Odds and ends...

A couple of sports topics...

• I watched very little college football this year, and none with either LSU or Alabama. Until last night. My reaction to what I saw of the BCS National Championship game is bewilderment as to how that LSU team could possibly have entered the game undefeated. Alabama may have the best defense in the history of defence - it still wouldn't justify the ineptitude of what I saw from the LSU offense last night.
• Congratulations to Barry Larkin, who deserves to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. I think it's surprising that he's the only one, though. It looks like Jack Morris is going to make it in (mistake) and that Mark McGwire isn't (mistake). And I'd love to know why the people not voting for Tim Raines aren't voting for Tim Raines. If they're leaving his name off because of cocaine allegations in the mid-80s, well, that's their right (though there are a lot of users in already). If it's because they think he wasn't good enough, that's not right. Because he was.
• I'm a little bit surprised (bewildered?) by the response from some quarters that the return of Josh McDaniels to the Patriots coaching staff this week somehow gives New England an unfair advantage, and should have been prevented by the league. What would that advantage consist of how? How would it manifest itself? I don't see it...
• I don't trust the Patriots defense. At all. At the same time, the AFC team that I was most scared of was Pittsburgh, and they're gone. I said a week ago that I wouldn't be surprised if the won the Super Bowl and I wouldn't be surprised if they lost their first game. Well, I now would be surprised if they lost their first game. Not that Denver isn't capable of winning in New England (or, more accurately, that New England isn't capable of losing to Denver) but I don't expect them to.
• Yes, the Packers put up the best record in football. Yes, they beat the Giants in New York not too long ago. Yes, they should be favored at home this weekend. But, while it would be an upset, it would not be a shocking upset if the Giants were to win in Lambeau on Sunday.
• Would it even be a surprise if New Orleans won in San Francisco? Yes, they've been a lot better at home than on the road, and the 49ers are an outstanding defensive team. Still, I'm not sure that the Saints aren't the best team in football right now, and I don't think the 49ers can score enough to stay with them.
• Which units are going to score more in Baltimore - the Ravens and Texans offenses, or the Ravens and Texans defenses?

Exactly right

Once and future Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who was the head coach who drafted him, on Tim Tebow, quoted in Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback column:

There're going to be doubts about him. Great doubts -- and I understand that. Some people don't think he has the natural traits of a great quarterback. Here's what I think: Do Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods swing the club the same way, hit irons the same way? No. But they both win tournaments. There's different ways to throw, different mechanics, and you can still get the job done.

I hadn't seen that before, and I love it. It's a great analogy. There are certain physical characteristics and abilities that you'd love for your quarterback to have, and Tebow is lacking in some of them. But there's so much more to the position than that. The ranks of the physically ideal "robo-QBs" who fail are legion. There's room for a few that aren't perfect to succeed.

And it (not surprisingly) echoes his former and current boss Bill Belichick, in an anecdote that I love and think speaks volumes.

"I remember sitting in a meeting with Bill that first year in Cleveland and the scouts were going around explaining what this guy does wrong and what this other guy does wrong and on and on. It was all criticism. And Bill said, 'Stop telling me what this guy does wrong. I want to know what he does well. Let's focus on that, and I won't even worry about the rest of it. We just won't ask him to do those things.'

"And you can see he still does that. Everyone else seems to be looking for the perfect player, and he's just the opposite. He says, 'Find out what they do well, we'll use them in that situation for 20 snaps and be thrilled with it.'"