Saturday, the expected happened. The Patriots toppled the Jaguars in a hard fought (Joe Gibbs term) battle in Foxboro. Most everyone expected that their opponent in the conference championship game would be the Colts who should’ve had no problem with the San Diego Chargers on Sunday. Most everyone was wrong when the Chargers, who lost LT in the 2nd quarter and Phillip Rivers later in the game, snuck away with a win at Indy with some solid defense and huge contributions from back-up players.

Also on Saturday, the expected happened when the Green Bay Packers dismantled the Seattle Seahawks in classic Green Bay weather, a heavy snow and plenty of cold and wind. Most everyone expected that their opponent in the conference championship game would the the Dallas Cowboys who should’ve had no problem with the New York Giants on Sunday. TO was playing, it is a home game, no problem right? Wrong, Eli Manning (of all people) had a great game with no mistakes and the defense stepped up in the 2nd half, disrupting Tony Romo greatly, and allowing only a field goal for Dallas in the 3rd quarter. New York beats Dallas, Romo is 0-2 as a quarterback in the playoffs and T.O. cries after the game:

The unexpected should always be expected in the NFL. All Norv Turner haters, myself included, are scared to find out that a Norv Turner team made it to the conference championship. In addition to this development, most Eli Manning haters are frightened that he is in a conference championship game, especially with Tom Coughlin as his head coach. Tiki Barber must be crying in his dockers pants right now that he retired because his former team, and the next season they are a game away from the Super Bowl. All of this of course means there is a tear in the fabric of the universe somewhere and we are all certainly about to die. You should be afraid. Yes, Armageddon is upon us people but first, we have 1 more round of playoffs to go before the Super Bowl.

San Diego at New England and New York at Green Bay…this doesn’t leave much drama I don’t think. With weather being a huge factor, it has got to be Green Bay vs New England, dont you think? You know this guy wants to show the kid how its done.

There was a time when Barry Bonds played second fiddle to someone on his team. No, we’re not talking about the shadow of a player Bonds is now, we’re talking in 1982 to be specific. That was when Barry Bonds and Ray McDonald were both seniors playing baseball for the Serra High School in San Mateo, California and Bonds hit .450 while McDonald hit .490 and McDonald will be happy to tell you all about it.

The great thing is, that former Girls Softball Coach of the Year and Toronto Blue Jay farmhand, Ray McDonald doesn’t hold onto the past that much. Well, ok, he does carry the official 1982 West Catholic Athletic League statistics sheet that says he hit better than Bonds that season in his pocket at every Giants game he attends…and he uses it as proof to win bets against people in the stands so that he can drink free beer…but really, he’s quite past that.

“You’d sit out in the bleachers [and] you’d bet the guy next to you a beer or something that you outhit [Bonds] in high school,” McDonald said with a laugh. “And of course it was always ‘No way!’ you know? But then you’d show him the card … and you’d have a good night”

No, Ray McDonald did not peak in high school, he might just be peaking right now…or maybe his son is.

From Washington Examiner
Photo from Jason Steinberg/Special to The Examiner

Sure, Bonds hit another home run Wednesday night to give him 757 for the year…he is still 111 home runs behind the TRUE home run champ, Sadaharu Oh. Oh is the world wide leader of home runs with 868 career homers. Thats more home runs than anyone has ever hit, anywhere on the planet (at least on record). He played in the Japanese leagues for 22 years (1959-1980) with the Yomiuri Giants and finished with a .301 batting average for his career, proving he was not just a slugger, but an amazing, overall hitter.

The truly admirable thing about Oh is that he did not need steroids or supplements or a multitude of trainers and therapists to jack those long balls. Oh used samurai physical training techniques, aikido for body balance and trained using sword slices to perfect his swing. If only Bonds worked harder, instead of finding every technological edge (ie: cheating) possible, maybe he could’ve achieved the feats that Sadaharu Oh did naturally. I guess he’ll just have to be happy with still being second best to somebody.

Source: Time Magazine

Lavar Arrington was cut today by the New York Giants. With the NFL season over it is the winter of rumor and baseless speculation. My contribution is not what the heck is going on in San Diego with the firing of Schotty, it is not how long Andy Reid will be gone taking care of his crackhead kids, no, my baseless speculation is where will Lavar go?

Is it possible that Lavar can come home to Washington? Probably not a snowball’s chance in hades in reality, but the Redskins need a linebacker and a cheap one since our salary levels are the highest in the league. Lavar will certainly be cheap after three consecutive injury plagued seasons, you can bet on that. So that is the good news. However, there are two, rather obvious, problems:

1) Did Dan Snyder, Joe Gibbs and particularly Gregg Williams burn the bridge down then terra-form the land so that no bridge was ever there to speak of in the first place in their relationship with Lavar? Translated, will Lavar want to play for the team that drafted him in his adopted home city (he still lives in the area) with his history of clashes with all three of the men in charge of the team and will they want him on their team at all anyway? He pretty much hasn’t forgiven the Redskins coaches at all for their benching and mud dragging they did of his name…can he forgive and forget? Can they?

2) Will Lavar ever really be healthy again? When healthy, Lavar is a head case, but a sensitive and generally happy one who can be productive and make the occasional spectacular play along with the occasional boneheaded one. When injured, he is a head case and a surly, unproductive one.

His last good statistical season was in 2003, also his last fully healthy one. In 2004 he was limited to 2 games due to injuries, was supposedly still hurt in 2005 while fighting with coaches over playing time due to a supposed “lack of knowledge” with the playbook , with staff over how injuries were handled and disclosed and the owner because of a missing 6.5 million in his contract, leaving him playing in 12 games and averaging about 2 less tackles (about 4 tackles/g) a game while playing. In 2006, he was on a new team, playing sparingly until he blew out his Achilles and was gone again.

Do the Redskins need him? Well, honestly, can he be any worse than the linebackers that they had last year? Warrick Holdman was marginally better than Lavar, averaging about 5 tackles a game, and Rocky McIntosh and Khary Campbell were non existent. You coulda put Lavar Burton out there and he probably could’ve done as well as those two stiffs.

So, we’ve established that Lavar is a bit of a headcase, he’s a huge injury risk, he has not been productive since 2003, he is prone to mistakes when he is productive but can also make a spectacular play, and he hates the ownership that drafted him and coaching staff that got rid of him. Doesn’t really look good for Lavar rejoining the team…except for one thing…

The fans of the Washington Redskins love Lavar Arrington! The area would love to have Lavar back, I know I would. Its not often that Washington DC accepts and welcomes an athlete into the city since most come here past their primes and/or only for a paycheck (see: Michael Jordan, Deion Sanders, etc.). I mean, it took three years for Agent Zero to be accepted and Clinton Portis had to dress up in costumes to get the respect he deserves here.

If bygones could be bygones and Lavar could accept a minimum contract that is full of incentives and if ownership would for ONCE listen to their fans, Lavar could come home and at worst be the personal punt protector like Adam Archuletta last year. Bring Lavar home i say!

I mean, his face still adorns the Easterns Motors commercial that broadcasts all over the Washington/Baltimore area for cryin’ out loud! We need him back for this reason alone. I want more commercials like this!