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College Basketball Philadelphia Eagles

Favor: The Gift and The Curse

By: Maurice K Dixon

It’s nice to know when some pick your team, but it makes me a little uneasy when all pick my team as the next one to cut down the last arrangement of nets. Honestly, I don’t have an issue with the experts’ opinions. I have issues with the increasing expectations because they add to the pressure, which if mishandled could evolve into shortcoming.

The North Carolina Tar Heels (college basketball’s outright No. 1 at the start of the season) or “my boys” – the group of talented ball players I have repeatedly referred to in first person (we) over the years – are expected to win it all. The analysts have all said it. The columnists have all written it. The magazines have all printed it on the front pages.

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NFL General

Super Bowl XLIII Picks and Podcast

Where’s the hype?  It’s Super Bowl week and the cover of Sports Illustrated is LeBron?  What’s going on here.  We realize the Steelers are boring and the Cardinals are from a small market but we finally got what we wanted (less hype surrounding the Super Bowl) and it just doesn’t feel right.

This week, because there’s only one game to pick, we get more into PTI mode and talk random sports stories.  But we do have Jesus joining us to talk sports and pick the winner of Super Bowl XLIII.   The son of God admits being wrong last year but thinks he has the right pick for this one.

You can download the podcast directly (running time 90 mins) or subscribe to the feed.

If you’re subscribed to our NFL picks podcast, don’t forget to subscribe to Poor Man’s PTI. We’ll be back in two weeks.

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General Sports NFL

Girls on the Side(lines)

“A woman with a woman’s viewpoint is of more value when she forgets she’s a woman and begins to act like a man.” –Leonor Kretzer Sullivan, American Congressman

On January 20, 2009, the first African American President of the United States was sworn into office. The country wept with pride, hope and relief, with a renewed faith in their nation for breaking down barriers. It was a truly monumental occasion in American history.

Except for the fact that we elect a president every four years.

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Arizona Cardinals NFL Philadelphia Eagles

NFL Flashback: 1948 NFL Championship, Eagles vs Cardinals

On Dec. 19, 1948 the city of Philadelphia was to play home to the first televised NFL Championship game, pitting the West Division champion, and defending NFL champion, Chicago Cardinals and the home town Philadelphia Eagles.

The Eagles were also defending East Division champions and were looking for revenge after the previous season’s loss to the Cardinals, 28-21, in the championship bout. Mother Nature had other things in mind.

Snow piled on the city, raising questions as to whether or not the game would even be played or if it would be postponed. To today’s Philadelphia fan, this story may seem all too familiar. The championship game, held in Shibe Park, was delayed for thirty minutes while the grounds crew cleaned up the field.

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Arizona Cardinals NFL Philadelphia Eagles

NFL Flashback: 1947 NFL Championship, Eagles vs CardinalsT

Today we take a look at the 1947 NFL Championship game between the Eagles and the Chicago Cardinals.

If you are an Eagles fan you no doubt know that the last time the Eagles won an NFL championship was 1960, before the Super Bowl was even a thought.

What about the Cardinals? The last time the franchise won an NFL title came thirteen years before the Eagles’ last championship, in 1947!

It was a rough road for the Cardinals, who at the time played in Chicago. Playing in the shadow of the Chicago Bears, who had won five NFL titles in eight tries between 1933 and 1946, was a hard task.

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NFL General

2008 NFL Conference Championship Picks and Podcast

And here we go with the most exciting week in the NFL season. The conference championship weekend is so much better than the Super Bowl. Two great games, 1/100 of the hype. You can download the podcast directly (running time 90 mins) or subscribe to the feed.

If you use iTunes, just click here and then click subscribe and iTunes will take care of the rest.

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NFL General

The Vick Quandary

Get this. Michael Vick, a superstar quarterback in the National Football League, pulling down an obscene amount of coin to play a game he probably loves, could lose his career because he made sport of watching dogs kill, and die. Good fun for deranged folk. Maybe I’m a hard judge. I never understood the appeal of blowing a deer’s brains out, either.

This whole saga becomes more incredibly warped as the days bleed away. Vick was becoming the face of an unstoppable corporate monster that has no parallel in American sport. He was on the cover of videogames, shouted out in rap songs. He was a celebrity nationwide, but an icon in Atlanta, a virtual deity to a community ready to elevate a new hero, all their own. He was obsessed over. Could he ever master the west coast offense? Would the Falcons provide him with a true number one receiver? This was important business, the evaluation of a prodigy. Now, he is a problem. For fans, for journalists, for the league he starred for. And he isn’t going away.

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NFL General

2008 NFL Divisional Round Picks and Podcast

Only a few more weeks of football left. But these next two weeks are usually the best two of the season. You can download the podcast directly (running time 90 mins) or subscribe to the feed.

If you use iTunes, just click here and then click subscribe and iTunes will take care of the rest.

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Atlanta Falcons Houston Texans Miami Dolphins NFL

Coach of the Year voting missed the real best coach

Each year, I’m more and more convinced that the NFL’s Coach of the Year Award goes to the most improved team without regard to actual coaching ability.

As expected, the Coach of the Year Award came down to Tony Sparano of the Miami Dolphins and Mike Smith of the Atlanta Falcons, who took over teams with a combined five wins in 2007 and turned out a pair of 11-5 records.

As expected, the man who did the best job in football got absolutely none.

Sparano and Smith’s accomplishments aside, tell me how Gary Kubiak was not even a candidate? You want to know why? His team did not improve in the standings.

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NFL

2008 NFL Power Rankings Week 17

Seventeen weeks into the NFL season, and I still don’t see a sure thing in the top twelve teams. Sure, the Giants won it last year and should be favorites, but they have not looked like a champion in the past few weeks.

Then you have your sporadic squads-the teams no one saw coming. Teams like the Dolphins, Chargers, and possibly even the Cardinals could all continue their story-book seasons deep into January.

And building all the way up to the Super Bow will be a Favre-count, a coaching carousel, and questions upon questions for us to answer, ultimately, until we see a champion hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

So, with that said, here’s my championship match-ups, as well as the Super Bowl winner for this year:

I like the Colts to meet up with the Steelers, with the Colts eeking one out in Pittsburgh. The Colts have proved to me with nine consecutive wins that they’re the team to beat in the AFC. You can talk all you want about sloppy games or other teams’ better balance, but I’m not betting against Peyton Manning.

As for the NFC, I have to stick with my pre-season pick of the Eagles to represent the NFC. I see them topping the Panthers in the championship game. And yes, I realize that means the Giants lose in the first round.

With all that said, the Colts will continue their run all the way to the trophy. If your team isn’t in the playoff picture, read on to see where they rank for these season-ending NFL power rankings.

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