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Three years on and I’m still waiting for the NFL to produce evidence showing Ben Roethlisberger actually made it into the end zone during the Steelers 21-10 Superbowl win against the Seattle Seahawks. Hey, have we ever figured out what went down in that game? The officiating was downright outlandish, leaving many gamblers to proclaim they would never bet the big match again (an assertion I graciously brought to their attention while taking all their New England Patriot money last year)…in two of the last three years, a wild card team has started on the road and rolled right through their opponents, eventually claiming the Superbowl. The 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers and the 2007 New York Giants are the inspiration for this weekends combatants. Now, personally, I would take the accomplishments of those two teams as part of an historical anomaly. The four playoff teams not playing today are solid squads that will likely banish their challengers next week. The best teams playing this weekend are the Baltimore Ravens and the Philadelphia Eagles and, no, no, no, do not play against those crews. The San Diego Chargers are the current “hot” play amongst cheesy TV prognosticators but their porous 25^th ranked defence will be cotton candy against the scythe like passes of Peyton Manning. But - I cannot bet all four road teams to win on Wild Card weekend. I cannot. This appalling personal shortcoming leads me to the one home team that will have my cash in their urine and filth soaked corner. Yep, the Arizona Cardinals, getting a point, will be our play against Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons. The Cards have a higher rated defence and a veteran ring bearing QB. Ryan has five interceptions in his last four games and also less than 200 yards passing in his last two. In a year when six of the top seven defences are breathing in the post season (only the Washington Redskins and their fourth ranked defence failed to qualify) we’re going to fade the Falcons and their leaky fortifications…for your reference, here are the top ranked defences still on the prowl; Pittsburgh #1, Baltimore #2, Philadelphia #3, N Y Giants #5, Minny #6, Tennessee #7. A traditionalist approach would give these teams extra points in the pot boiler that is playoff football. While rookie QB Joe Flacco can be protected by the ramparts of the rugged Ravens, the other rookie QB, Matt Ryan, will need to produce in order to make up for his team’s deficiencies without the ball…the top ranked offense still alive is in Arizona, where the fourth ranked assembly hopes to air it out today. The top offences in football, in New Orleans, Denver and Houston, respectively, are MIA as football gets serious…two teams that are going to smoke next year, with proper off season tinkering, are the Minnesota Vikings and the Houston Texans. Both sit on breakout seasons…it will be a wonderful development if, as rumoured, Stephen Marbury is ejected from New York and permitted to ply his trade in Boston. The defending champs could well use the boost Starbury provides with the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers looming as formidable opposition…unbelievable. Canada will be playing Russia tonight at 7.30 and you, like your buddy at the Meridian, will be watching the NFL. The shame of it all…where did this come from? The Boston Bruins are 24-2-1 in their last 27 games. And all that Montreal Canadiens 100th anniversary Stanley Cup chatter has evaporated in the face of the Beantown whirlwind…ex Leaf Scott Clemmensen is a vibrant 14-6-1 in relief of Martin Brodeur for the New Jersey Devils…Marian Gaborik will be out for another ten weeks with a hip ailment. The unalleviated mystery surrounding the star winger has diminished his value in trade talks and may mean his term in Minnesota is not quite done yet…the New York Yankees are apparently still steadfast in their determination to have lefthander Andy Pettitte, 14-14 last year, return in 2009. The Sporting News speculates the Yanks will get their way, with the pitcher coming on board as early as this week…The Daytona 500 is pencilled in for Feb 15^th this year, giving you a mere 43 days to stock up on the Budweiser…the LPGA released their 2009 tour schedule. You can’t access it here…when evaluating a fight, the biggest mistake punters make is to credit one fighter with a great performance while simultaneously denigrating the efforts of the opponent. For instance, if you believe Manny Pacquiao was transcendent in his last fight, it does not follow that De La Hoya was a washed up shell. You can’t have it both ways. Using the Pacquiao-De La Hoya example, I think there is money to be made by being a bit more objective and downgrading the evaluation of Pacquiao. Oscar really was a shell of his former self. I don’t think Manny can effectively challenge any of the other top welterweights, like Margarito and Cotto, and believe he will be an underlay against Ricky Hatton, who has proven resilient and occasionally brilliant when fighting at 140lbs…I watched a replay of the second Sugar Ray Leonard - Roberto Duran fight last night and will offer the fight as further evidence of my previous point. Forget the generally accepted view that Duran was a bloated incompetent that night. Nonsense. The story of the fight was a brilliant performance by one of the greatest fighters of all time. Leonard was radiant that night in New Orleans, rolling with Duran’s best blows and countering with savage intensity. Even the greatest Ray, Monsieur Robinson, would have been whupped by that version of Leonard. Champ Duran accentuated the class of the challenger that night by going on to win Junior Middleweight and Middleweight tiles in subsequent years, though forever shrouded in the stained remnants of No Mas …I thought Sex in the City was easily the worst movie of the year, eviscerating all the charm and wit of the show (well, the first two seasons anyway) and replacing it with the worst, most cloying, politically correct balderdash. Then, I saw Seven Pounds, an unremitting piece of vileness. The title refers to the amount of vomit you’ll spew after watching this piece of garbage…I revisited Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown and Death Proof over the holidays. While Jackie Brown remains a botched outing, the extended version of Death Proof is far superior to the chopped version shown during the Grindhouse double feature. A bonus is the astonishing beauty of the female actors in both segments of the film…