When will we stop noticing?

No black NFL head coach has ever won the Super Bowl, or even GONE to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, many people who are only casual football fans know this truth. One of Martin Luther King's hopes, I'm sure, would be that at some point, we as a society would NOT even think of this statistic. That it would be so common place, like black baseball players, that to see the occurrence would not even stimulate a conversation. This weekend, two black head coaches have a chance to be the first of hopefully many to follow, to make it to the Super Bowl: Lovie Smith of the Bears and Tony Dungy of Indianapolis. Good luck gents.

As of now, both teams are favored to win, but what really matters is what teams I'm predicting to win (please reference my 7-1 playoff record). After much consideration, I have to pick the Bears over the fan (pundit and country) favorite New Orleans. The way I see it, the Saints defense isn't particularly good; 23rd against the rush and 11th overall. Offensively, they are #1 overall however, but are only 18th in running the ball while the Bears are 15th. They are however #1 in passing and the Bears defense is only 11th in defending the pass (but 6th against the run).

So all of that analysis says if the Bears can run the ball better than the Saints can throw it, the Bears will win. I'm betting that outside in mid-January along the lakefront leans in the Bears' favor. Also, our special teams are ranked #1 while the Saints are ranked 11th. Look for a big return to be a key play for the Bears.

Down highway 65 in Indianapolis, the Colts and Patriots square off. Every bone in my body says pick the Patriots....which would be a rematch of the 1986 Super Bowl http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_XX if the Bears win....but all of my common sense says pick the Colts. After going through the rankings, the Colts #2 passing attack against the Patriots 12th ranked pass defense is the only thing that really stands out. So there's that and the Colts are at home. Meanwhile the Patriots have Tom Brady and Belichik. Something has to give.....more stats: Brady is 10-0 in domes, but the Colts are 9-0 at home this year, but the Patriots are 8-1 on the road and beat the Chargers who were 8-0 at home.

So I go back to Manning's poor play against 3-4 defenses, which the Patriots play, and I have to pick the Patriots in an upset. We'll see a replay of that famous Super Bowl in 1986! Where's the Fridge? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_Perry

Best Video You'll See Today. This video was taken of a very unhappy deer stuck on a pond in the usually not so cold Norman Oklahoma. Finally, a good use of a television news crew:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/18/deer.ice.ap/index.html