Category: Sports

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NFL Playoffs Predictions

Before I call it a night, I wanted to get my playoff predictions in for the first round at least. Feel free to post your predictions in comments section.

The four games this weekend are Washington at Seattle and Jacksonville at Pittsburgh on Saturday while New York Football Giants at Tampa Bay and Tennessee at San Diego are on Sunday.

I think the Redskins are a great feel good story after the death of Sean Taylor. They won their last 4 games to get into the playoffs and look for them to ride that at pull off an upset at Seattle. The Seahawks to me never really got things going on the ground with Shaun Alexander who only got 700 yards on the season while the Redskins have really come together. Look for Clinton Portis to get a pair of rushing touchdowns and I will take Washington in this one, 24-14.

Jaguars at Steelers is probably the marquee match up this weekend. The Jaguars pulled out a gutsy 7 point win in Pittsburgh about 3 weeks ago in the snowy and awful conditions. I think the Steelers will be better prepared for the Jaguars this time but the loss of Willie Parker has to hurt their chances. Big Ben has been a total monster this season with 30+ TD passes but I do not think that will be enough as the balanced Jaguars attack will once again tame the Steelers. Jaguars by 3, 27-24.

If Eli Manning plays anything close to the way he played last week against the Patriots, the Bucs have no shot this week. That being said, it is still Eli Manning we are talking about. He has led the Giants to 3 straight playoffs but he has yet to do anything once he has gotten there. I really think this is his breakout year in the post season. His confidence has been building, his teammates are supporting him, and we have not heard anything from Tiki Barber which is always a good sign for the state of affairs in the Giants locker room. I think Eli throws 3 TD passes and Jacobs runs in for another as Giants win in a rout, 31-10.

Finally, Titans at Chargers. Who would have thought after the 1-3 San Diego start that they would be hosting a playoff game? Give credit to Norv Turner for really turning that club around and going 10-2 to finish off the season. They have beaten the Titans already earlier on this season and do not overlook the squeaker they had past the Colts in the middle of the season. Certainly this could post an intriguing Pats/Bolts matchup but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Vince Young for the Titans is still banged up and will not be 100% even though he’ll start and Chargers ‘lightning’ offense should be more than enough to control this game from the start. 24-10 Chargers.

Let the playoff season begin…

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Roger Clemens and the Steroids ERA

I did not expect to post today but in light of the dark cloud of steroids that does not seem to be going away even in January, I figured I would talk about it.

There is news that Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte along with their former trainer Brian McNamee are going to testify before a congressional committee in a couple of weeks. I am not really sure how much will come out of this congressional session but I guess maybe putting these guys under oath, someone will crack like Mark McGwire’s “I’m not here to talk about the past”. Only time will tell… currently the committee is set for January 16th, so the countdown begins.

Roger Clemens clearly said on December 18th, “I want to state clearly and without qualification: I did not take steroids, human growth hormone or any other banned substances at any time in my baseball career or, in fact, my entire life.” That could not be more opposite to the one Brian McNamee gave Senator Mitchell where he said he injected Roger Clemens multiple times. It is hard to say who is correct and certainly Roger Clemens is in a tough spot with his teammate and close friend Andy Pettitte admitting that McNamee injected him two to four times with Human Growth Hormones while he was injured in 2002.

Right about now, it is probably impossible to say who is right and who is wrong, but the one question I would like Roger Clemens to answer is how he produced his 2nd best full regular season numbers at the age of 35 in 1997 with a 2.05 ERA (league average 4.53) when he won the CY Young Award and followed it up with another CY Young year in ’98 with 20-6 and a 2.65 ERA. I just do not get how a pitcher who was let go by the Boston Red Sox after 12 years and seemed a little washed up posted up numbers like where the average ERA around the league dropped only 0.5 runs, that a pitcher his age drops his numbers 3 times the league average. I just have a hard time believing it was only his work regiment that led to that change… once again at the age of 35.

I never really had a lot of respect for Clemens but the little amount i did, I lost it when he threw the piece of bat at Mike Piazza in the 2000 World Series. I never really bought into his hype of retiring and coming back to help teams half way through the season with all his perks in his contract and certainly if all of these allegations about steroids and human growth hormones turn out to be true… kiss the Hall of Fame good bye Mr. Clemens.

I guess I needed to get that out of my system… so now this a relaxed Brown Guy signing off…