Tuesday, January 17, 2012

01/17 (Moving On) Quickie

Unless your team was knocked out, I think most fans are entirely satisfied with the NFL's conference-championship match-ups, particularly given the thrilling way we got to an NFC final.

Let's do a quick ranking of the four possible Super Bowls:
(1) Patriots-49ers. Great O, great D, two best coaches in football.
(2) Patriots-Giants. Rematch of the greatest Super Bowl upset ever.
(3) Ravens-49ers. The "Harbaugh Brothers" Bowl.
(4) Ravens-Giants. 50% off your Northeast Corridor Amtrak ticket?

I like the idea that it feels like the outcomes are fairly predictable -- Pats and 49ers, right? -- but if last week reminded us of anything, it's that predictable outcomes are there to be imploded.

More:

*Happy 70th birthday, Muhammad Ali. I think that if I had the chance to meet any athlete in the world, it would be Ali. What: You thought I'd say...

*Tim Tebow: More underminey rhetoric from John Elway, tabbing Tebow as the Broncos' "starting QB heading into training camp," making him the only QB among playoff teams (and more than half the non-playoff teams) to not be the clear-cut Week 1 starter.

Would it have been so bad if Elway had said "Tim is our Week 1 starter." Like anyone is going to hold Elway to it if something goes horribly awry in training camp. The worst part -- for everyone, including Elway -- is that most media took his qualified support as "Tebow is the starter next year!"

Let's all remember: If Tebow had lost his first game as a starter in Week 7, he would have been benched. Same with a loss in Week 9, Week 10 and Week 11 (and probably Weeks 12 or 13).

What continues to mystify me is that Elway and Fox seem scared to do what they want to do -- cut or trade Tebow -- because of what they presume would be a public outcry. They are waiting for him to fail on the field to give them the more air cover, even though they don't really believe in him as their long-term starting QB. Can you imagine Bill Belichick giving a crap what the fans or media have to say about how he runs his team?

*NBA on MLK Day: Good things happen for the Lakers when Kobe passes up the final contested shot to find an open teammate. Do we say the same thing if Derek Fisher misses that game-winning 3? Maybe not. But Fisher was a sub-20 percent 3-point shooter this season, but canned that one when he was wide open, thanks to the attention Kobe drew. One to grow on....

*Dwight Howard Watch: He's willing to play for the Clippers. Too bad the Clippers don't have anything reasonable to offer the Magic, except... would you trade Blake Griffin for Dwight Howard? Blake is a lot younger (and cheaper); Howard is even more elite. The question is: Is Chris Paul + Blake Griffin better than Chris Paul + Dwight Howard? I don't think so. In that case, I'd make the deal. (Obviously, the Magic would be THRILLED for that deal.) Then again, I'm one of the folks who thinks that the Heat would be better with Wade + Bosh + Howard than Wade + Bosh + LeBron. (Sigh: Think the Magic would take my Wizards' JaVale McGee for Howard? I'll take Dwight as a half-season rental at this point.)

*College Hoops: Did Kansas expose Baylor? Or did the Bears simply run into another elite team, playing at home, with a bit of pressure built up from being one of the handful of remaining unbeatens left in the country? I would like to see the rematch in the Big 12 Tournament. Meanwhile: KU's Tyshawn Taylor was the big scorer, but Thomas Robinson is outstanding.

Be sure to check out Quickish to catch up on what you might have missed yesterday and throughout the day today. Thanks for the continued support!

-- D.S.

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