FOOTBALL

In the NFL, one of the many coaching vacancies has been filled, as the San Diego Chargers settled on Mike McCoy as their new head coach.  McCoy was the offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos the last 4 seasons.  Sure, the Broncos had one of the top offenses in the NFL under McCoy and new quarterback Peyton Manning, but remember that McCoy was also running the show when the offense played well over mediocre quarterbacks Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow.  Imagine what McCoy will be able to do with a dynamic quarterback like Philip Rivers.  Look for the Chargers to turn it around next season.

BASKETBALL

And in some disturbing news out of the college basketball world, some trouble in Wyoming of all places.  Luke Martinez helped the Wyoming basketball team get out to a 12-0 lead this season, a fantastic beginning for a program that is usually completely off the radar.  But, the other night, Martinez got into a fight at a local bar and reportedly, according to police, kicked the head of an unconscious victim like it was a football.  According to witnesses, Martinez got a running start, and kicked an unconscious man in the head.  Now, he faces charges, and has been suspended from Wyoming basketball indefinitely.

Finally, in college basketball, the Indiana Hoosiers started out as the #1 team in the nation.  They dropped a game to Butler, and Tuesday got a huge shock from unranked Wisconsin.  Everybody inside (and outside) of Indiana is excited that the Hoosiers are actually a scary program to play again (as they have been one of the most historic programs in college basketball), so nobody expected them to suddenly lose to Wisconsin.  Are they slipping?  They better tighten up before March, because there are a lot of expectations for this program to reach the Final Four, if not win it.

CYCLING

The big news of the day was Oprah Winfrey’s candid interview with now disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong.  For a decade, Armstrong said he never used performance enhancing drugs, but he promised to be open and honest with Oprah on any question she asked him.  She asked him straight up, and Armstrong admitted that he did in fact use performance enhancing drugs to win the Tour De France.  Armstrong also apologized to his charity LIVESTRONG for misrepresenting them.  At the same time, Armstrong had to be careful about what he said because there are still legal repercussions.  People can still sue him, and his admissions on Oprah could be used in the courtroom.  Either way, it was an emotional day on Oprah, and it will be interesting to see what Armstrong does next with his life.

FOOTBALL

And there is follow-up the sad situation of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, who shot his girlfriend 9 times and then killed himself at the team facilities.  According to the autopsy report, Belcher was drunk when he committed the crime and the suicide.  Sure, there were definitely more issues at play, but it just gets extra depressing considering that it was all done in a drunken state.  This was a horrible tragedy that could have been prevented, but unfortunately it happened.  All teams can do now is try to care for their players in both a physical and mental regard.

Finally, ESPN is apologizing to Miss Alabama Katherine Webb.  Webb is the girlfriend of Crimson Tide quarterback A.J. McCarron.  She was featured in the stands, and ESPN’s color commentator Brent Mussberger said some suggestive comments about her, basically implying that she was really really pretty.  Well that attention caused Webb to gain an additional 120,000 twitter followers during the course of the game and made her a public figure overnight.  ESPN feels bad for drawing attention to sexuality during a sporting event, and has issued a public apology to Webb.  Although there is no indicator whether or not Webb was actually offended by the comments.

FOOTBALL

On Saturday, Peyton Manning and the Broncos kicked things off hosting the red hot Baltimore Ravens.  Manning and the Broncos had control of the game at the beginning, but simply couldn’t shake the Ravens.  In fact, the Ravens came back at the very end to tie up the game.  The controversy came when with 30 seconds to go, with home field advantage, and arguably the greatest quarterback of all time (Manning), the Broncos decided to take a knee and take their chances in overtime.  Bad idea, as the Ravens had all the late momentum and upset the Broncos, ending Peyton Manning’s dream comeback season.  Surely he pictured himself hoisting a Super Bowl trophy.  But it was not meant to be.  However, the storied career of the motivational Ray Lewis shall continue at least another week.  Baltimore 38, Denver 35.
Then, it was a prime time matchup between the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers.  Everyone is afraid of the Packers explosive offense, but not many people talk about how much their defense is rather mediocre.  The 49ers extremely dynamic second year quarterback Colin Kaepernick exploited that defense to a disgusting degree.  He ran all over the them, including one very long touchdown run that left the entire Green Bay defense running after him.  The Niners won with ease and look like a very difficult team to beat right now.  San Francisco 45, Green Bay 31.

On Sunday, it was an electric game between the determined Seattle Seahawks and the #1 seed Atlanta Falcons.  Remember, for as much as Atlanta has improved the past few years, they have yet to win a playoff game under Matt Ryan.  Ryan showed that they meant business, as they were up 20-0 going into the half and the game looked to be a blowout.  But Seattle came back in the second half and even took the lead with just 30 seconds to go.  Fortunately for Atlanta, their QB is “Matty Ice”, and almost effortlessly, he marched the Falcons into field goal range and Matt Bryant booted a field goal to win the game and keep the hometown fans from crying for weeks at a blown game. Atlanta will face San Fran in the NFC Championship. Atlanta 30, Seattle 28.

Finally, the Patriots hosted the Texans in a rematch of a blowout from a few weeks ago.  Houston had a chance to redeem themselves, but clearly the Patriots have their number, as they were able to get out to a big lead and keep the Texans offense in check.  The Texans had a magical season, but completely fell apart the last few weeks.  They weren’t able to get the train back on track in the playoffs, whereas the Pats are well-oiled machine every post season and we will see a rematch of the Patriots/Ravens in the AFC Championship.  Will the Ravens drop two in a row to the Pats?  New England 41, Houston 28.

FOOTBALL

The results of Junior Seau’s autopsy are in, and they do not bode well for the NFL.  Seau committed suicide last year with a gun shot wound to the chest.  Many think he shot himself in the chest so that scientists could study his brain.  The Seau family donated his brain to science to determine what was wrong, and it looks like Seau’s brain shows a long history of damage caused by hard hits.  That would be his football career.  This makes you think how many players are dealing with similar injuries and mental problems right now.  It’s a shocking discovery.

Elsewhere in the NFL, the Jacksonville Jaguars have fired head coach Mike Mularkey after just one season.  The Jaguars were the second worst team in the league this season, and appeared to have trouble at just about every position.  Their attendance is also very down.  There was a lot of talk about bringing Tim Tebow in to run the team and boost attendance.  After all, Tebow won’t be a Jet next season and this would be the best fit for him.  But bringing in Tebow is basically saying “We don’t care about winning, just about people showing up”, and that’s not a good message from an NFL franchise.  So after firing Mularkey, the Jaguars president said that they have no interest in bringing Tebow in.

And finally, now that Oregon coach Chip Kelly has publicly said that he’s staying at Oregon, the new hot name on the NFL coaching hunt is Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly.  Kelly was brought to Notre Dame 2 years ago, and in just his 3rd season, he has led Notre Dame to an undefeated season and an appearance in the national championship.  Sure, they got clobbered, but it will certainly help their recruiting to be very competitive for years to come.  But, the Philadelphia Eagles are also very interested in Brian Kelly, and this has Fighting Irish fans in a tizzy.  They don’t want him to leave now that the Irish are back on top again.  We should have some kind of answer in the next few weeks.

GOLF

A bit of a freak accident.  Annika Sorenstam is one of the best golfers ever.  She’s won 59 times on the LPGA, including 10 major championships.  Unfortunately, even champions aren’t safe in their own kitchen.  Sorenstam was cooking dinner, when she said she heard a screech, looked down and saw that she had cut off the top of her pointer finger just above the knuckle.  She asked her husband to get her a band aid QUICK!  Sorenstam needed stitches, and was pretty playful about the whole thing.  It’s certainly gross, but she should be ok. Here’s the pic (warning…it’s pretty disturbing):

BASKETBALL

Elsewhere, in the NBA, Seattle,  a major American city (and a rich one) has been without an NBA team ever since the Sonics became the Oklahoma City Thunder.  Sonics fans were furious, because as soon as the Sonics colors turned to Thunder colors, the Thunder turned into one of the best teams in the NBA with Durant and Westbrook.  Now, it appears that a wealthy Seattle investor is looking to buy the Sacramento Kings.  Apparently, he has already contacted the Kings owners, the Maloof Brothers, inquiring about a sale.  Sacramento isn’t a lucrative franchise, and Seattle would welcome back a team with open arms.

Finally in the NBA, the T-Wolves woes continue.  It looks like they will be without their star Kevin Love for two months, as he’s out with a broken hand injury.  The T-Wolves have a nice team with a lot of strong young talent.  The problem is that they can never get them all healthy at the same time.  They imagined an awesome 1-2 punch of Love and young phenom Ricky Rubio.  The way they’re playing this year, it will be difficult for them to nab a playoff spot.

FOOTBALL

In college football, after many NFL teams wanted him, Oregon coach Chip Kelly has decided to stay with the Oregon Ducks.  All the NFL teams wanted him for his creative offensive mind, and to reignite some organizations that are in desperate need of a face life (e.g. Cleveland, Buffalo), but Kelly thought he just had too much of a good thing at Oregon and is coming back to try and win a National Championship.  By staying at Oregon, Kelly will be able to maintain his high-profile status and get all the publicity that Nike wants him to have (Note:  Nike is a huge donor to the University of Oregon.

And in the NFL, the Redskins had a magical season under rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III, but in their playoff game, Griffin went down with an injury.  It was reported that Griffin has a torn ACL and will require surgery.  That is a very serious injury in sports and the experts think that it might sideline Griffin for 6-8 months.  Fortunately, the season JUST ended, so if there was a “good time” for this terrible news, it would be right now.  The Skins are hoping to get Griffin back for training camp.

CYCLING

Finally, it looks like Oprah has landed the exclusive interview with cyclist Lance Armstrong.  Armstrong won multiple Tour De France titles and was once lauded as the greatest athlete in the world.  Now, after his PED allegations proved to be correct, he is frowned upon by the entire sports world as a cheater and what many call a “Bully” (for threatening his teammates to keep quiet about it).  He’s been largely in silence since the story broke, but on January 17th, Oprah will get the exclusive with Lance.  We’ll finally hear his side of the story and how he is feeling about things.

FOOTBALL

If you loved the movie Rudy or watch Mike and Mike in the morning (like I do everyday), you couldn’t help but root for Notre Dame to win the National Championship.   Mike Golic has two sons who play for ND. I remember when they got in to ND and made the football team, so playing in the BCS was an exciting moment for all his fans. Unfortunately, all the hype surrounding this game was deflated by the end of the first quarter. There were a few questionable calls against Notre Dame in the first few plays, but then after that it was all Alabama. By halftime, Alabama, with stunning play by their wide receiver Eddie Lacey, were crushing the Fighting Irish 28-0.

Congratulations to Alabama coach Nick Saban, for back to back titles with Alabama. This team is young and looks like it could be in title contention for years to come. Final score: Alabama 42, Notre Dame 14.

Only good news is now Mike Golic Jr (offensive guard for ND) can now shave his beard. He hasn’t shaved since they started winning and it’s not a pretty site.

FOOTBALL

The Houston Texans defense dominated in a low scoring win over the  Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday.  The Texans will travel to New England to face the Patriots next Sunday. Texans 19, Bengals 13

The big question surrounding the Green Bay Packers vs Minnesota Vikings playoff game was how were the Vikings going to handle playing in the cold. Yes, Minnesota is very, very cold this time of year but they play in a dome so going to Green Bay and playing in an outdoor stadium might be tough. And, guess what. It was! Aaron Rodgers and the Packers did not look like they were working all that hard in defeating the Vikes in a 24-10 win. They now travel to San Francisco to take on the 49ers Saturday the 12th.

In the Indianapolis Colts vs Baltimore Ravens wildcard game, Andrew Luck didn’t have much luck in defeating the Ravens. Although, it wasn’t completely his fault, he never got into a rhythm with a newly revived Baltimore defense led by soon to be retired  Ray Lewis motivating his team.  Good luck to the Ravens against the Denver Broncos next Sunday the 13th. It will be fun to see Ray Lewis’ celebrated and memorable pre-game dance once again. Ravens 24, Colts 9.

The two other rookie QB’s, Russell Wilson (Seahawks) and Robert Griffin III (Redskins) matched up in the most intense and heartbreaking game of the weekend. The game was pretty neck and neck until the 4th quarter when RGIII  looked like he was suffering from his knee injury. Seconds later, on a bad snap from the Center, RGIII’s knee buckled. He was clearly in a tremendous amount of pain as he didn’t even try and recover the fumble. Whether you’re a Redskin fan or not, no one wants to see this happen. After that play, the game was essentially over. Russell Wilson (not even taken until the 3rd round)  is now the last rookie QB standing.  Next up for the Seahawks is the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Seahawks 24-Redskins 14.

FOOTBALL

In college football, yesterday was the Rose Bowl, dubbed “The Big Daddy of Them All”.  However, given how the BCS Championship features #1 v. #2, this is hardly the case.  It’s just marketing.  Typically, the Rose Bowl is the winner of the Big 10 v. the winner of the Pac 12.  This year, that’s what we got, except the winner of the Big 10 (Wisconsin) is unranked.  They would take on Stanford, a team that proved this season that it is quickly becoming a national powerhouse.  This game featured former Heisman candidate Montee Ball (running-back for Wisconsin), but it wouldn’t really matter as this was a defensive struggle from start to finish.  And in the end, Stanford did just a little bit more than the badgers to claim the Rose Bowl title and show the world that it intends to be a serious National Title Contender next season.  Stanford 20, Wisconsin 14.
And in some NFL head coaching news, with the head coach Andy Reid era officially over in Philadelphia, a lot of teams likely will want his talents on the sidelines.  After all, Reid kept the Eagles relevant and competitive for over a decade.  There are a lot of bad teams out there who might want Reid’s pedigree, and now the rumors are swirling that after firing head coach Ken Whisenhunt, the Arizona Cardinals are looking at Reid very seriously.  Arizona was horrible this season, but they did show flashes of excellence, especially on defense.  If a leader like Reid comes in and transforms the energy and attitude of the team, the Cardinals could have a bounce back year like the Minnesota Vikings had this year.  Plus, they have a high draft pick to use.

Elsewhere in head coaching news, a name from the past has popped up as a possible head coaching candidate.  With the Cleveland Browns cleaning house in an effort to revamp their organization, Mike Holmgren is suddenly looking for work.  Holmgren is a bit older, but he did lead an excellent Green Bay Packers team to a Super Bowl victory in the late 90s, and also sent the Seahawks to the Super Bowl.  He knows how to guide a team to excellence, and could certainly be an asset to a team in need.  Some experts are saying that San Diego and Chicago should seriously consider looking at Holmgren. Those are two teams that are just a few tweaks away from having a stellar season, and bringing in a strong veteran coach like Holmgren could be just the ingredient they need.