A quick look at some of the stories and other stuff from the past week.

VA Republican primary: still Romney v Paul
This was my lead last Saturday but it appears it is now final. Rick Perry appealed the judge’s ruling but the appeal was denied. Absentee ballots have been printed and voting has begun. Oh, and that stupid loyalty oath is gone.

Republican primary field narrows further
Perry was the originator of the lawsuit but Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman, and Michelle Bachmann joined in. Bachmann was gone after Iowa. This week, two more Republican candidates dropped out: Huntsman on Monday and Perry on Friday. Santorum, despite his official Iowa win, will be the next to go. I expect he’ll finish a distant fourth in today’s primary in South Carolina. Gingrich, whose race-baiting is fueling this latest surge, is in it for a while, although I still expect Romney to the be nominee. Gingrich garnered Perry’s endorsement (for what it’s worth) while Huntsman endorsed Romney, as did our governor, Bob McDonnell. As for Ron Paul – well, he’s not going anywhere. I expect him to take it all the way to the convention.

Speaking of Iowa – having watched some of the coverage on caucus night, and then seeing that they lost some of the precincts’ ballots, I think it’s time for them to give up the “first in the nation” position.

Congressional redistricting headed to the governor’s desk
Both the Virginia House of Delegates and the Senate have passed the incumbent-protection congressional redistricting bill. A couple of tweets from yesterday:

Under GOP VA map, none of 11 CDs are between D+5 & R+5 in Cook PVI. #VA10 Wolf (R) goes R+2 -> R+5, #VA11 Connelly (D) goes D+2 -> D+6—
Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) January 20, 2012

Only non-solid incumbent in our VA ratings is #VA02 Rigell, who is Likely R. VA = perfect example of competitive state, uncompetitive lines—
Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) January 20, 2012

Yep. But at least I live in VA-02. Democratic candidate Paul Hirschbiel, already on the DCC’s Red to Blue list, will officially kick off his campaign Monday.

Uranium ban to stay in place
At least until regulations can be written. This might take a while.

Passenger rail coming to Norfolk
By the end of the year, passenger rail service from Norfolk will restart. I am really looking forward to this. I think it would be kinda cool to take the train to Richmond (although I haven’t figured out how I’d get from Staples Mill into downtown Richmond).

Taxes
No, not Newt Gingrich’s (pdf – the one I’d like to see is Gingrich Holdings, Inc.,  by the way) or Mitt Romney’s (no link because he hasn’t released them yet) but your taxes. It’s time to think about them. The IRS announced a new Free File option that is open to everyone, regardless of income: fillable forms. And the Virginia Department of Taxation has followed suit. Electronic filing of tax returns began this week. The federal tax filing deadline is April 17.

Goodbyes
Once a fixture in my childhood neighborhood, I distinctly recall an item my godmother purchased for me from Mugler’s: a plaid shirt-shaped jacket that was popular with the kids back then. It was one of the few times that I ventured into the store, although I walked past it daily, mostly prior to its move up the street. I really didn’t know that it wasn’t located in Phoebus anymore until I read that the store is closing. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

R&B singer Etta James died yesterday. Another beautiful voice gone. Here is a live version of her singing perhaps her best-known song, At Last.

Playoffs
After going 1-for-4 last weekend, I hope no one puts much stock in my football picks anymore Nevertheless, I’m picking the Patriots over the Ravens and the 49ers over the Giants. (Have I mentioned how much I dislike Eli Manning? )

A quick look at some of the stories and other stuff from the past week.

VA Republican primary: still Romney v Paul
The week started off with a ruling by Judge John Gibney to delay the printing of the ballots for the March 6 primary. When he put the ruling in writing the next day, it appeared that his final order might be in favor of the plaintiffs. (Rick Perry had filed the lawsuit but was joined by Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman and Michelle Bachmann, the latter three having not even bothered to turn in any petitions.) That was not to be. Friday, the judge heard the arguments in the case and ruled that Perry, et al, had waited too long to fight the rules (pdf).

General Assembly back in session: Republicans in charge
The General Assembly convened Wednesday. To the surprise of no one, Republicans in the Senate claimed control of that chamber. With the large majority in the House, Republicans are now in complete control of Virginia’s government. Despite the exhortation of Gov. Bob McDonnell in his State of the Commonwealth address that Republicans not “be arrogant” and not “overreach,” I simply don’t see that moderation coming to fruition. Elections have consequences, and how Republicans act with their control might just come back to bite them in November.

Republicans in charge: fast-track for congressional redistricting
I have to say I didn’t see this one coming, although I mentioned it as being on the table in my op-ed this week. I just didn’t think they would get to it as quickly as they did, with the first committee vote coming on the opening day of session. The bill has passed the House, but not without some division amongst the members of the black caucus. I have seen the memo – and my first response was that was something that needed to be spoken to the members of the VLBC, not committed to writing, simply because I knew it would end up in a story somewhere. The black caucus is a minority within a minority – and the need to stick together on the big issues cannot be overstated. But next time, I hope this kind of conversation takes place in the caucus meetings.

Bob Marshall is in!
Delegate Bob Marshall, author of HB1, the personhood bill, is running for the U.S. Senate. Marshall, who nearly pulled off an upset in the 2008 Republican convention for Senate, is entering an already crowded primary field. If nothing else, it’s going to be fun to watch Marshall debate front-runner George Allen.

Transparency? Um, no
The finance committee of the Portsmouth School Board canceled its meeting on the budget, rather than allow a Virginian-Pilot reporter to attend. When those who are supposed to represent us are afraid of the media, something’s very wrong. “Stop treating residents with contempt.” And the media, too.

Missing
The latest addition to the Virginian-Pilot editorial board, Michelle Washington, wrote a nice piece earlier this week about the lack of women in public life. Women, as I learned during the 2008 Democratic presidential contest, can be our own worst enemies. The sentiment of that woman she quoted in the story was one I heard far too often from women who would not support Hillary Clinton. If you substituted black for women in the article, you’d find a similar sentiment. There’s a name for it: internalized oppression.

Missing, part 2
Speaking of missing, I attended the Norfolk Forum Tuesday night and the speaker was University of Richmond president Dr. Edward L. Ayers. Ayers is a historian and an expert on the Civil War, the topic of his remarks. I don’t recall a speaker ever not having received a standing ovation before, but Ayers didn’t. Perhaps his blunt talk on the causes of the war made his overwhelmingly white audience uncomfortable.

Playoffs
My picks for the NFL playoffs this week: Saints over the 49ers, Patriots over the Broncos, Texans over the Ravens and Packers over the Giants.

NSU scored first, on a 98-yard pass in its opening possession. On the ensuing kick-off, ODU fumbled the ball, although they recovered it. At that point, I thought the Monarchs might be in for a long day. It didn’t take long, though, for ODU to tie the game, and then surge ahead, scoring 35 unanswered points to take a 35-7 lead. NSU just couldn’t catch up. They committed an awful lot of penalties – this article says it was 18 – which didn’t help them at all.

ODU was clearly the superior team Saturday. Next week, the Monarchs are on the road to take on Georgia Southern. The game, scheduled for Saturday, December 3 at noon, will once again be broadcast on ESPN3. (Can’t one of our local stations make a deal to carry the game live?)

Congratulations to ODU, and especially to my students who are on the team.

Unlike Tom Robinson, I gave up on this year’s team long ago. Nothing will change until the team is sold. The players and coaches can only do so much; the problem is at the top. One article I read a bit ago said that they team is comprised of second-tier players who would never be starters anywhere else. I think that’s about right.

Even so, they could do better. What a boneheaded time out yesterday! Even I knew the Cowboys were about to get hit with a 5 yard delay of game penalty. While I have no doubt that it ultimately wouldn’t have mattered, the bottom line is that Mike Shanahan should have been paying enough attention to know it, too.

In the past, I’d turn on the Colts as an alternative. Not any more. With Peyton injured, the Colts are winless.

My Sunday afternoons are better spent doing other things.

From The Virginian-Pilot

Two Norfolk universities – Old Dominion and Norfolk State – will face off Saturday in a first-round game of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. The game will kickoff at 1:30pm at Foreman Field, on the campus of ODU.

I wish I could say that the two teams were cross-city rivals but they aren’t. This will be the first time they have played each other. ODU just restarted its football program three years ago – after a very long hiatus – and the two schools have inked a deal to play each other starting in 2013.

No surprise as to who I’ll be rooting for Saturday: my alma mater.

Go Big Blue!

I shouldn’t have expected anything else. After all, it seems the ‘Skins always find a way to lose to this particular NFC East rival. Still, I was hoping for a different outcome.

Once again, I didn’t get a chance to see the whole game. But I’ll take the win. About the only thing that would have made it sweeter is if the “Boys had lost. But that’s OK – I think we’ll whup them next Monday night. Gotta say, though, that Cowboys QB Tony Romo showed a lot of guts playing with a fractured rib and a punctured lung. Word is that he’s may play Monday night.

I have no clue as to how long recovery from such injuries takes. I’d much rather he be healthy when we win

Of course I’m not getting too excited because it could be the only win of the season. Such is the life of a ‘Skins fan in the Snyder era.

I hope I’ll actually have time to catch more than just a few minutes next week.

So – how did your favorite team fare?

• Colleges, Norfolk Southern paying lump sums for HRT rides. Free rides As I’m officially a member of the ODU faculty as of this past Monday, I’m looking forward to flashing my ID card and riding – when I’m in the area, of course
• Ralph Northam campaign kickoff with Sen. Warner is this Friday evening at the New Belmont from 5-7pm.
• Moss re-signs for three years with Redskins. The NFL is coming, the NFL is coming
• Fly like an eagle. Literally. The eaglets whose mother was killed by a plane are being released this morning at the Berkley Plantation. Sorry that they didn’t get a chance to grow up here in my backyard at their home in the Norfolk Botanical garden but I’m glad they made it.

What else is going on out there?

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I happened to have been at a retreat at the Chesapeake hotel that was the Destroyers’ team hotel a couple of weeks ago. Running into Marty Schottenheimer, the team’s coach and general manager and the former coach of the Washington Redskins, was quite a thrill. Hopefully, this is truly a delay in the start of the season and not a cancellation, as I was looking forward to attending a game or two.

The game got close at the end. If my Twitter feed is any indication, Monarch fans across the Commonwealth were nervous as the VCU Rams cut the lead to three. The Monarchs managed to hang on for the win as the Rams had to foul at the end of the game.

Seems the General Assembly managed to pass a budget yesterday.  The vote was, amazingly enough, unanimous. I’m not so sure what to think of that. I’d like to think it means that the negotiators actually compromised to do the best they could by the citizens of Virginia.  The cynic in me says “No way!” I’m glad to see ODU get some additional funding – a little more than $5 million – as well as EVMS, which received $3 million. Good also to see the additional money for education. Let’s hope the governor doesn’t tinker with it too much.

~

Christina Nuckols points out what’s next for the GA: it’s all about them. She’s referring to, of course, redistricting. While it will dominate the conversation for a while, I just can’t waste much energy on it. The legislators are, once again, choosing their constituents, instead of us choosing them. Kinda hard to get excited about that.

~

Glad to see Candy Hatcher writing a column again.

~

Pretty big headline in Sunday’s Hampton Roads section about the mayor and his assistants. Seems the real issue is the compensation: according to the article, his secretary makes $66,272 and the salary range being advertised for his administrative assistant is $65,443 to $113,028.

~

STOP is closing down its Head Start program. Fortunately for the 1,500 children involved, another organization has stepped in. I attended Head Start as a youngster. In those days, there was no public kindergarten and Head Start was a program held in the summer for a few weeks before we started first grade. Now the program covers at-risk children ages 3-5.

~

I finally got caught up on American Idol over the weekend. Now is when the show gets interesting: we’re down to the top 24 contestants. The most talented musician in the bunch, in my opinion, is Casey Abrams. Do you know how hard it is to play the bass and sing? Of course, I could do without the antics of the judges, but that’s the price I pay to watch.

EDIT – forgot to mention the big story of the day: Clinton Portis was released by the Redskins. Ok, so maybe that wasn’t such a big story after all. I think we all saw that coming.

I’m not going to say a word about next season being a “rebuilding” year. We’ve had far too many of those. The Skins, since Dan Snyder purchased the team, are unrecognizable as the current incarnation of this storied franchise and are an embarrassment to the NFL.

My new favorite team, the Indianapolis Colts, take their 10-6 record – good enough to win the AFC South – into the playoffs next week against the New York Jets, who, at 11-5, enter the playoffs as a wildcard team.

Looking ahead, it appears that it will be the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons in the Superbowl.

The Skins improved to 6-9 but they have already been eliminated from the playoffs (again), as have the Dallas Cowboys. A small consolation but hey, I’ll take it

The Skins made a lot of noise this week with the benching of quarterback Donovan McNabb. The 34-year old was not only benched, but demoted to third string.

I’m no McNabb fan but you can’t put all the blame on him for this horrible season. No, that distinction belongs to Redskins owner Dan Snyder. I concur with The Virginian-Pilot’s Don Luzzatto on this one:

Under his tenure and meddling, a parade of coaches and players – most of them with some history of success – have come to Washington and thoroughly embarrassed themselves.

Snyder even turned Joe Gibbs, a coach in the same breath as George Allen and Vince Lombardi, into someone I barely recognized. The conventional wisdom was that Gibbs was out of his depth in the modern game, but a guy that smart, that successful (he mastered NASCAR), could’ve figured it out.

You can now fill all-star teams and front offices with guys who have happily – with bulging pockets – left Snyder’s employ and discovered they could still play the game after all.

Since he bought the Redskins in 1999, Snyder has turned the franchise into one of the most valuable enterprises in sports, even while overseeing some of its worst years on the field.

I think benching the Skins – not just for this season but until Synder is gone – is an appealing idea.

I just have to figure out who I’m going to adopt as “my” team. One thing is for certain: it won’t be the Cowboys.

• The missed opportunities to score touchdowns when in the red zone in the first half
• Two missed field goals in the first half
• The abandonment of the running game in the second half
• The missed PAT at the end

The defense kept the team in the game, but they had their problems, too.

All around, this was a failure. It was like watching a train wreck – you just can’t look away.

I keep hoping that the Redskins will return to the glory days of the Hogs and Riggo, but I suspect it will never happen as long as Dannyboy owns the team. It doesn’t matter who the coach is or who the players are – Snyder just knows how to mess things up.

Oh – and in case you’re wondering about that 5th down (not that it matters), here’s some info on that.

Vick set all kinds of records last night, and the League MVP meme has started. Commentator Jon “Chuckie” Gruden, the former coach of Tampa Bay, was absolutely giddy in his praise. Gotta give Vick his props: his play was brilliant. He told the AP:

“I’ve had some great games in my day,” the quarterback said. “But I don’t think I’ve had one quite like this one.”

Meanwhile, the soon-to-be 34-year-old McNabb threw three interceptions. I’ve never been a McNabb fan, even less of one when he was signed to play for the Redskins. As a fan, I’m tired of “rebuilding” the team with these over-the-hill players. The blame for that, of course, rests with the owner.  I loved Tom Robinson’s description of the McNabb contract:

Anyway, call this re-upping of McNabb what it truly is – a marriage made in mediocrity.

Yep. And the mediocre Redskins find themselves at 4-5, two games out of first place in the NFC East. But hey – we’re ahead of the cellar dwelling Cowboys, right? Small consolation, actually.

~

Speaking of the Cowboys: I heard a joke at Del. Spruill’s event last week.

A kid gets in trouble at school and the principal wants to send him home. “I’m going to send you home to your mother,” the principal said. “Please don’t,” the kid replied. “Why not?” “Because my mom will beat me.” “So I’ll send you home to your father.” “Please don’t. My father beats me worse.” “So where should I send you?” The kid replies, “To the Cowboys. They don’t beat anybody.”

Look, I’m no McNabb fan. I think the Redskins should have passed on him, opting instead for a young quarterback of the future. But as long as Dan Snyder owns the team, we’ll keep getting these over-the-hill, highly paid players -Deion Sanders, anyone? – and finishing out of the playoffs.

At least the ‘Skins won’t lose next week – they have a bye.

A gift is a gift, though, and a win is a win. Thanks to the Chicago Bears who were slightly more inept yesterday, and allowed the Redskins to post a win.

Eagles quarterback, Hampton Roads native Michael Vick, left the game near the end of the first quarter, after being sandwiched by two Redskins players. Reports are that x-rays are negative but he is sore. His replacement, season starter Kevin Kolb, was mostly ineffective. Had Vick not been injured, it is possible that the Eagles would have been able to pull this one out.

But closeness only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. So hail to the Redskins for this much-needed victory.

That the Skins blew a 17 point lead was a bit much for this long time fan to take. Yes, the season is still young. But there’s no way the Skins should have lost that game.  The running game was awful. And I’m not happy with McNabb’s choices – he goes long far too often for me.  Just because he can throw the ball 70 yards doesn’t mean he should do it at every opportunity. Sometimes, you gotta pick up the first down.

As for the Texans icing the rookie kicker – well, if I had been in their shoes, I’d have done the same thing. But it shouldn’t have come to that. Field goals instead of touchdowns early plus the blocked field goal got the Redskins into a mess. Confusion in the secondary made things worse.

The Redskins got outplayed when it mattered the most. Hopefully, they’ll learn from this and make some adjustments heading into next week’s game at the St. Louis Rams.

Otherwise, the only thing we’ll have to cheer next week is the Cowboys going 0-3.

So Hail to the Redskins! I’ll take the win.

1-0 baby

I actually missed the start of the game. When I turned on the TV, the Skins were down 0-3. That didn’t last, as they went on to score 35 unanswered points. Late in the game, the third string ‘Skins (new coach Mike Shanahan called them the 5th stringers in his press conference after the game) were outperformed by the third string Bills. No matter – as most of those guys won’t make the roster.

I’m already looking forward to next Saturday’s game against the Ravens. Let’s see if the team can build some momentum.

The headline was right, but there was a little problem with the score. Colts 31, Saints 17

I wish!

The story was from the AP so I don’t know whether it was wrong in the story or whether somebody at the Virginian-Pilot messed up. In any case, it’s not Dewey defeats Truman but close

h/t to Saints fan extraordinaire, Blaine Stewart

UPDATE: The Pilot has issued a correction on this.  And you can even download the corrected page

In any event, I’m looking forward to a real football game today. (Last week’s Pro Bowl wasn’t even worth watching. Whoever it was that came up with the brilliant idea to put the Pro Bowl in between the conference championships and the Super Bowl needs to be fired. The Pro Bowl is supposed to show the best of the best, not the best of the rest.)  The oddsmakers have the Colts as a 5-6 point favorite in the game, a result I’ll certainly take If you haven’t done so, vote your pick below.

As always, the poll will close before the 6:25pm scheduled kickoff.

UPDATE: Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints for winning their first ever Super Bowl. They were the better team tonight and earned the win.

The game will be held in two weeks. Expect to hear these memes ad nauseum:

• Peyton Manning, the Colts QB, is playing against his hometown team.
• Peyton is playing against the team where his father, Archie Manning, spent the majority of his career.

And so on.  And don’t forget the “will he/won’t he” speculation surrounding Brett Favre. Of course, that will go on from now until the first kickoff in the fall.

Coming up this weekend will be the Pro Bowl. I guess the folks in charge decided that having two weeks between the division championship games and the Super Bowl was too much. Um, OK, except that any Super Bowl participant won’t be playing.

I’m pulling for the Colts. You can vote for your team in the poll to the right.

Vote your picks!

As always, the polls are scheduled to close just before the start of the game.

• Saints over Cardinals
• Colts over Ravens
• Vikings over Cowboys
• Chargers over Jets

Vote your picks below

Saturday’s games

Sunday’s games

Note: each poll closes before the scheduled start of the game

• Bengals over Jets
• Eagles over Cowboys
• Patriots over Ravens
• Packers over Cardinals

Vote your picks below.

Saturday’s games

Sunday’s games

Note: each poll closes before the scheduled start of the game

The problem with the storied Washington franchise remains: owner Dan Snyder. Watching the game this afternoon, former Broncos player John Lynch mentioned that he had talked to Mike Shanahan, who is expected to be named as the seventh coach since Snyder’s purchase of the team in 1999. Lynch made what could charitably be characterized as an uninformed statement about the possibility of Shanhan being the new Washington coach, saying that Snyder was a good owner. Um, stick to color commentary, John. Seven coaches! Has any other team had so many in so short a time?

As long as Snyder remains as team owner, I don’t know if anyone can coach this team. If I were a player, I’m not sure I’d want to even play for this team (except as the third string quarterback who gets a paycheck to carry a clipboard).

Oh, how the once mighty have fallen!

This is, of course, the first of many moves the Redskins will be making. I fully expect that coach Jim Zorn will be gone at the end of the season.

Unfortunately, Dan Snyder will still be the owner.

Next up: the New York Giants, losers to the Philadelphia Eagles in last night’s game. The Giants (7-6) are two games out of first place in the NFC East and as of right now, out of the playoffs. A win by the Redskins will help keep them out.

While I was pleased to see the Skins score three touchdowns in yesterday’s game, the fact that the Eagles were able to score not only a touchdown but a two-point conversion which tied the game really dashed my hopes of a win. I’m thinking that the defense, which has been so strong, feels the same way and actually gives up a little at the end of the game.

I don’t anticipate a close game next week. The Skins face the New Orleans Saints, who take a 10-0 record into tonight’s game against the New England Patriots (7-3).

Still think Dan Snyder needs to go, though.

UPDATE: The video has been removed. Below the fold is a transcript that I’ve seen in a number of places around the internet.

The original pdf is here. h/t to Maria for emailing it to me.

Both require a fan base for each team. I’m a Redskins fan – which pretty much means my favorite team is the Redskins and anyone who plays against the Cowboys  .  In politics, we’d call those fans mainly Republicans or Democrats. There are those out there who simply like football – without any allegiance to any team. In politics, we call those folks Independents.

If the Redskins are playing well, more people will identify themselves as Skins fans. If the Skins are playing poorly, the number drops. Same in politics: whichever “team” is on a win streak, their party affiliation numbers go up. Lose – and watch the number of people who identify with a particular party drop. Everybody loves a winner.

Without a fan base, a team will move or just fold. In politics, the lack of a fan base is probably the biggest reason why we only have two viable political parties and why we have so few candidates. The barriers to entry are high: you need a whole lot of money to have a football team. And you need a whole lot of money to have a viable political party or campaign.

One thing that is different in football than politics is criticizing your team. In football, criticism is a part of being a fan. We even have a term for it: Monday Morning Quarterback. But in politics, criticizing your team is almost taboo. Only those considered “on the fringe” of a political party can criticize it. And few are willing to be considered “on the fringe” of a political party. Everyone wants to sit at the cool kids’ table, and be considered an insider. We save our criticism for the other team, even if our team is doing the exact same thing.

Why do we football fans criticize our favorite team? I know why I do: because I want them to be better. I want them to hire the right staff, draft the right players, and, yes, win. Isn’t that what we want for our favored political party or candidate? If what we hope to gain by voicing our criticism is to make our team better, it makes no sense, really, to reserve our political criticism for the other party.

What are we trying to do – make them better?

Yesterday, the Skins lined up against the Detroit Lions, losers of their last 19 games, the second longest losing streak in NFL history. The game wasn’t blacked out in Detroit because it wasn’t a sellout. Even Detroit fans expected the Lions to lose.

But win they did, with a rookie quarterback at the helm. The Redskins, now 1-2, managed to make the Lions look like a playoff team. It was painful to watch. (About the only thing as painful was watching Michael Vick come in for those “Wildcat” plays for the Eagles.) Calls for the head of Coach Jim Zorn abound.

I have to agree with one of the talking heads (don’t remember which) who said Zorn wasn’t going anywhere, mainly because in addition to being the head coach, he’s also the quarterbacks coach and calls the offensive plays. So it would take three people to replace him.

The problem with the Skins ain’t the coach – it’s the owner. Unfortunately, there’s really no way to fire an owner, except to hit him where it hurts: in the pocketbook. I haven’t attended a Skins game in years. My Skins stuff – sweatshirts, coats, hats – is all old and worn. I refuse to give him any of my hard-earned money.

Until Snyder leaves, the team will never get back to its glory days. And that’s a real shame.

The event will be held at First Baptist Church of Lambert’s Point at 5pm.

Smith, a Norfolk native, gave one heck of an induction speech. He took to the event a busload of students from his alma mater, Booker T. Washington High School. He recognized them in the speech, as well as all of the people who helped him along the way.

Join the VLBC  Saturday. It’s going to be fun

UPDATE: And, as expected, the video has been removed.

So, I’ll be rooting for the Cardinals. How about you?

So today we have the division championships. The NFC matchup has the Philadelphia Eagles at the Arizona Cardinals, while in the AFC, it’s the Baltimore Ravens at the Pittsburgh Steelers. According to my paper this morning, the line has the Eagles winning by 3.5 and the Steelers by 6.

I’ll be pulling for the Cardinals and, although I’ll be watching,  I really don’t care who wins the other game, but I expect it will be the Steelers.

Imprisoned NFL quarterback Michael Vick expects to return to pro football, according to his bankruptcy attorneys who laid out a plan to pay creditors based in part on his anticipated earnings.

“The Debtor has every reason to believe that upon his release, he will be reinstated into the NFL, resume his career and be able to earn a substantial living,” Vick’s attorneys wrote in a disclosure statement filed before a hearing Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Norfolk.

The former Atlanta Falcons star is serving a 23-month sentence in a federal penitentiary for bankrolling a dogfighting ring in rural Virginia and is scheduled to be released on July 20.

Well, why not? Democrats are going to let Lieberman caucus with them again, even though he endorsed McCain. Forgive and forget, right?

Hail to the Redskins!

So, what’s a political Redskins fan to do? Watch the game or watch the Republican National Convention? Decisions, decisions

And a bigger question: who’s hosting tonight’s RNC watching session? We had so much fun over at MB’s place last night

© ODU Athletics

Former Old Dominion University Lady Monarch Nancy Lieberman has been signed to a 7-day contract with the WNBA’s Detroit Shock. (Lieberman was a couple of years ahead of me at ODU but lived in the same apartment complex and since my roommate was another Lady Monarch player, I hung out with them.) At 50, Lieberman is the oldest player ever in the WNBA, a title she already held by virtue of having played at the age of 39.

Apparently, there was an altercation Tuesday night between the Shock and the Los Angeles Sparks. As it turns out, 11 people were suspended, including Shock assistant coach Rick Mahorn. (Mahorn was a senior at Hampton University when I was a freshman there.) Mahorn supposedly pushed Sparks center Lisa Leslie to the ground, although Shock coach Bill Lambeer and Sparks coach Michael Cooper both said that Mahorn was just trying to play peace maker. (Oh, and the assistant coach of the Sparks is Marianne Stanley, Lieberman’s coach at ODU.)

In any event, the melee resulted in a season-ending knee injury for Shock forward Cheryl Ford (daughter of NBA great Karl Malone). That, along with the suspensions, opened up a spot for Lieberman. The Shock only has eight players on the team tonight.

(I have to admit that while I was a WNBA fan, the game changed with the addition of all of these male coaches. I rarely watch now. Still, it’s kinda fun to read about players and coaches that I knew still being involved in the sport.)

The good news: the Redskins made a deal with Miami Dolphins for DE Jason Taylor. According to the AP (via PilotOnline), the ‘Skins gave the Dolphins a second-round pick in 2009 and a sixth-round pick in 2010. Taylor is expected in camp tomorrow.

While I wouldn’t wish injury on anyone, I’m pretty psyched to have Taylor in a Redskins uniform.

I was afraid that he was going to retire this year, which is why I wanted so badly for the Packers to get to the Super Bowl. Favre was an exciting quarterback to watch, but the last couple of years, it was pretty easy to see that his skills were beginning to diminish. Nevertheless, the 38-year-old managed a career-high completion percentage this past season.

Thanks for the memories, Brett. You are going to be missed.

Technorati Tags: Brett Favre

Peyton, watching from the box and winner of last year’s Super Bowl, was estatic.

UPDATE: In case you missed the ads, you can see them here.

The New England Patriots face the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII in Arizona Sunday. The Patriots bring their undefeated record against the surging Giants, who are playing their best football of the season. Nevertheless, I predict that the Patriots will win this game, by at least 10 points. And I predict Tom Brady will be named MVP.

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In other football news, Redskins Art Monk and Darrell Green have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In the case of Monk, this recognition is long overdue. Green election comes in his first year of eligibility. Congrats to both of these guys – and thanks for the memories.