The Sports Review

The NFL just completed their regular season, so the NFL playoffs are ready to begin. Several teams finally cemented their playoff position yesterday and it should be an exciting road to the Super Bowl. Several of the teams are perennial contenders, and there are some newbies. And some teams, like the New England Patriots, haven’t made it at all. Next week, Wild Card weekend, pits Miami vs Baltimore and San Diego vs Indianapolis in the AFC. In the NFC, Minnesota takes on Philadelphia and Arizona vs Atlanta. And that’s just the beginning. In the next weeks, we get Pittsburgh, Tennessee, the New York Giants and Carolina into the mix. It’s going to be an exciting postseason. You should go to a game or two, don’t you think? Check out this site where you can get NFL playoffs tickets today!

Tonight will be the first matchup between the top two picks of last year’s NBA draft. Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls will take on Michael Beasley and the Miami Heat. Get the full game preview right here at NBA.com. Regardless of who the winner is, the game is surely going to be entertaining.

The New York Jets just needed more drama. Just after they lost to the Seattle Seahawks 13-3. Just after they got themselves deep in the hole in the AFC East. The 3 teams were tied before last weekend, but now that the Jet’s lost the game against the vastly inferior Seahawks, they are a game behind with one game to play. They’re really going to have to hope for a big miracle in order to even make the playoffs this year. Ah well, they can’t expect everything, not in Favre’s comback year. One of many comeback years, incidentally. Anyway, they have a low chance of making it, but they face another relatively good team. So we’ll just have to wait and see.  Oh, but I almost forgot the drama. Shaun Ellis was fined $10,000 for throwing snow at the fans on the way out. So life never stops being interesting for them in Jets-land.

It’s a well known fact now that the second NHL Winter Classic will feature the Chicago Blackhawks against the Detroits Redwings at Wrigley Field. It’s going to be a huge spectacle… bigger than last year’s most likely. The whole country will be watching with great interest. Neither team can afford to forget, however, that they will have a game against each other only two days beforehand on December 30th. With all the hype surrounding the Winter Classic, it may be easy to overlook “just another regular season game.” But that’s all the Winter Classic is too. If they look too far ahead to January 1st, either team could drop a quick loss on December 30th. Patrick Kane of the Blackhawks knows this, and he’s trying to stress this to his team.

Rafael Furcal seems to be moving closer to signing a deal with the Atlanta Braves, according to reports. Apparently the source for the story says that Furcal wants to go to Atlanta and the Braves want to have him.  They just have some details to work out and they will announce when they can. Furcal is one of the big names in the league lately and he would be a good addition to the Braves who are running out of their fabled pitchers, with Smoltz and Glavine being older. They need some good players to replace them.

Tonight’s matchup with the Washington Wizards marks a huge occasion for the Boston Celtics. Not only will they have the chance to win an impressive 13 in a row, they also have the opportunity to post a 21-2 record for the first time in franchise history. After some stumbling in the beginning stages of the season, the Celtics have roared back with a dozen straight wins, many of them being road games. Read more by clicking here.

The NFL Players Union has appealed the fine placed on Plaxico Burress after his incident two weeks ago, saying that it violates the collective bargaining agreement. Burress has made big news lately after he shot himself in the leg and is now in biiig trouble. He had no license to carry such a firearm and so now he’s going to be going to jail, should he be convicted. His lawyers contend that he has something to prove that he didn’t do it, but it’s hard to tell. We’ll see what happens. In any event, the player’s union is certainly sticking up for the players, just as they’re supposed to.

The Alabama Crimson Tide will play host to the Florida Gators this Saturday for the SEC Title Championship. However, there is a whole lot more at stake than simply the conference championship. The winner of this match is all but assured a spot in the BCS National Championship game. Alabama, with a 12-0 record, would love to finish with a perfect season and a chance to cap it off with a championship. Florida, however, would love to return to the BCS Championship status they held only a few years ago. This game is going to be a rehashing of the classic question: Power or Speed? Alabama has the power but Florida has the speed.

The Tampa Bay Bucs took on the New Orleans Saints last weekend.  Tampa Bay is on a huge rolls, having won their last four games and tied for the lead in the NFC South. New Orleans is at the bottom of the NFC South, but the team isn’t quite out of it yet. It would take a pretty impressive miracle for them to take the division, but it is still possible. But the Bucs took the game this weekend, so that eliminated a good chance for the Saints to move up on the division. The Bucs QB Jeff Garcia, threw just 119 yards, which makes it the second week in a row that he’s won throwing less than 200 yards. Brees threw 296 yards on 49 attempts and 3 interceptions. Tampa Bay is in a tough battle for the top of the division against the Panthers. A few weeks and we will know.