Weekly Picks

Another big week, I am back to climbing after a tough stretch in the middle of the season. And I already have one in my pocket this week.

SAN DIEGO -9 san francisco
I'm telling you, the Chargers are making the playoffs. They do this every year. Matt Cassel's injury is a big help, but they are making the playoffs. Plus San Francisco scored 40 last week, they'll be lucky to get 14 against the Chargers.

cleveland +1 CINCINNATI
Colt McCoy is starting the Bengals have given up.

PITTSBURGH -5 new york jets
The Jets could be done. Things went very bad very quickly in two weeks and the Steelers are the wrong opponent for a quarterback who has no confidence.

OAKLAND -7 1/2 denver
I'm doing this out of spite because I really don't think Tim Tebow is an NFL quarterback, not now, not ever.

BEST BET
NEW ENGLAND -9 green bay
This line shot higher to 14 when it was announced Matt Flynn was going to play but 9 is the spread we're going with. I think it will be 30 with Flynn, and would have been 20 with Rodgers. The Patriots are just too hot right now. It might be worth it to just pick them every week and see if they let up.


Last week: 3-2 (4 points)
Season: 38-32 (42 points)
Best Bets: 1-0 (9-5)
Home Favorites: 1-1 (13-10)
Home Underdogs: 0-0 (1-0)
Road Favorites: 2-0 (14-14)
Road Underdogs: 0-1 (10-8)

Dr. Oz Has a Nurse Fetish

I can't say I blame Dr. Oz but his fantasy about sexy nurses has landed him in hot water.
A group called The Truth About Nursing says a recent segment about weight loss featured six women wearing high heels, retro nurses' caps and white dresses with red lingerie peeking out, shows a lack of respect for female nurses.



I'm not sure how Mrs. Poop feels about this. She probably doesn't mind and she'd much rather have the Truth About Nursing focus its letter-writing campaign against Pink for her hurtful lyrics.

Song of the Week

"Chick on Da Side" - Koffee Brown
There is almost nothing I love more, musically, than a good male/female duet. It's the reason I love Marvin & Tammi so much. Fonz and Vee have great harmony and great timing in the dueling parts of this song. Their entire album is awesome, but it didn't sell well enough for them to make another one. This is another song I have been looking for on youtube, like "Waist Down", but was able to find only recently.

First One to Answer Wins Nothing

I was in Target paying for my popcorn and as the clerk dropped the 93 cents into my hand she said "you have very soft hands?"
What was my response?

The NFL is Poop - Week 14

I Love a Good Snow Game
And so does Tom Brady. He absolutely eviscerated the Bears’ third ranked defense. Eschewing conventional wisdom against throwing in the snow, Brady threw 40 passes, completing 27 of them for 369 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 36-7 victory. Last year Brady had the best game of his career in the snow, 29 for 34 for 380 yards and 6 touchdowns in a 59-0 victory over the Titans. And of course Tom Brady’s legend started in the snow, with the Tuck Game against the Raiders (32 for 52, 312 yards). For the Patriots, it’s beginning to look a lot like 2007. Since the embarrassing loss to the Cleveland Browns the Pats have won 5 in a row scoring at least 31 each time. And beating good teams over that span, Pittsburgh, the Jets, Indianapolis and Chicago. I wouldn’t want to play them in New England in the playoffs.



As for the Bears. This is the beginning of the end for them. Even if they beat Minnesota on Monday they will lose their last two games against the Jets and Green Bay, costing them the division (even though they got a huge break when Green Bay lost to Detroit). The wild cards will go the Giants and Saints and the Bears will be home for the playoffs.

Sure, It was For His Nephew, Right
After the Eagles defeated his Cowboys 30-27, Cowboys running back Tashard Choice asked Eagles quarterback Michael Vick for his autograph. I know some people had a problem with this, maybe it’s undignified for one player to ask another for an autograph, maybe Choice should have been more somber after a loss (like Derek Anderson). I say give the guy a break, his nephew wanted Vick’s autograph.



Can’t Even Kick an Extra Point
Another embarrassing loss for the Redskins. Ryan Torain had 172 yards rushing but only 14 in the second half on only 6 carries, thanks to idiotic coaching. Thanks to crappy quarterbacking the Redskins started the second half with 3 straight 3 and outs. Thanks to crappy kicking, two missed field goals by Graham Gano, the Redskins need to kick a late extra point just to tie the game. Thanks to lousy long-snapping/holding, the Redskins blew the snap and cost themselves the game.

Not a Good Day for QBs
Here are some of the worst performance by quarterbacks on Sunday (listed in ascending order of rating):
Kyle Orton 27.1
Jay Cutler 32.9
Drew Stanton 39.4
Mark Sanchez 45.3
Carson Palmer 48.7
Brodie Croyle 48.9
Jake Delhomme 49.2
John Skelton 52.3

Amazingly, Drew Stanton and John Skelton were winning QBs. But as the temperature drops, so do the QB ratings.

Have a Nice Trip, See You Next Fall
How did the Jets not fire strength and conditioning coach Sal Alosi? He deliberately stuck his knee out to interfere with Nolan Carroll on punt coverage. I like the fact that he came forward and admitted it right away without pretending it was an accident, but still for something this egregious, for such an inconsequential coach, I think the Jets should have given him the axe.

Cliff Lee Forfeits Millions So His Wife Won't Get Spit On

Free agent pitcher Cliff Lee shocks the world by turning down a 6-year, $132 million contract with the Yankees (with a possible 7th year at $16m) for a 5-year, $108 million (with a likely 6th year at $25m UPDATED) with the Phillies, all because Yankees fans are disgusting pigs.
Kristen Lee was harassed by Yankees fans during the ALCS.
She says they were spitting and throwing beer in her direction and shouting obscenities.
"The fans did not do good things in my heart," she said. "When people are staring at you, and saying horrible things, it's hard not to take it personal."
At the time Lee downplayed the incident because he wanted to keep the Yankees involved in the bidding.
But it’s obvious he didn’t want his family subjected to that behavior for 6 years, especially after these comments were publicized, putting a target on her back.
I mean if you would rather be surrounded by Phillies fans, you must have a pretty low opinion of those people you are likely to run into at a Yankees game.

As for the baseball side of this deal, it obviously gives the Phillies an historically great starting rotation – on paper.
But that is why grass was invented, so we wouldn’t have to play games on paper.
First of all, in baseball we know nothing is for certain, there are injuries and disappointing performances. And even if the Phillies do dominate the regular season, the playoffs can be a crapshoot, they could lose in the first round.
I think this acquisition gives the Phillies a 10 (Halladay), a 9 (Lee), an 8 (Oswalt) and a 7 (Hamels). If one guy gets hurt and one guy has a disappointing year, then their staff really isn’t that much better than it was last year.
And before we start crowning Lee (if you wanna crown him, then crown his ass), we should note that out of 7 full seasons he only has one ERA below 3.00. So in that bandbox it’s not impossible to imagine him checking in with a 3.50 next season.

In summary:
1) As much as I hate the Yankees, I’d rather Lee signed with him, because they don’t directly compete with the Mets.
2) The Mets weren’t going to be able to challenge the Phillies this year anyway. Maybe in a couple years when they rebuild the Halladay and Lee will be in decline and the Phillies will be stuck with two aging pitchers earning $20 million per year.
3) Let’s not start sucking Cliff Lee’s dick just yet.

What Happens If You Get Punched in the Eye 50 Times

I have written several times about my dislike for the fighting style of Georges St. Pierre. It’s incredibly effective, but he never finishes fights.
I also hate Josh Koscheck, who is usually an exciting fighter, but is such a dick (and one of the worst The Ultimate Fighter Coaches not named Rampage ever) that he’s impossible to root for unless you’re JHughes (he loves dicks).
So it was good on two counts Saturday night that GSP finally fought an exciting fight (though he still didn’t finish) and Koscheck got his ass kicked.
GSP knew he wouldn’t have the distinct wrestling advantage he enjoys against other fighters, so he trained on his boxing. He boxed like a champ, breaking Koscheck’s orbital bone in the first round and pounding on it the rest of the fight.
Take a look at the picture below of Koscheck's severely fucked up eye.
The overall card was weak (so is the one for UFC 125) but at least the main event was fun to watch.

Bowl Mania Time

ESPN has its Bowl Mania game up for this year. It's simple. Pick every bowl game and rank them by confidence. This year you even get to pick against Syracuse. Group name is The Poop.

Weekly Picks

BOOM! Finally got that perfect 6 I've been looking for all season. I don't hear much from the haters this season. Every week last year when I was struggling some jerk popped off in the comments section. Nails literally cost himself thousands of dollars last year going against my advice out of spite. Now I've turned it around and all I hear are crickets. Anyway, the strange thing is, I didn't feel confident going into last week, and basically chose my best bet at random, didn't matter. I feel good about a lot of games this week, so we'll see how that works out.

NEW YORK JETS -5 1/2 miami
They'll bounce back.

new york giants -3 MINNESOTA
Whichever quarterback starts for the Vikings is going to have a tough time. The Giants are so good at rushing the passer, running the ball, and throwing it, the only way they lose is when they turn it over. Apparently the G-Men had some travel complications so they aren't getting into Minnesota until Sunday morning, but that shouldn't effect them.

new england -3 CHICAGO
The Patriots are the best team in the league. The Bears are the worst 9-3 team in history. They will lose 3 of 4 and miss the playoffs.

cleveland +1 BUFFALO
Peyton Hillis becomes the first white running back to rush for 1000 yards in about 25 years. And they beat the Bills 13-10.

BEST BET
SAN DIEGO -9 kansas city
This spread has gone way up. I guess that's because Brodie Croyle is playing, and people would much rather look at Brodie Croyle's wife instead. Earlier this season I said betting against a team just because the backup quarterback is playing is often a bad idea. Not in this case. The Chargers are very good and they love to put their own backs against the wall. They will key on the run and force Croyle to beat them. He will throw 3 interceptions, then go home and fuck his hot wife.

Last week: 5-0 (6 points)
Season: 35-30 (38 points)
Best Bets: 1-0 (8-5)
Home Favorites: 3-0 (12-9)
Home Underdogs: 0-0 (1-0)
Road Favorites: 1-0 (12-14)
Road Underdogs: 1-0 (10-7)

CNN Finally Gets a Sense of Humor

Poor Ali Velshi, he's always getting embarrassed like this. The funny thing is, I think the diarrhea scene from Dumb and Dumber was supposed to tease an upcoming story on irritable bowel disease. Is that a funny thing to mock with a movie clip? And even if they planned it, shouldn't they have known better than to do it right after the London riots, with no context at all?

Murray Chass is a Fuckin Moron

I have written before about my hatred for New York Times baseball writer Murray Chass. Now the old fool, who is somehow in the Hall of Fame, has embarrassed himself again.
In a recent article Chass ripped Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci for voting against former union leader Marvin Miller for the Hall of Fame.
Only problem is, Verducci voted for Miller. Chass was fed some bad info by Miller himself who was passing along hearsay about who may have voted against him.
Verducci returns fire, repeatedly referring to Chass as “the blogger.” This actually confused me when I was reading it, thinking he was referring to someone else because surely he would use “Chass” on second reference.
But apparently Chass hates bloggers (like all old-school (read: dead) media types) so this insult is likely to cut Chass to the core.

But beyond the petty dispute between sportswriters, and my ongoing hatred for Murray Chass, let me make a quick remark about Marvin Miller.
I do not think he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. In order for a non-player to make it, I think his contributions have to be undeniable and his legacy untainted.
Miller was integral in creating free agency, a major victory for the players and for fairness. His biggest legacy is the strong labor union.
The downside of that: the players’ strike of 1994 which led to the cancelation of the World Series, the Steroid Era which occurred in large part because of the union’s resistance to steroid testing and the lack of a salary cap which led to an unbelievable salary imbalance causing the near-death of baseball in about ten markets.
With all those negatives on his legacy there is no way Marvin Miller deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
And neither does Murray Chass.

The NFL is Poop - Week 13

From Boy Genius to Bye Genius
Josh McDaniels became the third NFL coach to be fired midseason, seems like an unusually high number for the NFL. He won his first 6 games, then lost almost all the rest. He came setting the house on fire jettisoning his two best players, Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall. It was the manifestation of the Belichickian philosophy, "the players don't matter, the system wins championships." And while the Patriots have succeeded with a rotating array of parts (Tom Brady being a crucial constant) it hasn't worked so well for others. Romeo Crennell, Charlie Weis, Eric Mangini and now McDaniels all failed in their first stops as head coaches.
The other big loser in this is Tim Tebow. The one head coach willing to take a chance on him, thinking he could develop into something is no longer a head coach. And with Kyle Orton being pretty decent, it's unlikely Tebow will ever get to be a QB in Denver.

This Picture Was the Best Part of the Game
I guess I am a glutton for punishment because almost every year I go see the Redskins play the Giants in the Meadowlands aka PaulsFriendLands. New Meadowlands, old Meadowlands, same shitty results. This game was fuckin freezing and the Giants dominated it. We couldn't stop the run, we turned it over 6 times and Donovan McNabb of course, couldn't make a play. The Redskins four remaining games are against Tampa Bay, Dallas, Jacksonville and the Giants. If Vegas put odds on this, you'd get even money to wager on 4 more losses in a row.



But At Least It Wasn't This Bad
The Jets went into New England thinking they were about to make a statement, the closest thing to that would be "we stink." I wonder if there has ever been a game this late in the season between teams with the best record in football, that was a bigger blowout. Doubtful. The last time the Jets lost this bad was 1986, when they were 10-1 and got stomped by the same score by the Dolphins. What are the chances the two biggest blowouts in franchise history happened to teams with awesome records entering the game? With the Jets, I bet it is to be expected. But all is not lost for the Jets. They still are very likely to make the playoffs and they still have a very good team. Perhaps they got a needed dose of humility. If they meet again it will most likely be in New England, but the score will start at 0-0 again.

The Only Team With a Two-Game Divisional Lead?
The Kansas City Chiefs. Despite their many flaws, they have a great running game, a good QB (23-4 INT-TD ratio) and a pretty good defense. They can actually clinch the division with a win in San Diego this week (3 up, 3 to go, tiebreaker in hand). I don't think that will happen, but following that they face St. Louis, Tennessee and Oakland, that should get them to at least 10-6 and a division win.

If the Super Bowl Were Played Today
New England 45 Atlanta 30
The Patriots just look too damn good. The Falcons are doing what they need to do but the last two weeks they barely pulled out the victory and this year's Super Bowl is not in the Georgia Dome.

Song of the Week

"Why Would You Stay?" - Kem

Weekly Picks

Steelers didn't cover, but at least I didn't have to eat my shorts.

NEW YORK GIANTS -7 washington
You know if I'm going the Redskins are going to get absolutely destroyed.

atlanta -3 TAMPA BAY
The Bucs are middle of the road, they beat the bad teams but lose to every good team they face.

NEW ENGLAND -3 new york jets
Teams tend to split these close divisional matchups

cleveland +5 1/2 MIAMI
I don't pick enough underdogs

BEST BET
GREEN BAY -9 san francisco
Green Bay coming off a tough loss against a very good team, San Francisco coming off a big win over a very bad team.


Last week: 2-3 (1 point)
Season: 30-30 (32 points)
Best Bets: 0-1 (7-5)
Home Favorites: 1-1 (9-9)
Home Underdogs: 0-0 (1-0)
Road Favorites: 1-2 (11-14)
Road Underdogs: 0-0 (9-7)

Important Story Update

The Pinstripe Bowl actually kicks off at 3:30 PM so I will be going. Only problem is tickets are $60 for the cheapest seats, not including the rip off fees, (figure $70).
Anyone wishing to join me should contact me by Monday.

Syracuse University Cares About the Kids

Check out this PSA starring Syracuse University Lacrosse legend Gary Gait circa 1990.

And Yet They Still Can't Hit Free Throws

Pretty cool trick shot video starring Syracuse junior guard/benchwarmer Nick Resavy with a special guest appearance from Gerry McNamara

I Would Love To Go To This

The Syracuse Orange are headed for the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.
Director of athletics Daryl Gross accepted the invitation this morning. An opponent has not yet been decided for the Dec. 30 game.
It will be the first NCAA football bowl game in the Bronx since the Gotham Bowl on Dec. 15, 1962, when Nebraska edged Miami 36-34 at the original Yankee Stadium.

I'd like to go to the new Yankee Stadium so this would be a great opportunity to do it without actually seeing the Yankees.
And it might be my only chance to go to a bowl game, without having to travel to a warm weather state.
But December 31 is a normal workday for me so I don't think I can stay out til midnight in the freezing cold.

Happy Hanukah

"Candlelight" - The Maccabeats
Sung to the tune of "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz
"We say Ma'oz tzur for all 8 nights
Then we play dreidel by the candlelight
And I told you once, now I told you twice
About the miracle of the candlelight"

Are Test Drives Overrated?

We are in the process of buying a new car and everyone is saying how important it is that we drive it first. I know that sounds like a good idea and it’s like Golden’s chicken soup (it couldn’t hurt), but I just don’t see the major benefit. I can’t imagine anything I would discover in a 5-minute ride that none of the previous owners or testers hadn’t already discovered. And what could it be that would be unusual to me, that would influence me not to like the car? I could see if I were buying a tiny sports car I wouldn’t fit in. I am not very particular about things where I might object to the feel of the floor mats beneath my feet or the temperature of the air conditioning.

I will do a test drive, but I can’t imagine noticing anything during a test drive that would make me not want to buy the car, or to convince me to buy it.