Seeing TBDS at full strength for the first time in four days made me very happy.
The only thing that could have made me happier involves a bottle of fine wine and a girl named Jill.
I digress. I've missed out on a lot of stuff over the last four days.
See, I've been busy at the real job and I've barely had time to eat, sleep and flirt with girls that are totally out of my league. So diagnosing our online problems has been the least of my concerns.
But it looks like everything is back to normal. And here we are on a Tuesday evening thinking this would be a great time to catch up with what's been on our minds.
Did you really think Brett Favre wasn't going to cost the Minnesota Vikings a chance to go to the Super Bowl?
After posting a career best 33-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio in the regular season, it was a matter of when, not if, Favre would revert to his gunslinger ways at the most inopportune time. Favre channeled his inner Jay Cutler as he rolled right and threw left when he could have easily scampered for a few yards and a positive gain.
And even though the loss cannot solely be pinned on Favre as his teammates, namely Adrian "Butterfingers" Peterson, it was Favre's last-second gaffe that will always stand out in that game.
There is no taking away from No. 4's legacy. Favre is one of the 10 best quarterbacks in the history of the game, but upon Sunday's defeat, I was ready to let him go. Completely. The circus act has become weary in each of the past three offseasons, and while he brings no more drama than any other professional athlete, it is the way it comes about that is bothersome.
The Green Bay Packers altered the way they went about the draft process to keep Favre and his ego happy before finally getting Aaron Rodgers as a steal in the 2005 NFL Draft with the 24th overall pick. In 2008, only a few months after retiring, asked for his unconditional release.
Yeah, like that was going to happen.
The only GM dumb enough to give one of the league's best quarterbacks his unconditional release because he didn't want to compete for a job resides at 1060 West Addison and is currently drawing up a contract worth a guaranteed $21 million and a full no-trade clause for the next five people who come to him with an agent, a surgically-repaired elbow or shoulder and a track record of failure.
No one will ever deny Favre's greatness. But if he keeps this up, people will remember the INTs that ended his time with the Packers, Jets and (possibly) Vikings more than the highlights of his 19-year career.
There might come a time when Ron Turner is the best candidate to become the Bears next offensive coordinator.
Is it too early to consider this offseason a failure?
The Bears keep getting turned down, most recently by Hue Jackson, who will reportedly take a job in Oakland, where he could get fired tomorrow. At least he would last a year under Jerry Angelo and Lovie Smith. The sad thing is that I don't necessarily blame anyone if they don't want to take this job.
Would you consider taking a job from an employer who told you the company might go under a year from now, or would you wait until a more firm, long-term deal is on the table?
That is what has to be going through the minds of these coaches, and unless someone can guarantee some stability from the Bears front office, it would be wrong to expect an impact hire as offensive coordinator.
The Chicago Cubs signed Xavier Nady to a one-year deal with a base salary of $3.3 million, according to ESPN.com and other sources. Nady is expected to be Kosuke Fukudome's right-handed hitting platoon mate in right field, while also spelling Alfonso Soriano in left and Derrek Lee at first base when necessary.
Nady, a former Pittsburgh Pirate, is coming off a season in which he played only seven games with the Yankees before undergoing Tommy John Surgery, making him your run-of-the-mill Jim Hendry acquisition.
There are two things that caught my eye as soon as this deal was announced.
Nady's base salary for 2010 ($3.3 million) is higher than Marlon Byrd's ($3 million) and I find that odd seeing that the Cubs expect Byrd to be the team's everyday center fielder. Nady is expected to be a fill-in trying to make good on an incentive-laden deal that could escalate to $5.5 million this season.
The second thing is that I find this deal odd considering the Cubs do not have an everyday second baseman, nor is their starting rotation or bullpen complete. The best remaining pitcher went off the boards today as Ben Sheets signed a one-year deal with a base salary of $10 million. Heck of a bargaining chip for Billy Beane, who will likely get some top prospects for Sheets if Oakland falls out of the race and Sheets pitches like a former four-time All-Star.
Speaking of All-Stars, how about that D-Rose dunk? Had we not been in a place that is considered death valley to cell phones, our Twitter feed would have blown up over the dunk.
Derrick Rose is one of the best point guards in the NBA and even though the Bulls are 8-5 in January, I wish he was under the tutelage of championship-caliber point guard.
I mean, Rose is averaging 26 points and 6.5 assists per game this month, to go along with a 51 percent shooting percentage from the field. Imagine how much better he could be if his top mentor wasn't Vinny Del Negro.
There is lots to be cheering about in Saluki Country, especially after back-to-back home wins against Illinois State and Western Kentucky.
It is apparent that SIU has rediscovered the concept of defense and applied it to Osiris Eldridge's final possessions in overtime on Saturday and throughout the team's win against Western Kentucky. And who thought Tony Freeman would end up becoming the defacto defensive stopper.
Freeman has been lauded for what he brings to the offensive end of the court, but what he has done against Osiris Eldridge (5-of-29 from the field, 2-of-9 from 3-point land) and A.J. Slaughter (2-for-12, 2-for-7 from beyond the arc) is nothing short of spectacular.
Since Freeman's comments about team focus were published, the team has started off strong and finished stronger down the stretch. Kudos to play-by-play man Mike Reis, who dropped off one of the best stat lines a team could have. Did you know that SIU entered last night's game against WKU connecting on 82 percent of its free-throw attempts in the last five minutes of ball games.
In the end, Southern will go as far as Kevin Dillard will take them. In his last two games, KD has gone 8-for-16 from the field, 2-for-5 from the 3-point line and 17-for-20 from the charity stripe. He has added 17 assists against six turnovers, which is nearly a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. The Salukis' inside-out game featuring Anthony Booker and Eugene Teague is most efficient when Dillard is most efficient. So is Carlton Fay.
Amidst the turmoil that has surrounded the program with the DePaul rumors and Teague academic issues, the only way for head coach Chris Lowery to escape the Dawg House is to keep his ball club focused and playing well.
Winning cures all.
Except for herpes.
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