Super Duped Predictions

Superbowl XLVII is coming, so yours truly simply can't resist the urge to make some silly and bold predictions.

- MVP will be QB Alex Smith of the San Francisco 49ers, in a losing effort (more on that later).

In case you are not following the NFL closely, here is what happened to Smith, in Peter King's words on Monday Morning Quarterback:

"(Smith was) NFL's top-rated passer [104.3] through 10 weeks. Completed 18 of 19 passes in his last full game, at Arizona (Cardinals). Took a week off due to a concussion suffered the next game against St. Louis (Rams). Lost his job in that one week off to (Colin) Kaepernick, who never had started an NFL game. Kaepernick quarterbacked the Niners to the Super Bowl ..."

Smith was the first overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft and was widely regarded as a bust early in his career. In came head coach Jim Harbaugh in 2011 who has turned him into a highly-efficient (if not spectacular) quarterback. This season he has been in fine form, until admitting that he had suffered a concussion in the game against the Rams. And the rest is history.

In football, everyone says that you won't lose your job because of injury. But that is exactly what has happened to Smith. So wouldn't it be ironic (or right) to see Kaepernick having to leave the game (due to injury or ineffectiveness), and then for Smith to come on and play out of his mind, by throwing a couple of touchdown bombs late in the game?

- The Baltimore Ravens will beat the 49ers, rather easily.

Kaepernick has been playing brilliantly in place of Smith. But he is still a rookie, and his play has been a bit inconsistent. Like Smith, Ravens' QB Joe Flacco is a solid player not known for his big plays until the last couple of games. The Ravens started 9-2 this year, only to stumble to a 1-4 finish. Then Flacco found his groove and with him at the helm, the Ravens have become the hot team of late, by beating Peyton Manning and Tom Brady away from home in the playoffs. The last two Superbowls have been won by the hottest team at that point (Green Bay Packers and New York Giants respectively). Look for the streak to continue this year.

- Ray Lewis' Last Hurrah

Having announced his retirement earlier this year, Lewis brilliant career should have ended at Denver in the Divisional playoff game. But somehow the Broncos let Jacoby Jones sneak by the secondary and Flacco found him for a 70-yard score with 31 seconds left to tie the game.

Are the Ravens destined to win? Yours truly thinks so. But don't expect a great game from Lewis, who has shown signs of age and is still hampered by his arm injury. He will have a solid performance as usual, rack up a dozen tackles, and be instrumental in keeping the 49ers at bay (no pun intended).

The Curious Te'o of Manti

It's been a fascinating week in US sports.

We have the NFL playoffs. We have the Lance Armstrong confession with Oprah Winfrey. And hey, hockey is also back, finally.

If that's not good enough, all of a sudden, we have this curious girlfriend hoax story involving Manti Te'o, the star linebacker of the resurgent Notre Dame.

No wonder they say that if you want to do something terribly evil, you'd better do it this week and you will fly under the radar thanks to these stories.

The details of the story are convoluted and complicated. In short, Te'o claimed that he had been duped into having a year-long online relationship with a woman named Lennay Kekua, who allegedly had a serious car crash, was diagnosed with leukemia, and died on the same day as Te'o's grandmother. Turned out that the two have never met as Kekua never existed. While Te'o claimed that he is a victim of the hoax, many suggested that he has played along with the hoax and, consequently, used his girlfriend's death as an inspiration for his team that went all the way to the national title game.

All in all, it raises serious doubt about Te'o's decision-making ability and, more importantly, sexuality.

Top linebacker prospects like Te'o are expected to be smart and able to make decisions on the field quickly. If Te'o has trouble figuring out he's been duped by the hoax, what does that tell you about his intelligence? He is eligible for the upcoming NFL Draft and he will definitely be grilled by all the teams during the Combine.

Even if the teams are satisfied that his intelligence and judgment are not a concern, many people will still have questions about his rumoured sexuality. One of the major fallouts of the story is that many are wondering that girlfriend hoax is a façade to cover his sexuality, as homophobia is still ongoing in professional sports, especially in the NFL.

Over the years, only a handful of fringe NFL players have come out after their retirement. Many claim that there are in fact a lot active homosexuals players in the league, but they all refuse to come out as they are way too clear of the backlashes.

Our society has changed a lot with people more open-mined about homosexuality. But come to think of it, the NFL is practically run by 32 "families" and some of them are noted for their conservative values. Prominent players have also hurled anti-gay slurs (Larry Johnson) and spoken out about not welcoming homosexual players on their teams (Jeremy Shockey and Garrison Hearst). Even if the rumours are incorrect, the suspicions and accusations surrounding him will be enough to scare some of the teams away. So don't be surprised to see Te'o, who has long been highly touted as a top-ten pick, to drop down the draft board, which will cost him millions of dollars.

To break that vicious cycle, they need a top player to come out during his career. Many people now wonder if that would be Te'o. Notre Dame said that had Deadspin not broken the news about the hoax, they would have addressed it two days later in what, some suspect, would have been the coming-out party of Te'o's.

Apparently they still have to wait.

Lesser of Two Evils

When it comes to top sportsmen who are jerks, two names come off the top of the head of many.

Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds.

In the court of public opinion, Armstrong is a jerk because of how he persecutes those who expose the ugly truth, that he became a top cyclist thanks to all kinds of doping imaginable. Bonds is a jerk because of his hostility towards everyone, from fans, teammates to reporters, and because of his steadfast denial against doping charges on him despite, many argue, solid evidence.

To me, Armstrong is a real jerk as first, he admitted to Oprah Winfrey that he didn't think what he did was wrong and, second, he wanted all of us to believe that he is actually a good guy by setting up the Livestrong Foundation, one that has raised millions of dollars in the fight against cancer. Armstrong himself admits that he is "part jerk part humanitarian". To me, the good things he has done will never be able to make up for the atrocious acts he has done to many.

Armstrong is a hypocrite. A real jerk.

Bonds is a mystery to everyone as he never let the fans know him. Fans marvel as his baseball prowess, but also scoff at his standoffish nature. On Facebook, he may have a lot of followers, but I doubt that he has a lot of friends.

Like Armstrong, Bonds has been embroiled in doping controversies for years. But unlike Armstrong, whose many former associates have come out against him, Greg Anderson, the long-time trainer of Bonds who allegedly was the source of performance-enhancing drugs, has chosen jail time instead of testifying against him in court.

To me, Bonds is just socially inept. So he shuns almost all interview requests, and has a frosty relationship with his teammates throughout the years. He is aloof by choice.

Armstrong's bullying nature has resulted in many of his former confidants saying, "Enough is enough", but Bonds' softer side to his inner-circle of friends may have saved him from being punished in the court of law.

Lance Arm-Stronged

I have never been a Lance Armstrong fan.

His first impression to me was not good at all. I first heard of him at the 1995 Tour de France, when he was beaten on the line by Ukrainian Sergei Outschakov in a two-man breakaway in Stage 13. I vividly remember how Armstrong, obviously frustrated and disappointed, responded to questions by reporters in a not-so-friendly manner, and how he mockingly dissed Outschakov ("I didn't know he was THAT fast") in front of the TV cameras.

That day, he came across as a jerk to me.

And as a result, I always see him as a jerk.

Cycling is a cruel sport. Tours with multiple stages are simply humanly impossible. That is why so many cyclists have resorted to various performance-enhancing drugs not only to boost their chances of winning, but also improve the likelihood of just finishing a Tour.

And after years of denial, Armstrong has finally admitted that he is one of them.

For years, his m.o. was, he was the only one telling the truth, and everyone else lies. What makes him more disgusting to me that any other drug cheats is how he strong-armed (pun intended) those who have come out to accuse him of doping. He threatened Frankie Andreu, his best friend and teammate, and his wife, Betsy. He sued Emma O'Reilly, his masseuse and The Sunday Times for libel. He acted as the ringleader in boycotting fellow cyclist Christophe Bassons, a "clean" rider who has spoken out against doping. He also called his former teammates Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton "liars".

For sure, Armstrong is a cancer survivor, and his Livestrong Foundation and cycling feats have been inspirational to many who have been stricken with the dreaded disease. But does it mean we should show him more sympathy by turning a blind eye when it comes to his drug use?

While I appreciate him coming clean belatedly, what is troubling to me is, there is no difference whatsoever in his facial expressions when he was blatantly lying years ago, compared with now when he is supposedly telling the truth.

Someone once said that to know someone, it would be better to pay attention to how he tells you a story instead of what he tells you. Judging from Part I of the interview with Oprah Winfrey, I can't really tell whether he is in fact telling the truth now.

Which means that he is still a jerk to me.