I need help.  I have a new "disease".  Actually, this sickness has existed for some time now, and I've had it my entire adult life, but only in the past few months have I realized and come to accept that I am AAS positive.  That is to say, I'm an Adult Autograph Seeker.

That's right.  I'm a grown adult of 27 years of age, and I enjoy meeting professional athletes and asking for their signature on a piece of memorabilia.  Since graduating high school I have meet several Chicago area athletes like Mike Singletary, Jon Garland, Neal Cotts, and Brandon McCarthy, and I have their signatures on photos and baseballs to prove it.  I have spent my own hard earned money to purchase autographs from other collectors as well.  These athletes include (among many others) Tom Brady, Tony Gonzalez, Derrick Johnson, Dick Butkus and Frank Thomas.  

I couldn't dream of going to a professional game without bringing Sharpie and something for somebody to scribble their name on.  What if I came face to face with one of my favorite players?  I couldn't let myself live that down.  Oh yeah, and I still bring my glove to baseball games too.  I'm sooooooo bad.

Obtaining autographs was something I enjoyed as a kid, and I guess I never grew out of it.  I can remember meeting many all-time greats.  My first autograph was Hank Aaron, so I was off to a good start.  Although I was only seven at the time and I barely knew who this man was, let alone why my dad gave $10 to wait in line at the Villa Park Odium to get his autograph, I remember being honored to meet a man who had so many fans.  That same day I got Willie Stargell and Stan Mikita's autographs too.  Mikita signed a game used hockey stick from his playing days in the early 1970's.  Good ol' Dad broke his stick skating at the ice arena where the Blackhawks used to practice and an attendant let him borrow a stick from Mikita's personal bag.  My dad used the stick for about 5 seconds before taking it out to the car and driving home.  That is one heck of a souvenir!

In my childhood I also attended a Blackhawks practice and got to meet and get signatures from Chris Chelios, Jeremy Roenick, Doug Wilson, and Ed Belfour.  At a card show once I met a young White Sox rookie named Alex Fernandez, who apparently was not quite popular yet.  I knew this because after purchasing a Fernandez rookie card and having him sign it, my friend and I noticed there was nobody else in line behind us, so we went back to the same dealer, bought a dozen more cards and got him to sign all of them for us.  At a different show years later I met Tom Waddle and Tom Paciorek.  I met Bill Cartwright at a White Sox game once.  

The point is this:  It was fun for me as a kid, and it's fun for me now, so why do I get made fun of or get snickers from people just because I'm all grown up?  

I guess that's just the kid in me still, or maybe it's the sports fan, or possibly a combination of both.  I won't give up my hobby, and I couldn't dream of giving away or selling any of my autographs.  In fact, I'm all about getting more.  I don't mind spending big money to add to my collection, but my preference will always be meeting athletes in person.  When I hear radio commercials touting that so-and-so will be signing autographs at this place on this date, my ears perk and my eyes light up.  God, I love that feeling.

For now, all my autographs are stored away in boxes until I can finish remodeling my basement.  Then, they'll be on display for all my friends and family to view.  It'll be my favorite room in the whole wide world.  I just wish I didn't have to be embarrassed because of my AAS disease.

18-1 Patriots. Belichick walking off the field with :01 left. Manning's throw. Tyree's catch. Fourth and 13. Biggest upset ever? Those rascally '72 Dolphins. There's so much to discuss concerning the Super Bowl and I'm ready to delve in.

New England is the Better Team
In my recent memory of college and professional sports history, I cannot recall a time when I've looked back at the Championship game and couldn't say "The team that won was not the better team", moreover, the best overall team in the league. The 2006 St. Louis Cardinals and this year's New York Giants are certainly the exception.

The '03 Wild Card Florida Marlins defeated the heavily favored Yankees in the World Series. And the '01 Diamondbacks did the same. New England beat the powerful St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. Denver beat Green Bay in Super bowl XXXII. In 2006 the Miami Heat upset the Dallas Mavericks to win the NBA Championship, and two years prior the Pistons upset the Lakers. 2006 also saw the underdog Florida Gators take down the mighty Buckeyes of Ohio State, and LSU beat Oklahoma in 2003. In Men's Basketball, the Gators were the highest seed in the Final Four, even though they were seeded only as a 3, and won the National Championship.

Had the number 8 seed Edmonton Oilers beaten the Carolina Hurricanes to win the Stanley Cup in 2006 (they lost in 7 games), I would have had almost no choice but to acknowledge them as the best team in the NHL, even though their regular season record was only 41-28-13. Carolina won 52 games, the Red Wings, who lost to Edmonton in the first round, won 58.

The list goes on and on and on. But the point of all this rambling is that the better team did not win on Sunday.

I wrote in December that the Patriots are the best team ever... Even if they lose, and I stand firm in that belief. When I'm asked in 10 years who the best NFL team in history was, I'll say the '07 Patriots. If they played the Giants 10 times, they might beat them 8. I give credit to the Giants for playing a hell of a game and beating the best team ever, but New York, despite Sunday's results, was not the best team from the 2007 NFL season.

I Rooted for the Pats Because They Deserved It
Ordinarily, barring an actual rooting interest in a title game such as my favorite team playing in it, I like to root for the underdog. But I wanted the Patriots to win not because I like them, but because they played like the best team all season long and it would have put a nice cap on the season. I wanted to see them go undefeated. I would so love for a team to someday go 19-0 so that those pompous '72 Dolphins would shut up (Ok, so the Patriots are pompous and arrogant too, but they're the lesser of two evils for me right now). I also rarely, if ever, root for any New York team (You New Yorkers really do have a way of making Chicago feel like the "Second City"). So yeah, I'm disappointed today. Nobody will ever agree with me that the '07 Pats are the best team of all times, and everybody will tell me I'm crazy because they didn't win the Super Bowl. I think the rest of the world is just closed-minded. Listen, there have been other teams that have gone 18-1, 17-2, 16-3, and so on. They are in the discussion for best team, too. It doesn't matter when your one loss came, in my opinion, as the 1998 Minnesota Vikings are also on my list of greatest NFL teams ever and they lost in the NFC Championship.


Any classy sports hero is in attendance to congratulate
the athletes who break their records. Not these clowns.

The Patriots had one loss, and it was unfortunate for them it came in the Super Bowl. But looking at this season and seeing who they played and how they won was incredible. The 1972 Dolphins only played two games all season long against teams who finished with a winning record. The Patriots beat the Cowboys in Dallas. They beat the Colts in Indianapolis. They beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh. And they absolutely destroyed two really good teams, the Jaguars and Chargers, at home in the playoffs. Heck, they even beat the eventual Super Bowl Champion Giants in the regular season. They had the best offense in NFL history, (arguably, by the time his career is over) the best QB in NFL history, and the second best WR in NFL history, not to mention one of the top five coaches in NFL history. That's my case and I'm sticking to it.

Belichick Gives More Reasons to Hate Him
Nobody outside of New England likes Bill Belichick. From his ridiculous answers to questions at press conferences, to his Spygate scandal, to his hideous wardrobe, he's an easy guy to dislike. Here's two more reasons: His arrogance propelled him to go for it on 4th and 13 rather than kick a 49-yard field goal in the 3rd quarter. That field goal, had Stephen Gostkowski made it, would have ended up sending the Super Bowl into overtime for the first time in history. The Patriots were accused on many occasions of running up the score by going for easy fourth and one's all season long, but they did so when they were well ahead and late in the game. This play made little sense. No weather, no wind, and a decent kicker. Should have been a no-brainer.

But that's not all. Belichick walked off the field with one second left in the game, and in his post-game interview with the media, never congratulated the New York Giants on a tremendous victory. Bill Belichick is a sore loser.

The Play that Needs a Nickname
If you watched the game you know exactly what I'm talking about. Manning does his best Harry Houdini impression and escapes the grasp of two Patriot rushers, then rifles a jump ball down to David Tyree who makes a spectacular catch while falling backwards, trapping the ball between his wrists, fingers, and helmet. Nobody ever heard of Tyree before this game, but moments after scoring his first touchdown of the season, he arguably outdoes Lynn Swann for the best catch in a Super Bowl, thus cementing his name in history. Swann's catch was surely more acrobatic and athletic, but Tyree's was a brilliant combination of luck, balance, and more importantly, clutch. Hard to imagine anybody making a better, clutch catch, ever.


Tyree's catch was better, and more clutch, than this one.

Franco Hariss didn't make a great play; he was merely in the right place at the right time for the "Immaculate Reception." Dwight Clark made "The Catch" in the NFC Championship game, not the Super Bowl. I've heard a few suggestions for what this play might go down in history as being called, but haven't liked one enough to make it official just yet. Maybe some readers will leave suggestions as comments to this blog.


I'm not impressed with Manning's playoff run.

Eli Manning is Still Just Average
Eli Manning played four great games in the playoffs and fared well in the Super Bowl, winning the MVP. I can understand why Eli was given the award; it's because the real MVP of the game, the Giant's pass rush, was just too broad, and the best player from that unit, Justin Tuck, just wouldn't have been quite as "sexy" of a pick as Manning. Here's the thing though. Before anybody starts touting Manning as an upper echelon quarterback just for winning the Super Bowl, just remember that the four good playoff games he played is a small sample size in comparison to the fact that he's played three full seasons as a starter and hasn't had a quarterback rating higher than 77.0, hasn't thrown more than 24 touchdowns in a season, and hasn't had fewer than 18 interceptions in a season. I'm no fool. Winning a Super Bowl MVP isn't going to distract me from the fact that he's still Eli Manning and still hasn't played a full season worthy of taking him with the first overall pick in the draft.

In recent years since steroids have become such a hot topic in sports and especially in baseball I've heard many sports writers say or write that they wouldn't vote for the accused users on the first ballot for the Hall of Fame (HOF) but would vote for them thereafter. Or, some people have predicted that Mark McGuire, who was snubbed in his first year of eligibility in the summer of 2007, will make it.

If you've read my blog in the past you may already know that I am firm in my stance that no steroid user should ever make the HOF. I'm going to challenge the seemingly popular public opinion that getting into the HOF after waiting umpteen years is somehow less satisfying than getting in on the first ballot.

Sure, it might be somewhat anguishing waiting all that time, but if you won the lottery at age 45 does it mean any less than if you had won it with the very first ticket you purchased on your 18th birthday? Who cares? You're still a millionaire.

Using steroids is not on the same moral plane as murder, but what if it was? What if a judge reduced a life sentence down to 5 years because he thought the guy really learned his lesson? That prisoner is saying "hey, that wasn't so bad, my crimes were well worth it."

We live in a society that does not reward the bad guys. Baseball should be no exception.


Cheaters don't win, in any sport, or in life.

Using steroids is cheating, and cheaters aren't supposed to win. Major League Baseball should, by any means necessary, see to it that anybody ever suspected-that's right, I said suspected, not proven-of using performance enhancing drugs never even sees his name on the ballot.

There is too much left open to subjectivity in this debate, and this is the only way I see that works. You were indicted by a grand jury on charges of perjury, Mr. Bonds? Bye bye Cooperstown. You failed a steroid test, Mr. Palmeiro? No HOF for you. Your name appeared on the now notorious Mitchell Report, Mr. Clemens and Mr. Pettitte? Sorry, no can do.

While in previous posts I have argued that baseball should retroactively pull post-season awards (MVPs, Cy Youngs, etc) from users and erase their stats from the record books, I have now come to the conclusion that even if it did so-a nearly impossible slippery slope to maneuver around in and of itself-not every sports publication would acknowledge such a move. Would ESPN.com actually remove all references to Barry Bonds from its website? No, but the one thing that is constant is that name on a plaque in the halls of baseball glory in Cooperstown, New York.

There are several reasons why I believe that proof of steroid usage is not necessary in enacting this baseball law. The first, and the most obvious, is that baseball law is not synonymous with and is not governed by the court of law. In this regard, users are not "innocent until proven guilty" because they are not being sent to prison. Rare it is that a player actually fails a Major League steroid test for several reasons. First, the Player's Association has not approved a test involving blood, which would be necessary to detect certain drugs, including Human Growth Hormone (HGH). Other drugs, like erythropoietin (EPO) and insulin, are difficult to detect using any means. Also, many cheaters were able to successfully cover up their usage with other drugs. Norbolethone (aka "The Clear") is a drug that balances the levels of natural testosterone and epitestosterone, which means, according to Bonds' currently imprisoned former trainer Greg Anderson in the book Game of Shadows "You can take [the steroids] the day of [a drug test], pee, and it comes up clear."


Anderson explained how easy it was to beat
the steroid tests.

This is all very important because, for most of the past decade, there has either been no steroid testing in baseball, not a strict enough test, or too many subsidiary drugs to conceal drugs that were being tested for.

There is also precedence for banning cheaters in spite of there being no criminal evidence or intent. The first commissioner of baseball, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, banned all 8 members of the Chicago "Black Sox" even after they were all acquitted of charges by the judicial system. Landis was a real commissioner who ruled baseball with tough love. The current commissioner, Bud Selig, is a cowardly pud who apparently feels no action is obligatory to restore the sanctity of the game.

Many have stated that it is hypocritical for voters to keep Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa out of the HOF when they are same people who voted for these guys to win the Cy Young and MVP. This logic is not valid. Just because they were wrong then doesn't mean they have to be wrong for the rest of their lives. In the same way, it is asinine to make any argument that says "Player X (Ty Cobb, Gaylord Perry) is in the HOF, so Player Y (Bonds, Clemens) should also be." In hindsight, it was probably a mistake to put Perry, an admitted ball doctor, into the HOF, but that doesn't mean we have to make the same mistake over and over and over again forever. Times have changed. It's time to raise the bar. This is the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Pretty Darned Good or the Hall of Spectacular, but I Cheated.

In 2005, two Chicago based radio personalities read an all-inclusive list of baseball HOFers. They then spent approximately 45 minutes "kicking guys out" who didn't deserve to be there, thus reducing the list by at least 40%. Though this was done just for fun, it is something I keep in mind when deciding who should go and who should not. The HOF is too watered down anyway. Phil Rizutto? Bill Mazerowski? Puh-leeze.

(Oh yes, and before you spout off the "Rizutto was a key member of a Yankees dynasty winning many World Series'" argument, you may want to read this July 2006 post stating that Individuals Don't Win Championships, Teams Do).

If baseball has stood firm this long with the decision to ban Pete Rose, there isn't much in the way of taking it one step further with steroid cheats. What these guys have done; bulking up and hitting jaw-dropping, tale-of-the-tape home runs in awe inspiring quantity, is far worse than gambling. Betting on a game doesn't affect the outcome.

Just because everyone else was cheating doesn't mean it was ok for Player X to cheat too. To quote myself when I wrote in August of 2007 in The Difference Between Ruth, Aaron, Maris and Bonds, McGuire, Sosa, "So if 20 guys all get busted robbing a bank does the police let them go because they had strength in numbers? More importantly, and more realistically, if the CEO of a tax firm turns a blind eye to his accountants fudging numbers on purpose would the public brush the incident off its collective shoulders and chock it up to an oversight? Hell no! They'd all be punished, all arrested, all fired. Selig is just as much to blame as the McGuires and Sosas of the world."

Putting cheats in the HOF is a slap in the face to people who actually deserve to be there. This feeling is equivalent to an injured U.S. soldier going down to the corner Wal-Mart and seeing Purple Hearts on sale for $19.99 plus tax. That act of heroism during battle doesn't seem all that heroic now that everybody has the medal.

And making a guy wait X number of years before finally letting him in is not punishment enough, either. I wouldn't let a murderer out of prison early, just as I wouldn't allow my toddler to have the cookie 10 minutes after saying "no" the first time. Not only should steroid cheats never be voted into the HOF, but their names should never even appear on a ballot.

The "Roy Williams Rule."  It was put into place because the Dallas Cowboy safety was the player primarily responsible for ending several player's seasons via the horse collar tackle.  Williams has been at this since entering the league, and it's time the NFL makes an example out of him.

Most recently, Williams put the hurtin' on Eagle's QB Donovan McNabb.  Though McNabb was not seriously injured on the play, Williams drew a 15-yard penalty.  Williams' current teammate and former Eagle, Terrell Owens, was a 2004 victim of Williams and ended up missing the team's first two playoff games, almost costing them a trip to the Super Bowl.

The horse collar tackle adds significant and unnecessary risk to the game.  Through the years, it has caused many Achilles and calf injuries, and also has broken several ankles.  It's frustrating and painful for the injured player to go through rehab, his team is worse off without him, and the fans become angry. 

Though Williams is not the only culprit in this crime, the rule was put into place because of him and he remains today the primary offender, as the McNabb penalty was Williams' fourth in the last two seasons.

A one-game suspension is not nearly enough, as it has now become blatantly obvious that Williams has not learned from his previous mistakes.  He should be given a 5-game suspension, and be forced to serve it during the playoffs if the Cowboys advance.  This sort of punishment is unprecedented, but it's high time the NFL take proactive action against this ferocious penalty.  And Williams should be made the example.

Dallas coach Wade Phillips, furthermore, is off his rocker for defending his player.  Attributing his actions to having "strong hands" and not being able to adjust to the new rule, Phillips apparently gives merit to the appeal that Williams filed today.  Phillips continued "And the way it is now, they tape those jerseys in the back, so you can't grab them, you can't hold on to them."  Yeah, Wade, they do it so their career doesn't come to an abrupt end, no thanks to foul play from a certain Cowboy defender.

Here's hoping the NFL upholds the suspension and issues warning that further penalties, especially from Roy Williams, will not be taken lightly.