Check out my Quick Hit blog about my thoughts on the Miami Dolphins drafting WVU QB Pat White in the 2nd round of this past weekend’s NFL Draft and why it has me super excited for the coming football season.

The news that KG will likely miss the playoffs practically ensures a seemingly inevitable title showdown between Lebron James and Kobe Bryant. While this saddens me as a Celtics fan that still had moderate to slim hopes of a repeat, it should be a great thing for the NBA and an exciting series to watch. The highly-touted Lakers versus Celtics match-up last year proved to be a bit of a letdown ratings-wise, but Lebron v Kobe should be able to get ratings on par with the Jordan era Bulls. If not, then the NBA’s funk might be even worse than thought.

The Baltimore Orioles’ dream of a perfect 162-0 season ended today with a 11-2 loss to the Evil Empire, dropping them to 2-1 and 1/2 game out of their one-time stranglehold on first place in the AL East. I guess I can take solace in the fact that this amazing first place and unbeaten run lasted much longer than I had ever dreamed of, but it’s still a sad day and pretty much ends the baseball season. At least the NFL draft and NBA & NHL playoffs are just around the corner!

I had to “watch” the game via Gamecast because the Pats were the only game on at 1PM today, but the Dolphins game against the Chiefs drove me crazy nevertheless. Thankfully, I was able to follow it while blowing shit up in Mercenaries 2 or I might’ve gone insane. They managed to pull yet another rabbit out of their hat and are now the first team in history to win 10 games in a season following one which they won 1 or less.

I’m still a bit pessimistic about their chances at beating the Jets, but it’s pretty simple for them — if they win they’re AFC East champs and in the playoffs, if they don’t, they’re most likely left out in the cold. After last year’s 1-15 disaster, I honestly couldn’t have wished for anything better than this. I’m proud of them either way and it’s been a very fun year of watching them play.

I’m just blocking out last night’s game against GTech out of my mind and will pretend it never happened. It’s my fault for getting too excited for this team and coach. Embarrassing. I had to stop watching and kill some zombies in L4D at halftime because I was just getting so frustrated that I was starting to get physically ill.

Already stated it after the Hurricanes game on Thursday and I’ll state it again after today’s narrow escape by the Dolphins against the Oakland Raiders — a win is a win. I thought we might have blown a great opportunity to stay strong in the playoff hunt after that long kick return for a touchdown gave the Raiders their first lead of the game, but my boys came through in the clutch and drove for the game winning field goal with less than a minute remaining to seal a victory. Miami is now 6-4 and if they can upset the Pats next week and if the Jets lose to the Titans, then we will be sitting in a position never thought possible — atop the AFC East!

The one apparent downer to my fruitful football weekend, which began on Thursday, is that my fantasy football team has a very precarious 15 point lead over one of the worst teams in the league, with that team still having Winslow, Randle El, and Lindel to play. He also has the Cards D going right now while all I have is 2nd string Mewelde Moore. If I lose this game, it was be heartbreaking given the competition and the fact that I got home 1 minute too late and was stuck with BenJavus Green-Ellis who I was going to bench in favor of either Ted Ginn Jr or Lance Moore (15 and 16 points respectively) if Sammy Morris was cleared to play, which he was. I ended up with 0 points in that slot instead of at least 15. The late work day on Thursday just might cost me a victory that I was favored to win by 51 points. Sad Christmas if that happens.

First, let me apologize to anyone who may be reading this that is mentally challenged or are close to someone with a mental disability. I’m sure even the most challenged of individuals could run the Oakland Raiders much better than that senile old fool Al Davis. Sure, he WAS a legend and the NFL owes him a lot of gratitude in what he’s done for the game of football and for the league during his lifetime. But, damn, the dude has lost all of his marbles.

Most of his tirade about Kiffin in yesterday’s press conference didn’t make any sense at all and he often contradicted himself in the same damn sentence. He physically handed him the letter, but then says he FedEx’d it? What the fuck, dude? Make up your Mr. Burns-esque ancient damaged mind. He’s clearly the problem with the Oakland Raiders and the team will continue to be one of the laughingstocks of the entire league until he finally dies. However, that will probably never happen, as he’ll likely still be running the Raiders into the ground 500 years from now while he’s nothing but a talking head like in Futurama.

My hope is that Kiffin ends up coaching the Kansas City Chiefs next year and starts beating the crap out of the Raiders every year just like Shanahan and the Denver Broncos. It would be completely befitting and proof that there is indeed a God out there.

Today’s blowout win by the Dolphins over the New England Patriots was extra special because I’m living in Boston and working in Foxboro these days and am surrounded by Pats fans wherever I go. And we just didn’t beat them, we gave them an old fashioned ass whooping and pretty much embarassed them. I kind of wish I would’ve gotten some tickets to see the game in person cause that would’ve been quite entertaining to see. So, my real teams are 2-0 this weekend but my fantasy team is going to lose and I’ll fall to 2-1.

I tend to wake up early in the morning no matter how late I stay up at night. I think it’s from years and years of forcing myself to wake up early to get my morning workouts in. Nowadays I usually wake up by 7AM at the latest regardless of whether or not I want to sleep in and without ever using an alarm clock. This was alright in Cali because football games would start at 10AM on Sundays and that was only a few hours of waiting for me before the games start up. Now that I’m back on the east coast, it means that now I have to wait 6 damn hours before kickoff and in the cases where my team has a late game, such as today, that’s a 10 hour wait for my Dolphins to play. I really miss this aspect of being on the west coast.

Both of my teams, the Hurricanes and Dolphins, lost this weekend but apparently I’m supposed to be happy with the direction of both teams. I’m sorry but I’m tired of moral victories. The positive is that the baby Canes looked really good for three quarters and they matched up with the Gators athletically, which was quite shocking to be honest. Spence had some spectacular bone crushing hits and quite a few of the team’s super freshmen showed a lot of promise. Moreover, the new defensive coordinator from Kansas, Bill Young, looks like he might be an even bigger pickup than any of the team’s highly-touted recruits. The UF game was the first I’ve ever seen where a Miami Hurricanes defense confused an opponent. They’ve always won just on talent alone and not scheming.

That said, the offensive play calling was absolutely atrocious. The team might have a chance to compete in the ACC this year but only because the conference is horrific right now. They will never compete on a national level with Patrix Nix calling the plays and running the offense. He sucked at GT and he’s been atrocious at UM. I’m a Randy Shannon fan but he screwed up mightily by keeping this guy around.

Then there’s the Dolphins. The post-game announcers kept on talking about how the team showed a lot of promise and that Pennington showed leadership in driving them down the field and putting them in position for a come from behind victory. Umm, why should I be happy with that? The team lost six games last year by three points or less. What good did that do? They lost this one by six. Why should I be happy with the fact that Pennington had four shots from inside the 20 to WIN the game and couldn’t complete a pass? Sure, I believe he was a good pickup and I believe the team is on the right path for success but I’m not going to be happy until they actually start winning these types of games. And that goes for both the Dolphins and the Hurricanes.

Even though the outcome wasn’t what I wanted, tonight’s Game 6 where the Detroit Red Wings won the Cup against the Pittsburgh Penguins was a joy to watch. I just really wish that puck would’ve found a way into the net with about a second and a half on the clock because that would’ve been an instant classic for the Wings to be seconds away from hoisting the Cup only to be denied for the 2nd straight game. It didn’t go in and Hockeytown is once again home of Lord Stanley’s Cup. I just wish we could’ve had a Game 7. Now that would’ve been bomb.

Tonight’s Game 5 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings is without a doubt one of the best games of hockey I’ve ever witnessed. Hell, it’s probably the best playoff or finals game I’ve seen in any sport that didn’t feature one of my favorite teams. Not only did it go into triple overtime but it was non-stop action for the entire game. The guys on both teams played their hearts out for nearly the equivalent of two full games and the Pens’ Marc-Andre Fleury played out of his mind and made jaw-dropping saves all night. I’m hoping Pitt is able to pull out Game 6 at home so we can have a Game 7. Now that would be fucking amazing, especially if it proved to be as close and hard fought at tonight’s contest.

Pierce played out of his mind today and practically carried the Celtics to this game 7 victory over the Lebrons. It’s fitting since he’s the Celtic with the longest tenure and the one that probably had it the hardest during last year’s horrific season. He came through in spades today, as did role players like PJ Brown and Eddie House. I’m very proud of the way the team hustled and just threw their bodies around, it was Celtics Pride at its finest.

The Detroit series will be a beast, particularly because of Boston’s road woes. However, I have faith in my boys and am hoping that they might just match up better against Detroit than they did against Atlanta or Cleveland — meaning that while Detroit is by far a better overall team than the Hawks or Cavs, they don’t have any scorers in the vein of a Lebron or Joe Johnson that really gave Boston problems. Nevertheless, I’m both nervous and excited. It should be a fun and hard fought series that will hopefully end with the C’s in the NBA Finals.

I thought it was going to be one of those glorious sports days where I could flip back and forth between two of my teams participating in playoff games at the same time — with Philly in the NHL playoffs and the Celtics in the NBA playoffs. But after some quick goals and obviously home brewed officiating, the Flyers’ game quickly became and afterthought. While it definitely sucked to see them go out getting their collective asses handed to them 6-0 in game 5, I’m still proud of the team’s turnaround this season and had a lot of fun watching them. And with the young blossoming talent that they have on the team, I’m hopeful for the team’s future. Congratulations, Philly, on making it to the Eastern Conference Finals. I can’t wait till next year!

I keep reading comments and posts on ESPN.com saying that Boston sucks and that Celtics fans should be embarrassed that the lowly 8th seeded Hawks took them to a game 7. What the fuck ever. The team was 24-58 last year and had the 2nd worst record in the league. They added Allen, KG and a slew of other players, dominated the regular season and are in the process of humiliating the Hawks in Boston (currently up 36 points with 2:24 to go in the 4th). I’m proud of the  team and will be even if they don’t add another banner to the rafters in the Garden this year. I’m looking forward to an extremely difficult challenge going up against King James and Cleveland, as it should be an amazing series reminiscent of the times the Celtics took on Jordan’s Bulls in his early years. It should be FANtastic.

Speaking of fantastic, I’m even more thrilled by the fact that the Flyers finished off the Canadians last night putting them into the Eastern Conference Finals of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They finished 22-48-12 last season, which was dead last in the NHL with only 56 points, so making it this far has been a fun, albeit stressful, ride. I can’t wait to see them take on Crosby, Malkin and the Pens (assuming they don’t collapse against the Rangers).

Still riding on the high of having 8 vials of blood siphoned from my body (and the subsequent replacement of it with new and completely fresh blood not yet tainted by my devilish habits), I was given more to be joyful about in the form of a Flyers 4-2 win over the Canadians and a Celtics 110-85 throbbing of the Hawks.

The Flyers, as per form, got a 2-0 lead only to blow it and make things interesting before finally coming out on top. The finish is all that matters in the end, but if I start getting gray hairs or have a stroke the blame is going to be put on them. I’m really hoping they can close it out this weekend. My fingers are crossed and a blade isn’t coming anywhere near my playoff “beard” (if you can call the long scraggly hairs hanging under my chin a beard).

The C’s did exactly what they did in the first two home games — blow out the Hawks — so now it’s time to see if they can pull things together in Atlanta’s raucous arena to finally close out this series on Friday. I don’t want to see it go to a game 7 in either series, because I’m not sure if my heart could take it.

Being a Flyers fan, I kind of get why sports fans in Philadelphia are angry all the time. The Flyers, much like Philly’s other teams, seem to always perform below what the team’s talent would dictate. After watching six games of this first round series with the Capitals, it’s clearly evident that the black and orange is the more talented team from top to bottom. We have legit scorers on practically every line and our defense and goaltending is solid.

Yet, because of mental lapses and lackluster effort once things seemed “in the bag”, the series with the Caps is going to game 7 in Washington tomorrow night. We might still be able to pull this out because home ice seems to matter very little in the NHL, but it shouldn’t have had to come down to this. We’ve let this series slip away, plain and simple. Then again, this inconsistency has plagued this team all year so it shouldn’t surprise me. I was just hoping it was a case of them just needing the motivation of something like being in the playoffs to get them playing at the top of their game. But, I guess I was wrong.

Day 2 of the NCAA Tourney proved to be MUCH better than the first and I’m not saying it just because my Miami Hurricanes shocked me and beat down Saint Mary’s (can’t say that I have any hope they’ll beat Texas, though — but it’ll be fun cheering them on nonetheless). The games were much more exciting and the upsets were aplenty, just the way I like it. I would’ve wrote about it sooner but it’s taking me five minutes just to load my site back end these days just to post a short little blurb, it’s annoying the crap out of me. The only reason I have the patience to do it now is that it’s 5AM in the morning and I’m having trouble getting back to sleep.

It looks like my Baltimore Orioles finalized the 1 for 5 trade with the Mariners, giving up Erik Bedard. The move was probably the smart thing to do as the team really needs to start stock-piling young talent if they’re ever going to be able to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox. The idea of trying to spend with the big boys but not quite spend as much was downright pathetic.

(more…)

I know that it’s apparently only wrong for baseball players to use steroids or HGH (Human Growth Hormone), but am I the only one that believes Brett Favre has been doing it? I’ve read about 1000 articles over the past year about how he’s found the “fountain of youth” and is playing as well or better than he ever has in his career. All this at 38 years old when football players are normally over the hill. It seems so blatantly obvious to me.

(more…)