Billy Paultz Reconsidered

I don’t have anything useful to say about Michael Jackson, but Jeff Pearlman does.
The definitive NBA draft diary. Let’s just say Simmons and I disagree dramatically about Tyreke Evans.
Matt Yglesias has a contrarian, but somewhat sensible, take on Minnesota buying point guards like they’re hamburger buns.
Because lists are good fun, here’s one man’s top 50 players […]

[Read more →]

Here’s one of three segments of the latest edition of The Low Post, in which Starkie and I compare the Lakers to the great teams and Kobe to the great players.
This is segment two, recapping the NBA Finals.
Segment three: are Eagles fans all in all just pretty darn happy with Big Red, Banner, McNabb and Co.?

[Read more →]

Ignore the inevitable claims that Sunday’s game was the best, or even one of the best, Super Bowls. XLIII was at best the third-best Supe involving the Steelers, considerably inferior to the two Dallas-Pittsburgh games, 1975 (21-17; the one where Lynn  Swann went nuts) and ‘78 (35-31, the one where Jackie Smith dropped a game-winner).
There was very […]

[Read more →]

As I said on The Low Post yesterday, Plaxico Burress is clearly an idiot. On the other hand, based on the media coverage of this you’d think Plaxico makes Pacman Jones look like Peyton Manning. Just a little over the top.
How many NFL players routinely take guns with them into clubs? Over the course of […]

[Read more →]

Don’t expect to see much about fantasy sports on this blog, but Sports Illustrated’s NFL fantasy preview last week caught my attention.
The most valuable position in real football is of course, QB, but in fantasy it’s running back. SI has Brian Westbrook ranked fourth at RB behind LaDanian Tomlinson, Adrian Peterson and Joseph Addai.
Of that […]

[Read more →]

One interesting thing about the Penn State investigation on “Outside the Lines,” was the contrast between what Joe said and what University president Graham Spanier said.
Confronted with the raw numbers - 46 players arrested since 2002, 27 of them found guilty of something - Paterno went into knee-jerk defensive mode, using the word “witchhunt,” several […]

[Read more →]

I’m now going to declare myself a pillar of naivete and gullability: I think Tom Brady is hurt.
There were a couple plays in the AFC championship game when an ankle injury to Brady could have taken place. I thought there were times after those plays when Brady’s mechanics seemed off, and an inability to push […]

[Read more →]

Yes, the game’s nine days away. But you’re better off making a pick before being bombarded with the annual nonsense. If anything, this should have come earlier, especially since it was promised yesterday.
My bad.
My read on the Patriots’ season goes something like this: They stomped out of the gate, whip-cracked by their coach, enraged by […]

[Read more →]

When Payton Manning played brilliantly but couldn’t get his team over the top in big games, the rap was that individual stuff means nothing, wins are the only thing that matters.
When Eli Manning’s team wins three straight road playoff games to get to the Super Bowl, now the wins don’t validate, and everybody wants to […]

[Read more →]

I know he thinks he’s being funny, but still: Terry Bradshaw just picked the Giants because Eli Manning has the same TD/INT ratio as Rex Grossman did a year ago.
And we’re, uh, off…
This morning it was 18 degrees and windy as I walked from a building to my car. Actually ran. It took maybe 20 […]

[Read more →]