No Ride for Rahal

It was something that I had barely even noticed, but as Curt Cavin's piece in the IndyStar pointed out, rising star Graham Rahal doesn't have a ride for the 2010 IndyCar season.

For a driver of his talent level (7th in points last season) and heritage (father Bobby won the 1986 Indy 500), such a fact is inexplicable. Failing a proper explanation, it can only come down to one factor: money.

Rahal's McDonald's sponsorship from last season was dropped, and he has no ticket for 2010. Other less-talented drivers that are already attached to sponsors have secured rides. Hell, they'd probably put just about anybody in an IndyCar as long as the price was right.

The shutout of Rahal goes against the founding principle of the IndyCar Series, which was to provide ample opportunities to American drivers in open-wheel racing. As it sits right now, only four Americans are slated to participate in the 2010 season, and three reside on the Andretti Autosport team (Andretti, Patrick, Hunter-Reay). After boasting six American champions in their first seven years of existence, only one American (Sam Hornish, Jr.) has won a points title in the last seven.

IndyCar has bigger problems that just the lack of Americans in the series, but it is a problem that needs solving. Casual fans are attracted to names like Andretti and Rahal, but not Mutoh and Viso.

The Day After

I promised myself that I would wait almost a full 24 hours following the biggest event in the history of the planet Tiger Woods' press conference to fully digest everything and give my reaction.

Everyone is going to have a different interpretation, but for me Tiger's mea culpa was a mixed-bag.

First off, Tiger has to be commended for having the courage to speak publicly and apologize for his transgressions. That's something that plenty of other athletes in the same situation haven't done. It's always better to say something than to say nothing at all.

Something else that I liked about yesterday's presser was that Tiger didn't try to gloss over what he did. He used the words "cheat" and "affair" rather than paint a broadstroke over his infidelities. Of course we all know what he did, but the use of those words made the apology seem more sincere. So many times when athletes/celebrities make these kinds of statements, they're very vague. A great example is performance-enhancing drug users in MLB not using the words "steroids", "PEDs", or "cheat" (i.e. Jason Giambi).

But, Tiger's apology wasn't a home run. The popular notion of the media/fans that Woods doesn't owe anything to anybody other than his family is laughable. The big group of people that were really tarnished by this were the members of the PGA Tour. When the you-know-what hit the fan after the Thanksgiving incident three months ago, Tiger left the burden of his transgressions on his colleagues.

Guys like Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els, and Phil Mickelson were badgered for months about their thoughts on Tiger, and I'm sure that their personal lives were put under a bigger microscope. It's a lot like when the CEO of the company does something wrong - that image (fairly or unfairly) blankets every employee in the company. Tiger is the face of the PGA Tour. His infidelities cast a poor light on the Tour and the players in it. Anyone that says anything to the contrary is wrong.

So, where was the apology to his fellow golfers? In 13 1/2 minutes, he barely acknowledged the Tour at all.

Another portion of yesterday's statement where Tiger dropped the ball was when he lied about what happened on Thanksgiving night. To be fair, none of us are entitled to know all of the details of what happened that night. That being said, we are entitled not to be lied to.

The fact is, all of us have gotten into spats with spouses or significant others. Obviously, I'm not talking about physical violence, but I'm sure we've all shouted at each other, and said things we've regretted. It's human. Instead of copping to it, Tiger decided to go all Rafael Palmeiro on us, wagging his finger at the camera and guaranteeing that there was no altercation between he and Elin that night.

Bull.

I'm not the sharpest needle in the stack but when I hear that someone crashed an SUV while backing out of their driveway, was barefoot with visible scratches on their face, and (the cherry on top) was seen lying in the middle of the road wrapped in a blanket afterwards, that doesn't sound like a run-of-the-mill Thanksgiving evening.

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Obviously, there was some sort of alertcation between Tiger and his wife that night. All he had to do was admit to that, without divulging any private details. Instead, Woods tried to sell that as a "media misunderstanding", and hoped that we would buy it. I didn't, because I'm not a fool.

Overall, I thought Tiger's statement yesterday was satisfactory. He was basically in a lose-lose situation. No matter what he said, there were going to be some people out that weren't satisfied. He apologized to his family, praised his wife, and didn't skirt the issues. Sure, there were no gorey details, but what did you expect? I mean, the guy's boat is named Privacy.

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Tiger Woods will never return to the peak that he was prior to this controversy, but this country loves redemption stories. It will be an uphill climb, but he'll eventually be back.

Tiger will win again. He'll win majors again. He'll probably pass Jack Nicklaus and go down as the greatest golfer of all time. But, his off-the-course life will always tarnish his legacy.

Yesterday was a step in the right direction because American sports fans love to forgive.

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However, they rarely forget.

Purdue a #1? No Joke.

Chances are if you've watched college hoops this year or read any analysis, you've heard reasons why Purdue isn't a legit National Title contender. I have analyzed some of the reasons why Purdue can/can't win a National Championship this April:

Why Purdue Can't Do It...
1) They don't have THE guy.
Experts maintain that without a surefire NBA Lottery Pick, the Boilers can't possibly win a National Championship. Over the last decade, all but one title winner (2006 Florida) had a player taken in the Lottery of that June's draft - and that Gators team ended up with three players taken in the top nine of the 2008 Draft (Horford, Brewers, Noah).

2) Where's the beef?
Outside of their talented top three (Moore, Hummel, Johnson), the Boilers don't have much of a scoring punch. Entering Wednesday night's win over Ohio State, that trio had scored 65% of Purdue's points this season. Purdue can go 9/10 deep, but they don't have any scorers off their bench.

Why Purdue Can Do It...
1) Sum of the Parts
First off, the assertion that Purdue doesn't have a go-to guy is absurd. E'Twaun Moore is a 17 ppg scorer that shoots 49% from the floor this season. Even if they don't have a guy that NBA scouts are drooling over, they do have three that will get All-Big Ten First Team consideration. At this point, JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore are locks for the first team, and Robbie Hummel is right on the cusp.

2) Body of Work
Take a look at Purdue's top wins this year (RPI ranks): West Virginia (5), Wake Forest (12), Wisconsin (15), Tennessee-N (19), @Michigan State (26), and @Ohio State (31). You can definitely stack those up favorably against any wins from any of the top teams:

#1 Kansas: @Kansas State (7), @Temple (11), Baylor (13), @Texas A&M (18)
#2 Kentucky: Vanderbilt (17), Tennessee (19), Louisville (30), UConn-N (50)
#3 Villanova: @West Virginia (5), Georgetown (8), @Louisville (30), Dayton-N (35)
#5 Syracuse: @West Virginia (5), Georgetown (8), California-N (23), UConn (50)

Outside of Kansas, there isn't a team right now in America that has a better overall resume than the Boilers. Purdue could be in line for a #1 seed, and any team that earns that distinction is absolutely a National Title contender.

Remember When...

There have been many instances where things that were once great, are no longer that way. Sometimes, not only are these things no longer as great as they were, they now completely suck. A couple of notable examples are Green Day, The Simpsons, and birthdays.

Add the NBA Slam Dunk Contest to that list.

Remember when these guys made good music?

Saturday's snooze-fest was beyond a debacle. At least eight of the twelve total dunks attempted could've been executed by 95% of the players in the league (if you don't count the entire Pacers' roster - sorry Dunleavy, Murphy, and Diener...). The best dunk of the night, was DeMar DeRozan's off the side of the backboard windmill, which was the only thing close to a worthy attempt. At least the eventual champion Nate Robinson tried, that's more than I can say for either a disinterested Gerald Wallace or an extremely uncreative Shannon Brown.

Bill Simmons declared the Dunk Contest dead, and while I'm not willing to go that far, I'll admit that it's on life support. What the contest needs is star-power like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Instead, those two are too preoccupied with showing off their new wardrobe and rubbing elbows with fellow celebs.

Unless the stars step-in, there is no saving what used to be one of the highlights of the NBA season.

The Blame Game

Ugh. Here we go again...

Colts President Bill Polian pointed the finger at two units - the offensive line and Special Teams - and bemoaned the lack of execution in Indianapolis' Super Bowl XLIV loss to New Orleans.

Polian mentioned the onside kick to start the second-half as the turning point of the game:

"We had four things we could have done positively on that play. We didn't do any of them. That absolutely changed the game. It went from our getting the ball on their 40-yard line to having them march down for a touchdown."

The blame going on the offensive line is a bit of a surprise. The Colts rushed for 99 yards, well above their 80.9 ypg regular season average, and yielded zero sacks. Peyton Manning was rarely hurried or hit like he was in the Jets and Ravens games earlier in the playoffs.

Frankly, I'm tired of the blame game. Offense, defense, Special Teams, coaching - the Colts were outplayed and outexecuted in every single one of those areas. There's no reason to throw a specific unit or player under the bus.

If Polian really wants to point the finger at someone, why not his own head coach? Jim Caldwell's conservative approach after jumping out to a 10-0 lead was as much to blame as anything for the disappointing loss.

Looking for a Label

Nearly 24 hours after the completion of Super Bowl XLIV, I still can't fully define the legacy of the 2009 Colts. For a third straight year, and for the fifth time in six years, I'm left searching for an explanation.

For much of Sunday's loss, it was the Saints that played the brand of football that we had seen from the Colts for over five months. They played clean, they played smart, and most importantly of all, they played aggressive.

I thought that because New Orleans relied so much on their opponents making mistakes, that the Colts - a team that rarely shoots themselves in the foot - would prevail. They didn't, and the Saints were praised for a huge "upset" victory.

But, was New Orleans' win really an upset?

At some point between early December and early February, the football world decided that the once miniscule gap between the Colts and Saints had widened to the point where Indianapolis was suddenly the heavy favorite. The main culprit was the two team's performances in their respective Conference Championship games. One team overwhelmed their opponent in the second-half behind one of the best postseason performances in the career of their MVP quarterback. The other needed five fumbles, an overtime, and a ridiculously reckless throw by Brett Favre to punch their ticket to the franchise's first Super Bowl.

What we all forgot along the way, was that all the signs pointed to this being an even matchup.

The Colts' two best wins (record-wise) of the season came against Arizona and New England - two teams that the Saints pasted by a combined 45 points. In the postseason, New Orleans had just gotten by two Hall-of-Famers in Kurt Warner and Brett Favre, while the Colts beat-up on the inexperienced Joe Flacco and Mark Sanchez. Someone tell me how overwhelming a nine-win, one-dimensional Wild Card team translated to defeating a 13-win, offensive juggernaut like New Orleans?

This, however, is not about excuse-making, it's just the realization that maybe the Colts weren't as dominant as we thought. Take a look back at the Colts in 2009... They didn't beat anyone with less than six losses. They needed seven fourth-quarter comebacks. Their two best wins were a fluky fortunate comeback against a not-as-good-as-advertised Patriots team, and a victory over the champion of the worst division in football (Arizona). They were also the second team ever to waltz into the Super Bowl by playing two Wild Card teams (the other being the 2005 Seahawks). Sure, you can't blame the Colts for playing the schedule in front of them, but did we put too much stock in a collection of wins over 7-9, 8-8, and 9-7 football teams?

Statistically, the Colts had a very good offense (6th scoring, 9th in yards-per-game), and a solid, but middling defense (8th in scoring, 18th in yards-per-game). In the final regular season DVOA rankings, they came in 8th. All of this shows that the Colts were a great team, but hardly an unstoppable force.

The NFL is now a passing league, and every single division-winner had an upper-level quarterback. With that in mind, fourteen of Indianapolis' sixteen wins came against the following quarterbacks:

David Garrard(twice), Chad Pennington, Seneca Wallace, Kerry Collins, Marc Bulger, Alex Smith, Matt Schaub (twice), Joe Flacco (twice), Vince Young, Kyle Orton, and Mark Sanchez.

Yeesh.

Had this team not started 14-0, would we think a Super Bowl victory was a given? All of this is very similar to the 2008 season. Had Indy not scored an impressive comeback over the eventual champion Steelers on the road, would we have falsely believed they could make a run? In both instances, probably not.

Obviously, this is a better Colts' team than the squad from '08. In fact, this was a great Colts team; any time you win 14 games you earn this distinction. But, because of the 14-0 start, they were placed amongst the all-time great teams - a label that was both illogical and undeserved. This team was never to the level of the 2007 Patriots, much less the 1985 Bears, regardless of what their record said. If we weren't all so preoccupied with the irrational dreams of a 19-0 season, maybe we would've realized that.

None of this takes the sting off of a Super Bowl loss. But, in hindsight, Sunday night's result wasn't as much of an upset as we made it out to be.

Anatomy Class

During every Super Bowl week, there's a major storyline. Last year, it was the Cardinals overcoming their "loser" heritage. The year before that, it was the Patriots pursuing perfection. This year, it's a body part - more specifically, the right ankle that belongs to Dwight Freeney.

Reports have surfaced that Freeney has a ligament tear in the ankle, something that the Colts have denied. Indianapolis is instead saying that it's a third-degree sprain (which by definition is technically a tear). Adam Schefter says "potatoe", Colts say "potato" - what everyone agrees on is this is serious.

Dwight Freeney's importance cannot be understated. He has wreaked havoc on opposing quarterbacks for almost a decade. Like Peyton Manning on the other side of the ball, Freeney defines the philosophy of the Colts' defense to a "T": quick, deceptive, relentless. Especially against the top scoring passing offense in the league, Freeney's potential loss is major. But, it's not a death-blow.

The Colts have prided themselves on their "next man up" philosophy, and backup Raheem Brock is a solid veteran that can fill the gap. What this injury does is level the playing field even more. If you thought Super Bowl XLIV was slightly in the Colts' favor (i.e. 55/45), then this probably tips the scales back to a toss-up.

Nobody said winning Championships was easy.