The worst part of the two-week layoff isn’t the endless hype. Yes, sitting through a feature about the Giants backup left guard or watching the TMZ video of Tom Brady is the sports equivalent of a rusty drill root canal, but there are far worse ramifications. Namely, it transforms sports writers into morons. They now have two weeks to dissect one game, which means they have a lot of hours to fill on air, on radio, and in page after page of columns discussing The Big Game.

So what happens?

They start to come up with reasons why the Giants will win the game. It’s only natural. Many broadcasters have to try to convince you that the game will be entertaining, so they’ll give the Giants a big push. What else are you going to talk about for two weeks?
How good the Pats are?

Bo-ring.

But coming up with a crazy scenario by which the Giants can win... hey, that’s just far more sexy. It’s the hero pick.

Well, you’re not going to get a hero pick here.

Yes, the Giants can win this game. If, and it’s a big IF, they play their perfect game and the Pats are sloppy. They need the front four to apply pressure on their own... they need Aaron Ross and Corey Webster to play at least at the level they’ve been for this past month... and it is essential that Eli Manning continue his trend of not making mistakes. Finally, the offense must score touchdowns in the red zone, not field goals.

Will that happen? Again, no.

When it comes to predicting the Super Bowl, I like to keep things pretty simple. I don’t see this as a game where you need to analyze 22 different individual match-ups to divine who is going to win.
While Tom Coughlin has done an admirable job and bought himself at least two more years on his contract and Eli Manning has been the breakout player for the 2008 playoffs, the Pats have a Hall of Fame coach in Bill Belichick and a Hall of Fame quarterback in Tom Brady. It’s just that simple: one team has a far superior coach and quarterback, so they will win the biggest game of the year.
Give Belichick two weeks to game plan, and he can dissect another team’s strengths and weakness better than any other living coach. Probably the best big game coach since Bill Walsh.

I see the game being close in the first half, probably with the Pats leading by six at the half. By midway through the third quarter, the Giants will start making critical mistakes and the Pats will pull away. Since the stakes are so high, once a team starts making a few mistakes it usually snowballs into a smorgasbord of chaotic events that a lesser team can never get out of in time.

Give the Giants credit for showing the world that they are a legit team, just not a team of destiny. That would be the undefeated Patriots.

Final Score: 37-20.

The Phoenix Suns will never win an NBA Championship.

That sentence alone is enough to depress any NBA fan. No team is more exciting to watch than Phoenix. They embrace the team concept, always looking for the open man, always moving.

I defy you to find a more entertaining team. Unfortunately their run and gun mentality and lack of a low post defender will once again kill them once the playoffs start where half court offence is king and every possession takes on a higher level of intensity.

Watching Phoenix crumble to the Spurs last night reiterated this grim reality. There is no way the Suns should have lost to a team that was playing their third straight road game in four nights and without their starting point guard in the line-up. But Amare Stoudamire proved he can’t be trusted to hit free throws late in the game and the entire Suns team just plain wilted to the physical Spurs.

Speaking of Amare, the Suns should have traded him ages ago. He is a great offensive player but part of that is due to having Steve Nash feeding him easy dunk and lay-up opportunities all the time. Defensively the guy is a dream to opposing teams big men, especially those with performance bonus’s in their contracts.

So enjoy watching them in the regular season because once they run into Duncan and Co. in the playoffs their shooting % will drop below .400 and the team will lose in five.

Of course all NBA fans will be the real losers. Having to watch Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker flop around like they are on a soccer pitch is just too much too take. Throw in Tim Duncan bitching to the refs every time he doesn’t get a call or has a foul called on him is nauseating. No one talks about it, but Duncan is the biggest baby in the league. Just because he is brilliant fundamentally on the court doesn’t mean he can’t also be a Prima Donna with the officials.

Now I’m just depressed.