Go Away......No Wait!

Brett Favre needs to go away. If he is coming back just to play football again, then why did he leave New York. The truth is that he is coming back just to stick it to the Packers, which might not happen anyways. It's a terrible reason to play football, especially because the Packers supported him through all his ups and downs for how many years? like 13 or something? He hasn't been good for 5 years and will not be good for the rest of his career.

Of course the Vikes and Brett are awfully alike. Favre can't make good decisions anymore, though he still has all the tools for him to be a highly efficient leader of the offense. The Vikings are perpetually a team loaded with talent that is either 1) wildly overpaid for (Hutchinson, Chester Taylor, Jared Allen) or 2) coincidentally falls in their lap by happenstance (Adrian Peterson, the Williams'). Though loaded with athletes, they are just as perpetually marred in mediocrity, mostly because of their apparent allergy to competent coaching staffs. An example of their terrible management is the fact that Brett Favre would be an obvious upgrade at QB despite their previous blind devotion to horrible quarterbacks.

These two are a meant for each other now that I think about it. I would love to see this happen.

Federer's Redemption

As I watched Roger Federer accept his French Open Championship trophy, it is almost impossible not to feel such elation for him.  His cold,  icy demeanor on the court is always shed immediately after a tournament is complete.  Tennis fans have seen his tears many times, though usually they are tears of joy.  Last year at this time, however, they were tears of sadness.  He had been embarassed at the French Open final by Rafael Nadal in a tournament that looked as if he had the ability to finally overcome the player that prevented his Grand Slam.  He openly cried on the court after the match, something that had never been seen previously.  Nadal was seemingly overtaking him as the premiere player in the world, and Roger's time to become a Grand Slam Champion was dwindling.  How someone so obviously emotional can keep his focus during his matches is a mystery.  But he does, and today's Championship match is a perfect example of that.  After being up 2 sets to none, and with only one game in his way to being the champion, Roger was clearly holding his tears back.  After he fought through his emotions and Soderling hit a forehand into the net, Federer fell to the court in tears of elation.  It was a wonderful scene, one that gave me chills when NBC replayed it a few times.  If you missed this touching moment, click on the title of this entry.

His resume is now full of more accomplishments than anyone else in Tennis history.  He is one of six people to complete a career Grand Slam.  He is now tied for the most Majors in history with 14.  He will certainly win at least one more before his career is up.  Of the last 16 majors in tennis, Federer has been in the Finals of 15 of them.  Everyone knows he dominates on grass and hard courts.  Not only those, but in fact Federer is a spectacular clay court player.  He has been to the French Open final for the last four years, though he has only won this most recent visit.  Mary Carillo, an experienced and trusted analyst, stated during this match that she believes he is the third best clay court player of all time: trailing Nadal and Bjorn Borg.  So if he has 13 majors on the big surfaces, at least one major on the clay, and is considered dominant on all surfaces, then one would have to say that he is the greatest tennis player of all time.  Even the great Bjorn Borg, whom any player who faced him considered him the GOAT, was not able to complete the career Grand Slam.  

Of course many people would say that this French Open championship was tainted.  The fact that Nadal was ousted with an apparent knee injury before Federer had to face him is something that will be discussed on sports talk radio (I figured I would pre-empt the talk).  But in reality it doesn't matter.  Injuries and the ability to stay healthy is a major reason why we consider some of the people we do as champions.  Certainly there would be players in any sport that would have hall of fame careers but were de-railed with injuries.  The truth of the matter is that Federer winning the French without having to face Nadal does not taint his accomplishment.  It is part of being a champion...when you have an opening you pounce on it.  You don't always have to be the best person or team, but you always have to take advantage of weaknesses and be the best in certain moments.  He certainly was the best in this tournament, pouncing on his opportunity today.  He looked completely dominant facing the man that knocked out Nadal earlier in the fortnight.  He almost never made mistakes, and his forehand was unstoppable.  When he is in a groove, he seemingly glides to the ball and creates great shots out of defensive positions.  Today was no different.  Winning convincingly in straight sets solidifies his spot as a great clay court player.  He is certainly the greatest tennis player of all time. 

The Cavs and the Cards

Everyone in the world has been talking about the Cavaliers this week. Specifically LeBron James.  I don't really care to comment on the whole 'walking off the court and then not speaking to the press' thing.  He is not a saint, though everyone seems to think so.  That being said, it's not a big deal.  Nothing interesting comes from a losing player in those post-game conferences.

What I do want to talk about is how people are treating the Eastern Conference Finals.  Now that the Magic have advanced, the talk around the dial is that LeBron was let down by his teammates.  I have heard this multiple times, from Anita Marks to Bill Simmons.  This is what I have to say about it:  of course LeBron James is the best player on the Cavs.  He is a freak of nature that can make every player around him better.  His offensive skills are practically endless and he is borderline unstoppable when he is playing well.  The problem with the idea of his team letting him down is that most of them did not play any worse than they did during the regular season.  With the exception of Mo Williams, everyone else played to their potential.  Delonte West was pretty good actually.  Varajao was his usual flopping self.  Big Z was slow on both sides, but was a big body taking up space.  The backups were almost completely ineffective.  All of these things were par for the course when it comes to the regular.  If Mo Williams had played as well as he did during the season, they MIGHT have won an extra game in the series, but I doubt it.  

The truth of the matter is, the main people 'responsible' for the Cavs' lost was Mike Brown and LeBron.  For one, Mike Brown seems to utilize the most vanilla, lethargic offense in the history of the NBA.  He never really adjusted to the fact that their guards are 6 inches shorter than their Magic counterparts.  And when the game was on the line, it seemed like his ability to get the ball in the hand of anyone else but LeBron was absent.  The problem is, the last one might be the King's fault just as much as the head coach's.  No one seems to want to recognize how many mistakes LeBron made this series.  Other than having freakish offensive statistics, he also made a ton of turnovers.  He has improved his passing greatly, but he is not a point guard.  Why was he constantly taking the ball down the court in the 4th quarter?  And when he did, why did he settle for so many terrible jump shots when the referees would have more than likely thrown him a bone anyway if he had driven to the basket?  On top of this, his defense was less than stellar.  I know he had to pace himself or he would not have been able to carry the offense, but he just plain did not play well on that side of the ball.  Like Ric Buecher said, maybe if he had learned how to conserve energy on offense, instead of playing point guard, shooting guard, and small forward, then maybe he could have stretched out his talents a little more.  The team just plain is not very good, and LeBron took it about as far as he could.  But you can't say they let him down, they were never any better than this.

Another thing that people are talking about is the firing of Drew Rosenhaus by Anquan Boldin.  I have loved Boldin for years and consider him a real football player.  This firing is more proof that he just wants to play and the contract talk is not in his interest.  He might want to be traded or get a better contract, but it is not him to make a big fuss about it.  I am happy to see that some players are not going to be insubordinate just because they are not happy with their salary. 

As for the Cardinals...when did they start making the correct decisions?  Sitting on Boldin's contract is the second best thing they have done this offseason.  They resigned Kurt Warner to a respectable contract, which was almost a no-brainer.  Now they are not being sucked into Drew Rosenhaus' games by trading Boldin for less value.  There are two years left on his contract.  They will have the services of a hard-working pro bowl receiver during a period when the team should be able to return back to the Super Bowl.  They were one miraculous catch away from a championship, they certainly could use his talents for the next two years.  Plus, if the 2008 Cardinals end up being a fluke and they revert back to the Cardinals we all know and love, then they still have Boldin on contract for one year to trade away.  Sure, they won't get as much as they would have this offseason, but they would still receive a few draft picks for guy they would not be resigning anyway.  I personally think they will be Championship contenders again this year, and Boldin is one of the reasons for that.