The super bowl is almost here. But first we have to discuss the conference championship games. The number one and two seeds face each other in their respective leagues. In the NFC we have the Panthers hosting the Cardinals as the league's top-two scoring teams face off in Charlotte. The Panthers defense looked very good and healthy last week against the Seahawks. With another great defense in the form of the Cardinals it looks to be a great game. In the AFC, the Broncos host the Patriots as Tom Brady and Peyton Manning face off in the AFC championship yet again. It will be the fourth time the two quarterbacks will face in this same situation as Manning leads the series 2-1. We shall see who is resilient enough to pull out the victory in Denver.
Meanwhile, the Inglewood stadium project has been put on the backburner in terms of headlines for some reason. Perhaps the NFL is trying to be quiet for some reason. Everybody knows that the Chargers will always be the shadow of the LA Rams if they decide to move there. Dean Spanos has a decision in front of him: should he stay in San Diego where support to stay is continuing to strengthen? Or should he move to a place where you will always be number two? He wants more money (all owners seem to be greedy for more and more money when they already have enough. Just look at last week's post) so why not stay and be faithful and loyal to the fans who welcomed you in when you became the owner of the San Diego Chargers and not the Los Angeles Chargers? Seems pretty dumb to move if you ask me.
Baseball talk has continued to heat up as spring training approaches. Now that Justin Upton has signed with the Detroit Tigers, that means the Padres have another first-round pick to enjoy. Since the Padres offered Upton a qualifying offer at the end of the regular season and he denied it, he automatically gave the Padres a first-round pick by signing with another team - in this case the Tigers. Now the Padres will select 8th overall and 24th overall and have six picks in the top 85! Time to restock our farm system. Ever since the deal with the Red Sox to trade away Craig Kimbrel, that seems to be the goal of A.J. Preller this offseason: to bolster the farm system. I know that the product on the field this year won't be nearly the same as last year, but I expect them to be much better with better coaches and on-field performance because of one thing: chemistry. That is something the Padres lacked last year. If all the cogs of the team click this year, then I believe the Padres will be a force to be reckoned with in the NL West when nobody expects them to do so. I'm tired of all this talk about the D-Backs' acquisitions, the Dodgers dominance and the Giants every other year thing. That is the only argument I get from Giants fans here at school. Watch the Padres shock the baseball world. If not this year, next year. It is coming. Laugh away if you will.
In the NBA, there is some big news coming out of Cleveland today. The Cavaliers have fired coach David Blatt and promoted assistant coach Tyronn Lue as the head coach. Sources close to the situation say that LeBron and company always went to him first anyways. Of course it is shocking news after Blatt led the team to the finals in his first season as head coach and again leads the eastern conference, but chemistry seems to be the issue here. If a team is going to win, then they better go all in and use the resources available starting with the leadership of the head coach. It does not seem like that was the case at all in recent months, so hopefully things will continue to improve there in Cleveland so that they can eventually win a title.
That'll do it for this week! Have a great day and leave a comment if you would like me to write about something.
I love the winter X Games. It is always so fun to see athletes from all over the world perform crazy stunt tricks and flips and then land them on snow. It's like land surfing or something like that. The X Games continue on ESPN and ABC through tomorrow and feature all of the events that will make your mind and their bodies spin.
The Super Bowl is set! Panthers versus Broncos in Santa Clara, California next Sunday the seventh of February. I am personally predicting the Broncos to win. Peyton Manning is 40 years old and I expect him to go all out in an attempt to win the Super Bowl. The Panthers sure have more talent than do the Broncos, but I think experience in such a big game will shine as Peyton wins. Win or lose, I predict Peyton to retire after the game. The pro bowl is tomorrow in Hawaii as the rosters are in the link given previously. After the super bowl, football finally winds down until we get to the draft in April. That is my favorite part of the NFL schedule. Not much remains for this season's NFL schedule, but what does remain is the craziness of the Chargers moving to LA or not. Dean Spanos released a letter addressed to the fans of San Diego this past week in which he spoke about his desire to keep the team and negotiate a stadium with the city. Well hopefully he does something because he may become the most hated and unhappiest man in all of Southern California pretty soon here.
