Cal moving up

Cal was ranked #6 at the start of the day and since #5 and #3 have lost, they should be 4th. However, my other team, the Gators, is in trouble. They're #4, so if they lose, and I hope they don't, Cal could be #3. That would be about as high as they've been ranked as far as I can remember. I know they were up pretty high a few years back when they got a raw deal from the BCS, but I don't know if they were #3. I think I'd rather see Florida at 3 and Cal at 4.

Chargers not the same team

The Chargers had the Packers with about 2 minutes left and should have beaten them. You can say don't blame Norv Turner all you want, and that it's really a problem on defense, but the offense isn't the same. They've got almost the same guys, and their primary playmakers are the same, but the results aren't there. Norv Turner is the guy who calls the plays and something is just not working so far. It's a long season, and the next three games should be wins, which would make them 4-2 with some momentum. We'll see what happens.

Super Bowl - Colts win

At least this Super Bowl was competitive for a little while. The Colts dominated but the score was close until late in the third quarter. The commercials were typical for a Super Bowl -- beer, cards, GoDaddy.com, and a bunch of other stuff that I don't remember. Nothing really jumped out at me. No Apple/iTunes ad. I'll have to go back and watch them again. There were some funny ones like the Taco Bell commercial with the two lions. That might have been my favorite

First black coach in Super Bowl

I don't get why Lovie Smith is the first black coach in the Super Bowl. Tony Dungy is also black, and the Super Bowl starts at the same time for both of them, so aren't they both the first black coach in the Super Bowl. It seems ridiculous that because the Bears game ended first that Lovie Smith is first and Tony Dungy is second. It makes no sense. It's about the Super Bowl, not which team was in first.

Lane Kiffin new Raiders coach - bad career move

The Raiders have their guy - Lane Kiffin from USC. He's younger than nine current players and the youngest coach in the modern era of pro football, 31 years old. I guess he doesn't subscribe to the Sporting News, which has a scary looking picture of his new boss on the current cover. I don't know if Lane Kiffin is going to fix the problems facing the Raiders. He's got to improve their offense, but after the bed and breakfast guy, that shouldn't be too hard to do. I just wonder how hard it will be for him to get guys like Randy Moss and Jerry Porter to play hard for him. There are just too many knuckleheads on the Raiders. I just hope he's got an out clause in his five year contract.

Sunday football

I was hoping to see the Colts against the Saints in the Super Bowl, but I'm at least half wrong. And it's not looking good for the Colts. I think the weather worked against the Saints a little bit, but not enough to change the outcome. I'd like to see the Colts come back in the second game and make it competitive. It's going to be tough to outcoach Bill Bellichick however. If the Patriots make it to the Super Bowl, I think they would be the favorites considering their experience.

Beckham coming to LA

I was reading in the LA Times today about how David Beckham would probably end up staying in Europe because the quality of play in MLS isn't high enough. That seemed odd, since he's not playing much for Real Madrid and he got booted off the English team. So I clicked onto CNNsi.com and the headline was Beckham coming to LA Galaxy. I guess $250 million is enough to make you not worry too much about the level of competition.

Bring on Boise State

I know it's not going to happen, but it would be nice if Boise State had a shot at the national championship. They haven't lost and if there was a real playoff system for college football, they might have a chance to play their way to the title. Even though I'm a Gator fan, it still doesn't feel right that the championship isn't really decided on the field. Sure, they beat #1, but now you've got two teams with 1 loss and Boise State, which may end up #3 or #4, who knows, with no losses.

Gators looking good

I wouldn't call myself a huge Florida football fan, but when they have a good team, I like to mention that I'm a graduate of UF. I was hoping for the best against Ohio State, but never imagined that the Gators would just run them out of the building, as they have in the first half. Florida's offense hasn't been stopped much at all and they get the ball to start the second half, so things are looking good. Urban Meyer has called some excellent plays and the defense has been incredible.

Raiders fire Art Shell, again

Art Shell only lasted one year with the Raiders this time. He's probably better off without all the headaches that go with trying to coach the Raiders. His big mistake was hiring that guy from the bed and breakfast to run the offense. Things have changed in 12 years and it didn't make sense to hire a guy who had been out of football that long.

Who wants this job anyway? Until Al Davis steps aside, whenever that might happen, the Raiders aren't going to come back. They've got too many malcontents on their roster and they keep adding more of them. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they went after Terrell Owens for next season.

LSU - Notre Dame blowout

JaMarcus Russell, the LSU quarterback, looked like a guy who belonged in a better league with larger players. I don't think I've ever seen someone throw the ball as easily as he does and have it go so far or so fast. He just flipped his wrist and the ball zoomed across the field 30 yards and when he was stationary, 40-50 yards was no problem. I believe the story that he can throw it 85 yards. I wonder if he won the Punt, Pass and Kick competition.

Boise State wins

That Boise State game was incredible. It looked liked they were going to fall apart in the last few minutes and blow it, and when Oklahoma ran back the interception for a touchdown with a little bit more than a minute left, it seemed like the game was over. I almost turned it off at that point. The 4th down hook and ladder play for the tying touchdown was a great call, but when Oklahoma scored so easily in the first OT, again I figured it was over. Boise State didn't look good on their possession and had to scratch for a first down. Eventually they scored and the two point conversion was an amazing play. I hope Boise State breaks into the top 5 after that win. There really does need to be a playoff system because a team like Boise State doesn't have much of a chance the way things work now.

Bowl games

I remember when I was a kid, you had to watch all the major college bowl games on the same day, New Year's Day. There were other bowls that came before January 1, but the important ones were all on that day, starting in the morning and ending pretty late at night on the east coast. Now, they have all kinds of bowl games and the important ones seem to be played one per day. I guess there are three more games this week, starting at 5 PM on weekdays for the first two anyway. I think I'd rather see a playoff system so that you wouldn't have all these teams sitting around for 4-6 weeks waiting to play the bowl game.

Jeff Garcia fan

I always liked Jeff Garcia when he was with the 49ers. We lived in San Jose at the time and he did too, plus he was from San Jose and his dad was his coach. I felt bad for him when the 49ers let him go and also when he had to endure some of the stupid comments made by Terrell Owens. Glad to see that Jeff Garcia is doing well and it was quite a contrast to watch the post game comments he made compared with Terrell Owens, who only complained about not getting the ball. Garcia is a team guy and he shows that in the way he plays. Owens has always been a me-first player who disrupts the team whenever things aren't going his way. I don't expect him to be back with the Cowboys next year and maybe other teams will wise up and see that as good as he can be on the field, his other antics make him not worth the effort.

Chargers win

The Chargers didn't look too good against the Seahawks today in the second half, which was when I was watching. They did manage to pull it out at the end, so they have the best record in the NFL now. I think if they can avoid playing games in bad weather they should make it to the Super Bowl as long as Philip Rivers can limit his mistakes. He didn't have a good game today but he made the big play when it counted.

One thing that bugged me watching the game was hearing Dick Enberg and Randy Cross keep saying that guys were dropping balls and Rivers had a poor completion percentage and they never once mentioned the fact that it was raining the entire game. Gee, I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

NFL Network again

I'm watching the Cowboys play the Falcons on the NFL network. It's a good game, but it is painful to listen to Dick Vermeil provide commentary. He has a bad case of laryngitis and should have stayed home. Bryant Gumbel's minimalist play by play technique is fine with me and I guess I have gotten used to the idea that he doesn't have one of those announcer voices that sounds like it's amplified.

I have never seen this happen before, but at halftime, they replaced Dick Vermeil with Deon Sanders and Marshall Faulk. Dick will try to come back on Thursday and do another game.

How come every time Bryant Gumbel mentioned that the guy he usually works with, Cris Collinsworth, wasn't at the game, he said that it was "planned in advance"? I guess because people say they don't like each other and have no chemistry.