Maddux Sports Blog

Have a very great Christmas. Eat too much turkey, revel in your gifts, and try not to let your family drive you crazy.

All the best of the season!!!!

Santa,

I have been a good boy this year, and I am certain that nothing but good boys and girls come to read this site. I’m sure you already know this, but Christmas is tomorrow. I can only assume that you are planning to come to my house tonight. I hope the freezing temperatures and all the snow don’t make it too hard for you – I’d go up on the roof and shovel the snow, but that seems far too dangerous. Anyway, you’ll figure it out, and the milk and cookies will make it worthwhile. To make your job simpler, I thought I’d give you a short list of what I want for Christmas. Remember, I’ve been good…

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$180 million over eight years for Mark Teixera?!?!?! I didn’t think that even the Yankees were that stupid. If he’s worth than then what are guys like Pujols or Howard worth? The Yankees seem determined to ruin baseball by brute force.

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This is probably a ridiculous position, and I don’t really think I believe in it, but as I was watching Matt Cassel look like a superstar as he tore Arizona to pieces, I couldn’t help but think that maybe New England’s QB situation isn’t as straigh forward as it seems. Maybe they should do the unthinkable and trade away Tom Brady. As a Michigan fan, I can’t believe that I am even thinking that. Still, here are five reasons why this ridiculous suggestion could make some sense:

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The last installment. These are the New Year’s Day games and beyond.

Outback Bowl - Iowa -3. The Hawkeyes won five of six. South Carolina looked terrible in their last two, and they can’t stop the run.

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Same qualifier as last time – these are my picks, not official Maddux picks. They are also, as the name says, gut feelings, not carefully researched opinions.

Independence Bowl – Louisiana Tech (even). Northern Illinois comes in winning just one of four. Louisiana Tech won four of five. They are just the better team, so picking them when you don’t have to give up any points is a good thing.

Papa John’s Bowl - Rutgers -7. Both teams closed out hot, but Rutgers was better. They won their last six, and they finished off with a blowout of Louisville.

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As I do every time I make any kind of prediction on this blog, I remind you that these are merely my opinions, and in no way do they reflect what the guys at Maddux think, or what their picks will be. There will almost certainly be disagreements between these and their picks, so when in doubt go with theirs – they are the pros. That being said, here are my gut feelings for all 34 bowls, broken down into three days:

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I absolutely love bowls. People complain that there are too many, but I wish that there were more. As I’ve been looking over the bowls trying to get ready for them, some matchups have jumped out more than others. Here are the ten bowls, in order, that have me the most excited. Some won’t bethe ones you think:

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Now that we have had a few days to let it sit and percolate in our minds, let’s look back to see what we learned from last weekend’s mostly lackluster NFL games.

1. A lot of people are going to be concerned about my Buccaneers, but I’m not. Jeff Garcia wasn’t playing and they still took Atlanta to overtime. They are going to beat San Diego this week, then they will cruise past the Raiders with ease, and they’ll be comfortably in the playoffs. I still believe.

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I’m going to leave he review of last weekend’s football action for one day because there is too much other news to talk about:

82 year old Joe Paterno, fresh off of hip replacement surgery, has a new contract extension for three more years at Penn State. There are literally dozens of ways a guy could make fun of the situation, but given that the team is heading to the Rose Bowl as Big Ten champs while my team isn’t going anywhere. This is a situation we should appreciate while we can, I guess, because we sure won’t see anything like it again. I would love to be a fly on the wall around the program to know what kind of a role he actually plays with the team. Surely he can’t be very active anymore.

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