Saturday, January 12, 2008

Round 2...


Packers over Seahawks

Brett Favre has one more run in him, taking his permanent 5 o'clock shadow and "The most talented team he's ever been a part of" past Seattle and into the NFC Championship. Close game, but most likely the least exciting of the weekend. If by some chance the Seahawks win, I believe they will go all the way to the Super Bowl, as the Packers are my team to beat in the NFC.

Patriots over Jaguars

I'm not buying into all this hype of the Jaguars being able to take down the mighty Pats. I saw on ESPN's BottomLine that 58% of the fans are picking New England. Don't listen to all of these analysts who are doing their best Nostradamus impression, trying to forecast a team to lose that hasn't in nearly a year. It should be a good game, but I still take New England by 10+. How can you pick against them? Seasoned quarterback, playoff experience, they've been here before and with the cleft chin Brady has, how could you be afraid of David Garrard and Fred Taylor?

Colts over Chargers

Peyton and Co. are the defending champions of this league with something to prove. They have gotten no hype and quietly have one of the best defenses in the league. When these teams met in the regular season it took a San Diego Miracle (Darren Sproles punt and kickoff return, 6 Manning interceptions, 2 Vinitieri missed FGs) to take them out. Despite all of this, Indy still dominated in most categories but the scoreboard-the only one that matters. Don't bet on Peyton making too many mistakes on Sunday.

Giants over Cowboys

I said it once and I'll say it again... man I love being a turtle. No but seriously, Eli Manning is 8-1 this year away from Giants Stadium (Including the playoffs) and I will throw another bone to a determined Giants team. Eli has played well and the G-Men front four (Strahan, Robbins, Cofield and Umenyiora) will be in Tony Romo's face all game long. The only way he can be saved is if Rapunzel throws her hair down from her comfy seat in the press box

Last Week's Record: 3-1
Todd f***in' Collins screwed me otherwise I would have gone undefeated while picking 3/4 road teams to win.

AFC Championship: No surprise here, Colts @ Pats
NFC Championship: Revived G-Men @ Lambeau to face the Pack

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Next Stop: Congress

As I sit here and watch Roger Clemens on 60 Minutes, it has reopened all of the garbage the Mitchell Report brought out that many people, including myself, have thrown on the backburner.


Clemens had about a 15-minute interview in which he repeatedly swore he never took HGH or any other steroids. Brian McNamee claims several specific times in the report times that he personally injected Clemens. 

Clemens opened the interview asking 60 Minutes' Mike Wallace why his 24 years in the majors isn't enough to get the benefit of the doubt from the American public. He asked why he cannot get an inch of trust for all the contributions he's made to the game of baseball. He then claimed America has turned into the "guilty until proven innocent" nation.

There were two things Roger Clemens said that caught my attention. The best point that he made during the interview was when he asked Wallace how he got these alleged steroids. The Mitchell Report says that McNamee injected him, but has no proof on how he got them. The reason this stuck out to me was because many of the others on the list had copies of personal cheques for thousands of dollars for the drugs. Clemens' tarnished name has come at the hand on one man trying to avoid jail time by throwing out a big name trying to clear his own.

The next thing Roger said was that he was just as shocked to hear his good friend Andy Pettitte's name on the list as he was his own. He said he had no idea about Pettitte and that he "Had no knowledge of what Andy was doing". That, if true, says a lot to me because it has been their friendship and training over the years has been well documented. We all knew they were good friends, and we all knew Clemens' workout regiment is the one they used for the actors in "300". 

We will keep finding out more and more, especially if Clemens goes in front of Congress in 10 days. As of now, I can say that I wasn't surprised with that interview other than what I mentioned, and Clemens said basically what was in the statement he released. After Clemens said "Guilty until proven innocent", I really thought about the evidence and realized there isn't much. A single man's story has dragged a 350-game winner's name through the mud. I've changed my opinion because I fell under the guilty until proven innocent crowd, and until there is more evidence, I believe Roger Clemens. I would need to see a personal cheque or some sort of money trail linking him to performance-enhancing drugs at this point to think otherwise.