The World Series is over and this is when the NBA typically starts up and fills up our sports calendar. But that’s not to be this year as the NBA lockout has already taken away the month of November from us. It’s now starting to hit the fans where it hurts and that’s not good for the NBA long term. Until last weekend, we had the world series and it got more interesting as it went on. That game 6 when the cardinals came back from 2 runs down twice with just a strike away from elimination both times was amazing. I would have said that something like that will never happen, but we all saw it actually happen. That resulted in a game 7 and of course game 7’s are always fun and exciting. The rangers couldn’t recover after that tough game 6 loss and Chris Carpenter sealed the deal. I felt bad for Ron Washington – world series losses 2 years in a row, but that cruel game 6 loss made it much worse. There was also the cute story of Davide Freese, a local St. Louis kid, ending up as both the NLCS and the world series MVP. He sure is living the dream right now. The biggest news though was the retirement of Tony La Russa. We will miss him. An innovator like that is hard to find in baseball dugouts more so than in other sports.
The world series ushered us into the weekend and of course football took over as always. Stanford went into USC and played a whale of a game. Andrew Luck is an absolute stud. He threw a pick-6 very late in the 4-Th and still managed to bring them back to tie the game and later won it in 3 overtimes. He looks as NFL-ready as anyone I have ever seen in college. I have had my share of infatuations with college QBs that I thought would be good pros and have been right sometimes and wrong other times. For instance, I always thought Aaron Rodgers will be great and Akili Smith won’t be any good. But I also thought Cade McNown will be good and Cam Newton won’t be any good. Of course we all seemed to have missed on Cam. But Luck seems different from everybody. The way he runs, passes, his mechanics, demeanor and everything seem destined for NFL greatness. As high as I was on Aaron Rodgers at Cal, he did throw like a college kid and I thought he needed some seasoning in the NFL before busting out. Luck on the other hand looks like he could start this Sunday and have a 250 yards, 2 TD, 2 interception game for any NFL team.
College QBs are coming in more and more ready for the NFL. This trend really started with Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco and it seems to continue with Cam Newton, Andy Dalton and even Christian Ponder. But Andrew Luck is just on a different level of college quarterbacking. It totally makes sense to “suck for luck” and if I were the Colts, I would definitely draft him even if it means pissing Peyton Manning off. Top QB picks don’t sit on the bench for long these days and Luck definitely wouldn’t, given his immense talents. Manning is no dummy. He foresees all the controversies and might prefer the Colts don’t draft him if Manning is planning to play 4 or 5 more years. But the prospect of going from Manning to Luck is just too good for the Colts to pass up. I would draft him if I had a chance, keep him behind Manning for a year or may be 2 and then trade Manning away if he is still healthy and playing. I thought Herm Edwards was way out there in the left field when he suggested the Colts trade Manning, but after seeing Luck last weekend, I am convinced it’s not a bad idea at all. Even Luck can be stashed away in the bench for one season and that’s what I would do before eventually trading Manning away. Let the kid learn for a year from the sheriff, but let’s avoid the whole Favre-Rodgers drama.
On Sunday, the Colts continued their losing season and inched closer to winning the “suck for luck” sweepstakes. The Dolphins are giving them a tough fight. Miami even lost to Tim Tebow last weekend. He is playing really bad right now and some experts are even claiming he is the most immature and confused, young QB to have ever played in the league in 20 years. I am not sure if I would go that far, but he sure is looking clueless right now. And that lions player who “tebowed” after the sack is indeed causing a lot of stir. It was a classless move for sure, but he was just trying to mock Tebow and not his religion. If Tebow’s celebratory move was something else, he would have done that instead of the prayer move. But still, what he did was classless because it does involve religion and always keep away from such sensitive, personal issues when it comes to a stupid sack celebration. In other games, the Cowboys embarrassed themselves and the entire Dallas metropolis with that performance Sunday night against the Eagles. Even more surprising is all that struggle Philip Rivers and the San Diego chargers are experiencing this season. They lost Monday night and that offense looks horrible for the most part. Rivers better fix it soon or they can kiss the AFC west title good bye.