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.

Being a sports fan is tough these days.  We have to know everything, spur of the moment, no questions asked.  We need to know the trade rumor before the Mort Report comes out and the final score of every game immediately once the clock hits zero.  We need to know injuries, coaching changes, front office changes, weather, depth charts, stats, and any other bit of information that could possibly come up when speaking to other sports fans.  I don't know if it's the competitive nature of sports that makes us need to know everything, watch every clip, and think about sports around the clock, but it's almost a way of life now.  Technology has changed the sports world.  Most things for the better, a few things for the worse.  Even with all the changes that have evolved with technology, the biggest change in a sport fan's life is just growing up.

Do you remember watching sports as a child?  I think when I was about 5 or 6 years old is really when I began having an attraction to sports.  I used to have this old 19" television that sat on the floor in my bedroom that I used basically to play Atari or Nintendo.  I didn't get many stations with it.  It had the basic 13 channel rotary dial with an antenna in the back that I'd have to move around to get a good signal.  I didn't watch much television on it anyway.  At 6 years old my bedtime was 9pm on weekdays so most of my time after I finished school, dinner, and homework consisted of video games, video games, and more video games.  RBI baseball where the ball would curve behind the foul pole for a home run.  Joe Montana football where you could pull off the fake field goal pass for a touchdown almost every time.  These were the things I productively wasted my time doing before bed.  There was one television I always watched though.  Every Monday night I would turn on Monday Night Football to watch the game.  I watched every game, beginning to end, no matter who was playing.  I wasn't supposed to be up that late, but every Monday I would stay up to 11:30 or so.  My parents would hear the TV on and come check to make sure I was asleep.  I used to quickly lay my head down and pretend I was in a deep coma the whole time.  They would turn off the TV and go to bed and then I would get back up, turn the TV back on, decrease the volume and finish watching the game.  I loved it!  I loved watching the game, I loved staying up past my bedtime, and I loved being one of the only kids, even in Kindergarten, who could show up on Tuesday morning and knew all the facts about the game.  Even at a young age I was maturing into the sports fan I am these days.

Watching sports back then was great.  I was a fan of Jim Kelly, Emmitt Smith, Thurman Thomas, Troy Aikman, Barry Sanders, Bubby Brister, and basically anyone else that I could remember the name of on any given team.  The team didn't really matter.  Of course I gravitated toward watching the Steelers since my father watched them every week, but I rooted for anyone I knew.  I had Starter jackets, the awesome pullover ones, of teams like Penn State, Duke, Seattle Super Sonics, Chicago Bulls, Pirates, and probably others I can't remember.  I didn't have to pick one team; I picked my favorites based on the players I loved to watch.  This is what being a sports fan as a child was about; just liking a team for any reason, whether it is the team colors, a player on the team, or if the team was successful at the time.  I didn't have to worry about knowing every starter's name on the Steelers offensive line to be considered a legitimate Steelers fan.  I was just a fan, a fan of sports.

As we grow up things change; the competitive nature comes out of us.  We hit middle school and our love for individual players has waned.  We may have a favorite player, but now we stick to rooting for that team.  It's the beginning of being chastised when the team you support is bad and it's the beginning of grouping yourself with fellow fans and learning that your common bond of fandom is more important than anything else you could learn about the person.  It's around this age when we start solidifying what teams we will support for years to come and what rival teams we will hate for years to come as well.

I'm not saying I wish we could once again root for teams based on individual players and not care as much if our favorite team wins or not, because we do care.  I just wish it was exciting to root for other teams without having money riding on the game or having to have one of our fantasy players participating in it.  I guess it's just a part of growing up though.  There's no exact point where we grow up as sports fans.  It's at a different time for each individual.  Some point along the way I guess sports just becomes more than a game.

We all saw what happened in the Vikings/Saints game; for some reason people are surprised with what happened.  I don't know why.  I don't understand how anyone couldn't realistically conger up the thought that Brett Favre, the mighty gunslinger, wouldn’t revert back to his old ways and throw a timely interception to lose the game.  That's what Brett Favre was, is, and will ever be; arm rifling, pass happy; I can hit any spot, anywhere on the field, from anywhere on the field quarterback.  That's why we love him, that's why we hate him.  Some people think that this game will finally cement Brett Favre into the retirement asylum.  Some people think that another interception to end the season has ruined his legacy.  I think he just built upon his legacy yesterday.

"I don't believe you can lose legacies, you can only grow upon them."

That is the exact statement I wrote in my column Losing a Lagassi when I decided to give my take on Andre Agassi's book.  It fit Andre's situation then and it fits Brett's situation now.  Yesterday's effort by Brett and the Vikings was great.  The game was back and forth with excitement throughout.  What Brett Favre did out there as a 40 year old gent was a classic performance in its own right.  Win or lose the game, he returned to the game he loved, and he was within reach of returning to the Super Bowl.  Some people think that each of his returning efforts is similar to Michael Jordan returning.  They're nowhere close.  People seem to think that Brett hurt his legacy by once again throwing a pick to end the season.  He didn't.  All he did was build upon the accomplishments he has already achieved.  Of course he would want to take that interception back, but I don't think he'd take back returning to football if he knew he was going to throw that interception.  He had so many great moments this year.  Numerous games of 300+ yards passing.  Multiple touchdown games.  Come from behind thrillers with last second heaves to Greg Lewis.  Yeah, we haven't heard his name since that 49ers game.  He fought, battled, and even threw a couple cheap shots below the knees this season for what?  For the chance to win another Super Bowl.

So maybe he screwed up again like typical Brett Favre heave-ho fashion.  Maybe he didn't accomplish what he set out to when he returned.  Either way he was phenomenal this season and his legacy was built upon.  Everyone will remember that interception that blew the Super Bowl chance, but everyone will also remember the heroics he had throughout the season.  I was thoroughly impressed with his efforts throughout the year and he definitely became more of a legend in my mind.  The funny part is that I don't even like Brett Favre or care for Brett Favre.  So he may be a failure to some and a legend to others, but sometimes you have to stand behind your failures to recognize your success.  I recognized the success immediately after the interception was thrown.

Do you remember when Brett Favre retired?  No, not last time the time before that.  Remember the time when he called it quits from his beloved Green Bay Packers and it was a special day for football for about 4 months.  That's the time I'm talking about.  That was the time when his beloved Green Bay Packers turned into the team that didn't want him anymore.  It turned into Brett wanting to be back; he made a mistake and wanted his job back.  Problem was that Aaron Rodgers was waiting for his chance to take over the prestigious position of Green Bay Packers starting quarterback.  So both sides barked at each other.  We had gossip coming out of both camps and it just turned into a bitter battle that didn't really end too friendly.  Does this situation sound familiar?  It seems like Jay Leno is Brett Favre, Conan O'Brien is Aaron Rodgers, and NBC are the Green Bay Packers.  The difference is that the Packers played the cards right and NBC played them completely wrong.

NBC could've never been in this predicament if they would've just looked over the Brett Favre/Green Bay situation.  Green Bay knew there was no way they could let Brett Favre back on the team.  They offered him a marketing package worth multi-million dollars and he didn't want that.  The one move the Packers did make that they got extremely lucky with was asking Brett to join the team as a backup.  Brett said no of course; unfortunately for NBC, Leno said yes.  This is basically where the tide turns.  We all know what happened to Brett.  He went to the Jets and that didn't work out great.  Retired and then came back to the Vikings and so far, so good.  We don't know how it will end up, but at least he moved on and made the best of the situation.

Leno on the other hand couldn't just leave.  He could've taken jobs in Vegas making millions upon millions each day and he wouldn't do it.  He could've just been happy with his fortune he's amassed and went home and realized he had a great career, but didn't.  Instead he took the backup role.  Well, sort of the backup role.  NBC didn't know what to do with him.  They could've move him later then Conan and they knew earlier wasn't a good time spot, but still they pulled the trigger.  They built up his show, gave him the great guests, and tried to make it work.  It didn't.  Conan was setup to fail.  He waited the whole time to get to this spot and then NBC took it away immediately and gave it back to the old man.

What NBC did was basically take Brett Favre and give him a job as the QB coach.  He's not the #1 guy on the team, but he's still got more leeway then the #1 guy on the team since he's coaching him.  Then they'll see how Aaron Rodgers does at QB and if at the twelve game mark of the season he is only 6-6 then they'll release him and bring Brett in to take his job back.  That's what NBC did to Conan and thankfully that's what the Green Bay Packers didn't allow happen.

The Packers organization was much smarter then NBC is or they just got lucky.  Either way they aren't the ones shoveling out $45 million for a botched move.    Maybe television executives should pay more attention to sports organizations.  Sometimes the situation arises when the old man on the team doesn't really want to give up his job, but you know you have to do it.  So I hope NBC is happy with their $45 million loss for a lesson they should have already learned.

Sports programming has gotten pretty darn good in the past decade.  We've seen increased in the number of sports sports, including separate networks for each major sport.  High-definition television has allowed us to view all events in a whole different way.  The sports that we're boring to watch are now exciting, or at least bearable, thanks to HD.  We have the ability to basically watch any sports program around the world at anytime, as long as you want to pay for the specific packages to be able to do so.  We have availability, we have lots of abundance, we have great visuals, but we're still no place near the ceiling of sports television.  This where I think we're going.

I can't predict much.  I don't know what's for dinner tonight, what time I'm going to sleep, or who's going to win the Lakers/Cavs game tomorrow, but I do know technology.  I can predict technology.  Everyone thinks that technology changes everyday, and it does, but what people don't understand is that technology is very predictable.  If a new feature is instituted on some sort of electronic and it goes over well with the public then chances are it's going to be brought on to every other electronic available.  That's the basis of technology; making life simpler.  For some reason or another televisions haven't gone into the realm of upgrading software, but instead have focused on the hardware.  Thinner TV's, brighter TV's, bigger TV's, larger contrast ratio, higher refresh rate; that's what we have to look forward to when picking a television.  Televisions are starting to catchup.  Enhancements are coming in terms of WiFi enabled televisions and 3D displays.  Those two enhancements alone are where the fun starts when in comes to the future of sports television.

I'm sure we've all experienced 3D at some point in time.  Well if you haven't, just know it's coming soon.  ESPN has already stated they will air 85 live events in 3D starting in June and Discovery is having their own dedicated 3D station as well.  Get used to it, 3D is here to stay.  What's not here to stay are the 3D glasses.  Televisions are being built that don't need the glasses to see the dimensions.  Soon it will be the norm to have sports in 3D.  Just like HD is now, it's almost un-American to watch a sports event in standard definition.  The same will happen with 3D.  What's more interesting is how the WiFi enabled televisions and the cable companies can help bring interactiveness to a new level.  I think televisions are going to become much more app friendly and touch screen enabled.  We will be able to watch sports and just tap the screen or a button and be able to view live box scores from the current game and other games.  We will be able to chat with fellow viewers across the globe while we watch the game.  We will be able to choose what audio we want to listen to from the local stations or the national station.  Replays will give us a chance to rotate and zoom in on the situation ourselves.  Online voting for questions will be instantaneous.  There will be apps to travel through the inner parts of the stadium, basically allowing us to go on our own personal tour.  Fantasy live stat trackers will be up on our big screen.  We can having a scrolling bar with our fantasy teams in our leagues and have the updated scores run across.  We will have different angles to watch the game from.  Basically all these new improvements will give us more freedom and more flexibility to do whatever we want.

The possibilities are endless.  It's basically whatever we come up with and want.  The basic apps like Facebook and Twitter will be there as well.  Netflix is a given and having our email available will be nice too.  So if it seems like sports on television is great now then just wait for another five years or ten years; it's going to be crazy.  We will finally have the opportunity to watch sports with our friends, families, or fellow fans and none of us will have to be in the same room.