Good for them.  The Saints and Colts continued the trend of playing exciting, close Super Bowl games when they squared off in front of the largest television audience ever.  Take that, American Idol.  Obviously the game has been fawned over a ton, but obviously I have to mention the two most memorable plays in the brilliant onside kick and the pick-six by Porter.  People were arguing which play was bigger, but I don’t see how anyone can win that argument; I’m not sure the Saints would have won without both plays.  It was an awesome run for New Orleans.  The Saints beat three Hall of Fame quarterbacks on their way to their rings and Porter picked off two of them in dramatic situations.  But now what?

The Olympics.  I love the Olympics, but it seems like an event a lot of people like to complain about.  How do you complain about this? It’s three weeks of bonus sports programming!  Don’t like the Olympics? Keep watching the same crap you have been watching, since it isn’t affected unless you like hockey; and if you like hockey and don’t like Olympic hockey you can eat a cactus, because you are an awful person.  Get into the Olympics! Watch some luge until it occurs to you that you would certainly poo yourself around the second turn, watch that James Bond stuff where they ski and shoot rifles, and for the love of all that is holy watch curling.  By the time the Olympics are done, you’ll be very close to conference tournaments and it will feel like the Super Bowl hangover didn’t even happen.

College Basketball.  I’ve never really jumped into college basketball season with both feet before March, but it isn’t a bad idea at all.  Watch some teams you think have a shot at the final four and get some scouting done for that bracket you’ll fill out.  See how they play on the road against quality opponents.  Can they shoot free throws?  Do they have good enough guards who know when to attack and when to settle things down?  Are they Pittsburgh? If so, forget about it.  Syracuse and Villanova play, Kentucky plays Tennessee twice, and the Big Ten race looks like it will come down to the last week.

NBA.  This definitely won’t be my choice, but if you’re an NBA fan you’ll obviously hope LeBron and Kobe get you through this troubling time for sports fans.  If you once liked the NBA, but cooled during this era of games that should just start with eight minutes to go, maybe it’s time to come back.  If nothing else, the TNT studio show is awesome. 

NASCAR.  Just kidding, don’t watch NASCAR under any circumstances.  Read up on NFL mock drafts instead.  The big day is only a couple of months off!

And just for the record, NFL players are not as dumb as they seem.  Bernanke most definitely IS a crook out to take everything you own.

Shhhhhh, the commercials are on!  Well, it’s Super Bowl weekend and the hype has been surprisingly tempered leading up to this great match-up.  I don’t know if it’s because I’m blessed with the NFL Network now and am thereby spared of Berman, % Co., but it has been pure bliss.  As for the game, it certainly has the chance to continue the recent trend of spectacular Super Bowls.  I heard Mike Greenberg say on the radio that Manning lives to win this game and you don’t often see quarterbacks like him lose in this game.  I really don’t know what he’s talking about, but it sounded cool enough for me to pick the Saints.  I look forward to seeing Peyton vs. the blitz again this week and seeing how many times Gregg Williams can draw something up to put Manning on his back.  I also think Brees, who has not been his defense-sculpting self lately, will bounce back and take MVP honors. Book it! No, don’t….but enjoy the game. 

March Sadness?  The rumors were flying this week that the NCAA was seriously considering–maybe even decided already–to expand the NCAA basketball tournament to 96 teams.  As Drew Magary of KSK/Deadspin said, “You know what this tourney needs? Every NIT team!”  Could you imagine this? After the play-in game, there are a total of zero games I am disinterested in watching, but if it went to 96 I just couldn’t get real riled up about Air Force and Oregon State playing for the right to go against Georgetown.  Madness!  Does anyone outside of the mediocre Big East teams like this?  I mean, even if you’re a mid-major you’d prefer some actual respect in the current system than this.  Please fix football’s postseason before you try your level best to ruin basketball’s. 

Who scored 52 points?!!  I looked at the TV last weekend and saw the following on ESPN’s bottom line: “POR Miller: 52 pts.”  Then I did one of those double takes where you go back to what you’re doing only to realize seconds later that something is horribly wrong.  “Does someone named Miller other than Andre Miller play for the Blazers?”  Was it Mike Miller? Reggie? Oliver?!! All seemed like better options despite knowing the truth.  Andre had scored 52 in his previous five games combined and even that included a 28 point outting that was 15 points over his season average.  Honestly, it’s one of the most impressive games I’ve heard of in a while.  Only one three, only seven free throws.  The guy made 21 two point shots.  Tip of the cap to you, sir. 

Hockey talk.  Trades are going down in the NHL prior to the Olympic break.  Some big names that most of you have never heard of changed teams this past week.  Most of the dealing involved the Eastern Conference though, so no worries for the Blackhawks.  The only meaningful impact on the Western Conference was that Calgary lost two of its best players in Olli Jokinen and Dion Phaneuf.  Sweet names.  Jokinen headed to the Rangers and Phaneuf to the Maple Leafs.  The Leafs also picked up goaltender Jean-Sebastian Giguere from Anaheim; not a bad week.  Finally, the big one: Ilya Kovalchuk was sent to New Jersey in exchange for a package of young players–including Patrice Cormier–and a first round pick next year.  Kovalchuk is the gem of the trading market and one of the best players in the league and if the Devils weren’t already among the favorites (currently 2nd in the Eastern Conference) they certainly are now.  If you learned or cared about nothing else in this paragraph, know that hockey players generally have awesome names.

OCNN Covers the Super Bowl.  Chad OchoCinco has been all over the place since his Bengals exited the playoffs.  Most recently he has launched his news team, OCNN, which has been covering the events in Miami from the Pro Bowl to Super Bowl Media Day.  This came after Ocho took a bus full of fans on a trip down to Miami that made stops along the way to do some charity work. Here’s some work from Chad and his “news team” below:

SUNDAY, 2/7 at 5:25 pm CST: Colts vs. Saints (Super Bowl XLIV; CBS)

• Stormin Norman (9-5) Colts over Saints: Come on, seriously? I know the Saints are “America’s Team”, but they are going to have a bit of trouble with Peyton. The Saints defense is entirely predicated on turnovers and..gulp..Manning doesn’t usually make those. I know Brees is good, but not good enough to overcome a vastly superior Colts team.
• South Side Sheik (9-5) Colts over Saints – The difference maker in this game….Pat McAfee, punter for the Colts. This is going to be a sixty minute battle for field position. I’m going to one-up the other guys and predict a final score of 12-6, all field goals.
• StevieY19 (9-5) Saints over Colts: That’s right, upset special. God is ready to make it up to New Orleans after that whole Katrina thing. The Saints will get flagged for hitting Manning too much, but they’ll also slow him down enough to win in a shootout-type affair.
• Javier Sandooski (6-8) Saints over Colts: I really think the Saints just have too many weapons, Sean Payton may actually be the better coach, Saints defense is not bad at all and people are forgetting that Brees is pretty much just as good as Manning.  I am totally pumped for this game, I hope it doesn’t let us down.

SATURDAY, 2/6 at 11:00 am CST: #2 Villanova @ #8 Georgetown (CBB; ESPN)

• Stormin Norman (9-5) Villanova over Georgetown: StevieY19 told me that he has already written off this college basketball season as “not having a single great team”. I disagree, and Villanova is one of the reasons why. Scottie Reynolds is my boy and can score from anywhere on the court. I know this game is on the road, but I’m picking Nova to upset the Hoyas.
• South Side Sheik (9-5) Georgetown over Villanova – I hate Scottie Reynolds more than anyone else in college basketball after having to watch him during the NCAA opening round game at the United Center a few years back. Although, anything from Washington D.C. is a complete disaster recently, so this game’s really a toss-up. Now if we were talking about the DePaul Blue Demons on the other hand…
• StevieY19 (9-5) Georgetown over Villanova: I’ll actually be very interested to watch this game Saturday, since Villanova is one of a small group of teams I could see winning it all. Typically when I classify a team as such, they end up blowing it embarrassingly and reminding me that I will lose my office pool to someone who knows nothing. Here’s to an 0-2 week!
• Javier Sandooski (6-8) Georgetown over Villanova: Wow I don’t know anything about these teams.  When in doubt, take the home team in college basketball.  And this is why i have the worst record out of all of us.

And just for shits and giggles, here’s that Super Bowl return Super Tecmo Bowl style:

Then he gives his playoff predictions.  That’s where the love gets a little bit much.  He picks the Vikings and Packers to both win Wild Card games, then the Packers to win their divisional round game while the Bears down the Vikings in theirs.  Then he has the dream matchup that we would all love to see, a Bears-Packers NFC Championship.  Who wins that?  The Bears of course.  Eventually whatever paint he was huffing must have run out, since he finally has the Bears choking in the Super Bowl to the Patriots.

While it seems like I’m hating on my beloved Bears a little bit, King’s predictions are a little over the top.  Cutler definitely makes this team better, but I think he might be blinding some analysts to the fact that our offensive line is average at best, our defensive line is a huge question mark, and our secondary has more holes than a slice of swiss cheese.  All that being said, the NFL is a crazy league with a lot of unpredictable runs by teams.  The Bears definitely have the talent on both sides of the ball to play deep into the playoffs.  Only time will tell if King was crazy or prophetic, but either way its good to see “experts” think the Bears are a legitimate contender this season.

I have a feeling that this season will be a wild ride one way or another, so hang on to your hats Bears fans.

h/t: Adam