Cards/Rangers, Jerry Rice and Vegas Winners

It's hard for me to imagine that a baseball team that has been out-managed and has committed a ton of mental lapses in the 1st six games as the St. Louis Cardinals have done can win a World Series. It's even harder for me to imagine that a team that lost Game 6 the way the Texas Rangers did last night has any chance of winning the World Series.

If the Cards manage to win this thing (and personally I don't see how they can't), it will go down as the one of the most improbable championship runs in sports history. This is way more improbable than the Boston Red Sox coming back from down 3-0 against the Yankees in 2004. They only had to win 4 games in a row. The Cards have been in a basic must-win situation since the beginning of September when they were 8 games out of the playoffs, which now seems like an eternity ago. They have taken destiny and turned it into a comic book. It's hard not to root for the Rangers, though.

Speaking of improbability, the Badgers' loss to the Michigan St. Spartans on a last-second hail Mary should remind everyone why college football has the best regular season in sports, bar none. The Oklahoma Sooners' loss should only come as a surprise to newborn babies that know nothing of sports. Bob Stoops is slowly turning into Norv Turner: great on paper, but disappointing on the field. Alabama and LSU would be 10 pt. favorites over every other team in the BCS bowl, but I really like Stanford.

Here are some of the players that were drafted ahead of Carolina Panther WR Steve Smith in my fantasy football draft: Santana Moss, Johnny Knox, Chad Jonson, Brandon Lloyd and Julio Jones, to name a few. Guess who is leading the league in receiving yardage? Steve Smith. This reminds me of Randy Moss when he was basically given away to the Patriots because everyone thought he was washed up, and all he did was produce one of the greatest single seasons a wide receiver ever had. My point is, as long as you have a QB a wide receiver generally will produce, which leads me to this...

The enigma of the legacy of Jerry Rice

Here are the QB's that Jerry Rice played with: Joe Montana, Steve Young, Rich Gannon and Jeff Garcia. Only when Jeff Garcia was his QB did anyone think Jerry Rice had lost it. See what I'm getting at? There is no denying that Jerry Rice is the best receiver in the history of the NFL, and it's not even close. I also would argue that no one has had a better career in the NFL than Jerry Rice - with the personal records and 3 Superbowl trophies, his credentials speak for themselves. That being said, it's a really tough sell for me to accept Jerry Rice as the best football player in the HISTORY of the NFL.

Jerry Rice was in great shape, and his longevity is amazing, but he was fortunate to have played with some outstanding QBs. No other receiver can come close to boasting the group of QBs that Jerry Rice had. The big argument for Jerry Rice is that he was head and shoulders above every other WR that ever played. That's true, but he still is a wide receiver.

There's a reason why a wide receiver has never won a regular season MVP: their value is limited. If I'm trying to put together a championship team, a wide receiver is one of the last pieces to the puzzle, not the building block. If the discussion of Jerry Rice being head and shoulders above everyone else is enough justification, can I then throw Ray Guy who is widely considered the best punter in the NFL into the mix? Of course not, because his value is limited. I'm not saying Jerry Rice isn't an all time great, just not the greatest!

And of course, I have my all time top 10:

11. Ray Lewis (I know it's my top 10, but Ray is really good.)

10. Jerry Rice

9. Reggie White

8. Johnny Unitas

7. Lawrence Taylor

6. Jim Brown

5. Peyton Manning

4. John Elway

3. Walter Payton

2. Tom Brady

1. Joe Montana

I have no idea what happened to a section of my last week's blog. For some reason, my picks weren't posted, and sadly for you they were winners, but I'm still on top of my game so here you go:

The Cards/Rangers over 8: I don't believe in any of these pitchers, so expect a lot of runs.

Lions -3: I am not one of the f**ktards that believe in Tim Tebow.

Giants -10: They always seem to disappoint when they are heavy favs, but not this week.

Seattle/Cincy under 38.5: Expect field goals, not TDs.

San Fran/Cleveland under 38.5: Cleveland can't score more than 10, and San Fran won't score more than 28.

Bonus

Penn st. - 5: The fighting Illini have lost their fight.

Georgia +3: This ain't yo father's Gators. Georgia wins outright.

Clemson-4: Yeah, it's a trap game, I get it. But speed outruns traps. Go Tigers!

Stanford -7: I said earlier I really like Stanford, and here's my proof.