Football first:
Look across the landscape that is the AFC and tell me who's a lock to make the playoffs. Pittsburgh a lock, but after that, nothing's guaranteed. Tennessee was the best team in the AFC this year, but they have huge question marks. For starters, can Kerry Collins replicate last season's magic run as a starter? And will they keep Albert Haynesworth, who was their most important player on defense?
Indy changed head coaches. The Dolphins might have been a one-year wonder. They have a tougher schedule this season. The Pats still have the giant question about the state of Brady's knee. The Ravens have a few key free agents on the defense, and the Chargers are coached by Norv Turner.
Houston looked decent at the end of the year, but this team's peak might be 9-7 or 8-8. The Broncos are going to be rebuilding. That defense needs a lot of help and I think they're about a year away from being a serious playoff threat. The Chiefs are about 3 years away at least, and the Raiders are the Raiders. I like Cable as their head coach, but I can't pencil them, even lightly, in the playoffs because of the past 5 years. They have to show me they can win more than 5 games in a season before I start to believe in them.
The Jets have questions at quarterback and the defense faded down the stretch. They should be better under Rex Ryan, but he's a first year head coach, so you never know. The Bills are coached by Dick Jauron, so you can never take them too seriously.
The Browns are the Browns and the Bengals have a lot of holes on offense and defense. Jacksonville completely imploded this year and David Garrard was exposed as a one-year wonder.
And yet, it's the offseason, and every team is dreaming of the Super Bowl. And really, if the Cardinals can make the Super Bowl and if the Dolphins can win 11 games a season after losing 15, why can't a team like the Raiders or the Jags make a run in the playoffs?
NBA Stuff (stop reading if you don't care about basketball or baseball from this point on)
Two possible trades involving two Suns that would make for the best stories in the NBA this year. One of them is a really smart trade and the other is questionable.
Trade #1: Amare Stoudemire for Shawn Marion and Michael Beasley or spare parts from the Heat. The Heat need to do this deal. They would have essentially turned Shaq and a #1 pick into Amare Stoudemire. How is that not a great deal? Stoudemire paired with D-Wade makes the Heat a 50 win team and the 4th best team in the East. That team becomes good enough to beat Orlando and scare the Cavs and the Celtics in the playoffs.
For the Suns, it would be the ultimate admission of a mistake. They traded Marion for Shaq because Marion and Stoudemire couldn't co-exist and they wanted to shake up the team. Well that shake-up is an abysmal failure. The Suns never recovered from losing to the Spurs in the first round of last year's playoffs. They inexplicably forced Mike D'Antoni out of town and then hired Terry Porter (really?!?) to get the team to play better defense, except that really hasn't worked and now everyone on that team hates playing in Phoenix.
Trade #2: Shaq for Lamar Odom and spare parts. This would be huge. Might not be a great deal for the Lakers, since Odom's versatility is more of a benefit to them when Bynum's healthy and playing, but for sheer storylines, Shaq back with Kobe on the Lakers would be huge. He would immediately fill their need for interior toughness while Bynum's out. And he wouldn't have to play big minutes since they have Gasol. And when Bynum came back, he could play 20 minutes a game and save himself for the playoffs. I'd like this trade a little more if the Lakers hadn't traded Radmanovich (who sucks, but can score occasionally) for Adam Morrison (who REALLY sucks and can't score even occasionally). Odom can fill a lot of roles for a team. He's a good complimentary scorer, good rebounder, decent defender and a good ballhandler. He's come up in a lot of trade scenarios, but I think the Lakers would be smart to keep him. If this did happen, it'd be funny that Lakers would be trading Odom for Shaq since they got Odom from the Heat in a trade with Shaq. Both these trades would be like teams hitting the reset button.
MLB (stop reading if you cared about the NBA, but not about MLB)
Why A-Rod always fades in the clutch
As it turns out, the dude just doesn't know how to cycle his roids properly. He gets to September and he lays off the juice and turns into a normal player. Then, knowing he doesn't have his usual pick-me-up, he panics and makes abnormally stupid plays in the field and at bat. Hence, his propensity to fold in the playoffs.
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