Happy Tuesday everyone, here's my Top 5 for January 19, 2010 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
* The Colts are 7 1/2 point favorites over the Jets. They were 18 point favorites over the Jets in Super Bowl III.
* In their first ever home NFC Championship game, the Saints are 4 1/2 point favorites over Minnesota.
* Wade Phillips is reportedly safe as Dallas Cowboys coach.
* The Dominican Winter Baseball League has banned former Major Leaguer Jose Offerman for life. He was managing a game and took a swing at an umpire.
* Rachel Alexandra was voted horse of the year, beating out another filly, Zenyatta.
* Former Knick Stephon Marbury has signed with Shanxi in the Chinese Basketball Association. The Chinese may actually be the only ones to understand what Marbury is saying.
2. Tweet Tweet
At 11:30 yesterday morning, Darrelle Revis of the Jets tweeted @Revis 24. "Good mornin world we doin it, Believe!!!"
Couple of thoughts. Glad he got to sleep in. Obviously spelling doesn't count on Twitter. And most important, when he made that ridiculous interception in San Diego, I thought of David Tyree's incredible helmet catch. Winners make plays like that. They also win playoff games on the road just like the Super Bowl champion Giants did two years ago. So don't blame your favorite Jets fan if he's acting a little goofy. It's been a long time coming.
3. Running Up The Score
So do you buy what the Minnesota Vikings are selling? When they had the game in hand against Dallas they still threw a meaningless touchdown pass. The Vikings maintained they were just being aggressive for the entire game. Citing a Lou Holtz quote they said "It's our job to score points. It's their job to stop us from scoring points."
The Cowboys might have been a little closer to the truth with a one word explanation. "Classless."
4. He Knows, Jack!
Former major leaguer Jack Clark teed off on the steroid cheats in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
"All those guys are cheaters -- A-Rod. Fake, phony. Rafael Palmeiro. Fake, a phony. [Roger] Clemens, [Barry] Bonds. [Sammy] Sosa. Fakes. Phonies. They don't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. They should all be in the Hall of Shame." [McGwire is] a sad excuse for a player in the industry of baseball. Just seeing him in uniform makes me throw up."
Talk about hitting a grand slam. But doesn't it nag at you that active players never said this kind of stuff about their cheating brethren?
5. Lets Make A Deal
The line of the week comes from Brad Dickson in the Omaha World-Herald. He wrote, "Gilbert Arenas faced five years in jail on felony gun charges, but late on Friday he plea bargained down to two years with the Nets."
Does that sound like a better deal to you?
Happy Birthday: Giants Super Bowl XXV ("Wide Right") MVP O.J. Anderson. 53.
Bonus Birthday: Singer Dolly Parton. 64.
Today in Sports: You're off the hook, George. President Reagan pardons George Steinbrenner for making illegal contributions to Richard Nixon. 1989.
Bonus Event: The Z and Q are both worth 10 points, but the J and X are only worth 8. The debut of Scrabble. 1955.