The Most Important Day Of All-Time

On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man to ever walk on the moon. Over the next 13,344 days, the inhabitants of Earth waited for a similarly historic moment that would unite all of humankind in peaceful harmony.
Through war, disease and famine, the world persisted, knowing that one magical day in the distant future they could look back on their since-alleviated suffering and know it had not come in vain. Sadly, the 1970’s passed with nary a glimmer of hope. For a brief time in the next decade it appeared that the film career of Patrick Swayze might lead to the promised land, but then he starred in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar and society’s dreams were crushed once again. The Y2K scare had people hoping salvation was on the other side of the millennium but all that was there was Carson Daly interviewing the drummer from No Doubt. And after 9/11 we wondered whether tragedy, and not rejoicing, would be the reaction to our generation's seminal moment.
Well, my friends, you can stop wondering, because that glorious day has finally come. Break out the bubbly, cease the fighting and stop coveting thy neighbors wife: This afternoon the world has become a better place to live, for Chris’s Sports Blog has welcomed it’s 100,000th visitor.
Little did the anonymous hero at LaSalle University in Philadelphia know that by deciding to procrastinate from doing actual schoolwork and clicking on their bookmark for Chris's Sports Blog (at least that's what I hope happened) he (or she) would become a footnote to history. It's sort of like absently walking into that city's Independence Hall 220 years ago looking for a bathroom at the very moment our founding fathers were signing the Declaration of Independence and instead of finding the latrine getting handed a pen by Thomas Jefferson. That's how damn monumental this event is.
Years from now on January 31 schoolchildren will have the day off, car dealers will hold "Chris's Sports Blog 100,000th Visitor Anniversary Blowouts" and Trienta y Uno de Enero will exceed the celebrations of Cinco de Mayo.
When Chris’s Sports Blog began on January 8, 2004, only a prescient few could have imagined the impact it would have on society. Like many other of history’s great success stories (the Roman Empire, Catholicism, Krispy Kreme) Chris’s Sports Blog started out with a dream. A dream and a short piece on Joe Gibbs. (I believe Rome’s was written by Josephus.)
It was from that dream that a provactive ethos first evolved. By writing daily about a subject as trivial as sports, I dreamed of subtly changing the world from the outside in.
No problem was too small. When I ripped on Donovan McNabb with clever nuance, I dealt with racism head-on. My seeming enmity for Duke was a clever riff on America’s class system. And with reflections on the sexual preferences of Derek Jeter, I challenged the stigma of homosexuality so prevalent in our culture. This morning, Brokeback Mountain was nominated for eight Academy Awards. The only coincidental thing about that is its truth. Think about it.
The visitors were scant, but doggedly loyal, in those first few months. Soon, after some links were exchanged and Nicollette Sheridan got naked with Terrell Owens on the intro to Monday Night Football, the hits began to pile up. With people constantly Googling phrases like “J.J. Redick backne” or “Derek Jeter hate” or “Is Ed Hochuli hung?” the daily count eventually hit 100 visitors and then quickly went past 200 with effortless grace. As Britney Spears went from white-hot to white-trash, I became America’s new sweetheart.
For some, Chris’s Sports Blog is a workplace diversion, a place where one can immerse themselves in some anti-Duke rhetoric and bathe in the healing light of Eli Manning-themed rants. For others, Chris’s Sports Blog is simply a way of life. And that is all you ever need know.
Today, on one of the most important days in Earth's four-billion year history, I would like to thank you, the readers of Chris's Sports Blog for coming back day after day, week after week, over-punctuated rant after over-punctuated rant. You are the lifeblood of this site and for that I am grateful. (I'm totally kidding, of course. You should be thanking me for having free daily access to my brilliance.)
In commeration of this specialist of special days, three readers who came to the blog on day one and have been here ever since sent along their best wishes. My mom wanted to write also, but I figured I'd spare you from a 25-line note about how I need to find a nice Greek girl.

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The Wolfman
San Diego, CA

Chris, from the time the Skins signed Deion Sanders and Bruce Smith and you were positive that they were headed to the Super Bowl, I knew that you needed a place where you could share your sports wisdom with the world. As you hit this milestone I want to offer you congratulations. The blog has come a long way since the days you were unable to use chrischase.com due to it already being taken by a large black man. You may be wondering right now where you can go from here. How do you top this achievement? I know you have had trouble figuring out if you still love the blog as much as you once did. But my plea is that you don't hang it up so that all of us working can go to your website during the day and read your posts and just sit back and realize how much you love writing the blog. Hell, you're like a kid out there, ranting and raving about Eli Manning and Trent Strickland. Don't retire Brett, um, I mean Chris, we need you to show us how to have the youthful exuberance that many of us have lost. Maybe some have done it better, but no blog writer ever has had as much fun as you have out there. Honestly though, I have a new found respect for you writing this thing every day after trying to come up with this little paragraph.

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Falkow
Philadelphia, PA

Dear Chris,

I don't know what i would do at work every day witout your hilarious commentary and wacky betting theories. Some writers start to lose their edge after 100,000 visitors, but you seem to be able to keep rolling in the laughs no matter what the subject matter. And at the end of your mail bags when you write things like "yup, these are my readers." Well, hee hee hee, LOL, that just never gets old.

Your pal,
J Bug

p.s. Oh wait, that was my letter to Bill Simmons. Forget all of that, especially the part where I made use of the acronym "LOL". In lieu of another, appropriately addressed, letter, I'm sending along a photo of you (right) I have on my mantel and often engage in conversations with. It's from the day you fought a nunchaku'd Chuck Norris with only a half-eaten can of Pringles and still managed to kick his ass. Those 21 slash marks on your arm are for the number of tears of infinite sadness you licked off of Chuck Norris' defeated cheeks after he realized he was no longer the toughest man in the world. And even though I'm sure your mom has long-since switched from "don't smoke" to "why don't you find a nice Greek girl" as her dominant instructive mantra, I'll still mention that the cigarette is unlit and was merely a prop in the photo. The only thing you smoked that day, my friend, was Chuck Norris.

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J. Nicholls Redemer
Danville, CA

In honor of your special day, I've written two poems:

Filled To
Over two years have gone
since we argued over Derek Jeter.
More so for spite, I decided to defend
him and the Yankees organization.

With vigor and courage I stood
fast against hurled abuses. Hands
clenched in agony seeking unknown
statistics to proves points now pointless.

Sarcasm led to anger, Anger to judgement
judgement to wrath. That soothing balm
possesed by time's healing hand has yet
to rest upon, and mend, my brokeness.

And only one thing has he convinced me
of his many diatribes, acerbic witicisms,
general rantings, and dubious prognostications.
That one single thing? Derek Jeter is gay.

Bursting
In the course of human history,
few come to see
enraptured prose spilling from the page
in sublime melody.
A world muddied by moral corruption,
chaotic religious fundamentalism
and seeking solace
in its purposelessness
can find peace,
especially during work,
and unity, 'cause everyone
except 'Baza hates Duke,
In Chris' Sports Blog.
To you a debt of honor
remains beholden to us for
all of history.

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"To you a debt of honor remains beholden to us for all of history." I think that pretty much says it all right there. Goodnight. God Bless. And Hail to the Redskins.

Weekend Thoughts

- It seems that every time one of the major American sports leagues gets to their final game or series, a story comes out that one of the cities involved has already made plans for their victory parade route. Outrage and shock ensues from the opposition who gives the obligatory quotes about how this only fires them up more and other nonsense like that. Then, those morons on Around the Horn banter back and forth about the ramifications of such karmic meddling. The other team's city government will put out a smarmy press release that says something along the lines of, "unlike [opposing team's city], we will wait until the game is finished to determine any celebration plans". This happens all the time. Super Bowl XL has been no different.
While I certainly don't think cities should be broadcasting their parade routes and setting up barricades 24 hours before the game starts, it's only natural to plan ahead. What, may I ask, do these outraged folks expect Seattle to do: Throw together a parade that will draw 500,000 people at the last minute? Parades and victory celebrations are major undertakings and shouldn't be done the morning of the event.
Despite what Pittsburgh says, there's no way their city government hasn't at least discussed plans for what they'll do should the Steelers win. It would be irresponsible not to.

- It pains me to say this; oh how it pains me to say this, but J.J. Redick has become an other-wordly shooter in the past 12 months. Before, he was a great spot-shooter but was merely average when he wasn't curling off screens or standing open on the perimeter. Now he's draining shots with two hands in his face, hitting off-balance prayers from 25-feet and single-handedly leading Duke to a #1 seed and deserved top-ranking. As I said last week, the Blue Devils are absolutely beatable if a coach will accept the fact that Redick will score 40 and instead decided to clamp down on the rest of Duke's disappointing lineup. Even so, that doesn't change the fact that J.J. is the most valuable player in the country right now. And loves men. (What, you didn't think I was going to praise J.J. for a paragraph without getting any dig in, did you?)

- How is the press not playing up the whole "the two best players in college basketball are white" angle, by the way? Because that would be racist? Sort of like this?

- Does ESPN have a contractual obligation with the NCAA to overpromote women's college basketball at all costs? From the shot of the Tennessee's women's player that leads off ESPN's HD promo to the countless hype for the Duke/UNC game this weekend that nobody outside a seven-mile stretch on I-40 cared about to the constant placement of a women's basketball story on the #2 slot on ESPN.com's Headlines section, it's all getting ridiculous. How is "UNC is No. 1 in AP women's poll for first time" the second biggest story of the afternoon? NOBODY CARES. And why does women's ball get more play on ESPN.com's new design than men's basketball? That "spotlight" thing at the bottom of the page has more stories about women's basketball than it does men's at the moment (2-0 right now, it was 3-1 yesterday). ESPN: nobody cares. You know this, we know this. Stop trying to force women's basketball down our throats. It's not going to happen. The sport has been given countless opportunities to work its way into the national spotlight and has failed miserably on every occasion. Women's basketball can be popular at a local level (think Knoxville or Storrs), but will never succeed nationally for a whole number of reasons, but mainly because it's simply painful to watch. Let's stop pretending people care about women's hoops. This means taking the scores off The Bottom Line, changing the design of ESPN.com so the women's college basketball page isn't easier to find than the men's page and taking that Tennessee chick off the HD promo. It's one thing to have to look at Stu Scott's glass eye in the glory that is high-definition. It's a whole other to see the network give publicity to a sport that's much less popular than bass fishing.

- Note to Brett Favre: When you make up your mind about playing next year, then we'll care. Until then, go back to redneck alley with your 47 lawnmowers and shut up. And please take Theo Epstein with you. Man, somebody needs to bring that smug, self-righteous attention-hound down a notch or two with a good ass-kicking. Then, afterwards, they can remind him how lucky he is the player's union nixed the A. Rod deal. Because if that never happened, Theo would rival Dan Duquette as most hated man in Boston. Of course, when both Hanley Ramirez and Andy Marte become perennial All-Stars in three years, that might happen yet.

- By the end of the decade, I think it will be safe to say Tiger Woods is the greatest athlete of all-time. It might even be appropriate to do so now.
In his prime, Michael Jordan didn't dominate like Tiger has over the past seven years. And Jordan's championship run had been done before, and bested, by Bill Russell's Celtics. But Tiger is doing things even Jack Nicklaus couldn't have dreamed of. He won the Buick Invitational yesterday after missing 13 fairways on Thursday and three-putting three holes in the final-round. No other player in golf can win a tournament without their "A game". Tiger can win with his "C+" game.
Roger Federer, perhaps the only other athlete in an individual sport to be able to do that, also won without his best game yesterday in his match against Marcos Baghdatis. Maybe Federer was just in awe of Baghdatis' lady-friend, but he looked remarkably human in the Australian Open final, yet still won in four sets.
He and Tiger are perhaps the best to ever play their respective games. Yesterday they showed why.

- It's an exciting week at Chris's Sports Blog. The lineup:
Friday: Super Bowl Preview
Thursday: My Annual Frivolous Argument For Art Monk's Inclusion In The Hall Of Fame
Wednesday: Chris Answer PTI's Questions
Tomorrow: That, My Friends, Is A Surprise

ThankSKINving

The Washington Redskins will visit Dallas to play the Cowboys in a Thanksgiving night game to be broadcast on the NFL Network, according to The New York Times. The NFL will exclusively carry eight Thursday and Saturday primetime games on its flagship network in 2006, beginning with the Thanksgiving night match-up. Sean Taylor reportedly is upset at the move, as most Florida prisons don't get the NFL Network on their cable package.

The State of the Redskins

When Joe Gibbs returned to the Washington Redskins two years ago, critics questioned whether the coach who won three Super Bowls before the age of free agency would be able to compete in the current day NFL with its yearly salary-cap induced roster upheaval and unfettered player movement. Such worries were surprising, since the old Gibbs won three Super Bowls with three different quarterbacks, running backs and defenses. Granted, those Redskins had the same offensive line and receiving corps for most of the ‘80s, but Gibbs, more than most coaches of his era, was totally prepared to cope with the world of free agency.
It’s ironic then, that stability has been the theme for the current Redskins since Gibbs’ return. Instead of overhauling the roster last off-season, as was standard practice for Washington teams under Daniel Snyder, Gibbs attempted to keep many of the same players on the roster in the interest of continuity. Familiarity, he believes, breeds confidence which, in turn, breeds winning.
So for the second straight off-season, Washington will attempt to keep the status quo at Redskins Park. No sweeping changes are necessary, no free-agent binges required for a team that was a few plays away from the Championship game in 2005. The hiring of Al Saunders will greatly improve the offense and with a few re-signings and maybe a free agent or two, the Redskins are poised to enter 2006 as the favorites in the NFC.

Quarterback
Just five months ago, Patrick Ramsey was the Washington Redskins’ quarterback of the future. The four-year veteran out of Tulane performed decently in 2004 and entered 2005 as the starter despite a ragged preseason and lingering questions about his decision-making ability and footwork. Mark Brunell outplayed him in training camp, but the old vet’s 2004 was such a disaster Joe Gibbs knew he had little choice but to go with the younger, stronger quarterback to begin the season, even as many observers believed Gibbs never wanted Ramsey and would be looking for any reason to make a switch. Their conspiracy theories were further fueled just 19 minutes into the season when an injury to Ramsey forced Brunell into action. After an ugly 9-7 win against the eventual NFC North champion Chicago Bears, Brunell was named the starter.
At the time there was a lot of hand-wringing over whether Gibbs was “fair” to Ramsey and whether the decision to re-insert Brunell into the starting lineup would pay off. There are no such doubts today. As I contended before the season, Gibbs always knew Patrick Ramsey couldn’t be his starting quarterback. He took too many sacks, made too many mistakes and would never be able to get a first down with his feet. Still, it was a necessary, if disingenuous, move to start the year with Ramsey considering how poorly Brunell played in 2004.
Steve Smith deserved his NFL Comeback Player of the Year award, but if there was an honor for Most Shocking Comeback, Brunell would have won in a landslide. It’s easy to forget just how awful he was in 2004; his throws had no zip, it appeared he never got set before throwing and there was just a general sense of unease every time he dropped back to pass. Eight months ago, it appeared signing Brunell to a $43 million deal would go down as one of the worst free agent deals in NFL history. Some feared it would sink the comeback of Joe Gibbs. Consider: In his nine years as an NFL starter, Brunell’s QB rating was between 82 and 91 in each season. In 2004 his passer rating was 62.9.
But a funny thing happened on the way to FedEx Field in 2005; Brunell looked great in the preseason. There had been talk during the previous year about how injured he was and how his bum knee was the cause of his problems, not a precipitous drop in talent. All that seemed to make sense as Brunell looked like he had found a fountain of youth in the off-season.
Everyone knew he was better than Ramsey, but Gibbs still had to stick with Patrick if only to appease his players who wanted to see what they could do with the younger QB before settling on the old one. The Redskins got lucky Ramsey went down early in the season; it might have been two or three games before he got pulled otherwise and Washington needed each of their three straight opening-season wins they got with Brunell.
Now, Ramsey is as good as gone from Washington. During Al Saunders’ introductory press conference, Joe Gibbs mentioned how lucky his quarterbacks, Mark Brunell and Jason Campbell, were to be working with such an offensive guru. Not once did Gibbs mention Ramsey’s name. If they’re lucky, the Redskins will get a mid-round draft pick for him.
Brunell is firmly entrenched as the starter in 2006, but the controversy-lovers in the Nation’s Capital will be calling for Jason Campbell at the first sign of trouble next season. They’ll point to how Brunell broke down at the end of 2005 and will incorrectly infer the 36-year old can’t make it through a season healthy. Whether that’s really the case is probably irrelevant to them.
One thing is true though; Mark Brunell was totally ineffective in the team’s three January games. But it’s important to remember why: Brunell re-aggrevated his chronic knee injury in the team’s second-to-last game of the season and was playing on that injury for the rest of the year.
In the two games before the Giants Nick Greisen plowed into his knee, Brunell was 19/31 for 275 yards, 6 TD, 1 INT and a stellar 116.3 QB rating. In the two games after suffering the injury, Brunell was 16/40 for 182 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT and an anemic 41.9 QB rating.
It wasn’t as much a matter of Brunell breaking down because of his age than it was him breaking down because he suffered an injury that could happen to anyone. That knee will always be a problem for Brunell, but he seemed fine on it before the Giants game. As long as his knee stays healthy, there’s no reason to think Brunell won’t be too. (Maybe that’s a big if, but no more than the Falcons hoping Michael Vick stays healthy.)
With Ramsey gone, Jason Campbell will move into the backup role. Campbell worked closely will the now-departed Bill Musgrave every day this season and should be ready to go if Brunell should be unable to play. With Saunders freeing up Joe Gibbs from play-calling duties, Gibbs and others will have more time to work with the young Campbell too. Mark Brunell will start the season, but it’s naïve to think Jason Campbell won’t get at least some playing time at some point in 2006.
The team will likely grab a veteran to be their third-string QB. Not too many high-profile guys will willingly sign on for that role, so it could be slim-pickens. Among the possible names: Charlie Batch, Todd Collins or Tim Hasselbeck.

Running Back
With different blocking schemes to run behind, Clinton Portis experienced a return to form this year after a disappointing 2004 campaign. Portis broke the Redskins rushing record with 1,516 yards and found the endzone 11 times.
By the end of the season, though, Portis was beat-up with a variety of ailments stemming from his 352 carries and all the punishing blocks he threw in pass protection. Unlike many backs (Shaun Alexander, Larry Johnson), CP enjoys throwing vicious blocks on defenders. But that comes at a price, as his late-season shoulder problems showed.
In 2006, the Redskins need to cutback on Portis’ carries, inserting Ladell Betts into the lineup on more downs. Betts had 89 carries this year, but needs to get that total up to about 120 to give Portis some rest so he can be fresh for a playoff run. (It’s no surprise Portis’ two highest rush totals in 2005 came in weeks where Betts was out with an injury.)
Al Saunders never runs the same play twice, so having two effective backs should help with his element of surprise. I’m no fan of alternating possessions between running backs; I just think Portis could stand lowering his carries to around 290 or 300 and avoid running into traffic in the middle, which is Betts’ forte.
Third-string RB Rock Cartwright is a free agent and shouldn’t draw too much interest from the rest of the league. He’s not a vital component of the team, but in the interest of stability, the team should make a concerted effort to re-sign him.

Wide Receiver
There are two key positions the Redskins need to address this off-season and wide receiver is one of them.
In a year in which Santana Moss broke the Redskins record for receiving yards, Chris Cooley broke the record for yards and receptions by a tight end and Clinton Portis bested the team’s rushing mark, the fact that Washington receivers not named Santana grabbed just 48 catches is unacceptable.
By the end of the season, Santana was drawing double and triple coverage, yet the Redskins other wideouts couldn’t get open enough to catch a single ball. In the year’s final five games, those other WRs caught just three passes. Total.
David Patten was an unqualified bust, snaring just 22 balls for a 9.9 yard average before suffering a season-ending injury in November. His complaints about not getting enough throws didn’t exactly endear him to teammates and coaches either. (You want more balls? Get open then. And when you actually manage to do that, hold onto the ball.) The ex-Patriot is signed for two more years and, while he could return to the ‘Skins, it certainly won’t be as the #2 receiver.
Taylor Jacobs, the final legacy of the immortal Steve Spurrier era, makes the Eagles receiving corps look like All-Pros and he will most definitely be gone. James Thrash is a fine #3 receiver, but should never be anything more than that. His special teams value makes him a likely candidate to return.
There’s little doubt Daniel Snyder will make a push to sign the most coveted free-agent wideout on the market, Reggie Wayne, to be his #2 receiver. The Colts will make every effort to re-sign him (apparently, if it should come down to re-signing Wayne or Edgerrin James, the Colts would go with Wayne), but Snyder has been known to make Corleonesque offers in the past.
Reggie would likely command big dollars from a mediocre team like the Titans or Ravens to become their #1 receiver, or he could sign with a proven team with a chance to win for similar money and become their #2. What he does is anybody’s guess.
With the prevalence of Redskins players from The U (Moss, Portis, Sean Taylor), my hope is that they’ll tell Reggie how much they love playing for Gibbs (Moss and Portis practically get teary-eyed talking about their Hall of Fame coach) and convince him to sign here. Such a scenario has become the talk of D.C. so much that when I told my mom Santana was on Wheel of Fortune and she saw Reggie Wayne on the show also, she exclaimed, “I bet Santana’s telling him to come to the Redskins!” Whether or not they’ll have enough cap room to lure him remains to be seen.
Watching Snyder operate over the past seven years, I’ve learned never to put anything past him, so I guess there’s a chance Reggie Wayne could be in the burgundy and gold next season. Still, I think he’ll stay in Indy with his choking dog quarterback, content to succeed in the regular season and flame out in the playoffs.
If Wayne doesn’t sign, expect to hear a lot about Antwan Randle-El. If that’s the case, expect to read a lot (on this site) about how that would be a terrible signing and won’t help the Redskins at all. I like Randle-El a lot, but he’s no #2 receiver. He’s the quintessential big-play threat as a third wideout. In that role, I love him. As a guy you need to catch a difficult ball on a big third down, not so much. The problem is, it’s a pretty weak list after Wayne, so Randle-El will certainly draw attention. A guy like Joe Jurevicius would fit in well in Washington, but his asking price could skyrocket if he catches a touchdown in the Super Bowl. Keenan McCardell was originally drafted by the Redskins in the 12th round of the 1991 draft. He could return to Washington to finish up his career. Or, the ‘Skins could attempt to find a #2 receiver in the draft, but without a first-round pick, that could be difficult. If none of that works, there’s always Rod Gardner.

Tight End/H-Back
Chris Cooley established himself as the premiere tight end/fullback in the NFC this season. That Alge Crumpler (?!), Jeremy Shockey, Desmond Clark and Mack Strong made the Pro Bowl over him further exposes the Pro Bowl roster as the biggest fraud in sports. No matter. Shockey can have his Pro Bowl spot, Cooley will take a playoff win.
The second-year man out of Utah State is a jack-of-all-traders on the football field and off. He catches, he runs, he scores, he blocks on both the inside and outside and he gets cheerleaders fired about having intimate relations with ‘em. In short, I love Chris Cooley.
I have man-love for Mike Sellers too, but not as much as Joe Gibbs does. The Hall of Famer always has a rough and rugged guy lining up in the backfield and opening holes for RBs and Seller is his guy this time around. Teams have to pay so much attention to Sellers the blocker that he is left alone when he roams up the field, which led to seven touchdowns this season. Robert Royal is a free-agent and should be brought back, again, for the sake of continuity. Royal redeemed himself late in the season after a case of the dropsies plagued him early on.

Offensive Line
In last year’s State of the Redskins address, I made the point that Joe Gibbs’ first season back with the team ended before it started when Jon Jansen went down with a season-ending injury in the first quarter of the team’s first preseason game. The offensive line was never the same after that.
This year, the Dirtbags were everything everyone believed they’d be last year. Jansen, Randy Thomas and Casey Rabach dominated the line of scrimmage, while Derrick Dockery was much improved in his third season. Chris Samuels was streaky, as usual, and simply isn’t as good as his massive salary indicates he should be. Far too often Samuels gets beat on the outside by defensive ends and exposes Brunell to hits he can’t afford to take. Simeon Rice, in particular, totally ate Samuels up in both match-ups this season.
The injury to Randy Thomas in the Cowboys game killed Washington, particularly in the Divisional Playoffs when 43-year old Ray Brown went down with cramps and ex-center Cory Raymer was pressed into guard duty. Thomas is the forgotten man on the line, mainly because you never hear his name called during games. He gets the job done quietly and controls his area with ease. His return from a broken leg will be eagerly anticipated.
Even with Samuels’ deficiencies and high salary, he should return along with the rest of the line. Joe Bugel always says lines get better with time and experience, so it stands to reason 2006 will be the best year yet for his Dirtbags. The only thing the front office needs to do is get some depth so injuries to any of the lineman won’t be as devastating as it was this year. Not that replacing Jon Jansen or Randy Thomas will ever not be devastating.

Defensive Line
Cornelius Griffin was the Redskins defensive MVP in 2005. When healthy, opposing teams had great difficult running against Washington. Fellow tackle Joe Salave’a also battled injuries, but was greatly improved in his second year with Gregg Williams. They form a dominating middle of the line for Washington.
The problem on the Redskins defensive line was on the ends. Very rarely would the line ever get pressure with a four-man rush, something that’s crucial in Williams’ defense. With the linebackers and corners playing a soft-zone, pressure on the QB is pivotal for turnovers and coverage sacks. Without any pass rush, mediocre QBs like Eli Manning and Kerry Collins picked the Redskins apart.
Look for Washington to draft a D-end with their second-round pick (assuming they don’t package that pick, Ramsey and a future #1 to move up this year). The free-agents at the position are uninspiring, unless Snyder can find the money to sign the Titans’ Kyle Vanden Bosch or the 49ers' Andre Carter.

Linebackers
With Patrick Ramsey already stepping out the door, the Redskins biggest question headed into the off-season is what to do about LaVar Arrington.
Arrington hasn’t been healthy in two seasons, has clashed with coaches, was benched earlier this season and filed a grievance against the team (since dropped) for allegedly removing $6.5 million from his contract. At this point. LaVar will count a team-high $12 million against the cap in 2006 if released, but only $7 million if retained. If they do keep him, LaVar would likely defer some money to future years, lowering his cap number even more for 2006. This would enable Washington to sign some free agents (Reggie Wayne, perhaps). If LaVar is let go anytime before July 15, the ‘Skins would eat the $12 million but be clean in 2007.
LaVar has repeatedly demonstrated his big-play capabilities during his time with the Redskins, but his early-season benching was due to his resistance to playing within Gregg Williams’ system. LaVar has the reputation of a freelancer who often overruns plays, a big no-no in schemes were player positioning is of the utmost importance.
According to published reports, Arrington would be willing to restructure his contract to give the Redskins some additional cap flexibility. Whether this is just posturing on LaVar’s part remains to be seen, but I do think he would prefer remaining with the Redskins. Any contract he signs with another team won’t approach the money he’ll be getting if he stays in Washington, which could be the main reason for his change of stance. (Weeks ago it appeared there was no shot LaVar would return.)
Ideally, the team would renegotiate a contract with LaVar and he would return. In spite of his dislike for him, Williams has to realize the Redskins defense is better with LaVar on the field. Arrington certainly isn’t worth the money he’ll get if he stays, but the ‘Skins are getting a steal with Marcus Washington (six years, $24 million), so they can afford it.
Whatever does happen, people will claim they saw it coming all along. “He was never going to leave,” or “of course he had to go, it was obvious” will be popular stances depending on which direction the team decides to go. At the moment, it’s a mystery. I have no clue what the Washington Redskins will do with LaVar Arrington. If I had to bet, I’d say LaVar stays, mainly so the ‘Skins won’t have to stomach eating up 1/8th of their cap to a player not on the roster. But if he goes, it won’t be a shock. The problem with releasing a guy like LaVar is that he’ll be so motivated to prove the Redskins wrong he’ll sign with an NFC East team just to play them twice and end up with something like eight sacks and four interceptions in those two games. LaVar is no Kwame Brown, he can turn it on when he wants to. Hopefully he’ll want to here.

Secondary
The Redskins need depth at cornerback in a big way. Carlos Rogers should show vast improvement next season and if Shawn Springs can stay healthy, the pair will form a formidable duo at corner. Walt Harris will be fine as a nickel back, but with the injury-prone Springs, Gibbs and Vinny Cerrato need to bring another player in just in case.
Hopefully our long, local nightmare will end and Ade Jimoh won’t be re-signed, but the coaches love him on special teams, so expect to see Jimoh back in uniform blowing coverages and face-guarding against the dredges of the NFL’s receiving corps.
Aside from getting Sean Taylor some anger-management courses and hiring the writers from Prison Break to concoct an elaborate scheme to get him out of prison should he be convicted at his upcoming trial, there’s not much work to be done at safety.
Ryan Clark is hardly my favorite player, but he should be re-signed because of his familiarity with Gregg Williams system.

Special Teams
Cut punter Derrick Frost. It should have been done yesterday. Actually, it should have been done back in September, but that’s neither here not there. Frost made Kelly Goodburn look like Ray Guy. How many 17-yard punts can a team survive, particularly one with a streaky offense? The team claimed Frost was necessary because of his ability to hold for their kicker, but how hard can it be to catch a ball and put the laces out? Couldn’t a trained seal do that? Get rid of that shank-punting putz, draft All-American Ryan Plackemeier from Wake Forest or sign that guy from the CFL everybody’s been talking about.
John Hall also has to go. Anybody who gets paid $1.4 million shouldn’t be missing critical 36-yard field goals in playoff games, nor should they have lingering hamstring issues that causes them to miss five games during the season. Either find a kicker in free agency (Vanderjagt, perhaps) or bring back Nick Novak. And I wouldn’t mind firing special teams coach Danny Smith either, but since I”ve been preaching the whole “stability” thing, that would kind of be hypocritical. Just get rid of Frost and Hall and we’ll be cool, Danny.

Thursday Thoughts

- How 'bout those national championship contenders from West Virginia losing to 7-9 Marshall last night? Nothing says "threat to win the NCAA Tournament" like dropping a game to a team who has already lost to the likes of Evansville (5-13), Appalachian State (8-11), South Carolina State (5-12) and Tulsa (7-10).
The loss was particularly surprising to Mountaineers forward Kevin Pittsnogle who actually guaranteed victory before the game. Way to go out on a limb, Broadway Joe. Why is the second-best player on the #9 team in the country guaranteeing wins against sub-.500 schools? Shouldn't victory just be assumed? I mean, I realize Pittsnogle is an uneducated hillbilly, but is he that dumb where he doesn't understand why guaranteeing victory over freakin' Marshall is a ridiculous (and classless) move? Best case scenario, his prediction was correct and he just looked like an idiot for vowing his team would win a game in which it was favored by 18 points. Unfortunately, for him, he was wrong and now looks like an ever bigger idiot (and overrated doofus) for vowing his team would win a game it had no business losing.

- In March, when Florida is a #6 seed and gets upset by Old Dominion in the first round, people are going to wonder how the hell the Gators ever got to be ranked #2 in the nation.

- Do you think anybody outside Pittsburgh or Seattle would notice if they didn't play the Super Bowl this year? I've never been a fan of the two-week break before the game, but this year, said break is killing what little hype this game had.
Not that Carolina/Denver would have been a showstopper, but at least we would have had pre-game stories about Jake Plummer's mustache and Steve Smith's antics instead of Jerome Bettis' homecoming and Matt Hasslebeck's poise (and by poise I mean lack of hair). Somebody get arrested for soliciting a hooker, please! Liven this party up a bit.

- If the success of this Greek can't convince ABC to order a full-season of John Stamos' smash-hit Jake In Progress, I don't know what will.

- Well, if Stamos' show doesn't work out, maybe ABC can develop a pilot with Marcos Baghdatis' girlfriend. Let's just say she makes Maria Kirilenko look like Andrei Kirilenko.

- Michael Vick believes Virginia Tech overreacted by dismissing his brother, Marcus, from the football team. Said Vick, "this never would have happened to Roy Mexico!"

The Problem With Prosser

Even early in his career, there was never any doubt Keanu Reeves was a terrible actor. His lack of theatrical chops were on full display when he starred opposite the finest thespian of our time, Patrick Swayze, in Point Break. In the 1991 film, Reeves stared and winced his way through his portrayal of Johnny Utah and almost single-handedly sunk the seminal bank robber/surfer film of this generation. At that moment it became evident Keanu hadn't done much acting when playing Ted Logan in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Ted was Keanu. Keanu was Ted. And we, as a society, were doomed.
But even though everyone knew Keanu had less range than Manny Ramirez playing left field, he always managed to exceed those low expectations with an even worse performance in his next film. In Speed, America was supposed to believe Keanu could diffuse bombs and match-wits with a master criminal despite sporting a haircut and steely glaze that suggested he'd have difficulty crossing the street without getting hit by a taxi. After Feeling Minnesota debuted, the state had an identity crisis that resulted in the gubernatorial election of one of the bad guys from Predator. Al Pacino played Satan in Devil's Advocate, but it was Keanu that had led moviegoers into the depths of hell.
With each subsequent movie, Keanu managed to get worse. In one film it could have been his inflection on a key line, in another an ill-timed, creepy stare that ruined a pivotal moment. Either way, Keanu could do it all. He was versatile in his crappiness.
Yet today, Keanu Reeves still manages to land plumb acting roles and is a millionaire dozens of times over thanks to the inexplicable popularity of those terrible Matrix movies.
His success should be inspiring to Skip Prosser, another man who strives for greatness while toiling in the barren depths of mediocrity. Prosser's Wake Forest team dropped a must-win game last night against Florida State and now appears bound for the NIT for the first time during the coach's tenure in Winston-Salem. Just like Reeves, Prosser has enjoyed a small measure of success in spite of his tremendous failings. But his charade is almost up. It has become clear Skip Prosser is the reason Wake Forest basketball has gone from ACC contender to way off the bubble in six short weeks.
There's been a lot of rumors swirling about the future of Skip Prosser, but after last night's home loss further exposed him as the worst coach in major Division I basketball, how could any university possibly want him? This would be like hiring Ken Lay to run your new energy company.
Wake Forest has the second-most talented team in the ACC, but are second-to-last in the conference standings. Even with a stellar 2-guard and dominant big man, the Deacs have no discernible offensive gameplan. They always seem content to let the shot clock run down to 12, then try to force up a shot in double-coverage. Nobody ever moves without the ball, passing is relegated to tossing it around on the perimeter and picks are set so lazily defenders often step around them with ease.
Prosser supporters (a group which probably consists only of Skip's mother and wife - especially since my buddy Scott, the eternal Wake basketball optimist, has recently boarded the Prosser hatewagon) will say the team's apparent lack of offensive strategy is due to their penchant for running an up-tempo offense. I suppose that argument could have been made last year (unsuccessfully, since you still have to have a half-court offense for all the times you're forced to run a, gasp, half-court offense), but without a true point guard, Wake can't even be considered an up-tempo team this season. Especially when they rank 7th in the ACC in scoring offense. Every time Wake is forced to get in a half-court set they're like Chris McCray on his way to class: Lost. And that's all on Prosser.
On the rare occasions when Wake runs actual plays that work (feeding the ball inside to Eric Williams), they abandon them soon after. Williams always seems to get a quick four or six points in the middle, taking advantage of mismatches against smaller, slower defenders. Then, just when it looks like he's ready to break out for a 25/15 game, the Wake guards totally forget about him. This happens more times than you'd imagine.
Perhaps the worst part of Prosser's offense is its lack of vision. When Prosser calls a play, there never seems to be a "Plan B" should the initial call fail to work. If the main play isn't there, Wake seems lost and the possession nearly always results in a bad shot or turnover. For example: Yesterday, the coach called a ridiculous timeout on a key possession late in the second-half. After the TO, with Wake down three, they inbounded with 11 seconds on the shot clock. Prosser's play was designed to get Eric Williams a one-on-one match-up in the paint, but when FSU brought down another defender to help out, Big E panicked and quickly kicked the ball out to Michael Freakin' Drum who ran over to help out at the last second.
Watching that play, it was obvious Wake fully expected Williams to have an easy run to the basket since there was no contingency for anything else. A good coach would have called a play that would have had Justin Gray or Harvey Hale lined up behind Williams so a defender would have to leave a good shooter alone if he wanted to double-up the big man.
But Skip Prosser doesn't think about such things. He's like the chess player who only looks to make the best move at the time; never anticipating what will happen down the road.
Drum quickly turned the ball over, FSU went down the court and hit a three and the game was essentially over.
Amazingly, Wake's offense wasn't the worst part of their game last night. Defense has always been a problem for Skip Prosser teams, but it was excusable when they'd put up 90 points a game and lead the nation in rebounding margin. Without stars like Josh Howard and Chris Paul though, the Deacs can't get by with subpar defensive efforts.
Defenders are made, not born. Watch any Duke team if you disagree. Certain skills, like steals and rebounding, are instinctual, but things like playing a zone, boxing out, positioning and footwork all come from practice and coaching. It speaks volumes about Skip Prosser when Wake Forest is the worst team in the ACC at all those fundamental defensive techniques.
FSU won the game last night, in large part, to the Deacs inability to grasp those basic fundamentals. If you look at the box score you might think the 'Noles just got hot from downtown and the Deacs were powerless to stop it. But watching the game told a different story. FSU got hot because they were left wide open. On their eight first-half three-pointers, maybe one could be considered "contested".
Nobody was guarding FSU's shooters because of a defensive switch Prosser made. Early in the first-half, when the game resembled a track meet, he decided to change to a 1-3-1 zone in hopes of slowing the game down by clogging the middle and forcing FSU to work the ball around the perimeter. Like many of Prosser's ideas, this wasn't a bad one, in theory. The problem was, Wake hasn't played a 1-3-1 in ages and the players were totally unprepared to run it. Leonard Hamilton's team had no problem breaking the zone; they would throw one or two passes at the top of the key, feed the ball inside, watch Trent Strickland collapse in the middle (as he is supposed to) and then immediately kick the ball out to a wide-open player on the perimeter. After FSU ran the same exact play twice (successfully) on their first two possessions against the 1-3-1, you'd have thought Prosser would have changed up the defensive set. He didn't. The Seminoles proceeded to run, again, the same exact play five more times, each time with their shooter even more wide open than before. Trent Strickland was unable to recognize what was going on and his coaches apparently didn't either. The non-existent awareness coupled with Strickland continually biting on the lob into the middle like a rat getting electrocuted by a fake piece of cheese, led to 29 FSU first-half points. No adjustments were made until halftime and by that point, FSU already had a double-digit lead.
For the Deacs to be 1-5 is a travesty; especially when less-talented teams like UVA are 4-2 (with an, admittedly, easier schedule thus far). No other ACC school, besides Duke, has two All-ACC candidates like the Deacs and few teams in the young league are as seasoned as Wake Forest. If they could play any defense at all and run some semblance of an offense, the Deacs would be at least 4-2 in conference play. Instead, they're way off the bubble at the moment and will need a miracle (or Skip Prosser falling off the top of Wait Chapel) to get an NCAA berth.
It's no wonder Chris Paul turned pro after his sophomore season; he couldn't risk playing another year with Skip Prosser as his coach. Paul loved Wake Forest. He was a hometown hero and the most popular man in the city. College basketball is made for guys like Chris Paul. But he had to realize playing under Prosser could lower his stock and cost him millions. He had to go to the NBA, thus giving up the dream of leading his school to the Final Four.
I truly believe Paul would have stayed in Winston-Salem if he thought the Deacs could have won the National Championship this year. Luckily for him, Paul was smart enough to realize that would be impossible as long as Prosser was the coach.
Remember; Prosser didn't get to the Sweet 16 without Chris Paul, even when the Deacs were a #2 seed in their ACC Championship season of 2002.
Even with Paul, the Deacs struggled in the NCAA's. Had CP not bailed Wake Forest out with his heroics in a first-round game against VCU his freshman season, they would have had an early exit. The next round, Wake faced Manhattan and were again saved by Paul. Last season, the Deacs were down to #15 seed Chattanooga at halftime before Paul keyed a second-half run to give Wake the victory. In each of their last three NCAA Tournament wins, Chris Paul saved Skip Prosser. He couldn't afford to risk millions to do so again in his junior season.
Now, Paul is tearing up the NBA, averaging nearly 17 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds in his first season. He should be a lock for the All-Star team after leading the lowly Hornets to more wins in the first-half of this season than they had during the entire 2004/2005 year (with the same team pretty much in-tact). The Rookie of the Year Award is as good as his. Most great college players experience growing pains in the NBA. But Paul is arguably more dominant than he was in college, yet another sign of Skip Prosser's inability to harness talent.
Just 14 months ago, the Wake Forest basketball program was celebrating their first #1 ranking in school history. Now, they're fighting for their NCAA lives. When they don't make it, athletic director Ron Wellman needs to make the tough decision to get rid of Skip Prosser. He is a great recruiter, graduates most of his players and is a good man, but he's taken the Demon Deacons as far as he can. They've peaked. Few teams have ever done less with their talent than Wake did last season. This year, the talent level is down in Winston-Salem, but not so much so that the Deacs should be close to the bottom of the ACC.
It's time for Skip Prosser to go. Good riddance when he does.

The Tuesday Ten

1) How dumb do you have to be to become ineligible as a senior basketball player at a big-time university? Chris McCray is in a unique position to answer that question, becoming the first senior starter from a BCS-conference to lose his final semester of eligibility due to academics since the adoption of stricter grading rules from the NCAA three years ago. His loss is a devastating blow to Maryland's season and, with more possible suspensions on the horizon, could lead to the Terps watching the NCAA Tournament from home for the second straight season.
McCray's failure to get a 2.0 last semester is mind-boggling in many respects, but it's absurdity is compounded when you think of all the morons from Maryland's basketball program who have managed to pass classes in the past. John Gilchrist somehow stayed eligible for three years and he'll be lucky to be homeless by the end of the decade. Steve Blake, for as much as I love him, can barely string two sentences together. Nik Caner-Medley is lucky if he can get one out that doesn't refer to where he's from and how unbeatable he is. I'm not sure if Steve Francis even realized Maryland offered classes. Yet all those guys stayed eligible. Conversely, Chris McCray, in his second-to-last semester couldn't even keep a C average despite all the resources in the world to guarantee he would do just that.
With all the help and assistance athletes at big schools get, it would seem nearly impossible to fail out. These guys get help from professors, access to tutors and have coaches breathing down their necks to make sure they keep afloat academically.
Some tutors do all the work for their students. The more conscientious ones will sit down and work through every question or problem with their athlete until an assignment is done. When it's time to study for a test, the tutor usually knows exactly what to review.
For McCray to fail out, he must have not gone to any class and skipped appointments with tutors. Becoming ineligible was probably as much work for him as staying eligible.
This is nearly all McCray's fault, but Gary Williams has to share in some of the blame too. How did he, or any of his assistants, not know McCray was in academic trouble? And if they did, why didn't they do anything about it? Don't they get progress reports? Don't they talk to professors? Don't they make sure the players attend class or meet with tutors? Failing out just doesn't happen, it's a process. These days at Maryland it's apparently an ignored one.
My cousin George attributes the problems in College Park (rumors continue to swirl that McCray won't be the last Terp to become ineligible) to the departures of long-time Terp assistants Jimmy Patsos and Dave Dickerson. Those coaches, Patsos in particular, were all over the players, sometimes even walking them to class to make sure they would attend. When they left, Patsos to Loyola (MD) and Dickerson to Tulane, Williams had to hire inexperienced guys like Michael Adams and Keith Booth to join him on the bench. The results speak for themselves.
Maryland is likely done in the ACC now. McCray, while far from a star, was their most consistent player of both ends of the floor. Fan favorite Mike Jones will step in, but he's as inconsistent as he is spectacular, and the former will lead to more losses.
Maybe McCray should have had an easier major but I suppose criminal justice will serve him well when he inevitably has to defend himself at some criminal trial in the future. Remember, McCray was arrested back in August after refusing to leave the scene of a fight and then fleeing. That doesn't even make sense. Why would you refuse to leave the scene, then flee it? And at what point did the fleeing turn from a recommendation into a felony?
Officer - Mr. McCray, we're going to need you to leave the scene now.
McCray - F*** no, pig! I do like Puffy said, "can't nobody take my pride, can't nobody hold me down! Oh no. We GOTSTA keep on movin. Uh-huh, uh! Take that, take that, take that." (Mike Jones does the Mase dance in the background.)
Officer - Mr. McCray, please leave or I'm going to arrest you. I'm not asking for much, just walk away and we won't have a problem.
McCray - YOU walk away, fascist. I know my rights. I pay taxes. (Mike Jones whispers in McCray's ear.) I COULD pay taxes.
Officer - This is your last warning Mr. McCray, if you don't begin walking away, I will be forced to arrest you. I don't want to do this because it involves paperwork. You don't want to do this because it involves me arresting you for simply not taking 50 steps to the left.
McCray - Lock me up then. What, you think I can't take it? I'm a man, I ain't no boy. I'll do twenty standing on my head. You wanna give me the chair? Strap me up boss!
Officer - (Sighs as he reaches for handcuffs. Clearly put out, he slowly begins...) You have the right to remain -
McCray - Peace out, bitch! (McCray takes off, top speed, down Route 1.)

2) Wake Forest has an absolute must-win game tonight in Winston-Salem against a feisty FSU team that barely lost to North Carolina two nights ago. (That FSU has to play two games in three days is the result of poor scheduling brought on by expansion and a terrible (for the schools and fans) Sunday night TV deal with Fox. If a team is forced to play the Sunday night game on Fox Sports Net, they should have off at least until Wednesday. I mean, there's nothing we can do about John Swofford's greediness, it's already ruined the ACC forever. But at least give some breaks to teams that are forced to play the horrible TV deals you negotiate, jerk.)
The Deacs are in must-win mode after blowing a big lead at N.C. State on Saturday. Up 13 at the under-four TV timeout in the first half, soon-to-be ex-Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser pulled most of his starters so they wouldn't pick up any cheap fouls. In theory, it was an alright idea. But in execution... That's another story. Prosser's lineup was: Harvey Hale (freshman), Shamaine Dukes (freshman), Kevin Swinton (freshman), Cameron Stanley (sophomore, might as well be a freshman) and Eric Williams (senior). After it was clear Prosser's lineup would be ineffective (which, to any rational person was the moment they stepped on the floor. For Prosser, it should have been after the missed Wake dunk, three-point NCSU play, five-second call on Wake, NSCU three-pointer progression), he should have called timeout and put his starters back on the floor. Instead, he watched State end the half on a 12-4 run, cutting Wake's lead to five. After that, the game was, for all intents and purposes, over.
Of course, all of Trent Strickland's contested three-pointers shot with 29 seconds on the shot clock on huge Wake second-half possessions didn't help either. How Strickland continues to get minutes is mind-boggling. But so is Skip Prosser's existence.
(If you want to be sick (or amused, depending on your rooting interests) look at the assist-to-turnover ratios of Wake players. Seven guys have even or negative ratios, while Justin Gray has a stellar 1.1:1. Ouch.)

3) My hatred of Duke is well-documented. I think they're easily beatable this season, are getting no help from their heralded recruiting class and have the single-most overrated player in college basketball playing center for them. However, that doesn't mean they should have fallen to #2 after a hard-fought loss at Georgetown.
My hatred of college basketball polls is second only to my hatred of Duke. How, may I ask, is Boston College ahead of Maryland in the coaches poll when Maryland beat Boston College? In the same poll, how is four-loss Georgetown unranked after beating the #1 team in the nation, but five-loss Louisville is up there despite having exactly zero wins against the RPI top 75??? Are they really trying to say Louisville is the 22nd best team in the nation? Hell, they aren't even the 22nd best team in the Big East!
Anyway, Duke lost a tough one to a good Georgetown team in the last seconds. Connecticut lost to a mediocre Marquette team in the first minutes. UConn has nice wins over Gonzaga and LSU while Duke has great wins over Texas, Memphis, Indiana, Maryland and N.C. State. It kills me to say this but, at the moment, Duke is still the #1 team in the country.

4) That doesn't mean they're going to win the whole thing though. Georgetown provided the blueprint for how to beat Duke: Let J.J. Redick get his shots and points and make sure guys like Lee Melchionni and Sean Dockery don't beat you. When teams focus too much on Redick, they inevitably leave much less talented guys open on the perimeter. Even a scrub like Lee Melchionni can hit open shots, so put a body on him and force him to miss. Redick can get his 35, and he will. But concentrating too much on him makes everyone else better. Treat Redick like Melchionni and Melchionni won't turn into Redick.
Duke's other four starters are, simply put, not very good. Greg Paulus is playing like a freshman, and a mediocre one at that. Josh McRoberts has been putting in solid minutes, but is getting banged around when matched-up with bigger bodies. The combination of Melchionni, Dockery and DeMarcus Nelson can be easily handled, as Georgetown demonstrated.
Let Redick shoot and stop everyone else. It's a recipe for victory against Duke.

5) You'll notice I didn't mention Shelden Williams anywhere in the description of how to beat Duke. There's a reason for that: The most overrated player in Duke history is simply a non-factor in big games. Marco Killingsworth, Eric Williams, Cedric Simmons and the combination of Brandon Bowman, Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green all abused The Slumlord in their respective match-ups, and held Shelden to mediocre offensive numbers as well. Williams is a defensive sieve and deserves a defensive player of the year award about as much as Shaun Alexander deserved his MVP.

6) Speaking of that Georgetown-Duke game, did anyone see that dude in the wheelchair rush the court when the final buzzer sounded? The Hoya students were quick to get on the MCI Center floor after Greg Paulus turned the ball over in the final seconds of the game (so much so that two guys totally ate it on their way out) and about three seconds after the mass of students congregated at the center circle, some guy in a wheelchair came tearing down the sideline and rolled, top-speed, to mid-court where he stopped on a dime and began waving his arms madly in the air. One or two people came over to him to exchange high-fives, including one who also attempted to give him an awkward man-hug. I watched this over and over again thanks to the magic of DVR. Man, it was so awesome. Too bad he didn't run over J.J. Redick on his way out though.

7) I enjoy watching women's tennis more than most, so I tend to be a little ahead of the trends when it comes to discovering the hot new player before the MSM jumps on it. Back in 1997, when most people thought Anna Kournikova was a Tolstoy novel, I got up early to watch her play a 4th-round match at Wimbledon and called at least five people to tell them to turn on their sets to see the bouncy blonde with the cherubic face. A few years ago I did the same when Maria Sharapova was advancing at the U.S. Open. Last week I made my first "turn on the TV and check out this hot, Russian blonde" call since then; for my new tennis muse Maria Kirilenko (right). In the words of Falkow's man-crush Matthew McConaughey, "alright, alright!"

8) I really want to care about the World Baseball Classic. I really do. But if everybody is dropping out because they're afraid of getting hurt and rules are changed that compromise the integrity of the games, isn't this just a grander version of the NFL's Pro Bowl?

9) I mentioned this yesterday, but Kobe Bryant's 81 point explosion was such a much bigger story than the NFL Championship games, yet for some reason the media relegated Kobe to second banana status behind Shaun Alexander and Jerome Bettis. One more time; boring Championship games happen every year; 81 points in an NBA game happens once every 50 years. Sports Illustrated gave Shaun Alexander the cover this week and put Kobe above the banner. It should have been the other way around.

10) In his MMQB Fine 15, SI.com's Peter King ranks the New England Patriots at #4, one spot ahead of the Denver Broncos, the team that eliminated New England from the playoffs. I guess that's to be expected though... King has Louisville at #3.

Championship Game Thoughts

Back in 1921 the NFL (or American Professional Football League, as it was known then) decided its champion at league meetings instead of on the field. Those meetings were only slightly less boring than yesterday's awful championship games.
My buddy Jaffe texted me midway through the Seahawks game and succinctly summed up the day: "Two crummy games," he wrote. I can't remember the last time I, or anyone else I know, used the word crummy in any other fashion except to describe Saltines. But yesterday it was oddly fitting. The games weren't totally boring, per se. They weren't terrible. And they weren't necessarily unwatchable either. They were just crummy.
Sadly, there's a strong likelihood the Super Bowl will turn out the same way. Playing away from their cozy, acoustically-enhanced home stadium against the best defense they've seen all year, Seattle should struggle offensively against Pittsburgh and will be unable to stop Ben Roethlisberger on the other side of the ball.
Seahawks fans and ESPN analysts desperate to say something will talk-up the team's easy win over Carolina and make the incorrect assertion that this was the sign of a great time peaking at the right time. In reality, though, yesterday's game was simply the final confirmation that Carolina has been a maddeningly inconsistent squad in 2005/2006 who also happened to play their worst game of the season in their biggest game of the season.
Remember, this is a Carolina team that lost to three non-playoff clubs during the year and struggled with the likes of Green Bay, Arizona, Detroit and Buffalo (combined winning margin in those four games: 12). They also lost their third-string running back early in the game and had their star defensive lineman, Julius Peppers, rendered essentially useless by a shoulder injury.
At no point during yesterday's contest could you look at Seattle's team and think, "wow, they're really good." Beyond the no-brainer decision to lock double-coverage on Steve Smith (you hear that, Ron Rivera?), Carolina's wounds were all self-inflicted. Each of Jake Delhomme's three interceptions were of the "what the f---?!" variety and John Fox's seeming refusal to change-up his defensive schemes crippled the Panthers. (Despite 19 of Alexander's runs going left - compared to nine up the middle and just six to the right - Fox (and defensive coordinator Mike Trgovac) kept overloading the defensive left. He also continually matched-up linebackers on Jerramy Stevens, who burned Carolina for three crucial first downs and the opening touchdown of the game.) In fairness, Carolina, like Washington before them, went into Seattle beat-up and exhausted from over a month of playoff-pressure football.
Earlier in the day, Pittsburgh simply manhandled the Denver Broncos. The Steelers' pass rush forced Jake Plummer into making mistakes and Ben Roethlisberger was flawless against the vaunted Broncos secondary. Like most recent AFC Championship games, this one was decidedly unmemorable (there hasn't been a "good" AFC title game since 1996, when Pittsburgh last made it to the Super Bowl after a Hail Mary from the Colts' Jim Harbaugh's fell incomplete at Three Rivers). Only the ridiculous commentary of Phil Simms stands out (just when I think I can't hate Phil Simms any more, he opens his mouth and says something even dumber than before. At least Bill Walton knows he's a joke and embraces it. Simms thinks he's the NFL's colorman laureate.)
I'd be remiss if I didn't delve into the real reason behind Denver's loss yesterday. The efficiency of Roethlisberger, Denver's inability to get their ground attack going and Jerome Bettis' apparent deal with Touchdown Jesus all appeared to benefit Pittsburgh yesterday, but it was clear why Pittsburgh is advancing to Detroit while the Broncos are left to wonder what might have been: Mustaches, or lack thereof.
The football gods appeared to make lip-ticklers a prerequisite for Super Bowl invitees; both coaches in the big game, Bill Cowher and Mike Holmgren, adorn their face with Selleckian masterpieces. It should come as no surprise that in this, the year of face-hair in the NFL, two mustachioed men will coach on the sport's grandest stage.
If Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer had not foolishly decided back in September to fill in his beard, rendering his mustache impotent, he would likely have replaced the square-jawed Cowher as the AFC's lip-hair representative. Plummer seemed to know this before the game and seemed powerless to stop his mustache-less fate: CBS apparently took new pictures for the photos that accompany a player's statistics and personal information before the AFC Championship game. As it was Plummer's original, mustache-laden, photo (see above, top right) that started the whole "Plummer porn-stache" craze in the first place, this was deeply troubling. What was worse was that in the new photo, Plummer's beard was on full display. And instead of looking like a "porn star on angel dust", as his old photo was once described, Plummer looked pensive, almost as if he was looking off into the distance longing for the a simpler time when his mustache brought him those Samonsonin powers which enabled the Broncos season to get off to a roaring start.
Now, more than ever, it is important for Jake Plummer to bring back his mustache. After all, a bearded Jake Plummer has lost one AFC Championship game. A mustachioed Jake Plummer is undefeated.

- I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about a certain Ed Hochuli question every time the massively-gunned referee made a penalty call yesterday. But since I'd rather be a liar than cop to wondering whether that was just a kick-up of the pleats or something else entirely bulging from Hochuli's mid-section, I'll say I certainly wasn't thinking about a certain Ed Hochuli question every time the massively-gunned referee made a penalty call yesterday.

- Eighty-one points?! EIGHTY-ONE POINTS?! That's just freakin' ridiculous. That's the only way to describe it. It's unbelievable.
You realize Kobe's going to score 100 this season, right? Am I the only one who thinks this is going to happen? I can't be. Consider: The Lakers have played exactly half their schedule and Kobe has already gone for 81 (EIGHTY-ONE?!) and 62 (in three quarters). In January he is averaging 45.5 points per-game and a whopping 35.9 for the season (since Wilt retired in 1966, only Jordan has more in a season - 37.1 in 1987.) In his last 15 games, Kobe has scored in the 20's twice (the same amount of times he's gone over 60) and has gone over 40 seven times. He's gone over 50 four times during the 15 games. In contrast, there have only been four 50-point performances by the rest of the league all season.
In an up-tempo game that's close (and maybe goes to overtime), why can't Kobe drop 100? Sure, it's not likely, but up until a month ago I would have said 81 was too.
One more thing; I don't care if both Championship games were amazing yesterday; Kobe's 81 has to be the top-story on all the sports Web sites today. Teams go to the Super Bowl every year, NBA players score more than 80 points once every half-century. (Note: As of 1:00 p.m., Kobe's 81 is the top story on ESPN.com.)

Championship Game Picks... And Beyond!

Maybe it's because the Redskins lost last weekend or perhaps it's because I have no particular rooting interest in either championship game or it could be due to the fact that I'm anxiously awaiting the inevitable jailhouse call from The Wolfman (whose life unraveled following the last Bears divisional playoff blow-up in 2002), but I have absolutely zero interest in Sunday's NFL championship games.
Of course I'll watch both games and, as I detailed yesterday, it'd be sort of cool to see the Broncos win for purely selfish reasons, but I really couldn't care less about either contest. Granted, I would rather see the Panthers beat the overrated Seahawks, but it's not going to ruin my Sunday if they don't. And I like Bill Cowher, Jerome Bettis and Ben Roethlisberger, but my dislike of Mike Shanahan isn't enough to counterbalance that, so I'm rooting more for a close, exciting AFC Championship game than anything else.
It's tough to imagine both home teams losing on Sunday; Denver is one of the toughest places to play in the league, while Qwest Field gets loud as well (but is overrated as an intimidating stadium). Since the Broncos and Seahawks are a combined 18-0 at home this season, picking against them both is kind of ridiculous.
I've been picking against the Seahawks all season and want to continue that trend, but the loss of DeShaun Foster and a banged-up Julius Peppers (at best) gives Seattle a slight edge in their game against Carolina. But I picked the Panthers to win the NFC back in September, so I'm going to stick with them today.
The Seahawks defense will be eaten alive if they decide to blitz Jake Delhomme, so they'll need to come up with a different gameplan than they had against Washington. Clearly, they can't let Steve Smith do what he did against Chicago, but double-teaming him will leave the middle open for Nick Goings who, while not DeShaun Foster, is more than capable of carrying the load for Carolina.
Shaun Alexander will continue his playoff woes and Seattle will struggle playing catch-up, something they haven't had to do a lot this season. Look for a big day from Ricky Proehl too.
Pick: Carolina Panthers 35 - Seattle Seahawks 20
Like I said above, I don't think both home teams will lose this weekend, so if I could make this pick contingent on what happens in the other game I'd pick Denver if Carolina wins and Pittsburgh if Seattle should get the W. Of course, this game is on first, so this wouldn't make sense, even if it did make sense in the first place, which, of course, it does not.
The Broncos are still getting disrespected, even after man-handling the two-time defending Super Bowl champions and forcing Tom Brady into his worst big-game performance ever. (On Tuesday I asked why Brady wasn't getting ripped along with Peyton Manning for his pathetic playoff performance. Later that afternoon, the great Dr. Z did just that.)
Unlike the Seahawks, Denver has actually earned the respect they claim not to get. The Broncos played a difficult schedule and have dropped just two games since the middle of September; at the Giants (on a last-second TD) and at Kansas City.
I've been on Pittsburgh's bandwagon since that week they seemed dead in the playoff race but I'm scared by Bill Cowher's record in AFC Title games (1-4; how is this not a more-reported statistic) and by the Steelers fatigue factor (this is Pittsburgh's seventh-straight "playoff" game. Granted, the final three games of the regular season were against Minnesota, Cleveland and Detroit, but the Steelers have still been in "must-win" mode since a week before "Lazy Sunday" debuted.)
It should be close and on a neutral field I'd probably go the other way (and if Pittsburgh wins it won't be an upset), but I'm going to go with the Man of La Mustache-a and Denver.
Pick: Denver Broncos 23 - Pittsburgh Steelers 21

- I love - LOVE - the Al Saunders hiring by the Redskins. I'll get into it more next week during my third annual State of the Redskins address but will say this in anticipation of the inevitable Len Pasquarelli column which proclaims Saunders' arrival in Washington a sign that Joe Gibbs has lost it: Joe Gibbs hasn't been a success in everything he's attempted in life because he's an egomaniac. He realizes the best way to build a successful team/organization/family is by surrounding yourself with good people. During his first stint in Washington, Gibbs had Richie Pettibon, Joe Bugel, Jim Hanifan and other great coaches to work with. When he built his NASCAR team, Gibbs was new to the sport so he hired people who had been associated with racing for their whole lives. Today, Gibbs Racing has three Winston/Nextel Cup titles. As for his family, Gibbs has said he could have never put long hours into football without the love and support of his wife Pat. In all aspects of his life, Joe Gibbs has great people around him. The hiring of Al Saunders adds one more.
Do you think a coach like Bill Parcells or Bill Belichick would ever hire a guy like Saunders; an ex-head coach turned revered assistant? To egomaniacs like them and Brian Billick, bringing in Saunders would be like admitting defeat. But to Joe Gibbs, the Saunders hiring was a no-brainer. Al Saunders has presided over the NFL's best offense during the past half-decade. He will bring new schemes, formations, drills and ideas to a Redskins offense that struggled towards the end of the 2005 season.
Along with Gibbs, Don Breaux, Jack Burns, Bill Musgrave and Joe Bugel, Saunders will be part of a braintrust with over 100 combined years of NFL experience. Together, it would be foolish to believe those coaches won't have the Redskins offense at the top of the NFL next season. With that revamped O to go along with Gregg Williams' D, the Washington Redskins have to be considered among the early favorites in the NFC in 2006.

- People reach this blog via interesting Google searches all the time - you'd be amazed (and disturbed) to see how often "Shavlik Randolph naked" used to bring people to Chris's Spots Blog. (I've always worn it as a badge of honor that I'm the #1 listing for "J.J. Redick backne".) Yesterday, though, a web surfer from Michigan clinched the award for "Greatest Google Search To Get To This Page Ever". I can only imagine what sort of information said web surfer expected to find when they Googled: Is Ed Hochuli hung?

- I'm no hockey fan (and that's putting it mildly), but I have to say that Alexander Ovechkin is one of the most exciting athletes I've ever seen play live. Seriously. Every time he touched the puck last night in the Capitals-Blues game, the MCI Center buzzed with excitement. The Octagon's first period goal was routine by his standards, but beautiful nonetheless. And the 20-year old made his goal in the shootout (a great innovation for the NHL, by the way) look so routine it was easy to overlook how difficult it really was. Not that I have any clue what a difficult shootout goal looks like, but that crossover couldn't have been easy.
I'm done talking about hockey now. I think I need a shower. And a haircut. And I definitely need to get rid of this Molson Ice that suddenly appeared on my desk.

- Did anybody else see Steve Smith on PTI's "Five Good Minutes" this week? Near the end of the interview, Kornheiser asked the diminutive receiver how he was so good despite being so small. Smith gave a quick smile and said (I'm paraphrasing), "around the house my wife doesn't think I'm too small." After convincing myself Smith couldn't have meant what I think he meant, I rewound it to see if I could make any further determination as to his intended implication. After careful deliberations with The Wolfman and Falkow, we've determined Smith was, indeed, proclaiming himself to be quite Hochulian in the crotchal region.

Skip to the U (of Cincinnati)?

As the Skip Prosser-to-Cincinnati rumors have intensified from internet gossip to mainstream scuttlebutt, one person has been oddly silent about the whole affair: Skip Prosser.
The Wake Forest coach, in a unique position to confirm or deny the tale of his impending departure from Winston-Salem, has yet to comment on the situation, a curious decision that leaves his true intentions open for questioning.
Earlier this week I supported Peyton Manning's criticism of his offensive line because I thought he told the truth. Did people expect him to lie, I asked? But in Prosser's case he should lie. It's a need-to-lie situation, even if he's signed a pact with the Bearcats in blood. Prosser is still the coach at Wake Forest and is under contract for seven more seasons. More importantly, his team is in the midst of a critical ACC-stretch that will determine whether they make their sixth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance. The last thing the Deacs need is the uncertainty about their coaches future distracting them from their season.
Prosser's silence on the subject also makes recruiting more difficult. For all his faults as a coach, and there are many, Prosser is a top-notch recruiter who has scored commitment-coups by signing All-American players from North Carolina; players who, in the past, would have gone to Chapel Hill or Durham. But how effective will Prosser's sales pitch be to prospective players with these rumors floating overhead? It's one thing for a recruit to hear Prosser claim his allegiance to Wake Forest in a living room. Coaches would guarantee their first-born child to get a letter of intent, so his promises are unlikely to carry much weight during a visit. If he made a statement in a press conference that he intends to honor his contract at Wake Forest, however, it would send a message to the current players and recruits that Prosser is devoted to the Demon Deacons. Even if Prosser plans on bolting, this is a statement he has to make. Some might criticize him if he vows to stay and then leaves in April, but he has to act in the best interest of his current team right now, not his future one.
If Prosser does go, the question becomes, does his departure hurt or benefit the Wake Forest basketball program?
It's no secret I loathe Skip Prosser the coach. He had the most talented team in the country last year (yes, more talented than eventual national champs North Carolina) but couldn't even make it to the second weekend of the Tournament. Two years before, with ACC Player of the Year Josh Howard, Wake won the ACC regular season title but also failed to advance to the Sweet 16. Skip's teams have no defensive strategy and run their offense at an undisciplined, frenetic pace that works with star players (Chris Paul, Josh Howard) but suffers when the Trent Strickland's of the world have to play major minutes.
When teams force Wake into playing a half-court game the team struggles mightily, often holding the ball for twenty seconds before a guard tries (and inevitably fails) to take a defender off the dribble. Whereas great coaches like Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams can adapt their systems to their available talent, Prosser forces his talent into his system, even with players who clearly don't fit.
One of my main gripes with Skip the coach was on display last night in Wake's game against Georgia Tech. Up 27 points midway through the second-half, the Deacs began slowing the game down, a direct departure from the up-tempo play that got them ahead by such a large margin. Without a true point guard or any real offensive sets, turnovers and poor shots followed. In a seven-minute span, GT cut the lead to eight and had a chance to get it to five before Wake took back over the game, eventually winning by 15.
This type of conservative play has gotten the Deacs in trouble before (last year against West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament being the prime example), but Prosser has yet to alter his approach. Wake Forest thrives on pushing the ball; they are rendered ineffective any other way. A good coach would see this. Skip Prosser does not.
He's not all bad though. When Dave Odom brought the Demon Deacons back to national prominence after a twenty-year downturn, he did so largely with unheralded recruits like Tim Duncan, Randolph Childress and Josh Howard (McDonald's All-American Rodney Rogers was an exception). Recruiting was tough for Odom and he left Winston-Salem, in part, because he was upset with his inability to compete with Duke and UNC for blue chippers.
But Prosser proved that Wake could compete with, and even best, their Tobacco Road rivals. Eric Williams, Justin Gray and, most importantly, Chris Paul, were McDonald's All-American's from North Carolina and each was recruited heavily by the state's basketball powers. UNC, in particular, made a huge push to sign Gray. When he and Williams both signed with Prosser it sent shockwaves through the basketball community. A Prosser departure would cause the Deacs recruiting to take an immediate hit. If a good recruiter and coach is hired to fill his place, there's no reason to think it would stay that way though.
So who would replace Prosser at Wake Forest? The hot rumor has a three-way trade, of sorts, going down. Prosser would go to Cincinnati to fill the vacancy left by Bob Huggins. Huggins would, in turn, go to West Virginia to take over for John Beilein, thus giving the Mountaineers a marquee name and one capable of driving the team's graduation rate into the single digits. Beilein would then fill-out the menage-a-trois and end up in Winston-Salem. \
I'm on the fence with Beilein. Either his team overachieved last season in their run to the Elite Eight (they upset Prosser and Wake Forest in triple-OT along the way) or they underachieved all season (WVU was a #10 seed, after all). I also don't see Wake looking to a guy from West Virginia either; they tend to grab coaches from ACC schools or small, private universities like their own. Who knows how real this rumor is, but it sounds way too convenient to be anything more than a fantasy.
I hope Skip Prosser takes the job at Cincinnati and Wake Forest hires a young, talented assistant from somewhere in the ACC. It's time for a new coach to come in and teach players how to play basketball as a team, something Wake has never done under Skip. He's been great for the university and I'll wish him the best wherever he goes, but the Deacs have maxed out under his tutelage.

- You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? This one (below) is worth a thousand viewings of Funny Girl. Paulus and Dockery's rear-embrace made the back page of today's Washington Post, leading me to believe sports editor Emilio Ruiz-Garcia has the same feelings about the... preferences... of Duke players as I do.