January 18th update

Wednesday spotlight: Eli Manning

• When the Super Bowl takes place in a little over 2 weeks in Peyton Manning's hometown of Indianapolis, there's a good chance that a Manning will be playing for the Super Bowl championship, but it will be Eli, not Peyton.
• After years of languishing in the giant shadow cast by his brother, Eli is starting to come into his own. Although many people called his Super Bowl win a few years ago a fluke (as the team barely snuck into the playoffs that season and then took advantage of David Tyree's miraculous catch) he's now beaten the two best regular season teams of the past decade in the playoffs, downing the 15-1 Green Bay Packers in addition to the 18-0 New England Patriots, the Giants' opponents that year in the Super Bowl.
• At the beginning of this season, Eli boldly stated that he should be mentioned in the same breath as Tom Brady and the general public's reaction was mostly derision (or questioning why he wouldn't name his brother as the standard bearer instead of Brady). But after a season in which he threw for 4'933 yards beating his career total by nearly 1'000 and a figure that would lead the NFL in most seasons as well as throwing for nearly twice as many TD's (29) as interceptions (16) it's time for people to start taking Eli seriously. The Green Bay Packers certainly will. And with Peyton's career in question after missing this entire season due to a neck injury, the time may have come where Eli is the predominant Manning in the NFL.
• Eli faces a big test this week, going to San Francisco to face the 49ers and one of the best defenses in the NFL this season.


Big Year at Baylor

• As previously noted here, the Baylor Bears had a very good football season. Led by Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III, the Bears finished 10-3 with a victory in the Alamo Bowl (one of the more exciting of the bowl games this year). But despite winning arguably the most coveted individual award in college sports, Griffin has some competition for the title of big man on campus, even if in this case it's not a man who he's competing with.
• The Baylor women’s basketball team is currently undefeated at 17-0 and ranked #1 in the nation. Led by superstar center Brittney Griner, the Lady Bears have not really been tested yet this year, through no fault of their own. There just hasn’t been anybody who can compete with the talent that head coach Kim Mulkey has assembled.
• Not to be outdone, the men’s basketball team is also undefeated at 17-0. If not for a fast start by the Syracuse Orange the Bears may be #1 in the Men's poll too. Led by super sophomore forward Perry Jones, the Bears have been tearing there way through Big 12 competition. Jones had the option to go to the NBA last year, and opted for another year under coach Scott Drew. Baylor's recent success has gone a great deal to making people forget about the major scandal that rocked Waco, Texas just 5 years ago.

January 4th update

Wednesday Spotlight: Arian Foster

• Houston Texans running back Arian Foster’s story is one of rags to riches. After a storied high school career in San Diego, Foster chose to attend the University of Tennessee. After a redshirt season, Foster became a 3-year starter for the Volunteers. He had an impressive career and after his Junior season, Foster was graded as a second round pick in the NFL draft, but he chose to come back to college to try and improve on that.
• A poor senior season, and various off the field issues, made Foster’s draft stock to plummet. A poor showing at Tennessee’s pro day (a day each big school has to showcase their draft eligible players) caused Foster to not get drafted in the 2009 draft. A free agent after the draft Foster decided to sign with the Houston Texans.
• After not getting much attention in his first season, Foster came on like gang busters in his second year. In Week 1 of the 2010 season he rushed for 231 yards (a franchise record) and didn’t look back. Foster won the rushing title (for the most yards) and made the pro bowl in 2010. A injured hamstring which he famously posted an MRI of on twitter, labeling the injured portion "anti-awesomeness" (That's the picture above in case you were wondering) slowed Foster down in 2011, but he still made the Pro Bowl. Foster is one of the best Running Backs in the NFL, proving that the draft is not everything.


Black Monday sees substandard activity

• The first day after the end of the football’s regular season is called Black Monday, due to the fact that it's when lots of teams who underperformed during the season start to clean house. Generally a handful of coaches are fired in the first few days of the offseason but this year’s activity has been a little lighter than normal, with some owners who were presumed to be putting their houses up for sale getting votes of confidence from their bosses.
• The St Louis Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers will begin next season with new coaches as Steve Spagnuolo and Rahim Morris, respectively, were fired. The Rams went 2-14 this year and have only won 10 games in the past 3 years and the Bucs have not won since Halloween weekend, a big drop for a team that is only a year removed from barely missing out on the playoffs. St. Louis also fired their General Manager Billy Devaney and the Chicago Bears fired their GM Jerry Angelo. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the ousting of Indianapolis Colts Chairman and GM Bill and Chris Polian respectively. Bill Polian (father to Chris) was the architect of three winning franchises and he was grooming his son to take his place. Surprisingly, Colts owner Jim Irsay decided that after locking down the #1 overall pick in the draft, he wanted new personnel in his front office handling the future.
• Surprisingly a few coaches rumored to be on the proverbial hot seat were told they would be back next year. San Diego Chargers coach Norv Turner, whose teams continually underperform and Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid, whose star studded team thudded this season, were both given a reprieve for this year's disappointment.


NFL Draft begins to take shape

• The top of next year’s NFL draft has began to take shape. The teams that fail to make the playoffs will have the first 20 picks of the draft in order of their record (from worst to best). The Indianapolis Colts locked in their chance to draft Andrew Luck by losing this weekend. The St Louis Rams also lost and lock in the second overall pick. Since Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo was fired (as pointed out above) the door for a new QB to be taken atop the draft and for Sam Bradford to be traded might be opened.
• The rest of the top 5 will likely look like this: Minnesota Vikings at #3 (whose coach Leslie Frazier was not axed mainly because this was his first full season), the Cleveland Browns at #4 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at #5.
• As for the top candidates to be drafted, a number of underclassmen have either declared or are reported to have declared. In addition to Luck, USC offensive tackle Matt Kalil and Baylor QB Robert Griffin III have declared for the draft and are likely top-5 picks.

December 30th update

Bowl season heating up

• It might be cold outside but the bowl season is warming up as it's finally getting to the time of the year where exciting matchups are being played. With the current landscape of college football, nearly any team with 6 wins can make a bowl (as is evidenced by this sterling matchup) but most of the mediocre games are played earlier in the bowl season and now we have better games remaining, most of which begin in January.
• On Thursday, Florida State used a suffocating defense to recover from a 14-0 deficit to defeat Notre Dame 18-14 and are now the only team to win a bowl every year from 2008 to 2011 and Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III led Baylor to a comeback win over Washington.
• On January 2nd you could spend all day watching great matchups as there are 6 games and except for Ohio State vs Florida (two national powers having a down year) every team playing is ranked. The best game will likely be the Fiesta Bowl which matches up high powered offenses; Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon of Oklahoma State against Andrew Luck's Stanford Cardinal, but the Rose Bowl claims the Pac-12 winner against the Big 10 winner (Oregon and Wisconsin respectively) and that game will be very entertaining as well. After the 2nd, there will be a few more games but no more than one per day and Sportico will preview most of those as well in a little more detail.


Trouble in paradise?

• In our Wednesday spotlight on Kevin Durant, we mentioned the fact that he plays alongside all-star point guard Russell Westbrook. The relationship between the two budding superstars has been reported to be strained. Durant is the more well known star, but Westbrook wants more attention for the work he does, which manifested itself a bit in the playoffs last year when Westbrook was criticized for taking (and missing) far too many shots.
• This strain bubbled over Wednesday night when the two stars got into a shouting match on the sidelines after Westbrook’s anger at a third teammate's shot selection spilled over. Both players downplayed the incident (as did Thunder coach Scotty Brooks) however it remains to be seen if this tension will continue to cause a schism on one of the best young teams in the league.
• Thursday night (as the NBA continues to play an absurd amount of games to fit as many games into their lockout-shortened schedule) Durant hit a game winning 3-pointer to defeat the Dallas Mavericks 104-102 in a rematch of last year's Western Conference Finals. The Thunder are 4-0 and will have a day off before playing again on New Years Eve.


NFL Playoff Picture clearing up

• The easy division: the NFC – The Packers have run away with this regular season. They have lost once, but have clinched the first round seed in the NFC. Both the San Francisco 49ers and New Orleans Saints have clinched their divisions, and will be the 2 and 3 seed depending on this weekend (if the 49ers win they have it, if the Saints win and the 49ers lose the Saints will be the number 2 seed). The two wild cards (5th and 6th seeds) have already been clinched by the Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons. The one spot left to be filled is the 4th seed. The Dallas Cowboys travel to the New York Giants in a winner-take-all game.
• The AFC is a bit more confusing: The New England Patriots have clinched at least the #2 seed, and will be the #1 seed if the current #2 team (Baltimore Ravens) lose. If they win, they will clinch the #1 spot. The Ravens will clinch the #2 spot with either a victory or a Pittsburgh Steelers loss. The Steelers are currently the 5th seed (as the first wild card team) but can leap to the #2 seed if they win and the Ravens lose.
• The Houston Texans have clinched the #3 Spot. The #4 spot will go to the Denver Broncos if they win, or the Oakland Raiders lose while the Raiders will take it if they win and the Broncos lose. The 6th spot comes down to four teams. The Cincinnati Bengals have the inside track, if they win they have it, however they play the extremely tough Baltimore Ravens who, as we've noted, still have something to play for. The New York Jets, Tennessee Titans and Raiders each have a chance if a LOT of different things break their way. We will have a full recap of the weekend, and preview of the playoffs on Monday’s Sportico.

December 12th update

RG3 strikes the pose

• Saturday night the Downtown Athletic Club awarded the 77th Annual Heisman Trophy award, for the best player in college football. Robert Griffin III, the quarterback from Baylor University, received the award, being the first player from his school to win the award.
• Griffin III is an athletic freak who, in addition to being one of the best college football players around, is an All-American and NCAA Track and Field champion. Griffin III, who is a Junior, has already graduated with a 3.67 GPA in Political Science. Griffin III is the picture of what a student-athlete should be.
• Stanford QB and preseason Heisman favorite Andrew Luck finished second in the voting. Luck will have the last laugh however, as he will be drafted #1 in next year's NFL Draft (OK, that's not official but it's a near certainty). Alabama running back Trent Richardson finished third, Wisconsin RB Monte Ball finished fourth and LSU cornerback/return specialist Tyrann "Honey Badger" Mathieu finished fifth.


Braun tests positive

• Just when you thought the steroid issue in MLB was beginning to die down, one of the game's best young players failed a drug test when it was determined that his body had well above the normal levels of testosterone and that it was not produced naturally.
• It's a huge blow not only for the Brewers, who rode the 1-2 punch off Braun and Prince Fielder to the NLCS last year and now face losing Fielder to free agency and Braun to a 50 game suspension, it's also a blow to the MLB in general who sees one of it's best young marketable stars take a permanent hit to his reputation. Braun who was the NL MVP this season hit .332 with 33 HRs and 111 RBIs and already has 161 HR's for his career despite playing for less than 5 full seasons, but now the question is how many of those statistics were obtained with help?
• He is the first legitimate star who came into baseball after drug testing was implemented to test positive (which makes this even worse, as unlike some older players, he wasn't around for the days when steroids were basically as easy to find as vitamins in a MLB clubhouse). Braun will appeal but these tests are rarely incorrect and it looks like one of Milwaukee and baseball's best players over the past 5 seasons and and one of its potential cornerstones for the next decade will be forever playing beneath the shadow of the steroid asterisk.


College Basketball Brawl Mars Rivalry Game

• The inter-Cincinnati rivalry of University of Cincinnati and Xavier University is always heated but on Saturday it boiled over in an ugly melee. At the end of the first half of the game, a Cincinnati player started jawing with a player on Xavier’s bench. The players got in each others faces but were separated by coaches and other players. This would set the tone for most of the second half.
• With 10 seconds left in the game and the outcome long decided, the smack talking hit a pinnacle. Exactly what was said is unclear but the benches for both team cleared and fists began to fly.
• The Cincinnati coach gave a very impassioned speech about the lack of maturity on both sides of the situation. On Sunday, each school suspended 4 players in reaction to the incident. Further penalties may come down the line if the NCAA determines that the school's penalties aren't harsh enough.