SPORTS HITS

I thought we would start our Super Bowl Countdown with a look at the quarterbacks of both teams and break them down first. We will start with Kurt Warner first since he is the veteran of the two. Kurt has somewhat resurrected his career in Arizona when many thought he would be no more than just a backup to Matt Leinert. Well it has turned the other way around and Leinert is backing up Kurt Warner as he has played very well and has the Cardinals one win from a Super Bowl Championship. Kurt has already won a Super Bowl so he knows what to expect and now he must emphasis that to his teammates most who do not really understand what this is all about. Kurt needs to make smart decisions and he cannot afford to turn the ball over if he wants any chance of winning the game against Pittsburgh. Warner knows the offense real well and reads defensive coverages very good so he should be fine.

Ben Roethlisberger has also won a Super Bowl so he also should have plenty of experience in a big game such as this. Pittsburgh also has plenty of guys who remember that Super Bowl win which is big if you ask me. Big Ben has been playing well of late and has not made that many turnovers to hurt his team. This is very important especially on the biggest stage of them all. The quarterback who protects the ball better will probably win this game. Looking over both quarterbacks I really cannot see an edge for either one. I give this a draw. Tomorrow we will take a look at the running backs for both teams and see if anyone has an edge in that department.

After Wake Forest got beat last week the Duke Blue Devils have taken over the throne for the time being. I do not know how long they will be at the top as it seems that is not a good place to be in 2009 in College Basketball. North Carolina was suppose to be the cream of the crop, but it did not work out real well for them. It seems once you get to that perch there always is someone who wants to knock you off.  The rest of the top five are below and two of them were previous No. 1 teams.

2. Connecticut (18-1)
3. Pittsburgh (18-1)
4. Wake Forest (16-1)
5. Oklahoma (19-1)

All week the UConn basketball team were telling people they were going to stop Notre Dame’s 45 game home winning streak, but apparently not a lot of people believe them. After UConn’s 69-61 at Notre Dame I am sure they have some believers now. UConn got 12 points and 19 rebounds from Jeff Adrien and others chipped in as well in the win. The biggest difference though was UConn was much faster to the ball and also shot free throws very well. When you do those things that certainly helps out a lot. The Irish missed a lot of open looks and UConn held them to 33 percent shooting and that will not win you very many games at all.

Saturday, January 24th

One night before Lebron James hit a shot to beat the Warriors so when he traveled to Utah his encore was a 33 point performance and flirted with a triple double. The Cavaliers beat the Utah Jazz by a score of 102-97 and kept the best record in the NBA. James had 14 rebounds and was just one assist away from a triple double against the Jazz.  So far for the Cleveland Cavaliers this has been a magical season and they do not want this ride to end anytime soon. The Cavaliers are still undefeated at home which is something they are very proud of and let us see if they can finish it out undefeated.

Saturday, January 24th

It seems that no matter what Mark McGwire does the steroid question continues to haunt him and now his brother Jay McGwire has come out to say that Mark used HGH and Steroids to prolong his MLB Baseball career. Now it should also be noted that Jay McGwire is writing a book and looking for a publisher to publish it right now so that could have something to do with this admission now.

For Mark this is just another thing that will pull him further down and it is starting to look like the Baseball Hall Of Fame is getting further away from him as we speak. It really is a shame as he has the numbers to get him in, but the steroid questions need to be answered as soon as possible.

Mark’s best solution to this problem would be to just come out and admit that he used HGH and steroids and get it out in the open. I think the baseball writers would eventually put him in as they tend to forgot over time. Now it looks like the ball is in Mark’s glove let’s see what he decides to do with it if anything.

Football fans are very fickle and I can say I am one of those as well. What though amazes me is how everyone in Philadelphia seem to want to get rid of Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb all the time. Yes, they have struggled to win NFC Championship games and usually in the end that is how anyone measures you. I tend to look at it in a little different light. Now change sometimes is good, but just to make a change for the sake of it is not something I totally agree with.

If Eagles fans and the press want Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid out so bad that is all well and good, but they really do need to look at the alternative. Can they really hire someone off the street that can do a better job than Reid. Sure maybe Mike Shanahan and Jon Gruden are available, but are they better than what you have right now.

Take Donovan McNabb yes he has struggled at times, but wasn’t it him who got benched and did not hold his head down he came out and played hard and help the eagles make the playoffs. Sure you can trade him, but can you really do better. I think you will find out it is much tougher than you can imagine. McNabb loves playing in Philadelphia even though he has taken a lot of abuse from the press and fans. Just remember before you decide to ship these two out, you must first find better now that is much tougher than you can imagine.

I was glad to see that Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice finally get in. Today I wanted to take a look at some of the guys who are still waiting to get in and probably should be there already. Andre Dawson was a baseball player who played well almost everywhere he went.  In 21 seasons he hit 438 home runs and also won an MVP, but could only manage 67 percent of the vote.

Mark McGwire who has 583 home runs, but made his mistakes with steroids and his testimony on Capitol hill sure has not helped him could only get 21.9 percent of the vote. I am surprised that it is that low. I thought he would be much higher than that, but apparently the voters are not very happy with him.

I think with the 2010 Baseball  Class we could see just two people as well and that would be Andre Dawson and Bert Blyleven entering the Baseball Hall Of Fame. It is just tough to get in as these entrance exams are very tough.9

We started this all last summer and now we are finally down to the Pittsburgh Steelers vs the Arizona Cardinals. Many people thought the Steelers would be here when this journey started, but not many people thought the Cardinals would be here. I can stand up and say I would have never guessed in a million years the Cardinals would have made it. Now this should be a very interesting Super Bowl on many aspects.

First we will have one of the top offenses in the NFL the Cardinals going against the number one defense in Pittsburgh. They say that defenses win championships so I guess we will find out if that is true. The Arizona Cardinals head coach use to work for the Steelers as an assistant coach before leaving. That means he should know them pretty well and that can only help.

Many people have written off the Cardinals and I will admit I am one of those people. I thought during this run someone would beat them, but that did not happen at all. In fact the Cardinals took on each challenge and won. Now they are just one win away from the ultimate prize. As the game gets closer we will break it down even more so we can hopefully pick a winner. This is one Super Bowl that really could live up to it’s hype.

 
After a 9-3 start the Tampa Bay Buccaneers looked like a playoff team, but four straight losses seem them out of the playoffs and it cost Jon Gruden his job yesterday. Now was the firing justified probably so as Gruden’s team has been inconsistent, but it is not all his fault. First of all the Buccaneers ownership does not like to spend money or bring in good players and that was part of the problem.

So after firing Gruden the Buccaneers of course did what they always do take the easy way out. Raheem Morris who Gruden promoted to defensive coordinator was named head coach. He has no head coaching experience at all great move Bucs. Now do not get me wrong this guy may do a great job for the Buccaneers, but when you got a guy like Mike Shanahan available and you hire this guy really makes no sense. Wait a minute of course it does it saves the owners money. Shanahan would have cost them big money and they do not want to spend that.

Being a Buccaneer fan I feel everyone’s pain. Was I happy with Gruden all the time? No, but you do not fire a coach and hire someone with no experience at all. I guess we will see how this works out for the Buccaneers and Raheem Morris. One of these days the Buccaneer ownership is going to realize that you must hire people who know what they are doing especially if they are a head coach.

It seemed last night that everything the Orlando Magics were shooting from three point land was falling as they hit a record 23 three pointers in a 139-107 rout of the Kings. In fact Orlando shot an outstanding 62 percent from the arc which is hard to believe. Sometimes it is your night and everyone was getting in on the act. Even guys off the bench who seldom play were hitting three pointers. That is how it works sometimes when your in a zone and last night Orlando was just that. Right now Orlando is a team that could be dangerous in the playoffs. I guess we will see if they can keep it up though.

Tuesday, January 13th