he's going to return to golf. You know what though? I don't care. Not one bit. His words mean absolutely nothing to me.

Let's start with a little back story. In 1997 I was 14 years old and I had never even dreamed of touching a golf club, until this young guy with a ton of charisma won the Masters. I wanted to do that too! I wanted to play golf for the first time in my life. Luckily, I had a cousin who was a Varsity College golfer and I got to go out and hit the links with him for the first time. I was bad. Really bad. But I knew that I enjoyed the time on the course and wanted to become better so that I could be like Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods was my favorite golfer. Though a very private person, he somehow made his fans feel connected to him.

It wasn't just me either. Golf's popularity has probably quintupled since Woods came on the scene. He and golf were on the rise and it seemed that Woods' greatness would never cease to be. All that came crashing down when it was discovered that Woods had been having an affair with, not one or two, but, 12 women. I guess we shouldn't really be surprised that a Super Star athlete was unfaithful to his wife, but if anyone says that they KNEW that Woods was getting in on the action (pun intended), they would be lying through their teeth. NO ONE saw anything like this coming from the Golden Boy who is threatening one of the game's greatest records.

I started to listen to Woods' press conference and then truly realized that I don't give one good damn about what he had to say. If this were the 127th ranked golfer in the world he'd just fix his marriage or get a divorce and move on with his life. But not Woods. Not the greatest golfer of this generation who could never be rattled. I think one of the parts that made me the most upset was apologizing to his "business partners." That just goes to show us that he doesn't care about golf the same way he used to. Today's golf headlines should be discussing what is taking place at the Accenture Match Play Championship, not what Woods had to say.

Ernie Els was one of the first to speak up about Woods' timing. He thinks it's pretty clear that this statement was made at this time SPECIFICALLY to take away from Accenture's (one of the companies that dropped Woods) match play tournament. How immature can one person be? That's Woods, not Ernie. When you mess up, you're going to pay for it, or in this case, not get paid because of it. Do you really blame a company for not wanting to be associated with someone whose adultered his marriage with multiple women? I am almost ashamed to be a golfer because it means I have something in common with Woods.

In addition to all this, Woods didn't even allow questions to be answered at this "press conference." I don't know why the press are still letting Woods call the shots. This man has opened his life up for all of us to see, kind of an unwritten contract of being famous, but wants privacy. You want privacy? Head out on your yacht. You messed up and many want to know what you're going to do to fix it. That is our right. I wish all major outlets would have boycotted the Woods "press conference." The Golf Writer's Association of America did just that and I applaud their efforts. They feel, and I agree with them, that by not letting the press be a true part of this statement it really makes the event lack credibility. But hey, look at Woods. He's all about lacking credibility. I hope he never gets it back. I used to root for "Tiger" to win. Now I will root for "Woods" to lose.

The Super Bowl Wrap-Up

First off, I'd like to welcome you all to my 50th Blog. I have had a ton of fun doing this since I started it last summer. Thank you to all the people who have read it and make sure to tell everyone who loves sports to come back and check it out!


Now, on to the Super Bowl. What a game. Who here thought we were on our way to an Indy blowout when Pierre Garcon caught that touchdown pass to put the Colts up 10-0? I know I did. I thought for sure that Peyton Manning had figured out the holes in the Saints defense and would pick and pick at them until the game was way out of hand.


Instead, the Saints toughened up, held the ball for almost all of the 2nd quarter, went into the locker room down by just four, came out, did their Brass Balls "Ambush" play, went down, took the lead, gave up just one more score to the Colts, took the lead back and got a 2-point conversion. But then, Peyton had the ball in his hands and started matriculating the ball down the field, surely on his way to tie the game and make Super Bowl XLIV the first Super Bowl in history to go to overtime.


Tracy Porter and the images shaved into his head had different ideas. It was 3rd and five or six yards to go and the Colts went to their patented 3rd down play. Reggie Wayne make his way to about three yards past the sticks, cuts in and catches it at the marker, 1st down Colts. Unfortunately for Peyton, the Saints defense knew this was the play that was coming. They had seen it numerous times on film. Tracy Porter jumped the route, got away from Wayne, got a couple good blocks and took the ball all the way to the endzone. 31-17, Saints win the game.


After the game, Peyton was visibly upset. And, though he wouldn't say it out loud, I think a lot of it was directed at Reggie Wayne. Wayne looked old in this game and I have no idea why. His routes were sloppy, his feet were slow and on the interception, he barely attempted to get to Porter as he was streaking down the field. Not only that, but usually Wayne fights on his route to get to the ball before the defender. What happened? Was he suffering from some injury that he didn't tell anyone about? What was going on? I don't know if we'll ever know just what the problem with Wayne was, but he may have cost the Colts the game.


Let's talk about the halftime show for a second. Now, don't get me wrong, I love The Who and I think they are one of the ten best bands of all time, but that was not a strong performance and I think it's time for the NFL to get away from the old guys, get an up and coming performer, put them on a 45 second delay and do it. Roger Daltry's voice is nowhere near what it used to be and Pete Townsend looked exhausted after doing his windmills. It was a decent performance but I really feel that someone like Jay Z could have had a much better performance.

What are your thoughts on the Super Bowl? Let me know!

Time to Kill the Pro-Bowl

It's that time, folks. Time to take the Pro-Bowl out to the woods, tie it to the tree and give it the Old Yeller treatment. Yes, we all love football and an extra week of it is always good but the Pro-Bowl has rabies, and it's spreading. The NFL is doing everything it can think of to save their All-Star game, but this year could truly show that it's time to put the old dog down.

Instead of having the Pro-Bowl the week after the Super Bowl, in the tropical sun of Hawaii, they have decided to hold it the week BEFORE the Super Bowl, on the same turf as the Super Bowl. Now, the positive in this is that no one will completely forget about the Pro-Bowl like they do most years. Instead, it's thrust into our faces like the specials at Applebee's. ESPN and the NFL will not LET us forget about the Pro-Bowl.

Now, let's look at the negative aspects this could have on the NFL. First, there's the turf. I know there is a full week between the games but did anyone see what numerous games did to the Citrus Bowl in Florida this year? A couple NCAA Bowl Games, a few High School Football games and we had a field that looked like the Battle of Gettysburg had been waged on. I can see it now, Peyton Manning dropping back to pass and stumbling over a huge chunk of sod that has been supplanted from the field by a 350 pound lineman.

And what do we do if this changing of the date DOESN'T boost ratings for the game? The NFL will then realize that it doesn't matter when this poor excuse for a football game is played. No one is going to watch it. What's the next step? I honestly can't think of another way that the NFL can make the Pro-Bowl matter.

Then there's the players. Having the Pro-Bowl the week BEFORE the Super Bowl guarantees that the biggest stars, on the best teams, will NOT participate! There is no chance in hell that Peyton Manning or Drew Brees are going to risk getting injured, in a game that doesn't matter, with the possibility of raising the Lombardi Trophy looming. What's the point of an All-Star game that doesn't have all the All-Stars?

I think I have a solution. The NFL needs to take the route of Baseball, Basketball and Hockey. Put it in the middle of the season. Give every NFL team two weeks off after week eight. Then you've got a week for the Pro-Bowl and a week off for everyone. Not only does this make the Pro-Bowl a better game to watch, you can also push the Super Bowl back a whole week, making the NFL season last just a little bit longer. Maybe it's not the best idea, but it's better than what is in place now.

Super Bowl 44 Set to Excite

What a great Sunday it was. Both Conference Championship games were absolutely amazing and neither one disappointed. After the dust settled and the Overtime field goal was kicked, knocking the ageless wonder out of the playoffs, and possibly the NFL, we have a great matchup for Super Bowl 44 (I'm tired of the Roman Numerals, and I think the NFL will be too once we hit "50." I mean, seriously, who wants to watch "Super Bowl L?"). Peyton Manning and the high flying offense of the Colts against Drew Brees and the high flying offense of the Saints.

So, we've got two high octane offenses led by two quarterback's with great arms, one of which is a sure fire Hall-of-Famer and one who is continually making his case as one of the best field generals in the league. Peyton Manning has a trio of reliable receivers in Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark and the Haitian Sensation, Pierre Garcon. Drew Brees has Marques Colston, Jeremy Shockey and Reggie Bush, not to mention the running of Pierre Thomas.

I think the only thing that really seperates the Colts and the Saints is their defensive units. I've seen the Colts step-up when the absolutely have to, like Sunday when they were down to the Jets and dug in their heels and came back to win. The Saints, while giving up 28 points, were still able to fly around on every play, pressure the quarterback (hitting Favre on numerous occasions), and get five turnovers, including an interception with under 15 seconds left in the game to send it to overtime. I think, overall, the Saints have a better defense, especially when it comes to creating turnovers.

So, who will win this game? Well, we've got two good stories here. First, as mentioned before, is the fact that Pierre Garcon is Haitian. He draped the flag of Haiti over the AFC Championship trophy during the presentation. As for the Saints, we've got the recovering city of New Orleans that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, forcing the Saints to play almost all road games one season. And intertwined in all these stories is Archie Manning: the man who played for the Saints during their only other successful period in franchise history, whose son is Peyton Manning. I can't even begin to imagine the way his heart is pulling in two different directions.

Any way you slice it, the Super Bowl is going to be very exciting and probably one of the best of my lifetime but we will have to wait and see if that is truly the case.