Hurricane Katrina is officially over!

That's basically the end result of the Super Bowl.  We're back!  Have you ever heard anything so outlandish?  A team wins the Super Bowl and the city is just automatically rejuvenated.

If this is the case then Roger Goodell should immediately create a NFL team in Haiti and stack it with all the pro bowlers.  Second thought, I don't think Haiti would even want Vince Young or David Garrard as their quarterback.

I can guarantee that everyone reading this watched the Super Bowl.  The game got great ratings.  It was the highest rated Super Bowl in 23 years.  That figure still surprises me though.  How in the Hell were more people watching Super Bowl XXI then the current year's Super Bowl.  It just has to be that there are more parties now so fewer televisions actually have the game turned on.

The Super Bowl was good.  Not great, except for the New Orleans hoopla.  Steelers/Cards and Giants/Pats were still much better Super Bowls.  I don't know, this one just had its ups and downs for me.  Maybe I looked to scrutinize it more, maybe there were just parts that just sucked.  Commercials were horrible, the announcers were annoying and terrible, halftime act I could care less about, and the game was entertaining.  All in all it was a solid, typical Super Bowl.

The Beginning

- So the opening of the Super Bowl was fine.  Queen Latifah sounded decent except she had to throw off her ear piece and not hear anything.  The choir or whatever was with her did fine as well.  America the Beautiful is always a good start.

- The Walter Payton Man of the Year award was very awkward.  They announced the finalists and then immediately showed Goodell, Walter Payton's children, and the Chiefs Brian Waters standing there holding a trophy.  They need to pull this one off like a Grammy winner next year.  Show each finalist on the screen in anticipation, a drum roll, and then Goodell opens the envelope to reveal the winner.  We could bet on it, plus you could see all the losers get pissed and be like "Screw Charity!  That's Bullshit!"

- I was amused by the coin toss.  I not only thought every team that calls it would select tails, since tails never fails, but I was also surprised any team would actually select to receive the ball first.  Actually the biggest surprise was that the NFC has won the coin toss the last 13 years!  We should all start a fund and bet it all on the NFC to win the coin toss next year.

- The announcers began to annoy me immediately once the game began.  Phil Simms was terrible and Jim Nantz was so excited to hear the Phil-osophy that he almost couldn't contain himself.  This may be the worst Super Bowl duo in the booth ever!

-  Did you hear Dwight Freeney had a bum ankle?  There's so many storylines to the Super Bowl and all I heard about was Dwight Freeney for the past week.  The ankle is 62% today!  Now down to 48.7%. Dwight didn't practice, Dwight's a no go, Dwight's in a golf cart, Dwight's now going for it.  I haven't heard so much of an outcry over one injury in so long.  Dwight Freeney is very good, but he's not amazing.  Did you know he only had 19 tackles this year?  There are players who had more than that in a single game.  Then again, 13.5 of those 19 tackles were sacks.  Doesn't anyone remember TO playing with a broken leg?  The outcry was much worse this year.

- The worst was the announcers with Dwight Freeney.  First play of the game, Dwight is double teamed, makes a spin move, almost sacks Drew Brees, and immediately Phil Simms chimes in about how the ankle is definitely causing problems.  Yeah, real big problems when you can get through a double team and almost sack the quarterback.  Moron!

- Peyton Manning looked ridic in the first quarter.  His passes were on point as usual and the Colts were dominating.

The Middle

- The Saints had a couple decent drives.  They couldn't really get the ball moving particularly well.  Thankfully for them they have a dependable kicker who was just booming 45+ yard kicks like it's his job.  Oh wait, it is his job.  Does anyone remember though that this is the same guy who was suspended for four games at the beginning of the season for PED’s?  I forgot, no one cares about steroids in football unless Barry Bonds decides to join the NFL.

- Smartest move of the game was going for it on fourth down.  People want to compare this to Belichick going for it against the Colts on fourth down, but the situation is way different.  You kick it and you get three points.  You make it you get seven.  The Saints missed it, but they also put the Colts so far back that it forced Jim Caldwell to be passive and go three and out.  Saints got it back and the roided kicker put another one through the uprights.  The three and out defeat by the Colts and the points on the board for the Saints changed the momentum.

- The onside kick caught everyone off guard.  Great call, great recovery, and most importantly, a great drive to make the turnover mean something.  If they don't get points the onside kick means nothing.  Another horrible announcing job here by Phil Simms where Jim Nantz clearly just received the info from his statistician stating that this was the first time an onside kick was attempted not in the fourth quarter.  Simms immediately tries to refute the statement by saying, "Are you sure?  I announced the Steelers/Cowboys Super Bowl and I'm pretty sure that Cowher went for one before the fourth."  Yeah Phil, the jobber statistician definitely provided incorrect data to you. Moron!

- Peyton responded.  Anyone who thinks Jim Caldwell decided to go for it on 4th and 2 is completely wrong.  Peyton didn't hesitate, flinch, or even look at Caldwell in his peripherals before he went to the line on 4th down.  Quick slant to Reggie, a score, and the Colts lead again.

The End

- The injury prone and hated Shockey played very well.  He made some big time catches and made the biggest one with the go ahead touchdown.  He needs some major props on this victory.

- The two point conversion changed the Colts whole outlook.  It went from a game winning drive to a game tying drive.  That's a pretty big mood swing.  That's like trying to hook up with a girl all night then finding out she's on the rag.  It just changes your mindset completely.

- Peyton did not look comfortable late in the game.  Earlier on he was going to Garcon and Collie.  Late in the game he kept looking for Reggie.  The dropped passes by Pierre Garcon definitely through him for a loop and he was forcing the ball instead of making the correct reads.

- Was it more fitting that the ridiculous Tracy Porter, with his Lombardi trophy etched haircut intercepted the ball for a touchdown to seal the victory?

- The last drive was meaningless.  The only good part was watching Manning totally baffled out there.  We saw him call a timeout and then pretend not to.  The ref blows the whistle and he makes a face like "What? I didn't call a timeout."  About five seconds later he does the Peyton lip curl basically saying, "Okay, you got me."

- The ending ceremony was very nice.  We will forever have images of Drew Brees and his one year old son.  Definitely a great moment and the picture below really symbolizes why the players play the game!

Charity is a daily effort for athletes and sports organizations.  It seems that each week a new event pops up where coaches or athletes are sporting a special patch or shoes that commemorate a cause.

They always have to have a catchy name like Coaches for Cancer, Assistants for Aids, Students for Swine Flu, or Ballplayers for Birth Control.  Okay, maybe the last one wouldn't be legitimate, but I think that would be a great cause to pursue in the future.

They usually entail some sort of color specific item being worn or used in the game such as all white sneakers by coaches, gold patches for Haiti on the jersey, pink bats in baseball, or just pink anywhere for breast cancer.

All this philanthropic work looks great from the outside, but is it really a good thing?

This past weekend we witnessed a beat down by the Georgetown Hoyas against the Duke Blue Devils in Washington D.C.  Everyone was excited for the event, not only because we got to see two top ten teams battle it out, but we also got to see President Obama enjoy the game in the stands and even take his turn as a sports analyst for a few minutes.

The other important part of the game was how the Georgetown STAND group and the Duke for Darfur group worked together to form the Darfur Dream Team.  The Darfur Dream Team is a combined effort by students and alumni from both schools to come together and raise money for the Darfur Dream Team's Sister School Program, a program that is helping to reinvigorate two schools in a Darfur refugee camp.  Definitely a great cause, but is a sports event the correct setting to display a message like this?

I know when I watched the game I didn't notice the message at all.  The only messages I got were the consistent cameo shots of Barack, Biden, Axelrod, and Gibbs enjoying a basketball game, nothing about Darfur.  I got the message that Duke played terribly and Georgetown played brilliantly.  I couldn't even bear to watch the final five minutes of the game because Duke was playing so bad.  I had no clue what the cause was for, where the money was going, or how it was brought about.  I only knew there was a cause because of the different shoes on the coaches and a patch on the players' jerseys.

All I knew was that this was a typical big time non-conference college game, which basically means that it's for some sort of charity event, the coach will be wearing sneakers, and I don't really care other then Duke better win or I'm going to be in a glum mood for the rest of the day.  The only thing I got out of the game was a disconsolate feeling from Duke losing and a annoyed headache from hearing Barack Obama and Verne Lundquist make partisan jokes about Barack being left-handed and that even he can go to his right once in awhile.  Somebody get these men off my television screen!

I don't think most people got the message, but more importantly I don't think we ever truly know what the message is about.  When we attend these events and a portion goes to charity, what are we really giving our money towards?  I know in the case of Darfur the money may never reach the schools that the Darfur Dream Team is trying to rebuild.  Darfur is extremely corrupt and some charities are too.  Everyone thinks that all charities are out for the better good for the people, but do they ever look to see how the charity has been built up.  The largest charities need money as well to grow bigger and to gain a national presence and this means that not all money is going directly to the people who need it.  Also, in Darfur much of the money that is meant to rebuild the schools will probably go as bribes to the colonizers just to allow them to be there.  Maybe a very small portion of the money will actually reach the starving citizens and the refugees who truly need it.  We never truly know who we are actually helping by giving money to charity.

So maybe sports events aren't the best platforms to get these causes across.  Most people who attend these games will see they helped a charity on their ticket and never think about the charity again.  People who are watching are not going to remember a blip during the telecast speaking on Darfur, but instead will remember Verne and Barack's lame jokes back and forth to one another.  

I think the biggest problem is the oversaturation of charity related sports events.  There comes a time when it happens just too much, too often, that we no longer think of what it's for and who it's benefiting.  I don't think about the cause when I see the event, I think about what item these players or coaches are wearing and how ridiculous they look in them.  I don't feel like one is more special than the other because I've seen a different event the week before, except there were different color shoes and different patches on the jerseys.

Maybe I just think too much or maybe I'm cynical in thinking that even if I did donate that my money wouldn't go where these people are telling me its going.  Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right, but I do know that the message isn't getting across in the right way and just because we keep thinking we're doing something good, doesn't mean we actually are.

What's the record for most points in a NBA game?

What's the consecutive game streak number by Joe DiMaggio?

What NFL team has the most Super Bowl wins?

What's the record for most home runs in a single season? (Okay, I guess this one is debatable)

You know all those records.  You know the person who established them and the number that corresponds with them.

Why do we care about numbers so much?  Why can't we just witness greatness instead of trying to rationalize it based on statistics?  We can't because sports don't work that way.  We can't decide the winner of a game based on who looked better and we can't say someone was the best without having something to back it up.  Sports are all about numbers and there's nothing wrong with that.

So why is wrong if players know the numbers?

This past week Kobe Bryant passed Jerry West to become the Los Angeles Lakers all-time leading scorer. A great accomplishment and an unbelievable achievement at his age, but a record that was soiled by fellow teammates, coaches, fans, and the media.  Most athletes would be praised for such a remarkable stat, for Kobe Bryant, it's a distraction that he caused.  Immediately after the game we heard Pau Gasol speak about how the Lakers could finally go back to winning games.  We heard Phil Jackson say Kobe was distracted because he knew the record was approaching.  Fans and the media referred to him as selfish and lamented that all Kobe cares about is the numbers.  He wants to break all the numbers.

What athlete doesn't want to be the best though?

To be the best in the sports world you have to have the records.  You have to build up your resume and showcase how great you are based on your numbers.   The most points, most wins, most home runs, most playoff victories, most titles, mostly everything in sports is based on the numbers.

What's the most amount of points Kobe has scored in a single game?  What's the most amount of assists?  Most people can tell you the first one; hardly anyone can tell you the second one.

I don't know why it's different for Kobe.  Maybe people don't want him to be the greatest.  Maybe he still has the stigma of a bad guy to most folks and people can't appreciate how great he is.  Other sports and even other players we have no problem with the players going for the record.   Do you remember when A-Rod was going for 500 home runs and basically slumped for 20-some odd games?  We didn't care that it was affecting the team.  We still watched every night waiting for number 500.  We didn't care if Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa struck out three times in a game as long as they hit a home run to move towards Roger Maris.  We want to see records be broken, except when Kobe Bryant is breaking them.

I don't know if people have truly comprehended how great Kobe Bryant is.  I know I haven't until the past couple years.  There were always the excuses why he was so good.  He had Shaq on his team.  Phil Jackson is his coach.  The players that surround him are great.  No, the real reason Kobe Bryant is so great is because he works at being great.  He may work harder then everyone in the game and anyone who played before him.  He makes his entire team better as players and he takes the blame for every loss with no haste towards any of his teammate.  The Lakers lost to the Grizzlies on the day that Kobe set the Lakers scoring record.  Who was at fault for that Lakers loss?  Kobe Bryant, the guy who scored 44 points that game.  

If we care about the numbers so much then the players should be allowed to care to.  Will Kobe Bryant be the greatest player to ever play the game?  I don't know, but I'm sure we're going to try to determine it based on numbers.  Maybe we should forget the numbers for once, start experiencing sports greatness by how it's played and what it creates, instead of how many points and how many wins.  Maybe then people can appreciate Kobe Bryant for what he is, instead of what people perceive as what he's trying to be.

The best.

Do you love your job?  Do you wake up every morning and think, "I am so lucky to have the career I have and wouldn't change it for anything in the world?"

Probably not.  Very few of us have that perfect dream job that even if we had to work for free we would do so.  I think for many of us, being a professional athlete would be one of those dream jobs though.

Wouldn't being a professional athlete be great?  You'd have fame and fortune; fans wanting your autograph; women wanting to get with you.  You'd get to travel around the country and experience so much on other peoples' expenses.  You would have the opportunity to become acquaintances with other celebrities and get to attend events all around the world.  Furthermore, you would have a voice in society.  You would get the chance to help out the causes that are meaningful to you and get to express your opinion to all of your fans.  Doesn't that sound like the perfect life?  Oh I forgot, you'd get to play a game for a living too.

So what if a professional athlete doesn't love the game?  Doesn't love their job?  Doesn't love all the perks that we think compile into the perfect career?  Should they be chastised for feeling this way?

This is what we saw at the Pro Bowl.  Some players thoroughly enjoyed their time there; others could really care less.  We had players who tried to showcase their skills on a somewhat national stage, while others galloped through the motions, waiting for the game to end so they could go party in South Beach.  We even saw Bryant McKinnie earlier in the week get kicked out of the Pro Bowl for lack of attendance to practice and meetings.  If the job is so perfect then why don't players care about everything that is involved with being a professional athlete?

I think part of the problem is our society.  We're a passionate nation.  We're supposed to love our country, love thy neighbor, love our family, friends, colleagues, jobs, pets, cuisine, and sports teams; basically anything we can be associated with, we should love.  That's not life though.  We can't always give 100% and shouldn't always care about everything we're associated with.

I guess a lot of people are fake, or at least encapsulated in this culture that we have of loving everything we do.  How many people have picked up a book, read halfway through it, and then decided that the story wasn't that great and decided not to finish it?  Probably very few.  Most avid readers I know think every book they read is great and want to persuade everyone they know to read it as well.  Then we have the fitness fanatics that are determined to fall in love with working out.  They live for the sweat, the pain, the euphoric acid that runs throughout their body.  If they miss a single day on the pec deck then they have to double the effort the next day.

Now I can totally understand enjoying your time at the gym.  You can definitely get a lot out of it including energy, self esteem, and seeing physical results in front of you, but let's not pretend like it's the greatest thing in the world.  If we could obtain the same results by sitting on the couch, watching football, and eating chicken wings then I think we'd go for that route.

We shouldn't have to love all of what we do.  There's going to be positive and negative aspects about everything in life, so let's not pretend that the negatives aren't there.  Even if most of us don't love our jobs, there's probably a sizeable amount of us who like what we do for a living.  There are good days and bad days.  Satisfying times and frustrating times.  That's life; that's people being realistic.

So let's be realistic about being a professional athlete.  There are great incentives that come with the job, but there are deterrence's as well. For some it's dealing with the fame, for others it's dealing with the fortune.  For many football players it's having to act like the Pro Bowl is of importance.  Remember, it's okay to just like something and not totally love it.  I'm sure most of us say we love a sport, a team, or a player, but I'm sure there are parts of it that we actually dislike.  Players are the same way.  There's the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful.

Do players have to love the game? No, and we shouldn't expect them to.

Everyone got their beer and wings ready for their Pro Bowl Party?  Didn't think so.  Most people couldn't tell you what time the game is starting, let alone be throwing a party for it.  Sunday at 7:20 PM if you really were worried about it.  The Pro Bowl is just one of those things that no one cares about.

It's almost amazing to me that no one cares though.  Most of us love the NFL and yearn for anything football related 365 days a year.  Not the Pro Bowl though.  We can blame this year's Pro Bowl on the Super Bowl and say all we are looking forward to is the big game and all the best players aren't participating, but it's been after the Super Bowl in years past and our demeanor hasn't changed.  The only difference this year is the coaches won't be wearing their Hawaiian shirts.  I'm not pro-Pro Bowl either.  I'd rather rewatch the NFL combine from last year and see Andre Smith's pancakes flopping on the 40-yard dash then to watch this meaningless game.  Why's the game meaningless though?  It may seem meaningless to us, but it could mean a lot to the players participating.  So I'm wondering?  Are all star games for the fans or are they for the players?

Can anyone tell me the final score of any all star game last year?  I bet some of you could tell me who won the MVP of the game or who won one of the skills contests.  That's what we watch for.  We aren't at the edge of our seat with our hands clasped praying that the East beats the West or the National League finally gets an all star victory over the American League.  We'd much rather watch skills competitions like the home run derby or the dunk contest.  That's the problem with all star games; competition.

They're not competitive, or at least not in our sense of thinking about sports competitions.  We are watching players that we see give it their all everyday go up against fellow greats and not care to win.  They would rather pull off a trick play then to show they are the best in the league.  Maybe they don't want to get hurt or maybe that's just how the all star games have evolved.  Either way, they're not too much fun to watch.  No sport has a good all star game.  Baseball probably has the best just because like a got a ridiculous clause installed to give it a little meaning, but when we see 10 different pitchers come into the game it just doesn't feel authentic.

So if we as fans don't enjoy the games then why doesn't any sport change the process up?  The only thing any organization has done is give us the chance to vote so we can see who we want, but even that interest has waned in the past five years.  Give us what we want; skill competitions.  Forget the all star game and just get Kobe, Lebron, Dwayne Wade, and Dwight Howard to do the dunk contest.  Let’s have some more creative competitions at the Pro Bowl and let us witness these great players' talents in an event that we haven't seen before.  We've seen them on the field; now let’s see who is the fastest in the league.  Lets see what quarterback can throw the farthest and hit the most targets.  It's tough with football to get solid competitions because it's so team related, but there has to be something they can do to grab our interest.

Why do we have all star games?  Are they for us as the fans or for the players to be recognized?  Are they for us to see these extraordinary talents or for the players to get some extra bonus money and contract leverage in the off season?  Each league may say it's for us, but I know it's not something I care to watch.

Did you hear that every team in the NBA wants to offer a trade for Amare Stoudemire?  That's basically what every piece of breaking news from the NBA was this week.  This team wants Amare and this team wants Amare and this team has the package to get Amare.  It seems like every year in the NBA we have lots of speculation on what players are going to be traded and where they will go.  Eventually there are a few trades that actually go through.  There's always the one massive trade where seven teams end up trading one player four different times, the entire collection of Ron Artest rap verses, and the rights to Dirk Nowitzki's psycho ex-fiance.  That's basically it.  No huge blockbuster that we hoped would happen.  This year things will change. On February 18th, at 3:00 pm, the trade deadline will commence and the NBA will be changed for years to come.  Here's why.

Anybody who has been following the NBA at all for the last year or so knows that 2010 is the year.  The year when all the big name franchise players are either free agents or have the option to opt-out of their current contracts and become free agents.  We have names like Yao Ming, Amare Stoudemire, Lebron James, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, Shaq, Ray Allen, Manu Ginobli, Dirk Nowitzki, Carlos Boozer, and the biggest one, JJ Redick.  All the hype seems focused on the off season; teams have been cutting salaries like barbers cut hair. That was a quote from Ronnie on the Jersey Shore reunion.  The problem is that it's not about trying to acquire these players in the off season, it's about acquiring these players from trades.  Why wait when you can grab the go now, schmooze him for the rest of the season, make a big playoff run, and then hopefully resign him in the off season.  Teams aren't dumb and players aren't dumb.  A team isn't going to trade for someone for three months and then hope they resign with them.  This isn't baseball.  No, teams are going to push the player to sign a new contract or they won't go through with the deal.  On the other hand the teams with some of these key players need to unload them.  There is no way the Toronoto Raptors are going to keep Chris Bosh after this season so why not get some goods in exchange for him before he just bolts?  This is exactly what is going to happen to many of these free agents that are getting ready for the 2010 off season and if some of these trades fall in place then we will see the future of the NBA become like years past.

The NBA was great in the 80's and 90's because of the rivalries.  We had repeat meetings in the NBA finals, stars together on the top tier teams, and a landscape where we expected the Bulls, the Celtics, the Lakers, or the Spurs to annually return to the finals.  It was what we wanted to see.  It could return to that state if we see Chris Bosh move West and Amare Stoudemire move East.  The trade rumor that has been circulating for a month is to send Bosh over to the Lakers for Andrew Bynum, a couple draft picks, and an epoxy replica of Khloe Khardashian's butt to cover all the empty seats in Toronto.  If this trade goes through then we have a dominate Lakers team with a starting lineup of Chris Bosh, Pau Gasol, Ron Artest/Lamar Odom, Kobe Bryant, and a point guard to be named at a later date.  Bosh would definitely resign with LA and the Lakers have the money to do so with the correct trade.  They would be in the finals year after year.  They need a partner though if we want a finals rival.

This is where the Cleveland Cavaliers come in.  Yes, Kobe versus Lebron for years to come could be in the works.  The annointed one needs a partner in crime though, and so far in his career he hasn't had a perennial all star to team up with.  The Cavaliers need to make the big push for Amare Stoudemire.  The Suns just want to get under the luxury tax.  They know they won't be keeping Amare.  If they wanted to keep him they could've signed him in years past.  The Cavs could trade J.J. Hickson, Big Z's expiring contract, and a draft pick or two to get Amare's services for four months, a run at the title, a solid chance to resign him, and most importantly, have the pieces in place to have a perennial championship caliber team that Lebron James would want to stick around Cleveland to play with.  The pieces are out there for the taking.  These teams just need to make it happen.

The NBA is going to change soon.  Maybe it won't be these history in the making trades that would give us the greatest rivalry maybe in the NBA ever.  Maybe Amare ends up in New Jersey and they become a powerhouse once they draft John Wall with the #1 pick.  Maybe Chris Bosh goes to Miami with Dwayne Wade.  There will be new powerhouses popping up in the next couple years, but to return to the glory days of the NBA then we need to have that rivalry that we hope takes place year after year.

As President Obama prepares for his State of the Union Address tonight he will be talking about many policy, economic, and social factors that he plans on changing.  We have a high unemployment rate, a massive amount of government spending, and a war that continues in Afghanistan that he will have to explain reasoning for.  Do I really plan on hearing anything we haven't heard before from any other politician? No.  Whatever is going wrong will be made right.  Whatever is going right will continue to prosper.  That's politics, that's business, that's life.  Fix the problems and keep the positives in the black.  We've heard numerous promises from President Obama that haven't been achieved yet, but there is one glaring one that we all hoped and prayed for that never happened.  The elimination of the BCS system.  Now this may not increase jobs or fix the economy.  The fix of this problem probably won't end the war in Afghanistan.  That would be pretty awesome if it did.  The generation of a playoff system would however put America's faith back with President Obama, and that's exactly what every politician wants; faith in them.

I think President Obama should switch his whole speech up.  If he really wants to capture America's attention and get us back in his good graces then he needs to not only fix the BCS, but also fix the rest of the sports world in general.  Sports organizations in general are some of the hardest structures to crack.  It would take 10 years for the NBA to increase the air in the basketball by one PSI and the only changes the NFL makes in recent years is increasing penalties for anyone that skims the face of the quarterback.  President Obama could change all that in one speech.  Tonight is his chance to shine; his time to capture America again.  Instead of trying to change issues that are so partisan based he needs to attack issues that the whole nation wants changed.  Those are the sports issues.  So I'm going to outline some of the major changes that President Obama could claim to change within the next year, and if done, he will not only bring the country back to the great nation we are, but he will also solidify his spot as one of the greatest President's ever.

NFL:

1.  First thing to fix is the collective bargaining agreement between the players and the owners.  It may be fun to see a year with no salary cap, but it won't be fun if there's a year with no football.  If he saves football then he saves America.

2.  Get rid of the pussy rules.  No more hands to the face or accidently tapping a quarterback below the knees.  No more helmet-to-helmet penalties when the offensive player tucks.  No more unsportsmanlike penalties for end zone celebrations.

3.  Overtime Rules.  Everyone complains when overtime happens because both teams may not get the ball.  Change the system so it's similar to college football, but the teams start out at the 50 yard line instead.  It makes it interesting, it doesn't end in sudden death, and it could make for much more exciting games.  This would eliminate special teams, but if that's a major fault then I'm sure we could throw that into an overtime system as well.

MLB:

1.  Start a salary cap.  Salary caps will not increase parity and they will not make all the bad teams good.  What salary caps do is allow the bad teams to build up their teams and keep the team intact to remain successful for subsequent years.  This is a definite for baseball.

2.  Institute blood testing.  Baseball wants to get tough on steroids, but they still don't want to go with blood.

3.  Eliminate the DH.  Is there any other professional sport that has a completely different lineup and set of rules from one league/conference to the next?  It may make the games better for the American League, but I think we can handle watching pitchers attempt to bat.

NBA:

1.  Bring back the toughness.  The game is so much more finesse right now.  There are no more brawls or battles.  There are no more Rodman/Malone scuffles where they kept tripping each other.  We need some more contact in the game.

2.  Force the stars to participate in the dunk contest.  Make it some sort of stipulation like baseball does with the all star game where you get suspended if you don't.  Just think if baseball did this with the home run derby and we saw the likes of Mark Reynolds, Aaron Hill, Adam Lind, and Kendry Morales battle it out as the league's best long bombers.

3.  Kobe/Lebron.  Make it happen somehow.  We want to see it in the finals.  ESPN wants to see it.  Everyone wants to see it.  If the NBA can setup Cleveland getting Lebron then they can setup Lebron and Kobe in the finals.

NHL:

1.  Bring the NHL back to ESPN.  The NHL is actually great right now.  Only four teams in the league have records below .500.  Let's see that in any other sport near the midway point.  The NHL is still a major sport and it needs to be broadcasted and marketed as such.

2.  Rename the European players.  The toughest part of the NHL is not knowing the names of the players.  Let's rename players and make it much simpler.  The least we could do is create some more nicknames.

3.  Cage Fights.  Let's make fighting an even bigger spectacle.  Bring them to center us.  Drop a round cage around the center ice circle and let them go at it.  The winner is decided if someone gets knocked out or someone climbs the cage.

NCAA Basketball:

1.  Preseason March Madness.  Let's have an October Madness.  An early season tournament with 128 teams at the beginning of the season that will help us rank teams initially at the beginning of the year, while also bringing some excitement to the sport right when it kicks off.  Who needs Midnight Madness if we had that?

2.  Investigate John Calipari.  I don't know anyone more corrupt as a coach.  This guy jumps from school to the NBA to school to school right as investigations or offenses are displayed.  He leaves the school out there to get the brunt of the punishment and then goes on to the next university where he will begin some more illegal recruiting techniques again.

3.  Keep kids in school.  This one works with the NBA and NCAA as we need the age limit to be increased to 20 years old so then most players will have to stay in school for more than one year.

NCAA Football:

1.  Eliminate the BCS.  This was his number one sports change during the campaign tour and now he could really make a bold statement and make the change.  A playoff system would totally change the landscape of college football for the better and this one change would bring everyone to Obama's side.

2.  Change recruiting rules.  Too many recruits verbal early on and then jump ship later when teams don't get a prized recruit and then try to steal a recruit from another team.  Have an early signing period or some sort of recruiting system that would help minimize recruiting issues.

3.  Bring back Tim Tebow.  Tebow belongs in college football.  He belongs being behind center on the Florida Gators.  Enforce the Tebow rule that would allow Tim Tebow, and only Tim Tebow, to have an unlimited amount of eligibility, while allowing him to obtain money from endorsements.  We could see Tebow play in college football for 15 more years.  We'd get sick of him, not like we already aren't, but it would still be great to see.  Just think of Tebow at 40 years old with eye black on that reads Matthew 6:25 as he trucks some 18 year old kids on his way into the end zone.

Those are some of the changes we need in the sports world that President Obama could help institute.  He should forget the gibberish that he was planning on speaking of tonight and go with a full fledged, balls to wall address that lays out these changes for the sports world.  Fans in each sport will be excited to experience the changes for the good.  People across the nation will see that he wants to make changes for the greater good of all of America, not just stick to his party's agenda.  This could be the speech that puts him on the plateau of other great speakers that changed the country.  This should be tonight's State of the Union Address.