WATERCOOLER CHAT: PEYTON IS THAT GOOD, PIRATES CLINCH POST SEASON SLOT, NBA NICKNAMES ON JERSEYS
FOOTBALL
In the NFL, it was Monday Night Football between the Denver Broncos and the Oakland Raiders. One must have assumed they scheduled this game for Monday night assuming that fans would tune in for Peyton Manning, because the Raiders don’t do much to excite (save for their new quarterback Terrelle Pryor). The game went as expected, with Peyton and the high-powered Broncos offense pretty much obliterating the Raiders in the first half. Then, in the second half, the same story continued, except we also got to see Raiders running back Darren McFadden toss a touchdown pass.  Outside of that, pretty lackluster game, but the Broncos look excellent! Denver 37, Oakland 21
BASEBALL
And in baseball, we usually see the same top teams make the playoffs year after year with very few exceptions. It’s hard to ever imagine a playoffs featuring the Kansas City Royals or Pittsburgh Pirates (teams that are pretty much in baseball no man’s land). But Monday, the Pittsburgh Pirates clinched a post-season birth for the first time since their most recent heyday in the early 1990s (when they had Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla). Yes… they have pretty much irrelevant for that long. Now, we get to see if the up-and-coming Pirates can make a deep run in the playoffs. And you can guarantee that the Pirates stadium will be a very raucous crowd thrilled to have a good team again. Plus, the Steelers aren’t very good this year, so the Pirates might be the saving grace in Pittsburgh.
BASKETBALL
Finally, the NBA continues to innovate with their marketing and merchandising efforts. Apparently, the NBA is looking into having a few games next season where the players get to wear nickname jerseys. A lot of the NBA stars have notable nicknames, but now the NBA may allow them to actually have them printed on the back of their jersey. LeBron said he would wear “King James”, Dwayne Wade has a few to choose from, but said he will likely go with “Three” for his three NBA Championships. But the one that is definitely the coolest: Ray Allen. Allen said he would go with “Shuttlesworth” — the name of the character he played in Spike Lee’s movie HE GOT GAME. Mandy people remember that fictional character and seeing Alan on the court with that name would bring a lot of smiles to fans.
