No Point in Getting High

You have got to be impressed with Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots for everything, especially their eye on talent.

They rarely pick at the top of the draft, and so, unlike the perennially-disappointing Houston Texans, they do not have a roster full of All-Americans.

Instead, they found gems who no other teams notice and lately, they even found a niche in getting quality players who other teams do not want.

Wes Welker? Waived by the San Diego Chargers then traded to the Patriots by the Miami Dolphins.

Danny Woodhead? Waived by the New York Jets earlier this season.

BenJarvus Green-Ellis? An undrafted free agent.

And not to mention the well-known story of Tom Brady, a lowly sixth-round draft pick in 2000.

The Patriots are such a well-oiled machine that, they are probably the only team in the league to have the audacity and ability to trade away big-name players like Randy Moss and Laurence Maroney, and to replace them with players like Deion Branch, Woodhead and Green-Ellis, while still having the best record in the league right now.

Apparently, they do not need high draft picks, at least on offense.

But with so many high draft picks next year thanks to a number of shrewd trades, Yours Truly really wonders what they are going to do with them.

Keep trading down and compiling all draft picks in a low round sound like a pretty good, and fun idea.

Catch Him When You Can

At 1-6, the Dallas Cowboys is probably the most disappointing team in the NFL this season.

But there is always a silverlining for everything. Now have a very good chance of claiming Randy Moss off the waivers, who was waived by the Minnesota Vikings earlier in the day.

If Yours Truly had any say in the team, he would pick him up and release the ever-disappointing Roy Williams in return.

In other words, a Moss-for-Williams trade, one that anyone that has any football sense would make in a heartbeat, as a three-headed monster of Miles Austin-Randy Moss-Dez Bryant would be much scarier than a three-headed monster of Austin-Williams-Bryant.

Thanks to their poor record, the Cowboys are now third in the waiver order behind the winless Buffalo Bills and the Carolina Panthers.

The Bills are not likely to claim Moss after their failed experiment with another high-profiled receiver Terrell Owens last season. However, the Panthers might need a receiver to complement the ever-amazing Steve Smith.

Yours Truly would just keep his fingers crossed and hope that Moss would finally donne a Cowboys jersey, albeit some 12 years too late.

Who Beats Kubica?

Even if you are not a Formula One fan, you have got to fall in love with Robert Kubica.

Why? Because he single-handedly made the largely processional Singapore Grand Prix interesting.

After the collision between Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber, the race had been rendered a boring affair until Kubica, running sixth, suffered a puncture late in the race, which dropped all the way down to 13th and out of the points.

But in the closing laps, he managed to catch those in front of him and in just a handful of laps, he nailed Jaime Alguersuari, Sebastien Buemi, team-mate Vitaly Petrov, Felipe Massa, Nico Hulkenberg and Adrian Sutil one by one, thus salvaging six points for coming home seventh.

All was done in a street circuit, no less.

It didn't matter at all if you didn't watch the earlier part of the race. Just start following Kubica after his late pitstop and it's worth watching again and again.

Bye Bye Barber

Yours Truly is really fed up with the ineptness of Alex Barron, who was solely responsible for Dallas Cowboys' loss against the Washington Redskins on Sunday.

Not one, not two, but THREE holding penalties. One killed a good-looking drive late in the game. The third one cost them the game-winning TD on the very last play.

Okay, Barron is definitely not good enough to start, and everyone knew he could be a liability. But did the Cowboys have his back?

In an interview, Michael Strahan raised a very interesting point, basically saying that if you know that Barron is not good enough, then why don't you give him some help, like by sending a RB or TE to help him block?

The more Yours Truly watched the replay of that very last play, the angrier Yours Truly got.

Not with Barron, but with Marion Barber, their starting RB.

On the very last play from the Redskins' 13-yard line and down by six, everyone knew that the ball would be thrown into the endzone. So what the heck was Barber doing when he chose not to chip block Brian Orakpo, Barron's holding victim on the play, and then lazily wondered a couple of yards beyond the line of scrimmage?

Yours Truly means, if you don't want to help, at least get into a good position.

But there was Barber, in the middle of the field, with a defender zeroed on him, not helping anyone anyhow at all.

Everyone knew that Barron would be gone sooner or later. Hey, even the woeful St. Louis Rams gave up on him. But on that play, Yours Truly also found out that Barber's days as a Cowboy would really be numbered, now that the Cowboys will definitely listen to the trade proposals for him, which were rumoured to be aplenty even before that game.

Being a Cowboys fan, Yours Truly just wishes him good luck, and that the team would receive some good draft picks in return for him.

RIP Shoya

Yours Truly cannot say for everyone, but Yours Truly believe that somewhere deep inside most of the motor-racing fans is a morbid desire to see spectacular accidents live in action or on TV.

Last Sunday, that secret desire was satisfied by a three-bike pile-up on lap 12 of the Moto2 race at Misano.

Yet no matter how morbid one really is, the joy of witnessing a huge accident was quickly snuffed out by the serious injuries of the three riders involved.

When TV showed that the two riders on the left hand side of the screen, Alex de Angelis and Scott Redding, were getting back on their feet gingerly, we all could somewhat breathe a sigh of relief.

But when it showed the third rider lying motionlessly on the track just next to the racing line, you just knew that the worst might have happened.

Indeed it DID happen.

Shoya Tomizawa would have turned 20 in December. When he came out of nowhere to win the season-opening race at Qatar, he put his name in the record books as the first ever winner of a Moto2 race, a new category replacing the old 250cc race this year.

Ironically, he would turn out to be the first rider to lose his life in a Moto2 race.

For a young rider who had led the Championship earlier in the year, with one win and two poles under his credit, his passing was awfully early.

Sadly, looking at the replay again, on could quickly realise that when Tomizawa fell off his bike, there was no way the close-following de Angelis and Redding could have avoided him.

It was just a cruel twist of fate. "It's a freak accident", said Valentino Rossi, who added that no changes to regulations or the track could have prevented the crash.

Before the race, Tomizawa was seen waving at the TV camera joyously, oblivious to the cruel fate that lay ahead of him.

But like what people said, at least he died while doing something he loved dearly.

Super Mario

Should one day Yours Truly become very famous, and then hounded by all sorts of newspaper allegations that Yours Truly was a piece of shxt, Yours Truly will definitely quote the mercurial Mario Balotelli, on being alleged of making astronomical wage demands by the newspaper:

"Newspapers clean glass very well … I use them for my car."

Going Too Favre

Brett Favre is probably the most selfish football player ever.

Two years ago, he told the Green Bay Packers that he was going to retire, and the Packers promptly promoted Aaron Rodgers as their starting quarterback. But when Favre decided to un-retire not long afterwards, he gave the Packers such an uneasy time that they finally had to deal him to the New York Jets.

After a good year with the Jets, Favre signed with the Minnesota Vikings, the arch-rival of the Packers, and led them all the way to the NFC Championship game against the New Orleans Saints. But an ill-advised throw late in that game cost the Vikings a shot at the Superbowl.

Since the season ended, Favre has never told the Vikings whether he will come back for his 20th season. And so the Vikings, probably trying to please him, decided neither to draft any QB in the Draft, nor to pursue other high-profile free-agent QBs, believing he will return as their starting QB this season.

But a couple of days ago, Favre told his teammates (not even his coach!) that he intends to retire, which has left the Vikings in limbo.

A big-time limbo.

Had Favre let the Vikings know of his intention to retire a couple of months earlier, they would definitely have drafted a QB like Tim Tebow, Jimmy Clausen or Colt McCoy early in the draft. They could also have signed Donovan McNabb as a free-agent, who is very close to Vikings coach Brad Childress.

Instead, the Vikings now have the exciting Tarvaris Jackson, Sage Rosenfels and Joe Webb as their QBs in their roster.

Then again, the Vikings probably should have learnt better. They had two years to draft a young QB but they didn't. When the Packers drafted Rodgers in 2005, they were panned as Favre was still going strong at that time.

Compared with the plight of their arch-rival Vikings, that decision is now looking more and more smarter.

No One Knows Him Better

"You know Michael (Schumacher) - you talk to him and he will always feel that he is right."

"If Michael wants to go to heaven - in the event that he is going to heaven - then I don't really care. But I don't want to go before him."

Said Rubens Barrichello, on being asked whether he will talk to the seven-time Formula One World Champion after the German blatantly blocked an overtaking move by the Brazilian late in the Hungarian Grand Prix, and who was rightfully handed a grid penalty for the next race.

The pretty much sums up Yours Truly's perception over the years on Schumi.

Arsene's Achilles Heels

There is no denying that Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger is an architect of beautiful soccer. His teams always have quick and elegant strikers who are capable of manufacturing some of the most fluid moves you'll ever see.

Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, Robert Pires, Sylvain Wiltord, Emmanuel Adebayor, Robin Van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, Samir Nasri and co. can all give opposing defenders all sorts of headaches.

Even after some of the bigger names have left the team, Wenger can simply wave his magic wand and just plug anyone into his squad and, voila, he will become yet another promising scoring threat.

Wenger definitely has an eye for strikers. But the same cannot be said for his defense, especially the problems he's had on his goalkeepers.

David Seaman, Rami Shaaban, Jens Lehmann, Manuel Almunia, Lukasz Fabianski and co. can all give their OWN defenders all sorts of headaches, for one reason or another.

Manchester United has Edwin van der Sar. Liverpool has Pepe Reina. Chelsea has Petr Cech. Inexcusably, Wenger just can't a proper goalkeeper for his squad.

But please don't tell everyone that Mark Schwarzer is the guy you are going after, Arsene.

How to Lose a World Cup

Being a sore loser, Yours Truly simply can't hide his frustration as to the way the Netherlands lost in the World Cup final.

If there is anything to blame, that should start, and probably end, with their coach Bert Van Marwijk, for the mind-boggling decisions he made.

1. Taking Dirk Kuyt Off the Field

Anyone with a normal state of mind could see that Kuyt was probably one of the, if not THE, hardest-working and efficient player in the tournament. If Yours Truly had his way, he should be on the field FOREVER. If he lost possession near the opposing team's corner flag, you would find him charging down the field to help his defense deep in his own team's corner flag. Such peskiness has made him a crowd favourite and a nightmare for the opposing team. So when Kuyt was substituted in the second half, it was such a reprieve for Spain as they finally got rid of the one player they didn't want to see on the field.

2. Taking Giovanni Van Bronckhorst Off the Field

If you thought Van Marwijk would not make a wrong substitution twice, think again. Despite his ripe old age, Van Bronckhorst proved to be their best defender in the match. If not for his repeated interventions, the Dutch would have fallen behind much earlier. And despite him having received a yellow card, Yours Truly would say that with his experience and composure, of all the Dutch players with a yellow card, he would be the least likely to receive a second one. Instead, Van Marwijk kept time-bombs such as John Heitinga (who was sent off) and Mark Van Bommel (who should have been sent off, TWICE!) on the field, with disastrous consequences.

3. Not Taking Robin Van Persie Off the Field

With the exception of Fernando Torres, Van Persie was probably the most off-form high-profiled striker in the tournament. So when Vicente Del Bosque, the Spanish coach, had the right mind to keep Torres on the bench after showing everyone that he was not back yet, Van Marwijk showed his acumen by sticking with Van Persie forever. Did he forget that Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was on the bench?

To their credit, Spain was the better side last night. But they didn't win the World Cup. It was the Dutch who lost it by shooting themselves in the foot, thanks to the smart decisions of one Bert Van Marwijk.

Belated Random Thoughts on World Cup

Mercy Please! - Yours Truly happened to try to watch the World Cup on the Internet the other day, which didn't offer the clearest of pictures. But that couldn't deny the fact that the North Koreans were clearly overwhelmed by Portugal in their humiliating 0-7 defeat.

To make matters worse, it was reportedly the first international soccer match broadcasted live in North Korea. With all sorts of rumours regarding what would happen to the players if they didn't play well (being sent to the coal mines, etc.), Yours Truly couldn't help but feel sorry for them.

And it was probably the first time Yours Truly shouted "Stop scoring" and "Enough is enough" at his innocent TV.

French Revolution - Despite the turmoil surrounding the French camp, where players were clearly unhappy with the coach and top striker Nicolas Anelka being sent packing, Yours Truly somehow would say that they would surprise everyone by beating the host South Africa in their final group match and advance deeper into the second round than anyone would expect.

It's the World Cup, which is predictably unpredictable.

Striker Matters - Yours Truly has a very simple rule of thumb in predicting which team will do well in the tournament. If a team has more than one regular strikers scoring goals, they would do really well. In 2006, Italy's Vincenzo Iaquinta, Alberto Gilardino, Filippo Inzaghi and Luca Toni were all on the scoresheets on route to their victory. In 2002, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho were all among the scorers for Brazil in their fifth victory. And in 1998, Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet and Christophe Dugarry all scored for France in securing their first victory.

In this year's tournament so far, only Germany (Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski and Cacau) and Portugal (Cristiano Ronaldo and Liedson) have more than one regular strikers finding the back of the net. Since Ronaldo and Liedson scored their goals when the North Koreans were truly down and out, we can pretty much rule out Portugal.

So that means Germany is now the favourite to lift the World Cup trophy.

Very boring indeed.

World Cup is Just the Undercard - The referee couldn't have picked a worse game to make an awful call.

It is clear that Malian referee Koman Coulibaly had made a wrong call in ruling out USA's third goal against Slovenia. The problem lies in the fact that FIFA does not require their referees to make public the rationale behind calls like that.

Everyone makes mistakes. But not requiring the referee to tell us why he made the call is simply mind-boggling and annoying. And with the recent blown call costing Armando Galarraga a perfect game in Major League Baseball still very much in everyone's mind, there will definitely be outcry in the States arguing that TV replays should be introduced in the game.

And FIFA vs USA would be an exciting match-up.

To Race Or Not to Race

Having been a Schumi-hater for quite a while, Yours Truly finds it hard to believe that this is yet another piece in defense of the seven-time World Champion.

When Jarno Trulli's overly-optimistic move down the Rascasse resulted in a collision with Karun Chandok with some two laps to go in the Monaco Grand Prix, the safety car was deployed, justifiably.

And with just two laps to go, everyone expected that the race would finish behind the safety car, which means that the driver should hold their positions until the checkered flag.

However, just as the cars were half way around the track for the final time, the wording "SAFETY CAR IN THIS LAP" flashed across the bottom of the television screen.

Yours Truly's immediate reaction to seeing this: WHY???

What does it mean?

Does it mean that once the safety car had ducked into the pitlane, the race resumed and the drivers were free to make a mad dash to the finish line some 300 yards ahead?

Or does it mean that the leading driver could bunch the field up because he knew no one could overtake him?

When Michael Schumacher saw Fernando Alonso nearly spun into the barrier at Rascasse for the final time after having a huge wheel-spin, he saw daylight and ducked inside the Spaniard to take sixth place.

But the stewards didn't like the move and decided to give him a 20-second penalty which, with all the cars bunched up behind the safety car, relegated him to the last place of the lead lap.

According to Ross Brawn, team boss of Mercedes Benz, there is a new regulation this year which says that drivers can race between safety car line one (i.e., the pitlane entrance) and the start/finish line after the "SAFETY CAR IN" signal is shown. But in the eyes of the stewards, even if the signal of "SAFETY CAR IN" goes up, drivers are not allowed to race and must follow one another.

Which brings up the original question? Why should they show the "SAFETY CAR IN" signal, when showing it or not makes virtually no difference whatsoever?

Perhaps the FIA simply didn't want the race to end behind the safety car. They wanted to create an illusion that all the cars were racing at the checkered flag and were separated by just 10 seconds.

Yours Truly remember some stock car races at Macau a couple of years ago where the safety car was deployed in the final laps following an accident. While the cars were circulating the field for the final time, the signal "SAFETY CAR IN" went up which caused a lot of confusion, when half of the cars followed the safety car into the pitlane, while the other half stayed on the track and overtook a number of cars to take the checkered flag.

At that time, Yours Truly thought it was a amateurish mistake by the Macau officials.

But Yours Truly now knows that the FIA can be equally amateurish.

Numbers Games 2010

I know I have done it before (here and here), and so I am going to do it again.

I am still really crazy for the Dallas Cowboys, and the NFL Draft too.

After spending three days listening to the webcast of the draft, I have once again finished typing the information of all draftees into a neatly-prepared Word file.

Thanks to the Wikipedia and the internet, I no longer have to wait for months to find out what the jersey numbers of the draftees are.

So please indulge me for listing the jersey numbers of their draft class of 2010:

88 WR Dez Bryant
45 LB Sean Lee
27 CB Akwasi Owusu-Ansah
76 OT Sam Young
30 CB Jamar Wall
78 DT Sean Lissemore

Now there is one more happy man in the world.

More Thoughts on the NFL Draft 2010

- Unlike previous years, the Oakland Raiders made solid picks after solid picks in this year's draft. The first pick, Rolando McClain, has been named by many experts as one of the safest picks in the draft, who will help bolster their weak run defense. Their selections of promising OT prospects Jared Veldheer and Bruce Campbell in rounds three and four surprised many as they all thought that the Raiders would have jumped of either of those with their first-round pick. But the Raiders, being the Raiders, didn't let the fastest player in the draft (Jacoby Ford) slip through their fingers. Yet taking him in the fourth round was reasonable.

- Speaking of a safe pick, the St. Louis Rams may be kicking their foot for picking Sam Bradford instead of Ndamukong Suh as the first overall pick. Don't get Yours Truly wrong, since both are excellent players who will become quality pros in the NFL. But the way the draft played out, had the Rams chosen Suh, a DT as the first overall pick, they could still choose from QB Jimmy Clausen or Colt McCoy in the second round. A combo of Suh and Clausen/McCoy would be much more appealing than a combo of Bradford and Rodger Saffold, their pick in the second round.

- With the first pick of the 2011 NFL Draft, the Buffalo Bills will select ... Jake Locker, QB. Perhaps the Bills did have Locker very high in the draft board. Then perhaps that's exactly the reason why they didn't take a QB with the number 9 pick. C.J. Spiller may be the best RB in this draft, but who is going to hand off the ball to him? Trent Edwards? Ryan Fitzpatrick? Doesn't sound so good to Yours Truly.

- Josh McDaniels is on a mission. His mission? To fill the Denver Broncos roster with players of excellent character. That is why he passed on Dez Bryant despite trading up and took Demaryius Thomas instead, nabbed Tim Tebow despite intense criticism and ignored Clausen or McCoy, and traded away problematic All-Pros Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall these two seasons. The question is, will he be given the time to accomplish his goal?

- The Carolina Panthers have been ignoring a glaring need to find a young QB for years. But once they decided to do it this year, they did it in quality AND quantity. In addition to drafting Clausen in round two, they also nabbed Armanti Edwards (who is likely to be converted into a wide receiver) in round three, and Tony Pike in round six, who many predicted would have gone much earlier.

Early Thoughts on Day One of NFL Draft 2010

- For the first time in a long while, Yours Truly's beloved Dallas Cowboys picked a wide receiver in the draft and they did it in the first round, no less. Dez Bryant was suspended for most of the past season for not being totally truthful in his dealings with former All-Pro Deion Sanders (a former Cowboy), and as a result many teams shied away from him due to his perceived "character issues". Talent-wise he should go in the top five, and once he started sliding and fell behind Demaryius Thomas (drafted by the Denver Broncos at number 22), Jerry Jones decided to trade up to number 24 and pick the former Oklahoma State Cowboy.

- More on Bryant. The Dallas Cowboys website started selling the Bryant jerseys not long after the selection. When Yours Truly logged onto it, it was kind of disappointing. No, it has nothing to do with the design (Cowboys have one of the best, if not THE best uniform in the NFL) or the price (Yours Truly can't afford one anyway). The disappointing thing was the jersey number, 88. The "88 Bryant" jersey reminded Yours Truly of Antonio Bryant, a former Cowboy who is now playing for the Cincinnati Bengals. AB wore number 88 during his days with the Cowboys, but didn't quite live up to expectation. Will the new Bryant follow his footsteps?

- Despite the flurry of trades in the first round, the Indianapolis Colts benefitted by not doing anything at all. And when it was their turn to pick at number 31, TCU's Jerry Hughes fell right into their lap. Hughes, an undersized defensive end, has often been compared with Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis, two similarly undersized and good pass rushers. And yes, both Freeney and Mathis are playing for the Colts.

- Maurkice Pouncey going to the Pittsburgh Steelers couldn't be more appropriate. It continues the team's tradition of drafting outstanding centres throughout the years. They had drafted Mike Webster and Dermontti Dawson (Ray Mansfield and Jeff Hartings were not drafted by the Steelers), and now they have Pouncey.

- The reason why the Minnesota Vikings traded out of the first round? They were disgusted by the drafting of Tim Tebow by the Denver Broncos. Tebow would have been a great fit for the Vikings since he would sit for a year or two and learn his trades from Brett Favre.

- Note to parents: If you want your kid to be drafted by an NFL team way before they should be, you have got to name your kid "Tyson", and let him play defensive tackle. Last year, Penn State's Tyson Jackson went number 3 to the Kansas City Chiefs when everyone thought he should go lower. And this year, Tyson Alualu went number 10 to the Jacksonville Jaguars, when many predicted that the defensive tackle from California should be drafted in round two, at the earliest.

Corporate Delusion

Tiger Woods is not God.

On the golf course, he may be. But in private life, he's just like many of us.

That's why Yours Truly doesn't really care about his extra-marital affairs, which has been the subject of media attention these days.

To declare: Yours Truly doesn't condone extra-marital affairs, which destroys families and have serious repercussions. Sadly though, it is way more common then you think in this day and age.

When Tiger's affairs were finally revealed sometime around Thanksgiving last year, Yours Truly was not totally surprised. Come to think of it: He's got the good looks, fame and money, the perfect recipe for extra-marital affairs.

The problem is, we have been blinded by his "Mr Nice Guy" persona created by his sponsors, who are trying to take as much advantage as possible from this very image they have built. Under the protection of his sponsors and PR guys, Tiger has never been the most media accessible athlete in the world, and to be fair, he has every right to keep his private life away from the spotlight. So once we found out who had happened, somehow someone felt being betrayed, despite the fact that we never have the chance to really know him.

Somehow, Yours Truly feels for Tiger. Had he not been the best golfer in the world, had he not been surrounded by all those PR guys, had he hung out with ordinary Joes between tournaments, and had he been always cursing like a sailor, there would not have been such public backlash for the affairs, and everything would have gone away quickly and quietly.

Yours Truly always believes that golf is a sport that is hard to learn but relatively easy to excel. Once you have "IT", you can play really well. Despite a five-month absence from competitive gold, Tiger will be just fine.

And it looks like he's doing really well at the Masters at the moment.

Last Roll of Dice

Yours Truly just don't know what to make of the trade of Donovan McNabb to the Washington Redskins.

On one hand, Yours Truly found Andy Reid, his coach and mentor with the Philadelphia Eagles, desperately foolish to send him to a division rival, who may be a franchise quarterback away (i.e. McNabb) from becoming a contender again, now that Mike Shanahan has joined the team as the new head coach.

On the other, Yours Truly found Reid absolutely gutsy in sending McNabb to a divisional rival. It's just like telling the Redskins (and probably McNabb) that the Eagles are so much better than you that they don't mind giving away one of the better quarterbacks in the league.

Yours Truly also admire Reid for not sending McNabb to Siberia (a.k.a. Oakland Raiders), which are rumoured to be the front-runner of the McNabb derby for a long time. With Shanahan joining the fray, the Redskins may finally return to prominence.

And of course, being a Dallas Cowboys homer, Yours Truly would rather see McNabb labouring in Siberia, rather than starting for a team that has suddenly become a real threat.

When Bill Belichick traded Drew Bledsoe to the Buffalo Bills many years ago, many people were skeptical of the move, believing that it would bite him somehow, someday. But Belichick has the last laugh thanks to the emergence of Tom Brady, who has become one of the best ever.

Reid has similar faith in Kevin Kolb. If Kolb can be consistently good over the entire season, Reid would look like a genius. But if he can't, this could probably be one of the last moves Reid has ever made.

Can't Get Enough

After backing up Peyton Manning for six boring years, Indianapolis Colts reserve quarterback Jim Sorgi decided that enough is enough. He was fed up with seeing the name "Manning" on a jersey. He wanted out.

So when his agent told him that another team was interested in him as their backup quarterback, he decided to jump ship and sign with them.

Just as he thought he would no longer see THAT name again, he could not be more wrong.

The reason? The New York Giants, the new team that he signed, have Eli Manning (Peyton's brother, in case you are wondering) as their starting quarterback, and Mario Manningham as one of their top wide receivers.

Cruel luck.

Moral of story? While DUI (driving under the influence) is bad, SUI (signing under your intuition) can be equally traumatic.

Benching Big Ben?

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is in big trouble.

Early this week, he was involved in a sexual assault allegation in a pub near Atlanta, which comes less than two years after another sexual assualt allegation in Lake Tahoe that still hasn't been resolved.

People say that once is an accident, while twice is a trend. Yours truly would like to add that when there is smoke, there has to be fire.

And don't forget, he nearly killed himself in a motorcycle accident in 2006, because he was not wearing a helmet despite repeated warnings from his coaches.

For a proud and prestigious organization like the Steelers, which values players' integrity and has a track record of not tolerating any misconduct off the field, would they welcome him back as the face of the franchise?

That is, someone who might need sex therapy?

Probably not.

There is a God

The Saints win!!!

In Defense of Schumi, For Once

Being a Michael Schumacher-hater, Yours Truly likes bashing him at every opportunity available.

And being an underdog-lover, Yours Truly has always been a fan of Nick Heidfeld, the Formula One driver with the most points and podium finishes without a victory.

That being said, Yours Truly has no complaint whatsoever about Schumi's comeback with the Mercedes-Benz team, which might have cost Heidfeld his best chance of scoring a victory.

The Mercedes-Benz team, which was the all-conquering Brawn GP team last year, was in need of two drivers due to the departure of World Champion Jenson Button and veteran Rubens Barrichello. And when Heidfeld's BMW Sauber team announced its withdrawal at the end of last season, he seemed to be the logical choice. For many, the only question left was how long would he take to finally score his maiden victory.

Having "retired" from Formula One after the 2006 season, Schumi is still very much involved with Ferrari, and his itch for speed was still evident in a number of tests he had taken part in. But when he turned down the chance to replace the injured Felipe Massa late last season, Yours Truly thought that his Formula One career was well and truly over.

But as we may all know, life is full of coincidence. Firstly, he first made his name for Mercedes-Benz in the World Sportscar Championship in the early '90s. Secondly, his longtime mentor, Ross Brawn, is now the team principal of Mercedes-Benz. For Schumi, his reunion with Mercedes-Benz is simply a no-brainer in more ways than one.

Frankly, "Selfishness" was the first word came up on my mind when Yours Truly learned of Schumi's plan of coming back. While Schumi might have cost Heidfeld his best chance for victory, the most important thing in Formula One, like everything else in life, is timing. You cannot blame Schumi for coming back since he, though likely a little rusty, is still one of the best drivers in the world. All Heidfeld can do now, who has signed with Mercedes-Benz as its test driver, is to make sure he will do an excellent job so when there is an opening in a top team, he will be in a very good position to fight for it.

And Yours Truly knows that his day will come, eventually.

Grant Ambition

"I'd say easier, because I went out on good note. I'm at peace with it. I know that I'm not (walking away) just because I've hit a rough spot. I'm moving along to a different path."

Said baseball player-turned-priest Grant Desme, when asked by Dan Patrick on his daily show whether it was easier or tougher to walk away from the game to enter priesthood despite having such a promising baseball career, in particular winning the MVP award in the Arizona Fall League last year.

Yet Another Hunch

I predicted in my previous blog entry that Indianapolis Colts' wide receiver Pierre Garçon would have a big game against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Divisional Playoff.

I was wrong. Sort of.

While he didn't have great numbers in that game (5 catches for 34 yards), he did force a key fumble that killed a possible Ravens' comeback.



Turned out that my prediction was a week off, as Garçon's big game came the following week, against the New York Jets in the AFC Championship Game. He had 11 catches for 151 yards against the number one defense in the NFL.



(Video courtesy of Youtube)

Next up for the Colts, the New Orleans Saints, the number one seed in the NFC, in Superbowl XLIV. While I have been a Drew Brees fan since his days at Purdue, I just can't see how the Saints defense can come up with a way to stop Peyton Manning and the Colts.

Hope that my prediction will not be off this time around.

Hunch of the Day

Indianapolis Colts' wide receiver Pierre Garçon, one of the highest-profiled Haitian-Americans in the NFL, will have a field day against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Divisional Playoff, in the wake of the horrible earthquake in Haiti.

Or at least this is what I hope he will do.

Better Late Than Never

Mark McGwire finally comes clean.

It didn't surprise anyone, as Tony La Russa plans to bring this once-mighty slugger to the St. Louis Cardinals as their hitting coach. And after all the years of saying nothing about his steroid and human growth hormone use and disappearing from the public eye, the one thing he has to do in order to make a comeback is to come clean.

La Russa even said that McGwire might be used as a designated hitter next season.

Of all the high profile baseball players alleged to have used illegal performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), McGwire is probably the one the fans are most forgiving about, since he has never denied it (cf. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens) and never lied to the Congress (cf. Miguel Tejada and Rafael Palmeiro). His silence and shying away from the spotlight make fans like Yours Truly feel that he is ashamed of and sorry about what he has done.

Fans are forgiving, especially if a player is sincere about and remorseful of his wrongdoings. That is why Andy Pettitte, an admitted PED-user, has been given an all-clear by the public since his candid admission.

And one has to wonder if Bonds or Clemens are regretting about anything right now.

Yours Truly first paid real attention to baseball in the late 1980s', when the Oakland Athletics, with the "Bash Brothers" of McGwire and Jose Canseco, were the team to beat. That is why Yours Truly always have a soft spot for McGwire, who some could say was my first baseball idol.

And his admission, though years too late, is evidence that he is still worth Yours Truly's admiration after all those years.