Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Bracket Buster Special / NIT Wrap Up

Steinbrenner Injures A-Rod to Prove Point

Bracket Buster Special / NIT Wrap Up

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

I'd just like to thank Pitt and UNC for not only making me reach for the ipecac this weekend, but also for pulling a Kevorkian on my bracket in the process. Not only is it incredibly embarrassing losing to Bradley and George Mason, respectively, but c’mon UNC, you’re defending National Champs…c’mon.
So I’m not like the idiot savant picking at an amazing 91 percent in my Tournament pool, but I still have 6 of 8 and 3 of 4 teams alive in the Elite Eight and Final Four and feel pretty confident. Confident that is, unless of course UConn pulls a Kansas against Washington, i.e. losing to a team they should easily beat.
With the signings of John Kitna and Cade McCown, it looks like Joey Harrington's days with the Lions are over. The team hasn’t admitted to releasing the Losmantastic quarterback, but have four other signal callers under contract and have, “decided to move on.” The last thing this over-hyped that had a more unimpressive, run was "Emily's Reasons Why Not."
Jerry Jones and the Cowboys just don't learn. Signing T.O. and making him the highest paid receiver in the league seems like a good idea in theory; but this is a team that already has an owner and coach who have egos bigger than Ralphie May, not to mention a whiny quarterback who yells at players in the huddle and has a nasty habit of imploding around Week 11 of EVERY season. This move is about as smart as letting your girlfriend take a sparring class with Tom Sizemore.
Also likely to cause injury, but more so to psyche, is the Jets acquisition of Patrick Ramsey from the Redskins for a bag of roasted peanuts and a gum wrapper (read, sixth round draft pick). I’m guessing it’ll take new coach Eric Mangini all of two weeks before he pulls Bionic Chad in favor of Ramsey.
In other NFL news, Randy Moss' agent was arrested in his Florida area hotel, with his wife and 3 other individuals, after police responding; to calls of a disturbance; found crack-cocaine...are we sure this guy doesn't also represent Jamal Lewis?
Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick just can't play nice, can they? Davis, racing against Hedrick, finished first in the All-around at the men's Speed Skating World Championships, breaking Hedrick's World Record time for the 1,500 meters in the process. I guess we should be thankful these guys are 180 – pound skaters and not 140 – pound rappers with guns.
Inexplicably, Cuba and Japan made it to the finals of the World Baseball Classic after the US (remember, the country hosting, the guys who invented the sport, and odds on favorites aside from the Dominicans) lost three of six games and looked less like a world power and more like Sideshow Bob in a room full of rakes. The Dominicans meanwhile played Cuba and Big Papi and his teammates, who touched up teams like a young Cassius Clay, could only muster one run against the low scoring Cubans who they had beaten four days before. Japan beat Cuba 10 – 6 and much to the chagrin of the Boss, no one was seriously injured but now Castro will definitely rub Cuba’s finals appearance in W’s face, which will hurt almost as much.
Speaking of rubbing things in people’s faces, Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and owner of the Portland Trailblazers is not only crying poor, but also asking the city of Portland a/k/a The West Coast’s Answer to New Jersey, to chip in and help save the Blazers. If I lived in Portland, I’d let them go. Going to a Blazers game has got to be worse than sitting through an episode of "Caroline in the City." At least at a Knicks game you can leave and go to a club, what are you going to do in Oregon, go to a Moose fight?

Random Observations:
The last time the Cowboys brought in a player with as much baggage as T.O ("Chunky" Charles Haley), they did win three Super Bowls...just something to think about.
I'm thinking it'll be around week five when Lions players stop listening to Dick Jouron and start taking all their advice from Mike Martz; seriously, we all know who the head coach is...
This is more of a bold prediction really. J.J. Redick will be a better pro than 70’s porn star, Adam Morrison.

Next Week:
We get to see if Duke and Uconn will be playing in the Finals.
I promise I’ll give the NIT some love, really.