The Trade Carousel Keeps Going and Going and...

  There were some many trades this weekend that any sportswriter could write 10 pages on the trades themselves but we're going to skip the fancy introduction this week and jump right into digesting this week of crazy trades.

 Carmelo Anthony. The first domino that fell causing a multitude of trades to form after his departure from Denver. Over All-Star weekend, rumors were flying about Melodrama: "is he meeting with Jay-Z and that weird Russian dude," "is he going to actually stay in Denver," "are the Knicks giving up?" There were so many false reports that I eventually tuned out and enjoy the defenseless game on screen (am I the only one who thought Blake Griffin shouldn't have won, dunking two balls at once is way more impressive). Anyways, Melo is a Knick as I thought he would be all along and I think the East distances itself from the West significantly in terms of contenders. What the Lakers, Spurs, and Maverick are doing is impressive but who else is there after that? The Thunder? Yeah we all are infatuated with Durantula and Westbrook but they are still a very young team that needs another year to develop. Where in the East, Melo adds to the Knicks' philosophy of scoring as many points as possible while hoping their defense won't give up too many points. They have become the Indianapolis Colts of basketball. What's going to be so interesting to watch is exactly how Anthony will fit into this puzzle considering how run and gun Mike D'Antoni's offense seems to operate. Carmelo functions best in the paint and mid range jump shots so he gives the Knicks a guy who can create his own shot, something nonexistent in New York for so long, so it will be interesting to see what role Mike D'Antoni fits Anthony into. That being said, they instantly become a contender with Melo and finally can compete with the gauntlet atop the East, all I can say its going to be a fun playoffs this year.

Well he certainly looks happy.

  The other "superstar" trade this week was Deron Williams and I'm still trying to digest this move. At first, it struck me as a desperation move by the New Jersey Nets after being unable to conclude the Melo trade but after some thought I realized its not. A team like the Nets that has acquired a decent amount of young talent but no superstar needs someone who can facilitate the ball and push the team. Well now they fill both roles by trading for Williams because now they have a superstar and a one of the top three points guards in the league right now. This trade may not seem as interesting as the Melo trade because it doesn't equal any instant success but the long term improvement of this team is what makes it such a necessary and great trade.

  One more trade that is going to have a huge impact on the league for the rest of this season is the Celtics-Thunder trade. Sending Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson to the Thunder in exchange for Jeff Green, Nenad Krstic, and a 1st round pick is questionable to say the least. Doc Rivers will try to sell this claiming that when they won the NBA Finals, they played small with Posey at the 4 position at times, but even he can't sell this one to any Celtics fan. The truth is they're doing it because they realize their team is getting old and they want to rebuild and not have to endure a significant drop off. Its smart but it poses what I consider the ultimate GM question in any sports franchise: compete for the title now or be patient and put the franchise in a position to win championships down the road. It was obvious that the one advantage they had over the top teams in the league was their size advantage but unless Shaq goes all Kazaam for the Celtics, the East is completely wide open for anyone to seize.

Kendrick Perkins' reaction to getting traded

  There were more trades in the league but those were the most significant ones and will have noticeable impact on the league for the rest of the season. All that being said, the game everyone should watch this weekend? The New York Knicks at the Miami Heat this Sunday at 8pm on ESPN. Let's see if Carmelo Anthony was worth it.

Welcome to the Gauntlet.

Hypocrite Owners Lead to a Hypocritical League

   No doubt most of you have heard some rumblings about the pending NFL labor negotiations but as time goes on, we seem more and more headed to a lockout. Although these owners have ridiculous amounts of money and don't really stand to lose much if there is a lockout because of lucrative TV deals (which is why they hold the upper hand), they still want more money. They also want more games, even though they try to claim that they are merely changing two preseason to two regular season, don't let it fool you, they're adding two games to the season. How can the league preach a league of practicing safety and reducing head trauma but add games and decrease salaries AND not provide health benefits for retired players? Do the owners not realize that the NFL is made of the very players they mock, that they are the reason for the exorbitant amount of money they make or are they so caught up in this one moment that they simply forget? When people think NFL, they don't think Robert Kraft, or the Rooney family, or even the tyrant Jerry Richardson who insists on being the bully in these negotiations when he can't even construct a winning team, how is he going to construct a winning NFL?

 Then these owners (and Roger Goodell is included when I say owners) talk about reducing concussions and reduced head trauma when they simply look at the short term effects and refuse to examine the long term effects of these injuries. Their solution is to pad the helmet more and more thinking its going to protect the head on collisions with other players. They're right, its not going to hurt at the moment. However, if I put on one of those helmets and bang my head on the wall everyday, sure my head isn't going to hurt then, but what are the long term effects of me continually hitting my head against the wall? Couple this with scientific reports that not only multiple concussions will cause long term emotional and physical instability but the fact that multiple subconcussive injuries, meaning head collisions that cause damage but not strong enough to produce a concussion, will produce a near same effect as multiple concussions would. Maybe there is a reason that old school NFL player wore small, leather helmets without a face mask, so they wouldn't lead with the helmet. If the NFL wanted to be radical and see a significant drop off in concussion and concussion like symptoms, they would remove the face mask on helmets. Players would certainly be more scared to lead with their helmets because who want to mess up their own face? But they won't. That would reduce big hits, and even if they don't want to admit it, the NFL is built upon big hits. I love big hits. However, I hate hypocrisy like the hypocrisy that oozes from anything that the NFL owners say.

Why would owners think more games would benefit the NFL in any way except their wallets. The games would be diluted and more players would be injured, things I don't think any fan would enjoy. The truth is the players are dependent on these owners and may have to submit to the owners' demands if a deal is not completed by March 3rd and with owners storming out over some of the less complex issues in the CBA, its looking more likely they will. Fans should be worried because its looking like we might finally see "The Replacements" play out in real life, something no fan should want to see.

Its A Great Day to be Great, Baby!

Let's skip all the crap about commercials, the Black Eyed Peas showing us how to (read: not to) use autotune (although I loved the Where is the Love? freestyle), and our great food selections. The Super Bowl is about football, something sometimes lost within the context of the event, and this game proved the old adages of football: defense wins championships, turnovers can be a team's downfall, and a new age adage, your quarterback has to be great.

Aaron Rodgers played beautifully in the Super Bowl, like he had to for his team to win (what we're they going to do? hand the ball off to James Starks?), but what's so impressive about Rodgers is the throws he doesn't make. Rodgers is the answer that Packers fans needed post-Favre because Rodgers has the arm of Favre but the mind of Manning. Meaning what exactly? Rodgers isn't going to throw the ball into a place he can't fit it because he believes he can "will it" in there, much like Favre does. However, Rodgers is no Captain Checkdown especially judging from some of his throws on Sunday Night, he was scary accurate all night that his incompletions hit his receivers' hands, how often does that happen? I was amazed that some of the voters legitimized in their heads that Rodgers wasn't the MVP. For those of you who didn't know the breakdown was: Rodgers 17.5 votes, Jordy Nelson 2.0, and Clay Matthews .5. A final thought on Aaron Rodgers, I believe with that win he has entered the upper echelon of the quarterback hierarchy, the VIP room. Whose in my VIP room? Brady, Manning, Roethlisberger, Brees, and now undoubtedly Rodgers. I have been doubtful about Rodgers throughout this season and postseason but I can no longer question his greatness.

The Champions

The deciding moment of the game went to the defensive side of the ball for the Packers when Clay Matthews did his best "Remember the Titans" impersonation, the Green Bay LBs coach approaching Matthews before he forced the fumble and simply telling him, "its time. Its time."

The Steelers' turnovers were their ultimate downfall in the game, caused by their lack of an offensive line. However, credit goes to the Packers for taking advantage of it where the Jets or the Ravens could not. The game looked to be over when it was 21-3 but Roethlisberger, as he so often has, tried to lead another Super Bowl comeback. The Packer defense's flaw of being unable to put a team away almost cost them the game much like it almost did in the opening round Wild Card when Eagles QB Michael Vick was able to lead a similar comeback but the Packers bend, not break, and rose to the occasion once again when needed to despite their multiple injuries during the game. Also people, please stop with Ben Rapelisberger and that crap. Its dumb and although Ben may have a poor judgment of character issue, it reflects more poorly on you for the trite comments. Do you think people should approach you at your job discussing your poor decisions on who you've slept with? No, didn't think so. All that being said, in no way do I think that this game tarnishes Big Ben's reputation and would still choose him for a game winning drive out of the multitude of quarterbacks in the league. He was the only reason the Steelers remained in that game, so no it wasn't his fault.

The Packers rose above in a year where parity was the norm and no team could be called "great." The Packers win was a product of getting hot at the right time and having all of the components necessary to win in this day, much like the Steelers of 2005 when they defeated the Seahawks in the Super Bowl and the Giants two years later defeating the Patriots with some star heroics by Eli Manning and David Tyree. Maybe now, in this new era of NFL football, bye weeks don't mean as much, maybe they make you soft and the harshest road is the best. Maybe home field advantage doesn't matter and neither do winning all of your games. That's why the NFL playoffs are great, you truly don't know who will win and David has as much chance as Goliath. What's important is getting hot at that right time and having players that have the ability to make plays when it matters like Rodgers, Jennings, Matthews, and even Jordy Nelson. That's how the Packers won the Super Bowl, who'll be next?

A Final Cut on the Cutler Debate

Sorry guys for lack of posts but I had a busy week at school and didn't have time to blog. Ok enough about my boring life lets talk football.

You probably all have heard so much on this Jay Cutler situation from players, ex players and coaches, and reporters but I want to offer my thoughts on it especially with the recent TMZ video of Cutler walking around in a outdoor shopping mall. We'll get to that but first lets look at what actually happened in the game. The fact that Cutler doesn't exactly know when he sprained his MCL is the first alarming piece of information and that he was just standing on the sideline is also a little strange. However, stepping into and throwing a football requires a lot more pressure than most people think and especially more than just standing on a sideline. So yeah I think he was actually hurt and just because Philip Rivers is crazy and able to play on a torn ACL, way worse than a sprained MCL, does not mean that Cutler by any means should have played. The toughness mentality of the NFL is overplayed and frankly outdated. Look at old pros like Jim Brown, the greatest running back of all time, who can't even walk anymore or the numerous professional who had concussions and just played through the because that's what tough was. No that's what dumb is. Questioning Cutler's toughness is just as dumb because you don't run the option pitch in the SEC if you're not tough, you'll get destroyed.

People are making a huge deal over his demeanor on the sideline and how he didn't "fight" to get back in the game but no one knows who pulled Cutler from the game. Also, people thought that Cutler should have been giving Caleb Hanie some tips and "coaching him up" on the sideline. Also dumb. When we live in a world where player means coach please tell me because coaches coach and players play; plus Hanie was doing far better than Cutler was against the Packer defense almost bringing them within overtime if not for a classic Mike Martz dumb reverse call to your slowest receiver. Get over his demeanor on the sideline, the only thing he could have done was cheer and I do fault him for that. To say he just didn't care is silly considering Cutler was on the verge of tears in his postgame locker interview.

Where are your pom poms Jay? (usatoday.com)

Let's read some tweets, shall we?

"Cmon cutler u have to come back," Cardinals safety Kerry Rhodes wrote, "This is the NFC championship if u didn't know!"

Added Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew on the same site: "All I'm saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee ... I played the whole season on one ..."

I follow a healthy amount of players on Twitter and these type of tweets were seen in numerous amounts from players and ex players like Deion Sanders and Mark Schlereth were destroying Cutler as well. However only one player got a serious backlash from the media, Jaguars Maurice Jones-Drew. Why he was singled out unfairly, I can't say but regardless his comments were just as foolish as everyone else's. Saying he played the whole season on a hurt knee is a lie considering he sat out the important last two games and played poorly in the game before against the Colts that proved to define the Jaguars' season against. So. no Maurice Jones-Drew you didn't play the whole season and if you maybe had sat out the first month of the season, healing your knee properly, the Jaguars could have been in the playoffs. Players on the couch should probably watch their comments during the playoffs especially ones like this or they could suffer from a media outlash like MJD did.

Overall, the overspeculation on Jay Cutler is outlandish and people on Twitter should learn to shut their mouths a bit. I think that the attacks on Cutler have more to do with his overall career and his perceived laziness and attitude rather than this instance of injuring his knee. If this was Tim Tebow, no one would question him rather they would praise his performance beforehand. Cutler should spend more time rehabbing his image instead of his knee but walking around a shopping center with your girlfriend is probably not a good idea Jay.

Come on Jay (tmz.com)

Championship Picks

I've been busy leading up to this so haven't had too much time to blog but I have to give you my picks for the games today. I would like to preface my picks by saying that these aren't locks at all because I can see any team winning this weekend.

1. New York Jets over the Pittsburgh Steelers- The Jets defense is playing ridiculous right now and Rex Ryan is preparing some great gameplans, seeing as he made Tom Brady and Peyton Manning both look uncomfortable and confused in back to back weeks, a very rare accomplishment but Rex Ryan shows he can prepare his team and have a foot fetish with his wife. Quick Note though: The quarterbacks are going to decide this game, if Mark Sanchez doesn't show up Ben Roethlisberger will but what is exciting is that both quarterbacks are crunch time quarterbacks so expect this one to come down to the wire.

2. Green Bay Packers over the Chicago Bears- Aaron Rodgers is just too hot right now and the Bears best chance to win this game is for poor conditions out on the field and not just cold and snowy, they need some wind to whip the ball around. The Bears O Line is going to have to contain the Green Bay linebackers so Jay Cutler has a chance to not have one of his mistake prone games. Also, Mike Martz has to be not dumb and call silly plays like a halfback pass when you're crushing your opponent but I don't see either happening and the Packer team is too hot to stop right now.

3 Point Shooting: A Dying Art

   The Magic Celtics game on Monday night was another hard fought game between the two but what I learned most from that game was not about either teams' ability or their direction for this season, rather it was something that color analyst Reggie Miller said. Play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan and him were discussing Ray Allen and how he has remained so good over the years to which Reggie said  because of how much he practices purely shooting the basketball in the gym. Not defense, conditioning, or ball handling, just shooting the ball in a gym. So Harlan replied with something along the lines of "So what? He's probably shooting about a couple hundred balls a day?"

   Which to me seems a pretty reasonable amount for a pro athlete to shoot in a day. Reggie then surprises Harlan saying, "No. Try 500 to a 1,000 balls a day."

Gym Session with Bird (nba.com)  

   Now to me and probably all of you, that is an absurd amount of balls to shoot in a day but Reggie then brought up another interesting point saying how nowadays, sports is so dominated by the culture that ESPN has created. The importance of what is seen on Sportscenter's Top 10 is huge but rarely is a shooter shown, rather a player driving to the hoop dunking over another player. This is undeniably true and the only time I can think of seeing a shooter on Top 10 is when he is making a clutch shot or if a player plays ridiculous on a given night. Miller emphasizes that now players want to find the quickest and easiest way to become famous and "get their money," and to spend that time in the gym on a daily basis is much more of a hassle to most guys than to just drive it to the hoop because that is what is seen as cool in the modern NBA. However, Miller's point extends far beyond just the NBA, rather the dying art of 3 point shooting is indicative of our American identity. 

    People are going to sell out any way they can if that means becoming rich and famous. Let's look at another culture that is closely related to sports, hip hop. At first, hip hop had nothing to do with living in the hood and rolling hard, go listen to "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugar Hill Gang, the first commercialized rap song. Then came gangster rap and what America has come to know as modern hip hop with Public Enemy and NWA. Now every hip hop artist raps about "gangster life" and becoming rich. Its what is commercially viable in today's society. Ice Cube, the member of NWA who has probably become most famous, is starring in Disney movies now when he used to rap about police brutality and how we would kill any cop who tried to cross him. Don't forget another Disney star, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who cashed in after pro wrestling wasn't tough enough for him, he'd rather star as a Tooth Fairy. However ironic and laughable this is, they both have earned more money acting than what they would have earned if they both had continued their previous professions. 

"This is pretty weird, huh?"

   Reggie Miller was right when he said that 3 point shooting just isn't sexy enough for players anymore, its not what makes them famous. The stars of the NBA: Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, and Kevin Durant are all known for their dunks and drives to the hoop not their 3 point shooting ability. No one thinks about Peja Stojakovic, Mike Miller, or Raja Bell when they think about the NBA, however essential the three is in the game. The very game that Reggie Miller was announcing for shows the validity of the three in the NBA game, the Magic stayed in that game only because of their ability to shoot the three and cut the leads the Celtics would build. Also, the three excites a crowd just as much as a slam dunk can in a big game but it doesn't get you on Sportscenter, it only earns you more time in the gym. However, I challenge the Bryants, the James', and the Durants of the NBA to score 8 points in 9 seconds. That's not sexy, that's just damn impressive.

Pressure Pushing Down on Me

If we learned one thing about playoff football this year, its that the old adage "defense wins championships" still holds true in the modern age of football. The four prevailing teams this weekend all rank within the top 10 defenses all year, Pittsburgh 2nd, New York 3rd, Green Bay 5th, and Chicago 9th, and they all showed why with their performances on Saturday and Sunday.
   Pittsburgh dominated the Baltimore offense in the 2nd half with three turnovers and five sacks but it all started with the pressure in Joe Flacco's face. Take for instance the Ray Rice fumble that began the Steeler comeback, that would not have been possible were it not for James Harrison sacking Flacco and pressuring the Ravens into an obvious passing down. Then the pressure in Flacco's face causing the errant throw for an interception and the botched snap which we'll never know whose fault it was but either Flacco was too busy watching James Harrison or if Matt Birk was but know that the constant pressure in the second half is what caused the Steeler win.
   The theme of the quarterback must go down, and the quarterback must go down hard was not lost on the New York Jets' defense either as they were in Tom Brady's face all night. The first interception by Tom Brady since Week 6 was caused by Calvin Pace in his face forcing Brady to lob the ball and overthrow BenJarvus Green-Ellis. Sean Ellis provided the pressure on Brady all night after being embarrassed in their previous meeting and what was most surprising is that the Jets weren't doing their usual exotic blitz schemes for their pressure, they were getting pressure with only 3 and 4 down linemen. Let's also give credit to the fantastic coverage by the Jets secondary forcing Brady to do something he rarely ever does, throw the ball away. Darrelle Revis is truly one of the best, if not the best, cornerback in the game; Antonio Cromartie isn't too shabby either. Brady, like any quarterback, doesn't get most confused with elaborate coverage schemes, its hitting the turf throughout the game that caused him to look a little uncomfortable in the game. Impressive that the Jets beat Peyton Manning and Tom Brady in back to back games and it all started with their defense.
   Not much needs to be said about the other two games this weekend considering they were both blowouts but we saw the same theme. Mike Turner, a top 5 running back, was stuffed for less than 40 yards and Marshawn Lynch who went all beast mode last week got 4 carries all game. That's ridiculous for these two running backs to get shut down. Both Matts, Ryan and Hasselback, had hands in their face all game and tasted the sweet taste of turf in the game. The only difference? Ryan was having his artificial with rubber on the side and Hasselback was enjoying a cold turf aged for ripeness over heated coils.
   We saw why pressure is so essential to pro game this weekend. Its what caused a quarterback to throw a pick when going 339 attempts without doing so and a running back to fumble after touching the ball over 400 times without doing so. Its why GMs will pay Julius Peppers a ludicrous amount of money, although he did embarrass rookie Russel Okung, and draft 4 defensive linemen in the same draft. Its because every team likes to see the opposing quarterback taste the sweet, sweet turf.

AP Photo/ Charles Krupa