Yo, Meathead!

Gee, thanks for the overwhelming response on my last column, people! Anyone out there reading this? I’d still love opinions on whether people would stick with their old teams or adopt the hometown ones upon moving out of state, if anyone would care to expostulate.

If not, I’m not bitter. I’ll move on.…

SEASONINGS: Congratulations to the Red Sox for winning the World Series again. They’re starting to be more like the Yankees than the Yankees. And truth to tell, their fans are starting to bug me even more than the entitled Yankees fans who, once upon a time, accepted winning a championship every year as their birthright. C’mon now, Boston fans! Just because the Patriots are undefeated and the Celtics look like they are the new Beasts of the East doesn’t mean that you have to drill it into everyone’s face how great your teams are! Everyone hates a poor loser, but a bad winner is worse. Show some class and try to remember that it’s just a game, folks! If your teams are the only thing you have to brag about, maybe you should get out more.

Even though Boston is supposedly the center of the sports universe these days, could the Yankees have found more ways to make the news? With the Joe Torre and A-Rod sagas, the apparent passing of the ownership torch from George Steinbrenner to the two little Bosses, his sons Hank and Hal, and the need to sign the free agents who have been the lifeblood of the team since the 1990s, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera, it seems like post-Word Series baseball news around the country has been all Yankees, all the time.

What about A-Rod? How selfish can you get? I hope Scott Boras gets run over by a truck for his audacity in trying to steal the spotlight from the Red Sox with his A-Rod opt-out announcement before the last game of the Series was over. Please, please, please, I pray that all the baseball owners have the guts to tell A-Rod to take a hike, along with his $350 million demands. Wouldn’t it be great if he couldn’t find a job unless he took a pay cut? This guy obviously cares way less about his place in the game than his place as the #1 money-maker of all time. So what’s his Hall of Fame plaque going to say? “A-Rod had a huge ego and was dysfunctional as a teammate and a person. Although he broke Barry Bonds’s all-time home run record and made more money than any player in history, he had a propensity for disappearing in big games in the postseason and never played in, let alone won, a World Series game.” Woo-hoo!

Over in the NFL, is there even a reason to watch anymore? Now that the Patriots have defeated the Colts, anyone else is just meat tenderizer. What’s to stop the Belichick-Brady juggernaut as it chugs toward the first perfect season since the league went to a 16-game format? Nothing, as far as I can see. But let’s remember that anything can happen—that’s why they play the game. I remember in 1998, the 13–0 Broncos played the 5–8 Giants in the Meadowlands, and John Elway’s team was defeated by a last-second TD from QB Kent Graham (who?) to Amani Toomer (now the Giants’ all-time receptions leader). The Patriots still may have a loss or two in the regular season if they have injuries. Plus, every team will get up to play them even harder now, and the Pats players will all start to feel the mounting pressure as they near the end of the season without a defeat.

I have to admit that I still think the Colts might have a chance in the postseason if they meet the Pats again. Remember, they were without Marvin Harrison and a couple of others last weekend. If Indianapolis can play New England at full strength, they might have a better shot at a win. After all, the game in Indianapolis last week was no blowout. Then again, the injury factor is the wild card in all this. If the Patriots lose any key players, the dream could be over—but that’s the case anywhere in the league.

Yet again, I’ll say what we all know and have known since the start of the season: Whoever represents the NFC in the Super Bowl will lose to the Pats or Colts. (Does anyone get tired of hearing this already?)