My4Albany

A few items for you to ponder over this first weekend of August:

Who the hell does Yao Ming think he is? Where does this guy get off commenting on the lack of chemistry that's going to be caused by the Houston Rockets adding Ron Artest? Artest is exactly what this team needs - a guy with some passion who isn't afraid to play physical.

First of all, Yao is not a team leader and therefore has no business speaking-out on anything the front office does. And. he's one of the softest players in the league. Instead of criticizing Artest (who hasn't always been an angel, I'll admit)  Yao should just shut-up and learn a thing or two from watching Artest. 

It's humorous how Brett Favre, "Mr. Wonderful" single-handedly continues to destroy a once proud football organization. The Packers are the laughing stock of sports, and it's all because this selffish egomanic. If I'm a Packers fan I'm praying that Vince Lombardi come back from the dead (because there's no one right now in the Green Bay organization with any guts to say what needs to be said) and kick some ass.

Angels - Cubs World Series? There's still two months to go before the playoffs but you'd have to say these are clearly the two best teams in baseball right now. And, once again, baseball's "separation of rich and poor" reared it's ugly head this week with all these trade deadline deals.

Let's see: which were the teams that were the most active? Chicago (both), the Yankees, the Red Sox, and LA (both). MLB continues to be a have and have-not sport. And while it's "cute" when occassionally a Tampa Bay or Minnesota jumps up and joins a pennant race, the bottom line is - the teams with the highest payrolls and deepest pockets will ALWAYS win in the end. And, until there is a legitimate salary cap system and revenue sharing that will never change. 

Can't we all just get along?

Apparently not. Recently, a day hasn't gone by when there hasn't been some sort of brawl, scrum, physical confrontation front and center in the sports world. Opponents, teammates, it really doesn't matter. It's all about getting it on.

Maybe we get this every year at this time (the heat of the summer and all of that) but I don't ever remember it being this bad. And it's not just the guys. From Danica Patrick in the pits, mixing-it-up verbally with a fellow, non-fellow driver or that WNBA melee, women are getting into their fair share of exchanges as well.

To what can we blame this rash of rash behavior? Well, I think a couple of things. First of all, I truly believe that this kind of activity has been going on forever, since the cavemen held their first rock-throwing contest. What's different today is that there are cameras EVERYWHERE, so everything is captured on video, and then replayed over and over again. What Steve Smith did to teammate Ken Lucas the other day at Carolina Panthers training camp, sucker-punching him in the face, breaking his nose, isn't new. It's just in the old days it wasn't NEWS. Players shoving each other in the dugout? No big deal. Unless it's caught on camera, which last night's Cecil Fielder incident was. Now it's the lead story on every sports highlight show in the country.

The other reason for the increase in short tempers in sports in the pressure to win. There is so much on the line (and by that I mean, of course, money) these days, much more than in the past, that the stress felt by athletes is expodentially greater than ever before. 20-30 years ago players competed for pride. Now they're competiting for a contract extention. And when it comes down to $$$, the fuses are going to be a lot shorter.

So don't expect this trend of bad behavior among athletes to go away any time soon. It won't be long before it will be odd when we have a day in sports when teir ISN'T a brawl among players.

Sportsmanship? Patience? Tollerance? They'll always be around, just a little harder to find.

Calm down, Jets fans. While the prospect of having Brett Favre as your quarterback this season might sound great now, (especially considering your alternatives), trust me...in a month or two this giddiness your experiencing will be replaced by the usual feelings of dread and depression.

Contrary to what you may be feeling and what many in the national media are spewing Brett Favre does not make the Jets a playoff team. He doesn't.  While he had a suprisingly good season, statistically, last year, Favre has very little left in the tank. And that was with the prospect of playing in an organization and system that he knew inside out, and veteran players that he had chemistry with.

In New York he has none of that. Instead it's new system, new players, new coaches, new environment. Name me the last veteran player, future Hall of Famer, who jumped to a new team at the tail end of his career and flourished. Never happens.

Here's how the Brett Favre Era with the Jets will play-out:

a) It lasts one season. If this guy was unsure about returning to the Packers each of the last 4 off-seasons...there is no scenario in which he decides to come back to the Jets for 2009.

b) Favre will throw more interceptions than TD passes this season. The Jets have a tough schedule and no one will take them for granted with all the attention that will be on Favre each and every game.

c) The Jets...at best...wil go 8-8...but I see 6-10 as the more likely record.

d) Alan Faneca or no Alan Faneva, that offensive line is still a problem...and so Favre's consecutive games played streak likely could come to an end...or maybe the more reasonable scenario is that he gets hurt...and then retires.

Good news...after being insignificant for so many seasons...this move puts the Jets back on the NFL map. The bad news: most of the attention will be because Favre will be a bust in NY, and will leave the Jets right back where they were before, with no real plan at the quarterback position. 

Try as I might I can't avoid hearing about Michael Phelps. I've even caught a glimpse or two of Phelps in action. And that, in small doses, is the best way to watch these Olympics. The problem is: in order to see the good stuff, you're forced to watch the filler events and the feature stories that, frankly, I couldn't care less about.

My rule of thumb when it comes to the Olympics has always been: if the event was going on across the street from my house, and I could watch it for free, would I go. And I challenge others to use this as a guideline as well. If the answer is YES, then, by all means, spend a beautiful summer evening in front of your TV instead of outside taking a walk or playing with your kids. But, if the answer id NO, then what in the world are you doing glued to the set, engrossed in beach volleyball or archery?

Some will argue that, in supporting the games, they're supporting our country, showing patriotism. And this is one of the main reasons that I am anti-Olympics: it's not about sports, the competition, it's about Nationalism - "our country is better than your country", which should never play a role in true, athletic competition.

If the Olympics were a 2-week tournament, involving the best athletes in the world competiting in a variety of sports, it would be a beautiful thing and I'd be it's biggest supporter. But that's not what the modern Olympic Games have evolved into (and maybe they never were that simple and pure). 

Too much politics. Too many commercials. Not enough sports. Which is a shame, because the few events that actually are worth watching take a back seat to the hype, the fluff and the homerism. 

Giants fans...it's going to get ugly.

I encourage you to have your DVD copies of last season loaded and ready because there are going to be a lot of Sunday nights this fall and winter when you're going to relive the glory of the past instead of dealing with the grim reality of the present.

The cold, hard truth of the NFL is that ther football gods don't smile upon you two years in a row. The Giants, somehow, were able to combine lady luck, good fortune and some amazing bounces of the ball into a Super Bowl championship. FLUKE is the only way to describe it.

Well, flukes are extremely rare in the NFL. And they never happen to the same team two years in a row. We've already begun to get a taste of what's in store for the Giants this season with the loss of Osi Umenyiora. Now Strahan won't return, which is actually a good thing for the Giants since Strahan had mentally shut it down a few years back.

And there's more to come. It's inevibible. In fact, unless the Redskins quarterback situation remains a problem for them all season, the Giants will finish LAST in the NFC East. And why not? Talent-wise they certainly are 3rd/4th in the division. And everyone will be gunning for them. And Tom Coughlin hasn't all of a sudden become a good NFL head coach. And Eli hasn't all of a sudden turned into a above-average NFL quarterback.

Winning, no matter how it happens, can hide warts. The Giants have plenty of warts and the will be exposed for all the world to see this season.

A new college football season is here! And while I won't be so presumptious as to tell you, in the final week of August, which team (USC) is going to win the National Championship (USC) in January (USC) and CAN tell you which teams aren't:

1) Georgia. Forget it. First of all, the pre-season # 1 never wins it all. Secondly, a brutal schedule. Finally, too many issues, on and off the field. The Dawgs won't be dogs...but they won't be champs either.

2) Ohio State. Enough said. The Buckeyes have this thing about winning their biggest game of the year - they CAN'T DO IT! They may run through the Big 10, but will find a way to choke at just the wrong time.

3) West Virginia, 4) Oklahoma, 5) Missouri. All getting pre-season hype. Alll very good. All will find a way to lose to an inferior opponent which is death, especially if that loss is late in the season.

So there's 5 teams that won't win it. As for your champ (USC), I don't want to spoil what should be another great season by handing out the trophy right now. Sit back and enjoy the action.