What a great super bowl game that was. I can’t imagine anyone in the country not watching that game and being excited all the way into the 4th quarter. By the way, Roger Daltrey was horrible and needs to hang em up. Halftime since Janet Jackson has really gone downhill but that’s for another day.

With the Colts driving and a 3rd and 5 the Saints sent every linebacker they had and the Colts picked up the blitz really well. Manning had a short route to Reggie Wayne jumped by the db and the game was over. What fan of football didn’t leap off the couch right then and start saying “the Saints are actually going to win the game”. Up until then I didn’t buy into it just yet. I assumed Manning would score and tie the game like most of you did also. That interception changed everything and made that player NEVER have to buy a drink in New Orleans again. I wonder if he knew he made history as he was running for the end zone.

I lost my pool. Sure I picked the Saints to win because of the point spread at 5.5 for the Colts but I ended up in 3rd place and very sad about it. I guessed the point totals would be closer to 65 because I thought the Colts would actuallly be able to score points. Oh well, I’ll take a Saints win and a pool loss anyday. What a great day for the city of New Orleans and for the NFL in general.

I watch a lot of college football and love the game. I love the passion associated and how intense each player is because the pro game is different and it should be. As they say, the college game is about the name on the front while the pro game is about the name on the back.

When players come from high school to college they are evaluated and then from college to pro. Many times players are offered scholarships based on tools alone meaning they are fast, quick, strong armed, big…just the tools. Other players are offered because they are simply good players that dont’ grade out so well if you were to see how high they could jump or how fast they could run.

In the pro game it is the same. Each year we have a combine where players go and run and jump and throw and it is a tools showcase where athletes really shine and really help their draft status or hurt it by not performing well.

I’m still undecided what I want more tools or players. The hope with the tools players is that they will get it and some do. The NFL and collegiate ranks are loaded with players who are both. Where my issue is players who have only tools and it takes away from the fact that they aren’t great football players or they be afraid of contact or can’t figure out offense or defense. These things bother me. I want football players who understand the game and aren’t afraid. I will take those kids all day long and I’d rather risk a scholarship or a draft pick on a kid like that over a questionable 5 star recruit or anyone the Detroit Lions have taken for the past 10 years.

What a great day for so many kids around the country as they put their signatures on a letter of intent and celebrate school being paid for. I love it. When I signed with Utah out of high school we had a number of other athletes at our school signing at the same time. Russ Millard signed with Iowa basketball and another player signed with Air Force. We were all so excited at the time about what was ahead of us but only one of us went to the school we signed with.

My point is that these kids have plenty of time and opportunity to make good solid choices but like in life, things change. A great number of players that committed today will never play a down for the school they signed with. A number of players that signed today will never play a down of college football even. Life brings about uncertainty and that is the only thing certain about life.

I don’t hide that I’m an Illinois fan and they had a marginal recruiting class this year by most standards but I’m still just as excited for those kids coming in. I’m looking forward to a new crop of players starting up in the spring and following their every move. Fans are fans and though we’d all like each kid to be a 5 star talent we still love our programs unconditionally.

Good luck to all the players who signed today and I hope college football and college in general gets you everything you want.

I actually really liked the Pro Bowl taking place a week before the super bowl and I think I’m not alone. I have always hated the fact that it was 2 weeks before the big game and we had to suffer through no football for a week until the Super Bowl hit. Not anymore and it was a success. I’m not saying that I watch every play but it does give you something to do on a sunday night and it honestly scratched the football itch that i felt all day. I hope it sticks.

Some argue that we missed out on Peyton Manning and Drew Brees but we didn’t really. The game ended 41-34 with no major injuries being sustained which is great news. I couldn’t care less if Peyton or Drew are playing in reality because the game means nothing. It is like the NBA all star game where there is a lack of typical passion and aggression so not having those guys didn’t lessen my experience at all because I just wanted to watch football. I even missed when NFL europe left because it was football.

I hope it sticks because it was a great success and a great lead in to the Super Bowl.

What a great matchup. The top 2 vote getters for MVP and the best quarterbacks in football right now match up in the Super bowl. I love it and I expect it to be a great game.

The Colts have to be the favorites here with the experience they have and the Qb who has been there before. I think the Saints will win and I’ll tell you why: The Saints are used to this position and they like it.

When did the Saints start losing games this season? It was when everyone started talking like they were going to be undefeated and were this great team. They don’t like that role. The Saints are best when they are expected to lose and underperform and Drew Brees is the leader of this type of team. He’ll feed his guys constantly with underdog talk until they have bought in completely that everyone thinks the game shouldn’t be played. He’ll feed his defense with how great Manning is and how they don’t belong on the same field. Truly great athletes typically respond best to challenging or negative criticism and this will be on full display in a couple weeks. We are going to watch an angry Saints team come to play and be fully prepared for what they will get and they are going to use that anger the whole game.

Sean Payton will have a game plan and the city of New Orleans will continue to inspire through their adopted son Drew Brees. I see the Saints winning a close game.

In the end we could all sense it was coming. I imagine his teammates felt the same way also, but as Favre rolled out and refused to run you could sense that the play was going to go bad for the Vikings. I’ve watched Jay Cutler roll out all year long and Favre had that same presence about him. This sounds bad but at that exact moment I said “here comes the pick” and it happened. It was perfect Favre.

For all the good Brett Favre has done throughout his career and all the amazing plays we are all not astonished at all when he throws interceptions on plays he shouldn’t make. This was no different and just like a couple seasons ago, Favre had his season end on an interception and now the talk will start up again.

I’ll give the man credit because he is an amazing athlete and competitor and he does things at 40 that are incredible. He can still throw the ball as hard as anyone and was 1 bad pass away from another super bowl run. However, in the end 20 years of experience wasn’t enough to overcome the same stubborness that makes Favre who he is. He couldn’t help but throw the ball and as a result the Saints couldn’t not intercept it. It was perfect.

This game is going to be very exciting and I think very high scoring. Both teams are prone to give up big plays and both teams are very capable of making big plays. On one hand you have Brett Favre and the other you have Drew Brees. Everyone, including myself, seems to be waiting for Brett Favre to implode and have a 3-4 interception game and this could be the one. It seems when he gets down or behind in years past he has tried to score 21 points in one possession and it doesn’t work well. Favre is one of the best qb’s ever and deserves all the praise for this season but we have a long history of viewing his playoff failures and we sense one is coming.

Who knows? Maybe Brees is the one who will choke and give the Vikings the win but at home in front of a loud loud crowd will only help the Saints and give them a great advantage. If the Vikings win this one it will be because they deserved it and really took it from the Saints. I will say that the more the Vikings pass the ball and stop the clock the tougher the game will get for them. They need to really control the ball and the clock and force Brees into thinking he has to hurry. If it is coming free and easy for Brees then the Saints will put up 40 points and cruise to the Super Bowl.

I like the Saints by a touchdown. 38-31

That was a great football game. I know that San Diego put 8-9 players in the box the entire game and the problem wasn’t the defense, it was the offense. Countless times San Diego shot themselves in the foot with penalties and dropped passes while the JETS blitzed every way you possibly could. In the end the Chargers couldn’t stop the run even when they knew it was coming. Even when they knew that the Jets would give the ball to Shon Greene. The Jets controlled the line of scrimmage at the end of the game and as a result Norv Turner is heading home again.

Speaking of Greene, what a find that guy was. That run he had for 53 yards and the touchdown was impressive. I think he could’ve easily taken that one 80 yards because only 1 guy was closing and he wasn’t closing very quickly. His speed really impressed me. Do the Jets have a shot against the Colts though? NO. NO. NO. The Colts will beat them good because Manning will be a bit more prepared than Rivers and the Colts want this one more. They want to prove to everyone in football that resting the final 2 weeks didn’t hurt them and that they are still the best team in football.

I don’t fault the guy for leaving and going to USC but I can fault USC for hiring him. I’m still not sure that he’s proven he can coach at this level let alone take over the top football program in the entire country. We can talk about the SEC and all that but USC is the benchmark or at least was. There has to be a very long list of coaches who would be able to take this team quickly and be able to do things the right way but instead Kiffin gets the job and immediately questions arise. Everyone knows the guy lives in the gray when it comes to recruiting and it obviously has worked for him so the questions that have come up in the past couple days surely aren’t surprising. In fact, we would all be surprised if he didnt’ have Orgeron call those potential recruits. We’ve come to expect that from Lane Kiffin in recruiting but we still don’t know what to expect of him as a coach. Tennessee got better this past year but they were still years away from being Florida, Alabama or LSU consistently. He’s no Nick Saban is what I’m trying to say.

I know USC needed to do something quickly because the signing period is weeks away and they had no coach. We know they looked several different places and it just surprises me they’d make this selection considering what the basketball team went through with Tim Floyd and what the football team is going through now with being looked at a little bit. Kiffin’s name is the lightning rod of the NCAA and now he’s going to the school with arguably the most talent of them all in the brightest city in the West. I just can’t see this going well. Kiffin had a job in California before as coach of the Raiders and that didn’t last long. He’s got a career winning percentage of somewhere near .400 yet somehow that qualified him to coach USC. You can’t tell me thats the best you can do?

I won’t lie when I say I hope that he falls flat on his face here and ends up as a recruiting coordinator for Appalachian St. He won’t though because he can talk the talk and he is one of those guys who will land on his feet. We all know he has the connections for it.

As the ESPN writer said “he’s a guy that was born on 3rd base but acts like he’s the one who hit the triple.”.

It took Nick Saban nearly no time at all to turn a program that had struggled for years into THE powerhouse in college football and no the SEC was served notice that Alabama is the official king of the mountain. Urban Meyer has taken a leave of absence at Florida and with that leave of absence he has to be very careful because the longer he stays away the greater the stranglehold will be for Saban at Alabama. Don’t forget that Alabama returns a bunch of players next season and have had consistent top 5 recruiting classes since Saban came back. They are reloading now and the other schools are quickly going to be after thoughts. I’m serious when I say that the SEC, the best conference in college football, is quickly going to be a 1 horse race.

Florida had a great run with Tebow but that era is over. Les Miles is great at LSU but he’s not that great of a coach to be honest. The other schools simply won’t be able to rival the consistent product that Nick Saban will be able to put up year after year and we need to all recognize it.