NFL G.M.'s have to be the slowest learners of anyone.  This back-up QB as the-answer-to-all-of-your-problems phenomenon is ridiculously stupid.  A team as bad as the Texans gives up two second round choices, which are usually end up as starters in thier first or second years in the league, to get a guy with two NFL starts.  The most amazing thing about this is that often times these "must have" back-ups usually back-up starters that aren't that good to begin with.

Case #1 - Jay Fiedler

After one start in 1999, he signs on with the Miami Dolphins to be the man.  In that 1999 season, he appeared in seven games with that one start.  He went 61-for-94 for 656 yards with two TDs and two INTs.  Wanna build your franchise around that?  Miami did!  Ask them how that worked out.  Before he left for South Beach, Fiedler was the back-up to Mark Brunell in Jacksonville.  Many are thinking this was Brunell's hayday.  He led Jacksonville to the AFC championship game in the 1999 season right?  Yes, however, a great defense and running game led the Jags that season.  Brunell himself had only a 58.7% completion rate with 14 TDs against nine INTs.  Not exactly Marino.  You would think if Fiedler was Marino, he could beat out a guy with those numbers.

Case #2 - Rob Johnson

Everyone's favorite rags to riches story.  The scene shifts back to 1997, Jacksonville, Florda.  Rob Johnson, again after only one start, posts a QB rating of 111.9, which over a career would make him the GREATEST QB OF ALL-TIME!!!  With opportunity for greatness knocking, and Jim Kelly running out the back door, Buffalo makes the power play to land Johnson.  The 1997 Buffalo Bills stumbled to a 6-10 record under Marv Levy and QB Todd Collins.  Desperation is understandable for the once great franchise.  So they jump on what seems to be the best available prospect.  Not so much!  Once again, Johnson was available because he couldn't crack the position held by Mark Brunell.  In Brunell's defense, his 1997 was much better than his 1999.  He had a QB rating of over 90, but still fewer than 20 TDs and 3281 yards.  Again, Brunell was a good player, but if Johnson was Jim Kelly, he would've been starting.  Both the Bills and Dolphins are still struggling to find signal-callers to this day.

Case #3 - Matt Schaub?

If Schaub were nearly as good as some would have you believe, couldn't he beat out Mike "the Hype" Vick?  Vick has never been a 3000 yard passer, never had a passer rating over 81.6, never had more than 20 TD throws.  Vick is the most overrated athlete in the HISTORY OF THE PLANET! 

I really hope Schaub works out.  I hope he's better than Vick, but again, if he were, wouldn't he be the starting QB in Atlanta?  If he's Vick or worse, then don't look for the Texans to win in the playoffs for at least the next six years.  It takes at least that long to overcome a mistake at the QB position.  Right Houston, Miami, Buffalo, and Cleveland?

The thing that makes the NCAA basketball tournament the best sporting event in the world is that the madness never ends.  Yesterday's selections for the tournament launched what is simply the greatest three weeks in all of sports.  You've heard all of the controversy, here are the facts about what will transpire shortly:

• Florida is the best team in the nation and deserves the #1 overall seed.  They breezed through the SEC tournament and return five starters from the team that cut the nets down 49 weeks ago. 
• Ohio State will be the first #1 seed to lose.  They are a team that has managed to have an all-world big man and never give him the ball.  It's truly amazing it you've never seen them play. 
• Kansas is actually the most talented team in the tournament, but they won't win it all.  Kansas has no clue who should take the last shot in a close game.  The pressure of the tournament has a tendency to expose people who don't have the killer instinct.  Kansas doesn't have a player with that, so they will lose.
• Arkansas SHOULD have made the tournament.  Arkansas is 6-1 this season in single elimination, neutral floor, tournament style games.  The win in the Old Spice classic (defeating West Virginia and Southern Illinois) and the runner-up run in the SEC tournament (defeating Mississippi State and Vandy) show that they are tournament tough.  When you add that with strength of schedule and RPI, it's a no-brainer.  Also don't forget that Arkansas beat Vandy in the last game of the season.  Beating a "lock" team twice in five days says it all.
• Texas with Kevin Durant looks a lot like Syracuse with Carmelo Anthony.  The difference is, Durant is better!
• Davidson will beat Maryland.  Maryland is one of those teams that some people have them winning the whole show while others have them one and done.  I live in that Maryland "market" so maybe the title hype is just local garbage.  Anyway, there may not be a team that looks better on certain nights and worse on others.  Teams like that usually fold like a tent in the tournament.  This Terps team is no exception.
• Don't believe the Winthrop hype.  They will not beat Notre Dame.  Notre Dame has the balance and three point shooting to beat teams a lot better than Winthrop.  Oregon, you have been warned!
• Kansas vs. UCLA will be the game of the tournament in the regional final.
• If you're desperate for a Final Four sleeper, look no further than Bruce Pearl and the Tennessee Vols.  Can you imagine how much that guy would sweat under the bright lights in Hotlanta?
• Mid-majors do not deserve seeds higher than six!  Southern Illinois will prove that and not make the Sweet 16.  (Side note:  DIckey Vitale had the audacity to say that Arkansas's best win this year was against S. Illinois.  He then went on to say that Arkansas should beat them because "they're Arkansas".  You can't have it both ways Dickey V.  Your mid-majors either are legit or not.  Hint:  They're not!)
• The Final Four will be:  Florida, UCLA, Georgetown, Tennessee
• Florida beats Georgetown to win the whole show
• Isiah Thomas leads the mighty Knicks to the playoffs  (bonus pick).

Philosophers say that we live in the post-modern era.  Post-modernism is a belief that the only absolute truth that exists in the world is that there is no absolute truth.  Despite the glaring philosophical contradiction that Stevie Wonder could see, many people endorse this way of viewing the world.  "What you do is up to you, and what I do is none of your business" they say.  If this is your world-view, that's fine with me (hints of relativism are all over that statement), but its amazing at how relative we are with our morals in sports.

NASCAR found that Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, and Michael Waltrip all qualified with illegal cars on Sunday.   The punishment for the crimes of Kahne and Kenseth's teams were reported by the Charlotte Observer as suspensions for each team's crew chief.  It amazes me that NASCAR refuses to park cars and teams for races.  I'm not sure that these violations would warrant such a punishment, but the bottom line is that such a punishment isn't even an option.  Sure, they say it is, but Kasey Kahne would have to attack and kill Dale Earnhardt Jr. to ever be suspended from a race.  NASCAR has gotten neck-deep with these sponsors to the point that they run the show.  You will NEVER see a race without a Home Depot, Dupont, Lowe's, Budweiser, or Dodge sponsored car.  At least not because NASCAR made that decision.  That fact doesn't even consider the star power of the former champions and superstars that carry the corporate torch for the aforementioned companies.  It's amazing that so many fans turn the other cheek to rules violations in NASCAR.  The unspoken motto of most crew chiefs in the sport is, "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'".  Everyone seems to be fine with that, even when the large portion of the fan base resides in the "morally conservative" South of the U.S. 

Then, of course, there is baseball.  A sport in which anyone who has ever touched a bottle, vitamin, beer, or even baby, is under tremendous scrutiny and suspicion.  Why?  Are they both cheating?  Yes.  It amazes me that steriod use is considered the ultimate form of cheating in sports.  The steriod rule reminds me of what Jerry Seinfeld says about the helmet law.  He finds it humorous that we would have a law that functions to protect a brain that is functioning so poorly that it doesn't protect itself.  I agree.  When race cars are too fast, they put lives in danger of more than just their drivers.  When athletes juice, who are they really harming?  Your post-modern mind should now kick in and say, "They aren't hurting me, so what they are doing is fine."  However, it doesn't say that at all.  You want to be noble.  You want to be the helmet law.  You want to protect that athlete that is so starved for money and fame, that he/she will literally kill himself/herself to get it. 

I don't feel cheated by Barry Bonds.  I don't feel cheated by Kasey Kahne.  If Kasey Kahne's team deems it necessary to bend the rules to make him more competitive, then install rules that discourage that.  NASCAR does that.  If Barry Bonds wants to use a substance that, until recently, wasn't even banned by MLB and hurt himself, so be it.  He can be the Homerun King, while suffering through health problems and a lower quality of life.  That's his choice.  My question to you is.  If Barry is only hurting himself, and Kasey, Matt, and Michael are putting others at risk as well as not risking nearly as much from a personal, physical standpoint, who has committed the greater crime?  Barry will be tarnished physically, emotionally, and publically for the rest of his life.  Kahne and Kenseth won't even miss a race.  What gives? 

Is there anyway that Jr. ends up at DEI at season's end?  It seems like Jr. woke up and finally realized that he is the biggest star and NASCAR and has more leverage than any athlete in the history of professional sports.  Jr. is the man in NASCAR.  What makes that more amazing than anything is that this popularity has come with a moderate amount of success.  The NBA equivilent would be if Jeffrey Jordan, Michael's son, entered the league and played at a Paul Pierce level, but got LeBron James endorsements and attention.  Don't get me wrong.  Paul Pierce is a great player, but he's no LeBron, D-Wade, KG, or Tim Duncan.  Much like Jr. is great, but he's not Stewart, Johnson, or Gordon.

Having said all of that, with the addition of Toyota, who seems to be willing to pay any price to make a major splash in the sport, Dale is NASCAR's first A-Rod type free agent.  Anyone will pay anything to have him as the face of their team.  Anyone except maybe his jealous stepmommy. 

Here are Dale's 2008 options:

1)  Stay at DEI as the majority owner of the company and remain the face of NASCAR as we know it.

2)  Join a team like Hendrick or Roush with the proven ability to win championships with multiple teams and drivers.  This way, he can begin to build a legacy outside of his father (if that's even possible).

3)  Join a Toyota team, take Budweiser with him, and create a major shift in the power and influence of the newest and most controversial manufactoring brand in NASCAR history.

Whatever Dale chooses, he brings a marketability and economic power with him that no human being has ever had in any sport.  Good luck in the negotiations Dale.  The sport anxiously awaits.

What do you think he'll do?  What would you do?

Tomorrow is National Signing Day for all of you already-football-starved folks out there.  We have finally reached a time where football is so popular that people will latch on to something that is about as irrelevant as my top 25 most played list on my IPOD just because it's about football.  ESPN.com has an entire page dedicated to tomorrow's college football "event".  Don't be fooled folks, this is not an event.

We all (especially Arkansas fans like myself) remember the circus a month and a half ago surrounding Mitch Mustain's mother, along with two other highly touted freshmen's parents questioning the role of their children to Arkansas A.D. Frank Broyles.  Why was this a story you ask.  Tomorrow is the reason.  We give stardom away to college kids, even high school kids now because we are so determined to find the "next one".  Without this hype, Mustain and the others would be seen for what they are, spoiled, overhyped brats who are nothing more than a backup QB, blocking TE, and fast, no hands WR.  We can't enjoy the greatness that is Peyton Manning for one week without digging out Tom Lugginbill's rankings of the incoming freshman prospects to find out who will steal Manning's throne in 2015.  Let me tell you something folks, HE DOESN'T KNOW who will be great at the college level.  Even more, you don't know either!  You won't know until these kids play the game.

I'm so sick of hearing about these recruiting classes.  How many years did we hear about Texas's incoming class?  We heard all about it until they got beat by 50 in the Red River Shootout from about 1998-2004 (give or take a year or two).  Can we please give it a rest?  Can we please reserve news for. . . well. . .NEWS?  These are glorified children that are about to start playing a young man's game.  Some will be great, others will never be heard from again.

If you are interested in what happens tomorrow, I challenge you to do one thing.  Print off your little ESPN top 150 list and save it.  Four years from now, when you watch the NFL Draft (and you will because anyone who cares about signing day would absolutely treat the NFL Draft like Christmas morning) take out your list and see how it stacks up.  See how many people go in the first round.  See how many get drafted at all.  I guarentee that you will look at the list and say, "Boy, I really wasted a lot of time worrying about which school Noel Devine was going to attend."  You're right.  You did.  I'm trying to help you save that time.  You'd be much better off taking Martin Lawrence's advice and having a Coke and a smile.  It will last a lot longer.