What a Weekend

This may have been one of the best weekends in the sports world. Tennis, PGA, NBA, NHL, NFL and NCAA basketball were all producing pretty big stories over the span of 4 days.

We'll start with golf. This weekend was the first big golf tournament of 2011, the Farmers Insurance Open. It was newsworthy because Tiger Woods was playing in it. Golf remains newsworthy so long as Tiger is still playing. He doesn't have to be good, he just has to show up, as he did this weekend. He played well enough on the first two days, keeping himself in contention to make a run in his red shirt. Instead, his play collapsed on Saturday and Sunday rather than improving. He clearly still needs work to win anything, let alone try to match Jack Nicklaus' major record.

This one was won, barely, by Bubba Watson. Watson just edged out Phil Mickelson and Jhonattan Vegas by scoring birdies on the final two holes. It was a great finish to see Mickelson go for an eagle on the final hole, but people still watch for Tiger. He was untouchable at his peak and fans want to see him regain that form. Until he proves he is completely washed up, fans will watch to see when he turns his career back around.

The Australian Open also culminated this weekend without Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal in the final. Instead, the next best in the world, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, entered the final match geared for an epic showdown. Murray was a big let down however and Djokovic disposed of him easily. Though it may be hard for most of the American public to follow the Aussie Open due to the time difference, it was pretty thrilling to follow Murray's run to the final as well as Federer's attempt to work back up to the number one spot.

On the women's side, Kim Clijsters is proving to be a fan favorite while clawing her way to number one. The "pregnant" interview was quite funny, showing her sense of humor off the court. Winning it all displays her seriousness on it. Another woman may have been more entertaining, Francesca Schiavone. If you want proof of that, listen to this.

The Aussie Open was a great start to what could be an interesting tennis season.

On Friday night in the NBA the Heat lost to the Knicks in what will be remembered as the "Goggle Game". Dwyane Wade wore a specially designed pair due to migraines caused by bright lights. They seemed to help for the first three quarters as he was unstoppable. The Knicks were able to quiet him in the fourth quarter and finally took down the Heat this season.

On Sunday, the marquee matchup of the season took place. The Lakers hosted the Celtics in a Finals' rematch. Only one team showed up for this one however as the Celtics easily took the win. The Lakers may still be the team to beat as they are defending champions, but they have been beaten by all of the teams that will need to beat them when it really matters. They'll need to stop showing their age if Phil Jackson wants to coach his way to a fourth three-peat.

In NCAA basketball, Duke was one of a bunch of top teams to lose. They went into Madison Square Garden, home away from home, and lost to St. John's University for the first time in eight years. SJU has been in a rebuilding process for what seems like forever, but now it may actually be working. A couple more wins like that and they can sneak their way into 'Madness'. This is another season without a clear favorite which will lead to another unpredictable Final Four. In my brackets last year, I basically picked all Big East teams and they let me down. I will likely do the same this year as that is clearly the best conference in the NCAA.

That leaves us with the NFL and NHL both having their All-Star weekends. While the NFL Pro Bowl is generally considered to be a joke, 8 million people watched the game. The game was terrible, as expected, and if you need any proof of that, watch the final play of the game.

The NHL revamped their All-Star game to playground rules. The players who were voted in had to vote for captains. The captains then selected teams. Team Staal vs. Team Lidstrom. The NHL and NBA All-Star Games are very similar in that the offense thrives. The final score saw double digits for both teams. Exhilarating. Before the game, players participated in skills competitions, which is always fun, and the NFL should take note.

Such a great weekend in sports, I don't know how any weekend can top that.

...

Oh, right. The Super Bowl is next weekend. I guess that will be entertaining enough.

The Luxurious Troy Polamalu

"With all due respect, I honestly think Troy Polamalu is probably the greatest player I’ve ever played with or even seen play in person. The things that he did in my four years of being there … he’s jumping over the line of scrimmage at the snap of the ball. He’s tackling runners in the backfield. He’s jumping up, intercepting the ball one handed [and] returning it for touchdowns. Keeping the ball away from him … can definitely keep him from disrupting our team." - Santonio Holmes

As a New York fan, I have been nervous going into each playoff matchup. First, the Jets had to beat Peyton Manning and the Colts. Before the Wild Card game, Rex Ryan could not figure out how to stop Manning, losing five straight games as the coach of his teams' defenses. Rex finally got a win last year in a game that the Colts laid down for. Even though Rex made it personal to amp up his team, somehow it worked.

Then came a trip to Foxboro where the Jets last walked away with their tails between their legs.

45-3.

Playoff teams are not supposed to lose that badly. Again, Rex made it personal and the rest of the team followed suit and talked so much trash that their training facility in Florham Park started to smell like the Staten Island Dump. Few believed the Jets could back up that much talk with a victory, but Rex definitely outcoached and the Jets outplayed.

Now they head to the Steel City and I am nervous for only one reason. His name is Troy Polamalu. His hair is luxuriously large and his talent is even bigger. He is clearly the best defensive player left in the playoffs. I would put Polamalu just above Ed Reed as the best defensive player in all of football. He just knows what the QB is thinking and where the ball will be thrown before the QB thinks of it. Just as the best QB's in the league can read a defense, Polamlu can read the offense.

The Jets have already proven they can take down the two best quarterbacks in the NFL in consecutive weeks. While Ben Roethlisberger is a good QB, he's no Peyton or Brady. Big Ben has had the good fortune, just as Eli Manning had and Mark Sanchez is having, of playing on a team with an excellent defense. Aside from rings, tell me the difference between Sanchez and Big Ben. Both play for teams with superb defenses, both can evade sacks pretty well, both have made big plays when it matters and both have played well in the playoffs. (Big Ben: 9-2, Sanchez: 4-1) Sure, Sanchez needs to cut down on the turnovers, but if the Jets can stop Peyton and Brady, especially in the 2nd half, why wouldn't they be able to stop Ben?

Proof of Ben being worthless is how this season and last season played out. This year, the team was minus Big Ben for four games because of his off-the-field struggles with keeping his pants on. The Steelers barely noticed. Last year, Polamalu was injured and the team suffered pretty badly. Make no mistake, teams win games, not just QB's. Eli won his Super Bowl because of his defense, as did Big Ben. Sure, both needed to play well and make ridiculous plays, but their respected defenses shut down the undefeated Patriots, who broke records for offense, and the Cardinals, who had Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald basically playing Madden vs. the rest of the league.

The Steelers are Polamalu's team, not Big Ben's. The Jets may be able to shut down the Steelers offense as they did to the Colts and Pats, but shutting down Polamalu will be a different story entirely.

Hall of Question Marks

(I will begin with saying this is not my idea. I read of it years ago, but I do not remember the source. If I were to take a guess, it would be The Star Ledger sports section.)

The Hall of Fame needs adjustment. There will always be arguments as to who should be in and who should be out. Plenty of hitters are elected in while the all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, is kept out. That aspect will never change and it is part of the appeal of the Hall. Not one player has ever been unanimously elected and that shows agreements can never be made, even if the player is an obvious choice, like Hank Aaron, Ricky Henderson, Nolan Ryan.

Pause for a second and let the soak in. No baseball player has EVER been unanimously elected.

It is that fact, and the amount of years a player is eligible. The players' stats don't change after they retire. Burt Blyleven retired with 287 wins. That number hasn't gone up or down, only the flip-flopping sportswriters' votes have. Blyleven, in my opinion, should have been elected immediately but had to be patient while the writers wavered. Jim Rice was elected last year, which I disagreed with, but also probably should have been elected immediately.

I'm being distracted though. I came here to discuss to plan to revamp the Hall, not argue who should be in or out, though that is fun. I want the Hall to have tiers, and the eligibility to be cut down to three years. That is all. No big deal.

The tiers can be broken down into three. The top tier would include the upper echelon of talent. Babe Ruth, Nolan Ryan, Hank Aaron. Guys who completely dominated their generation and any baseball fan knows instantly. The second level includes the guys that are still first ballot Hall of Famers. Joe DiMaggio, Willie Stargell, Tom Seaver. The bottom tier includes players who excelled in their career, but don't have the flashy numbers, or might not be worthy of a 1st ballot induction under the current format. Andre Dawson, Burt Blyleven, Robin Yount.

And secondly, as I said earlier, reduce the years of eligibility to three. Sportswriters get power hungry when given a chance to decide where to put a player. Roberto Alomar was the best second baseman of the 1990s. He should not have had to wait a year for the writers to teach him a lesson. If a player has to wait more than three years, I don't think they should be in. Sorry Donny Baseball, that means you.

I want this revamping because you can't compare Babe Ruth to Dave Winfield to Kirby Puckett. You can't compare Bob Feller to Burt Blyleven. While Kirby and Blyleven deserve praise, they don't deserve the same honor as Hank Aaron or Sandy Koufax.

The players above are examples I would use for my tiers. Who would you put in your three tiers? Are there players in the Hall that you would remove if given the chance? Would you elect Pete Rose? (I would).

Oh, and congratulations Burt Blyleven and Roberto Alomar Jr. for being elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Credit @si_vault on twitter for these photos. Follow them if you want to see classic photos such as these.

Failure to Cooperate

What we have here... is a failure to communicate.

Brett Favre was fined $50,000 yesterday for "failing to cooperate" in an NFL investigation. The NFL seems like the bigger failure in issuing this fine though. Favre allegedly sent lewd pictures and sexually harassed Jenn Sterger during the 2008 season. She had photo evidence and her own personal testimony, but that proved little versus the power of the NFL.

The NFL protected its most talked about star by slapping him on the wrist for not cooperating. The NFL fined Favre for not being forthcoming, thus ending the investigation without any answers. Favre is free to send more pictures to more ladies because he is done with the NFL and it only cost him $50,000. I think starting 297 straight games can help cover that cost. The NFL blew it on this one and it could be due to Favre's imminent "retirement". I'll believe it when he's sitting on a couch next season. No one would be surprised if he came back for another season, especially if there is a lockout and he is given that much extra time to recover from this season.

The NFL had a big opportunity here to not only rid themselves of Brett Favre for good, but protect women's rights for those working for the NFL and other organizations surrounding the National Football League. This was the second case of harassment in this season alone - second case of harassment on the same team! And neither involve feet. (So far as we know). The NFL needs to implement strict rules protecting the safety of women, who need to work harder than men to be successful in the business of sports. This was a perfect opportunity and the NFL showed they could careless about their female employees and reporters.

This fine is a cop out by the NFL, according to ESPN, the fine is only 5% of one game's paycheck. Favre will walk away as the winner, but barely. He worked hard to build and then tear down his own legacy. While on the Packers, he was the most beloved player in the NFL. The only fans disliking him were probably Bears, Vikings and Lions, but even they had to respect the talent. Now, after retiring and returning countless times, playing for the Packers' hated rival, the Vikings, this scandal has turned Favre into probably the most hated. He is selfish, and cares nothing for his wife, his family, his peers, or his teammates.

His egotistical behavior is shown in playing this season. He needed to have his teammates beg him to come back, even though it was clear he wasn't retiring. He led a team that underperformed. He played hurt even when the season was lost. While some can commend that, I condemn it. And now, with a concussion, he cares more about playing his last game than giving Joe Webb a shot to prove he can be a starting QB and giving Leslie Frazier a chance to take the interim off from his job title.

Brett Favre probably learned little from this other than to not send pictures of his man parts. I hope Sterger can and does take him to court, if only just to provide an annoyance to Favre because that is all this was. He was not distracted by it during games so it was clearly pushed to the back of his mind and he knew little would come of it. We will all be much happier when Favre finally does retire. Maybe it'll be good if he plays on Sunday so that Ndamukong Suh can officially end his career by adding on to that concussion.

Well Hello, Ladies

The University of Connecticut Lady Huskies won their 89th consecutive game yesterday, solidifying their spot in the record books for what is likely to be eternity. They have eclipsed the men's record set by the UCLA Bruins in the 1970s under legendary coach, John Wooden. The women of UConn deserve immense congratulations, but the question that plagued the double rainbow remains; what does it mean?

The media has written the story of UConn surpassing UCLA for the record of most consecutive college basketball victories, so comparisons must be drawn. To me, the only comparison is that they play basketball. And because of that, it is fair to say UConn holds that record. They have played their heart out for 89 games against the best that D1 NCAAW has to offer. They have not just won all of these games, they have dominated, destroying the average teams and easily beating most of the title contenders.

You can't really compare much after that because you can't even compare the men's game today to John Wooden Era. The Bruins then, like the Lady Huskies now, were stratospheres above everyone else. They were both led by coaches that can seemingly lead any team to the promised land. Now, most men's teams will be great for a couple of years, then drop off while trying to recruit the next best player. The best coaches, Coach K, Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim, etc., are able to recruit the better players, thus they are able to stay near the top on most years. Wooden was able to do that as is Geno Auriemma for UConn.

One big difference between the teams of yesteryear, and today is parity. Just as the New York Yanks and the Boston Celtics dominated; the Bruins dominated and now the Lady Huskies are dominating. It seems every sport goes through a stage of lone dominance, followed by parity. The Bruins won seven straight titles, and now it seems a team can't win two in a row, (though Duke seems like a possible candidate this year). The Yankees won five in a row, and now need to buy baseball just to compete.

Dominance, rivalries, and underdogs are what keeps a sport moving. The dominance of UConn has a formidable rivalry in Tennessee and a growing one in Baylor. UConn will be beaten at some point and while some disagree, I think their streak is fantastic for women's basketball. The streak is great for two reasons. It made women's basketball a headline on ESPN and other news outlets for probably the only time other than to announce national champions. And secondly, their streak has other teams' level of play improving just to match UConn's.

You can't compare yesterday to today. The "old school" athletes may have been more talented, and had more passion, but today's athletes are bigger, stronger, faster, and better. Instead of selling furniture in the offseason, baseball players now play in winter leagues. WNBA players play year round in European Leagues. The training is intensified and thus making the athletes better. Coaches now have learned upon the mistakes of the coaches in the past and due to that, I would take the 2007 Patriots over the 1972 Dolphins. Give me the 2010 Lakers over the Bill Russell Celtics. Sure, Bill Russell would dominate Pau Gasol, but the Lakers still have the Zen Master and the Black Mamba.

If you can't compare a sport to itself, how can you compare records of one sport to another? Men's basketball is different than women's basketball, just like baseball is different than softball and football is different than lingerie football. There is no need to compare until women can match man in height, speed, strength, etc. Men are different than women. Women's basketball is a perimeter game, with skill shooters, while most of the men's game is decided inside the paint. The UConn ladies keep winning because they shut down the opponents' shooting percentage.

As far as records are concerned, they are in the eye of the beholder. You can choose to believe the women's game is meaningless and only consider the Bruins as having consecutive winning streak. You can choose to believe Hank Aaron or Barry Bonds hold the all-time home run title when really it's Sadaharu Oh. There will always be discussion and asterisks because we, the people, can never agree on anything. One year we elect Obama, the Democrat, and two years later, we change our minds and elect a bunch of Republicans in the Senate. No matter what you believe, the University of Connecticut Lady Huskies are amazing. So amazing that they may be saving the game of women's basketball from a possible dismantling due to the NBA's troubles.

Hope

Due to a death in the family, it has not been an easy week for me, which makes sports seem trivial. But being such an avid sports fan, I look to sports for a variety of reasons; entertainment, excitement, joy, and most importantly, hope. I watched "The Road" over the weekend (probably not the best movie to watch when dealing with a loss). I did not enjoy the movie too much because it lacked hope. If you haven't seen it, the film follows Viggo Mortensen and his son, trying to survive after the end of the world. There is little to live for and the situation is completely hopeless. Being a New York fan, this week has seemed pretty hopeless.

Starting with the Jets' loss and Patriots' domination on Sunday, the week just started with gloom. The Jets' sole reason for their good season is swagger. They overloaded on it and have ridden that throughout the season. They then went to Gillette Stadium and were demolished by the Patriots. Rex Ryan buried the game ball, and the team had "moved on". Miami came to town and the Jets, given their Super Bowl aspirations should have easily beaten the Fins. Their defense stepped their game up, but Mark Sanchez gives Jets' fans high blood pressure. Too many turnovers, specifically the early fumbling resulting in a Miami touchdown, cost the Jets a win.

All season I have questioned offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer and his play calling. He has a dominant running game and stellar receivers that are underutilized. Mark Sanchez can become an elite quarterback but Schotty seems to be developing him poorly. Sanchez rarely looks downfield, even in two-minute drills. Instead Sanchez throws screens and check downs to the running backs as if the team is scared to see him throw. You do not trade up in the draft to acquire a QB to manage a game, you draft a QB to win games, as Sanchez has done.

Compound that with the Patriot's sheer domination of "elite" defenses. The Patriots, led by likely MVP, Tom "Bieber" Brady, are playing as well as their undefeated* season. Not only are they the clear favorite to win the Super Bowl (right now), the Patriots are the Jets main rival. It stings that much more. The only thing making it worse is Danny Woodhead. Mr. Entertaining could barely make the Jets' roster and now he is tearing it up for the Pats. And to make matters worse, the Jets are accused of cheating because of their indefinitely suspended, strength and conditioning coach, Sal Alosi. He thought it would be a good idea to make a wall of players on the sideline and intentionally trip an opposing player. This is leading to a season ending collapse by the Jets.

Moving on to phase two of a bad sports week, enter Cliff Lee, the new most hated man in NYC. He clearly was just stringing the Yankees on from the beginning, just as LeBron James did to NY, Cleveland, LA and Chicago. No amount of money could have brought him here as he would rather play in Philadelphia than anywhere in the US. A good few months in the city turned him away from experiencing new things with other teams. The Yanks lost the bid for a much needed lefty ace and most likely lost any chance at the World Series with it. The season is over before the new year began.

It will be a tough season to watch and this year will be Joe Girardi's toughest year. Without new toys, and busted up old ones, what can Girardi and the Yanks accomplish? The Red Sox bolstered their lineup and assuming their pitching can remain less injured than last season, the Sox are clearly the favorite to win the American League pennant. The Yanks will struggle to maintain a winning record.

Meanwhile, in the National League, the Phillies are the clear favorite to win the pennant. On paper, they may have the best rotation ever. Of course they have to actually play and prove they are worthy of that title, but right now, the NL has got to be scared. I said during the season that if Brian Cashman failed to bring Cliff Lee to NY, he should be fired. I don't want to hear the argument that he was able to resign Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera; those were gimme's. He failed to nab the biggest prize and saw the Red Sox nab two. I don't blame the Lee misstep on him though. He could not have foreseen the Phillies swooping in, offer him less money, but still win the lottery. Cashman did all he could, and then some, offering Lee seven years. They still need help though as five of the best six hitters in the Boston lineup are lefties, (Ellsbury, Crawford, Ortiz, Gonzalez, Drew.)

And for the trifecta in the bad NY sports week, enter the New York Knickerbockers. The Knicks, who I gave up on when LeBron went to Miami, were playing the Celtics, the best team in the East, last night in The Garden. Even though the Knicks had won eight in a row, led by 30+ points by Amar'e Stoudemire each night, this game would be the first real test for the Knicks. While I was excited for the game as the team seems to be relevant for the first time since Ewing, I had little hope they would win, and my prediction was true, they lost.

But what a game!

The Celtics were without Jolly Green Shaqtus, Kendrick Perkins and the other O'Neal, Jermaine, Rajan Rondo was hobbling down the court, the Knicks looked sloppy on defense and nowhere near as disciplined overall than the Celtics, but hot damn, what a game. There was a five minute span in the 4th quarter when it seemed no shots would be missed, Paul Pierce made his typical fade away shot with time expiring, that I have never seen him miss, and the game ended with a made 3-pointer by Amar'e that did not count because he did not get it off in time. Even though the Knicks lost, they renewed my hope in NY sports.

Before the game, I was worried that 2011 would be my worst sports year ever. The Eagles and Patriots both have legitamite shots at being in Dallas for the Super Bowl. The Celtics are on top of the East, beating Miami twice and proving the Eastern Conference title goes through Boston. The Flyers are backing their Stanley Cup loss with another good season. The Phillies and Red Sox may meet in the World Series. And to top a Phillies/Red Sox series off, football and basketball may not be played next season. I would get to let that marinate in my head for months.

After that game, the hope was renewed. The Knicks can possibly pull off a 4 or 5 seed and make a decent run into the playoffs. Something that hasn't been seen since Patrick Chewing. The New York Rangers are gaining steam and could make a run at the Stanley Cup. The Jets and Giants, (while you can't trust Eli or Sanchez), are both in line to make the playoffs, where anything can happen. And the Yankees could see a turnaround in AJ Burnett and a quick maturation into an ace by Phil Hughes. Amar'e gave me hope. Championships are not won in the newspaper, and they are not made in the offseason. Games still need to be played and teams need to prove themselves winners.

Thank you Amar'e. Basketball is back in NY!

BCS Mess

Yes, there is still an argument for a playoff in college football. Just because Boise State lost one game last week and knocked themselves out of the BCS Championship running does not mean the system works. They joined the multitude of one loss teams looking up at Auburn, Oregon and TCU; the last of the undefeated teams. The BCS system only works when there are two undefeated teams from the super conferences, SEC, Big 12, etc. If that is not the case, such as this year with three undefeated teams and many one-loss teams, the BCS is a failure and a playoff would remedy that.

TCU is the odd man out in the BCS Championship. Their undefeated season will go unrewarded, and college football needs to change bowl season into playoff season to fix future disappointments.

The biggest obstacle in starting a playoff is money. The current bowl system is a profit machine. Playoffs would reduce the number of teams eligible for bowls and possibly the number of bowls as well. I think you can keep the number of bowls, though getting rid of a few would not be a bad thing. Some teams are just undeserving of playing in a bowl game, just as an NFC West team will be undeserving of hosting a playoff game this year.

A team deserving of a bowl game, but not an automatic BCS game is UConn. They went 8-4 on the season and finished unranked, but because of the current system, all UConn had to accomplish in obtaining a BCS bid was to win the Big East. UConn received a BCS bid over teams with one loss and will receive a massive amount of extra money. They are in a BCS game and Temple, who beat them and finished with the same record, was left out of any bowls.

NCAA has a mess to deal with, both with apologizing to TCU for not allowing them a chance to play for a national championship, and cleaning up the "pay-to-play" controversy. NCAA makes a fortune off collegiate athletes and the athletes are not allowed to make a dime. This does not seem fair. Athletes deserve some type of compensation for the amount of time put in to their practice. Other students are told to get internships or summer jobs pertaining to their major. If football is essentially the athletes' majors, why shouldn't they be paid accordingly.

This opens a "Pandora's Box" that the NCAA is avoiding. To say student athletes should be paid over regular students, also is not fair. Something needs to change though, because there will always be Cam Newton's or Reggie Bush's who have family members trying to get a piece of the pie. A pie that the NCAA is not willing to share.