Tuesday, December 04, 2012

12/04 (RGIII) Quickie

At this point, one thing is clear: RGIII is the biggest thing in the NFL. And, because he is the biggest thing in the biggest sport, that makes him the biggest thing in sports right now.

He played well -- not great, by any means (although it's not like the Giants' defense makes it easy on QBs), but that was sort of a theme this weekend: From Luck to Wilson to McElroy, the big QB stories in the NFL all played good enough (and certainly, for Luck and Wilson, brilliant in spots).

But the Redskins are suddenly in the playoff picture -- something that seemed impossible just a few weeks ago. They are arguably even in the driver's seat in the NFC East.

RGIII's ability to turn reality from "No!" to "Yes!" is almost... Tebow-ish. And Griffin's popularity -- entirely justified -- is there to affirm it.

More:

SI names LeBron the Sportsman of the Year: An entirely reasonable pick. (Although I'm working on USA TODAY Sports' Year in Review package, and I'm almost certain that our No. 1 athlete of the year will not be LeBron, although it's very possible LeBron will finish No. 2.)

Heisman finalists: Johnny Football, Te'o, Klein. And that's probably how they will finish, notwithstanding my own pick of Te'o for the award. What is a shame is that the Heisman Trust wouldn't extend invites to the players finishing 4th and 5th -- in the case of the Heisman, it IS an honor simply to make the trip to New York.

A-Rod's hip: I'm not sure I get the schadenfreude. For the Yankees, on the hook for $100M for a player who might have trouble even DH'ing? Sure. For A-Rod? I can't muster it.

CBB: Dropping Kentucky from No. 8 to unranked because they lost twice in a week? UK is having some acceleration problems, absolutely, but there are not 25 better teams in the country. (In the end, who cares: All that matters is how Kentucky finishes in late March. To the extent that last week portends falling short of the championship expectations? Yes, very relevant. To the extent that the team could still get it together in time for a six-game run in late March? This week's ranking is entirely irrelevant.)

Tebow being Tebow: Enough said.

-- D.S.

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