I give in...

Okay, I'll admit it. I was one of those NFL fans who didn't think the New England Patriots would go undefeated in the regular season. Sooner or later, I felt, that somewhere down the line they would get knocked off. Someone like the Colts...Eagles...Ravens....Steelers....Giants?

It never happened.

Saturday night the Patriots made history in their 38-35 defeat over the New York Giants.

New England became the first-ever team to go 16-0 in the regular season.

Tom Brady threw for his 50th TD pass, the new single-season TD record.

Randy Moss broke Jerry Rice's single-season TD reception record when he caught a 65-yard bomb from Brady and scored his 23rd TD reception.

New England scored 589 points this season smashing the 1998 Minnesota Vikings single-season scoring record of 556.

With an offense that can score when "they-so-please" and a resilient defense the Patriots are almost a lock-in for Super Bowl XLII.

Yet, despite all of the accolades accomplished during the regular-season, it's just that. The "regular-season". All will be counted as lost if they don't complete the main objective for any club, a championship.

So with that perspective there is really only one number that matters now.

Three.

That's the number of wins before New England can raise the Lombardi trophy and truly be Perfect.

Cold Miami

It's amazing how in sports everything can change in a few seasons, one season. By far the biggest disappointment this season in the NBA has been none other than the pitiful Miami Heat.

Miami have two stars, Shaq and D-Wade, who are destined for the Hall of Fame, but the personnel around them seems as if someone threw the team together by playing a game of darts and landing on obscure players. Miami is 8-23.Just in case you are wondering, that's the second-worst record in the entire National Basketball Association. Miami has looked slow, old, and down-right pitiful. Miami got swept by Chicago in the first-round of the playoffs last year and started this season losing nine of their first eleven games.

Let's not forget that Miami won the title in the 2005-2006 season. But this isn't the same team by any stretch of the imagination. No Damon Jones. No James Posey. No Gary Payton. Now, no Alonzo Mourning.

Will Miami make the playoffs this season? Negative. That at the moment shouldn't be focus. Rather, Pat Riley is going to have to find some new pieces to this puzzled that looks utterly confusing. Until then....

There's always next season.

Heard this Tune Before....

Have you ever been in the car and heard a particular song one on station, then after that song is over, the station goes to a GEICO commercial, you switch to another station but its the same song on. So, you switch to your third option....then fourth......then fifth.......then the dreaded sixth option. And come to find out all the stations are playing the exact song at the same time. You become irritated. Frustrated. So, what do you do? Turn it off.

Six days ago the Mitchell Report came out oozing with Major League Baseball names that had, at some time or another, taken some type of performance-enhancing drug. The 409-page report had big names such as, Barry Bonds, Miguel Tejada, Jason Giambi, and Andy Pettitte. Yet, one name stuck out. Roger "The Rocket" Clemens.

Clemens has seven CY Young awards, the only athlete to appear on five Sports Center commercials and a guaranteed spot waiting on him in Coopers Town. But, not so fast.

Clemens came out yesterday and denied ever using steroids or HGH or anything for that matter. Well, the public has been lied to before. It's like sports athletes have become the little boy who cried wolf.

Remember Marion Jones.

What I'm waiting for is to see the response from the public and the sports media. Will they begin to rip away at everything that Clemens has worked for like they did with Barry Bonds? Or will Clemens get a slap on the wrist?

Cheating isn't new. It's been around for years, decades, generations. So lets not act like we are shocked. The only thing that is shocking is the fact that our so-called superstars are now turning out to be the villains.

Only time will tell to see what happens to Clemens. He denied ever "juicing".

Sure.

But for now, I'm just going to change stations.

Oh look...... Hockey is on.

Same Fate: Different Face

(Photo courtesy of Google)

Sean Taylor died yesterday at the age of 24. Some of you may have a brother, sister, friend, or maybe you are 24 yourself, so you can only imagine how "young" 24 really is. Sean Taylor was a safety for the Washington Redskins. He led them this season in interceptions. He was a pro-bowler. He was an All-American in college and was making a "killing" in the NFL.
So, you may be asking yourself, "just because he was a football player, does that make him special? Just because he made millions does he deserve special attention?"
The answer to both of those questions is: No.
Everyday black kids are dying on the streets of rough neighbor hoods, playgrounds, suburban sidewalks.
According to the Bureau of Justice, in 2005, black males, 18-24 years old, had the highest homicide victimization rates. Their rates were more than double the rates for black males age 25 and older and almost 4 times the rates for black males 14-17 years old.
According to the Bureau of Justice,white male young adults (18-24 years old), offending rates fell to an all-time low in 2005.
What Happened to Taylor could have happened to anyone, but it was more likely to happen to Taylor because he was black.
There is a serious epidemic hovering over our nation, our culture. And it needs to be dealt with. Black-on- black violence, gun violence, domestic violence. It's a plague and like a difficult math problem we can't figure out the equation.
Something needs to happen.
Something must happen.
Otherwise our children and their children can never play hopscotch or "wall ball" like we once did and truly feel safe.
Taylor wasn't different. Taylor was another victim. He just brought the issue back to center-stage.

The Real MVP

If you were to take a quick glance at ESPN, you might think that Tom Brady and his 38 touchdown passes is the MVP of the NFL. Wrong. Maybe, Randy Moss? Or Tony Romo? Or even Ben Roethlisberger? Those are all valid choices, yet all terribly wrong. With all of the records being broken and the hype around a perfect season, one name sticks out: Brett Favre.

Favre this season has resurrected. He's playing his best ball since his three-time MVP seasons in 1995-1997. Favre has his beloved Green Bay Packers looking like Lombardi's Packers. Without a doubt, if Favre wasn't on the Packers, if he would have decided to call-it-quits in the off-season and not keep all the nation impatiently waiting, the Packers would not be atop the NFC North.

The crazy thing is: nothing has changed about Favre. He's still that loose, reckless cannon that torched defenses ever since he has been in the league. Yes, Peyton Manning may be the best "General" on the field or Brady may be able to make the "toughest" throws, but Favre does something that neither of them do. Favre, all by his lonesome, takes a sub-par team with a decent defense and creates a Super Bowl contender. If that's not valuable, then I don't know what is.

"A Sad Day for Baseball"

I came home from a long day of work and sat down ready to watch the afternoon edition of SportsCenter. It was a quiet, windy day outside. Until, I read the "Breaking News" at the bottom of my television screen. My only reaction to seeing that the current Home Run KingPin, Barry Bonds, was indicted Thursday on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice was "Dag, Barry!"

After all the allegations and rumors and books and claims and home runs, Bonds finally hit a wall. Since December 2003, federal investigators must have gathered more information leading up to this deferred indictment. It's intriguing that on the same day that the career-halting indictment hit the public's ears, Bond's ex-trainer, Greg Anderson,was released from prison. Anderson didn't want to testify against his close friend. A noble decision, but we'll have to see how that piece of the puzzle pans out.

Bonds will appear before a U.S. District Court on December 7th in San Francisco. He may opt towards the plea bargain or he may desire to take it to trial. In whatever scenario, Bonds career will forever be plagued with this scandal. Ironically enough, although many MLB fans didn't support Bonds during his chase after Hank Aaron's Home Run Record, it's still without a doubt a sad day for America's favorite pastime.

NBA Baby!

Well, the NBA 2007-2008 season is here and hopefully it will be more exciting than last year’s blah blah blah season. Yet, fear not basketball fans for there are some key stories that will, not only, reincarnate the excitement we saw in the 2005-2006 season, when the Miami Heat took it all, but also add an additional edge that will make this season the best in the last five years. So, I’ve decided to take it upon myself and pinpoint that which will revitalize the joy for some old’ school basketball:

20: Will Dikembe Mutombo ever retire?

19. How will the Hornets return to the N.O affect their play.

18. How will Isaiah Thomas and the New York Knicks rebound after the debacle in the courtroom during the off-season

17. Can the Cleveland Cavaliers get back to the NBA Finals

16. How terrible will the Minnesota Timberwolves be this season

15. Who will be the surprise team in the West that will come out of nowhere

14. Who besides Kevin Durant will win Rookie of the Year

13. Is Shaquille O’Neal washed up?

12. How will the Dallas Mavericks bounce back from their first-round exit embarrassment

11. Why this season Darko Milicic will finally show why he was selected ^nd overall in 2003

10. Who will have an outstanding first-half of the season and still not make the All-Star team

9. Will Lebron James get any better

8. Who are the real Detroit Pistons

7. Is Dwight Howard the next Wilt Chamberlain

6. Will Tracy McGrady ever get out of the first-round

5. Why the international players will take over the league

4. How will the loss of Greg Oden affect the NBA this season

3. Do the Denver Nuggets have a legitimate shot at going to the NBA Finals

2. Will the San Antonio Spurs finally make it back-to-back championships

1. Why Kobe Bryant won’t be traded

A-Rod: Money Deserved??

Now, just to set the record straight I think it's absolutely crazy to pay any player, in any sport, the type of money professional athletes get paid. Shaquille O'Neal will get paid $20,000,000 this year. Lebron James, $13,041,250. Kobe Bryant, $19,490,625. Alfonso Soriano, $10,000,000 received for this year. And then there's Alex Rodriguez, the former third basemen for the New York Yankees who has it all. The fame, the women, the charm, the good-looks and, of course, the money; yet he’s missing one vital piece of his statistical-mounting career. A championship.

When the Texas Rangers in 2001 offered A-Rod the world-changing 10-year, $252 million contract everything changed. Rodriguez was no longer just Rodriguez, but A-Rod. He no longer could just play great. He had to be great. He had to make his team great. Like Ruth, Mantle, Jeter, Russell, Magic, Jordan.

A-rod opted out of his contract with the prestigious New York Yankees, leaving three years remaining on his contract. His time with the Yankees was anything but “peaches and cream”. Yes, he put up big numbers and won personal accolades, but could never live up to the hype or the money for that matter. A championship banner was never added to the raptures when he wore pinstripes.

So it makes one wonder: is Alex Rodriguez actually worth all that money? Can he lead a team to the World Series and win it all, because that’s the flaw within A-Rod that keeps him from becoming an all-time elite. You look at championship teams throughout sports and you will see that the best player on the team had to step up, not just be clutch, but lead. And that’s where A-Rod fails miserably. 54 home runs, 156 RBI’s, and a .645 slugging percentage is all well and dandy, but ending four straight seasons on a talent-studded team, with a future hall-of-fame manager, in a baseball town, and a payroll that makes every other team in the league look like the minors, is ridiculous. If you are demanding that type of money, fine. But, you better deliver.

The simple truth is Alex Rodriguez hasn’t delivered. He hasn’t earned his money. Therefore, he hasn’t lived up to the 10-year $252 million-dollar contract that he drags with him form team to team. However, there is still time for A-Rod. He will get picked-up by Anaheim or Detroit or some other team willing to roll the dice on the 32-year-old slugger. A-Rod will blast another 50 homers and 120-plus RBI’s. Yet the question remains, will A-Rod ever win a championship? If so, it would come to no shock because he’s that great of a player. If not…then it would only be right for him to return some of that undeserving money.