SportsGirl

When I began writing this blog about a year ago I only had one self-imposed rule; stay away from all things personal. No one cares who I’ll be voting for in the upcoming election. If you want to learn about politics, the economy or anything else other than sports, you wouldn’t be visiting a site called Sports Girl Blog. My passion is sports and that’s the only subject I care to cover. But dear readers, I’ve learned something about myself recently that I think deserves to be shared, thus breaking my own boundary. I have learned that I am something of a dominatrix. 

Now, I don’t mean that I’m a dominatrix in the typical sense of the word. No, we won’t get that personal. But I have learned that I absolutely love dominance. It’s why I love the Yankees. Sure, they’re not in top form at the moment, nor have they been in the last few years. But I started watching the Yankees in the mid-90’s when they were at their peak. You just knew every season that they would contend. And it’s only been in the last 3 years that it’s even been a question of whether or not they’d make the post-season. Their hitting was phenomenal. Their pitching was lights out. The team chemistry was off the charts. They basically could not be stopped. 

My love of dominance is why I root so hard for the New England Patriots. Granted, last season was really a failure since they couldn’t win in the one game that counted. But for the regular season they man-handled their opponents. Sure, they took a lot of flack for that since the domination sometimes resulted in an embarrassing loss for their foe. I happened to love watching them, week after week. 

I had never really stopped to find the common thread in the teams that I follow. I’ve been accused of being a band-wagon fan. And on the surface I can see that argument. But it’s not that only root for the winner. Quite the opposite actually; I love a good underdog story! But I love to see one team rise above all the others in the field and those teams do usually go on to win overall. 

What lead me to my self-discovery was the beginning of the 2008 Olympics. Every time the Olympics are approaching I think “eh, who really cares?” I had fully planned to watching almost nothing but football this weekend. But I tuned into the Olympics on Saturday just in time to watch Michael Phelps win his first gold medal. And by win, I mean absolutely demolish anyone else in the pool with him. You want to talk dominance? He is the definition. He is head and shoulders above his competition, and not just because he’s freakishly tall. Then, I had the immense pleasure of watching the men’s 4×100 relay last night. Phelps lead off and got the team off to a great start. The middle two swimmers did their parts, though Cullen Jones did leave some length to be made up at the end of the 3rd leg. And then Jason Lezak entered the pool. All evening, the announcers kept saying that, no matter how many times they ran the scenario on paper, they just didn’t see how France loses that relay. Cut to the video of the French team warming up with the footnote that, weeks prior, they were quoted as saying that they’d smash the Americans. All of this is in the back of my mind as Lezak makes the final turn and begins the final lap. Somehow, he managed to overtake his French rival in the last 25 meters of the lap and wound up beating him by 7/100 of a second. That, my friends, is dominance. To watch the elated expressions on the American team in direct contract to the anguish on the faces of the French swimmers was a great feeling. And hearing the National Anthem play as the four men stood on the podium, gold medals around their necks, really reminded me of how much national pride I feel. 

Tonight, Phelps continued his quest to be the most decorated American swimmer of all time. He easily won the gold in the 200 freestyle. Personally, I think he’ll beat Spitz’s record for most gold medals in an Olympic game. And it doesn’t hurt his status in my eyes that he swam for Michigan. I’m not sure that he can be beaten. Certainly Ian Thorpe would beg to differ, but this year, Thorpe is watching from the stands while Phelps dominates in the pool. And that may be the most disappointing factor of all. I would love to watch Phelps out-swim him this year. To prove that he truly is the most dominant swimmer in the sport.

There are certain sports in America that have never really reached the frenzied popularity of the Big 3–basketball, baseball, and the pinnacle, football. Hockey and soccer are the two that come to mind, because frankly even I can’t fault someone for not watching cricket or curling. And with the Stanley Cup finals recently wrapping up while the NBA Finals were just being set, I can’t help but realize just how badly the strike hurt hockey and I doubt the sport will ever recover. 

I admittedly haven’t followed hockey all that much since about 2000. The Stars have been fairly bad up until this year and really I just had other sports to watch and didn’t miss it.  This year, however, things changed. Being born and raised in Michigan, I was naturally rooting for the Red Wings to re-claim the Cup. But even with them in the finals, I didn’t start watching until game 4. But boy did I get sucked in at that point! Game 4 was nearly wrapped up with about 60 seconds to go and Pittsburgh had pulled their goalie. Somehow they managed to score with about 30 second remaining and forced the game into overtime. Which lead to double-overtime, which lead to triple overtime…where, sadly, the Penguins won the game. Now, I can stay up late if a game is holding my interest but even I have limits. So when the second over-time ended and my clock was nearing midnight, I thought “I’ll have to read about the end of this game tomorrow on-line”. But lo and behold, the eyelids only fluttered a few times during the intermission between double-and triple-overtime. The rest of the time I was literally on the edge of my seat and my heart was racing as I gritted my teeth, willing the puck not to cross the goal line on the Red Wings side. Every time Osgood got a save, I let a little breath out, but never completely relaxed. The time in each period seemed to fly by and I was genuinely excited watching the skill required to score a goal.  

Now, that’s one of the reasons people cite for why people in America don’t follow hockey more closely. Frankly, that argument just doesn’t hold water with me. Baseball is supposedly America’s Past Time, and one of the most amazing feats to witness in a baseball game is a no-hitter. We cheer the concentration and cool that it takes to record a no-hitter or even a just a scoreless game from a pitcher. And yet that type of low scoring performance is not appreciated when it comes to hockey, and really soccer too, for that matter. So it seems hypocritical.

You really don’t need to know all the rules to follow a hockey game. About the only requirement is good vision because it’s nearly impossible to keep up with the whereabouts of that little round puck gliding back and forth on the ice! And the action is as fast-paced as it comes. In terms of physicality, it rivals football. Every other time someone’s vying for the puck they’re getting checked into the glass and that doesn’t hold a candle to the glove-dropping, all-out fights that break out in every match!  

You can tell that the NHL is desperately trying to show that their sport should be included in the sports that even a casual fan watches. I got a good laugh out of the “Wired” feature that they had going on during the games. It’s the same concept as when the have players wired for sound in football. They put a mic on someone and try to capture the sounds of the game, but it loses it’s effectiveness in hockey. They would cut to the “Wired” segment during time outs in the game and the idea is that you’d feel closer to the action. It fell flat because all you really heard was the sound of someone’s stick moving around on the ice and some heavy breathing. I guess they don’t trash talk in hockey like they do in football. So they may want to dial that back next season because it’s really not adding anything to the viewing experience.  

It helps too that I was able to watch the playoffs in HD. Hockey is a sport that is best viewed in person. More so than maybe any of other the other sports. And not just for the hotdogs and nachos.  The level of action in a hockey game is so intense and you do lose something just watching that on tv. But the HD experience helps you see the game clearly and that helps in terms of following the puck.  

I contrast that viewing experience with Game 1 of the NBA Finals because Game 1 just felt like a regular-season game. It felt like, “oh yeah, the Lakers are playing the Celtics this week”. Now, Game 2 just wrapped up as I write this, and that game had a little more drama built in, but it’s not as though the basketball vibe blows away the excitement level of hockey. So I fail to see why more people don’t watch hockey, and if they’re not watching now, I’m not sure when they’ll tune in again. Sidney Crosby is pretty darn amazing to watch and he’s only 20, so there’s your young phenom with the hype. The level of play in the finals was as good or better than any hockey I’ve seen. And the Red Wings are the marquee team and they just won the Cup. So I doubt it’s ever going to cross into another plane. And that means that most of the casual fans will continue to choose something like “The Mole” to watch when they could easily tune in a hockey game.  

One random, final thought, speaking of programming on ABC. Supposedly ABC will begin airing a show called “Wipeout” this summer. The concept, given the commercial I saw, appears to be people competing in an obstacle course where the object is to see them wipe out in dramatic, kick-in-the-crotch type fashion. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this show is called MXC and they’ve shown it on Spike for years. MXC has been the source of many a tear-filled belly laugh late at night for me. The main difference I see so far is that MXC is a Japanese show where they dub in American voices, which adds to the sheer joy of viewing. The ABC version appears to be filmed in America, so I’m guessing it will be in English, and that will kill some of the entertainment.  I shake my head at the whole thing. If we haven’t learned by now that our sense of humor in this country is very different than the rest of the collective world, I don’t know when we will. The Office is the only show that originated in another country that really works with American humor. Yet another source of tears-of-joy laughter in my day. Needless to say, I’ll be checking my TV Guide to see if Spike still shows MXC, just as a back-up plan in case this Wipeout lives up to it’s title…

Things just aren’t right with the world these days. I find myself feeling like the subject of a Pink Floyd song; gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise. Why don’t I care that much about the NBA? Why am I not glued to Bubble Watch 2008? Why is SportsCenter my only source of sporting happiness? It just ain’t right.

Speaking of SportsCenter, I tuned in for a late-night episode the other day and was struck by the number of things that just didn’t jive. There was a story running about Carl Edwards  being penalized 100 points for his missing oil tank lid, which caused him to lose his first-place standing in the Sprint Cup chase. ESPN had some guy, Marty Something-or-Other, on to discuss the harshness of this penalty. (shows you how closely I follow NASCAR when I can’t even remember the kid’s name) This poor fellow looked like he was about 12 years old, and his hair was coiffed in a way that created more peaks than the best of lemon meringue pies! And he was dressed in a suit. Now, at face value, I would have listened to him discuss how to punch up my bland living room on some home re-do show. But he was classic Texan in his speech patterns and something about that just did not match up to the appearance. Not to mention, in this same discussion, they had Rusty Wallace share his thoughts on the situation, also clad in a suit, and I found myself just shaking my head. Put these guys in some boots and jeans for goodness sake! It just wasn’t right.

Later in the episode, they showed highlights of that night’s Phoenix Suns game. Shaq Diesel in a Suns uniform? Not right! It doesn’t fit. And I don’t just mean because it’s difficult to find a jersey big enough to fit that giant beast of a man. I would have loved to see Shaq and Kobe bury the hatchet and re-team to win 3 more championships. Wait, I’m supposed to be a Mavs fan, right? Hmm, well that’s another thing that’s just not fitting this season…

I HATE the Kidd trade. I don’t see how it makes the Mavericks a contender for this season. I understand some feel that Devon Harris is overrated but I say he is every bit as effective as Kidd is at this stage of his career, only Harris is younger and you’ll get more years out of him. And really, the big shame of that deal was losing DeSagana Diop. He was a quality big-man who made a contribution. Plus all that cash…for Kidd? 5 years ago, not a problem. I understand the “win now” mentality that drives this NBA, (or really all sports leagues for that matter) but I can’t see how Kidd helps the Mavs win now. And because of that fact, I have boycotted my fan-ship for this season. And before you say it, I know, that ain’t right. But cut me some slack.

And alas, poor Brett Favre, we knew him well. But he has made the tough decision to retire. He says it’s for good. I believe him, for now. I don’t think it would be smart for him to retire now and come back in two years. But it wouldn’t shock me if he did. I know it’s cliche, but when I heard he announced his retirement, my mind immediately went to the infamous Monday night game right after he lost his father. Not too many games stick with me the way that one does. Even I teared up at the post-game interview. Favre is one of the greats, though I am shocked that some polls show him as the overwhelming fan selection for greatest of all-time. To see the Green Bay Packers led by their fearless starting QB, Aaron Rogers, just ain’t right.

I will say, as March rolls along, I am finding the excitement growing as the selections begin for the NCAA tourney. for the length of the tournament, I turn into a rabid college basketball fan. I’ll follow every game, eagerly watching my bracket. Invariably, the bracket is busted after the first two days, but it’s still so much fun to tune in. I’m a sucker for a Cinderella story, as I’ve discussed before. Is San Diego the new Gonzaga? I’d love to see a smaller school win this year as opposed to a Duke or UNC taking home the trophy. Of course I can’t actually pick a smaller school to win the tourney on my bracket, because, you know, that just ain’t right.

So the day is finally here! Super Bowl XLII kicks off in about 6 hours and I’m ready. For anyone wanting to read it, I’l be doing a running diary of sorts on a new site I have–http://twitter.com/kellysg. Let me qualify already that this will be my first experiment with this type of thing. Can’t promise how often I will comment. But for those of you who don’t care to read the running diary, I’ll have to post my thoughts post-game so be ready for that. Happy football everyone!

The good news is that my pride is intact. I fared pretty well in my bowl pick ‘em contest when LSU trounced the Buckeyes in the Championship game. (note to self: geaux back and erase any trace of support for the Tigers) The bad news is that I think University of Michigan is going to regret not hiring Les Miles. He has the passion needed to restore some of U of M’s image and bring some fire back into the program.

Maybe this is why Lloyd Carr never liked Miles. Carr is so reserved. Sure he’ll get a little feisty on the sideline if a defender misses a tackle and allows the runner to gain 40 yards. Or if the ref call pass interference on the defense when the receiver wasn’t even touched. But Carr and newly hired West Virginia coach Bill Stewart share that aw, shucks, good guy vibe. That’s not to say that I’m knocking either of them. I am thrilled to death that Bill Stewart will get to coach the Mountaineers. I have long held the belief that nice guys can  finish first. But typically, they have to discover their mean side a bit before that’s going to happen. Lloyd Carr couldn’t reflect more positively on the school if he were Bo Schembechler himself. He’s a classy guy and he ran a clean program. And that’s important. But it lacked any pizzaz, any fire. And that’s what Miles brings to the Bayou and I think we’re missing out.

It’s too early for me to decide if Rich Rodriguez was the right hire. It’s true that Bill Stewart did a hell of a good job coaching WV in their bowl game, but let’s not kid ourselves. That was Rodriguez’s team that won. However, right now it doesn’t even look like U of M knows who their quarterback is, as Ryan Mallett is gone. I’m sure they’ll recruit someone, but that someone won’t be Patrick White. Now that kid is special. He is truly a threat with his arm and his legs. I know he won’t make it in the NFL as a quarterback, but I think he’ll come out as a wide receiver, a la Antwaan Randle El, and make a nice career for himself. Never-the-less, he won’t be at U of M. Truthfully, I don’t even know who was #3 on the Wolverines depth chart this year at QB. Whoever you are, you’re about to have the chance to start! Mallett had talent but also had an attitude and I’m not sad that he’s gone. He reportedly wouldn’t have fit well into Rodriguez’s spread offense so it’s not a huge loss. Props to my dad for predicting this early on during the 2007 season. But that should be priority #1 for Rodriguez; find a QB that makes your system look as good as White did.

Not only is Michigan losing both of their QB’s, they’re losing seniors Mike Hart, Jake Long and Shawn Crable and they’re potentially losing juniors Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington. Oh, and Rodriguez’s first move at U of M? Firing all of the incumbent staff save for the running back’s coach. I’m not saying it was the wrong move, but I’m also not thinking that he falls asleep each night reading Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. Once Richie Rich hires his new staff and sets out to solve that QB quandary, I might be able to evaluate his tenure a little better. I don’t think he was a bad hire; certainly a better fit than some of the names still being tossed around like Terry Bowden. And I, unlike some, don’t begrudge Rodriguez for leaving West Va for this opportunity. There aren’t too many opportunities bigger than coaching in the Big House. I just can’t help but wonder if Miles was Michigan’s perfect mate and they missed out by not stealing him away from the swamp.

I am all for a good celebration. In life in general, there’s so much doom and gloom, that I think everyone is entitled to celebrate a little when they can find a reason. In football? It’s gone too far.  

I’m impressed with Junior Seau. As with so many other players that no one wanted, he joined the Patriots and is actually making a contribution at the ripe old age of 38. However, this past Sunday against the Jets, he lost some standing with me. It seems that every tackle he made, he felt the need to thump his chest and flail his arms in the air, as though it was the game-winning stop. I watched him miss quite a few tackles too. Which made the excessive celebrations all the more exaggerated. A lot of refs will throw a flag on you for excessive celebration, but he somehow managed to escape their ire. It’s shocking that Belichick hasn’t put the kibosh on this display of emotion.

Then we have the Miami Dolphins. My congrats to them on winning their first game of the season. Truly, a great accomplishment and a monkey off their collective backs. But come on guys, to have tears in your eyes because you won a game? Act like you’ve been there before. Sure, you haven’t been there this season, but this is a fairly winning franchise. I mean for goodness sake your winless season is constantly being contrasted against your ‘72 undefeated season. That wasn’t that long ago. I know the players were glad to have won the game, in overtime none-the-less. But again, tears? That just underscores why it was so difficult in the first place for this team to get their first check in the W column. When your mentality is that it’s a miracle to win a game, one game, then you’re killing yourself before the games even start. How would you like to be Baltimore this week? Not only did you blow your opportunity to crush an undefeated team’s perfect season, you also served as the backdrop for a winless team’s first win. Wow.

So enough with the celebrations. I know, I’m sure I sound hypocritical because I’ve been on record as having stated that I like the end-zone celebrations. But scoring a touchdown is a bit different than making a tackle. Especially when you make a tackle but it’s only after a guy has rushed for 30 yards and a first down on 4th and 1…Those are the celebrations that kill me the most. Seriously, act like you’ve been there before.

Originally, I was going to post my thoughts under this header about Terrell Owens’ running commentary on how Bill Parcels under-utilized him in the offense. Specifically, I wanted to address his reaction to Keyshawn Johnson’s semi-attack on him. But then the Mitchell Report was released. And while it doesn’t shock me to read some of the names that are tied to that investigation, I am interested that only one person has reacted to the report.

I’ve never been a huge Roger Clemens fan. He’s a helluva ball player but a jerk in regular life. Normally, I’d say the jerk part is overshadowed by the numbers he’s put up over the course of his career, but those numbers are now going to be scrutinized closer than a 32-year-old man looking over his beard to see if those hairs are gray or clear. Now everyone will come out of the woodwork to say they knew it all along. But Roger has struck first in the press, issuing his statement that he never tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Forgive the cynic in me for not believe this vehement defense. Isn’t that what Marion Jones said? I don’t believe the “I never tested positive” defense is a strong one. That basically means, I’ve never gotten caught. Now in Clemens defense, he is staunchly stating that he never used the drugs but then the fall-back evidence of that is that he never tested positive. But part of his statement is spot-on. His attorney argues that, since the burden of proof in a slander/liable case is difficult to overcome when you’re a public figure, Clemens basically doesn’t have any recourse. He’ll have to bank on the court of public opinion voting his way and not believing the “facts” of the report. In as objective of an opinion as I can muster, I just don’t know why McNamee would lie about this. You can say he’d be trying to make a name for himself, and maybe it’s the naive person in me that’s thinking here, but what name would that make? Baseball is still a fraternity and if you’re helping to “out” the brothers, you’re persona non grata. So at best you’re looking at a book deal, which is great for a few million maybe. Is that worth it? It makes me tend to believe that McNamee is telling the truth. And there is a paper trail on some of these guys, though it looks like the bigger names were smart enough to pay cash in their dealings. (Aside: how hard is it to know you probably don’t want to buy illegal performance enhancing drugs with a check? Honestly…)

This topic will be the topic of on-going discussion, no doubt, and if any new points are made, I’ll certainly weigh back in. I found it amusing that President Bush felt the need to issue a statement and encourage baseball to take the report seriously but not to punish players without sufficient evidence. You’re the President now, W, you’ve got to leave the baseball owner in you behind. It will be interesting to learn about MLB’s plan for all of this because I think they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t. And honestly, I think most fans at this point are probably jaded enough that they’re surprised that more people weren’t named.

At some point soon, I will post my thoughts on the TO/Keyshawn “feud” because so may people are defending TO and I can’t let that happen. We knew it was coming with him…

I’m jones-ing today for some good football. I was traveling yesterday so I did not get watch as much football as I was hoping. The game I did watch was the Texans versus the Saints, which was good because the Texans won. But bad because both teams are not what I would call great so the football itself wasn’t all that watchable, save for the Ron Dayne resurgence that I have been waiting for. Then I was in transit to the airport for most of the Cowboys game so I had to listen to it on the radio. I had forgotten how enjoyable it can be to simply listen to a game on the radio. It’s been about 6 years since I had to listen to a game instead of watch and there is a certain attractive quality to “seeing” the game that way. The only thing that ruined it for me was Dan Reeves being one of the broadcasters. Terrible commentator and half the time I can’t understand a word he’s uttering! The few plays I did actually get to watch were the plays in the sequence that led Wade Phillips to call for a 50-some odd yard field goal attempt in the first quarter on the first drive. Seriously, Wade, are you that confident now that you’ll pull a stunt like that? That was like toying with the other team. “Hey, if we miss and turn the ball over around mid-field? No big deal. We’ve got this one in the bag”. Now, I am all for that kind of confidence when deserved. And I think the Boys are on a roll and are probably only going to be seriously challenged when they meet Green Bay in the NFC Championship game. But that seemed like a stupid call. And the Redskins scored on the ensuing possession, most likely because they had a short field!

The one pleasant spot last night was when I powered my phone on, after landing in Dallas again, I got a text message from the ESPN mobile service letting me know the Cowboys beat the Redskins 28-23. That was nice. Knew the outcome before stepping off the plane. Lovely! But there was one problem I had with that game. Isn’t Cowboys-Redskins supposed to be on Thanksgiving day? Isn’t that written in stone somewhere around the ”Do unto others as they would do unto you?” kind of thing? It’s like Packers-Lions. I don’t care if both teams suck, I want to see that game on Thanksgiving day. And I want to see John Madden passing out the turducken after the game. It just needs to be that way. Can someone work on that?

So I’m gearing up for a great week of extended football viewing. Lots of games spread across lots of days. My version of heaven!

For anyone who has read any of my previous posts, it’s not a secret that I love the Patriots. So it should come as no surprise that I have to weigh in on their pursuit of the perfect season. So many people hate them this season, while I feel more inspired than ever to cheer them on and do so loudly. Love the column posted by my favorite sports writer Bill Simmons where he discusses his unbridled passion for rooting the Pats on even when they’re running up the score on someone. Yes, I know, it’s unsportsman-like, and according to Gregg Easterbrook, the Patriots have no right to be upset that so many people are questioning their ability to win. Sorry, Mr. Easterbrook, but I completely disagree with your Good vs. Evil depiction of the Colts-Pats match-up. Yes, the Patriots were found to have illegally taped the other team’s signals in the Jets game. And yes, I know you believe in some big grassy knoll theory that they’ve been doing this for years, are still doing it, and will probably have secret intel on the outcome of the up-coming elections for President. I, on the other hand, think that they got caught illegally videotaping the Jets sideline and were in possession of materials that weren’t going to be of use to the team until they sat down and reviewed them, so truly there was no competitive advantage gained. Not that I condone or excuse what they did, and I’m not going to get into the “they’re not the only team using this type of tactic” argument, but seriously. We’re talking about them having this material in a game that they were winning without it and the tapes were destroyed before they could use them to game plan for the next meeting with the Jets.

So I don’t view the Patriots as evil. I don’t view them as good either. Great, would be more like it. Dominant. In your face, even. And I love every minute of it. So much of the discussion about this team has been about whether or not they’ll actually pursue the perfect season. Or if they’ll play it safe if they’ve locked up everything for the playoffs, which it seems likely they will. I say they’ll pursue the perfect season, but not because they want the record. They want to win every game just like every team does. And the argument goes something like “once home-field advantage throughout is locked up, why not rest your key guys to make sure they’re fresh for the post season?”. To not rest your guys would be arrogant, unsportsman-like even, or so the argument goes. I would suggest that there’s evidence that the opposite is true. That by resting your guys, or by altering your normal routine in a dramatic way, you’d be ultimately hurting your chances of reaching your ultimate goal, which is without question a win in the Super Bowl.

Look at the last two World Series. One team had their LCS wrapped up well in advance of their eventual competition. The team that finished the LCS early went on to lose the World Series, in ugly fashion I might add. It’s like my dad always says about being in law school. The kids that got straight A’s in college never did as well in law school because they weren’t used to having to work for it. The kids that got B’s and C’s in college did great in law school because they knew how to apply themselves. They already had a routine down of how to juggle all the priorities and get their study time in, etc. It’s the same concept in sports.

And this is the same reason why I’m not bothered when the Pats seem to run up the score. What would you have them do? Stop calling effective plays in favor of allowing their opponent the opportunity to come back and make it a close game? In a league where San Diego can give up almost 500 yards of offense to Minnesota one week and then next week they can pick off Peyton Manning 6 times, I’m not going to try to figure out which teams I can afford to slack off against, and which I can’t. And isn’t that almost more offensive and insulting to a team? “Hey, I know you suck and we’re up 20 points in the first quarter, so I’m just gonna put the ship on autopilot right now and let my guys cruise. You’ve got no chance of winning this thing!” Are you supposed to tell your defense to stop trying to make plays? Or to stop pass rushing quite as effectively just so your offense stays on the sidelines a little longer?

This is why I’m all for what the Patriots are doing right now. You play to win each game. Not to shame your opponents, but to play your best each week for 60 minutes. To give anything less would be disrespectful to the sport and the other teams. And you keep pressing ahead even when you’ve locked everything up because you play to win every game. No one wants to be rusty when the Super Bowl rolls around. And let’s face it, the chances of your guys being “fresh” because they didn’t play for 3 weeks versus being plain ol’ rusty are slim. So I say pursue that perfect season oh proud Patriots. Not to shove it in peoples’ faces, though you know a little bit of that is ok with me because people are blowing this camera-gate thing way out of proportion, but because that’s the way you play the game. To win.

As we all know by now, thanks to careful planning by Scott Boras, Alex Rodriguez has opted out of his contract in New York. That means he’s ready to entertain offers from the highest bidder, and you know the price tag won’t be cheap. Among all the talk about the potential suitors that may enter the negotiations for A-Rod’s services, an interesting discussion arose on Mike and Mike the other morning. The discussion involved wondering if the timing of A-Rod’s contract announcement would hurt his brand value and whether or not he was one of the most universally hated athletes in all of sports. Their general consensus was that yes, he has reached that hated status reserved for the likes of Barry Bonds.

I found the topic an interesting one because it touched on an issue I brought up in regards to Michael Vick, especially as it pertains to his contract total. The guys were posing the question of why he would be reviled when he hasn’t really done much to draw the ire of the fans. Especially in comparison to some of the “troubled” athletes we, as a collective fan base, have managed to embrace, blemishes and all. One of the talking points Mike and Mike kept going back to was the size of A-Rod’s contract as a factor in the dislike that surrounds him. Their contention was that the average fan basically just thinks he is a greedy SOB that should be happy with the money the Yanks are shelling out to him and that collecting that pay check means he should somehow do more than contribute 50+ homers and 150+ RBI’s. And as the guys were debating the validity of this emotion from the fans, I started thinking more about the supply and demand concept that really drives every contract negotiation in every sport. I can understand how, at face value, the general public cannot understand someone spurning a $27 mil/year contract in favor of perhaps making more money somewhere else. It’s ludicrous, right? Most of us working schmucks would do what he does for $100K per season. So what’s wrong with a person who can’t just be grateful for what they’re receiving? Makes me hate them too!

But one of the Mikes, and I believe it was Golic, brought up a great point that really hits at the heart of the economic concepts in play here. They said, imagine if you make $40K a year on your job. And in casual conversation you come to find out that a competitor in your industry is willing to offer you $48K a year to come and do the exact same job you’re doing currently. Sure, there would be certain factors that would likely play into your thought process, such as are there intangibles at your current place of employment that are worth more than money to you. But for most of us, the chance to earn that extra pay check is worth the risks of leaving the familiar. And would any of us feel guilty for taking the extra cash? No! Because we all think the services we provide our employers are worth every penny we’re receiving. Supply and demand. What we’re supplying our employers with is met with “x” amount of demand and there’s a market rate that translates into a paycheck associated with that demand. It’s the same thing for A-Rod. His agent, while being many things, is not completely business-inept. Scott Boras is quite savvy if you ask me. He would not advise his client to opt out of the size of contract he had with the Yankees if Boras did not feel reasonably certain that there would be a high level of interest from other teams at contract terms more favorable than A-Rod’s current terms. Meaning Boras knew that other employers in a highly competitive industry might be willing to offer this employee more money for equal services. We, the average working men, cannot grasp this concept because we would never turn down the possibility to earn even $1 mil, let alone multiple millions, hence the reason we loathe A-Rod. But the concept is the same.

The only other thing working against A-Rod that I see is that he generally just doesn’t really have a personality. Derek Jeter is Derek Jeter. He’s lively, charming, enjoys going out, etc. He is the face of the franchise in NY. Other beloved athletes have noticeable personalities. Michael Jordan was known for his obsession with winning and competition. He had that great smile. The list goes on. A-Rod? He seems flat. Blah. Lifeless. Boring, even. So couple that with the fact that he makes a gazillion dollars, and the end result is that the American population basically hates him.

Now, please don’t take this to be my defense of Alex Rodriguez. Personally, I know his stats but saw first hand in Texas how it’s not enough to elevate a team onto his shoulders. And the truly great athletes are able to do that. And in turn, I don’t begrudge them their golden contracts. I just think if people really took a second to think about his situation in their own terms, they’d see that they may not make a decision all that different from the one A-Rod made. And truly, when it comes down to it, if he lands on your team? You’ll be cheering him on.