My Super Bowl Prediction

I've finally broken down the offenses and defenses of both the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. I've studied film of the special teams players for each Super Bowl representative, as well as their running games, wide reciever play and how they each use their tight ends to camoflage screen passes. I've analyzed the coaching careers for both Mike Tomlin and Ken Wisenhunt, how they came into the league, whom they were mentored by, where they got their breaks and how they like their coffee. I've even taken it a step further and looked at the ownership and fan base of each team, how they play on the road, in good weather, in bad weather and what time of day each team plays their best. But you know what? None of it means squat.

All you need to know is that while the Arizona Cardinals are gearing up for the biggest game of their lives, the Pittsburgh Steelers are still looking in their rear view mirror at the New England Patriots. How else do you explain the t-shirt to the left? Because everyone knows that you still have to go through the Patriots to be considered the best. This is similar to the feeling of winning the World Series and not beating the Yankees in the process. It's just not the same.

So while the Steelers are laughing at Tom Brady and the Patriots and planning their Super Bowl parade, I believe that Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Kurt Warner and the Edge will be the ones laughing at the end. Screw the stats, screw the defense, screw the fact that Kurt Warner is one of the most over rated players ever, screw the fact that the Cardinals haven't been here before, screw the fact that they'll be considered the worst Super Bowl winner ever, I'm picking them.

Final Score:
Arizona Cardinals 38
Pittsburgh Steerls 21

Jason Varitek Gets Screwed, Stays With Sox

According to the Boston Globe, Jason Varitek finally agreed to sign with the Red Sox today for one year and an option for the second year. Like there was ever any doubt. Where else would a 37 year old catcher coming off of a year in which he hit .220 go? I wrote last week how dumb Varitek and snake agent Scott Boras were for turning down arbitration where he would have likely made around $11 million next year alone. If Varitek plays out both years for the Sox and makes the full value of the contract, he'll basically be making the same amount in two years that he would have made in just one year had he accepted arbitration.

Do I love this move? Not really. I would have liked to have seen the Sox cut ties with him and go out and sign a younger guy for less money. I have no doubt that Varitek contributed to the Red Sox winning two World Series title this decade but let's face it: aging catchers don't get better and last year was probably the beginning of the end for Varitek. So what are we in for this year? Is he going to be worse than last year, especially now that he's basically playing for less money? I'm not a betting man but even I'd put a little money on him being worse next year.

I also hate the argument that says that the pitching staff would suffer if we didn't have Varitek. Did anyone ever think that maybe they'd be better with someone else calling games? Maybe Daisuke Matsuzaka wouldn't walk so many people with someone else calling the shots or maybe Josh Beckett would be more consistent. But those arguments are never mentioned, only that the pitching staff would fall apart without Varitek. So the Captain is back for at least another year and while I'm glad that he's back, I'll be the first one to boo him if he can't get his average above the Mendoza line next year.

Oh, and do you think that Boras should be making any commission off of this deal, knowing that Varitek should have accepted arbitration and be making $11 million?

It's Time to Trade Tom Brady

Last week I wrote an article about how it may be time to trade Tom Brady. My, how things have changed. Today, I'm writing about it being time to trade Tom Brady. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it- he's got to go. I've analyzed this situation from a lot of different angles and I was finally pushed over the edge by one Thomas Edward Brady, Jr. Since going down with a season ending injury in the first quarter of the first game, Brady has pretty much disappeared. Well, except for the fact that we learned that he likes rare art and he also got engaged. And neither of those topics has me very excited to see number 12 back in a Patriots uniform come next year.

All of this leads up to the event that has pushed me from being a Tom Brady sycophant to a staunch Matt Cassel supporter: Brady did a radio interview. Seems pretty simple, right? The guy is entitled to do radio interviews. But do you think this interview took place on local sports station WEEI where he does a quarterback hour with Boomer Esiason during the season? Nope. Okay then, it must have been some radio station near his home in California, right? Nope. In fact, the radio interview took place on a radio station in Canada. So we hear virtually nothing from Brady the entire season and then he surfaces in Canada! He's kidding, right? He's pretty much fallen off the face of the earth since his injury and then he spurns the entire Boston media market for a radio interview in Canada?

Anyway, the most egregious part of the whole story is that he was also pushing some special sports medicine cream called Myo-med, which is ironically a banned substance by the NFL. In addition to the odd fact that Brady was on the radio station in Canada, I'm also confused as to why people in Canada would care about Tom Brady?

So there you have it. In the year since losing the Super Bowl in a crushing defeat to the Giants, Brady basically has closed the door on his football career. First it was the art exhibits with Gisele, the public events with Eli Manning, wearing a Yankees cap and his numeruos photo shoots for Calvin Klein and Stetson. In addition, during the NFL's biggest week, where do you think Brady is? If you guessed working on his rehab back at Foxboro in an attempt to come back at 128.7 percent next year while working on his deep ball then you would be completely wrong. If you guessed in Mexico with Gisele, then you're getting warmer. Apparently Brady likes all of the countries just to the North and South of America.

Anyway, doing this interview was too much. It's time for this to end. I'll take Matt Cassel any day of the week over Brady and twice on Sunday because, in the immortal words of Bill Parcells, "Football players play football." And I think it's becoming increasingly apparent that Tom Brady is no longer a football player.

This is the NFC's Super Bowl Representative?

Over the last month, I've really been ragging on the Arizona Cardinals. For one, they won the weakest division in the NFL at 9-7 so right away you know that they're not very good. More importantly, this was a team that came to Foxboro the second to last week of the year and got completely embarassed 47-7. As I've written before, the score wasn't even that close.

They had a decent win at home the first week of the playoffs against an up-and-coming Atlanta Falcons team and then watched Jake Delhomme of the Carolina Panthers put on a turnover clinic for their benefit. Back at home last week, they gritted out a tough win against the Philadelphia Eagles and Donovan McNabb's mother to earn their first trip to the Super Bowl.

I was embarassed for the Cardinals when they lost to New England, I was embarassed when they made the playoffs and now I'm embarassed that they're in the Super Bowl. Which is why I think I'm going to pick them to win. Then the Patriots can say that they beat the Super Bowl champions. Although, they can say the same thing about the previous year, too. I feel sick.

Patriots Favored to Win the Super Bowl

In a shocking development, the New England Patriots, who didn't even make the playoffs, are now 6-1 favorites to win the Super Bowl. I'm not even sure how that's possible but apparently the Pittsburgh Steelers forfeited their spot and the NFL automatically replaced them with the Patriots. Oh, now I see, the Patriots are 6-1 favorites to win the Super Bowl next year. Got it. That makes more sense.

Anyway, this just goes to show everyone around the country that the path to the Lombardi Trophy still goes through Foxboro. I think that everyone is starting to see just how much of a dynasty the Patriots have become by being able to insert bench guys into starting roles and still having success. This is a team that didn't even make the playoffs this year, has a quarteback controversy beginning to brew and has tons of holes on the defensive side of the ball. And they're still favored to win the Super Bowl. It's great to live in the City of Champions!

The timing of this report is also interesting because it just goes to show that people have basically already forgotten about this year's Super Bowl and it hasn't even been played.

Anyway, looks like it might be time to fire up the duck boats again.

Baseball Ponderings

There's been a lot going on in the baseball world the last few weeks that has me jacked and pumped for the start of spring training. Yeah, there have been a ton of free agent signings recently but I'm more interested in what hasn't happened than in what has happened. Here's a snapshot of what's gone down lately:

The Red Sox held a private meeting with free agent catcher Jason Varitek in Atlanta a few days ago, without his agent, Scott Boras. The Red Sox have soured on Boras this offseason because of the Mark Teixeira dealing and now are trying to work on a deal with Varitek that doesn't involve Boras. Here's the thing- Boras told Varitek to decline arbitration, where the captain would have made $10-11 million next year and also stayed with the Sox. By declining arbitration, Varitek screwed himself. There is no other market for an aging catcher who can't do anything but call a decent game. I wouldn't mind seeing Varitek come back but the deal has to be $3-4 million for a year with incentives. Remember, this is a guy who hit .222 last year and can't even catch the knuckball.

And speaking of Boras, in addition to screwing Varitek, he has also screwed Manny Ramirez, not that there's anything wrong with that. Since Ramirez already had a contract with the Red Sox when Ramirez hired Boras, the slimy agent wasn't earning any commission on his contract. So Boras did the only thing he knows how to do- he got Ramirez to shoot his way out of town and then lit up the weak National League West the last half of the year in an attempt to get a five year, $125 deal. Since Boras helped Teixeira land in New York, they dropped out of the running for Ramirez, essentially leaving the so called greatest right handed hitter of our time without a team less than a month from spring training. Had Teixeira signed with the Red Sox, the Yankees almost certainly would have gone hard after Ramirez. Now the only team that has shown any interest in him are the Dodgers, where the two year, $45 million offer may or may not be on the table. And let's not forget that Ramirez was already slated to make $40 million over the next two years had he not shot his way out of Boston. It would give me imense pleasure to see Ramirez sign on with some team that has no shot of making the post season for less than what he would have made in Boston. You think he was a headache before this debacle? Wait until he's playing in Kansas City for $9 million a year.

And speaking of things that couldn't happen to a nicer guy, there are now reports that the once glorified Pedro Martinez is in contract talks with none other than the Pittsburgh Pirates. So Petey has gone from winning the World Series in 2004 with the Red Sox and pretty much having the keys to the city to signing a lucrative $53 million deal with the New York Mets where he posted a record of 32-23 over four years to now having to negotiate with the Pirates who want to pay him $5 million to pitch for their crappy team. This is almost too good to be true. Stay tuned for more Pedro the Pirate talk!





One last baseball note that I wanted to hit on, as well. After two years of pretty much dismal play, one in Atlanta and one in Los Angeles, the Dodgers recently released their so called slugger Andruw Jones, even though they still owe him more than $22 million. While the Dodgers are at fault for singing him to this ridiculous contract, I wish that Major League Baseball were more like the NFL in this regard. There are few guaranteed contracts in football and it works to the league's advantage not to have overpriced players playing at a low level, allowing teams to bring in other players to stay under the salary cap. Their system isn't perfect either but it sure beats having to pay players like Mike Hampton, Carl Pavano and Darren Dreifort untold millions when they can't even get on the field.

Red Sox Lock Up Youk

After a busy week signing roll players, the Red Sox also reached a deal with first baseman Kevin Youkilis on a 4 year, $41 million contract. Wait, is that right? It's only $41 million? Really? That seems like a bargain for a guy who batted .312, had 29 home runs, 115 RBIs, a slugging percentage of .569 and an OPS of .958.

Let's compare that to the 8 year, $180 deal that Mark Teixeira signed with the Yankees a few weeks agao. Last year, Teixeira batted .308, had 33 home runs, 121 RBIs, a slugging percentage of .552 and an OPS of .962. So essentially, Teixeira and Youkilis are the same player if you base it on numbers. Yet Youkilis just signed a deal for half the years and half the money. And the deal got done in one day, as opposed to the soap opera that Teixeira created.

Let's not forget that Youkilis also set the record for most consecutive errorless games (238) and chances (2,002) for a first basemen last year and had a .996 fielding percentage.

But you know what I like the most about this contract- Youk wants to play here. There was never any other thought. This was one of those bizarre circumstances where it's really not about the money. Youk even says it in the clip below- what good is an extra million a year going to do for him? It's about playing in front of die hard Red Sox fans screaming your name and going nuts when you come up to bat or make a nice play in the field. It's not about what uniform your wife thinks you'd look good in. It's about winning championships and Youk's already got two.