Pondering the weekend

There's a reason I'm not making a living as a handicapper... It's because I suck as one. 1 - 3 picking playoff games outright, 0 - 4 against the spread? Ouch. Vegas would love to see me in their sports books. Then again, I never said I was an expert, just a doofus fan with an uninformed opinion.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again. The next time Peyton Manning wins a big game, it'll be the first.

Nice of the media beatified Mr. Happy Feet Peyton, during post game interviews, to throw his offensive line not just under the bus, but also the dump truck, tractor trailer, M-1 tank, combine, and earth mover. The man sure is clutch.

Refereeing was uniformly horrific all weekend. (Michigan fans would say it was of Sun Belt Confrence quality) We had pass interference calls when there shouldn't be, but not called when it was obviously blatent. There was the Troy Polamalu interception, then a what-the-fuck non-interception, a call Stevie Wonder could and would have made correctly. What to make of the out and out strange 4th down play that never happened late during Indy - Pittsburgh? The last time I heard "Do-over" on the playing field was during pick up games in elementary school. How about the Thomas Jones TD call that should have been a touchback? Sure, replay corected it and the Carolina face mask penalty made it moot, but how in the Hell do you miss such an obvious call to begin with? The NFL could use Pete Rozell back from the dead to kick some referee ass.

I had perverse delight in watching Indy's "Idiot kicker" hit a dead slice wide-wide-wide right. A duffer on the 1st tee couldn't have done it better. All that was missing was Mike Vanderjagt yelling, "FORE!" As I doubt Vanderjagt will be a Colt next season, what's next for the "Idiot kicker?" As Judge Smails put so succintly, "The world needs ditch diggers too..."

Tom Brady finally had a bad game in the playoffs. Not much you can say other than that he was over due. I guess you could say the same about mountain man bearded Jake Plummer, he was over due to not throw a backbreaking pick (or 3) in a pressure situation.

Half a dozen of Rex Grossman is 6 of Kyle Orton. As if you didn't see that QB performance coming...

On the local front... That was a nice road OT win by Sparty, the Wolverines do not look like a team capable of doing anything (If they can even make the tournament, which far from a given) in the NCAA's, the Pistons continue to go all Rowdy Roddy Piper on the NBA by chewing bubble gum and kicking ass, and the Wings just cruise along, thumping Eastern Confrence teams. Too bad it's now back to the Wings playing countless games against St. Louis, Columbus, and Chicago... For what it's worth, the Red Wings playing in the Western Confrence in one of my biggest (of several) sports pet peeves. I'm warning you now, that sounds like a good upcoming blog post...

Folks, we are heading into the dog days of the NHL and NBA seasons, so be prepared. The playoffs cannot start soon enough.