When we talk about professional athletes and coaches why do the media always say black, white, Hispanic or other races? Two teams made the Super Bowl for the first time in at least 20 years and the first statement made was we have our first black coaches in the Super Bowl history. The second was we will have a black coach win the Super Bowl for the first time in NFL history. Well I don’t believe we need that to be the emphasis on the Super Bowl, both teams the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears have enough characters on the field to make up news worthy of reporting. By the way its not a bad thing at all that they are mentioning that their will be first time black coaches making Super Bowl appearances, its just it shouldn’t be top story.
In the NBA Championship we didn’t here Avery Johnson of the Dallas Mavericks being the top story of being the first black coach to make the finals. In MLB we didn’t hear Dusty Baker being the first black coach to make the World Series. So why is it that in football it is the first story? On the other hand I am excited to see that this will be the last time we will ever have to hear this again since we are now going to have an African American coach winning a Major Sporting Championship. In the NFL you can count on one hand how many NFL head coaches that are black, but you can’t count how many NFL players are  black in the NFL without using at least 20 friends hands. So will race always be a subject in major Sports?

There are a bunch of questions going into the championship games this weekend. Can Peyton finally beat the NE Patriots at home? Will Rex Grossman of the Chicago Bears turnover the ball to cause his team to lose? Can the Patriots run the ball against the Colts defense? Will the NE Saints make rookie mistakes in the biggest game in the history of the team? All these questions will have some type of outcome on the game, and the team that gets it right reward will be the Super Bowl.

If Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts is ever going to win this game against the Patriots it will be this weekend. He finally has them at home, and he has had terrible games in the playoffs so far so he is due for a good game. Everyone knows that Rex is going to be the one who decides this divisional game, if he plays good and doesn’t turnover the ball his defense will be able to shut down the Saints. The Patriots have come out last week and threw the ball 40 times against the San Diego Chargers, if they want to win this game they will need to run the ball.  The Colts defense has been able to stop the run in the playoffs so far, so we will see if they can make it three. This will be the first time the Saints have ever been in a game this big, and with a rookie coach, rookie players, and cold weather all being determining problems lets see what they do.

The playoffs are finally here, 12 teams with the best record get to go on to make it to the Super Bowl. The 1st weekend if the wildcard games and two teams everyone expected to make the Super Bowl are both in the wild card games: Indianapolis Colts and Seattle Seahawks. Well this weekend, for the first time in awhile we have all 8 division winners in the final 4 games. Usually you get a team that doesn’t win its division but had a good team make it to the final eight or even the division championship game.
Who should we expect in the division championship games for both leagues? We have the Indianapolis Colts versus Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots versus San Diego Chargers in the tough AFC playoffs, which by the way is the division the Super Bowl champs will come from.  These 4 teams have been in the top 8 teams throughout the season, and all have the right players and coaches to go all the way to the Super Bowl. I expect to see the Baltimore Ravens vs. San Diego Chargers for the division championship.  In the other division we have the Seattle Seahawks versus Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles versus New Orleans Saints in the NFC bracket, the difference about this conference it is there for the taking by any one of these four teams.  The NFC division the whole year has had only one team in the top eight teams throughout the season in the Bears, but they lost both games to the AFC teams and also can be beat. I’m looking for a division championship game between the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles with the winner of this game losing in the Super Bowl.

When you are a little kid you always grow up wanting to be someone, when it comes to coaching you want to be in the Professional ranks well that is no more the big job.  College coaches for the last decade always wanted to be in the NFL, now they are getting paid good to stay in the college game.  Lets us look at examples in the last two weeks. Nick Saban once of the Miami Dolphins just took a job in Alabama after two years in the NFL. He received $32 million for eight years guaranteed. Another coach from Louisville after renewing his contract for ten years with the school left to go coach in the NFL for $24 million the next season. No loyalty in coaching these days, they are just like the players they go for the money.
Well a lot of the college coaches now realize how much control they have in the college game that they don’t have in the pros.  They can set up all the rules in college because the kids have to be there, but in the pro’s most players are making as much or more money than they are.  So coaches are using this leverage to stay in the college game and getting more money while doing it. The college from Louisville has to pay the school back $1million for not completing his contract. Well since he has 24 million I guess he won’t miss a million.

Do you believe that the Detroit Lions fans walking out of the game is a good protest against the owners and president? Because there will be a football game going on between the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions, and my belief is that this is a slap in a face to the Lions players.  The players have been putting out a strong effort every week to get a victory for their fans, its not there fault the president of the team has no clue. Since Matt Millen has taken over operations for the Detroit Lions the team has had a record of 23-71 the worst in the NFL since 2001. The fans are paying for the tickets, so it’s their right to do what thy please. Walking out on the team doesn’t really show up the president or owner it actually makes the football team look bad.  It’s not like every fan will walk out just a select few.
So on this Sunday December 24, 2006, with 8:36 minutes left in the 2nd quarter some fans have decided to walk out on the team in a protest to let the owner understand that it is time to fire Matt Millen. Football team win games, coaches call the right plays to win games, but management only pays the players to win games so who is really to blame.  A new coach came in and he continued the teams losing ways and if you bring new management they will either win or lose with the old management team. It’s a win/lose situation that is why I would suggest to the fans in the protest to just hold up signs and scream their heads off to fire Matt Millen.  That would show the football team it is not about them, but a message to management.

The great debate should professional athletes need to carry guns to protect themselves? Every sport has this problem, but the one professional sport that seems to have the most problem is the NFL.  Most of the players in the NFL have come from the poor neighborhoods and the streets; they don’t have a college educations and keep hanging out with their past.  These NFL players are putting themselves in danger and putting their teams at risk.  For instance, Tank Williams of the Chicago Bears house was raided for guns; he was already on probation for having a handgun in the car.  Chicago Bears as a team had to suspend him for one game, the league hasn’t given their ruling yet because the case hasn’t gone to trial. Mr. Williams has put his team at risk while they are making a push for the playoffs and he can’t join them. Why do players think that they need to care guns for protection? 

The main reason is they have names, faces, and money that the whole world knows about now.  The NFL has players who don’t have an education, their beliefs is that they need to keep it real.  What is real? People being true to themselves and knowing where they came from. The players hang with the guys who they grew up with but now they have the jewelry and cash they never had when they were younger. So these players are still trying to prove that they belong, but the problem is they don’t belong.  No NFL player should need to have a gun if they were home or at work (practice or game) which the average professional is doing.  They get paid lots of money from their teams to play a game they love for the money. Players should show their bosses the respect of not getting involved in criminal acts.

Every year there are a couple of players who don’t make the Pro Bowl team that have stats to show. Every year there is a debate about who selects the teams and where do they get the credentials. It is time for the NFL to allow players, coaches, and fans each have a say in the voting process.  The players know you they believe should be on the team, and the coaches also have a good understanding on who should make the team. The fans are voting on a popularity contest with each player that represents them making the team.  I truly don’t believe in the Pro Bowl. It’s the end of the season after the Super Bowl game which is only a vacation for players in Hawaii that really don’t want to play. 

If the current selection process is not working the NFL needs to go to a system that both the AFC & NFC needs to use.  Only players that rank in the top 5 in all categories that matter for their position can be put on the ballet.  For instance, Warren Sapp of the Oakland Raiders lead all interior defensive linemen in sacks with 9 should be on a Pro Bowl team.  Five years ago when he was popular these stats would have guaranteed him a spot, now he can’t even make it as an alternate. Post season stink for all star games and the NFL needs to change this up before the Pro Bowl game gets designated the Garage Bowl.

Terrell Owens can’t go a week without having his name and face on TV.  Saturday Night America watched as he scored two touchdowns and looked a team with the possibilities of going to the Super Bowl. On Sunday we found out that the main character in the NFL, Terrell Owens spit into another players face. Now is this called for in sports? This shows a complete lack of respect for the player and the game. It goes to show you a class of a man that we never found out until the next day, DeAngelo Hall or the announcers of the game never brought this up till the next day. He never retaliated against Owens he just played the game the way it was supposed to be played.
How in the world can a player get on another player nerves after 6 plays? That is not even enough time for them to cover one another, well that is what happen between Hall and Owens. On Monday the NFL fined Terrell Owens $35,000.00 for spitting on Hall, but what they really need to do is suspend him for the final two games without pay.  Talking smack is the norm in sports, and if you follow football we all know that DeAngelo Hall and Terrell Owens both love to talk smack. We have a major problem in sports when we have professional athletes disrespecting one another with spittle. The youth today looks up to these players as role models and them spitting on one another is not something the youth should hear or see.

From Thursday to Sunday, the NFL showed us why we still must watch the games as a team’s record is no indication on who will win the game.  Thursday Night the San Francisco 49ers surprised the Seattle Seahawks, then Saturday night comes it looks like the Dallas Cowboys are the team to beat in the weak NFC. Then on Sunday it all broke loose, the Tampa Bucs’ took Chicago Bears to overtime and Washington Redskins beat the NO Saints outright. The only team in the NFL that we can depend on is the San Diego Chargers, with MVP candidate La Dainen Tonlinson, they beat the KC Chiefs on Sunday Night by 11 pts.

If you had to choose a team in the NFC to go to the Super Bowl, most people would pick the Bears.  Chicago Bears have home field advantage throughout the playoffs in the weak NFC, but they can barely beat a team that has only won 2 games this year. The most consistent team in the NFC is the Philadelphia Eagles which no one gave a chance 4 weeks ago when their starting quarterback went down. Tonight game in Indianapolis will tell us much more about the AFC, but at least we know that teams in this division are the real deal.

The Seattle Seahawks are lucky this year that their division is not that good, because in the last two weeks this team shows that they don’t belong in the playoffs. In the last two weeks they have lost games to two teams nowhere close to making the playoffs and also having losing records. There is only three weeks left of this season and the Seahawks hold a 2 game lead over the San Francisco 49ers. In a head to head match up the 49ers hold the tie breaker since they beat them twice this season. So the only way that are theory of the losing Super Bowl champs not making the playoffs the following season will end.
 

This season it goes to show you that there is a big difference in the NFC and AFC. Seattle would be fighting to get into the playoffs if they were in the AFC division. Experts were picking this team to go back to the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season, and they looked good up until their best two players got hurt. In the absence the team went 3-3, the team didn’t gain or lose ground but the problem lies in that now they are both back and still can’t win.  Will the football gods help out our conspiracy theory and not let the Seattle Seahawks not make the playoffs, wait for the next three games to see what happens.