A New Orleans themed blog post: Bounties and Final Fours

So, after a weekend of good basketball, the Final Four - in New Orleans - is now set.  Obviously, the big story about the Final Four is the Bluegrass battle, Kentucky vs. Louisville, which will be one of the national semifinals on Saturday.  I'll get to that in a moment but first...is my thoughts on the Saints bounty situation.

As everyone who follows the NFL probably knows by now, the big office came down hard on the New Orleans Saints.  Sean Payton was suspended from coaching for a whole year (rumors over the weekend had him landing at FOX for studio work during games), Saints general manager Mickey Loomis was suspended for eight games, a top Saints assistant coach was suspended for six games and to top it all off, the creator of the bounty system, Gregg Williams (now with the Rams) was suspended indefinitely.  Also, the Saints lost second round draft picks in future drafts.

This is clearly a case where the cover-up is worse than the crime itself.  The thing about this is, the NFL found out the Saints were doing this bounty thing beforehand and told them to stop it and the Saints said they would - and they kept right on doing it. 

It's one thing to deliberately try to hurt players, much less some of the game's elite quarterbacks (reportedly, star QBs like Cam Newton, Kurt Warner, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers were targeted at one time or another), but it's another thing to out and out lie to the league office.  The league office made that clear when handing down suspensions.

There is no death penalty in the NFL like there is in college, but this is as close to the death penalty as you are ever going to see in professional football - this is staggering.  Losing a head coach, a general manager, a top assistant coach AND high draft picks in future drafts is almost like losing everything.  If I were the Saints, I would grt down on my knees and beg Drew Brees to stay - because really, does he even want to be stuck in that mess now?

Moving on to the Final Four, also to be hold in New Orleans.  I'll get to Kentucky and Louisville in just a second, but first want to acknowledge the job Bill Self has done at Kansas this year - which I think is getting highly underrated coming into this Final Four. 

I don't think even Kansas fans expected the Jayhawks to be in the Final Four this year and this surprise run must gnaw at Missouri fans immensely.  Missouri thought they got over when they won their last ever Big 12 tournament - and then they go into the NCAA tournament and lose to a 15 seed, while Kansas wins three hard fought games and goes right to the Final Four.  Sure, Kansas had a favorable draw, but beating North Carolina - again - to get to the Final Four is still a major accomplishment.

Now, about this Louisville vs. Kentucky game.  You want to talk about a pressure cooker, and, well Kentucky is in it right now.  They are the prohibitive favorite to win this tournament in most parts of the country that watch college basketball, and if they come up short Monday night, that's going to br bad.

Now imagine if they don't even get to Monday, and Louisville beats them and plays for the title themselves.  That is going to be ten times worse - to be beaten by a coach and school that a lot of Kentucky fans look their noses down on, and by a Louisville team that isn't expected to be there.

I expect Kentucky to win the game, but if Louisville finds a way to pull the upset, there's no telling how Kentucky fans will react.  And there's one little other intangible: Kentucky and Louisville fans, together, on Bourbon Street.  That is a combustbile environment.

Either way, it's got to be one of the biggest Louisville/Kentucky games ever.

NFL Free Agency and College Hoops

Sorry I haven't been on recently but I will make much more of an effort to do so.  But with the NCAA Men's Division I basketball tournament going on as well as NFL free agency, I think it's time to do some house cleaning.

First of all, hearty congrats to the New York Giants on winning the Super Bowl.  As I may or may not have said on this blog, Gronkowski makes such a huge difference for the Patriots and they did a good job hanging in there without him but in the end, the best team did win.  It's tough to repeat though, and it's even tougher to get back when you lose so we'll see what becomes of the Patriots especially.

As far as NFL free agency goes, man how about the set of stones on John Elway?  For the record, I am a Tebow fan but I think most Tebow fans would even have to admit that Peyton Manning gives the Denver Broncos a much better chance to win it all than a healthy Tebow does.  Reports are obviously that Denver is trying to trade Tebow to New York but the deal has hit a snag so we'll see what happens.

As a Houston Texans fan, I find it curious that so many defections are going on with the team.  Mario Williams, DeMeco Ryans, Mike Brisiel, Eric Winston and others will be with new teams next year.  All of a sudden, this team has many needs to fill this year in the draft.  At least Peyton Manning didn't end up on the Titans - won't have to see that twice per year.

Next item of business is Taylor Martinez opening his mouth and talking about how he'll be disappointed if the Nebraska football team doesn't make the national title game this coming college football season.  To me, it's simply another example of him opening his mouth and writing another check that he cannot cash.

With regards to all the craziness this year in the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, it's insane that there are four Big Ten teams in the Sweet 16 this year and it's even crazier that seven teams from the Ohio River valley region are in the Sweet 16.  And the really insane part is that they all really don't like each other.  Don't believe me?  Look up Dan Wetzel's archive on Yahoo! Sports as there is a really good article on that.

As far as who will win the tournament?  Kentucky, Syracuse and North Carolina look like hte frontrunners right now but it's double elimination and my pick, Missouri, crashed and burned in the first round so anything can happen.

Check back tomorrow for my thoughts on the New Orleans Saints situation.