Tuesday Rambling - Amare Stoudemire

The NBA trading deadline is this Thursday afternoon and typically the deadline results in a few minor trades, and a few trades of guys that retired 3 years ago but resign for an insane salary and allow themselves to be traded to make the salaries involved work (see Keith Van Horn and potentially Wally Szerbiak this year). While the Knicks appear to be excited about getting the corpse of Tracy McGrady, the only real big name that may be traded is Amare Stoudemire of the Phoenix Suns. There are teams that want Stoudemire, teams that the Suns want to trade him to, and teams where Stoudemire would like to be traded. Is he really worth it? And how will it work out with the likeliest team to get him?

The Suns would like to trade Stoudemire to Philadelphia for Andre Iguodala but the 76ers have no plans to make that deal. Amare would like to be traded to Miami, where he keeps an off-season home. Yet the Suns are not interested in Michael Beasley, which is the core of the offer the Heat are making. The Suns are in alignment with my thoughts on Beasley that he is not the type of player you want to build a franchise around. Beasley is like Nicole Eggert from her days on Charles in Charge – good enough to draw some attention as a side character or among other stars (she was on Baywatch with Pam Anderson), but could never carry a show by herself. The Golden State Warriors are trying to get involved by offering Corey Magette, but it appears that their best shot is to be the third team involved in a deal. The most likely landing spot for Stoudemire appears to be Cleveland, which has offered young JJ Hickson and the corpse of Zdrunas Illgauskas. (Random side note – I rode an elevator with Big Z in a hotel in Boston before opening night of the 2008-09 season. I asked if he was ready for the season and he grunted and said “It’s such a long and dragging season – I’m already looking forward to the all-star break.”)

So why would Cleveland give up the young and improving Hickson to get Amare, possibly without a contract extension? I’m not really sure. I have to make the disclaimer that I have not watched a complete Suns game in years. I don’t really understand the appeal of Amare. He is a great athlete and a ferocious dunker. But does that make him a great basketball player? Does that make him worthy of a max contract? He has impressive stats – 21.2ppg and 8.6 rpg this season, which is close to his career averages. Then again, Megan Fox has impressive stats, but it all falls apart when she has to act or open her mouth. Amare shoots nearly 55% from the field and averages over a block a game. Yet watching the highlight package that ESPN shows when they discuss the trade rumors, every single shot is either a dunk or a layup crashing to the rim off a great pass from Steve Nash. John Hollinger of ESPN has in his scouting report that he is a good outside shooter, yet quotes his shooting percentage at only 46% on jump shots. I also did a youtube search for Amare highlights and everyone only focuses on his dunks. Granted, those are the plays that tend to make highlight reels, but if you do a search for Barkley highlights or Malone highlights, you will see some jumpers, some fadeaways, and some lay-ups.

The other question is how effective Amare will be when he’s not playing with the incredible passing of a Hall of Fame point guard in Steve Nash. Getting passes from a shot-happy point guard like Mo Williams will not lead for nearly as many reckless crashes to the rim. Add to that the concern of Amare playing with Shaq, because that did not work very well during the 2008-09 season in Phoenix, when Amare’s numbers were down nearly 4 points and a rebound a game. If Amare was such a foundation for a team, wouldn't the Suns be interested in signing him to an extension rather than trading him?

At the end of the day, why are the Cavs so interested in a guy that is not a complete player, who needs a new contract and will be playing in a system not the most conducive to his talents? Because LeBron said so. King James is interested in playing with Amare and the Cavs are willing to do any and everything to try and keep him happy enough to resign with the Cavs this summer.

formspring.me

Trent: About 8 years ago, you gave a tutorial on the winter olympic sport of curling. Can we get a "SWEEP!" "SWEEEEP!"

I barely remember what I did last week, much less 8 years ago. But if I was curling, it was likely after a spirited game of beer pong.

Ask me anything

Weekend Hangover - All-Star Weekend

A quick version of Love/Hate today for the President’s Day holiday. Most people have the day off, unless your company doesn’t like presidents?

Love

- Random notes from flying back from Milwaukee after helping my sister move:

o On most flights, that couple moments as the plane taxis out to the runway are typically quiet with everyone wrestling to own the arm rest and getting into their newspapers/books/etc. Not on flights coming out of Milwaukee. The people are all so friendly, asking everyone where they’re from, where they’re headed and just generally the friendliest people on earth. “Eh, Marge! Dis guy is from da north side a da city just like yer nephew, Daryl.”

o Only on flights out of Milwaukee do you have the overwhelming smell of pizza and cheeseburgers dominating the flight…..at 10:15 in the morning. And that’s of course before those Midwest Airlines chocolate chip cookies get delivered.

- I thoroughly enjoy a good beat down of Tom Crean, whether he was the coach at Marquette or now that he’s running the Indiana program into the ground. In addition to being an insufferable arrogant prick, I have to ask, Tommy – is there a tanning bed in your office? I just came back from the Midwest and let me tell you, there is no one there as tan as you. The only people close are those that just came back from Arizona, and since you supposedly work 18 hour days as the coach, when do you have time to sit in the sun and work on your tan? I have met Tommy Tan on multiple occasions and heard him give a bunch of motivational speeches. The guy just likes to hear himself talk and just about throws both arms out of socket patting himself on the back while trying to motivate his audience. So it is with great delight to watch TT take regular beat downs outside of the comforts of the pathetic Conference-USA.

- Speaking of Tom Crean, congrats to his meal ticket, Dwayne Wade on his All-Star MVP award last night. And Nate Robinson won the dunk contest over some guy that I guarantee no one other than his mother and his crew knew was even in the league. It seemed like the biggest story from the All-Star weekend was the stadium and the fact that over 100,000 watched the game live at the Jerry-Dome. Although most of them just had to watch it on the jumbo screen where the pictures of the players were actually larger than the real-life version that was playing below the screen.

Hate

- Valentine’s Day in New York. Even the flower places jack up the price on Valentine’s Day in New York. There are very few things that are cheaper in New York than anywhere else, but the two important ones are flowers and dry cleaning. There are so many little places selling flowers and offering dry cleaning (and yes, some of those places are one in the same) that it’s actually very cheap and most places will pick up and deliver for free. However, come Valentine’s Day, those same flowers I was getting for $10 are now jacked to $30. Just another reason why I am a firm believer in buying flowers at random for your wife/girlfriend/girl that you drunkenly make out with every Friday night dancing on the tables so that you’re off the hook for flowers on cheesey holidays. And don’t get me started on the prefix menus at every restaurant forcing you to get 4 or 5 courses each. First, I don’t need that much food because I don’t want to be a deuce (again). Second, your wife/girlfriend/drunken hookup is not going to want to be seen plowing through all those courses either, so she’s going to waste the food, and it’s a waste of your cash that you could be saving towards that 55” flatscreen television.

- When did NBC become the Lifetime network for women? I’ve already covered my lack of interest in the Olympics, but then again, the sports menu is fairly limited this time of year, so I will be checking it out ocassionally. Of course there are only a few sports I am willing to watch, starting with the hockey. Yet NBC has decided to show ice dancing instead of the hockey game between the USA and Canada. Really?!?! Really?!?!?! Honestly?!?!? No S#it!?!?! Who is in charge of their programming, Oprah? And right after ice dancing, they will be showing an after school special “Jenny Eat Something” or “He Beats Me Because He Loves Me”.

- Let me see if I have this straight, the Daytona 500 is the “Super Bowl of Racing” for NASCAR, right? What other sport do you know of that starts it’s season with the Super Bowl? Then again, I guess it’s fitting for a sport where the most exciting parts of the race are the pit stops and crashes. Otherwise it’s just watching people make left turns over and over again.

Degenerate Friday - NBA Dunk Contest?

Now that the football season has officially ended, Degenerate Friday needs to find other things to bet on. And as I covered a few weeks ago, the way to make money in college basketball is on the smaller conferences with less available data. I’m not going to get into discussing those games because let’s face it, as soon as I start mentioning the Ivy League, I start to get sleepy, so I’m sure you do as well.

I was boarding a flight to Milwaukee to help my sister move (at least it’s my sister and not Keith Hernandez asking me to move) and Devin Harris of the New Jersey Nets was on my flight. We chatted very briefly while we were boarding the plane, asked him how his injuries were (he’s sore but feeling pretty good), asked if he was headed home to see his family (a quick stop before going to Orlando for some sun over the All-Star break), and I wished him well for the rest of the season. While he’s still thin, he definitely has bulked up some since his days at the Kohl Center in Madison.

It got me thinking about the All-Star break, and what used to be the greatest night of the NBA season – All-Star Saturday Night – when all the best talent in the league would compete in the 3-point shoot out and the dunk contest. I remember hanging out at my buddy Sally’s (a guy – nicknamed Sally as a mocking of his manhood. He calls my Nancy) parents house eating pizza, listening to his dad pass gas and watching the festivities. Those were the days where the biggest stars – Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, etc. – competed in the events. And while the dunks may not have been quite as high-flying back then, they were extremely majestic and powerful. Check out these Jordan highlights:

Being that we have to bet on something over the weekend, let’s take a look at the contestants in this year’s competition and where we should bet. Below are the odds I could find from bodog.com:

Dwight Howard (Orlando): 20-31Rudy Fernandez (Portland): 13-4J.R. Smith (Denver): 7-2Nate Robinson (N.Y. Knicks): 19-4

The biggest factor to consider for this year’s competition is that part of the judging will be done via text message. That has a huge benefit for Rudy Fernandez who may secure all of the European text votes. Spaniards are big on hoops and definitely would take some pride in having one of their own bring home a dunk crown. It would also continue to improve the perception of the foreign-born players as more than just finese jumpshooters.

Dwight Howard is the overwhelming favorite with his Superman persona and big smile to sway the audience. While his athleticism is impressive, for me, the fact that he’s a 7-footer just kind of diminishes all of his dunks. He’s already closer to the rim than any of us, so he should be able to throw down nasty dunks, right? So then I should probably go with Nate Robinson as the shortest contestant at somewhere around 5’9”, right? While I like the “Krypto-Nate” routine that he pulled, I can’t see him pulling enough of the text votes, particularly from Europe to come away with the win.

J.R. Smith has the ability to win this contest, as he has the perfect combination of insane hops, size to make the aerial displays look impressive, and craziness to try any dunk. The reason he won’t win? Who knows who J.R. Smith is outside of Denver? No one. There will be very, very few overseas texts voting for the tattoo’d guy who looks more like the black guy on Scrubs than he does an NBA player. He also strikes me as the guy that will try to do something so insane that he misses and gets eliminated because he keeps missing.

So where do we bet? I think the best value lies with Rudy Fernandez. At 13-4 odds, it’s a decent pay day on a guy who can throw down and has European support. It also helps the NBA increase its global presence by being able to promote another of its foreign-born players as an up-and-coming star on an up-and-coming team in Portland. Then again, others that have won the contest include JR Rider, Desmond Mason and Brent Barry. Being dunk champ didn’t exactly boost their careers.

All that said, if Dominique Wilkins, Shawn Kemp (before he pulled a Kirstie Alley) or Kenny “Sky” Walker entered this year’s competition, I’d bet on them.

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Have you ever heard the phrase “It’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt”? Pretty sure John Mayer should have that tattoo’d on both of his hands, Sarah Palin-style, as a constant reminder. In one interview with Playboy he proved beyond a doubt that some long, wavy hair and the ability to play the guitar are all it takes to get laid by some of the hottest women in Hollywood. He managed to call his junk racist, dromb an “n-bomb” and complement Jessica Simpson’s ability in the sack.

He then backpedaled faster than Deion Sanders in his prime, arguing that he should have known that he wouldn’t be able to “intellectualize” his use of such a derogatory word. John, you may have a way with words with bimbos, but you did a hell of a job of making an ass of yourself. It doesn’t even matter what your intentions were – you just have to be smarter than that to know that it’s a lightning rod that you don’t want to be anywhere near.

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Last add: Yesterday was the 20-year anniversary of Mike Tyson getting knocked by Buster Douglas in Tokyo. I think sometimes it’s hard for those that are too young to have been around when Tyson was the most feared man in the world. Now he’s only known as this complete lunatic who does a great karaoke of Phil Collins and has a tattoo on his face. Back in the day he was among the biggest stars in the entire world and opponents were generally scared out of their minds before the fight would even begin. Just watch the highlights

If the Olympics Start and No One Notices.......

I heard that the Olympics are starting this weekend. Does anyone care? Probably not. The reason the Olympics are not interesting doesn’t even involve the fact that they are in Canada or that they are currently trucking in snow because of the unseasonably warm weather in Vancouver. As I’ve stated multiple times here before, I am not a fan of Canada (I may or may not have used the phrase “Canada is proof that Indians f#$ked buffalo”), yet Vancouver is one of the most scenic places I have ever been. The mountains, the fresh air, the waterfront and beautiful trails and parks. A great place for a fall getaway weekend to do some biking, hiking or other outdoor activities. So Vancouver is not the problem with the Olympics…….it’s the Olympics that are the problem.

National Pride

Really? We’re supposed to be worried about whether our eskimos are better than those of Germany or Switzerland or China. Why does it matter? For a country like Finland, getting a couple medals might be the highlight of the decade for the country. Or perhaps if someone from Greece wins a medal people will forget for a second that the country is on the verge of complete financial ruin and is more financially strapped than Heidi Montag (she’s considering another Playboy shoot to pay for all of her plastic surgery). The overall medal count doesn’t matter because there are so many random sports where many of the countries don’t even compete. How is it fair to compare overall medals when not every country is in every event? It’s that old economic argument of whether you’re better off focusing only on the events you are strong in and bartering for the skills where you are not as strong, or try to be middle of the road in all skills.

A Star Every 4 Years

The reason the major sports in the US have such a tremendous following is that fans can make a connection with the stars of their sports, even if they don’t play for their home team. Their faces are all over the newspapers, internet and television over and over each season. With the Olympics, by the time the fans make a connection with one of the Olympic stars, the games are over and we won’t see them for another 4 years. Remember that Apollo Ohno guy? Is he still around? Or Picabo Street? Or from the summer games, Misty May? Amanda Beard even posed for Playboy to try and extend her fame window. At the end of the day, it’s very difficult for an athlete to stay at the absolute pinacle of their talent for more than 5 to 6 years, meaning they are lucky if they get to participate in two Olympics. By the time they make themselves a star, they are gone and no one will remember them.

The Events

Not the least of the issues are the events of the Olympics themselves. There are so many events and many of them are not viewer friendly. There are 15 sports with 86 individual events at the 2010 Olympics. That includes ice dancing, the biathlon (skiing and shooting), cross-country skiing and curling. While curling has grown in popularity because it is a sport you can do drunk, it’s hard to believe that someone can focus their efforts to become an Olympic curler. Again, when you’r e looking at the total medal counts during the Olympics, remember that the totals include some of those medals were given out for the luge, the skelton and again, ice dancing.

And if the US ever feels like it can’t compete with the rest of the world in the current events out there, we can continue to strong-arm the committee into moving X-games that the US invented not long ago into the Olympics, like snowboarding. Obviously the Chinese or the Norwegians cannot compete with Carrot Top flying off jumps on a skateboard without wheels.

Overractions!

Chill out people. Seriously. Everyone and everything today is not the best or the worst. And things that happen in one game do not outweight an entire career. It reminds me of this scene from Austin Powers:


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Peyton Manning’s legacy has not been permanently altered because of the Super Bowl. Yes, it does halt the “greatest of all-time” talk, but he’s still among the best to ever play the game. Dan Shaughnessy (the d-bag writer for the Boston Globe with a face for newspaper) decided before the Super Bowl that Manning was better than Tom Brady. Then after the game he completely flopped to the other side. Way to stick to your guns Dan. The only thing that changes after the loss? He’ll never have the perfect Super Bowl record that Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw have. He’s still on pace to set every passing record (other than interceptions) that Favre currently holds. He still has more MVP awards than anyone in the history of the game. He has more titles than Marino, Tarkenton and Jim Kelly combined, and the same amount as Favre. And he’s now set himself up to potentially have a great “Eff You” season of redemption next year.

So while the 2004 Peyton showed up for one big game, let’s relax on the “Peyton can’t win the big game” talk. Let’s keep in mind the fact that he inspired two of the riskiest and “on paper dumbest” decisions by opponents during this season with the sole goal of those decisions to keep the ball out of his hands. 3-time Super Bowl Champion Bill Belichick went for that fateful 4th down to play keep away from Manning. And in the biggest game of his life, Sean Payton tried an onside kick (the first ever not during the fourth quarter of a Super Bowl) with the same goal – to keep Manning off the field. Just because Marissa Miller did not make the cover of the swimsuit issue does not mean she’s not bringing the heat.

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Today another nasty snow storm has hit the east coast (and one also hit the midwest yesterday). If you just relied on the news coverage around here for the past 48 hours, you would have thought the world was going to end. The news casters were crying about how epic this storm was going to be and how everything was going to be a disaster. Listen, it’s the second big storm to hit Manhattan this year, and the second storm to hit the DC area in two weeks. It’s February – the heart of winter. Why are we surprised by snow storms? Why does the news act like the city has no idea how to handle the snow? This isn’t California or Texas. It’s the Northeast, the same place where they coined the term “N’oreaster” to describe the storms that come up the coast. So settle down and go grab a shovel. I’m going to go look for jobs in San Diego….or bartending in the Virgin Islands.

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The Milwaukee Brewers are going to build a statue of Proud to Be Yer Bud Selig to put next to Robin Yount and Hank Aaron outside of Miller Park. I have an idea for the pose they should use!! (see photo) I’m not sure there is a more polarizing figure in baseball. On the positive side of the ledger, he brought the Brewers to Milwaukee, kept them there, and brought in the wild card and interleague play. On the negative side, he forced out Faye Vincent, keeps Pete Rose out of the Hall of Fame, and while other sports were implementing salary caps and revenue sharing he allowed teams to spend 6-7 times more than other teams ensuring parity will never be a factor in baseball. And don’t forget the whole charade where he supposedly passed power of the Brewers over to his daughter while he was the “acting” commissioner. And the tremendously poor results by the team during his tenure. Once he finally sold the team to someone with deeper pockets, the team found some success and has a solid young base to compete in the future.

Are we overreacting to build the guy a statue? Especially before we build one for Paul Molitor? Molitor and Yount were the soul of the franchise for almost 15 years before Sal Bando (a Selig guy) ran him out of town to Toronto where he won his title and his World Series MVP. Molitor is in the baseball Hall of Fame as a Brewer and he doesn’t have a statue? Selig might be the Kristin Cavallari of baseball – some people love her, some people hate her, but very few people are on the fence. And I’m guessing Orange County has no intentions of building a statue of Kristin. And the latest rumor has Kristin dating Mark Sanchez now and if he had been able to beat the Colts, there’s a pretty good chance Jersey would have built a statue of the former SC quarterback.

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And finally, one story where it might be right to overreact: the NJ Nets. They are 4-47. Four wins in 51 games. You would think with playing a team on a back-to-back night, or at the end of a roadtrip, or a team that was out to late at the Hustler Club in Manhattan the night before the Nets would be able to do better than winning less than once every ten games. I was part of a high school team that went 2-19, so I feel their pain. And like the Nets, while there was a talent gap between us and every other team, a big part of the problem was the coaching staff (proven by the fact that we had a new coach the following year and went 12-9). The Nets coaching staff has been a disaster, as they fired Lawrence Frank early in the year and made Kiki Vandeweghe the coach, despite him never having a coaching gig prior to the Nets. To bridge the gap, they brought in veteran coach Del Harris to mentor Kiki on the job. That went so well that Harris quit about a month and a half into the gig.

The NBA record for futility was 9 wins by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1972-73. That team actually started 4-47 as well, at which point they fired their coach, Roy Rubin, and replaced him with Kevin Loughery. I guess it was an improvement as Loughery went 5-26. Those five wins came in a 7 game stretch, before losing their final 11 games of the season. That’s a painful record that the Nets are chasing. Get fired up Brooklyn – these are your Nets in 2012!!!

Super Bowl Weekend Hangover - Love/Hate

LOVE

- Sean Payton, Drew Brees and Gregg Williams deserve every bit of praise they get after this game. The Saints won the game by staying aggressive, playing with nothing to lose and taking it to the Colts over and over again. They played like the team that wanted it more and for that they deserve credit.

Payton almost made himself the goat with a poor decision to go for it on 4th down trailing 10-3 late in the first half. Thankfully for him the Colts went ultraconservative (more on that below) and gave the Saints a chance to put points on the board and get momentum before the half. Yet Payton redeemed himself with an amazing onside kick call. The thing I liked about it was that Payton is known as an aggressive players coach and he stayed true to his colors on the biggest stage he has ever coached on.

Brees and the offense got off to a slow start but his stats by the end of the game were incredibly impressive, going 32-39 including 29 of his last 32. He was completely in command during the game, moving around in the pocket to get extra time and finding the right receivers at the right time. If you want a good article about Brees and how he has always been an ultracompetitive, great athlete despite not having the ultimate size to be a pro athlete, check out this article from Saturday’s NY Times.

Gregg Williams was masterful against Manning and the Colts offense. That ended an impressive run by the Saints by beating 5 Super Bowl winning quarterbacks during one season, culminating in a string of Kurt Warner, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning. While normally this would vault Williams into contention for some head coaching positions, his past record coaching Buffalo (17-31) means he is probably best suited to just focus on being a defensive coordinator.

- Commercials :

While the commercials overall seem to get weaker every year, there were a few highlights. I always enjoy the E-Trade commercials with the baby. Loved the jealous girlfriend asking if “that milk-aholic Lindsey was over” – awesome. The Google commercial was the most intelligent commercial where they basically slammed an entire romantic comedy movie into a 30 second commercial all using Google searches. So much so that the girls made us go for an immediate replay. Also really loved the Jim Nantz commercial, particularly when he dropped the “How about No?” line on the guy. Although I don’t remember what the commercial was for – Dove for Men maybe?

Yet the highlight of the commercials for me was the dialogue among the group I was watching the game with during a local commercial in the second half for the NY lottery. The commercial shows an adult jumping into a huge pile of the play balls like at Chuck E. Cheese, which led to most everyone reacting with disgust because of the perception that kids like to pee in the balls. When one of the girls asked why, we guessed that it was because the kids were half buried, no one’s really looking and they’re little kids. To which she responded with perfect timing “Well it’s not like I pee under my desk because no one’s looking!” Great point. This may or may not have been the brandy talking, as we had easily polished off the bottle making brandy old fashioneds.

- The coverage from CBS – I didn’t see any shots of Kim Kardashian (did I miss it?) and minimal shots of the Manning family. They kept it a very clean telecast with a focus on a football game that was very cleanly played (minimal penalties) and dramatic, though not as high scoring as many (myself included) predicted. Can someone please get musicians under 50( or 70?) for the halftime show in the next few years. The music of The Who is fine, just not during halftime of the Super Bowl. I mean, did they keep their walkers and defibrilators next to the stage during the show? They had their “farewell” tour 30 years ago!! I understand they need to keep it safe since the Janet Jackson episode, but wouldn’t Kenny Chesney be safe? Wouldn’t Carrie Underwood be safe? (at least she got the National Anthem) Jay-Z? Beyonce? Alicia Keyes? There are quite a few options for musicians that don’t have to go backstage after the show and toast a nice glass of Metamucil.

- Was there any more of a sure thing than this year's Hall of Fame class including Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith? Other than betting on Carrie Underwood looking impressive to sing the National Anthem, it was the safest bet you could possibly make this weekend (as evidenced by my incorrect pick on the game and the over). And while Emmitt had a horrendous run attempting to make it as an ESPN commentator, he gave a great interview talking about his father telling him that he had lived both of their dreams during his life. That was pretty cool.

On a somewhat related topic that probably belongs under the "hate" category, did anyone have a worse week/weekend than the NFL Network? Michael Irvin gets accused of sexual assault in a civil suit. Warren Sapp gets arrested for domestic abuse on his girlfriend. Both are NFL Network contributors. Ouch.

HATE

- Didn’t like the Snickers/Betty White commercial. I thought it was way overrated and not that funny. Yes, it was somewhat comical that Betty White got tackled in the mud. But then taking a bite of a Snickers bar turned the guy back into a wimpy looking toolbox. So let me make sure I have the commercial right – if you don’t eat Snickers, you are Betty White. If you do eat Snickers, you’re a nerdy looking wimp? I don’t really like my options, so I’m going to pass on the Snickers and maybe build a house out of Bud Light. Probably not the message the people at Snickers were looking for.

And last add on commercials – do you really think Brett Favre is driving a Hyundai? Once again proving it’s about the money for him, he does an add with Hyundai when I can’t see him behind the wheel of anything that’s not an Escalade, pick up truck or SUV. And didn’t Sears already exploit the whole indecisiveness in a commercial?

- Are the Colts the Atlanta Braves of the NFL? The Braves won countless consecutive division titles and multiple World Series appearances during the 90’s. They had the best pitching staff in baseball with John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and others including Steve Avery. Yet they only have one World Championship, which came in 1995. The Colts have won the most games of any team in the NFL during the decade and have won their division almost every year. They also have the most prolific passer in the game in Peyton Manning. And after all of that, they only have one title and Peyton Manning is 9-9 in the playoffs. I’m too lazy to look up the actual numbers, but I would guess more than half of those games have been at home or as favorites because of their strong regular seasons.

- Enough with the whole “winning a Super Bowl saves the city” story. Honestly, winning a Super Bowl does not rebuild the homes in the Lower Ninth Ward. I get that they love their Saints and this gives them a sense of pride. Yet when the party ends in a week or two, they still have to go back to the neighborhood where half the houses are still boarded up. I guess at least they’ll be standing in the wreckage with a smile on their face?

- How did 2004 Peyton Manning somehow take over Peyton 2009’s body and play the Super Bowl? Calling 3 running plays near the end of the half, locking in good field position for the Saints and allowing them to get a FG to make up for the momentum they lost when failing on 4th down the previous possession? He suddenly went from the robotic guy with the cold, calculating stare knowing he was sizing up and dissecting the other team to the unsure, indecisive guy that couldn’t beat the Patriots.

- I don’t know if Reggie Wayne was more hurt than anyone let on, but he did not look right. And he flat out dropped the final pass, which would have brought the Colts within a touchdown and given them a chance for an onside kick.