Midnight Stay of Execution

The BCS just dodged the biggest bullet of it's life.

Which is too bad, because I was really looking forward to seeing how Ari Fleisher was going to spin Alabama vs. TCU.

Hunter Lawrence should be cut in for a nice share of that title game money. Because his sliver close field goal saved a lot of grief for everybody.

For the record, I think picking either Cincinnati or TCU would have been a coin flip. Neither team, despite their unbeaten records, was truly deserving of a title shot. So spare me the lengthy sabermetrics-esque arguments for each.

But let's for a moment, ponder the 1 second which might have ruined a season, and sent Longhorn fans into a mass suicidal depression.

Hey, Mack. What the fuck? No really. What... the... fuck?

You have 15 seconds left. You are well in range for your cash money kicker. You have a timeout. And if not for college football having instant replay, you almost fucked it all up.

Christ.

That debacle made Les Miles look like a tactical genius.

All that said, thank god we've got a Championship what will be compelling. Sure, Alabama nearly got whacked by otherwise-listless Auburn a week ago. Sure, Texas played nobody, and still almost couldn't tap in their 1-footer for a title shot.

I'm not saying these two teams are the best. I'm just saying it's right.

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What can you say about Alabama laying the wood to Florida? They showed a stat about what happens when Nick Saban gets a second crack at a team's he's lost to before. It ain't pretty for them.

That was domination.

'Bama made Florida look like a one-dimensional, disorganized mess. And Ingrahm is one helluva a stud. Kudos too to Greg McElroy, whom I slandered liberally on my show Friday. No, he does not suck. He played awesome. Props.

Play after play, McElroy kept the Tide rollin'. His hop-scotch sideline run was so good, it looked literally impossible. Only on replay, did we see how the trick was done. Amazing.

A few other thoughts...

-Why didn't Urban Meyer just start Carlos Dunlap anyway? Not like people would think any less of him. Nobody likes him, outside of Gator Nation, so just suspend Dunlap for next year's opener.

I googled up that website on Tebow's eyeblack: “John 16:33”. Got a "page not found." Could it be a .net, or .biz? Help me out here.

I think Florida committed a karmic foul by wearing the alt-logo “F” uniform in a title game. You don't wear alternates in a championship game. Or any playoff game. Period. Just me.

I loved how TV made sure to show the “Tim Tebow in a circle rallying the troops” moment in this game. I've now seen that vignette about 6 different times. Its nearly as played as the “Ray Lewis doing his pre-game sideline dance” vignette.

Best line of the week, from a texter to my Fox Sports Radio national show. “Czabe, do you think the refs in the SEC title game should take the day off? I mean, they worked so hard for it all year.” Nice.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Finally, did you see the dude who LOST the Dr. Pepper “throw it in the giant can” challenge to a GIRL! Crikey. He should just take his testicles, lop them off with garden shears, and flush them down the toilet. Seriously. Dude, don't leave the house for like a month.

No Piece of Ass Is Worth It. Not Even Her.

If I never hear that voicemail again, it will still have been at least one too many times.

"Hey. It's Tiger. I need you to do me a huge favor..."

Cringe. My stomach starts to flip all over again.

I liked Tiger Woods where I had left him: up in the sporting firmament. Amidst the athletic Gods. As a guy who was a cut above, and a step ahead, in every regard.

Yeah, it was naive. I know that. But that's where I wanted him.

No more.

I wanted dearly to believe the "Ward-Cleaver-With-A-280-Yard-Stinger-2-Iron" myth. Now, he's like any 6th man on an NBA bench.

Thud. Down he comes.

You can rail all you want against the excesses of tabloid journalism.

Okay. Fine. Done, now?

The fact remains: the National Enquirer didn't send the bimbos to his hotel room. TMZ didn't make him send 300-plus text messages to a 21 year old cocktail waitress.

His bed. Lie in it.

Sadly, this Woods bombshell is the spectacular finale to what I am dubbing "The Year of the Cad."

Tiger.
Pitino.
Letterman.
Gov. Mark Sanford.
Jon Gosselin.
Steve Phillips.
Big Ben.
Steve McNair.
Arturo Gatti.
Jim Nantz.
Shawne Merriman.
The creep who taped Erin Andrews.

Cads. All of them. Sadly, several paid the ultimate price for it. And nobody thinks infidelity should be a death sentence. But it's been a bad year all around.

I hate to pile on with the "I told you so" but I must in this regard. I said loudly: "Don't do it, Tiger."

People killed me. They said: "My God, look at that Swedish hottie! You're nuts, Czabe."

No, I said. I'm a realist. As Chris Rock once said: "You are only as faithful as your options."

And when you are a star athlete like him, the options are limitless. The buffet of women is open 24/7/365. And you need an A.C. Green or Doug Christie level of purity to resist it.

I said Tiger had plenty of time to get married in his 40's. If he wanted. But there was no obligation. I knew that his fame and money would put these women in his orbit. I knew that he was a golf dork at heart. Not a playboy.

Something was bound to give. But why did it have to be this embarrassing?

Have A Little Faith

Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints were at the epicenter of the NFL universe on Monday night. And oh, what a night.

Anybody who watched that game, watched Brees carve up the Patriots defense, watched how energized the building was, had to feel pretty good about how far the franchise has come from the post Katrina days.

There was doubt about whether the Saints could survive. There was doubt about whether it was fiscally prudent to fix the Superdome. There was doubt about who would willingly come to New Orleans as a free agent.

All it took, was a little faith.

Why did Brees come to a city still flattened by a hurricane, instead of a warm weather city like Miami with a “glamour” coach like Nick Saban?

"Obviously there are great coaches on both teams, but I just felt that energy in New Orleans," Brees said back then. "From the very beginning there was a genuine feeling that they wanted me there. They believe I can come back from this shoulder injury and lead them to a championship. They were as confident as I am, and that meant a lot."

His agent echoed the sentiment. Faith.

"Drew was sufficiently impressed with the organization and the head coach in New Orleans," said Brees' agent, Tom Condon, referring to new Saints coach Sean Payton. "New Orleans was also very comfortable with the risk-reward, based on his rehabilitation from the injury, and Miami didn't have that same level of comfort, so New Orleans made a lot of sense for us."

Faith in sports, is difficult to have. Fans who have too much of it, are branded as fools. But that’s what faith requires. Belief in something you cannot see.
Anybody can believe in the sun coming up in the East. To believe that a franchise can rebound so spectacularly is much harder. But there it was, in full HD glory on MNF.

The city of New Orleans has miles and miles to go, before it is ever what it once was. That day may never come. But it is clear that the entire region lives for that team. The pictures of oil rig workers with their Saints jerseys were perfect.

The Hornets. Eh. You can have ‘em. This is a Saints town, and a Saints state. Period.

“In other N.F.L. cities, it’s different,” said Steve Gleason, a Saints defensive back. “The players and the fans feel totally separate. Here, it’s more like a college. There is a real emotional connection. But if you’re not poised, that emotion can overcome you.”

Even Payton said that the Saints' poor showing in 2005 did not deter him from seeking the job.

"It's hard to look at their talent now compared to their record with all of the circumstances and things that they've gone through," Payton said at the time. "It's a team that's certainly shown that they can be competitive and I would look forward to that challenge."

I am a Redskin fan, whose faith has been tested mightily. But I will try to have some. Faith that someday Dan Snyder will figure out this ownership thing, and back the hell up and hire really good people to do their thing.