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Peyton Manning was 29 of 34 for 364 yards last night, rallying his Indianapolis Colts with 17 unanswered fourth quarter points to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 31-24. Put aside your favourite teams, your fond memories, your biases and inclinations, and answer this question. Has there ever been a better quarterback than Peyton Manning? Did you get the right answer? … Bill Simmons of ESPN suggests the biggest open secret in the NFL today is that LaDainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers is toast, washed up, ineffective, a turd rolling uphill, a one armed man in a skipping contest. He’s done…ex Leaf Gary Roberts has announced he will retire at the conclusion of this season. Roberts currently toils for the Tampa Bay Lightning but has missed eleven of the past twelve games with an injury. Roberts might be an object of interest at “trading deadline” if he can remain healthy…some games just scream “trap”. The Miami Dolphins giving four points while venturing to Kansas to face the Chiefs comes with baited cheese and rat poison. I’ll hold my nose and look for the home team to cover…the Detroit Wings smacked the San Jose Sharks in Motown last night. A 6-0 drubbing emphasized to fans, Sharks and prognosticators alike, that it is a long season and talk of a San Jose waltz to the Cup are premature. I’ll say it now, loud and proud; no team shut out by Ty Conklin is ever going to win the Stanley Cup…The Chicago Blackhawk’s take a five game winning streak into Calgary to face the Flames tonight. The Hawks are creating a real buzz as Patrick Kane zooms up the scoring tables…Dallas Star stud defenseman Sergei Zubov is out for the season with a hip injury. The Stars seem cursed this year and may make the decision to move some of their veterans if the playoffs continue to float out of the realm of possibility…the Minnesota Wild were playing defenseman Brent Burns on the wing while Marian Gaborik convalesced. With the return of the star sniper, Burns has returned to the blueline…Mats Sundin, a shallow, lazy, prick of a man, did what would be expected of any mercenary; he grabbed the loot. I cannot wait until the reports of his play begin to stream in from the West Coast. The hapless Toronto media protected the overrated floater for years, but the Canucks will actually have expectations of engaged and superior play. By about March the Swede will be pilloried by the same folks welcoming him today… Toronto Maple Leaf “guy who kneels between the pipes” Vesa Toskala was pulled last night after allowing two goals on his first five shots. The Finnish Flopper is shaping up to be one of the busts of the 2008/09 season. He has an alarming tendency to give up early goals and consistently leaves the upper corners of the net vacant because of his proclivity to collapse in the crease at the first sign of any activity. The Leafs undoubtedly hoped to trade the goalie at the deadline for draft choices/prospects and ride Curtis Joseph and Justin Pogge for the rest of the season. But all three goalies are in wretched form, foiling the carefully crafted plans of the mighty Cliff Fletcher… it looks grim for Leaf Mark Van Ryn. He suffered his second concussion of the season last night during the Buds 8-5 loss to the Boston Bruins. Two concussions in a month takes us down an uncomfortable path, one which often ends with a players forced retirement…had Big Brown won the Belmont Stakes, clinching the Triple Crown, his stud fee would have stood at 300k a visit, instead of the current 65k a pop rate. The different income stream means owners International Equine Acquisitions Holding lost a bout 65 million dollars with Big Brown’s desultory performance in the third leg of the Triple Crown…latest word puts Manny Pacquiao against Ricky Hatton on May 2^nd, Kentucky Derby day, in Las Vegas. This fight has the potential to be an extraordinary clash and, at the 140lbs weight, we can expect peak performances from both combatants. The big prize for the winner will, of course, be a late fall showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr, for all the freakin’ money in the world…Hatton supporters will be disappointed that Wembley is not the site for the PacMan fight. With Vegas starving for high rollers in these tight economic times, desert moguls were not going to be denied…McDonalds is the big benefactor when the UFC rolls into town. All the mixed martial arts fans can’t exist without their happy meals…there is still palpable anger among fans who shelled out in excess of fifty dollars for the Pacquiao - De La Hoya fight. The undercard was atrocious. Look, we all read how evil Don King is, how he rips off fighters, cannot be trusted etc. But from a fan perspective, and arguably that is the only viewpoint we should cultivate, his undercards are glorious. Big names, big fights, so by the time King rolls out the Main Event we are usually satiated. Bob Arum adheres to a school of thought which holds that people pay only for the Main Event, so any monies invested in the undercard are squandered. Short sighted thinking, fer sure. Also, it robs people of the chance to develop a relationship with a fighter as he climbs the ladder, often using the undercard of a major fight as a crucial rung…oh, yes, I do believe Oscar will fight again. He will realize his weight strategy for the Pacquiao was an abject failure and, thus, trick himself into believing he is still capable of winning a big scrap at Junior Middleweight…oh, yes, I will enjoy watching Oscar getting another beating…