racingmeridian.com

GRID IRON..I didn’t see any “great” defence in 2009. Teams that flirted with the number one ranking included Green Bay, Dallas and Pittsburgh - the prize finally fell into the laps of the Jets after facing two moribund squads in their final two games. My pick in the AFC Championship is going to surprise some. Normally I’d be all over the top ranked D, but I’m just not feeling the defenders this year. All of the top units could be exploited and I’ll jump off the Jets bandwagon as they role into Indy. I can’t bet a rookie over Peyton in, as Bill Cowher would say, his house. Cannot do it, sir, keep the traffic moving, nothing to see here. The Colts will stack the line and put pressure on Mark Sanchez to produce some fireworks. It, based on my observations during the past two weeks, may be too much to ask of the talented novice. Give the seven and a half…the Minnesota Vikings are a better team than the New Orleans Saints, with greater depth and a nice assortment of offensive tools. I can’t avoid them on the basis of New Orleans “crowd noise”. C’mon. It’s the NFC Championship and I’ll take the better team and the points…I’ll also go contrarian on both over/unders, Colts over and Vikings under…I have high expectations for a great weekend of football after what has unquestionably been the worst collection of playoff games ever played. All four weekend combatants have strong claims to a Superbowl berth and I expect some very compelling moments as Sunday fades to dusk…as an incurable Tampa Bay Buccaneer fan, I believe Sunday will represent the first time in my life I’ve ever cheered for Brett Favre. I hope it’s not too uncomfortable a feeling, but I’ll keep a bottle of Jagger handy in case I need to kill the pain…could Karma play a role in the Conference Championships? Do the Vikings deserve some bad luck after their shameless decision to run up the score against the Dallas Cowboys? Can fate temper the Colts aspirations after they pulled their starters from their last match-up with the Jets, thereby enabling New York to make the playoffs? Life can be mysterious and I feel like I’m on the “thug life” ticket with my selections. Hopefully Karma can wait till next season before popping a cap in the Vikes and Colts…the only “good” game I’ve watched in this playoff run was the Jets - Chargers upset. I was listening to Bob McCowan the other day and he abhorred that game. Conversely, he felt the Saints - Cardinal game was a classic, the very match I deemed an abomination and turned off before the half. To each their own, I guess. But the NFL, to me, is about bruising defence and layered, complex strategy. Children who demand the disorder of 51-45 silliness should restrict themselves to the CFL…

PUG LIFE..a pile of depressing heavyweight news swamped fight fans this morning. 1) Tomasz Adamek, a 175 lb light heavy a couple of years back, has surfaced as a rock solid 220 lb heavyweight. Draw your own conclusions. 2) Ron Borges, of the Boston Globe, writes a column praising John Ruiz as a man who has fought more heavyweight title fights than Jack Dempsey and Rocky Marciano. Shameful. The talentless, incompetent Ruiz has never contested a fight for the linear belt, the only type of fight than can be considered legitimate. 3) Talks of stripping the sport of its dimming jewel, the Heavyweight Championship of the World, have resurfaced with plans to create a Super Heavyweight title. This will create a plethora of new belts and new sanctioning opportunities. It is, however, a devastating blow to the history and tradition of what was once sports greatest title. John L Sullivan was the first heavyweight champ, and I am on the verge of declaring Lennox Lewis the last. Sullivan to Lewis, and forget the slag of dope peddlers and EPO junkies that followed. It’s clear that the best big men, perhaps forever warned by the haggard visions of Muhammad Ali, no longer pursue careers as professional boxers. It’s also clear that this has lead to a cult of thorough and pervasive mediocrity, with skill sets that are embarrassing and degrading to the sport…I can’t stand the tendency of boxing writers to impart this casual disdain for their sport. Jay Greenburg and Tim Smith are the latest “oh-so-cool” purveyors of this nonsense, both professing to have no interest in a Manny Pacquiao - Joshua Clottey fight. Really? And you’re boxing writers? Clottey’s fight with Miguel Cotto was intense and dramatic, with the African denied a well deserved decision win. To purport no knowledge, or interest, in the challenger is dismaying. It’s also anti-intellectual and smacking of xenophobia. Great, exciting fights actually do take place without Americans; on March 13^thwe’ll be treated to one such fistic spectacle…look, if you’ve followed Thomas Hauser’s string of revelations concerning boxing and PED’s, then it is impossible to take Shane Mosley seriously. Here’s my take. Mosley, chastened by the tightening noose of recrimination, did not juice for his 2008 fight with Ricardo Mayorga. He looked old and shop-worn while beating a limited foe. A mere four months later, in Jan 2009, Mosley was a speed demon incarnate while battering Antonio Margarito. Juiced. So the next time we see Sugar Shane, what will we get? If it is against stable mate Floyd Mayweather, I’m guessing the clean, and washed -up, Shane…

PONIES..highly regarded Canadian Bred Giant’s Tomb runs this afternoon in New Orleans. The runner has serious long term ambitions and is not worth the low odds today, but check him out and see if he is, indeed, the latest Cadillac to roll off the Sam Son line…writer Richard Eng has come up with a brilliant idea; when Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra finally get around to meeting (the Go For Wand Stakes at Saratoga in July is the likely target), every other racetrack in North America should “stop” for one hour to allow the entire industry to focus on this momentous, watershed event…the East Coast three year olds get underway in tomorrow’s Holy Bull Stakes from Gulfstream. The favourite is the very vulnerable Jackson Bend, an animal who was five for six as a two year old while racing exclusively at Calder. Welcome to the big leagues, kid…