It's hard to believe Doug Flutie is only 43 years old. Throughout his collegiate and professional football career, which officially ended Monday when he announced his retirement, Flutie has always played with the energy and enthusiasm of someone half his age. Perhaps Flutie seemed so young because of his slight frame. Generously listed at 5'10", 180 lbs., Doug Flutie is the smallest professional quarterback I have ever seen. What Flutie lacked in size, however, he made up for in willpower and heart. To Doug Flutie, no play was ever dead. There was always a Plan B, and if Plan B didn't work, he would make up Plan C on the fly. It is a shame that fans in the United States were robbed of seeing Doug Flutie compete while he was in his prime. I remember watching a CFL game on ESPN in around 1993 or 1994. I was 11 or 12 years old at the time, and was too young to remember seeing Flutie's exploits at Boston College or with the New England Patriots. From the first instant I saw Flutie on the field, I could tell there was something different about him. I had seen other great players playing in the more-competitive NFL, but Doug Flutie captured my imagination in a way few professional athletes ever have. During that game, I asked my father why Flutie didn't make it in the NFL the first time around. He told me, "Because 28 NFL teams were too dumb to take a chance on the greatest college quarterback of all time." From that September day forward, I have been a huge Doug Flutie fan. Needless to say, I was ecstatic when the Patriots signed Flutie to a contract to back up Tom Brady. Although the my brain told me that Brady was the right man to lead the Pats, a small part of me secretly wanted to see Brady get hurt so Flutie could have one more moment in the sun. His moment happened in Week 17 last season, although I never imagined Doug Flutie's last NFL play would be a drop kick extra point. Even given the circumstances, I was thrilled to see Flutie get a chance to make history one last time. I believe I speak for the majority of football fans when I say Doug Flutie was a one of a kind quarterback. He provided so many memories to so many fans over the years. Thank you Doug, and good luck in your retirement.

Isiah Thomas can not be trusted.

This is not an attempt at disparaging the great playing career Isiah Thomas had with the Detroit Pistons.  Over the course of his Hall of Fame career, Thomas averaged 19.2 points and 9.3 assists per game, excellent numbers that exemplify the fact that Thomas was a prototypical NBA point guard.  Nobody can argue that Isiah Thomas was a great player.

On the other hand, there's Isiah's post-playing career.  It's been well-publicized that Thomas has been less-than-adept at assembling a winning roster for the New York Knicks.  Now, apparently Thomas has convinced Knicks owner James Dolan that Larry Brown, and not a roster consisting mainly of shoot-first point guards, is the reason behind the horrific record the team recorded last season.  Now, Thomas reportedly wants to take over as the head coach as well, feeling he is the best candidate to coach a team assembled in his vision.

Isiah Thomas as a head coach, doesn't that sound familiar?  Let's flash back to the years 2000-2003.  Thomas was the coach of the Indiana Pacers.  The Pacers were a talented team, with the veteran leadership of Reggie Miller and youthful energy of Jamaal Tinsley, Ron Artest, Jermaine O'Neal and Brad Miller.  In all three seasons Thomas was on the Indiana bench, the team was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.  When a talented team struggles in the playoffs once, it's an aberration.  When it happens twice, it's alarming.  Three times?  At that point, it becomes a trend of failure.

Speaking of failure, have I mentioned the CBA?  Many people don't even recall that Isiah Thomas once ran the Continental Basketball Association.  In August 1999, Thomas purchased the entire CBA for $10 million, with the vision of eventually expanding the league into a full-fleged farm system.  Almost immediately, there were signs of trouble.  Veteran player salaries were reduced from $1,500 per week to $1,100 per week.  Thomas explained the change as a measure to get more young talent into the league, but many believed it was really motivated by financial struggles.  The NBA offered Thomas $11 million to purchase the league in March 2000, but the offer was rejected, as it was less than Thomas was willing to sell for.  When Isiah Thomas became coach of the Pacers in October 2000, he placed the CBA in a blind trust, with the intention of finding new owners for the league.  On February 8, 2001, 18 months after Isiah Thomas purchased the league, the Continental Basketball Association folded after almost 56 seasons of play.

That is a sampling of the non-playing failures of Isiah Thomas.  Thomas also had brief stints as a television commentator and as a part-owner of the Toronto Raptors, an expansion team that did not see much success while Thomas was in town.  When it comes to finding a person to do non-playing work in a basketball-related field, Isiah Thomas is not a man to trust.  I'm not certain I could trust Thomas to run a local youth league without much trouble.  Although his playing career was indeed excellent, the post-playing career of Isiah Thomas has left very much to be desired.        

As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing worse than a rainy day in May.  May is when the weather is supposed to be great.  I should be outside playing wiffle ball while the neighbors tend to their flower gardens, with a distant radio tuned to the Red Sox game.  Sadly, that idyllic scene will not be happening this weekend.  The weather outside is relatively frightful right now, and will likely remain that way straight through Sunday.  Sorry moms of southern New England, you got a stinker of a Mother's Day this year.

Worst of all, the unpredictable weather leads to unpredictability when choosing television programming.  I could watch the Red Sox game, but will they play, and if so, will the game start on time?  On days like today, especially if you're a loser like I am and staying in on a Saturday night, you need a backup plan, a "Plan B", if you will.  (I'm not really a loser, I'm still hung over from Friday night, and will likely be in that state all day.  If I gave anybody false hope that I was one of their own, I'm sorry.)  Viable sports backup options tonight are the Spurs-Mavericks game and the Dodge Charger 500. 

I'm going to pick the NASCAR race.  Five hundred miles at the famed Darlington Raceway could take all night, and that's just fine with me.  As far as race tracks come, Darlington is as treacherous as they come.  It's high-banked corners and narrow racing groove lead many a driver to slap the wall and earn the dreaded "Darlington stripe."  Over the past 56 years, Darlington has earned it's nickname of The Lady in Black. 

I have not had a chance to mention this yet, but best wishes to Hideki Matsui.  Of all the New York Yankees, he is the one player that I have the most respect for.  He never says a word (perhaps becuase he doesn't speak English), never causes any problems, and plays hard day in and day out.  Don't get me wrong, I'm sadistically happy that the Yankees lose his bat for the next three months, but couldn't this injury have happened to Pokemon Damon or The Third Baseman?  The baseball Gods are a fickle bunch.

I hope everybody has a safe and enjoyable weekend.  To all the moms, mommas and mommys out there, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

George Steinbrenner is fed up.  I'm sure winning last night's game against the Red Sox has helped Mr. Steinbrenner cope with his team's recent failures, but in his mind, last night's win is like putting a band-aid on a third-degree burn.  Steinbrenner has every reason to be upset.  He has the highest payroll in Major League Baseball, yet his team hasn't won a World Series in ages.  Also, not to put a grim spin on this story, the man is 75 years old and needs a golf cart to get around.  Let's face it, Georgie might not be gracing the grandstands of Yankee Stadium for too much longer, and he'd probably like to see the team win now.

Among the players Steinbrenner is most upset at is, in his words, "the third baseman."  Perhaps he was trying to leave it up to our imagination as to which third baseman he was referring to (Dallas McPherson? Adrian Beltre? Bill Mueller?), but I think we can safely assume it's Alex "Cancer" Rodriguez.  We all know the Yankees would have lost Tuesday night even if A-Rod had played a solid game, but it was Tuesday's game that made Steinbrenner realize that the All-Star third baseman was a shaky financial investment.  Cancer Rodriguez is not a clutch player, a horrific leader, and one of the more selfish, arrogrant asses in baseball today.  After Tuesday's loss, he may have said all the right things, but A-Rod was thinking to himself, to quote this guy:

 

It wasn't my fault!

(90% of you won't understand the wrestling reference here.  That's alright, I just had to have an excuse to post a picture of Gene "Baby Killer" Snitsky.)

George Steinbrenner doesn't need A-Rod, the Yankees don't need A-Rod, and all parties involved, except for A-Rod, now realize this.  Hideki Matsui will probably poison his water within a week or so.  Mariano Rivera will set him up with a hooker with all sorts of vanereal diseases.  Even golden boy Derek Jeter has A-Rod's face posted on the dart board in his basement.   After all, how can a guy that can't even decide what country he's from come through in a big spot in a big game?  It simply isn't going to happen.  Maybe next time George is looking to throw around a couple million dollars, he should spend the money on a real third baseman, a real American.  Somebody like this guy...

PastaMania is running wild, brother!

It's the eve of Red Sox vs. Yankees, Round Two, and I couldn't be more pumped up for an early April series.  Both the Red Sox and Yankees are on a roll right now, with Boston having swept Baltimore over the weekend and the Yankees having done the same to Texas.  Red Sox vs. Yankees is always a top-notch matchup, but it's magnified tenfold when both teams are hitting on all cylinders. 

The opening pitching matchup of Josh Beckett and Randy Johnson has the potential to be a classic pitcher's duel.  Both these pitchers have a history of pitching big in the biggest of games, from Beckett's showing in the 2003 World Series to the unforgettable performance of Randy Johnson in the 2001 Classic.  In my opinion, both these pitchers have one great thing in common: they kept those damn New York Yankees down.

When it comes to predicting a winner for Tuesday's game, I'm just going to leave that up in the air.  If I pick the Red Sox, I risk jinxing them (and trust me, the SI cover jinx has NOTHING on the Manrub jinx, just ask me about my track record in fantasy sports.)  If I pick the Yankees, then I'm a worthless SOB.  So I'll go out on a limb and make a Tim McCarver style prediction: If the Yankees don't win, the Red Sox will.  Of course, I'll root for the Sox, but I refuse to predict a victory.

 

Now, I promised some opinions on NASCAR, so I'm going to dish.  I am a huge NASCAR fan, have been since the early 1990s, and probably will continue to be for the rest of my adult life.  I want to address something that I have noticed, but has not been picked up by the mainstream media: NASCAR's declining popularlity.  Disagree with me if you want, but the numbers bear it out.  TV ratings are decreasing almost across the board.  Coverage in many newspapers is shrinking.  Generally speaking, people just weren't as pumped for the Daytona 500 as they had been in the recent past. 

I believe there are a few problems with NASCAR that have led to the downward trend in general interest.  Many of today's top drivers have all the charisma and personality of a federal prison.  Jimmie Johnson won the Daytona 500 after having an illegal part comfiscated earlier in the week, weakening the credibility of the sport.  Many of today's racetracks have even less character than the corporate-shill drivers.  I'm not sure if any one of these issues, a combination of them, or another problem I haven't mentioned is the primary cause of declining interest.  I don't disagree with the people that are turning away from NASCAR.  Frankly, with the lack of excitement, this season's been pretty boring.