Things I've Learned Recently, 10-28-09

1. This World Series is painful for lots of fans - See: Cleveland Indians fans. The angle of the depressed Mets fan has been beaten to death, but what about those poor Indians fans? Imagine you're an Indians fan who has been in a coma for the last two years. Just before you went under the Indians won the Central Division title. You start coming to this week and from another room you hear snippets of sports broadcast. You hear "Cliff Lee" and "C.C. Sabathia" and "World Series" and start to get really excited. Then you find out they are the game one starters for the Phils and Yanks. Too bad. And then you find out the Indians have fallen so far that they just hired Manny Acta, a guy fired by the Nationals, as their manager. Being a Mets fan ain't so bad now is it. See also - Boston Red Sox fans.

2. Sam Bradford made the right decision - This one is simple. He wasn't going to play at Oklahoma beyond this season. He's right to have the shoulder surgery and prepare for the NFL.

3. Reports of parity in the NFL have been REALLY exaggerated. - See this week's scores. Thirteen games. Eleven decided by ten points or more. Six by at least 28 points. Never has the league gone this late into the season and had three undefeated teams like this year. And the teams at the bottom of the league are historically bad. Speaking of historically bad...

4. The Oakland Raiders quit on the field. - I have never seen a team quit so early in a game. The Jets scored and the Raiders packed it in. It's probably because they have no leadership. JaMarcus Russell sucks. He didn't do anything to help the team on the field on Sunday, and then after the game he didn't take any of the blame. An NFL quarterback has to exude confidence. He has to be able to stand there and with only a look convey that he is the man. He needs to take the field saying I'm Drew "Mutha fuckin'" Brees. That entails taking blame and passing on credit. Russell could take a lesson from guys like Brees, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and even young guys like Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, and Mark Sanchez.

5. TCU is going to bust up the BCS - Sorry Boise State. Thanks for playing Cincinnati. It TCU wins out they will beat Utah, currently ranked 16th in the BCS. They have a huge win over BYU. They have also beaten Clemson and UVA, two wins that didn't look like much at the time, but are starting to look much better to the computers.