Peyton Manning isn’t going to retire.  He is going to be playing next year to see how things go.  This isn’t the kind of guy who is just going to retire without at least trying to see what he can or can’t do on the field.

If I’m the Colts I keep Manning and draft Luck.  Give Luck at least one season to really learn under Peyton.  Let him see how he does things and how he goes about his preparation and business.  Luck needs to learn from someone and they don’t get better than Peyton.  Peyton is a Colt in the same way that Walter Payton was a Bear.  He came in that way and needs to go out that way and he deserves to go out on his terms.  Give him his last year letting him know that he is done after the season. 

If the Colts let Peyton walk they can or they can deal him.  They have a number of teams who would be willing to pick him up.  I want him to retire a Colt but if not I’d love to see him as a Cardinal or a Redskin specifically because I think he’d really help those teams quickly.  IN Arizona Peyton would put up some crazy numbers with those receivers and that weather.

As it sits I should be talking about the Super Bowl but Peyton is on everyone’s mind wondering what or where he will do or go next.

Joe Paterno passed away last week at the age of 85.  Many people throughout the country, including myself, predicted it would happen soon after he left the game of football.  I believe that everyone close to Joe believed this to be the case but I didn’t think it would happen as soon as it did.  Did the investigation play a role in the quicker process?  I think it did without a doubt.

Let me make something clear, I believe Joe Paterno is a coaching legend who did so many incredible things for that community.  He goes down as one of the best coaches ever who led a ‘clean’ program in regards to the dealings with the NCAA.  He produced numerous pros and professionals in other areas who can’t say enough good things about him.  Those things need to be kept separate from the Sandusky scandal that rocked the sports world.  Can we separate them?

I think you have to.  None of us are perfect and none of us were in his situation.  Should he have done more, YES.  He didn’t and we are left how we are left but as bad as that is, and it is horrible, we have to still look at the entire body of work.  None of the good or the bad cross each other out, they just exist and give us with what we are left with.  Joe Paterno passed away at the age of 85 as one of the best and most controversial coaches in the history of a great sport.  He will be missed and i wish his family the best.

The NFL is down to the FINAL 4 and we have San Francisco playing at home against the Giants for the NFC with the Patriots playing the Ravens in the AFC.

When it comes down to this type of scenario you can’t help but think of the quarterbacks.  Clearly you have Tom Brady and Eli Manning as the two best quarterbacks left.  Sure some could argue that Alex Smith is catching up but he isn’t really.  He had a good season but the 49ers are a lot more than Smith.  Just by having Brady on their roster the Patriots are always a threat but Smith isn’t that way.  I see the Giants winning this one on the road because their defense is playing great right now and Eli does wonders when not playing at home.  I think ELI has a strong game and gets the Giants to the Super Bowl.

In the AFC you can’t pick against Tom Brady.  Brady is an elite quarterback who is playing incredibly well.  The Ravens are led by Joe Flacco who will really have to play a great game to give the Ravens a chance at a super bowl and i don’t see it.  Unless the Ravens can control the ball and have long sustained drives they just won’t be able to score enough to stay in this game.  I see the Pats winning by 10-14 points on a late touchdown that puts the game out of reach.

That gives me the Giants vs Pats in the Super bowl and it would be a good one.  Sure we’d miss out on Ravens vs Niners with the 2 brothers coaching against each other but i just can’t see that happening.

Is it just me or has bowl season gone downhill?  it used to be that the good games were played on New Years’ day and you could just sit at home and watch several games at once if you wanted to.  I even remember a year that we had a few tv’s going at once just so we could see as many games as possible.  It was great.

With the sponsorships now it seems that each BCS game needs to have no competition for viewers.  I get it but that doesn’t mean i have to like it.  Money seems to control these things and it makes sense in some ways and in others not.  Do I just need to adjust?  I guess so because the fans sure don’t count much in the process.  Give me the days when I could wake up and watch the cotton bowl and the gator bowl at the same time.  Let me watch the Rose or the Fiesta bowl if I want and then the Sugar bowl at night.  Don’t make all the games that mean something be on a separate day and think that it builds up to the National title because it doesn’t. 

The title game is a whole other story.  I won’t be watching it much on Monday unless it is on commercials from NBA games or college basketball games.  I’ve never been a giant fan of re runs.

Yesterday Drew Brees broke Dan Marino’s passing yardage record in a season by throwing for over 5084 yards.  It’s a sign of how much the game has changed.

I grew up in Marino’s era and he was an amazing quarterback.  He didn’t play in a west coast offense, but more of a downfield game like Don Coryell’s Chargers did for all those years.  Let’s just look at the numbers because they usually tell the story.

Dan Marino threw for that many yards on 362 completions.  It has taken Brees 440.  Marino gained over 14 yards a completion that season with Brees coming in around 11.  The offenses tell a story as Brees has a great downfield game but also dumps the ball off for shorter passes much more than Marino did.  I’m not saying that BRees isn’t have a great season but the game has changed over the years to where we may see more and more 5000 yard seasons.

The amazing thing to me is that Brees isn’t even going to be the MVP.  His team has had a great season and they are cruising into the playoffs, but Aaron Rodgers is running away with the award this season and he should.  He is having arguably the best season a quarterback has ever had with 45 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions.  He’s also a guy who throws downfield with his average completion being for over 13 yards.  I know a lot of these are catch and run but when you watch Rodgers you rarely see a misthrown ball.

Congrats to Drew Brees on breaking this record because I thought it was going to stand a long time when it happened and it did.  I just don’t think Brees will hold this one for 28 years because of the changes in the game.

If your city rec program isn’t offering background checks it is time to start asking why.  With all the stuff coming out about coaches taking advantages of young players we need to take the next step and make it mandatory. 

When i refer to city rec programs I’m talking about coaches, referees, league employees, scorekeepers…etc.  I’m talking about doing everything we can to ensure that our kids are around people that we are comfortable.  By us not asking we are saying that it is ok or that we don’t care who is working with our children. 

We have AAU teams that travel all over the country and are surrounded by all kinds of people.  They are staying in hotels with people they aren’t familiar with.  I’m only saying that before my son gets on a bus or a team van heading out of state that I’m going to find out who he is with and who will be around him.  I have to establish some accountability somewhere. 

When you sign your kids up for the city rec programs please ask them about doing background checks on the coaches and people they’ll be in contact with.  While it won’t fix all the problems it is a great place to start.

I’m so sick of the stupid BCS.  Alabama doesn’t play in a championship game yet someone makes it to a title game.  They weren’t the best team in their conference yet they get a second chance at a team who already beat them.  Meanwhile, OK St beats Oklahoma by 40 points and could’ve beaten them by 50-60 if they kept going and instead they don’t get a shot at LSU.  The only game they lost was the day after a school disaster where a coach died in a plane crash.  They lost in overtime to Iowa St. 

That’s not the worst part.  The worst part is that the Boise st’s get left out in the cold again.  It gets really annoying when Virginia Tech gets a BCS invite over Boise when the night before we watched them get beat by 4 td’s in their championship game.  What happened to teams needing to win to qualify?  Boise St will end up ranked around 5 but somehow that isn’t good enough to get an at large selection?  JOKE.

Not only will nobody outside of the SEC care about this title game but we are also all getting turned off to the whole process.

With every passing day we seem to find out more and more about the type of man Jerry Sandusky was behind the scenes.  To read the latest accusations against him just makes me sick inside as these poor men now come out finally about what happened to them at 10 years of age.  Jerry doesn’t get it.

If Jerry were to do the right thing and plead guilty then the stories and accusations would most likely stop.  Right now i guarantee are more of these individuals who are sitting at home and tormented by what happened to them.  They are questioning whether to come forward or not and waiting to see what Sandusky does or says.  If he pleads guilty then those people on the fence will probably stay quiet and hopefully get help along the way somewhere.  If he maintains his innocence and more and more men/kids come out against him then the snowball effect will take place.

I know I’m basing this blog on the premise that he is guilty.  After reading the grand jury report I can’t see it any other way.  Pedophiles are master manipulators and I think he honestly believes he’s going to talk himself out of this one.  He isn’t.  The voices of the victims will only get stronger and the support against him will only get stronger.  The sooner he pleads guilty the sooner this story gets put on the back page and that’s better for him, but I think he is too prideful to go that route.

The Giants got worked last night and it wasn’t even close.  I know we are looking at a defense that is missing 5-6 starters right now but they looked horrible.  With 2 games with Dallas still to go I can’t see the Giants getting into the playoffs.  IN fact, I can’t see the Giants going anywhere above 8 wins right now.  What does that say about the rest of the division?

Dallas is a good team.  I say that even though they are in a stretch of schedule that most NFL teams would love to play.  They should end up around 11 wins and that’s enough for the division title, but is that saying much.

The Eagles are done.  With 7 losses already they have to win out for any hope of a playoff chance and they just haven’t played very well.  Vince threw for 400 yards the other day but they just couldn’t stop the Pats from going down the field and scoring at will.  The Eagles will be lucky to go 8-8.

That leaves Washington.  Rex Grossman and John Beck are their quarterbacks.  They are terrible on offense and just can’t consistently score points because they can’t get good consistent play at qb. 

Looking at each team makes it easy to call this the most overrated division in football while also being the most underachieving.  The NFC least used to be the leader in the NFC but now that probably falls to the NFC north with the Packers, Bears and Lions.

I’m going through all the different teams that could play for the National title but none have it better than Alabama.  Think about this.  They lost to LSU and are sitting in the 2 spot in their division.  They are also ranked number 2 overall with only having to play an average Auburn team to keep that spot.  This means they don’t have to play in the SEC title game to get to the National title game. 

Is that right?  To play for your national championship without winning your conference.  In fact, if LSU happens to lose to Georgia next week then ALabama could play in the title game against LSU with neither of them actually winning their conference.  That makes no sense to me.  They should have some stipulations at least.

Most of the country doesn’t want to see another boredom fest of LSU vs Alabama especially if they didn’t even win their conference.  Meanwhile we will have other conference winners who simply won’t get the chance despite only 1 loss also. 

The BCS typically has gotten it right with the 2 best teams playing for the title so I have to trust it a little, but I also don’t think a team has the right to win a National title without even winning their conference.