Brain Enema 2-15-10

To recap the NBA All-Star Saturday Night… Paul Pierce is money, Rajon Rondo lost in HORSE because Kevin Duran can make a jump shot and Rondo can’t, Nate Robinson won the dunk contest because he is short and can jump high, and Steve Nash is fundamentally sound.

March Madness, is a month away and I haven't watched a minute of college basketball since last year's Final Four.

Howard Stern would be the death of American Idol. Good or bad?

Brett Favre is still going to play in 2010.

The Olympics during the NHL season is a horrible idea. At least one star will get hurt and ruin his teams’ playoff chances

ECW will be missed, even in its WWE form. RVD, Taz, Paul Heyman, Raven, Sandman, Dudley Boyz, bWo, Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, Shane Douglas, etc THANK YOU for the MEMORIES

David Lee should get at least a four-year fifty million dollar contract in the off-season. I would forget about Lebron and put my money into Lee and a good SG/SF for less money.

All it took for Drew Brees to finally get respect was to win a Super Bowl against a future first ballot Hall of fame QB. Looking at the last few years I am leaning towards saying that Brees should have won two MVP awards.

Cris Carter is a first ballot Hall of fame wide receiver even if he is in the same class as Jerry Rice and Emmit Smith

It's sad seeing UFC legends getting passed by. Tito Ortiz shut up a retire.

Regardless of free agency or the draft, if the Patriots lose Pro Bowl NT Vince Wilfork after the upcoming season than they will need to completely overhaul their defense

Nothing says Valentines Day like the NBA All-Star Game at a football stadium

Dana White promised Boston UFC a PPV this summer. Lesnar will be healthy by then. Smell the money

Saw Johnny Damon on the side of the road the other day with a sign.. '"Will play decent offensive left field for a multi-year contract making 150% of my market value."

Would the Patriots sign Terrell Ovens & LT for a year to make a Super Bowl run?

Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, John Lackey, Dice-K, Clay Bucholz, Tim Wakefield, Boof Bonser, Michael Bowden, etc. With those starters the Red Sox don't need to worry about their offense, they should be able to win I-0 or 2-1 every game.

Tim Thomas gets named to the USA Olympic team and he ends up as the Bruins backup the year after he won the Vezina Trophy. The Bruins have the seventh best goals against in the NHL so he can’t be that bad. If the B's were healthy and could score and have competent defensemen they would be a contender.

Does Boxing still exist?

Urban Meyer needs to stay away from Florida for this year for the health of everyone else

The Thunder will win an NBA title before the Mariners or Seahawks even make a Super bowl or World Series. The Mariners should make the playoffs this year by winning a weak American League West.

The Giants getting Tim Lincum for less than twelve million per year for the next two years is a steal. He would get close to twenty million per year for a long term contract on the open market.

Frank Thomas officially retired after close to two decades as one of the most feared hitters in baseball. The future first ballot Hall of former is still the best tight end in Auburn history. He could have been a great NFL player.

The Dolphins release Joey Porter because he is a loud mouth with declining skills. A few hours later the team had to bring him back to improper timing of his release. They have agreed to keep him but bought out his mouth and attitude for 750,000.

The BengaIs must be concerned about their image. They are no longer the league leaders in arrests, so they signed WR Matt Jones (out of the NFL for drug issues) and worked out to Pacman Jones. Gilbert Arenas has a tryout next week.

A tip for Donte Stallworth’s agent. Try to get a public transportation endorsement instead of a car dealership. Just a thought.

For the moment I am out of athletes to insult and degrade, so until next time the sports world is on watch.

Brain Enema 11-10-09

The Yankees won their 27^th World Series but next year’s team will be missing Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Andy Pettite, and who knows who else. They will still be good because they can outspend anyone, but their lack of a farm system will continue to be a huge issue for them. You can buy players all day long but if you can’t develop a farm system then you won’t be able to get the players you need during the year to replace the old and feeble free agents signed in the offseason.

The Colts may have one of the best records in the NFL but they are not a Super Bowl team. Their defensive backfield has been decimated by injuries (Bob Sanders is not a top safety in the NFL, healthy or not) and the offense is not as dangerous as they once were. The Colts will be in the playoffs but they lack the bodies and talent to get a ring.

Can the WWE please put the Undertaker in one final casket match and haul him away? He has had one of the best runs in wrestling history, but four months at a time of obviously injured Taker doesn’t help his legacy or the company in general. He needs a reduced role where he grooms a replacement, and he needs to stop holding titles, unless they are tag team belts.

Good news Minnesota Twins fans, Michael Cuddyer had his option picked up for the 2010 season and JJ Hardy was acquired from the Brewers. Not only do the Twins keep the best power hitter they have and add a solid offensive shortstop, they show Joe Mauer that they are willing to spend money to have a competitive team.

Memo to the NHL: If a player has swine flu he sits. Grow a spine before the entire league has teams full of players that are on the shelf.

Rajon Rondo resigning with the Boston Celtics is bad news for the rest of the NBA. Rondo would have been the best point guard available as a free agent in years had he not signed an extension. Rondo needs to improve on his shooting, but the same things were said about Jason Kidd, and Rondo has the potential to be better than Kidd.

Ty Law is back in the NFL, signing with the Broncos. Apparently Denver had a need for a reserve cornerback that could generate frequent pass interference penalties and give up huge chunks of yardage. I wonder if Law can feed his family on his prorated salary for the year.

Brad Mills will be an amazing manager for the Astros. The cupboard is almost bare in Houston but Mills has the skills to get the most out of whatever talent he is given. I worry about the Red Sox success without him as the bench coach.

Andre Reed the Buffalo Bills Future Hall of Fame Wide Receiver once said “You are going to get hit either way so you might as well hold onto the ball”. Wes Welker of the Patriots must have taken that to heart, as you can drive him through a brick wall and he will still hold onto the ball. He might be the best possession receiver of his era.

Phil Kessel signed a huge offer sheet with the Maple Leafs, costing the team their first three draft picks next year. Kessel just returned from rotator cuff surgery and recorded ten shots in his first game, and another seven shots that were blocked. He could be just the spark the team needs, however the Leafs are so bad that no matter how well Kessel performs the Leafs will still be at the bottom of the NHL.

I started to watch V and I can’t help but find myself waiting for Fox Mulder to pop up and try to help humanity and then be viciously killed. The show seems like a long X-Files episode, which isn’t a bad thing, but I doubt I will keep watching.

Hulk Hogan joining TNA will end up working, but not in the way most people are expecting. The fans that have left wrestling will return to relive the glory days, but will find a show that actually has talented wrestlers even if they are not the household names of the past. They will be amazed at the action and watch. Most of the current fans will stay in hopes that the company doesn’t get screwed up and will continue to push the people that actually can wrestle, not just the has-been friends of Hogan. TNA will have a rocky transition as some wrestlers will be without a role and will end up lost in the shuffle. Once the newness of Hogan wears off is when the company will see if their investment has paid off. If Hogan becomes an on air talent or tries to wrestle than all will be lost as Hogan couldn’t wrestle thirty years ago, let alone today. If he stays out of the way the company should thrive. If he is put in charge of running the show than all bets are off as to what may happen.

Blake Griffin will suffer from the Clippers curse and become another Danny Manning. I hope it doesn’t happen but that franchise cripples talent worse than a polio outbreak.

If the NFL wants to put a franchise in London (or anywhere in Europe) they will have to face a huge obstacle with not only the huge popularity of soccer (played at the same time of year) but also with the economic issues (value of the dollar versus the Pound or Euro). It is a good idea in theory but not in reality.

Tim Wakefield is close to resigning a two-year contract extension with the Red Sox. Wakefield may not have any fingers left to throw a knuckleball by the time he finally retires.

Wrestling Gets Interesting Again

Nigel McGuiness (aka Desmond Wolfe) may have made the biggest decision in wrestling since WCW and ECW went out of business almost a decade ago. During the high point of wrestling in the mid to late 90’s (the Monday Night Wars era) it was common to see wrestlers move from the WWE(F) to ECW to WCW and surprise the world. The time of instant Internet news was still years away, and most people only knew about what they saw on television. If a wrestler’s contract was running out, or if someone was let go, you didn’t know until you either stopped seeing them, or until they showed up in another company. There was no common knowledge of who was unhappy, who wanted to go to another company, or if an injury was legit or part of an angle. Once WCW and ECW folded and the age of instant online news grew there was nothing even the casual fan didn’t know about.

The WWE has owned the American wrestling world for almost a decade. If you didn’t make it there you either went to Japan, Mexico, small Indy federations, or were out of luck. When TNA and ROH started they were one of dozens of startup companies, but unlike most, they have lasted and become successful. TNA was the place where young talent got their chance and bigger names went to have a job and an easier schedule. As time passed TNA has become the place where wrestlers who wanted out of the WWE went. They have developed their own great talents, but the big names are mostly WCW, ECW, or WWE cast-offs. Ring of Honor was another company like TNA, but instead of storylines, it was a company were hungry wrestlers went to showcase their talent. The focus wasn’t on ratings it was putting on the best pure show possible. As a result most of the best talent has left ROH for more money in TNA or WWE. Recently the WWE signed Bryan Danielson (the best pure wrestler in the world in any company) and Nigel McGuiness (a tough bad guy talent and a mouth to back it up) perhaps the best two talents on the Indy circuit. The duo finished out their remaining schedule and had a final head to head match in ROH before reporting to the WWE.

TNA had their normal television taping last Monday and a newcomer attacked the biggest name in the company, Kurt Angle. The new wrestler was Desmond Wolfe, the man formerly known as Nigel McGuiness but without trademark blonde spiked hair. As soon as news of McGuiness’s appearance the Internet went crazy as to what happened with his WWE deal. Their official stance was that he had failed a medical test due to past injuries, but McGuiness and other sources confirmed that he had a WWE contract offer in hand, had met with the company, but never signed a contract. The ironic thing is that the Desmond Wolfe name came from WWE Chairman Vince McMahon but since it was never trademarked it was able to be used. Not only did the WWE lose out on a potential breakout star, but he went and signed with the closest thing to their competition, TNA. TNA had pulled off a free agent coup that hasn’t been since the Monday Night Wars days a decade earlier. For the good of the business perhaps this will be the catalyst that helps bring the WWE the true competition they need so that the industry can thrive once again.