Will The Real Memphis Grizzlies Please Stand Up?

It's to probably no one's surprise that the Lakers, Celtics, and Cavaliers are all once again rolling through their respective seasons. However, there is one team that's surprising me and that's the Memphis Grizzlies.

We're talking about a team that is historically one of the worst franchises in NBA history. That looks to be changing as this team is finally starting to show it's maturity. Players like Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo are turning into All-Stars while support players Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph are also pulling their weight.

Don't look now but the Grizzlies actually have a very solid team. What proves that the most isn't so much the games they are winning but also the games that they are competing in. No longer are the Grizzlies just target practice for the NBA powerhouses. The Celtics found that out a week ago as they escaped Memphis with a five-point win.

Outside of the Lakers, the gap between the worst teams and the best teams are closer than you would think. Three games separates the current eighth spot from the third spot. We've seen plenty of upsets already during this young season and the Grizzlies have had a share of them.

The Grizzlies already have wins over six playoff teams from last year, including wins over the Nuggets and Cavaliers.

There's a lot of basketball to be played but the Grizzlies are trying on that Cinderella slipper and it might just be the perfect fit.

The NFL Needs to Get Off Its Power Trip

Under most circumstances the NFL has done a great job in disciplining its players. It's turned into a league that puts up with little misbehaving from it's players.

That's all well in good, but when the NFL threatens to fine a player for wearing his murdered teammate's jersey number to honor him then that's when I draw the line.

Chad Ochocinco was good friends with Chris Henry who was tragically killed this past week. With all of the distractions being drawn from Ochocinco wearing Henry's jersey number, he has decided to stick with his own jersey number.

The NFL has to loosen up a little bit. It's football, not the Marines. Not only can players not have hardly any fun now, but they can't even honor fallen teammates by wearing something as simple as a jersey number? The NFL Players Association even offered to match the fine and give it to a Chris Henry memorial fund, but rules prohibit that as well.

This isn't the first time that Ochocinco has wanted to support a worthy cause this season by using his uniform. Earlier in the season during breast cancer awareness week, Ochocinco wanted to wear pink wristbands to honor the cause. The NFL said no to that too.

For Ochocinco, I commend you. We need more individuals like yourself who know how to have fun and still be a respectful person. And to the NFL, get off your power trip.

The Chase for Perfection May Hit a Road Block

Vince Lombardi once said that "perfection is unattainable, but if we chase perfection, then we can catch excellence". If that's the case then the Colts and the Saints have already caught excellence.

There's not as much parody in the NFL as there once was. There's a reason why this is first time in NFL history that two teams have made it this far in the season without a loss. The NFL has always had plenty of parody. The gap between the worst teams in the NFL and the best teams is unbelievable.

The Colts extended their regular season winning streak to 23 last night by sneaking out of Jacksonville with a four-point win. Peyton Manning had to work is heroics once again in the 4th quarter for the Colts to stay perfect.

As for the Saints, they're sitting at 13-0 with a Saturday matchup with the Cowboys just ahead. This is probably the last true test the Saints will face during the regular season.

Everyone is ready to stomp all over the Cowboys since they're historically a bad team in December, but this is a trap game for the Saints. The Cowboys are sick and tired of being crapped on by the media, and Roy Williams expressed that earlier in the week.

Let's not forget that the Saints have had to come back numerous times this season against teams like the Panthers to stay perfect. The Cowboys are definitely not a championship team, but they're capable of beating the Saints. Yes, even in the Superdome where it looks like the Saints are unstoppable.

If both of these teams do finish the regular season undefeated, then don't automatically crown them conference champs just yet. Both conferences have very worthy opponents that could knock both Saints and the Colts into the loss column.

The Saints will have to get through either the Vikings or the Packers. These two defenses are among the best in the NFL and we've seen Drew Brees have a few rough games this season. Keep that in mind.

In the AFC there's also two teams that the Colts should watch out for. The Chargers and the Patriots. This may sound cynical, but I still haven't climbed on the Charger bandwagon. They do this every year. They play great ball and have the sports analysts salivating over them, only to lose in the first or second round of the playoffs.

I'm not ready to climb off the Patriot bandwagon just yet. Don't count the Patriots out of the equation. They should've beaten the Colts already, and I think they could do it again. Tom Brady obviously has to get healthy, but he's got plenty of time for that.

There's no consolation prize for finishing the regular season undefeated. In fact, it's extremely overrated. The Colts have done this almost every year for the past decade and it's produced just one Super Bowl. Just one. It's an amazing accomplishment, but it doesn't make your team any harder to beat in the playoffs by being undefeated.

Another Tragedy Strikes The Bengals

Chris Henry

1983-2009

The roller coaster ride for the Bengals this season took a turn for the worse when wide receiver Chris Henry was tragically killed after being thrown from the back of a pick-up truck on Wednesday.

Henry was starting to get his life in order and his teammates noticed first-hand. Carson Palmer told the media that he was misunderstood and had the kindest heart. Chad Ochocinco, with tears streaming down his face, said that Henry was one of his good friends and that he had just spoken with him on Tuesday to discuss life.

This is one of those stories that you don't believe is true at first. We're talking about a guy who was one of the better up and coming wide receivers just two seasons ago before getting into trouble with the law multiple times. He was a game changer much like Desean Jackson is now in the NFL.

The saddest part of all was that he was only 26.

A broken forearm ended Henry's season in week 9. To that point he had over 200 yards receiving and two touchdowns. Most importantly, he was staying out of trouble.

Investigators are calling it a domestic dispute and aren't ruling out a possible homicide. She was driving the truck and Henry went after her by jumping in the bed of the truck. Whether she intentionally threw him from the truck is still under investigation.

Frankly it doesn't matter how it was done. Either way it's still another tough loss for an organization that's already dealt with losing the spouse of a defensive coordinator earlier in the season.

It's going to be tough for the players to put this behind them and somehow play football, but unfortunately they'll have to. Hopefully they can rally around this and pull out a win in honor of Chris Henry.

Predators Closing In On Division Lead

Who would've thought that the Predators would once again be pushing for the division lead? After the way they started the season, I saw them battling for last place with the Blues.

The Preds added their 19th win of the season tonight after handling the Blue Jackets for the 2nd time in the past week. The Predators now sit just two points back of the division leading Blackhawks.

This might be the year to finally get a division title with the Red Wings dealing with all sorts of injuries and the rest of the division just seeming average.

After watching the first two periods of tonight's game I'm ready to say that the Predators are making yet another trip to the playoffs.The Predators still have the normal pieces to the puzzle with Steve Sullivan, Jason Arnott, and Martin Erat.

Now other guys are starting to step up and make this a much more balanced team than a year ago. Guys like Patric Horngvist and Joel Ward are supplying the Predators with some much needed depth.

The Predators went through the gauntlet of their schedule a few weeks ago and came out with some huge wins over the NHL's best teams. It's one thing when the Predators are only beating the cellar dwellers, but when they're notching victories over the Blackhawks and the Sharks, then obviously this team is better than everyone thought.

There's still a ton of time left in the season, but I like how the Predators are playing right now. They're skating smoothly, scoring goals, and their goaltending hasn't look this good since back when Tomas Vokoun was still in the net.

Things are looking up in Smashville!

Predators Leading Scorers

1. Steve Sullivan: 22 points (9 g, 13 a)
2. Jason Arnott: 20 points (11 g, 9 a)
3. JP Dumont: 20 points (5 g, 15 a)
4. Martin Erat: 19 points (10 g, 9 a)
5. David Legwand: 18 points (6 g, 12 a)
   

Tiger Deserves Every Bit of Scrutiny

Star athletes always seem to take some sort of a step back in their respective careers.

Guys like Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Kobe Bryant, and Alex Rodriguez all experienced a fall from grace. However none of those examples amount to what Tiger Woods has squandered in just a matter of weeks.

Woods was one of the most respected athletes in the world two weeks ago. He was on top of his game and the outright best golfer of his generation. He had tons of endorsements that made up 90% of his earnings.

He foolishly threw that all away by getting caught up in the fame. He was running around with numerous women, possibly up to nine, while his wife was who knows where.

Now he's a punching bag of the media, and he deserves every punch.

Since all of this has been going on Woods has acted like a coward in handling this situation. He has hid behind his website and not even made one single public apology. For all we know his apology on his website may have been completely written by an adviser.

Woods has now said that he will take an indefinite leave of absence from golf to focus on his issues. That's a small step in the right direction, but he still has a ton of work to do before I ever think about respecting him again.

Even before all of this went on I still had less respect for him than the average fan. Sure, I thought he was the best golfer in the world, but I thought he acted like a child when things didn't go his way on the golf course. Slamming his golf clubs in disgust and yelling out profanities will not earn you much respect from me. Especially on a golf course where etiquette is pretty important.

It's going to be close to impossible for Woods to return to his dominance that he once had. To be frank, I don't see how he'll ever face the media again. He rarely spoke with the media before anyway.

This whole situation has dominated the sports news wire for the last two weeks now and I'm sick of hearing it. This will be the only thing you hear from me about the situation. Draw your own conclusions, but all of the negativity that Tiger Woods receives from this is well deserved.

The Blue Raiders Are Heading to the Big Easy!

We finally found out this past Sunday where in the heck the Blue Raiders would be playing their bowl game, and of the five possibilities the New Orleans Bowl was one of the better destinations.

I would've preferred to see them go to the GMAC Bowl in Mobile, AL due to the fact that it's the night before the national championship game and everyone will be eager to watch some football on that day.

The New Orleans Bowl is December 20th and I'm not sure how many people will be watching football on a Sunday night. They'll have to compete with the NFL that night so the Blue Raiders probably won't get as much exposure in the New Orleans Bowl. That's probably why Troy opted for the GMAC Bowl and you can't blame them. They're the champs so they deserve to choose where they want to play.

The Blue Raiders will take on Southern Miss who is very experienced in bowl games. They've gone to a bowl game 12 of the last 13 seasons. They definitely have the Blue Raiders in that category.

Southern Miss hails from Conference USA, a mediocre conference much like the Sun Belt.

Both of these offenses are ranked in the top 40 in total offense with the Blue Raiders having a one yard advantage in average offensive yards a game. Pretty bizarre.

This game will come down to who's defense shows up and slows the opposing offense down enough to pull out a win. I like the Blue Raiders and their defense who leads the nation in tackles for loss with over eight a game. Not to mention they're fourth in sacks averaging over three a game in that department.

In reality the Blue Raiders have already prepared themselves for this game by playing against some good offenses in the regular season. The most notable one being Clemson which they lost to by 17 to start the season.

I'm just not that impressed with Southern Miss's defense that got smoked in their five losses. They gave up 30 to UAB, 34 to Tulsa, and 34 to Virginia, 35 to Kansas, and 25 to East Carolina.

It will be a very close game and both offenses will score a lot of points. In the end I think MT's defense will step up and make a few key stops to bring home the bowl win.