Notre Damn… Sell Out Brian Kelly’s The Wrong Choice

God must be taking his frustrations with the Catholic Priests sex acts out on America’s most well known Catholic School, Notre Dame.

That’s the only explanation for The Fighting Irish’s curse of athletic directors choosing the wrong coaches that lead to mediocre football seasons over the past decade and a half; and that spell won’t be lifted by their new man at the helm and this century’s biggest sell out to date, Brian Kelly.

Kelly helped bring Cincinnati’s football team out of the shadow of its prolific basketball program by winning back to back Big East titles and taking the Bearcats to four bowl games. This year Cincy finished 12-0, but an undefeated regular season doesn’t make a team feel a spec of accomplishment or self worth when their coach and mentor flees the scene right before the school’s biggest game in its history.

Kelly was offered the Notre Dame head coaching position and when he saw the greener pastures of Irish land he put on his leprechaun boots and left all his following student athletes out in the muck against the Gators from the swamp. Cincy’s in the Rose Bowl New Year’s Day facing a Gators squad hungry for a victory after their embarrassing SEC Championship loss to Alabama cost them a shot at the national title; not to mention the Bearcats are facing a determined Tim Tebow in his final collegiate game.

It’s one thing to leave your team for Notre Dame after the season. Who wouldn’t? It’s almost every guy’s dream job to be the man in charge of the Fighting Irish. But, it’s completely different to take that job and leave your team that you fought with threw the trenches all alone without the voice and presence of their trusted leader in a lot of these kids’ biggest game they will play in their lives.

If Texas lost and Cincinnati made the national championship game Kelly would have stayed to coach Cincy for his own selfish reasons, but since that didn’t happen he took an early break and sold out all those kids that were loyal to him these last four years.

Cincy’s offensive coordinator, Jeff Quinn, is the interim head coach. Quinn received the head coaching position at the University of Buffalo, but he’s not leaving Cincy stranded against hungry Gators.

Butch Jones, Cincinnati’s new man at the helm come next season, isn’t leaving his current team Central Michigan behind for their bowl game either. Interestingly enough Jones took over Central Michigan’s head coaching position once Kelly left there for Cincinnati.

Kelly did coach the Bearcats in the 2006 International Bowl before a full season as their head coach, but that was only because he left his players at Central Michigan to fend for them selves in the 2006 Motor City Bowl!

Kelly’s track record proves he’s a sell out and he will do the same thing to Notre Dame given the chance.

After this past decade and a half of bad football for Notre Dame, the school that tries to keep its image as a classy religious school with high morals, they bring in a guy that’s committed all of the seven deadly sins.

1. Haughty eyes- for staring down the Notre Dame job while not focusing on his current coaching job at Cincinnati during the most crucial time in their history.

2. A lying tongue- for saying he’s not in talks with Notre Dame.

3. Hands that shed innocent blood- for Kelly leaving and handing Cincinnati over to be devoured by hungry Gators.

4. A heart that devises wicked plots- him taking the Cincy job as a stepping stone to the Notre Dame job and leaving Cincy during their biggest time of need in their biggest game ever…after doing the same to Central Michigan when he left for Cincinnati.

5. Feet that are swift to run into mischief- he will run into troubles at Notre Dame because a lot of recruits will see his past record of betrayal and go elsewhere. Then Kelly will betray Notre Dame before the end of his last season just like he did at his previous two coaching stops.

6. A deceitful witness that uttereth lies- for witnessing he would be the next Notre Dame head coach but telling the media he wasn’t in talks with them.

7. Him that soweth discord among brethren- for not bringing harmony to the Cincinnati football program in their biggest game.

Kelly’s not the man that will turn the Irish’s luck around, not even if he carries a four leaf clover on the side lines during every game he coaches. He’s an un-loyal liar that is proven to betray his colleagues once something else better comes along.

Kelly represents everything Notre Dame is against; just like those Catholic Priests represented everything the Catholic Church was against. Kelly is to Notre Dame as Child Molesting Catholic Priests are to the Catholic Church. Somehow Notre Dame’s athletic directors continue to choose the exact opposite image the Fighting Irish are supposed to represent. The curse continues…

Aggies In Agony After Loss

The Texas A&M Aggies men’s basketball team’s night began with a chance to receive a very nice early Christmas present, but it ended with a huge lump of coal after a devastating loss and not just one in the L column.

It was gift wrapped for them to be nationally ranked going into the New Year with last night’s game being the Aggies last of 2009. They started great and were leading early in the second half at the #19 Washington Huskies.

Then, the Aggies chance at starting 2010 ranked came crumbling down as senior guard Derrick Roland broke his tibia and fibula when he landed awkwardly after attempting a lay up. It’s a scary and nasty site to see the result of how his leg looks while he’s laying on his back being attended to by team physicians. The video below shows his leg about 40 seconds in.



After the injury Washington went on a 15-4 run and never gave Texas A&M the lead back.
Roland’s fellow back court guard and friend since middle school, senior Donald Sloan, was visibly shaken by the severity of his long time buddy’s injury.

Roland and Sloan are the Aggies two leading scorers and leaders both on and off the court. Roland is also the team’s best defensive player and with his career likely over it’s going to be tough for Texas A&M to compete in a highly competitive Big 12 conference.

Worse than that, Roland is not likely to be released from the Seattle hospital he is at before Christmas day. The school is attempting flight arrangements for a few of Roland’s family members to visit him during his stay, but that will be tough to accommodate during the holiday season. Some teammates will remain with him at least until his family members arrive or until Roland is cleared to fly back home.

When Roland signed to be an Aggie he was probably expecting that to be short for an agricultural basketball student. With last night’s injury the term Aggie took a whole new meaning for Roland. It turned into the agony of his career being shortened by injury while spending his senior year Christmas break in a cold Seattle hospital pondering if he’ll make it to the comfort of his own home to see his family during the holidays.

Congress Bill To Determine College Football Postseason

Congress can’t contain from making decisions in the sports world. Now there’s a bill that if passed would change how the college football national champion is determined. Instead of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) system it would turn into a playoff system.

Football is the only college sport that doesn’t determine its champion through a playoff system.
Scott Van Pelt said on his ESPN radio show after an interview with the BCS executive director Bill Hancock that he hasn’t come across one person that says they love the BCS. Not coaches, not players, and not fans.

There are also members of Congress that don’t love it that they’re wasting tax payer’s money on sports issues. According to ESPN, Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga. said there are more important things to focus on.

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill. doesn’t feel this bill is a waste. He said, “We can walk and chew gum at the same time.”

For our country’s sake I sure hope the members of Congress can walk and chew gum at the same time. I tend to agree with Rush, though. I know there’s a lot more important problems Congress could deal with, but if they can’t multi task on all issues concerning America then they shouldn’t be in that position.

It’s obvious the head honchos of college football won’t change this unpopular system without being forced. Seriously, the first bowl game happened in 1902 and there’s really only been a few tweaks to determine the national champion since then.

Hancock doesn’t even seem like he’s fully sold on the BCS and he’s in charge of it! In the interview with Van Pelt, Hancock said, “What we have is a bowl system that works and what we have is a BCS that has a consensus of all the schools. It’s not perfect, but a playoff system would not be perfect.” He also states earlier in the interview, “I don’t know if the best team always wins March Madness. What works for basketball works for basketball and what works for football works for football.” Hancock used to be on the board of college basketball operations which included working on their playoff system.

Mr. Hancock, I have to argue that the bowl system does not work. Sure it’s great 34 teams end their season on a winning note but it’s not right when teams can finish undefeated and not get crowned the champion. Of course the overall best team doesn’t always win in March Madness, but at least the champion won six games against opponents that were similar in their stature for the season. Everyone can agree the winner of March Madness deserves to be crowned the champion, but no one can agree that a team that goes undefeated doesn’t deserve at least a shot at being crowned.

Hancock said the coaches don’t want to see the bowl games go away. Well, just because there’s a playoff system doesn’t mean all those other bowl games can’t be played. Keep all the other bowl games and add the playoffs. Playoffs will generate more money, more interest, and a true national champion.

Hancock said he doesn’t want the college football regular season to lose its meaning in the last couple months like college basketball. Well it won’t lose its meaning when there are still all the other bowl games and conference championship games. And how it is now a lot of team’s regular seasons lose meaning after their first and second losses of the season so what’s the difference?

Pass that bill Congress. Playoffs need to be implemented into college football and not just for the fans sake, or for the player’s sake, but for the sake of those smaller conference schools that don’t get the opportunity to benefit from the bigger payout received when being crowned the undisputed national champion.

Week 14 Results And My Retirement From Predicting Games

Week 14 Results

Picking Spreads: 3-3

Season Spreads: 55-43 = 56%

Picking Winners: 4-2

Season Winners: 72-26 = 73%

What I Learned

- The Steelers gave up on their season and haven’t played with the same heart at all compared to last year.

- The Jaguars are still ahead of the Dolphins in the playoff race, according to ESPN, when they have the same record and the Dolphins just beat them head to head. This makes no sense.

- Baltimore plays like the way you win in the NFL matters. This isn’t college football. I know the Lions are terrible and it’s their job to stop their opponent from scoring but seriously did Troy Smith need to dance in the end zone when he put them up 48-3? Oh yea, that’s right, the last time he was any good was in college so he must have got confused and thought that the amount of points a team puts up matter in the NFL like it does in college.

- Cincinnati has huge problems in their passing game. Something’s wrong with Carson Palmer.

- Tennessee tried to make up their point differential when they lost 59-0 against the Patriots by winning 47-7 against the Rams. Again, this isn’t college football.

- The Eagles and Giants have no defense and it doesn’t matter who makes it into the playoffs they will be knocked out in their first game if they continue defending like that.

Week 15 Predictions

This is my most guaranteed prediction to date. I predict that I’ll retire from predicting games, at least for this season. I set out to see just how good I am at predicting games and it turns out I’m pretty damn good at picking winners but just above average at picking spreads. There are way too many intangibles for this to be a science and I don’t care who says they’re an awesome game predictor because really they’re just lucky.

Like Cartman says, “Screw you guys, I’m going home.” If you need my advice on predictions feel free to come knocking with an email, which I’m nearly positive will never happen.

I’ll pick games again if I make it on ESPN and they ask me to. Until then I’ll write about interesting topics. It’s much more fun that way and a lot better read.

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment on whether or not I’m making the right decision. Really, in my mind, who cares what some blogger has to say about predicting games? Especially when my record in spreads, where it literally matters most because that’s what most people bet on, is only 56%.

Texas Head Coach Mack Brown Deserves His Two Million Dollar Raise

Some faculty at the University of Texas is upset the school's head football coach Mack Brown received a $2 million raise last week during a time when the school faces tough budget decisions. Brown went from making about $3 million a year to $5 million annually.

I understand the faculty being upset because they don't make nearly as much as Brown and more classes are dropped every semester. School really is about the student's academics and not supposed to be about athletics but let's be realistic.

The money raised by athletic department revenues pay Brown’s salary so it's not coming from money used for classes and teachers.The raise Brown received comes based off the money the program he's in charge of brings in plus his success, and when a school appears in bowl games and national title games they receive money. Brown has brought the Longhorns to a bowl game in every one of his seasons including a national championship game this season and winning the championship in 2006. Also, Texas' football program brought in a nation wide record $87 million in 2008.

To add Texas' football program channeled $6.6 million into UT's academic programs in recent years, according to UT's president William Powers Jr. in an ESPN article. (By the way how awesome is the last name Powers esp when he's the president where he works?! I know Homer Simpson aka Max Powers agrees).

I think the rest of the profited money could be spent more wisely on academics and faculty but that's not Mack Brown's fault. It's the people in charge of dispersing the moneys fault and part of the reason the entire surplus isn’t forked over to academics is that Texas’ football program also contributes to the other Longhorn athletic programs. Without this surplus Brown brings in the academics might have needed to donate to Texas’ athletics department instead of it being the other way around.

Every one of the almost 100,000 fans that pack Longhorn stadium and enjoy the best football program Texas has ever constructed in it’s over 100 years of existence benefit from the football team. Not to mention all the fans at home. Plus the students and faculty profit literally.

Don't pay Brown, he goes elsewhere and then who knows what happens to Texas' program? Someone else may bring profit but not near what Brown brings because of his overall impact in turning the program around since he took over the helm in 1998. Mack Brown has done everything he needs to deserve his raise.

Front Office Decisions Screwed The Steelers Season

It’s a tough task and bumpy road on the journey to capturing a Super Bowl title. It’s something many fans and franchises haven’t experienced in a long while with some never experiencing a Super Bowl run at all. Defending a championship is nearly impossible, especially when the front office doesn’t successfully keep most the players in place that won the franchise that title.

A lot of people are surprised at how the Steelers have fallen from grace just 10 months after being on top of the football world, but if you look at the changing in personnel and the performance of the players from this year compared to last then it wouldn’t be such a surprise after all.

I could go into a long statistical breakdown but that’s boring so I’ll some it up in a couple paragraphs.

The Steelers didn’t pursue resigning most of their free agents in the 2009 off season and relied on their young draft picks just like they usually do every off season. Well, the Steelers system didn't work this year. Plugging in players that were back ups from the previous season will catch up eventually, especially when most those players are young and inexperienced. The same thing is happening to the New England Patroits.

In the off season Pittsburgh lost linebacker Larry Foote to the Lions and replaced him with a young guy (Lawerence Timmons), lost cornerback Bryant McFadden to the Cardinals and replaced him with a gay guy (William Gay, and no I’m not homophobic but I had to get a shot in at Gay because he’s played so bad this year), lost quarterback Byron Leftwich to the Buccaneers and relied on a running college quarterback/ Atlanta Braves baseball prospect to play when Ben got hurt (Dennis Dixon), lost wide receiver Nate Washington and replaced him with a rookie (Mike Wallace), don't have Willie Parker running well because of turf toe and Rashard Mendenhall isn’t carrying the load much better, lost defensive end Aaron Smith for the season after week five with a shoulder injury and haven’t found a solid replacement, and the biggest loss of all Troy Polamalu for most the season with bad knees and relied on career back up Tyrone Carter to anchor the defense.

Since some of the starters for this year were last season’s back ups that means the Steelers had to sign and rely on even worse players to fill in for their special teams unit. It made that phase of their team drop a couple notches and it’s been very evident to fans in Steel Town USA.

The Pittsburgh philosophy has always been to let most their free agents walk and replace them with cheaper players that fit into the Steelers scheme. It turns out that this season the front office management’s schematics of staying cheap didn’t pay off and that deserves a demotion.

NFL Predictions; Week 14

Season Spreads: 52-40

Season Winners- 68-24

Pittsburgh (-10) at Cleveland: The Steelers will cover the spread. I know Pittsburgh’s been struggling and they’re in their biggest rivals house who would love nothing more than to ruin the Steelers season but Big Ben is big time. When everyone doubts the Steelers and when it matters most is when Ben and the rest play their best.

New Orleans (-11) at Atlanta: The Saints will stomp the Falcons and continue their pursuit to perfection while covering the spread. Atlanta’s played terribly and both their starting quarterback and running back are injured. Without them they don’t have much shot at beating anyone let alone the undefeated Saints.

Green Bay (-3) at Chicago: The Packers will dominate the Bears and cover the spread. Green Bay looks great right now and Chicago just barely beat the Rams. Bears QB Jay Cutler leads the league in interceptions and Green Bay has the number one defense. I can’t believe the spread’s this low.

Jets (-3) at Buccaneers: Tampa’s taking this one to get their second win on the season. The Bucs played some close games this year and I have a feeling that the Mets, I mean Jets, will start their late season free fall from the playoffs starting Sunday.

St. Louis (+13) at Tennessee: Vince Young will rebound after his first loss of the season in a big way. He’ll take this opportunity against a weak team to get his team back on track by blowing out the Rams by about 20. With all the mediocre teams in the AFC the Titans still have a shot at reaching the playoffs and I’m sure Jeff Fischer will put that in the back of all the Titans player’s minds.

San Diego (+3) at Dallas: San Diego’s not favored?! Dallas is dreadful in December and the Chargers are finally playing up to their talent level. I think San Diego blows the Cowboys out of their new billion dollar stadium and makes Wade Phillips seat even hotter.

Can’t Pick These

Miami (+3) at Jacksonville: The winner has a great shot at being the only Florida team to make the post season.

Detroit (+14) at Baltimore: If this were earlier in the season when the Ravens offense was unstoppable I’d pick Baltimore. Lately though the Ravens have played poorly on both sides of the ball which makes this a competitive game between two struggling teams.

Seattle (+7) at Houston: Both these teams should be much better than their records say. This one comes down to who makes the stupid play call to cause a costly turnover in the fourth quarter.

Denver (+7) at Indy: I got a feeling the Broncos will give the Colts their first taste of defeat but I just can’t bring myself to bet against Peyton Manning. That guy’s in a league of his own.
Buffalo at Kansas City: Who cares? The Cheifs are good at home sometimes and the Bills are only good unless they play the Dolphins.

Cincinnati (+7) at Minnesota: The Cardinals defense is much improved and caused Favre and the Vikes issues last week. I expect the Bengals defense to give Minnesota the same problems but the Vikings are nearly unbeatable at home so it’s hard to chose a winner.

Carolina (+14) at New England: The Pats should blow out the quarterbackless Panthers but the way New England’s played lately I don’t know if they can cover this spread.

Washington (-1) at Oakland: Both these teams have shown some signs of life lately but its impossible to determine which underachieving franchise will come out more flat.

Eagles (+1) at Giants: Even with that terrible losing streak Eli and the Giants still control their destiny to make the playoffs and their journey starts Sunday night.

Arizona (-4) at San Francisco: The Cardinals should win but I’ve learned from them that every time they start looking like a great team they come out flat. It’s like when they gain their confidence is when they stop playing as hard.

The Cleveland Browns Need A New Outfit

The way a person dresses says a lot about their character, especially at the work place. If a man wears an ironed long sleeved collared polo shirt with a tie, perfectly creased slacks, and nice dress shoes it looks like he cares. On the other hand, if a man wears the Bill Belichick hoody sweatshirt, a pair of wrinkled cargo pants, and some beat up sneakers it looks the opposite.

Tonight, when watching the Steelers vs. Browns game, tell me who looks like they care more. Pittsburgh will wear some variation of white, black, and gold matching from head to toe looking like a defending champion. They even put the Steelers logo on only one side of their helmet to give that little extra flare to their outfit that no other team possesses.

Then, look at the Cleveland Browns. They’re that guy at work that doesn’t look like he cares about his job. They’ll come out wearing some variation of white, orange, and brown. Who wears orange and brown besides inmates and construction workers? Look at their helmet, its plain orange and why is their so much orange in their uniform when they’re called the Browns? They’re too lazy to even figure out a nice logo to stick on their helmets to represent them selves.

They used to have the Brownie Elf as their logo until owner Art Modell phased that out in the 60s. He must have realized the Brownie Elf didn’t make his team seem very tough considering the name Brownies was originally given to the Girl Scouts of USA.

Cleveland does have the dog pound, though. Those loyal crazed fans that will sit in the freezing cold weather to watch a 1-11 team that still hasn’t reached a Super Bowl and probably couldn’t make a bowl game if they played their season in the college ranks. But when you think about it, what does a dog pound have to do with the Browns? Oh, wait, I know, it’s because every opponent they face is like their master. They own them and punish the Browns every time Cleveland doesn’t play the right way.

Even my girlfriend, who hates football and barely knows anything about it, asked me during the Browns vs. Ravens Monday night game, “Why don’t they have a symbol on their helmets? Are they the only team that doesn’t have one? And they have the ugliest uniforms. No wonder they suck, they can’t have much confidence when they look like that.”

Perfectly put girlfriend. Maybe they should make Charlie Brown their mascot and logo, it would suit them perfectly.

NFL Results; Week 13

Picking Spreads: 2-3

Season Spreads: 52-40

Picking Winners: 4-1

Season Winners: 68-24

What I Learned This Week

- It’s about all over for Atlanta. It’s hard to win with both your starting quarterback and running back injured. I bet they wish Vick was back on the team as their back up quarterback in that Eagles game.

- The Steelers are in the Pitts. Their Steel Curtain defense looks to be more of a silk or satin curtain. They’re playing soft! No defense in the fourth quarter equals late game losses and looking from the outside in come play off time.

- Denver’s dominating and playing back at the style they were to start the season. Consistent turnover free offense and ferocious defense. The Steelers need to study how Denver turned their season around after a tough losing streak.

- Miami’s tough mentality along with a few other teams struggling and losing their confidence has the Dolphins right back in the play off hunt. This weekend’s game against Jacksonville will tell a lot about whom that sixth seed will be in the AFC.

- This is new for New England. Brady isn’t dominating defenses and the Pats’ defense can’t hold their opponents enough to pull out a victory. Who thought the Patriots would have been better last year with Matt Cassel than this year with Tom Brady?

- If it isn’t the players making mistakes late in the game to lose it’s the coaches for Houston. Who runs a play inside the red zone in the fourth quarter on what could have been a game winning drive and hands the ball to the running back for him to throw?! The no play off curse continues for the Texans.

- It must be December… the Cowboys lost.

- Arizona has turned it on and turned Favre and the Vikings hot streak off.

- The Packers are poised for this playoff run and just made that Ravens win against the Steelers last weekend meaningless.

College Football Results; Regular Season Finale

That's Tebow to the left.... The picture was taken in the locker room after the Alabama loss.

The regular season is over, well except for the Army vs. Navy game, and I hope you didn’t bet based on the spreads I took.

I finished the regular season 22-28 (.440) picking spreads and 33-17 (.660) picking winners.

I started doing this because I’ve always been good at predicting the correct outcomes of games and I wanted to keep track on how well I’d do this season while giving a line or two on my thoughts about each game.

Well, I found out that college football’s one of the hardest sports to predict. I’m good at picking winners but below average at predicting spreads where it literally matters most because that’s where most people put their money.

Hopefully you didn’t put your money where my mouth is because that would have cost you!
It’s been a fun season and I’ll be back in about a week with my bowl game predictions.
Here’s how it went this week…

Picking Spreads: 1-3

Season Spreads: 22-28

Picking Winners: 1-3

Season Winners: 33-17

What I Learned This Week

- Cincinnati owns Pittsburgh in all ranks of football this season.

- Houston’s as over rated of a team as they come. They should play USC in the most over rated teams bowl. By the way, how the hell is USC still ranked after losing to Arizona?!

- Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh could help a lot of NFL teams’ defensive fronts right now. He almost single handedly shut down Texas, one of the best offensive teams in college football, and Colt McCoy, one of the best college football quarterbacks ever. Suh proved he deserves the Heisman Trophy more than McCoy in their one on one battle.

- Suh and Stanford’s Toby Gerhart proved week in and week out that they are the two most valuable players in college football. Without them neither of their teams would be ranked. Alabama’s Mark Ingram had a great year too but he had an off week every now and then. The Heisman Trophy should go to either Suh or Gerhart but I’m sure it will go to Colt McCoy because he’s the only quarterback of the big three (Tebow, Bradford, McCoy) who hasn’t won it yet.

- Tim Tebow plays football like a 10 year old. He loves the game putting everything he has in it but if things don’t go his way he cries his eyes out until his daddy can come give him a hug and take him out for ice cream.

NFL Predictions

Season Spreads: 50-37

Season Winners: 64-23

St Louis (+10) at Chicago: Chicago will win but the Rams make it closer than 10 points. The Bears are bad this season and even though they play better at home I have confidence that Cutler will throw a couple interceptions to make this game close.

Denver (-5) at Kansas City: It’s tough to play in Kansas City but I see the Broncos stomping the Chiefs. Denver’s trying to keep pace with San Diego while at the same time stay on top of the wild card race. Denver has much more to play for and will stay focused through the loud rivalry setting.

New England (-4) at Miami: New England is playing great right now and Miami’s coming off a terrible fourth quarter beat down against the Bills. I see the Dolphins coming out flat and the Patriots ruining their playoff hopes with a blowout victory in Miami.

New Orleans (-10) at Washington: The Redskins have kept games close lately but Drew Brees will come in and throw for over four hundred yards in Washington leading his team to a double digit victory.

San Diego (-13) at Cleveland: San Diego will take care of business against another terrible team and cover the spread while staying ahead of the Broncos in the AFC West.

Can’t Pick These

Jets (-3) at Bills: Both teams have struggled too much to know who will win. It’s going to be another terrible Thursday night game. Two bad teams plus short rest equals yawn factory.

Philadelphia (-6) at Atlanta: The Falcons are disappointing and Michael Turner isn’t 100%. Still the Eagles tend to have stupid play calling from time to time to lose them games so this one’s a tossup between which team plays worse.

Detroit (+13) at Cincinnati: The Bengals should cover the spread but their offense is struggling. They only beat the Browns 16-7 last week and I expect this game to turn out the same way.

Oakland (+15) at Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh’s down in the pitts lately. The Steelers should dominate but I don’t trust the way their playing even with this being at Heinz Field.

Tampa Bay (+6) at Carolina: It’s been a tough year for Carolina and I could see it getting tougher with a lack luster performance against the Bucs. A loss here could mean the end of Jake Delhomme.

Tennessee (+7) at Indianapolis: Which teams run will come to an end? The Colts seem to always pull games out late and the Titans have done the same thing lately.

Houston at Jacksonville: A battle of two of the most mediocre teams in the AFC. The Jags could end Houston’s playoff hopes while staying in the hunt themselves.

Cowboys (-3) at Giants: It’s Romo’s chance to knock New York off the map in the playoff chase. I just can’t pick against the winning spirit of Eli when his backs against the wall, especially when Dallas is proven to struggle in December.

San Francisco at Seattle: Who cares? I don’t even think 49er fans will be watching. They just want 80s and 90s to come back.

Minnesota (-4) at Arizona: This really all depends on Kurt Warner’s status come game time. We could be witnessing this year’s NFC Super Bowl representative against last years.

Baltimore (+3) at Green Bay: This game means more for the Ravens than it does the Packers. Green Bay has control of their playoff destiny while Baltimore doesn’t so I can see the Ravens being more focused and winning this game. It’s just hard to pick against the Packers in Green Bay during this time of year when they’re playing so well.

College Football Predictions

Season Spreads: 21-25

Season Winners: 32-14

#16 Oregon State (+10) at #7 Oregon: Oregon will pull this out but won’t cover the spread. It will come down to the wire in a sold out loud Ducks stadium.

#21 Houston (-3) at East Carolina: Houston will win by more than three proving they are still the elite team in Conference USA.

#23 West Virginia (+2) at Rutgers: Rutgers will easily take care of WVU. They play great at home and the proof is a 31-0 shlacking of USF just a few weeks ago.

#1 Florida (-5) vs. #2 Alabama: The game’s finally here. Winner goes to the BCS National Championship and I think UF’s defense will prove to be too much for Alabama even without their stupid defensive end Carolos Dunlap that was found drunk and asleep at the wheel this week. The Florida Tebows win and cover the spread.

Can't Pick These

#3 Texas (-15) vs. #22 Nebraska: Nebraska is so inconsistent that I could see Colt McCoy picking apart their defense in this Big 12 Championship game and cementing the Heisman Trophy. Nebraska does play tough some weeks though and there’s a reason they’re ranked and in this game so I wouldn’t bet on this spread.

#10 Georgia Tech vs. Clemson: Who would have thought that Clemson would beat out Miami and Virginia Tech for the ACC Championship game?

New Mexico State (+48) at #6 Boise State: This spreads ridiculous but reasonable when a talented college team faces youth football players.

Florida Atlantic (+2) at Florida International: It’s the Shula Bowl… the yearly battle for the worst team in Florida.

Roy Jones Jr. Gets Knocked Down Under

It’s all over. At 40 years old after a 20+ year career and winning eight belts in four divisions from middle weight to heavy weight Roy Jones Jr. was knocked out in just 122 seconds.

Australian IBO world cruiser weight champion Danny Green laid Jones out with a strong right hand to the head.

It looks to be the end for Jones Jr. He’s only lost six times since 1989 (he won 54) and this blow should knock him out for good.

I doubt Roy will want to go out like that though, getting knocked out in the land down under in an Aussie’s backyard while the man that punished him says that he feels bad because he saw Roy as an idol.

Jones set his self up going to a champion’s homeland to fight and I’d bet Jones’ mentality won’t let him go out like that. I just hope he does the right thing and retires or at least wins his next fight so he can hang his gloves up for good.

We don’t need another Muhammad Ali being wheeled around for the rest of his life because he refused to call it quits until he’s knocked absolutely senseless.

It’s been an illustrious career Roy; please learn from the other boxers that fight for too long. No one will remember you for your last fight, heck I bet barely anyone even knew you were fighting today. What everyone will remember you for is the near flawless career you exuberated so please, do your family and fans a favor and retire while you can still function.

NFL Results

Picking Spreads: 1-3

Season Spreads: 50-37

Picking Winners: 3-1

Season Winners: 64-23

What I Learned This Week

- Dallas may not have a late season collapse after all.

- The Giants must win this Sunday’s game against Dallas to have any hopes at salvaging their season.

- When Michael Turner isn’t 100% the Falcons aren’t a good team.

- It’s got to be depressing being a Dol-fan. The Dolphins defense letting up 24 points to the Bills in the fourth quarter is so reminiscent of that 30 point fourth quarter collapse against the Jets a few years back. Hey, Dol-fans, you can still hang your hats on that undefeated season, well, until New Orleans runs the table this year.

- The Bengals are stacked all around. Who would have ever thought that their passing game would be their least effective tool?

- Houston just can’t get over that hump. It doesn’t help when you play against Peyton twice every year.

- Jacksonville is still as inconsistent as when the season began. They haven’t got any better and that tells me they will miss the playoffs especially considering that the Ravens and Steelers are right on their heels.

- The Saints defense makes them even better than the Patriots when they had their undefeated regular season.

College Football Results

Picking Spreads: 1-3

Season Spreads: 21-25

Picking Winners: 3-1

Season Winners: 32-14

What I Learned This Week

- The ACC can’t compete with the SEC. #7 Georiga Tech lost to unranked Georgia and #18 Clemson lost to unranked South Carolina. That’s not even mentioning Tebow’s final whomping of Bobby Bowden in the Swamp.

- Miami is still easily the second best team in Florida and will compete with UF for top billing next season.

- Arkansas took LSU to overtime and narrowly lost. The Razorbacks quarterback is just a sophomore. If he decides to continue playing college ball they could be a sleeper team waking up to compete for a national title come next season.

NFL Predictions

Season Spreads: 49-34

Season Winners: 61-22

Green Bay (-11) at Detroit: I like the Packers to cover the spread. They defeated Detroit 26-0 in their first match up this season and I don’t think this game will be much closer.

Oakland (+14) at Dallas: The Radiers are playing much better since the benching of Russel, aka Fat Albert. I think Oakland makes this close but a late game turnover will lead Dallas to victory.

Cleveland (+14) at Cincinnati: The Bengals look to avenge that late game break down against Oakland last week. I think Cincy’s defense shuts down the Browns and they cover the spread.

Jacksonville (+3) at San Francisco: A win for the Jaguars gets them looking great for a wild card spot in the playoffs. I think Jack Del Rio will have his men ready and the Jags get a road victory.

Can’t Pick These

Giants (-6) at Broncos: Who knows either of these teams true identities? A lot will be told about the direction of each squad’s season on Thursday night.

Tampa Bay (+13) at Atlanta: The Falcons are struggling. What a perfect time for the Bucs to come to town.

Miami (-3) at Buffalo: It really depends on the weather in this one. Miami should easily win and even if it’s cold the Dolphins starting QB Henne is from Michigan so he’s used to it. Still, if it’s crazy cold crazy things can happen.

Chicago (+11) at Minnesota: The Vikings should win even if they played blind folded but a rivalry game is never a sure thing, especially in the NFL. The spread’s a little high, too.

Washington (+9) at Philadelphia: The Eagles won by 10 in their first meeting but I’m not confident enough to guarantee anything because Philly’s success always depends on their play calling.

Indianapolis (-3) at Houston: This could be the game Indy losses to ruin their perfect season. A road rivalry game against a hungry team hunting for a playoff birth is never easy.

Kansas City (+14) at San Diego: The Chargers should stomp the Cheifs but the way Kansas City played against Pittsburgh last week I can’t count them out.

Arizona (+3) at Tennessee: Tennessee’s a lot like Arizona last year. They got blown out by New England and started playing hard when their season depended on it. The only difference is the Titans started off so bad that I doubt they can reach the playoffs let alone make it to the Super Bowl.

Pittsburgh (+3) at Baltimore: When the Steelers look down and out is when they play their best football. The Ravens are the same way. The loser here looks like they’ll be on the outside looking in come playoff time.

New England (+3) at New Orleans: It’s the old perfect team against the new perfect team. This will be some great Monday Night Football action.

College Football Predictions

There’s only a few weeks left to get my season spread winning percentage to .500 so I can at least say I’m bowl eligible. College spreads are way tougher to pick than the NFL. Below are my results thus far.

Season Spreads: 20-22
- Winning Percentage: .476

Season Winners: 29-13
- Winning Percentage: .690

Florida State (+25) at #1 Florida: The Gators will win but there’s no way they cover this spread. FSU wants to remain over a .500 ball club and shut Bowden critics up by defeating their in state rival Florida. The Seminoles haven’t been blown out yet this season and Florida hasn’t blown out a quality opponent yet. FSU will play hard and keep the game close but won’t have the talent to win at Florida.

#9 Pittsburgh (PK) at West Virginia: There’s no spread for this game so picking the winner and spread is all tied into one for me. I’ll take Pitt to give WVU their first loss at home this year. Pitt’s playing great and if they can win here and defeat Cincinnati at home next week then Pitt may get a BCS Bowl bid. There’s a lot looming for the Panthers and this game could be a trap but I think their head coach Dave Wan-stache will keep his team focused on the game at hand.

#17 Miami (-6) at South Florida: It’s USF’s chance to gain bragging rights as the second best team in the state behind Florida. Miami can only beat good teams when their struggling and USF isn’t struggling. Still, I think Jacory Harris will show why he was an all state player in high school and keep bragging rights with the Hurricanes by winning and covering the spread. I'll be there to watch!

Syracuse (+14) at Connecticut: Nearly every game UConn played this season was close and this one will be no different. I think UConn gets the win but won’t cover the spread. This will be a highly emotional game for UConn as they try to become bowl eligible with a win in the midst of grieving their murdered team mate Jasper Howard. If the Huskies lose they still have a chance at bowl eligibility the following week when South Florida comes to town but that game will be much more of a challenge. The Huskies want to get this one in honor of their friend.

Can’t Pick These

#3 Texas (-21) at Texas A&M: A&M is all over the place with how they play week to week this season. They’ve been blown out, blown teams out, and been in close games. All I know is Texas better come to play because this is like A&M’s championship. If they can somehow ruin the Longhorns chances at a national title on national television during Thanksgiving night, A&M will proudly hold that moral victory as their trophy.

#2 Alabama (-10) at Auburn: This is the game before THE GAME for Alabama. There’s nothing Auburn would love more than to spoil their SEC rival’s national championship hopes before Florida gets the chance to in the SEC Championship game the week after. ‘Bama better not get caught sleepin’.

#18 Clemson (-3) at South Carolina: This would be a great bowl game. Both these teams play a lot alike and the reason for their difference in records is that one plays in the tough SEC and the other plays in the weak ACC.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

New Mexico (+45) at #4 TCU: I wonder if TCU will complete their undefeated season? Great scheduling Horned Frogs a 1-10 team to end the season with! I really hope New Mexico somehow pulls the upset that would be great.

Georgia (+8) at #7 Georgia Tech: Oh how Georgia would love to kill Georgia Tech’s hopes at a BCS bowl game while at the same time proving the SEC is a far superior conference than the ACC.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Young Vince; The Tennessee Titan

All it took was getting injured, being replaced as the starter while watching his team succeed, and contemplating suicide for Vince Young to mature and realize his potential.

The agonizing weeks that turned into months and ultimately a full year helped Vince Young make the transition from a great college quarterback to a quality NFL QB. Learning defensive schemes and coverages on the sidelines from the ultimate veteran Kerry Collins and the tenured leader Jeff Fischer fought off Young’s insecurities and over confidence in his athletic ability.

Young’s realization that unique athleticism doesn’t automatically convert into a successful NFL career saved his NFL life. It had to be painful watching his team play much better without him last year and even worse watching his team go win less while being told he isn’t even good enough to start on a terrible team.

Vince Young has been through some of the highest of highs and lowest of lows a football career can possibly take and he’s only 26 years old. Vince is still Young and his rebirth into the successful quarterbacking world proves he can overcome the most titanic obstacles.

He boldly predicted and guaranteed being inducted into the Hall of Fame. If he achieves leading the Titans to the playoffs after their 0-6 start, something that has never been done before, then his previous words and actions won’t seem so crazy. In fact, he can literally be heralded as Vince Young; The Tennessee Titan.

NFL Results

Picking Spreads: 2-2

Season Spreads: 49-34

Picking Winners: 3-1

Season Winners: 61-22

What I Learned This Week

- The Dolphins don’t need the Ronnie Brown run wildcat offense for success.

- It’s in Tony Romo’s DNA to struggle after the first week of November.

- Detroit and Cleveland do have offenses they just need to play against a terrible defense to show their skills.

- When a team’s special teams isn’t special, eehemmm… Steelers, it can hurt the team even more than a bad offense or defense.

- Indy knows how to win no matter what it takes in all aspects of the game. That mentality leads to playoff success.

- The Jets should be renamed the Stealth Bombers because they’ve flown off the radar.

- The AFC North lost their tough swagger.

- Denver’s done. Daniels, their head coach, doesn’t have the experience to get his team out of this slump. They do have veterans to help turn this around, but Kyle Orton is proven to be a loser and below average quarterback so that won't happen.

- Titans fans never have to worry when Jeff Fischer's at the helm. Even after a 59-0 stomping and losing their first six games some how Fischer got the team back in the playoff hunt and that somehow is the reemergence of Vince Young.

- The Houston Texans need a witch doctor to reverse their never better than average curse.

College Football Results

Picking Spreads: 2-0

Season Spreads: 20-22

Picking Winners: 1-1

Season Winners: 29-13

What I Learned This Week

- The Miami Hurricanes only beat struggling teams. They play in Tampa against the South Florida Bulls next Saturday for bragging rights as the second best team in Florida, and USF isn’t struggling.

- Sam Bradford made Oklahoma a national title contender. It’s usually said that one player can’t make a football team but it sure looks like it did for the Sooners. Without Bradford, it won’t be Sooner, but Later before they regain their elite status.

- Charlie Weis will add another percentage point to the unemployment rate in America once this season ends.

NFL Predictions

Picking Spreads: 47-32

Picking Winners: 58-21

Washington (+11) at Dallas: Washington makes this close but Romo will step up and finally pull out a tough victory for the Cowboys. The Redskins played much better last week by defeating Denver and I think they’ll make this closer than an 11 point game but don’t have the talent to win in Dallas.

Cleveland (+3) at Detroit: Detroit will cover the spread. It’s the battle of last years worst team and this year’s worst team. The Lions have improved enough to beat the Browns by more than three.

Pittsburgh (-10) at Kansas City: If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being a Steelers fan it’s this… when one of their facets of the team play bad one game the next they play completely different. Last week Ben and the offense played terribly. I don’t know if it was a bad game for Ben or if it was that great Bengals defense, but either way their offense will put up at least 35 against the terrible Cheifs while holding Kansas City to under 20.

Seattle (+11) at Minnesota: Seattle’s struggles this year will get exposed even more against my pick for the best team in the league, the Vikings.

Can’t Pick These

San Francisco (+7) at Green Bay: The Packers lose to the winless Bucs then dominate the Cowboys. The 49ers look much improved to begin the year then change their quarterback half way through. Who knows what either of these teams really are?

Falcons (+7) at Giants: Both are great teams that are struggling. The loser might miss the playoffs.

New Orleans (-11) at Tampa Bay: Tampa made their last game close against the Dolphins, who made their game against New Orleans close. I know stuff like that never matters, but the Bucs have played much better the last two weeks and the Saints haven’t been playing as well. I think this will be closer than expected.

Buffalo (+9) at Jacksonville: The Jaguars aren’t consistent enough for me to pick them for this high of a spread.

Indianapolis (-2) at Baltimore: This is the game of the week. The Ravens are hungry looking to get in the playoff hunt and Peyton tries to keep his team undefeated.

Arizona (-9) at St. Louis: The Cardinals are playing well and the Rams are competing with the Browns for the worst team in the league. Still, this is one of those games Arizona loses. They tend to lose concentration when games don’t matter.

Jets (+11) at Patriots: Brady and his bunch look to bounce back against crying Ryan. Divisional games seem to almost always be close.

Cincinnati (-9) at Oakland: This spread sounds about right.

San Diego at Denver: A huge game in the battle for the AFC West Championship. Denver’s been disappointing and San Diego’s been surging.

Philadelphia (-3) at Chicago: The Eagles are much better but the Bears play good at home.

Tennessee (+5) at Houston: On Monday Night Football it’s time for Vince Young to show his maturity. He has the Titans winning again, but can they beat a playoff contender?

College Football Predictions

Picking Spreads: 18-22

Picking Winners- 28-12

#4 TCU (-31) at Wyoming: I hate taking spreads like these but I believe TCU can cover it this time. Wyoming was stomped at BYU 52-0 just two games ago. This one could be one of the most lop sided scores ever.

#8 LSU (+5) at Mississippi: I guess the betting sites wanted to lose some money. Mississippi is completely overrated and LSU just might be the best team overall in the country. They’ve barely lost to #1 Florida and #2 Alabama and are undefeated besides that. I think LSU will feel motivated to dominate this game and lose all those odds makers tons of money.

Can’t Pick These

#10 Ohio State (-12) at Michigan: Winning this game is Rich Rodriguez’s only shot at keeping this season from being a lost cause and maybe keeping his job.

Duke (+19) at #20 Miami- A Duke win will take Miami a huge leap back in getting back to national prominence while probably costing Randy Shannon his job.

Chattanooga at #2 Alabama- I visited Chattanooga, Tennessee once with my girlfriend. Her brother lives just outside in Ooltewah. It a nice town, doesn’t seem to0 much like they have a great football team, though. This game is such a joke there isn’t even a spread for bookmaker.com! Games like these should cost teams like Alabama the shot at a national championship.

FIU (+45) at #1 Florida: Those SEC schedules are tough but Alabama and Florida’s games this week are ridiculous. I just hope UF doesn’t fight with FIU like UM did.

#14 Penn State (-3) at Michigan State: MSU loves the upset. There could be one a brewin’ at Spartan Stadium.

Kansas(+28) at #3 Texas- What happened to Kansas? They started off 5-0 and haven’t won since. Kansas already gave up on their season and I can see this score getting a little ridiculous.

Ricky's Smokin'

Rushing for 122 yards on 22 carries with two touchdowns on the ground and receiving for 19 yards with two receptions and one touchdown through the air proves Ricky isn’t so dumb after all.

He’s 32 years old but really, in running back years he’s 30 because of the two years he didn’t play. Those years off kept Ricky’s legs and body fresh while he did what he wanted. Now that he decided to come back and play he proves he’s still one of the best when he tries.

Ricky said he’ll retire next season. If he does the game will miss yet another mysterious running back that was one of the most talented in history. He adds his name to the list of great running backs (Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Robert Smith, and Tiki Barber) that ended their careers early and amongst controversy.

When The Smoke Clears: Ricky Williams

What a difference a joint makes. It can make a running back on his way to becoming a legend start passing the cheeba while passing up playing football. Smoking weed while traveling the world and giving massages sounds great until your high wears off you come back home and need a massage yourself because you remember your over eight million dollars in debt.

Ricky realized green money in his account is worth more than green weed in his lungs and he can’t visit all his favorite destinations while being in debt with the Dolphins.

After his short retirement he did the right thing both financially and emotionally by getting back into football. Once his Canadian Football days were done the perfect situation presented it self. Playing behind Ronnie Brown for the Dolphins keeps Williams from going bankrupt and gives him plenty of carries when Brown gets injured, which happens to Ronnie almost every year and has again with him being out for the rest of this season. Also, being out of the starting spotlight let shy Ricky regain his confidence both in his self and in his skills.

Since he woke up and cleared his system he stepped up and showed he’s still one of the best running backs in the world.

Now, tonight, when the smoke clears and it’s time to play he can show the world that Ricky is still Ricky, the greatest world traveling massage therapist NFL running back ever.

NFL Results

Picking Spreads: 2-2

Season Spreads: 47-32

Picking Winners: 3-1

Season Winners: 58-21

What I Learned This Week

- Thursday night football games are the worst idea the NFL ever had. I will get into this topic in another blog.

- If New Orleans has to eke out a win against the Rams then there’s no way they will go undefeated this season.

- Miami makes every game close no matter who they play.

- The Jets get worse every week.

- The Bengals have that tough mentality that earns playoff wins. They’ll go deep in the playoffs.

- Denver will let the AFC West lead slip out of their grasp and not make the playoffs. San Diego will charge right past the Broncos once again. A great start with a new coach, quarterback, and defense won’t change a thing.

- Carolina remembered their philosophy for how to win. Keep the ball in their running backs hands and out of Jake Delhomme’s! It's a good thing for the Panthers that Atlanta's Michael Turner got injured because he had 111 yards on just nine carries. Turner's a freakin beast!

- Will the late season losing culture in Dallas ever change?

- Finally Bill Belichick made a bad decision and proved that he is human.

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College Football Results

Picking Spreads: 1-3

Season Spreads: 18-22

Picking Winners: 2-2

Season Winners: 28-12

What I Learned This Week

- With that huge win over Utah, TCU is making it difficult to argue against a playoff system for college football.

- When a team loses to Central Florida they can't be taken seriously. Houston, we have a problem.

- The Tennessee Volunteers are just like the Tennessee Titans. They have the talent but don't show up some games. It's got to be tough being a Tennessee fan this year.


- North Carolina and Butch Davis has Miami's number. Back to the drawing board for the Hurricanes. If they don't have a better record next year Randy Shannon will be gone for sure.

- Duke still has a long way to become a solid football program.

- USC got exposed and Pete Carroll couldn't handle it. He complained to Stanford's head coach Jim Harbaugh about running up the score afterwards at midfield. What does USC do every chance they get? It hurts being on the other side of a whooping huh Carroll? Besides, in college football the BCS points system is affected by the points scored and the amount of points a team wins or losses by so there's really nothing to complain about. It's stupid if you don't run up the score in college football. If Carroll has a problem with it he should bring it up at the next coaches meeting and not in the middle of a field crying about it while being a sore loser.

NFL Predictions

Picking Spreads: 45-30

Picking Winners: 55-20

New Orleans (-14) at St. Louis: The best versus the worst makes for an ugly game. The Saints easily cover the spread.

Denver (-4) at Washington: The Broncos break their two-game losing streak by spanking the offensive-less Redskins. I predict that Denvers defense will score more points than the Redskins offense.

Seattle (+9) at Arizona: The Cardinals usually don’t show up to play in games like these but I see Arizona scoring at will and covering the spread because Seattle is so depleted of talent and hampered by injuries.

Baltimore (-11) at Cleveland: The Ravens need a win and proved earlier this year they can blow out teams and one of those slaughters was a 34-3 demolishing of the Browns in week three. The Browns offense is so bad I’d be surprised if they can score a field goal. What a terrible game for Monday night football!

Can’t Pick These

Chicago at San Francisco: There's a reason I didn't pick or mention this game before it was played on Thursday. Not only do both teams stink but Thursday night games will always stink in general if something isn't done with the scheduling of teams that play these weekday games. I will get more into this topic in another blog.

Tampa Bay (+10) at Miami: I just don’t have enough confidence in the Dolphins receivers and linebackers to pull off a blow out win even against the one win Bucs.

Detroit (+17) at Minnesota: I expect this to be closer than most think but I can’t bring myself to say that the Lions can actually play good enough football to accomplish anything.

Jaguars (+7) at Jets: The spread seems about right.

Buffalo (+7) at Tennessee: I really want to pick the Titans to cover the spread but every other time I picked them this year I’ve lost.

Cincinnati (+7) at Pittsburgh: This is a playoff caliber game that will be closer than the spread.

Atlanta (-2) at Carolina: The Panthers need a win and they tend to play better in desperate situations but I could see the Falcons winning in Carolina.

Kansas City (+2) at Oakland: I’d rather watch my out of shape friends play football than see these teams. How can you pick when neither can score on offense or stop any one on defense?

Dallas (-3) at Green Bay: I know the Packers lost to winless Tampa last week and the Cowboys are playing great but I can’t count out Green Bay. They are a hard-nosed tough team that fight to the very end and Dallas is a soft team that plays well when it’s warm but falls apart when the weather gets cold.

Philadelphia (+3) at San Diego: Which team will play softer? These two are so inconsistent anything can happen.

New England (+3) at Indianapolis: Doesn’t this seem to be the game of the year every year? Indy’s played some close games recently while the Pats are playing like when they went undefeated again. Both teams know how to win. What a perfect game for Sunday night football!