Weekend Prophecies - Dec. 22-23

We're coming into the home stretch for my weekly NFL picks and this weekend has no shortage of interesting games on tap. The Giants will try to save Tom Coughlin's job and avoid their traditional late season collapse, the Saints will continue their attempt to overcome a horrible start and become the playoff team everyone expected to see, and the Pats will try to stay perfect against the Tuna's Dolphins. Without further adieu, I give you the picks of the week:

Bills over Giants – The G-men will continue to collapse like a flan in the cupboard as they roll into Buffalo to face the Hawk. For those who don’t know, the Hawk is that fierce wind that comes blowing out of Canada to pound Buffalo (and Eli this week) into winter oblivion.

Packers over Bears – I love watching these NFC North slugfests in late December. Snow, wind, Brett Favre. This is real football. Too bad the second team here is the absolutely pathetic Chicago team that I suffered through watching in the Monday-nighter this week.

Lions over Chiefs – How do you pick one of these teams? Neither of them has won a game since the first weekend of November and I would have picked them both to lose out if they weren’t facing each other. Someone has to escape Sunday with a W, so why not pick the home team?

Colts over Texans – With all of Indy’s injuries and the fact that they’re already pretty much locked in to the number 2 spot, it’s tempting to pick Houston battling for their first winning season. But no … Captain Pants is telling me I have to pick her man, Peyton, or else. Okay dear, I’ll put the brakes on the upset express.

Saints over Eagles – I think I pick Philly wrong every week and this will likely be no different. The Eagles followed up a solid game against the Pats with a lousy showing the next week and I think they’ll follow up their win over Dallas with another poor showing at the Superdome. New Orleans needs a W to have any shot at the playoffs, so they’ll be more motivated than an Eagles team that has already been eliminated.

Jaguars over Raiders – David Garrard has very quietly become the most efficient passer in the league, hasn’t he? With an 8-1 TD-INT ratio, I’d happily let him guide my team any day. A game against the Raiders should only enhance those stats!

Patriots over Dolphins – This game added some intrigue with the Bill Parcells being hired by the Dolphins this week. Rumours are flying around that the Tuna is going to try and lure Scott Pioli away from the Pats as his new GM and the interest level on this game goes up with the general animosity in the history between Parcells and the Pats. But really, this game is one of the best teams in history against one of the worst. The guys in the owner’s box can’t change that.

Redskins over Vikings – As I discussed in my NFC Wild Card breakdown, Washington needs to win out and get some help which is a tall order. However, they seem to be riding high the last two weeks and they played phenomenally against the Giants. They’re likely to catch Dallas resting up for the playoffs next week, so this one is huge for them. The Vikings sure didn’t look spectacular Monday night against the Bears and I don’t like their offense against the Skins D.

If you get tired of any of the NFL games this weekend, don't forget that you can click over to the Papa John's.com Bowl (the what?!) where a couple of schools you really don't care about will play for what? All you can eat pizza maybe? I'll also be checking up on a slate of hockey games Saturday night that includes the first guy in 12 years to score 5 goals in a game (Gaborik did it last night) facing off against my Red Wings (who, by the way, had the last guy to do it - Fedorov in Dec. 1996). Happy Holidays!

AFC Playoff Picture

The AFC playoff scenarios are not quite as complicated as those in the NFC because there are fewer teams still alive for more playoff spots. Heading into week 16 there are four teams vying for three spots. Pittsburgh and Cleveland are still battling for the division crown, while the loser of the division will battle with Jacksonville and Tennessee for the two wild card berths. Here's how it all rests:

Who Needs What?
Pittsburgh Steelers - If they win their games, they win the division. Simple as that. And with very winnable games against St. Louis and Baltimore, things look pretty good in Steeltown right now. As an added bonus, if they wind up tied with the Browns, they hold the divisional tiebreaker. If it comes down to tiebreakers for a wild card, they hold the upper hand against the Titans, but not the Jags. Bottom line, with one win, they're in.

Cleveland Browns - Two wins and they guarantee themselves at least a wild card berth. Games against the Bengals and the Niners make this look pretty promising. And while they don't hold the divisional tiebreaker against the Steelers, they do hold wild card tiebreakers over both Jacksonville and Tennessee, so even a single win will guarantee them a spot.

Jacksonville Jaguars - With Indy locking up the division title last week, the Jags are left hoping for a wild card spot that is almost certain. Either a single win by the Jags or a single loss by the Titans gets Jacksonville in at this point and with games remaining against Oakland and Houston, they will almost certainly clinch that berth shortly.

Tennessee Titans - The Titans are barely hanging on the their very slim playoff hopes right now. In order for Tennessee to get a wild card berth they need to win both of their remaining games (a tall order with week 17 against the Colts) and two of the three teams above to lose both of their remaining games. With Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Jacksonville all playing sub-500 teams the rest of the way, this sure doesn't seem likely.

What's Going to Happen?
With the games on tap this weekend, I see Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Jacksonville all winning and dashing Tennessee's playoff hopes. In week 17 the Steelers and Browns will still have the division to play for so they won't be resting anyone and both will win again, sealing the division crown for Pittsburgh. Jacksonville will be resting up for the playoffs and will fall short against Houston, leaving both themselves and Cleveland ties at 11-5. Both with get wild card spots, but because of a better divisional record, Cleveland will get the #5 spot and play the Chargers while the Jaguars will face the Steelers. Of course, none of this matters because once the playoffs come, all of these teams will just be battling for the right to lose to the Patriots in their historic march to 19-0.

NFC Wild Card Scenarios

I made the argument on Monday that with 7 of the 8 division titles being all wrapped up, there would be less excitement in the last two weeks of the season. There will, however, still be some interest in the hunt for the wild card spots. Today I'll focus on the chase in the NFC and perhaps later in the week I'll try to figure out the picture in the AFC.

Who's in the Hunt?
There are still four teams vying for the last two spots. The Giants and the Vikings hold their fate in their own hands. A couple of slip-ups though, and the surging Saints and Redskins still have a shot.

Who needs what?
New York Giants - I'm in the camp that says NY is going to blow it. They've got to go to Buffalo this week and will likely play in foul weather. Their QB is struggling and their receivers can't catch. After they lose to the Bills, they've got to face New England who will be going for history. I see the Giants finishing 9-7 and they don't hold any tiebreakers.

Minnesota Vikings - This week's game against the Skins is among the most interesting on the slate. If they win and then beat the Broncos they're in. By beating the Skins but losing to the Broncos, they will need either a Saints loss or the aforementioned collapse by the Giants to get in. Losing to the Skins wouldn't destroy them, but it would mean having to win in Denver and get help from both the Saints and the Giants.

Washington Redskins - The Skins need help from everywhere. Doing their part by beating the Vikes and Cowboys would be a good start, but they would still need either the Giants collapse or a Saints loss for them to get in.

New Orleans Saints - New Orleans just needs to win out and hope for losses from at least two of the three teams above. The only positive going for them right now is that in the case of a tie, the Saints will actually beat out all three of the teams above.

What's Going to Happen?
I predict that the Giants are going to collapse like a flan in a cupboard and finish 9-7. The Skins will beat the Vikes on Sunday but lose to the Cowboys to finish 8-8. Minnesota, after the loss to the Skins, will rely heavily on Adrian Peterson to pick up the win in Denver and finish 9-7. Finally, New Orleans will beat both the Eagles and the Bears down the stretch to also finish 9-7. That will put New Orleans and Minnesota in the 5 and 6 spots respectively to face Tampa and Seattle in the wild card round. Settle in ... at least a few of the games in the final two weeks are going to be exciting!

End of an Era

6-3 in my picks here this weekend. Unfortunately, I'll admit that the rest of my picks were not so good. I got surprised by the lousy play of Dallas and Pittsburgh and by the number of drops by Giants receivers. Has any receiving core had a worse day this year? Eli is struggling enough without his guys dropping six or seven easy catches on him. That is one pathetic looking playoff team that a lucky NFC Division leader is going to face the first week. And speaking of division leaders, when was the last time there was this little drama heading into the last two weeks of the season? With 7 of the 8 divisions already wrapped up, there's only a small race for the wild card spots on the line.

I think the best story of the day (besides Favre breaking Dan Marino's career passing yards record) is Tampa Bay finally returning a kickoff for a touchdown. That's right, in their 32nd season in the league, the Bucs got their first ever touchdown on a kickoff. They were the only team in the league without one. According to a site dedicated to their returning ineptness (PointofNoReturns.com), the Bucs had played 498 games, returned more than 1,900 kickoffs, and gone 11,408 days without ever running one back for six. That all ended with Michael Spurlock's 90 yard return Sunday against the Falcons. And really, after the season and the week that Atlanta has had, why wouldn't the first ever Bucs TD return be against them?

Weekend Prophecies - Dec. 15-16

As you contemplate how it's possible that the Broncos put up 41 on Kansas City in between beatdowns from the Raiders and Texans (not to mention those prior losses to the Lions and Bears), here are a few predictions to contemplate for the games to come ...

Bengals over 49ers – San Francisco is doing everything they can to make sure New England has a high first round pick to use some which way (probably as trade bait). For all of the promise they held at the start of the season, the Niners have sure looked bad all year.

Browns over Bills – In what is surprisingly the most important game of the weekend for playoff scenarios, I’m having a hard time picking. I think Buffalo has been playing over their heads so I’m going to go with the Browns to get another great performance out of Michigan alum Braylon Edwards and Jamal Lewis to play big as the weather turns on Lake Erie.

Packers over Rams – 12-2. Amazing. Anybody think Brett should have retired last year now?

Ravens over Dolphins – 0-14. Even more amazing. With some of the talent the Fins have, and how competitive some of those guys are, I really want to believe that they’ll pull out a win before this season is through. Then again, they’ve just managed to find ways to lose the first 14.

Patriots over Jets – How badly do you think Belichik wants to run up the score on these guys that turned him in for cheating? I want to watch this just to see how ugly it can get!

Bucs over Falcons – Can anything else go wrong for the Falcons? Now their coach has quit on them? This is bizarre. The Bucs should win in a walk.

Seahawks over Panthers – This is the Carolina team that won at home for the first time in more than a year a week or two ago. I’m saying they’re probably not going to repeat that performance for a while.

Colts over Raiders – Peyton will be on the sideline shooting new commercials by halftime.

Chargers over Lions – Even when Detroit did almost everything right last week, they managed to find a way to lose. It leaves me speechless that this team I cheer for every year continues to just destroy all of my hope. I think it’s even harder to take after a 6-2 start and so many signs of promise.

I'll be picking up all of these results on the highlight reel instead of live this week as I hit the slopes in Whistler for the first time of the year! Here's hoping for piles of fresh powder and good times with friends. Enjoy the weekend!

Haven't We Suffered Long Enough?

Yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of Gary Bettman becoming the commish of the NHL. In that time, the league's core audience has become disenfranchised, the league has gone from prime time ESPN coverage to being hidden on, as the guys on PTI call it, "the bike race channel", and we've gone from having great franchises in Canadian cities like Winnipeg and Quebec City to having hockey in Tampa Bay, Atlanta and Pheonix. Bettman's lasting legacy will likely be his push for expansion into new markets trying to drive interest rather than trying to retain a core audience for a sport that simply isn't mainstream. He'll never admit it, but he's got to know that it's been a failure. Aside from a few exceptions (L.A., Dallas, and maybe S.J. & Anaheim), none of the cities south of St. Louis care about or deserve a hockey team. I know that it's difficult for everyone to take, but sometimes the best thing you can do for a business is admit that you're not going to grow as big as you'd like to. The NHL is never going to be as popular as the so called big three in the US and the sooner they can admit that, the better chance they have of not completely destroying the game.

Fortunately, I have a solution. It's drastic, but it could work. It'll also never happen. Here it is anyway though, for anyone who's interested:

1. Contract (aka - eliminate) all teams south of the 37th parallel except for Los Angeles and Dallas. That gets rid of 8 teams and we're down to 22.
   
2. Put two new (or moved) teams in Winnipeg and Quebec City.
3. Recognize that exposure is going to drive interest and that being stuck on Versus isn't doing it. Drop the NBC deal. If you're going to go begging to a network, you've got to pick ESPN, not NBC.

That's it! It's that simple. Here's why these few changes would help:

1. Having six fewer teams in the league will have a dramatic impact on the talent level. The guys who are fourth liners now, won't be able to make the bigs because the top talent from those six contracted teams will be vying for those jobs.
2. Increasing the talent level will do more to drive excitement and improve the game than silly rules like telling the goalie he can't handle the puck or talking about increasing the size of the nets. Making the game better can do nothing but help drive interest.
   
3. The NHL is a ticket-revenue driven business. They will not get a huge TV contract or endorsement deal to bring in the money. As I illustrated last week, the teams in hockey markets have no difficulty charging more money for tickets and selling them out. This is especially true in Canada. While the Canadian teams suffered when the dollar was at about 60 cents, we're now back near parity and the Canadian teams are making record money. I'm not blind enough to believe that the dollar will stay so high, but the 25-30% price premiums that the Canadian teams are charging will go a long way to overcome any drop over the next few years.

Unfortunately, my plan can't happen. The Players Association won't allow the league to retract any teams because it'll cost some guys their livelihoods. And the league is more likely to favour expansion than contraction because of the price that new owners have to pay to get a seat at the table. Bettman has created a monster over these last 15 years, and we're going to be stuck with it long after he packs it in. Now, if we could just get him to do that, perhaps we could think about making progress.

Monday Morning Wrap Up

While 7 out of 8 correct picks in the NFL this weekend would appear to illustrate some level of knowledge from your fair prognosticator, I can't take too much credit. I am 13 out of 15 in my pool before the Monday Nighter this week, but it would seem that most everybody else was also in double digits in the win column, so perhaps this week's picks were just easier.

It looks to me like the Pats are going to have a hard time not being perfect this year. Look for the '72 Dolphins to start crying in their oatmeal instead of popping champagne corks this time around. With only the hapless Jets and Dolphins and a week 17 matchup against the Giants left, I see 16-0 moving into the postseason. And how about Brady burning Anthony "Mr. Guarantee" Smith deep twice for TD's! Hands up if you think Tom was picking on Smith specifically ... no, Pants, you don't have to raise both hands ... that's just mocking.

In NHL news, I was wrong in predicting that the Canucks would pick up a win against Sydney and company. The game turned into the Luongo show with the Crosby being awarded a penalty shot in OT, getting stopped and then getting stopped again once the game went to a shootout. After a long run of sudden death shooters failed to bury anything on Luongo and Canuck's castoff Dany Sabourin, Kris Letang finally settled things in favour of the Pens. The game was actually wildly exciting to watch and the closeness kept me on the edge of my seat through the late going and overtime. The Penguins are a fun team and hopefully they can start to shape the way teams succeed in the league. We could use a lot more teams like this to watch and a lot fewer like trap-happy Minnesota.

Weekend Prophecies - Dec 8-9

Well, it's time for me to go out on a limb and make some predictions again. I started off with a bang last night guessing that Chicago would come out strong and build some more false hope of making the playoffs. Of course, anyone who stayed up into the middle of the night in Washington saw that I was completely wrong. Both teams were lousy, but the Redskins were slightly less bad. Let's hope that my prophecies can be a little better now than they were last week with a 3-4 start.

Bills over Dolphins – Sea World called … apparently the dolphins there are suing to force this JV team to change their name. The claim is that their play is demeaning to dolphins everywhere.

Cowboys over Lions – from 6-2 to 6-10. Is it possible? Probable? It sure is starting to look that way. Why do I keep cheering for this team? I'm starting to feel like a long suffering Boston sports fan. Wait, never mind.

Chargers over Titans – San Diego is finally starting to fire on all cylinders. Tomlinson is running with fire in his eyes and Haynesworth is listed as "questionable" for the Titans. All signs point to a W for SD.

Bucs over Texans – Tampa is getting an awful lot out of Jeff Garcia these days. Makes you wonder how Philly is feeling about running him out of town last year in favour of A.J. Feeley. Garcia’s got nearly a 4-1 TD-INT ratio, a 96.0 passer rating, and has led them to 8 wins with four losing teams left on the sched. Perhaps I'm biased though ... I always cheer for these guys that jump to the big leagues from the CFL.

Vikings over 49ers – Is it too early to crown Peterson rookie of the year? Should the Lions perhaps have considered picking AP instead of Calvin Johnson? I’m going to answer no and no. Peterson is definitely the most impactful rookie of this year, but if the Lions ever decide to throw Johnson the ball, I think they’ll discover a great talent who’s going to last longer than Peterson.

Patriots over Steelers – NE obviously got away with one Monday night. Belichick will have them more focused to take on a Pittsburgh team who haven’t played a game in decent weather in a while. What’s Sunday call for in Foxboro? Forecast says sleet. This’ll be fun to watch!

Browns over Jets – Cleveland got jobbed on the push-out last week that would have won the game (again, I'm bitter because I picked the Brownies). Fortunately for them, they’re still in the playoff picture with several weak teams to wrap up their season.

Colts over Ravens – Is there a Patriots hangover in play this year? The three teams that have kept it close and made it interesting against NE have gone out the next week and laid an egg against much weaker teams. Bad news for the Ravens is that the Colts aren’t much weaker.

Also highlighted this weekend is Sydney Crosby trying to round out his first Western Canada road trip with a perfect record. After beating up on Edmonton and Calgary, I'm forecasting a loss for the Pens against Bobby Lou and the Canucks. Much as it pains me, Vancouver is actually playing pretty well right now and the city is back on the bandwagon after early season woes had the idiot fans calling for Luongo's head again. Will they ever learn? Probably not. This city is worse than Detroit was in the 80's and 90's for running goalies out of town.

NHL Saviour?

Sydney Crosby is coming to Vancouver for the first time in his career this weekend. It’ll be on Hockey Night in Canada and the city is already buzzing about it. The buzz is exactly what I was talking about last week when I said that the NHL has made a good decision to change the schedule up and make this type of game happen in Vancouver more than once every three years. Frankly, the league should be embarrassed that it took this long for the most hyped player in a decade to play his first games in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

With Sydney coming to town, I was curious about ticket prices for the game and that of course led me to curiosity about ticket pricing and availability around the league. Hockey has clearly become a background sport in the US, relegated to spots on Sportscenter behind poker and competitive eating, and I wanted to know how that was affecting prices in traditional and non-traditional markets. To investigate, I looked at the six Canadian teams, the remaining four of the Original Six, and eight more teams from around the league who represented traditional hockey towns (i.e. – Minneapolis) and non-hockey towns (i.e. – Atlanta). I looked up availability for the teams’ next home game that will occur on a weekend.

As expected, it was far easier to get a ticket in the American cities than the Canadian ones. The New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild were the only two American teams that I could not get tickets to through Ticketmaster (or the equivalent websites being utilized by a few odd teams). The Canadian teams, however, with the exception of Ottawa, were all sold out. Interestingly, the cheap seats across all of the US markets averaged the same - roughly $20. This compared with a little more than $32 in Canadian cities. The after-market ticket prices though, followed a more expected curve. The cheapest Craigslist prices in Canada averaged $70, compared to $43 for the US Original Six cities, $39 in the traditional hockey cities, and $28 in the non-traditional markets. The highest prices seen in the after-market were also in Canada where peak prices were more than double those throughout the US.

Some of the more interesting after-market finds included seats in a suite in LA for $125 each but without the requirement to buy the whole suite, $65 seats right on the glass in Tampa, and most interestingly, free tickets to the game in Edmonton next weekend in exchange for two dates (they’re seeking one straight man and one gay man - http://edmonton.craigslist.ca/tix/499030624.html).

Finally, what are those tickets to see Sydney going for this Saturday? Well, if you were fortunate enough to get them from Ticketmaster (only possible if you are a season ticket holder with advance purchase rights), the face values ranged from $58 - $241. Craigslist has those same seats listed from $150 - $450. Maybe Sydney CAN save the league. Though perhaps this is just another Canadian city full of crazed fans who jump on and off the bandwagon, but keep buying seats whatever the cost!

Weekend in Review

Well, once again my NFL picks didn't work out very well. I was on a roll the first half of this season, but the last few weeks have been dark days. While I knew that picking the Lions was dangerous and that calling for the upset in Pittsburgh was likely a mistake, I sit here this morning wondering how on earth Denver lost to Oakland and what the heck happened to the strong play that Feeley showed against the Pats? I didn't get to watch much this weekend, but from all accounts, A.J. handed the Seahawks the game.

In more interesting football news, the top two ranked teams in college football managed, for the second week in a row, to both blow their National Title hopes on the same day. This, of course, left the BCS with a total lack of any teams who have distinguished themselves as legitimate contenders. Rather, there is a wealth of teams who never quite managed to step up and prove that they deserve a shot. There's just one undefeated team left after the regular seasons are all finished, and they aren't being given a shot. Hawaii's non-conference schedule was unusually weak (partly their own fault, but also a bit unlucky that a team like Washington stunk this season) and their strength of schedule ranking killed their shot at climbing into the title game. But if not this year, then when will a non-BCS conference team climb in? No BCS teams proved themselves worthy, why not give Hawaii a shot? They at least went out and won all the games they were supposed to win. Not like OSU or LSU who are in. Not like USC or any of the other teams who remain ranked ahead of them. I'm hoping that Hawaii goes out to the Sugar Bowl and beats Georgia up. If they can prove themselves against one of the real contenders on new year's day, it might at least finally drive some change in the BCS to determine a less artificial National Champion. We can only hope.

And Another Thing ...

One more prediction and one quick rave as we head into the weekend ...

First, the rave. The NHL board of governors has decided to change the schedule up again. I know that 99.99% of people are now saying "the NHwho?". But this is important. It's a lot easier to market stars like Sydney Crosby coming to town than it is to sell an eighth game each year between Detroit and Columbus. The new schedule will allow the Original Six teams to actually face each other more than once every three years and revive some old rivalries that were canned to try and create new ones. I'm usually very negative on Bettman and his gang of weenies, but on this one, they got something right. Two thumbs up.

Now for the Prophecy ...
In between college football games this Saturday, try to check out the coverage of Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The coverage is on NBC from 4:30 - 6:00 pm ET. I'm predicting that Macca (Chris McCormack) will win the men's race in a time around 8 hours and 15 minutes ahead of Craig Alexander of last years dream team Tri Dubai. I'll go with an upset on the women's side ... maybe Chrissie Wellington of the UK over our proud Canadian Samantha McGlone! Okay ... so the race was a month and a half ago and these prophecies are obviously right ... my blog, my rules. Just check it out. This is an awesome event where you get to see thousands of incredible people put everything they have on the line for 8-9 hours (or up to 17 for the age-group racers!). Get inspired!

Weekend Prophecies - Dec. 1-2

Here’s what you can expect from the Weekend Prophecies here at the Wing: a selection of the NFL picks during football season (probably seven or eight games), random forecasts of other games and events throughout the rest of the year, and all of my twisted logic behind the picks. Will I be right? Don’t bet on it. Will I be chock full of excuses as to why I was wrong? That’s a safer bet! And will I gloat about being wiser than Carnac when I have a hot weekend? Absolutely. So, without further adieu, here are my picks for week 13 in the NFL.

Cowboys over Cheeseheads – yeah, the game was last night, so I’m one for one. I can pick retroactively. My blog, my rules.

Titans over Texans – can I pick both teams to lose? No? Okay then, Haynesworth is coming back from injury but likely won't be 100% so Tennessee’s defense will still be hopeless. Houston will be able to run all over them with … wait a second … with who? They haven’t got anyone you say? Yeah, okay then, I'll pick the Vince Youngs.

Rams over Falcons – Bulger’s concussion problem has ruled him out. Therefore, which Detroit Lions castoff QB do I choose? Gus Frerotte or Joey Harrington? Hmm … the guy that fumbled to blow a shot at beating Seattle or the guy whose passer rating was less than 40 last week? Well, it’s in St. Louis at least. I suppose I’ll take home field advantage.

Lions over Vikes – This is your first look at me picking with my heart instead of my head. The Leos suck, I know that. But seriously, do you think Minnesota can repeat that performance from NY? I sure don’t. And Detroit's got to put together another decent game sometime. Right?

Eagles over Seahawks – Seattle are total frauds. They haven’t beaten a team with a winning record and they should have lost to St. Louis last week (yeah, I had picked the Rams … I’m bitter). I know Philly doesn’t have a winning record either, but they sure hung tough against Team Perfecto last week.

Broncos over Raiders – I just hope that Oakland doesn’t have anyone to return kicks. How did Sauerbrun not get cut this week? Guess they couldn’t find anyone else to kick it down the middle of the field and flop in front of the returner while he gains several hundred yards.

Bengals over Steelers – this is my upset special for the week. All of Pittsburgh’s losses have come to sub-500 teams and Cincy showed that they do actually remember how to play with the win over the Titans. It’s supposed to be sloppy again at Heinz Sunday night, so this one could be must-miss TV on NBC, just like the Monday night slog-fest.

Tune in Monday when I’ll make excuses for having most of the above completely wrong and I’ll try to predict how quickly the game between the Pats and the Ravens becomes a walkover. You can also look forward to a rant about the BCS next week with College Football wrapping up on the weekend. No one knows who’ll play for the crown yet, but you can be certain that there’ll be controversy!

Welcome to my Virtual Man Room

Allow myself to introduce… myself. I’m a random schmuck from Canada who can’t get enough of sports. All sports. I am a hockey player, a golfer, a triathlete, a skier, and a snowboarder, just to name a few. And I’ll try just about any other sport you want to throw at me. I watch too much football and can’t change the channel during the NHL playoffs. I get caught up in the craziness of the first weekend of March Madness and then count down the next couple of weeks until the Masters. Basically, I’m a certifiable sports nut.

My fiancée, Captain Pants as she shall be known herein, made the suggestion that perhaps I should start blogging my rants and other thoughts on sports. I have a feeling that she just wanted to stop being the outlet for all of them, but regardless, I liked the idea. So here I am, with a new blog for the world to see my occasionally humble opinion of everything athletic and its culture.

What might you expect to find here? I’ll likely rant on random topics as they arise on the sports horizon (like for instance, the size of Barry Bonds’ head). And I’ll rave about the patience of my dear fiancée as she tolerates the constant stream of sports on the TV. I haven’t worked out the rest yet, but amongst my rants and raves, I’ll post some links to others' opinions that strike me as interesting, and it will probably include my predictions for the weekend in sports on Fridays, followed up by something on Monday where I either gloat or generate excuses for how I couldn’t possibly have been expected to know what would happen. I do know that my goal is to provide some insight, to occasionally entertain, and to introduce you, the reader, to sports that you might otherwise have ignored (see: triathlon et al).

Finally, I have the benefit of not having editors to pass these commentaries through. That will inevitably not be a benefit from time to time. I am not unbiased, nor will I always try to be. I’m a Detroit sports fan having grown up nearby and will therefore cheer with the Red Wings and suffer with the Lions. That’s just the way I roll.

Come back often! I hope you enjoy.