Around The Horn

GOLF - If there is anything that is more confusing then the Fed Ex Cup in golf I would be afraid to see it. The announcers and hi light people keep talking about it but to actually find out the standings is not easy. If this is your "Playoff" would you not want to put it out in the public eye a little more. I guess that if you have a scoring system that is near impossible to understand then I guess I would hide it too. The whole playoff thing is so trumped up to try and make tournaments seem more relevant and try and add some better ratings and to force more players to actually play in these tournaments. If not for the money Tiger would have shut it down for the season 3 weeks ago otherwise.. The NASCAR style playoff system just doesn’t work in golf...heck it barely works in NASCAR. It is so bad that Tiger Woods won the thing and was in the final pairing on a Sunday and was surpassed by Phil Mickleson who won the tournament and still it couldn’t draw people in. Mickleson won the tournament, Tiger hung on to win the overall championship and took home the $10M winnings. Mickleson at least had a good line saying, tongue in cheek - I win the tournament and Tiger is the one going home with $10 Million? -

NASCAR- Jimmie Johnson ran his typical Dover race and led the most laps in taking the checkered flag. The win now puts him into second place in the Sprint Cup Standings. Johnson is looking to go for a record 4th straight Cup Championship. As of right now he is in a great position going forward as he is a mere 10 points back. The only trouble with the win is that the driver that has won in Dover has never won the Championship, so he has that working against him. There is also the solid performances from Juan Pablo Montoya and veteran Mark Martin amongst others that are looking to de-throne the reigning Champion.


NFL- The worst possible thing happened in the Vikings game yesterday. Brett Favre threw a last second "gun-slinger" type ball that was grabbed in the end zone for a phenomenal catch by receiver Greg Lewis. After the game Favre said he didn’t even know who caught ball nor did he even know that the guy was even in the huddle but he knew it was a great catch. If people keep encouraging him and giving him praise he will never leave. What is even worse is that the Vikings will be playing the Packers this coming week and this is going to do nothing but bring more attention to Favre and that will just be an ordeal.

There were some just terrible throwback uniforms in play this weekend. Sure it is nice to honour anniversaries with these alternate jerseys but just because you call something vintage doesn’t make them nice or even appealing. The Seattle bright lime green jerseys looked like they were vests from a laser tag game that was just hit and the Houston Texans red "Onesie" was just awful. If you bring these alternate jerseys every week, at what point does it just become a regular uniform?

NCAA- Tim Tebow was sacked in the Florida game and his head violently hit the ground. He was taken to the hospital with a concussion. It is believed that the medical personnel for the Gators were by his side before he even hit the ground. When the chosen one goes down everyone goes triple speed.

Michigan is now 4-0! Trust me I am shocked but know that this is more of a fluke then the turning around of a bad team. Any win is a good win but I am not going to go crazy and overvalue the early record.

#6 California got blown out of the water by the un-ranked Oregon Ducks 42-3. How this happens is beyond me. What makes this loss even worse is that it was one of my "sure thing" Proline picks, you know the game you just throw in so you don’t have to worry about it...so yeah.... between that and Chelsea from some soccer league had a rough couple of tickets on Saturday.

LA Temptation DL - Niki Ghazian

The nights are getting colder and the days are getting shorter and that is the signal that football time is upon us. Now I know that some people will focus on the CFL but that doesn't count. There is the NFL but it is still a bit away. Some others will mention the debut of the Friday night games from the Lingerie Football League but probably for a different reason. Football is football and all three have that in common but each game bringsits own element of entertainment. All three can involve some fun extra elements to a viewer...gambling of course, mind out of the gutters people. So above is a gratuitous photo, just because.

Ok now to the real business, which was, ah....oh yeah football. Kickoff has taken place in the ranks of the NCAA as of this weekend and already there has been some do-in’s a transpiring. On Thursday in the Boise St. game a player from Oregon, LeGarrette Blount lost his mind and did his best to go all Ron Artest and sucker punched another player not during the game but after the game, He then took a shot at one of his own players and then looked to get into the stands before being held back and taken away. So what was the start to his teams season may and should mark the end of his own season.

Some early Highlights
~ Notre Dame needed to start strong just to save face, they did with a 35-0 win
~ Michigan, which had the worst season maybe ever in Ann Arbour last year, allegations of NCAA practice violations and a coach involved in a legal Real Estate situation also needed a big win did so with a 31-7 win
~ In a huge upset not only to the team but for Heiseman candidate Sam Bradford as Oklahoma lost 14-13 to BYU
~ The #1 Florida Gators led by the chosen one Tim Tebow held on in a tight one 62-3
~ Unfortunately Ohio St. held on to win in a tight one over Navy winning by 4. Stupid Buckeyes

If this is how the season is going to go it should prove to be very entertaining and full of story lines...and we havn’t even mentions the giant elephant in the room, yep thats it the dreaded BCS debate which will sure to show it’s dirty little head, probably sooner then we all may want and/or think.

Enjoy the Saturday pigskin action, maybe the only sport where each regular season game can make or break any hope of a title opportunity!

Shots From The Point

Mats Sundin says he has no regrets over his decision to play for the Vancouver Canucks and has yet to decide if he wants to return next year to play or not. He said that it wouldn’t be a money issue if he were to return to play.
Just like last year that money wasn’t an issue and then signed for a pro-rated $8+ million. He better make up his mind in a more timely fashion this year. It took a long time just to get close to game pace and game shape let alone be a serviceable player. Between him and Brett Favre, retirement questions have just become insufferable.

Greg Paulus is returning home to give football one final shot. Paulus will battle for QB job at Syracuse for the Orange. The former point guard for Duke is a former 2 sport star in High School.
Paulus is jeopardising advancing his career as an NFL QB by going to the ‘Cuse and not Michigan, where he was rumoured to go. Everyone knows that the Michigan pedigree for QB’s is legend....wait for it....ary!!!

MLB’s replay policy has taken down the first 2 home runs following a review. Adam LaRoche and Ross Gload both had home runs taken off the board.
"If I could have bet the day this started, I would have put a lot of money on myself to be the first," LaRoche said after the game.
I am all for getting the call right for Home Runs and have no problem with the replay system. I just don’t want to see them on ball/strikes or base calls for the same reason that the steroid issue matters more in baseball then football. It becomes a matter of purity, numbers and history. It is the human element that helps make the game great.

Former Dancing with the Stars contestant and one time decent football player has fox-trotted his way back to the Miami Dolphins. Jason Taylor is set to rejoin the Dolphins for 1 year, at $1.5 million, far less then his past salaries.
I guess Parcells believes that Taylor may actually want to play football again and not go Hollywood just yet and has brought him back to Miami. At his well reduced rate if he is a bust it will be easy to throw him back into the sea.

The Blue Devil Made Me Do It

Greg Paulus has a very big and a very rare decision to make after playing point guard for the Duke Blue Devils. Duke is one of the most prominent basketball programs in all of the NCAA, and the point is a very important position. Paulus wrapped up is basketball career in the NCAA Tournament and one would figure that he would either enter the NBA Draft and hope to be selected or perhaps go over and play professionally overseas for a few years.

Nope not Paulus. He was the Gatorade National Player of the Year as a standout quarterback in high school at Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse, N.Y., and now after 4 years on the hardwood has 1 year of eligibility left to play football if he wishes.

Paulus spent Tuesday on the campus at the University of Michigan and talked with Coach Rich Rodriguez and has also been contacted by several NFL teams and also college programs about playing. One wonders if this might be like a Charlie Ward in reverse where he won the Heisman at Florida State and went to the NBA to play basketball with the Knicks and was not drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft. Difference here is Ward played both sports in college not just high school.
Now here is the obligatory Charlie Ward quote just because... After what was perceived as a anti Jewish statement Ward responded "I didn’t mean to offend any one group because that’s not what I’m about. I have friends that are Jewish. Actually, my friend is a Jewish guy, and his name is Jesus Christ."

Clearly this kid is a very gifted athlete and has all sorts of options at his fingertips. One would think that even only one year of a Michigan QB Pedigree is better then 4 in most other programs, then if he chooses to move on to the NFL he will have a little more solid ground to stand on.

If only he was a Wide Receiver he could be drafted right now first overall by the Detroit Lions.

Day 1 - Let The Madness Begin

Day 1 of March Madness is now in full force and many of the games have been played with just the late games left to be played. There was little in the way of major upsets so far. There were a couple of 7-10 games that went the way of the 10 seeds but none more impressive then those feisty boys from Ann Arbor. Yes that is right, my Michigan Wolverines managed to pull off the upset over Clemson in a tight hard fought game that Michigan managed just to hang on to win. 1 win in the first round shouldn’t make me that happy but for this Michigan team it is huge. I don’t expect them to win another in the tournament, and in fact I am just happy that they finally made it back. It has been 11 years since the Wolverines have even qualified for the big dance. Sure there may have been some NCAA discipline that may have prevented them for a few of those but now they are in. This is no Fab Five for sure but it is a start.I would have liked to see them in the classic yellow or white jerseys not the navy but maybe next game.

As for the rest of the day thus far, games were what we should expect, some blowouts from the #1-16 games and some very close games that went down to the wire.

I had the set up going- 1 game on the TV and used the March Madness on Demand to get 2 others streaming on the computer. It was a great set up and allowed me to stay on top of 3 games at the same time. Madness times call for Madness measures I guess. I did have to break that a bit and throw up the Senators-Canadiens game but had the Michigan game on the computer, so all was good.

I know all about the close games as I decided to play a few tickets on Proline even broke down some games and hedged my bets to cover myself and ensure even just a small payout and.....well lets just say... that needless 3 pointers late in a game that you are clearly going to loose helps NO ONE! Win by 6, tell that to the players, it is like that useless field goal in a football game. It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth, like kissing your sister (I know your sister, and that would not be a cause for celebration for sure). My great plan was crushed and that was some well wasted money. So outside of the 4 brackets that I filled out that is where my outside interest stops. I will watch the games for entertainment and the fun of the brackets but no more Proline. Apparently I have done something to anger the OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming).

Time now for the late games! OOHHH, look who we have up....Duke and as we all know “Certainly Duke is Duke. They're on TV more than Leave it to Beaver reruns” - Former Providence coach Pete Gillen

Around the Horn

Brian Griese threw it up 67 times in Sunday’s game. (38-67, 407)
Says very little for the running game for Tampa Bay, says a lot for the prestigious Michigan Wolverines pedigree for QB’s

Former Michigan QB Tom Brady is my early season MVP candidate.
After watching New England play, Brady hasn’t even played a full quarter and is out for the year and clearly he is the most valuable to his team.

The Mets, after last years collapse or choke job or whatever you want to call it look like they want to make it an annual event.
Sure it isn’t of historic proportions as it was last year but they seem to be trying to do everything in their power to give it away again. As a Braves fan, I will watch and enjoy.

Kyle Busch was dominant in Dover Nationwide race
Kyle Busch was first eliminated in Dover Sprint Cup race with engine failure.
Looks like Kyle chose the wrong race as he has dug himself into a hole in the Chase Championship that will be tough to get out of...No, No, dig up stupid!

Yankee Stadium saw its last game on Sunday.
Did anyone else think that it was a little odd and frankly unjust that it was a game involving the Baltimore Orioles and not the Boston Red Sox?

Blues defenseman Erik Johnson suffered a knee injury. Johnson is a promising young defenseman and high prospect. He was attempting to stop his golf cart and step out to hit his next shot when he jammed his right foot between the accelerator and brake.
This would never happen to a Toronto Maple Leafs player as they have had more then enough practice on the golf course after missing the playoffs the last 3 years.

John Ferguson Junior has been hired as pro scout director in San Jose
Yes, that sound you just heard was Joe Thornton flipping pages looking for that opt-out clause in his contract