Sports

The cliché “Cinderella team” is used too often in sports to describe a team that surprises many people by their success or come from behind efforts. George Mason during the 2006 Final Four and the Tampa Bay Rays in last October’s World Series are teams that have received this tag in recent years. It is hard to believe that only four weeks the Cardinals were underdogs at home against the Atlanta Falcons going in to Wild Card weekend; they are far from a team that came out of the middle of nowhere and go deep in the playoffs. While their success has been unexpected, it is far from a historic run. After all the Cardinals were 7-3 at one point during the season and were seen as a potential Super Bowl dark horse. They have a high scoring offense lead by MVP candidate Kurt Warner, two Pro Bowl receivers in Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, in addition to four time Pro Bowl running back Edgerrin James. They won their first division title since 1975, at that time they were playing in St.Louis at Busch Stadium.

Their 9-7 seemed unconvincing after they won 2 of their last 6 regular season games, including a 48-20 loss on Thanksgiving in Philadelphia and a 47-7 beating from the New England Patriots during a snowy Week 16 game in Foxborough. Even after their 30-24 win against the Falcons for only their third playoff win in franchise history, their chances seemed dim at winning again for this season. They won their next game 33-13 in Charlotte against the Panthers, after surrendering a touchdown to Panthers running back Deangelo Williams on the game’s the opening drive. They scored 24 points in the first half of the NFC title game against Philadelphia, including 3 touchdowns from Larry Fitzgerald. While the offense lit up the score board early, they almost blew an 18 point halftime lead to the Eagles in the fourth quarter. Warner was able to lead his team back from 25-24 deficit and in doing so the Cardinals became the first 9-7 team to make the Big Game since the 1979 Los Angeles Rams. Those Rams lost 31-19 to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XIV. That same franchise will be the Cardinal’s opponent this Sunday. The Pittsburgh Steelers are a 7 point favorite and their will likely be more Terrible Towels in Raymond James Stadium than red and white. However, no doubt should be given to the Cardinals based on their success in the last three games. In their three playoff wins the Cardinals showed how potent their offense can be, but they also proved their dense won’t be a hindrance on their Super Bowl chances.

Pittsburgh showed during their first 18 games why their favored by a touchdown. They still have 15 starters from their team that won the Super Bowl three years ago. Their defense led by defensive player of the year James Harrison and All-Pro safety Troy Polamalu led the league in countless defensive categories, and is clearly a level above the Cardinal’s defense. It’s also being raved as possibly the best Pittsburgh defense ever. They will likely give Kurt Warner problems all day, but I have a hard time comparing them to the 1970’s version Steel Curtain that had four Hall of Fame players. However the defense is on par to teams that won recent Super Bowls with strong defenses such as the 2000 Baltimore Ravens and 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

A “Cinderella” team gets by on luck, some lackluster play from their favored opponents, and is still viewed as having no chance heading in to their next game. Going in to last year’s Super Bowl the New York Giants were seen as a team that filled that description. The 18-0 New England Patriots were 12 points favorites and there was little doubt they would become the first unbeaten NFL team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins. New York upset Tom Brady’s team 17-14, in what may be the biggest upset in Super Bowl history. It completed a run of “Cinderella” proportions because they beat a team that was being hyped as the best ever. That was similar to North Carolina State beating Houston’s Phi Slama Jama team in the 1983 Final Four or the Texas Longhorns beating the USC Trojans in the 2006 Rose Bowl. If the Cardinals win Sunday it will only be an upset from the perspective of the greater Pittsburgh area and the odds makers, not in the context of David vs. Goliath.

I had to drop a line about how mad I am that the Ricky Hatton vs. Manny Pacquiao fight is off.

Many of you may know that I’m a huge boxing fan and mainly support my boy Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton. This had the billing for fight of the year, hands down. Pacquiao turned down a 50-50 split for the fight which was a bargain on his part anyways. Before you give me the “Manny’s the #1 fighter” crap, that’s not how revenue is generated. Hatton has one of the biggest followings in the world and more importantly, his fans don’t come from a 3rd world country, the Philippines. The Brit’s would probably make up 2/3rds of the paying audience in this fight.

Hatton has a couple of other fighters lined up, but lets be honest, none have the implications of fighting Manny Pacquiao. It’s been rumored that Floyd Mayweather would take on the winner of that fight in what could be the fight of the century. Ricky would relish the chance at a rematch (that would most likely take place in Manchester) and a fight with Pacquiao would be two of the fastest fighters of all time.

Lets hope Pacquiao can get it together to make boxing history.

In other boxing news, Sugar Shane Mosley will take on Antonio Margarito this weekend on HBO. This fight is guaranteed to be a bloodbath. Mosley is a quick, technically sound fighter while Margarito is a heavy hitting wild man (his nickname is the Tijuana Tornado). Margarito won’t back down until he’s on the canvas or won the fight but Mosley has never been knocked out. The two have one common opponent in Miguel Cotto. Mosley lost via unanimous decision whilst Margarito knocked Cotto out.

I’ve gotta go with Margarito in this fight after watching him brutally beat up Cotto. His power will be too much for Mosley to handle. My prediction: Margarito in the 10th round handing Mosley his first knockout.

Well, it has certainly been a long break since a blog update, but with 2009 in full swing now I promise that will change.

With that in mind, I will try to summarize some things that have caught my attention (in no particular order):

1) The Yankees Free- Agent Spending Spree:

So has anyone told the Yankees that the country is currently in an economic recession? After spending nearly$424 million dollars in contracts (with the signings of SP CC Sabathia, SP A.J. Burnett and 1B Mark Teixeira) , the Yankees now have the FOUR HIGHEST PAID Players in baseball (Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira).

Now, I understand that the Yankees had some money to spend, considering $88.5 million came off the books when OF Bobby Abreu ($16 million), Jason Giambi ($23.4 million), Mike Mussina ($11 million) and Carl Pavano ($11 million) among others became free agents. However, considering how prudent some of the other big market teams that also have money to spend have been this offseason, clearly moving into the brand-new Yankee Stadium next season has made the Yankees, for a lack of a better term, “recession-proof”.

It is news like this that always brings up the great debate of whether or not MLB should adopt a hard salary cap like some of the other professional sports. On one hand, one can make the argument that we live in a capitalistic society and that if you have the money to spend, nothing should stop you from doing so. On the other side of things, you can point to the NFL’s implentation of the hard salary cap in 1994 and its immediate rise to the top of the sports world in the US in just 10 years.

2) UGA’s 24-12 Capital One Bowl Victory over Michigan State:

The game was not pretty at times, but considering that has been the common mantra for the 2008 Bulldogs it was only fitting that it was fitting that the Dawgs ended their season on that kind of note. Clearly UGA was the better 9-3 team last Thursday afternoon, but due to the usual culprits(7 penalties for 53 yards and 2 turnovers) Georgia made the game a whole lot closer than it should have been.

Regardless, a win is a win and it was great to see the defense (six sacks and holding MSU to only 236 yards of offense and 12 points) and Matthew Stafford (20-31 250 yds and 3 TDs in perhaps his final game as Bulldog) end the season on a high note. Unfortunately, Senior WR Mohamed Massaquoi ( 1 catch 10 yds) and potentially NFL-bound RB Knowshon Moreno (23 carries for just 62 yds, though did have 6 catches for 63 yds and a game-icing TD late in the 4th quarter) did not have the kind of performances they would have liked, certainly they must be happy that the team rebounded from the surprising loss to Georgia Tech to cap the end of the regular season and finished the year with 10 wins for the 6th time in the last 7 seasons.

3) The Red Hot Atlanta Hawks:

Like the Falcons, for those of you who are not aware, the Atlanta Hawks are back. At 22-11, they have the 4th best record in the Eastern Conference and have the 6th best record in the NBA. They are off to their best start since the strike-shortened 1998-1999 season and with such a young nucleus, the future appears to be very bright for an organization that for the better part of a decade had been used as a model of how to not run a sports organization.

With the Falcons and Bulldogs football seasons coming to a close and with the Atlanta Thrashers (13-22-5 and having the 2nd worst record in the NHL) struggling mightily after winning their division for the first time in the franchise’s history just two years ago, we will continue to give more exposure to the surging Hawks.

4) The Playoff-Bound Atlanta Falcons:

Yes, I know that they lost on Saturday to the Arizona Cardinals, so technically they are no longer playoff bound anymore as the season is over, but again I am trying my best to recap a month’s worth of news here so give me a break!

Anyways, at 11-5, the Falcons made their 9th trip to the postseason in franchise history. What an unbelievable season, by far the biggest surprise in Atlanta sports since the worst to first 1991 Braves. Pro football is alive and well again in Atlanta and while it was a very brief run in the playoffs, like the Hawks, the Falcons seem primed for their best days laying ahead.

Next year will be a critical step for the organization, as the Falcons attempt to have back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in franchise history. Now, while I consider myself an optimist, I truly believe that the pieces are in place, with a young roster and a solid coaching staff that is backed by a front office that has been solidified by new GM, Thomas Dimitroff.

5) Utah Utes: Undefeated National Champions?

After their surprising Sugar Bowl victory over #4 Alabama, 31-17, at 13-0 the Utes will finish the season as the only undefeated team. Now, some might question their schedule, but to play devil’s advocate (because I truly believe that you can make the National Champion argument for USC, Texas if they win tonight and the winner of Oklahoma-UF on Thursday) they will have beaten #4 Alabama, #11 TCU (who will finish as another Top 10 team), #17 BYU and #24 Oregon State.

To put that in perspective, even if UF beats #1 Oklahoma they would have only won three games against Top 25 teams in the final polls: #1 Oklahoma, #4 Alabama and #15 (BCS Ranking) UGA. With a win against Florida, Oklahoma would have beaten 6 teams ranked in the Top 25: #2 UF, #8 Texas Tech, #11 TCU, #12 Cincinnati, #13 Oklahoma State and #25 Missouri.

I have said it time and time again, but it is time for a playoff system. It will never happen (at least not in the immediate future), but the incompetence of our current system is very frustrating. The first three BCS games’ average victory margin is 13.67 pts and it wasn’t pretty last year either (20 pts).

Finally, on Thursday night, as tempted as you may be now that Alabama lost, DO NOT root for Florida. It really does not make any sense to root for arguably your most hated rival. Forget all of that ” Well they are in the SEC, so we ought to root for them” crap. Instead of ranting on and on about why you are wrong to do so, I will let the guys over at the Georgia Sports Blog “educate” those of you who are delusional to root for Florida: http://georgiasports.blogspot.com/2008/12/enemy-of-my-enemy.html