Screw Carmelo

If Carmelo Anthony wants out so badly, let’s make him stay.

I used to think the Nuggets should keep Carmelo for the whole year since having Carmelo gives us our best shot at a championship for the foreseeable future. (Not that it’s an especially good shot.) But now? Let’s just keep him out of pure vengeance.

Recent rumors suggested Carmelo would only sign his extension with the Nuggets if they trade him to New York. Here’s how it works: in the NBA, a player’s current team can offer a guy more money than any other team. This is intended to give teams a fighting chance in free agency to hold on to their best players. But if Carmelo wants out of Denver so badly, let him go! I can’t see a single reason for the Nuggets to give him the max deal if he’s not going to play here.

Well, there is one reason, and that’s if we can trade Carmelo for something truly worthwhile. That’s unlikely. We could probably get some projects, or maybe one good player and some stiffs, for Carmelo, which isn’t close to fair. Neither trade possibility is inherently more favorable than just getting the salary cap space, and neither gives the team the sweet satisfaction of watching the door smack Anthony on his way out.

Some would say the team is better off without Carmelo anyway, as we haven’t won anything with him (mostly true) and he’ll never win a championship anyway (unknowable). I agree that Anthony is unlikely to be the cornerstone of a dynasty, but could he win a ring? You bet. History has many examples of swingman scorers who led a team to a title: Rick Barry, Dwyane Wade, and Paul Pierce come to mind. He’d probably need a higher caliber of teammate than, say, a young Shaq required to bring home a ring, but he could do it.

Anthony’s denied the report that he would accept a trade only to New York (though I still think he ends up with the Knicks), but the principle stands. He’s not a free agent, so he doesn’t get to pick his team, and that’s that.

Unless the Nuggets are truly blown away by a trade offer, I say let him walk. Let him play in New York for less money. It won’t crush the franchise the way the Mutombo departure did. Simply put, there’s no way the team’s braintrust is as dumb as it was in the mid-90s. Mutombo was just one in an epic list of mistakes back then. If Carmelo leaves, we’ll survive, and he’ll just have to film more ads to make ends meet.

Hey, I’ll miss the guy. But if he doesn’t want to play for the Nuggets any longer, let’s not do him any favors.

It's been a long time, been a long time, been a long, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time

Today the Denver Broncos fired Josh McDaniels as their head coach. The team (and, by extension, the league) feels worth following once again.

McDaniels got his first shot at a pro head coaching job in Denver at the age of 15. He was, it turned out, the Brian Griese of coaches. Like Griese, he followed an absolute legend, one of the best ever in the game, in Denver, where expectations run a mile higher than they should. Griese had a weak arm at a position that almost demands a strong one; McDaniels came to town without the instant respectability a tenured NFL coach carries. Both were young, promising, and disappointing. And, as with Griese’s 2000 Pro Bowl season, McDaniels showed one flash of brilliance that gave him just a little too much leash.

His 6-0 start last season was the stuff of legend, a brilliant-if-misleading spark that gave him just enough job security to make it until today. (I say misleading because three of the wins came in one-score games, and the record since suggests winning those games was as much of a result of luck as it was clutch execution.) It became clear down the stretch last season that McDaniels lacked the chops to right a sinking ship.

When the team lost some of its best guys on both sides of the ball (Brandon Marshall and Elvis Dumervil), 2010 quickly became a lost cause. It’s bad, but I stopped caring almost as soon as I started. I moved a church meeting off of Sundays so I could watch the games, but I missed most of them anyway. Life’s too short to pour your heart into a team that impresses neither in execution nor in heart.

See, if McDaniels had coached a young-but-talented team that always played with pride, that might have been acceptable. If injuries had derailed the season but gave some unknowns a chance to get experience, that might have made it worthwhile, too. But besides quarterback Kyle Orton’s statistics (and he’s cooling off), there are hardly any bright spots at all. Plus, you know. 59-14.

And perhaps McDaniels’ lot wasn’t that thankless. He inherited a Pro Bowl quarterback in Jay Cutler and one of the league’s rising stars in Marshall, both of whom he chased out of town after each showed a healthy amount of immaturity. (At the times they left, I would have kept both, though Cutler’s truly obnoxious and impossible to root for.) He got a shot to coach one of the finest organizations in the NFL, too.

Perhaps he’ll be a good head coach someday. Regardless of the future, firing him right now was the right call. McDaniels didn’t get it done or even get it underway, and I’m glad Broncos owner Pat Bowlen had the presence of mind to recognize that.

So. Who’s got next?

If our contract with Mike Shanahan doesn't allow us to order him back to the Denver sideline, I'd be happy with former Broncos assistants Gary Kubiak, Bobby Turner, or Joe Collier. But I'm looking forward to hearing who the candidates are. Any preferences? And isn't it time we start Tebow?

Elway turns 50!

Today is John Elway’s 50th birthday. (Thanks to Adam Schefter and my friend David for pointing this out.) In his honor, let’s look back on some of his greatest moments.

Elway capped his career with a second straight Super Bowl win and an MVP performance over the Atlanta Falcons.

Here’s a cool list of moments in video form. I love watching Elway immediately give T.D. props for Super Bowl XXXII.

We can’t discuss Elway without The Drive. (And Pat Bowlen was so much cooler in his fur coat days.)

I posted it a couple years ago, but Rick Reilly once did an exceptional profile on Elway that’s worth a read today.

Dexter Manley read this play like a book:

What the heck, another one from that Super Bowl loss:

How about when Elway started turning it around in his last AFC Championship Game, flipping the routes in a crazy wind?

Elway was and always will be my favorite athlete in any sport. The two Super Bowl wins that capped his career are the coolest sports story of my lifetime. The XXXII highlights still give me chills.

I would kill to watch that game again. Seriously, NFL, I got at least $100 with your name on it if you’ll put it on a DVD.

* * *

On a side note, given that I don’t watch sports anymore, I don’t plan to post anything on this blog for at least a month. Maybe more. We’ll see how excited I am when the NFL rolls around. I’ll still be on HPE occasionally, so just drop these blogs in Google Reader or something and don’t bother checking here. Thanks for reading!

The Greatest Game Ever Played

Last night’s NBA Championship Game was lamer than Yahoo! Answers, a disappointment in quality of play, memorable moments, and result.

Kobe Bryant was horrible offensively. He nearly choked, settling for awful shots and firing a jaw-dropping 6-for-24 from the floor. Since his team won the title, though, clearly he did enough, I guess. It’d be interesting to see what the reaction to his game would have been had the Celtics won, though he’d probably get a free pass, like he did in 2008. Though I think the refs called the start of the game fine, they weren’t giving him calls that he usually gets, though it’s his job not to get frustrated.

The box score vindicates no one else; did anyone have a good all-around game? Kevin Garnett played great for the most part, but only had three rebounds. Pau Gasol turned it on in crunch time, and grabbed eighteen rebounds (nine offensive!), but for an elite big man he sure got swatted a lot in the first half. Rajon Rondo was good, and his late three nearly huge, but the Lakers were able to play off him in the closing minutes because he’s not a confident shooter from distance. He’s been called one of the best players in the league, but he won’t truly be until he develops his shot. Paul Pierce inspired confidence, but he didn’t quite have it last night and forced a few shots. Rasheed Wallace was solid in his role and hit that three, but could have kept the Lakers off the boards more. Ron Artest played as well as Lakers fans could have hoped. The ambidextrose Lamar Odom pleased me with his confidence from beyond the arc, where he was 0-for-3, but somehow finished with the game’s highest plus/minus rating.

I thought the coaches were pretty even: each was okay, at best. Neither tried anything risky, and neither could get his team’s offense going.

In such a rare game, where anyone can step up, win his team a title, and be remembered forever, I expected someone out on the floor to rise to the occasion. It’s a little sad that it didn’t happen.

In the dark before the darkness meets the dawn

The Lakers simply blew out the Celtics last night. Ideally you’d want to bookend a series with the kind of wins L.A. had in Games One and Six, but all last night’s win did is set the stage for what should be an epic Game Seven (Thursday, 7 p.m. Mountain, ABC).

I had secretly hoped for the Lakers to win last night; we’ve had only one winner-takes-all NBA championship game since Michael Jordan stopped playing baseball. So, as bad as the news from last night was, tomorrow night should be outstanding and historic.

The human drama is compelling; I’m jealous of everyone who gets to play in this game. Rajon Rondo could become a legend. Kevin Garnett could give us an Elway-in-XXXIII performance and make everyone forget how much they criticized his previous crunch-time efforts. Kobe Bryant could finally prove, to me anyway, that he’s as great as they say. Lamar Odom can show us all how far he’s come with his candy addiction. The list goes on. All I’m hoping for is a game that lives up to its billing.

U.S. ties; Celtics inch ahead

This weekend I caught the U.S. vs. England World Cup game, and the last minute and a half of the Lakers-Celtics game. I'm not sure which took longer. Here are some random and unorganized thoughts on each:

Soccer is like baseball with a clock. Well, baseball off steroids, anyway. There are a lot more, "hey, something could happen" moments than there are times when things actually do happen. It lends a certain tension to the proceedings; we went nuts when the U.S. goal trickled across the line. And the final minutes were tense, but not quite like normal American sports, because you never really know when the next scoring chance will develop.

That said, the clock is huge. I love that the game starts moving, keeps moving, and ends in a timely fashion. Baseball has a huge problem with this. When it's a great playoff series (like Yankees-Red Sox in the Pedro Martinez era), I don't mind, but otherwise I start to wonder about how much of my life is ticking away watching pitchers throw to first base.

Soccer is quite good on TV, and almost great. The problem is the camera angle; for any extended action they have to pan the field because the ball can move so far so quickly. They tried showing a few seconds of the game in a close-up and it got confusing really quickly. But the slow-motion replays of slide tackles or Landon Donovan shaking a defender were great. I particularly liked the first half shots of Tim Howard, the U.S. goalie, shouting at his teammates. Like basketball, the minimalist uniforms showcase the emotional side of the game. I don't expect I really will, but I can see why people get into the World Cup now.

However, I'm sure the announcers wish they could have criticized the Americans' lone goal a few hundred more times.

Speaking of Howard, he was outstanding, and kept getting better as the game went on. He and England's Steven Gerrard (all over the place in the first half) were standouts. That's impressive because outside of Jozy Altidore's breakaway scoring chance, I'm not sure I could tell you what anyone else did.

And the Celtics took Game Five for a 3-2 NBA Finals lead. My favorite part was the Garnett-to-Pierce-to-Rondo lob-toss-lay-up that kept the Celtics' lead up late. Kobe got on my nerves even more than before. I don't understand how a guy who gets as many breaks as he does can be so mad at the refs all the time.

Apparently I underestimated the Celtics and especially Rajon Rondo. Here's hoping they finish the job Tuesday...but a Game Seven would be sick as well.

Boston ties NBA Finals at 2-2

So today was a crazy day. CU is joining the Pac-10, which now joins the Big 12 and Big 10 in having eleven teams. I don’t care for the move and feel particularly annoyed at the potential loss of the rivalry game with Nebraska.

USC finally got busted. Thank you! Finally, justice is served against all those 2004 stars who are still on football scholarship with the school. And Pete Carroll’s going to have a tough time getting his next job. (Oh, wait.) Actually, I did get to tell a missionary in my ward today who is a big USC fan about the two-year bowl game ban, and that was kinda fun. (I can’t even describe how self-conscious I was writing that last sentence.)

Most importantly, the Boston Celtics beat the L.A. Lakers to even the Finals. I have mixed feelings. I didn’t see the end of the game, but I saw Rasheed Wallace’s Morey Rule three-pointer with about six minutes left in the fourth. I’m excited. Boston has energy throughout their lineup, which L.A. can really lack. On the other hand, I keep having these flashbacks to the Nuggets evening it 2-2 last year against L.A. before getting steamrolled. So I am cautiously optimistic.

This post is a bit lame; please help by adding your salient comments below.

Celtics Strike Back

I missed the second half last night, leaving just as the third quarter started and thinking the Celtics would waste Ray Allen’s historic shooting night. In retrospect, I gave up way too soon. Go Boston!

Well…crap.

Excited for an HPS comeback? I was, but I have nothing to say after last night. I’m pulling for the Celtics, obviously, and they were dominated pretty much start-to-finish. Other than Sheed’s straight-up block of Pau Gasol I didn’t see much to get excited about. (Oh, and I liked Doc Rivers’ $100/person motivational gimmick.)  How much of a shot does Boston even have left in this series? Is it time to give up hope? I’m just hoping the Lakers get cocky and let up, which is totally possible.

Highlights if you want 'em:

Celtics knock out LeBron

So ESPN 3 didn’t work for me at all last night, so after finally getting home I was unable to follow the game on anything nicer than a Gamecast. So I didn’t actually see the Cleveland Cavaliers’ last meaningful game of the decade. But if you did, let me know about it in the comments.

The big question: does this loss tarnish LeBron’s legacy? I don’t know. Michael’s Bulls lost to the Pistons three years in a row, and no one cares now. So I’m inclined to say it won’t, depending on how LeBron fares on his new team, of course. That said, Jordan’s Bulls didn’t choke away the best record in the league two seasons in a row, either. And how was LeBron last night, anyway?

It’s all a terrible mess

…and we’re back! Saturday a friend’s dad asked me if I thought the Denver Nuggets would be well-advised to trade Carmelo Anthony this off-season. His take is that Carmelo was ineffective in Game Six against the Jazz, when it really counted, and I presume he meant ’Melo cannot be considered reliable in the future. I almost blew up at the poor guy, and threw in some unwarranted criticism of Chauncey Billups, but I still believe trading Anthony would be a huge mistake.

Game Six was the only game I saw of the playoffs this year, owing to my savvy decision to cancel cable just before the postseason started. (Hey, I still get House and Community; what else is there?) I ended up going to someone’s house where they watched the game on ESPN 3, or in other words over the Internet, where I probably could have watched the whole freaking series at my own place. (Note to self: edit out this part because it makes me look like an idiot.)  Anyway, that game was a nightmare to watch: the refs were awful, Deron Williams was overly pleased with himself, and we couldn’t catch a break. Worst of all, though, the Nuggets each refused to step up and make a difference, including Carmelo. (Chauncey hit a few shots in a row where it looked like we might make a run, but it fizzled out just as quickly.)

Doesn’t matter or, rather, it doesn’t matter if you take the long view. Carmelo Anthony is the best thing to happen to the Nuggets in the last decade and a half and we’d be insane to trade him. After years of puzzling playoff ineptitude, he finally put it together with some huge games last season, including a game-winner over the Mavericks. (His struggles made no sense because he carried his Syracuse team to the national championship as a freshman, which is amazingly impressive and cemented his status as a prodigy in the sport. Compare that to your freshman year.)

The point is, we waited so long for him to put it together, and now we can stick by a guy who had one bad series. And did he? Numbers don’t tell the whole story, but Anthony, who scored 28.2 points and grabbed 6.6 rebounds per game in the regular season, scored 30.7 and grabbed 8.5 in the playoffs in just a few more minutes while improving his shooting percentages. He’s fine. So’s Chauncey, for that matter, though his age makes me think the Nuggets need to move yesterday to contend while he can still star.

So who deserves the blame? The obvious target is J.R. Smith, whose tweet after Game Four quickly became infamous. I hate piling on J.R. because everyone already is and because he was indispensable in last year’s first two rounds. He kept the Nuggets dialed in against New Orleans and Dallas whenever Chauncey was resting, particularly in the fourth quarters of games. However, he was pretty bad against L.A. last year and Utah this year.

What about Nene? The powerhouse interior man has had a star-crossed career, but isn’t it time his play starts to resemble his considerable potential?

And Kenyon Martin? Believe it or not, I think the Nuggets really did put a last year in his contract…and it’s next year. That excites me.

The problem with the Nuggets is, we’ve got a superstar scorer (Carmelo), a brilliant point guard and his understudy (Chauncey and Ty Lawson), and a ton of head cases who sometimes, but not always, play up to their potential, and probably can’t be traded for more reliable players unless we’re willing to take a talent drop-off in return. That said, I think the Nuggets need even more talent, particularly down low, to be title contenders. So perhaps it comes down to what we can get for K-Mart during next season. Your thoughts?

No one can tell me what my remorse is

Dear Readers,

The last few years I always felt like writing a “Life is Good” post, celebrating how long it had been since the New York Yankees won a World Series or were a serious threat to: it had been nearly a decade. I suppose they were a threat to win it in 2003, when I didn’t watch the Florida Marlins whoop ’em, but the Arizona Diamondbacks’ seventh-game win in 2001 didn’t just knock off the Yankees’ aura, it made the team seem utterly vincible. After a few years, though, I felt most of us had forgotten how awful it had been in the late-90’s and 2000, when the Dynasty of Inequality crushed the hopes of baseball fans everywhere else, which is to say of real fans. (Those same fans had the pleasure of being insulted every time the team’s front-office and managerial savvy were praised on TV. Oh, that huge financial advantage inherent to playing in New York? I’m sure it’s nothing! Salary cap? That sounds like communism, and what kind of all-American sport would agree to such blatant loss of freedom?) It pains me to say that I did not write that post on time, for as you know the Yankees were “finally” back on top last year after a soul-searing ten-year absence.

Now, my friends, my regret is not doing the same for the Blue Devils of Duke, who are back in the national championship game tomorrow night for the first time since 2001. Screw Duke, I hate Duke, Duke sucks. You know me as an unnaturally-occurring fan of Duke’s main rival, the North Carolina Tar Heels, but that’s not my motivation here. Duke, in the grand tradition of the Yankees, New Red Sox, and Dallas Cowboys, is overhyped, overpraised, and overappreciated. But, you say, at least I have to admit that Coach Shursheffski has done a marvelous job with the ol’ program, don’t I? Actually, I don’t. I’m more than happy to ignore any changes in the game over several decades and instead compare him unfavorably to, say, John Wooden at UCLA. And hey, at least Kareem did a thing or two in the pros. (But seriously, is Coach K. really as far ahead of every other marquee de laffay-coach as they say he is? I think not.)

Let’s go Butler!

And whatever happens tomorrow night, at least we’ll always have this year’s Super Bowl,

Mike

Unfold your victory story

So I was hardly excited about this year’s NCAA Tournament. Filled out three brackets this morning, but I don’t know who’s good, and I don’t really care. By the way, brackets are just awful when you can’t convince yourself yours matters.

But then the games started.

BYU just wrapped up a spectacular 99-92 double-overtime win over the 10-seed Florida Gators that reminded me why March Madness is king. Like many tourney games, it started slowly, with poor execution and a disappointing level of play. But the Cougars took a big second-half lead, blew it, and then somehow managed to win the game anyway.

My favorite part was when Jimmer Fredette got knocked down with four minutes to go in the second overtime period. As soon as the cameraman stood over him, he just looked up and waved. Totally cool under pressure, and that’s as close as I got to knowing the Cougars would win before the final buzzer sounded. My least favorite part would have been that stepback three he took late if he hadn’t made it, but it went in and he finished with 37 to lead BYU to an awesome victory.

So it’s back to the games for me. By the way, CBS and the NCAA completely rock for giving you alternative options if you can’t catch the games on TV, like their online streaming and $10 iPhone app (which has pretty solid video quality, by the way) for catching games on the go, or just seeing the game that isn’t on right now. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can’t wait until everyone sees the light.

Broncos get Brady Quinn. Next stop? Missing the playoffs

So you’ve probably heard that the Denver Broncos acquired quarterback Brady Quinn, late of the Cleveland Browns and previously of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, in a trade involving Peyton Hillis (who I’m not in love with) and some late draft picks.

I’ve got nothing against Hillis; he’s just not one of my favorites the way he seems to be for some Broncos fans.

So how does Brady Quinn, Medicine Woman, shift the balance of power in the AFC West? Not at all! Everyone keeps asking me what I think about this trade, which is weird, considering Quinn’s dazzling career 5.39 yards per attempt, which barely beats Hillis’ 4.9 yards per rushing attempt. Let me spell it out for you: he sucks. No, he doesn’t suck at football the way I suck at getting women, but he’s yet to show any hint that he’s got the potential to turn a team around, despite his build, athleticism, and hype.

And make no mistake: turning the franchise around is absolutely what the Broncos need right now. We might’ve been gangbusters out of the gate last year, including a Week Two win over Cleveland in which Quinn threw thirty-one times for 161 yards and a pick, but we were straight garbage down the stretch, with a pair of four-game losing streaks sandwiching our only second-half wins. Overall, we were middle-of-the-pack, if anything, outscoring opponents by two points over the course of the season and finishing 8-8. But the team fell apart in ways that seemed to go beyond things that are easily correctable. And we’ll be even worse if we get rid of Brandon Marshall, our one offensive weapon at the skill positions. (That’s an odd thing to say, because Ryan Clady is nothing if not skilled, but you know what I mean.) Knowing Josh McDaniels, we’ll probably get rid of Marshall and Champ Bailey, and then next year we can trade for guys with one third of their potential. In other words, don’t anybody get excited, because we’ve got a long way to go.

A perfect Sunday

This afternoon I was awoken from a glorious slumber by a phone call I barely remember, and then I called back my friend David, who had also called during my nap. He told me he was heading home to watch the gold-medal Olympic hockey game and the Nuggets-Lakers game. Holy crap, how did I not know? So I switched on the TV and this is what I saw.

I picked up the hockey match early in the third period, with the U.S. down 2-1 and not really charging. I was alternately shocked how many names I did and didn’t recognize. Scott Niedermayer’s still playing? Whenever Jack Johnson’s name was called, I started to sing, “it seems to me that maybe…”, and likewise when Mike Richards was on the ice I began to reminisce out loud about what I would have done to him with a fork fifty years ago. This is particularly charming when you realize I was watching the game alone.

Meanwhile the Nuggets were taking care of business in L.A., up by eight or so.

The U.S. was getting occasional chances on goal, slightly better than Canada was, but it became clear that Canada was just playing not to give up another score. I was just hoping for a U.S. goal, or a really good U.S. chance, so the game could be worthy of its billing. Kept waiting, and waiting, and it didn’t come. Minutes were ticking off the clock very slowly, and I was wondering if anything was going to happen. The Nuggets were slowly losing their lead. I began to wonder where Team U.S.A. hockey ranks on my list of favorite teams…top 50, maybe? I of course would rather have one of my teams win gold than have another win some regular season game, but it began to appear I’d get neither.

Then the U.S. pulled their goalie. I don’t care how many hockey games you’ve seen, that never stops being fun, even if it often ends with the opponent scoring on an empty net. The Americans started pressing, forcing the issue, but we didn’t seem to know quite what to do. Come on, stop controlling the puck, get a shot! And then, holy crap, we tied it up.

There were, what, 24 seconds left at this point. The crowd seemed a little out of it, and the Canadian team in general felt shaky. I don’t know if they really were, or if they were just trying to play defense, but it felt good. Nonetheless, I thought, it would suck, but how awesome would it be for Canada to score in the closing seconds and win the gold? They didn’t, naturally, and the game went to overtime.

I switched back to the Nuggets and saw the Lakers take a lead, which later we tied, but the game started to feel over. I switch back to the hockey and IM a Canadian friend to say that they’re about to lose, but I honestly started to feel bad about it. It’s like if someone from Jacksonville had talked trash to me when they knocked out the aging Elway. I just would have cared too much to find any humor or charm in it whatsoever.

Our goalie, Ryan Miller, was playing his butt off, but Sidney Crosby broke free up the left side. I started to relax slightly, thanks to a Sports Guy tweet that he wasn’t worried about Crosby. And next thing I know, Crosby’s scoring on a point-blank, easy goal and the Canadians win the gold medal.

I’m bummed that the U.S. lost, but honestly, if you have to lose to any country in the world in anything, I’ll take to Canada in hockey. And I felt good for my friend, which I hope isn’t some sign of growing maturity or something. Seriously, though, the silver medal in hockey is great. It’s like I told a friend on the phone: if American football was an Olympic sport, we all know the most impressive country would be the one that won silver.

I switch back to the Nuggets, who were just clearly going to lose, and see Carmelo foul out while trying to establish position on Ron Artest. As Mark Jackson said, that wasn’t a sixth foul. But he was sent to the bench and well, that’s the ball game.

But I still had a great day today, since on the way to church I drove past my ex-girlfriend getting pulled over. Police, you’re okay by me. If you ever need voters to support some budget increase or something, you just let me know.

Saints triumph in the Super Bowl

Everyone’s been asking me the last few weeks who I wanted to win the Super Bowl, and the answer was easy: the New Orleans Saints. Why? Because I hate Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, I’d say, even though everyone says he’s the greatest player in the universe.

As I was explaining this over and over, I realized how weird it is to say I am rooting against a team because I hate someone. Thing is, I don’t have any reason to hate Manning. He’s a good guy or whatever. Or maybe he’s not, but he doesn’t seem to be that bad of a guy, either. And he’s very good at football. But he’s wildly overrated in any discussion of his talents as a quarterback. It’s just off the charts how much more highly people think of him than his actual ability merits. Just look at his record in big games, or the way he started going off-target in the fourth quarter tonight.

Enough about Peyton Manning, though. Tonight’s all about the Saints and Drew Brees, who cemented what should have been an MVP year with a masterful performance. (Just for the record, his completion percentage, yards-per-attempt, touchdowns, and interceptions were all better than Manning’s, and his team scored almost one hundred points more in the regular season. In fact, his team led the NFL in scoring, where Manning’s would’ve been third in the NFC North alone. But it’s Manning who gets the MVP? Too bad Brees’ dad didn’t suck in the NFL; both MVP trophies could’ve been his.)

The entire Saints team was impressive. I loved coach Sean Payton going for the touchdown in the second quarter, then following up with the surprise onside kick to start the third. I really loved Tracy Porter’s interception return. The wide angle replay, where you could see almost the whole field, was particularly telling: many of the Colts were jogging back, with minimal effort, while at least one other Saint was sprinting like a bat out of Lincoln to meet Porter in the end zone. I know it’s demoralizing, but this is the Super Bowl; you shouldn’t need any more motivation to run, to scrap, or to fight. Plays like that will forever remind me of Rod Smith chasing down Julius Peppers from across the field, saying if it had been his last play, he would’ve wanted to give it his best. And New Orleans did. The Saints came to win; the Colts came to claim a trophy, and not to lose. I was so glad to see it work out for the aggressors.

George Gore

Somehow I’ve never written about George Gore, the only Gore ever to play major league baseball. Though you’ve probably never heard of him, Gore was pretty sweet: an outfielder who could flat-out rake, run the bases, and had some skills on defense. He was probably a five-tool player, especially early in his career, though the standards were a little different back then.

Gore played his first eight seasons (1879-1886) for the Chicago White Stockings, the team that would become today’s…wait for it…Chicago Cubs (yes, seriously). In 1880, Gore won his only batting title, hitting .360, with league-leading on-base (.399) and slugging (.463) percentages, too.

According to Wikipedia, his last two White Stockings teams won the National League pennant, then faced the St. Louis Brown Stockings, champions of the American Association, in what then passed for a World Series. The clubs tied in 1885 and St. Louis won outright in 1886; this was the foundation of today’s Cubs-Cardinals rivalry.

Gore once stole seven bases in a single game. As near as I can tell, that record has never been broken. His 1,327 career runs rank him just outside of the top 100 all-time.

Gore’s nickname, “Piano Legs”, came from his massive calf muscles, a trait he shares with my brother John. In The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James named George Gore as having the best outfield arm of the 1880s. Gore finished with a career .301 average (just above Juan Pierre) and .386 on-base percentage (a little better than Ichiro). Told ya he could play.

More information about Gore can be found on Wikipedia, Baseball-Reference.com, and Bleed Cubbie Blue.

(If my timing confuses anyone, my nephew George was born today to John and his wife Kristina. Congratulations!)

Conference Championships

The games today were predictable (AFC) and sloppy (NFC), and only one moment (the Saints' FG) was as cool as Carmelo's OT free throws Saturday, but here are my brief thoughts on what we've learned about the teams:

New York Jets: None of the teams whose seasons are over did more with their potential this year than the New York Jets. Their foundation was less solid than anyone else in the final four. Mark Sanchez is limited as a quarterback, particularly in his rookie season, but the team asked just the right amount of him, especially in the postseason. Their defense and running game are very good; will Sanchez get better quickly enough that the team returns to this point next year? And will teams like the Ravens and Patriots not improve enough to challenge them? It's too early to call next year, but Jets fans have a team to be proud of.

Indianapolis Colts: In the second half of the NFC title game, it hit me: the Colts are almost surely winning the Super Bowl again. I hate that, being as sick as I am of Peyton Manning, who absolutely did not deserve this year's MVP award. Other things I hate? The fact that Bobby Turner, the Broncos' longtime running back coach, has gone to Washington. Not sure how I missed that when it happened, but there goes my weekend. (I recently gave a USC fan some crap about Pete Carroll leaving; I'm barely exaggerating when I say this is just as devastating. Love that guy, way more than Josh.)

Minnesota Vikings: Sad day for Mr. Favre, who played tough through injury, then ended a fantastic year with a boneheaded toss across the middle. The Vikings refused to hang on to the ball today, and while they're clearly very talented, they refused to play up to the moment. They had so many chances they let pass them by.

New Orleans Saints: Classic Reggie Bush-in-a-big-game moment on that muffed punt return. The Saints didn't step up and make today's game their own. Rather, they took advantage of some bad Vikings turnovers, won a coin toss, and made just enough plays to be ahead on the scoreboard at the end. You can call that winning a conference championship if you'd like, but the Colts have been on the game's biggest stage before and gotten it done, as much as it pains me to say. One last thought: the game-winning field goal in OT? That's not the kind of play this franchise makes. Their fans must be going nuts right now. Everybody loves the Saints; let's hope they have enough in them to make this Super Bowl a memorable one.

Shanahan to coach Redskins

Yes, that is seriously a football team’s name. Anyway, it’s official that the greatest coach in Denver Broncos history is heading to the overexposed NFC East. I twittered about this a bunch tonight so you can hit the link to the right if you want to see what I said. I appreciated more the sentiment from my Sunday Ticket host, who texted, “I feel like my ex-gf just got married.”

And go Nuggets! Crazy win against the Warriors tonight.

The Broncos are done. For how long?

You wouldn’t put a fork in them, because you wouldn’t want to consume—you wouldn’t want to savor—you wouldn’t even want to think about this painful season one second more than is necessary. I’ll be brief.

Last season the Broncos ran out to an 8-5 start. Not unstoppable, but dangerous on offense, which for some reason makes a team look a lot better than when they’re just average on both sides of the ball with the same record. Wonder if there’s anything to that. Anyway, we just needed one win—any win—in the last three games to clinch a playoff spot. Instead we fell apart, losing by twenty to Carolina, by a touchdown to Buffalo, and by a ton to San Diego in the last game of the season, a painful and sad loss. That loss was so bad that it felt like a big factor in the dismissal of our Hall of Fame coach, Mike Shanahan, and the team’s overall letdown was surely at play in our trade of Jay Cutler, too.

This year we busted out of the gate to a sparkling 6-0 mark. However, we faltered, and were 8-5 heading into the last three weeks, before we once again lost all three. (We were also 8-4 before losing four, but don’t crush my narrative.) The fact is, we got off to a good start and then lost it all one more time.

Not that making the playoffs is good enough, or the be all end all. I don’t expect the Broncos to win a title every year or even every decade, but I like the team to provide some legitimate excitement, and I liked that Shanahan’s teams were almost always prepared. The six-and-oh start made me gun-shy on new coach Josh McDaniels, but haven’t we just spent a couple of months getting our butts beat up and down the field? And doesn’t it make that 6-0 start seem a bit…flukish?

The Raiders loss two weeks ago was the worst for me. Except for when JaMarcus Russell first stepped on the field, I just knew we were going to lose, because we were getting outplayed by a team with half our talent. Although now, I’m not sure we’re all that talented, especially if we lose Brandon Marshall, only the most or one of the most talented receivers in the game, a beast of a man who saved the Cowboys game and whose talents are wasted on a short-passing team.

Keep Marshall, find a tight end who can catch, get healthy, keep developing Knowshon, keep Elvis and Champ happy whatever the cost, force Shanahan to come back and fulfill his contract, let McDaniels follow his heart to greener pastures, and give Ron Wolf $10 million to pick some quarterbacks in next year’s draft. Do that, and next year maybe we can go 9-7.