When I first heard that Dallas Mavs player Josh Howard insulted the national anthem, I shook my head and moaned about his seemingly regression in maturity. Then I looked at psoted comments on this topic by various people, and it all made sense.

In no way do I condone Howard's attitude, but I do understand where he is coming from. This country represents the idea that every single person is equal regardless of race, sex, or religion. Regardless of any differences. Sadly throughout US history, these ideas, embodies in the constitution, have largely remained an ideal.

Who knows how much racism Josh may have encountered or continue to encounter. While I and many other people can love the US in spite of there being a large gap between ideal and reality, there are many people like Josh who can't reconcile the differences.

There are many people calling Josh unpatriotic and ungrateful. That may be so. But is he any more ungrateful or unpatriotic than people who tell citizens of Hispanic ethnicity that they'll call immigration, as if not all citizens are equal? Or than people who proudly display the Confederate flag even though we live in the United States of America?

Who is more pathetic? Josh Howard saying that he doesn't believe in the anthem, or the racists who in the most unfriendliest of terms say he should go back to Africa? Perhaps Josh had these racists in mind - these racists who are so eager to use the "n" word, who blame every single thing on immigration, who at best tolerate blacks - perhaps he had these people in mind when he insulted the National Anthem.

As long as there is discrimination, whether it be racial, gender, or ethnic, as long as there are Confederate flags hanging on statehouses, as long as people continue to say "Go back to Africa" or other dumb statements," then while I don't agree with Josh's attitude, I can clearly see where he's coming from.

So yesterday the Patriots became the first team in NFL history to go 16-0 in the regular season. Of course, excluding Patriots nation, most Americans are unhappy. And I am confused as to why.

For one thing, now the Dolphins can shut up for a while. It is surprising more people aren't tired of the antics of the old 72' Dolphins. Records are made to be broken. To break out champagne each year your record stays safe violates the spirit of competition. 

Shula, Mercury Morris, and other members of the 72' Dolphins ought to be ashamed of themselves. Miami was the story of the 72 season. But their yearly champagne breaking makes them the story year after year. We all know these kind of people: Spoiled has beens who grab for the spotlight whenever someone else is getting attention. That is plain selfish. Most Americans should be rooting for the Patriots for this reason alone.

Actually, I was very disappointed when the Dolphins won their first game against the Ravens last week. I wanted them to go 0-16 the same year that New England went 16-0. It would had been poetic justice. But I digress.

Imagine if Jordan, Pippen, Jackson, and the other members of the 1996 Chicago Bulls would toast every time their 72-win season was safe for another year. Can you imagine any other athletes or teams publicly stating that they hoped their record would not be broken and celebrating with alcohol every time their record remained safe? Why are the Dolphins getting somewhat of a pass?

I am a Browns fan, but short of Cleveland making the Superbowl, I hope New England wins it all so Shula and company can forever put their stale champagne to rest. 

Well, after the Mitchell Report came out  earlier today, I wonder what people are going to say about Roger Clemens now. If people really want to have an asterick beside Barry Bond's home run record, then let us put an asterick beside Clemen's 350+ victories.

It has always amazed me that Bonds has been revield by much of the public while Clemens has been admired. Sure, Bonds is not the most agreeable of people, to put it lightly. But there have been other jerks like that murderous and racist Ty Cobb.

Speaking of Bonds, it seems from ESPN that one of the men whose testimony the great Feds used to accuse Bonds of lying is now having second thoughts, saying that what Bonds told him matches more what Bonds testified to. Meaning that the Fed's accusations that Bonds lied is a bit suspect. But that is another story.

One thing that irked me about the report was its focus on the bad influence to the children. Please. Teenagers have their own mind; I speak from past experience.  Sometimes people play the children card when their arguments are not as strong as they would like it to be.  Teh teenagers who are using asteriods or other performance enhancing drugs are doing so not because thier favorite player is using it. Rather they are doing so to recover from injuries faster and to one day make it to the Big Leagues.

Seriously, if every baseball player would say on national television, "I have had sex with only one woman - my wife. And the first time we had sex was on our wedding night, " do you really think the majority of teenage sex would disappear? At the end of the day, kids using steriods is mainly a parent problem. 

In closing, no matter what Mitchell or Selig says, steriods are going to continue being a problem because they are not focusing on the causes of steroid use - the societal causes such as insecurity, pain, desire for money and a good life, and so on.

So many Americans are upset that Barry Bonds passed Babe Ruth on the homerun list. They say the stats of Barry and contemporaries like Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa should come wed with asterisks. Bull-oney.

The truth is for some stupid reason, many Americans view Babe Ruth and others of his generation as gods. Now, with Barry and others, steroid gives people the opportunity to speak out against their onslaught of "hallowed" records. But with Hank Aaron, there were no such dimension, leaving ugly racist people no other choice but to spew monstrous hatred.

Okay, so Barry doesn't have a particularly good personality. There are many people with less than savory personalities. Who's to say that some of you hypocritical critics don't have great personalities yourself. If Barry is indeed egomaniac, he is far from the only one. Half of the sports columnists I read are egomaniacs. Many actors and actresses are.

Ty Cobb was not a nice man in his own right. A bigot and everything else. If you folks really want asterisks, let's go all the way. Let's put an asterisk on Babe Ruth's records. After all, he played in an era when dummies like the dishonorable Landis prevented blacks from playing baseball. The same time that the Sultan was belting out 61 homeruns, Josh Gibson was slamming 84 homeruns in the Negro League. Sure, some of you say. The Negro League was inferior. Well, in many exhibition games between the Negro League and MLB, the latter won the fair share of games.

In fact, let's put an asterisk on all the records up to Jackie Robinson's barrier-breaking at-bat in the late 1940's. If Americans are really concerned with upholding the dignity of baseball.

So far, the Detroit-Cleveland matchup is going according to script. Detroit has won its two home games, for the most part handily. At times the Cavs have been playing scared. By now everyone knows Donyell Marshall's infamous comment about the team having not a chance against the Pistons.

As a Cavs fans since the Daughtery, Nance, and Ehlo days, it pained me to see a player almost handing in the town after only the first game. So while the term moral victory is cliche, following the Cavs furious albeit futile comeback in Game 2, it gave me and other Cavs fanatics hope that  yes, the team still has a chance.

Cleveland now knows it can play with Detroit. What it needs to do now is seize upon the momentum and protect its home turf and bring a kill or be killed mentality to the game. That is the only way to beat Detroit.

It won't be easy. Earlier this week, tragedy struck the team, as Larry Hughes' brother passed away.  Hughs will probably miss the third game and maybe even the fourth game. The rest of the team may find it hard to perform up to task themselves. Who knows? Maybe the team decide that they have accomplished much this year and decide to fold in, resulting in a Detroit sweep.

Or Cleveland may dedicate the remaining games of the series to Hughes' brother and play in the mold of Loyalta Marymount when they went to the Big 8 after losing Hank Gathers in 1989.

Regardless of the outcome, this has been a great season for Cleveland. just the 4th 50-win season in team history. the first time in the second round since 1993. The first time in the playoffs in 8 years. Not even a Detroit sweep can lesson the Cav's achievements this year. And we can say without a doubt that Clevland will be a force to reckon with for a long time.