Saturday Morning Odds & Ends

Yes, it has been a while. Lots of Christmas gift ideas, sure, but not a lot of the normal posts. Been weakened by a sinus infection (and obligatory cough) that refuses to go away. The Playmaker and Mrs. have been on injured reserve as well. It's been tons of fun. The three of us sit around and see who can cough the most, the loudest, the fastest, etc. You just can't beat that quality family fun. (Knock on wood, thankfully The Playmaker's Sister has been spared in all of this!) k
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Moving right along...
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1. B-ball has started. This figures to be a long season in terms of wins and losses for The Playmaker's Team. Somehow, in a first/second grade league, we ended up with all first graders! (Payback, perhaps, for kicking the sheeeeeeet out of the competition in flag football?!?) Anyway, our first game was last week. Score is not kept, but, of course, the Head Ball Coach keeps mental score. We lost something, like, 30-14. The Playmaker had 10 of our 14 points, including a sweet (suh-weeeet!) 16 footer from the baseline, which is the equivalent of a deep trey in a league of 7 and 8 year olds (or 6 year olds in the case of our team).

2. Poor Texas. My gosh, it's a wonder anyone from ESPN can utter even a simple sentence in between all of the crying and tears over the injustice that has happened to the Longhorns. If we've heard it once, we've heard it a million (million!) times. Texas beat Oklahoma by 10 points on a neutral field. Wow. That's great. So if the Longhorns were playing for the National Championship, what would Texas Tech say? Wait a minute. We, too, have but one loss...AND we beat Texas. The fact that Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Texas all beat each other cancels the one loss each team has. But when you look at how they each lost, what they each did against Oklahoma State, as well as their overall schedules, the Sooners are the clear cut best team.

3. The Heisman. We can honestly say we won't have a problem with whoever wins among the trio of Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy. If we had to separate them, we would put Tebow third. Yes, he's a great player. And he has had a good (as in not great) season. But this love affair people have with him is starting to ware on us. Of course he is a great kid off the field. But the fawning simply has become nauseating. Herbie calls him Timmy Tebow. Erin Andrews gets down-right wobbly in the knees when she gets within a mile of him. And how many times must we see the clip of him running, errrrr, sprinting into the Gators' defensive huddle coming down the stretch of the Alabama game, with the obligatory comment, "Wow! What a leader!" (Did they want Bradford to sprint into the Sooners' defensive huddle and scream, "Guys, I just threw my tenth TD of the game. Now, go out their and stop 'em so I can get 11!"?!?!?!?) And raise your hand if you haven't seen the video of Tebow giving a weeping apology for losing to Ole Miss (at home, mind you), like, 12 times.

Which brings us to McCoy and Bradford. Head to head, McCoy was the better player in their October game. (Have you heard that the Longhorns beat the Sooners by 10 points on a neutral field?!?) Of course, voters don't remember that far back -- a fact which will certainly hurt McCoy as voters have spent the last month watching Bradford and Tebow light it up on television. The award has turned into a joke. It is basically an award for the best players on the best teams. A month ago, Tech QB Graham Harrell, fresh off his win against Texas, was universally hailed as the leader. One week later, he went down in flames at OU and presto! he literally dropped off the ballot.

Bradford and McCoy have great numbers, with McCoy having superior rushing totals. It's a complete toss-up, but in a Stunning Decision, we give the Heisman to Colt McCoy.

(And yet, we have a sneaking suspicion the voting tonight will be 1. Tebow 2. Bradford 3. McCoy.)