I always do this for myself and keep it tucked away so I can review it at the end of the season. But, since I'm a member of this site, I figured I'd post it on here and get opinions, etc... Just so you know how it went for me in '07 I had the Saints vs. Chargers in the Super Bowl with San Diego winning. OUCH. Anywhoo, I'll do the divisions first and end with my playoff/Super Bowl predicitions.
AFC East
Patriots 12-4
I'm throwing this out here to see what you think the best play ever is. I'm not a Raiders fan, but I have to go with the Sea of Hands in the '75 Divisional play offs versus the Dolphins. Stabler's knee a centimeter off the turf, the throw, and most importantly the catch with three defenders around. And the call from the announcer, with the crowd noise and an unknown guy yelling "He caught it, he caught it!!" in the background, Madden going nuts, some crazy dude with a comb over uppercutting the air with his white swirl flopping around, fans in the endzone: epic and chill inducing. I loved the play by play guy for the Raiders. Probably my favorite ever, "Holy Toledo!"
I see that one of Robert Beck's favorite shots is an image from the most over-hyped sports moment in history. Who really cared that much about women's soccer? The answer---no one. They won a game that ran way too long and in a shoot out. 0-0 win. How invigorating. It's almost like the national sports press wants to shove it down our throats and convince us this was a special moment. Even ESPN had it in the Whose Number 1 list in the top 10, no less. The Play, Jordan over Elo, BC's hail mary, the Music City Miracle, and Brandie Chastain? It empowered women, yay. It showed the world women were as good as men, woohoo. Soccer is lame anyway. Women's soccer is even worse. I'd rather watch old people play croquete. Chastain's moment is about as exciting as the WNBA, there's a great league. Fun to watch. Nothing like a smaller ball being chucked from a closer three point line and finger tip roll layups with a 50-38 final score. Neat. Way to use that backboard. Give me a break already. No one outside of the press gets chills when they see the top come off. And notice we never see the "goal". We just see the presentation afterward. It would be like just seeing Jordan pump his fist and not the shot against Cleveland. Ridiculous and an obiviously politically correct choice.
It's in the books. Another season of football has officially ended and with an exclamation point. Here are some things I learned during 2007.
1. Tom Brady is better than Peyton Manning. I know that he lost the Super Bowl, however, we were all shown what was possible for Brady with weapons. In seasons past, he didn't have the arsenal that Manning has had though out his career. With the addition of Moss, Stallworth, and Welker, Brady threw for 50 touchdowns and completed an undefeated regular season. I thought Brady was better all along, but this confirmed it.
I was a huge MLB fan when I was a kid. From the ages of 10 to 19, I was all about the Cubs and Braves. I watched Chicago religiously on WGN and Atlanta on TBS. I collected memorabilia. I went in my backyard and pretended to be Andre Dawson at the plate and hit invisible pitches over my fence. I carried a Willie Mays basball card in my back pocket when a friends dad used to hit pop ups to us in the park and I tried to perfect my basket catch. Then the '94 strike happened during one of the better seasons in baseball. A bitter taste was left in my mouth. I've since been reduced to a post-season game watcher with a dash of Cubbies every so often during the regular season. Even the McGwire/Sosa saga didn't bring me back full circle. In my kitchen, I have two plaques that remind me of the purity of baseball. One is of Joe Dimaggio the other of my all time favorite player, Hank Aaron. Since the steroid era has been exposed, I'm tempted to wash my hands of the game I so dearly loved and call it dead. How come the stars of yester year were so much better than the ones of the here and now? I understand there were scandals back in the day-The Black Sox, pitchers loading balls, corked bats, Pete Rose, but to me, this 'roid era and the arrogance demonstrated by those being called out, have nuked the sport. Mickey Mantle could hit a 550 foot homer without roids and Maris could park 61 in a season without the juice, but Big Mac and Sammy couldn't do it without horse medication? Pathetic. And then Bonds goes through a growth spurt when he's 35 and then plays it off like it's no big deal when pictures from the last ten years tell a different story. Are there any pure athletes left in baseball? Or are they all so lackluster that they have to stick needles in their behinds?
© 2008 STATS LLC
Faces at the U.S. Open
