The Sports Review

With everyone and their Mother expecting a Kobe vs Lebron final, the Lakers’ assumed Western Conference Title might have to go through Salt Lake City. The Utah Jazz since January 9th are 17-2. They have maybe the best all-around power forward in the NBA in Carlos Boozer and one of the best point guards night-in and night-out in Deron Williams. The Jazz’s bench might be what sets them apart from a lot of the teams’ in the league with guys like Kyle Kover, Paul Milsap, and Wes Matthews flourishing in substitute roles. On Wednesday night Boozer scored 20 points in the second half to lead the Jazz over a scrappy Charlotte Bobcats team 102-93. The Jazz should be able to continue their success into the month of March where their schedule is very favorable with Boston, Phoenix, and Oklahoma City being the only tough teams they play. Look for hall of fame coach Jerry Sloan’s men to be in the thick of it once playoff time rolls around.

The question on everyone’s lips down in Miami for Super Bowl XLIV last week has been “Will Dwight Freeney play?”. The Indianapolis Colts pass rusher tore a ligament in his right ankle against the New York Jets in the AFC Championship Game and is unsure if he will be to play in the Super Bowl. Freeney laid out the possibility of playing simply during Super Bowl media day, “If I can run, I can play”. Head coach Jim Caldwell told the press on Friday that Freeney is making progress stating that Freeney was “trending in the right direction”. Many ex-pros have been saying all week that if Freeney can physically add anything to team then he’ll be out on the field on Sunday. The five-time Pro Bowler had 13.5 sacks this season and is key aspect of the Colts’ defense. If Saints’ quarterback Drew Brees is allowed time in the pocket it could be a long night for the Colts.

It has been reported that Detroit Tigers’ ace Justin Verlander is in talks with the club over a reported 5-year, $75 million deal that will keep the right hander in Motown. Verlander is coming off an All-Star season in which he won 19 games and ended the year with a 3.45 ERA. The 26-year-old is one of the most promising pitchers in the game with heat that breaks the 100 MPH mark. The current deal the Tigers have with Verlander expires after the 2011 season when if no deal is made the pitcher would be a free agent. In 2006 Verlander won the Rookie of the Year Award going 17-9 and became the only rookie pitcher to win 10 games before June in MLB history. Verlander has only one season with a losing record which was in 2008 when he went 11-17. The two sides appear to want to get this deal done before the 2010 season starts.

Gilbert Arenas did the silly thing of joking with a teammate about guns and then actually bringing a gun into the Verizon Center. The stadium is located in the District of Columbia, which has some very strict gun laws. Then he joked about it in public, with Twitter comments and goofy shooting motions at his teammates. This sealed his fate for the NBA for the moment, as he has been suspended indefinitely. Today he pleaded guilty to a weapons charge in the city, where he will end up with some impressive punishment. There is a possibility that he could be put in jail for a certain amount of time. But there is also the possibility that he will just get probation and something else. It doesn’t look like he will actually end up in jail for any length of time. But he will have to clean up his act a little bit if he wants to make a comeback of any kind.

Donovan McNabb struggled in the final weeks of this season. The biggest challenge for him was this weekend when he lost to the Cowboys for the second week in a row. It was particularly tough because they had already been shut out in their previous game. The Cowboys had their number, as they say, so they’re headed to the Divisional Round. Then the yearly question about whether Donovan McNabb is going to stay in Philly again this year or not. They are concerned about his record in the playoffs over the last years. Whether the team goes in as a Wild Card or as a division winner, they just don’t seem to be able to win it. They made it to the Super Bowl once, but they had a long series of simply losing in the NFC Championship. This weekend, losing in wild card might be embarassing, but they have a young team with some great talent. They shouldn’t dump McNabb just yet. It’s going to be a better year next year and hopefully continue that trend for several more years.

Kurt Warner has been in the league for only about a dozen years. But he’s 38 years old. Most quarterbacks don’t make it that long, and many never reach the level of play that Warner has been able to achieve for multiple years in a row. A long time ago, he was a Super Bowl champion. Then he was silent for nearly 4 years. I even didn’t realize that he was still a player in the league. Now he’s on his way back to the playoffs once again. Last year, he even led his team to a Super Bowl appearance. They didn’t quite win it, but they were awfully close. Will he be able to do it again? And what about next year? Is there another next year for Warner? Or has he been injured too many times to keep himself going much longer?

After we saw the end of the regular season for the NFL, we saw some teams jump for joy while they start to prepare for the playoffs and some other teams are disappointed with how things turned out. One of those teams is the Chicago Bears, who entered with high expectations, including being some experts’ pick to win the Super Bowl, and went on a 2-8 streak in the middle of their season. They started out strong and finished strong, but weren’t able to get the job done for long stretches. They would like to blame it on injuries, but there weren’t too many of those. They have some personnel issues and possibly some coaching issues. There is word that coordinators, coaches or administrative people might be headed out of town as soon as tomorrow. There are big discussions happening between head coach Lovie Smith and the top team officials this afternoon where we can assume some of these changes will be decided. Lovie Smith is respected by his players and by fans, when things are going well. There will definitely need to be some big shifts in attitude and style for some parts of the team. Hopefully this will get their team back on track.

Last week we talked about the Pacquiao vs Mayweather battle. It’s still not clear if it’s going to happen, but if it does, you should have Pacquiao vs Mayweather tickets and enjoy one of the biggest battles of the year. We have shown you that there are a lot of reasons to catch this thing. In fact, get your tickets now and then you’ll be assured of your spot; if the event doesn’t happen, you’ll be able to get a refund without trouble. Mayweather is one of the top boxers in the world right now, the American holding some championships. Possibly the only fighter that’s better than him in Manny Pacquiao, who has been boxing for most of his  years. He’s been able to take down almost all of the best fighters in the world. These two have never met before so it’ll be extra exciting to see what they are able to put together! Hopefully their current dispute will pass quickly and we can really see some fun!

The boxing battle between Manny Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather may be off. The Mayweather team has been talking about making sure that Pacquiao gets blood tested in a level like the Olympics. But so far the Filipino has refused to do that. The Pacquiao team says that the reason that the idea was raised is because Mayweather didn’t want to fight in the first place, rather than because they’re actually worried about him taking any performance enhancing drugs. It’s going to be interesting to see whether these two groups actually agree on anything in this department. But more likely, the battle is simply going to be cancelled, because that’s what the promoter seems to be saying today.

Mike Tomlin, what were you thinking? With about 4 minutes left and the Pittsburgh Steelers leading by 2 points last night, the Steelers coach decided to send an onside kick towards the Green Bay Packers. It’s not because the Packers are particularly bad. He just had a strange calculation in his head. He figured that, since Green Bay had been driving against them all day, he would surprise them and onside kick. If they didn’t happen to recover the ball (which they didn’t), they could either stop the Packers or they would have enough time on the clock after GB scored to drive back again. What about defense? What about denying them great field position from the get-go? This is a weird call and it was lucky for Tomlin that Roethlisberger made a great drive in the last two minutes of the game to win the game by a point. This keeps the Steelers’ playoff dreams alive and slightly hurts those of the Packers.