Black Monday, NFL Final Regular Season Thoughts

First off, Happy New Year 2012! If you were like me, you probably spent most of New Year's Day enjoying the last regular season games of the NFL. While we still have the playoffs to look forward to, I always get sad at the end of the NFL season. At least now I can close the door on the horrible seasons of my Rams and Colts and hope that next season will be better for both. Both teams had some major "Black Monday" firings today.

The Rams announced that HC Steve Spagnuolo and GM Billy Devaney have been let go. This was not a surprise, most of us expected this to happen. I really like Spagnuolo as a person, but I think he is much better off in a coordinator position than head coach. Rams are reportedly looking to hire former Titans HC Jeff Fisher, but so is Miami. Plus Tampa fired HC Raheem Morris so who knows if they'll throw their hat in the ring. The thing that I like about Fisher is that he has a history of being successful as a head coach. It seems to me that the Rams could use a coach that has some sort of history and is proven. Sam Bradford can be the quarterback the Rams hope he will be, but there needs to be some strong coaching and better draft and trade moves to build this team to the success it can be. Will be interesting to see what the Rams choose to do with their #2 pick.

In other "Black Monday" news Jim Irsay fired the Polians today, which came as somewhat of a shock though many sports analysts in Indy have been behind this for some time such as Bob Kravitz. No word on the status of HC Caldwell yet, but I can't imagine that Irsay would can the Polians and keep Caldwell. It sounds like Irsay's looking to clean house.

Irsay also said that he can't say for certain that Peyton will be back. "I've always said that, first and foremost, it's a medical situation, a health situation," Irsay said during a news conference Monday. "Is it safe for him to go on the field? Is it something that he's healthy enough to resume his career? "That to me has always been the most important decision. That's something we're continuing to see where we're at." I would love to see Peyton play again, but his health has to be first and foremost. I hope he's healthy and we're able to see another 3-4 years out of him, win another Super Bowl, etc. But he has to decide whether it's worth the risk. 3 neck surgeries in one year is a huge deal. One bad hit and Peyton could permanently injure himself seriously, including potential paralysis. He's going to have to take it slow and The Colts organization will have some big decisions to make come draft time this spring. Do they take Luck? Unless they have absolute certainty that Peyton is a go, I don't see how they don't draft him. Not sure if the Colts can keep both Luck and Manning. If Manning can play, he'll want to play. That may not be for the Colts if they choose Luck.

The last week of the regular season finally gave us the pieces to finalize the playoff puzzle. The Broncos lost to KC, but still won their division title at 8-8 due to San Diego beating Oakland. I thought the NFC Worst I mean West was bad but wow, the AFC West was crazy! 3 teams finished 8-8 and one at 7-9. The Broncos will face the Steelers this weekend in the Wild Card matchup, which should be interesting. The 49'ers secured a first round bye with their win against the Rams, though the Saints tried with their trouncing of Carolina. Though they tied with San Fran at 13-3, San Fran had the better conference record. Aaron Rodgers didn't start for Green Bay, but it didn't matter in the track meet against the Detroit Lions. Get used to hearing the name Matt Flynn folks, because he is a free agent at the end of the season. I don't know if both offenses were just THAT good in this game or if the defeneses were THAT bad. Green Bay won 45-41, Stafford threw for 520 yards and 5 TD's, Flynn threw for 480 yards and 6 TD's. That's 1,000 passing yards between the 2 QB's. Wow. So is Rodgers really that good or is Green Bay's offensive line that good? I guess we'll find out how great Matt Flynn is without it as there's no way he's still in Green Bay next year after that. He'll be a starter somewhere.

Sunday Night Football featured the Cowboys and the Giants, fighting for the NFC East title. If Brees and Rodgers weren't already so high on the MVP list I'd say Manning should be in contention. Or maybe Victor Cruz. Manning-Cruz have pretty much lifted the Giants to the postseason, and Manning now had the most 4th quarter touchdown passes in history. When I think about the talent on the Packers, the Saints and the Giants...I'd say Manning is pulling his team with far less talent than the other 2. Matt Flynn certainly showed that the Packers can win without Rodgers. Not sure the Saints win without Brees but the Giants definitely don't without Manning.

I just don't understand the Cowboys. They have talent, they just can't seem to get to the playoffs as of late. I know many want to blame Romo, but I don't know that Romo alone is the problem. Romo has the 4th highest quarterback rating this season. The 3 ahead of him? Rodgers, Brees and Brady. Not bad company to be in. So what is it about the Cowboys? I don't know the answer but Jerry Jones will have to figure out something because Dallas fans are most certainly not happy.

This weekend's wild card matchups are: Cincinnati vs Houston, Pittsburgh vs Denver, Atlanta vs New York, and Detroit vs New Orleans. All should be good games, though Houston will be playing Yates at QB but they still have Foster. The Steelers still have a banged up Big Ben and Mendenhall is out for the season due to injury. Denver could have a shot at beating the Steelers if Ben can't get the offense rolling.

However, my picks for this weekend are: Cincinnati over Houston (Foster will be big, but I like Dalton and Green more), Denver over Pittsburgh (I think it will be close, but I think the lack of offense on both sides will hurt and Tebow will pull off his last amazing win of the season), Giants over the Falcons (I wouldn't bet against that Giants team right now, they are on fire), and the Saints over Detroit. It will be a track meet, but the Saints are explosive at home and I think they will be able to pull off this win.

Oh, and while I'm at it. I'll go ahead and make my prediction for the Super Bowl: Baltimore vs Giants. You heard me. I'm not discounting the Saints/Green Bay but never underestimate the power of a team that basically played a playoff game just to get there. They will be a tough team to beat.

I've rambled on enough. More updates in the world of sports soon!

NBA Season Begins, NFL Season Winding Down

Sports fans, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I personally enjoyed myself over the weekend. After all, what could be better than Christmas Eve NFL and Christmas Day NBA and SNF? It was a good sports weekend.

I'm the first to admit that I've never really followed the NBA much. There isn't a team in my hometown of St. Louis so I tended to follow college basketball more than the NBA.

The big talk around here is of course, the Lakers and the Clippers. The Clippers are now suddenly a real threat with the addition of Chris Paul. There's a lot of bandwagoning going on in LA. Suddenly all of these people are Clippers fans even though they probably couldn't tell you the last time they a) watched a Clippers game or b) went to a Clippers game.

The Lakers are having a shaky start to the season. Not sure if it's time to start panicking if you're a Lakers fan, but they are definitely not the same Lakers team that won the championship 2 years ago. They tried to trade for Paul first, but the NBA rejected the trade, which of course has a LOT of people upset because the NBA approved the deal for the Clippers. I guess I see where the NBA is coming from they are trying to prevent teams from being able to hoard all of the top players on one team. They need to do this, to keep the league competitive. If every NBA player wanted to play for the Lakers and all of the good ones went there and the Lakers won the championship by a landslide every year it would be boring, and fans would stop following the league. Except for Lakers fans of course.

So I get it. Paul definitely seems to be helping the Clippers quite a bit. They've started the season 2-0 and beat the Lakers in their preseason opener. Will be interesting to see how this shortened season unfolds.

As the NBA season starts to heat up, the NFL season is coming to an end, which makes me sad. I know I still have a month of playoffs still but I hate when the NFL season ends.

Tim Tebow's storybook season has had a major reality check the past 2 weeks. If anyone really thought the Broncos would beat the Pats, well, they were proven wrong. Because as bad as the Pats defense is, the Pats offense is just too explosive for Tebow and co to try and overcome all of those points. And then this past weekend Buffalo just crushed the Broncos 40-14. Guess the Disney story is over. However, the Broncos can still make the playoffs. They play Kansas City this weekend and they are beatable (though Green Bay may beg to differ). It looks like it'll either be the Broncos or Oakland.

In the "suck for Luck" race, the Colts won another game this past weekend under Dan Orlovsky. The Rams, Vikings and Colts are all tied for that worst in the league title with only 2 wins, however, the Colts are in the lead due to schedule (the Rams and Vikes had much harder schedules, whereas the Colts had many more winnable games).

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. The Rams play the 49'ers this weekend. Sam Bradford won't play. The Rams aren't going to win this game. The 49'ers are fighting for that playoff bye week and I don't think they will have too much trouble winning this game (but I could be wrong, the Rams did beat the Saints).

The Colts play the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are just awful. A very winnable game for the Colts. So if you're Bill Pollian and Jim Isray, do you tell the team to basically kind of throw the game to ensure you keep the #1 pick? If the Colts win, they will lose out on that opportunity and it will go to the Rams (unless the Rams win). The Rams won't draft Luck, they already have a franchise quarterback in Bradford. But they can get a lot for that pick, and the Rams need all of the help they can get.

If the Colts win this weekend they may well indeed pass up an opportunity of a lifetime. We all hope that Peyton is able to play again but there are no guarantees. And even if he does play he probably has 3-4 good years left? I think you have to take the opportunity to get Luck. If Peyton turns out to be healthy and good to go then you deal from there, but the Colts have to look to the future. And that's tough for me to say because I really love Peyton and hope he plays and retires with the Colts but we just don't know if that's going to happen or not.

Pro Bowl players were announced today. Tebow didn't make the list, so sad. Honestly? The Pro Bowl is the biggest joke of a game. MLB, NBA, NHL all seem to make their all star games have some sort of meaning or are at least entertaining. The Pro Bowl is a complete joke. Truly. It means nothing, the players just want the honor because it can be added to their resume, and the game just seems to lack any sort of heart. I've tried to watch it but I usually end up tuning it out and it just becomes background noise.

The playoff picture will be complete after this weekend. Looking forward to the final games of the season and the chance to put the Rams and the Colts horrendous seasons behind them and look forward to next year. How about a Colts-Rams Super Bowl in 2013? Hey, it could happen!

Is This Thing On?

Remember when I thought it was an awesome idea to have a blog? Right. Last time I posted something in this blog the St. Louis Cardinals were thought to be completely done for the season. This week they just beat the Philadelphia Phillies in a nail biting game 5 of the NLDS to advance to the NLCS against division rival, the Milwaukee Brewers.

Just goes to show you, never give up. I am truly amazed and proud of my hometown team. This team really pulled it together in the last month and half of the season and every day, there seems to be a new hero on the team. Sure, Pujols, Carpenter and Molina are still leaders. But did you see that amazing play bu Furcal in the game on Friday? And how about Theriot's hitting?

Or maybe it's the rally squirrel. Have you all heard about this? A squirrel ran across home plate right as the pitch was being delivered. See the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsQYS5zS5u4. Brave squirrel, indeed.

It's very exciting, and I'm so happy to see my team have the chance to make the World Series. And strangely, enough, the last time the Cardinals were there they played the Detroit Tigers. Who are currently competing in the ALCS against the Rangers. Potential for a Cards-Tigers rematch? Perhaps.

The Brewers are good. This is going to be a very tough series, for both teams. The Cardinals have this amazing momentum though. Anyway, game 1 is tomorrow and I am looking forward to watching the series.

In football...my teams are both 0-4. The Rams had such promise going into the regular season. Sure, they've had to play the Eagles, the Giants and the Baltimore Ravens and haven't played a single division rival in the NFC Worst yet but wow, has it been ugly. They actually had a chance to beat the Redskins, but the offense is lacking. Not sure what's going on there but changes are needed.

In Colts land, they lost Peyton Manning for the season due to him having to have a 3rd neck surgery. Isray hasn't said he's out for the season, but he is. It's a 2-3 month recovery time, and since he had the surgery right before the start of the season, out for the season.

The Colts pulled Kerry Collins out of retirement to try and lead the team but it's been pretty disastrous. Collins got injured, and Curtis Painter, who looks more like the poster child for a surfing championship than a QB, had to step in. The Colts actually had some life last week against Tampa Bay. Painter threw 2 long TD passes to Pierre Garcon. But, LaGarette Blount was able to run through Indy's D and ultimately TB won. Was nice to see some life in the Colts offense, but it seems to be the "suck for Luck" sweepstakes.

Which isn't a bad idea for the Colts. Peyton is one of my all-time favorite players. But he's had 3 neck surgeries in the last year. That's very troubling, not just for fans, but for him as well. He needs to rest and take care of himself and hope that he's able to play next year.

But the fact remains that Painter is not the future of the Colts team, so taking advantage of this wash of a season to draft Luck? Smart investment. Peyton could come back and give another 3-4 years of greatness. Or, he could be completely done and have to retire. If it's between playing and risking paralysis or not, would you do it? Not saying it will happen but it's possible. 3 neck surgeries is serious.

I hope Peyton is back. I want to see more. Either way, he won't go away. Peyton will be a coach one day, I'm sure.

In other sports news, hockey is back, and the NBA may not happen. No NBA? But what will Ron Artest, excuse me, Metta World Peace do? Dancing with the Stars of course! Oh but wait, he was so terrible he was the first one voted off this season. Stick to basketball Metta.

That's all I have folks. Hope to update this a little more frequently. GO CARDINALS!

Football is Officially Back!

Hello sports fans!

Football pre-season has begun! I cannot tell you how exciting it is to actually watch an NFL game, even if it is just the pre-season.

My two NFL fan bases, the Rams and the Colts met up on Saturday night. Not surprising to me, the Rams won and did so by a really nice margin. I had predicted this, because the Rams played more of their potential starters, and the Colts? Well Manning and Freeney didn't play for one, and the rest of their main starters (Wayne, Garcon, Clark, Addai) didn't really get much play either. Also, the Colts are known to lose in the pre-season yet win in the regular season.

I'm glad it was a pre-season game because it is SO hard for me to choose between these 2 teams. Growing up, I had no allegiance to any team because the Cardinals moved to Arizona when I was 4, and the Rams moved to St. Louis when I was just starting high school. So I've always been a football fan first. We have a good family friend, Pat Leahy, who was the kicker for the NY Jets and we followed the Jets in the years he played. Also followed the 49'ers a bit since I have some family who live in the area and Green Bay, because my mom loves the cheesehat. And we had friends in Wisconsin.

In other words, it's hard for me to figure out who my long term favorite team is. The Rams are the first team I really followed regularly because they came to St. Louis at a time where my sports fanaticism peaked. Sure, they were terrible in the beginning. We had to endure Chris "the concussion king" Miller and Tony Banks as QB's. They were rough years but I got to go to live NFL games finally!

I always had been a fan of college football. My family just always had their favorites (Notre Dame, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Mizzou to name a few) and I used to get such a kick out of watching all of the bowl games back when they all were on or around the same day and you could watch several games at the same time (if you had multiple TV's, like my uncle, or went out to a bar/restaurant).

That's where the Peyton Manning love begins. He was so fun to watch at Tennessee (even if I wasn't rooting for the team, he was fun to watch). Then he chose to sign with the Colts, and I was going to college in Indiana at the time. I didn't want to become a Colts fan, because the Rams were my home team.

But as time went on, and I ended up living in Indianapolis for several years, my respect for Manning just kept increasing. And I found myself rooting for the Colts more and more. I then decided that the Rams would be my NFC team, the Colts my AFC team and should they ever meet in a Super Bowl I'd be totally screwed and would have no idea who to root for.

Anyway, that's just a bit of background of me. So the Colts and Rams pre-season game was obviously of strong interest to me.

I'm not worried about the Colts yet because this is what they do in pre-season. The Rams, however, impressed me a lot. Bradford looked sharp, Dahl, Mikell and Hines all got interceptions (okay, it was Painter and Orvlovsky, but still nice to see good defensive plays). Cadillac Williams ran for a TD and Bradford threw a TD pass. And how about Josh Brown kicking a 60 yard field goal? Did Brown's stock just go up in fantasy football after that? I think so.

Okay, it wasn't just the Rams and the Colts this weekend. Cam Newton made his debut in Carolina and looked good, and so did the Brown's Colt McCoy (one of the best football names, BTW) . The Patriots has a field day with the Jags, Mizzou alum Blaine Gabbert didn't have the best outing but there's time still.

Am looking forward to watching how the pre-season unfolds.

There is this thing called baseball going on. The Cardinals are currently 5.5 games behind Milwaukee, and at this point if they want any hope of making the postseason, they have to win the division. That's going to be really tough. Have to hand it to the Brewers, they've been playing spectacular lately. The Cardinals trade of Colby Rasmus for Edwin Jackson isn't panning out so well so far. If Colby were here would the Cards be in a better position? Doubtful. The pitching is a big problem, so I don't think Rasmus is a factor. However, am sort of feeling like the Cards jumped the gun on that trade and we should have gotten more for him.

We're almost to mid-August, so about a month and half of regular season left. Still a lot of games to play and anything can happen. It'll be interesting to see how it all ends.

I think Philly takes the east, the west? Arizona is in the lead at the moment but I think the Giants will pull off another division win. The Yankees and BoSox? One of them will win the division and the other will be the wild card. The Rangers and the Angels race has been fun to watch. I'd like to see the Angels pull it off. The central? Still could go to Detroit, the White Sox or Cleveland. Nice to see a close race to keep the competition going.

And...that was a long sports rant for me, so I'm going to leave it there. Happy NFL is back, disappointed in the Cardinals but still hoping! More in the world of sports soon!

Plaxico...

It's March, and I haven't updated in a bit. It's not due to not following sports, it's just that things have been really busy and I haven't had much time to write down my thoughts.

Apparently, Plaxico Burress will be released from prison on June 6th. I have heard lots of talk about the Rams potentially signing him to help fill their wide receiver void. My response to this is, "are we really that desperate?"

No offense to Plaxico, well wait, yeah, it is. The guy is in prison because he was carrying a gun without a holster in public and it accidentally shot off. Fortunately no one was hurt, except for poor Plaxico who shot himself in the leg/foot. In more ways than one, haha.

I'm sure he's had a chance to keep in shape, Michael Vick certainly came out of prison in prime football playing condition.

But I don't know if I want that kind of drama in Rams park. The NFL is full of divas, Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson and T.O. come to mind. I would hope that if Plaxico returns to the NFL he can remain focused on the game and certainly won't be wandering around with guns in his pocket.

I guess he's worth a look, though I hope the Rams can do without. Draft a good wideout early on and start building for the future.

In Cardinals news, the loss of Wainwright hurts but spring training continues and the Cardinals seem to look okay so far. We shall see how things proceed. Only a month away from opening day! Cannot wait for the regular season to start.

Have more thoughts on everything sports in my world but will have to follow up on those later.

Weekend Update

It's NBA All Star Weekend in Los Angeles. When it comes to NBA basketball, I must admit that I am behind the curve when it comes to following the sport. St. Louis didn't have an NBA team, so growing up I watched a lot more college basketball (cannot WAIT for March Madness to begin!) than pro.

Los Angeles is beyond a doubt a pro basketball town. In St. Louis, almost everyone (guys and girls) are Cardinals fans and can at least talk at some length about the sport, the team and their favorite players.

For Los Angeles, that's the Lakers. Though there is this incredible basketball player that everyone is excited about and he's not a Laker. That would be Blake Griffin, of the LA Clippers.

The big talk of the week was the Slam Dunk Contest, which Blake Griffin would be competing in. I was unable to watch much of the contest but this year the contestants did not disappoint. It is amazing the talent that these players have.

Blake Griffin won, with his final dunk involving him leaping over a car and slamming the ball into the net. I'm still baffled and I've watched it over and over again (thanks sportscenter!). See the video here, courtesy of ESPN.com.

The NBA All Star game is tonight. The Lakers have Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol starting for the West, and the Clippers have Blake Griffin. Nice representation for the LA area. Should be an interesting game to watch (at least, WAY more interesting than that joke of a game called the NFL Pro Bowl). Will have some post-game comments after the game tonight.

In other sports news, the Rams released O.J. Atogwe in a somewhat odd move at a first glance. Otogwe was due a 8 million dollar roster bonus on Monday. Ah-ha! In an effort to not have to pay that bonus, the Rams opted to drop him, in the hopes that they will be able to re-sign him before the season (which is highly likely). I hope they do re-sign him. The Rams have enough issues that need to be addressed (mainly on offense - wide receiver needed for Bradford ASAP!), replacing Otogwe does not need to be one of them.

In hockey news, the St. Louis Blues made some bold moves on Friday in order to try and help salvage a lackluster season. They traded defensemen Erik Johnson, Eric Brewer and forward Jay McClement, and in return picked up forward Chris Stewart and defensemen Kevin Shattenkirk (is that his real name, or his Star Trek name?).

As Johnson was the Blues #1 pick in 2006, this move has some scratching their heads. However, Johnson has been a bit of a disappointment. He was not the consistent player the Blues had hoped for.

If there was any worry about how this trade may impact the team, the Blues came out last night and in stunning fashion killed the Ducks in a 9-3 win. New forward Chris Stewart scored 2 Power Play goals, and Shattenkirk looked sharp and earned his first assist on a Power Play.

Erik who? Though it's early, it appears that this move was an excellent choice by the Blues. They need to put themselves in the position to win more games and if Johnson wasn't fitting the bill, time to get some new blood on the team. Hope this means good things for the Blues in the future. They are dead last in their division right now, so it would take a lot of things to happen for them to hope to make the playoffs.

And now, to prepare for the NBA All Star Game. Go West!