Ohmigosh! They did it! All that skepticism and doubt – poof! The New York Giants have won Super Bowl XLII!  Congratulations G-Men! Here’s the 5 keys to the game that I think did it for you:

1. Eli Manning: Wow! I am a believer now. I seriously had him written off as a viable starting QB. As I have said before, I stand corrected. That 3rd and 5 play where he avoided the sack and threw that pass…wow!

2. David Tyree: Circus catches and focus! Did you see that catch? He got bent every which way and still held on to the ball in that important 4th quarter scoring drive.

3. Amani Toomer and Plaxico Burress: Toomer’s 38 yard catch with the acute awareness of his position was great! Buress scored the winning TD and you could just see the overwhelming feeling of gratitude hit him.

Continue reading "5 Reasons the New York Giants Won Super Bowl XLII"

In spite of the Mitchell Report and the hearing with Roger Clemens, I refuse to give up on Major League Baseball. Sure, there were some bad apples. Think about it – every profession has its share of them! For me, I am looking forward to the new season for a few reasons.

1. Joe Torre – Okay, so I am biased! I can’t wait to see what he can do with my hometown Los Angeles Dodgers. There have been some important acquisitions with players also…

2. Excitement – One of my favorite things to do is go to one of those early games in the MLB season. The stands are packed, the hopes are high!

3. Anticipation – Especially in the early months of the season – I love the anticipation of seeing whether my team is going to do well.

Continue reading "5 Reasons to Look Forward to Baseball"

Many fans of the NFL have been a bit superstitious over the years with players and curses. There’s the Sports Illustrated Curse, the Chunky Soup Curse, and the Madden Curse to name a few. Now that the New York Giants QB Eli Manning has been named the cover boy for John Madden’s football video game, Madden NFL 09, the Internet is abuzz with speculation about whether he will be the next victim.

Yeah, pretty superstitious! It’s all for good reason, sort of. Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb, Daunte Culpepper, and Marshall Faulk are just a few athletes that experienced a drop in performance after appearing on the cover.

Chunky Soup is blamed for ruining LaDainian Tomlinson, Ben Roethelisberger, and Kurt Warner to name a few.  Sports Illustrated is also blamed for ruining careers after athletes appear on their cover. In fact, they have an archive of misfortunes that happened after cover appearances over the decades.

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It was a different time in American history. The biggest threat to our national security was Russia as long-time cold war rivals.  President Jimmy Carter was considering a boycott of the Summer Olympics in Moscow and Captain & Tennille were had the #1 song in the country with “Do That To Me One More Time.”  Rich Eisen was 10 years old and John Madden was 54.

The U.S. Olympic Hockey squad was made up of both college players and amateurs – no professional NHL stars.  The team was incredible underdogs but pulled out a win and gave the country a new chant (U-S-A! U-S-A!) and the validation that hockey was indeed a sport America could be a contender in.

Continue reading "On this day in history: February 22, 1980 – the Miracle on Ice"