My Christmas Wish List

Dear Santa,

I've been reasonably good, as far as you know, this year.

I have so few needs and wants in life, this list should be pretty easy to accomodate so let's focus on me for a bit.

What I want for Christmas:

- Some pride in Oakland Raider football. Being the first team in history to lose 11 games (or more) in six straight seasons hurts more than the time I got kicked in the cookies during a pickup basketball game in my late-teens and had to go to the doctor with a bruised left testicle.

.Sadly, that is a true story.

.- A Stanley Cup championship for the Boston Bruins. We can put this one on lay-a-way until June, 2009, I'm good with that. This hasn't happened since before I knew about hockey so in my view, it hasn't happened. Cheering home Raymond Bourque in the 2001 final with the Avs was okay, but not quite the real thing.

- A national championship for Tyler Hansbrough. The dude deserves it.

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-A 7-0 mark for the Big 12 in the college bowl season, it'll validate my talk thru the year that the Big 12 was far and away the best conference in college football this season.

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- More radio guys like ESPN's Colin Cowherd. The best on the radio, this guy has game. Mixing brutal honesty with great humor, his show is a can't-miss to the point where it makes you want to sit in your car on your lunch hour and listen in, which I do.

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- Spoiled athletes to respect their jobs and the opportunity afforded to them.

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- Someone to explain to me how the Yankees could sign CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and still have the intestinal fortitude to ask for increased public funds to build their version of the Taj Mahal.

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- A Brett Favre Super Bowl berth - Hey Packer brass...........I told you so!

Besides, and it pains me to say this, the long-suffering J-E-T-S, Jets! Jets! Jets! fans deserve it. When a 9-7 season gives you joy, even the Jets fans should enjoy the spotlight not seen since Joe Willie White Shoes guaranteed Super Bowl III.

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-The Dallas Cowboys to miss the playoffs.

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- Terrell Owens to keep talking. It'll help with the above point and continue to make Jerry Jones look like a tool for enabling self-egrandising stars who put themselves over their teams.

- A BCS Playoff. It help rid the world of whiners like Texas coach Mack Brown, who seems to think he can still politic his way into the BCS title game.
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Dude.....stop pointing to the head-to-head issue with Oklahoma. Texas Tech has the same record, in the same division, as you and the Sooners. That is what is called a 3-way tie and the Red Raiders beat you. 'Nuff said. Now, get ready for Ohio State as I'm taking the Longhorns high on my list in my college footbal bowl pool.

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-Finally.......the obligatory peace on earth and goodwill to most of mankind and all that stuff.

There you go Santa......not toooooo unreasonable, don't ya think? Let's see if we can get to work and make these things happen.

After all, I deserve it.

Shooting Youself in the Foot....errrr Leg

Life isn't fair sometimes.

That's the way it goes, deal with it.

Should athletes (or people in the public eye, in general) have to worry about being asked for autographs, pictures, or face harassment from over-served patrons in clubs?

The answer should be no.

But it isn't, and that is the reality of it all. It is part of the "deal" that you make with society.

In the case of pro athletes, they are paid gobs of cash to play a game. Along with the green comes a certain sacrifice of privacy. They are recognizable figures in the community in which they play.

It comes with the package that includes large salaries.

If I want to go out for a cold beverage, I can do that. Nobody knows me, nobody cares.

If a star NFL player wants to go out, he'll be a focus of where he is going. Sorry, welcome to reality.

Posses are nice, bodyguards are good too (except for Pacman Jones). Worried about a DUI charge? Get a limo (didn't help Darrent Williams). Ask Jacksonville Jaguar lineman Richard Collier what happens when you simply mind your own business.

Simply put, not a whole lot of good happens after midnight when you are out on the town. Not when your livelihood is at stake. That is the trade off here.......money, fame, adulation, more money, groupies, cars, and trouble.

For some, guns are included on that list. For most, guns are a form of protection, unless, reportedly, you are Plaxico Burress....we'll deal with the allegedly potential felony charges later.

For others, it is a magnet for trouble.

If you need a gun to go out and protect yourself, perhaps you should go somewhere else or simply stay home. Staying home cost Redskin safety Sean Taylor his life, but that is the exception to the rule.

Is it fair ? No, not even close.

But that is the way it is, deal with it.

Stop Whining

With a three-way tie in the Big 12 South now official, the division title will be left to the fifth tiebreaker which is BCS rank.

When the rankings come out later today, expect Oklahoma to jump Texas in the computer polls based on its 61-41 win over Oklahoma State. The strength of schedule matters in this case.

Texas fans are already groaning about the mere possibility of their beloved Longhorns being passed by Oklahoma.

True, Texas beat Oklahoma 45-35 on a neutral field in October. I'll give them that one.

However, this is a three team tie we are dealing with.

For Texas to cry fowl is ridiculous. Texas Tech beat Texas and they only have one loss. Why Texas fans, is your club more deserving than the team that beat you and has the same record?

I don't care that the game was in Lubbock and you lost on the final play. A loss is a loss. If the argument is that Texas is more deserving than OU, then finish the statement with the opinion that Texas Tech deserves it more than yourselves.

Then the discussion can turn to OU's beatdown of Texas Tech eight days ago. And around and around we go.

The eventual tiebreaker stinks, but so does the whole system.

Sorry, Charlie

Dude, you took a Ty Willingham-recruited team to within 10 seconds of upsetting a great USC team in 2005 and they were ready to nominate you for Pope.

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Now, with the players you recruited and a much softer schedule, the Fighting Irish ain't getting it done. More importantly, the *****-star recruits aren't getting better under your watch.

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Forget the USC loss, as ugly as it was. The Irish lost, at home, on senior day, to Syracuse. It doesn't get any lower than that - until you consider the players were pelted by snowballs from their own student body.

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Period.
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It is time for a change in South Bend

My New Second-Favorite Team (For this week)

On behalf of college football fans everywhere, I'd like to take this time to give

a big shout-out to the Iowa Hawkeyes for sparing the nation the horror of watching another overrated Big 10 football team play in the BCS championship game.

For those who don't know, Iowa beat Penn State 24-23 Saturday, giving the Nittany Lions their first loss of the season and basically ensuring the Big 10 will not have a team in the BCS title game.

THANK YOU!

For years, the Big 10 has been the most overrated entitly in all of sports.

What you have is pretty simple....a bunch of evenly matched teams that can compete amongst themselves because they are incredibly average. Put the Big 10 boys on the national stage and they'd get buried.

Penn State is a nice football team that is having a fine season. I won't take that away from them. But, they'd have had zero chance of beating the SEC or Big 12 champion in the national title game. If they had to play the schedules of the SEC or Big 12, they'd be a 6-6 club.

People can rip on Texas Tech's non-conference schedule and be absolutely correct. Playing Eastern Washington, Nevada, SMU, and UMASS is a joke. However, if the Red Raiders run the table and head to Miami, they will have beaten Texas, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and Missour (Big 12 title game).

If you put any of those teams in the Big 10, they'd run the table and go unbeaten.

Penn State's non-conference schedule consisted of Coastal Carolina, Oregon State (home), Syracuse and Temple. That schedule is an insult to humanity. I could excuse it if they had a few decent opponents in their conference, but they don't.

Ohio State? One big game this year and they got gashed by USC.

Speaking of USC, they'll most likely be waiting in the Rose Bowl for Penn State - if JoePa's crew can rebound and win out to claim the conference title. If that happens, the Trojans will bury them.