Championship Weekend

Last week I did better than I thought, 3 out of 4, missing the New England Patriots game. You'd think I would have learned. So my total for this year's playoffs is 5 out of 8. Not bad, about my average. So here are my picks for this week:

New Orleans at Chicago.
The Saints is such a heartwarming story, but when you pick with your heart, you get heartburn. The Bears were 13-3 this season and like last week, they find ways to win. Da Bears will shuffle their way down to Miami
Bears 27 - Saints 17

New England at Indianapolis.
The Colts' Defense is playing great, better than they have all season. This is the time of year you want to be hot. Their Offense isn't, but Peyton Manning will come out of this slump, he is too good and has too many weapons around him not to. But Tom Brady is Tom Brady and the Patriots are the Patriots. They proved last week, they don't have to play well to win, they just need the ball down a score with 3 minutes to play and Brady works his magic. This game will be close. In fact, The Patriots will be up 20-17 with about 2 minutes to play. Colts ball at their own 5 yard line. Manning marches them down the field and with 6 seconds left in the game, Vinateri trots out to kick the game tying 45 yard field goal. The snap is perfect, the hold is perfect, but Vinateri misses wide to left. Pats win, Pats win.
Patriots 20 - Colts 17

No Child Left Behind?

Today, being Dr. Martin Luther King Day, got me thinking, how many people really understand what Dr. King was fighting for? What was his dream about? I am willing to bet most people don't have a clue. In fact, why do we celebrate Labor Day? What President was Abraham Lincoln? What's the significance of Thanksgiving?

Most of our Country's problems, no, I mean our World's problems can be solved by Education. Education isn't just writing and math, Education is learning. Learning is something we should do every day of our life. The Fearless Leader of the Free World believes no child should be left behind when it comes to education, but breaking that down it just means we should make sure everyone is taught to pass a test.

I for one would love to see Physcial Education, The Arts and Sciences, History, Language and Technology pushed as much as Reading, Writing and Math. Several Years ago, I heard this little proverb and I have adopted it to my everyday life. - "Learn something new today and you will be Smarter tomorrow."

Divisional Playoff Weekend

Last Week I went 2-2, just a shade under my season average. I did however call Ohio St getting blown out by Florida and I called that one 2 months ago.

Here are my picks for the divisional round of the playoffs:

Indianapolis at Baltimore: The Colts Defense came up huge and Kansas City huddled in predictability. This week, it will be a very difficult challenge for the Colts. The Ravens have the best Defense in Football. They are intimidating and hard hitting. This should be the game of the weekend. Steve McNair brings something to The Ravens that they haven't had in a long time. Poise, hey it counts. The biggest story line is The Colts coming back to Baltimore. The Raven's fans should be all fired up and should give them an edge. I break this game down like this - Peyton Manning had a non-Peyton game last week against The Chiefs, when was the last time that has happened 2 weeks in a row? Joseph Addai is an emerging star. Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne are the best Receiving tandem in the NFL. Can the Ravens Defense contain the Colts Offense? The Ravens have been a very pedestrian Offense. They have had flashes of Brilliance. Jamal Lewis has shown flashes of what he use to be. The Colts Defense played well enough last week to have me think they will be half as good this week.
Colts 28 - Ravens 16

Philadelphia at New Orleans: The Saints are favored, however when was their last playoff win? When was Drew Brees' last playoff win? The Eagles are coming off a predictably bad game. It's hard to draw much off a playoff game against a divisional rival. Jeff Garcia managed the game well, The Eagles Defense played well enough to win. The "X" factor is Brian Westbrook, not since Emmitt Smith has there been such a difference maker from a running back under 5'10. The Saints Defense gets little respect and they aren't talking about them anywhere. I think they are going to contain Westbrook and make Garcia beat them. During practice, Reggie Bush is playing the part of Brian Westbrook, they will be ready for him. This will be a game won by field position and special teams. Reno Mahe doesn't do it for me. I don't think he has the ability to break one. I don't think Lito Sheppard's absence is going to be as a big of a deal as the media is making it out to be. So here's to 8 consecutive weeks picking against them and being wrong.
Saints 27 - Eagles 17

Seattle at Chicago: Seattle probably shouldn't even be here, but they are. Maybe they are destined? Maybe the will repeat as NFC Champs? The Bears Defense is all beat up. Rex Grossman is erratic. Lovie Smith has never won a playoff game. All these things aside, Cedric Benson has his coming out party, rushing for 175 yards and 2 TDs.
Bears 24 - Seahawks 9

New England at San Diego: How do you go against New England? Bill Bilichek and Tom Brady 11-1 together. Are they are poised to continue? Can they stop LT? Will they put the scare into Phillip Rivers? My guts says never go against Tom Brady in the playoffs and San Diego is destined to have a bad game. The thing is in the last 10 they have won, they had a few bad games and still won, maybe they are destined? LT has some rest and will be ready to go. He's the difference.
San Diego 28 - New England 20

Philly Never Liked Chris Webber

I will be the first to tell you, I am not a big NBA guy. Sure I like to look at the daily transactions and see the box scores, but sitting down watching a game, forget about it. I have always been a huge College Basketball fan. In High School, I would play sick so I could come home and watch the first round of the NCAA tournament. I think the college game is so much more exciting than anything the NBA has to offer.

One of my most vivid college basketball memories happened in the 1993 NCAA Tournament. It was Late March and the field of 64 was dwindled down to 8. John Chaney's Temple Owls were playing Chris Webber and the Fab 5 in NCAA Western Regional Final in Seattle Everyone knew about the Michigan's Fab 5 - Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson, they were the next coming of a College Hoops Dynasty. Temple countered with Aaron McKie, Eddie Jones, Rick Brunson, Derrick Battie and William Cunningham.

Late in the game, Michigan was winning, but it was close relatively close. After a missed shot, Chris Webber and William Cunningham both went up for the Rebound, Cunningham not only came down with it, but he put Webber on his rear. Webber had a look on his face, who was that freight train. Cunningham had a smile, knowing he just knocked down a future NBA First Round Pick like it was nothing.

Unfortunately, Michigan won the game, denying Temple their first Final 4 appearence. Michigan would make it to the National Championship game, losing to North Carolina when Chris Webber called a timeout with no timeouts available. Altough, Webber becomes a goat because of this, I will contest it was Point Guard, Jalen Roses' fault for not grabbing the ball out of Webber's hands after the ball was in bounded.

Later that spring, Webber entered the NBA draft, was drafted No.1 by Orlando, traded to Golden State for the Rights to Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway and some draft picks. Webber would than play for Golden State, Washington, Sacremento and most recently the 76ers. We was bought out and became a Free Agent by the Sixers. Webber never lived up to the hype. He was a solid Basketball player, but not spectacular. He was a power forward who would rather take jump shots than use his body to work inside. He never won a Championship and for that matter, I don't think he ever won a meaningful game. We was a guy who built his reputation on his name and not his Basketball accomplishments. He was definitely not the guy Philadelphia would ever rally around.

By the way, I am not really sure whatever became of William Cunningham. He was a 6'11 brute who played a little for the New Jersey Nets. He had a lot of potential, but not the will or desire to improve. He seemed like a nice enough guy and from what others told me, he was quite likeable. He would have made a great Pro Wrestler.

Jalen Rose and Juwan Howard moved on to the NBA a year after Webber. They both had solid, but not spectacular, NBA Careers. Jimmy King and Ray Jackson never made it big, one or both might have made an NBA roster for a few years, but eventually disappeared.

Eddie Jones and Aaron McKie were 2 of the Greatest College Hoops Stars in Philadelphia Basketball history. They were classy guys, who worked hard and Temple loved them. They both, along with Rick Brunson, played over 10 years in the NBA. Eddie Jones always gets criticized for not "stepping it up" when he got to the NBA, however, he is a solid player, a tremedous complimentry player, who was both selfless and tough. His tenacious Defense and lack of turnovers are skills that go unnoticed in the NBA today.

Major League Hypocrites

The 2007 inductees to Baseball's Hall of Fame were announced today and Mark McGwire was not one of them. The more I think about it, the more Major League Baseball, it's writers and Hall of Fame Voting Committee are a bunch of hypocrites.

Mark McGwire helped save Major League Baseball. After the Strike in 1994, fans realized there was more to summers than baseball and people didn't miss it. Infact, when baseball came back, people stopped going. Attendance was way down, television ratings were horrible, people just couldn't relate to their favorite millionaire stars and their greedy owners who took "The National Past Time" Away.

But in 1998, 2 individuals sparked interest back in Major League Baseball with their pursuit of the greatest single season record in sports - Roger Maris' 61 Homerun mark. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa made baseball enjoyable again. I remember watching ESPN to see them break into coverage of both going after the record. I remember when McGwire did it, it was one of the greatest moments in sports that I have ever seen.

Now fast foward to a few years ago, when all of the sudden, it hit the fan about steriod use. All of these records were tainted. Everyone seems to forget about how they jumped on McGwire and Sosa's back during the record, but turned their backs on them when our Government was getting involved and investigating the use of performance enhancement drugs. I can write for hours about all of this, but I will just simply sum it up and say, Mark McGwire deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, first for his resergence in MLB and second with his numbers.

Speaking of the Hall of Fame, I would love to find out who didn't vote for Cal Ripken? Ripken represents what is good in sports and life. He showed up to work everyday and excelled while he was there. He was a class act on the field and off. For those who didn't vote for him. they deserve to lose their voting priviledges. I am tired of these committee members using their votes as a pulpit to spew their venom.

Customer Serviced

One of the most annoying things is dealing with a customer service representative and you know they have no idea what they are talking about. I feel bad for these people, I use to work in Customer Service and I know where they are coming from. It's a very sad state of affairs when the person who deals the closest with the life blood of a company is the lowest paid and the least knowledgeable.

I had a question with my cell phone and something didn't make sense. I called the Customer Service line and they tried to explain it to me. The wind up was they sold me a bill of goods, but didn't explain properly what I was getting. They didn't tell me all of the facts and now it cost me a lot more than it should have. I hate to say the person on the other end of the phone was incompetant, but if it smells like a skunk and it looks like a skunk, it probably is a skunk.

Next to incompetance, I really dislike over compensation. You know when you buy something and you get 5 follow up calls asking the same thing. And each of the Service Reps are reading from a script that doesn't pertain to what I just purchased. If my answer doesn't correspond to their A,B,C or D, they become the telephone equivilant to a deer in headlights.

When you call some of these companies up, the menues you have to go through on the phone kills me. A recording asks you to please state the nature of your call? 9 out of 10 times, the computer on the other end can't decipher what I just said and I have to push "0" for an operator. Mean while, I wasted 5 minutes screaming into the phone telling the computer I have a questions regarding my service.

It's definitely not easy to be a Customer Service Representative. There are a lot of things you must learn and the let's face it, the pay sucks. What is anyone's motivation to do this job only to get yelled out by an irrate customer. There's no wonder all of the Customer Service jobs are moving abroad to India/Pakistan. At least these representatives try, now if only we can understand them better.

Painfully Funny

Two years ago, NBC began advertising a new show called the Office. This was based on a British hit of the same name. The first few episodes were genius. They were subtle and charming and after you watched the show 2 times, the laughs lasted longer. Now, into its third season, The Office has really hit its stride. It has found a balance between funny and ludicrous, the characters are so real, yet far-fetched. The writing has been suberb, they have written this show for people who watch it twice, the first time to laugh out loud and the second time to giggle at the subtitles. I have been reading about the death of the Sitcom for over 2 years, but with shows like the Office, there is still hope. I applaud NBC for giving this mid-season replacement a chance and now they are wreeping the rewards.

Wild Card Predictions

Yes, its that time of the year, the NFL Playoffs kick off this weekend and where who would I be if I didn't put in my 2 cents. So what makes me qualified? Well, let's see, I am about 58% right on my picks throughout the season. So here I go.

Game 1 Kansas City at Indianapolis. Everyone is talking about how KC is going to upset Indy. Larry Johnson will run all over the Colts Running Defense. Well, that's not gonna happen. Indy wins and wins big. Infact, Larry Johnson is a non-factor in this game. By the time he gets his 130 yards of rushing, the Colts will already be up by 4 touchdowns. Peyton Manning will throw for 400 yards and 4 TDs. Joseph Addai will run for 100 and the Colts Defense will surprise EVERYONE but yours truly. Final Score: Colts 48 - Cheifs 24

Game 2 Cowboys at Seattle. I have been saying since Tony Roma took over as QB he is still a first year QB and has some growing pains. He has no line blocking for him and his running game isn't consistant enough. Mix in their TO drops over a pass per game and usually in a crucial situation. Seattle has been God Awful this year. The only reason they won the NFC West is because the Rams and 49ers couldn't beat win a big game. Shawn Alexaner is poised to have a big game. Matt Hasselbeck hasn't been what he was last season. The Seattle Secondary is all beat up. Something has to give. Dallas is on the road in one of the toughest places to play. It's loud and cold and usually wet, can Seattle take advantage? This will come down to the Running Game. Who can stop the other teams Rushing? I think Marion Barber and Julius Jones have huge games both rushing for over 160 yards. Score: Dallas 21 - Seattle 10

Game 3 - NY Jets at New England. Don't bet against the Patriots in the playoffs. Especially against a team that is a division rival that embarrassed them at home a month or so earlier. Oh by the way, the Jets coach was a former New England Assistant, who tried to recruit Patriots on his way out the door last season. Tom Brady will have a HUGE game. Score: New England 27 - NY Jets 9

Game 4 - NY Giants at Philadelphia. This most interesting game of the weekend. In the beginning of the season, when all of the talking heads said Washington and Dallas are the teams to beat in the NFC East, I questioned them? The Giants, despite lousy coaching, are a solid playoff team and Philly is better than the teams that went to the first 3 NFC Championship games (pre-TO) I predicted McNabb the MVP and huge seasons for Shockey and TIKI. I was kinda right, when the Giants are healthy, they are a solid team and The Eagles are playing near perfect football to close out the season. I predicted the Eagles would lose the last 5 games this season and I was wrong each time. Score: NY Giants 21 - Philadelphia 16 (Let's hope for 6 in a row)

An American First

For the first time in American History, A Woman is the Speaker of the House. Nancy Pelosi seems poised to take the ball and run with it. Democrats have a lot of work to do in Congress as well as the Senate. I feel our Country has been knocked back to the dark ages and hopefully this change will put us back where we are suppose to be.

I applaud how far our country has come, but we still have a far way to go.

Black and White

There is nothing perfect in this world that is black and white, with the exception of the cookie. Everything is in shades of gray. With that in mind, I read three things today that kind of bothered me:

1. Pat Robertson's admission God talked to him during a prayer session and said a horrific terrorist attack will take place this year on American Soil.

2. Max Mayfield, former Director of the National Hurricane Center, predicted "The Big One" is going to hit. He claims it will make Hurricane Katrina look like small. He didn't say when it will hit, but he said it will.

3. Nick Saban takes the University of Alabama job after months of saying he has no interest.

First of all, Pat Robertson's name hasn't been in the main stream news recently, so I will chalk this story up on him missing seeing his name somewhere other than his own network. Suppose 07 goes by and this prediction doesn't come true, what shall we make it it? Did God give him the wrong information? Did he misinterpret the information God gave him? Next time Robertson says he heard from God during a prayer session, he might leave things a little open. The last Man who said he heard from God was Reggie White and God told Reggie to sign with the Green Bay Packers to win a championship.

Second, Max Mayfield, a respected and revered leader when it comes to Hurricane's retired from his post as Director of the National Hurricane Center. Mayfield, 58, was burned out from the position. He is afraid of the big one hitting and instead of claiming it will hit in a year, 2 or 5, he just said, in his opinion it will hit and we are not prepared. He stated, construction along coastlines aren't to where they should be and most people don't have an escape plan. This past Hurricane Season, I was definitely more prepared than ever. This coming Hurricane Season, my preparations will include an escape plan too.

Third, Nick Saban, a respected college football coach, wanted to give a try in the NFL. After 2 mediocre seasons with the Miami Dolphins, he gave it up to take the head coach job at Alabama. The Press and fans were all over Saban for first denying interest in the 'Bama job only to wind up taking it. One Talking Head even criticized Saban for not practicing what he preaches (Telling his team to put it all on the line on field.) I don't blame Saban for leaving Miami. It was a no win situation for him. If he would have said he was interested in another job during the season, he would have been criticized for being a distraction.

Robertson, Mayfield and Saban all got me thinking today about things that are black and white and shades of gray. The older I get, the more I realize nothing really is black and white. One last thought on a related note, we are put in this world to screw up. Everyone does it, some screw ups are big and others are small. As a person reading or watching someone's mistakes unfold in front of me, I want three things from them if they do screw up. 1. Remorse 2. An Apology 3. Assurance they will not do it again. If they do them, they will get a second chance.

Why Not The Eagles?

When the NFL Season started, I predicted the Eagles would finish 11-5. As things turned out, I wasn't that far off. They started off great, had a little bumpy road and finished the regular season as the hottest team in the NFC. When Donovan McNabb went down, most thought it was the end, but instead they went back to the basics. And now they are in position to make a run.

The Bears are the class of the NFC, but with Rex Grossman playing as eratic as he has plus all of the injuries on the Defensive side of the ball, The Bears will really have to rally to get to Miami.

The Saints have been the most consistent team in the NFC. Drew Brees is having a career year and possibly an MVP season. Sean Payton will win coach of the year. Can they keep it up? Are they due for a let down?

The Seahawks are lucky they are in the NFC West. Between injuries and pathetic play, they are lucky to be where they are. They have been here before, but are they ready to make a run?

The Cowboys are one big problem. TO has been more of a distraction than a consitent player. As good as his numbers are, they should be better, he led the NFL in dropped passes. Tony Romo is a first year QB and will make mistakes.

The Giants will go as far as Tiki Barber takes them. They have too many injuries and a lousy coach. Can they overcome all of these odds?

The Eagles have the best offensive line in the NFL. As long as the tackle, don't drop passes and don't give up the big play, the Eagles have a great chance to win the NFC.

So why not the Eagles?

My First Time!

I remember going to my first Flyers Game back in the Fall of 1983, actually it was November 20, 1983. I was 12 years old and my father took me. I never really watched hockey on television, I didn't understand the game that well. I knew who Bobby Clarke was. I knew Bill Barber, I knew Bernie Parent and the Broad Street Bullies, that was all I knew about the Flyers.

I remember walking down to our seats around the Blue Line at the Old Spectrum. The Ice was a bright white. There was a cool chill in the air. The atmosphere was intoxicating, Within seconds of the puck dropping, I was hooked. The first goal of the game was scored by the Penguins, but the fans still cheered. My dad explained to me the goal scorer was Ron Flockhart, a former Flyer, who was loved the short amount of time he wore the Orange and Black.

I don't remember much about the game, only it was back and forth. The Flyers skated with the such ease, I sat their and watched in amazement. It was great to see the Red Light Blink every time a goal was scored. The Crowd would erupt and you couldn't help but become hooked.

After regulation, the scored was tied at 4 and the game went into over time. This was the Flyers first regular season overtime game. My fondest memory of this game happened in OT, Bobby Clarke lit the lamp giving The Flyers their first OT Win. I remember Clarke scoring on a wrap around and the whole team jump off the bench to celebrate this feat.

I have many memories of Flyers games, but this one was definitely my best one.