Perhaps Milton the problem wasn’t that you were African-American, but that you were given $10 million to play well, AND YOU DIDN’T! Yeah, any racism is bad, and you should never have had to deal with that. But not everyone was racist towards you, most booed you because you were a jackass that wasn’t playing well. Look at your former teammate Kevin Gregg, who couldn’t save a game to save his life. He got booed, but not as much as you because he’s wasn’t a huge asshole.

So now you’re in Seattle, and no one would expect you to let it all go because, like I said, you’re an asshole, but it’s time to shut up. You aren’t worth the air time for ESPN, let alone the $30 million contract. I’m sure you’ll find an irrational reason why everyone in Seattle will inevitably hate you. It’s probably because, again, you’re an asshole, but I’m sure you’ll find your own creative reason.

Payton and the Saints staff were heading to a fine evening of dining in a private room at the famous St. Elmo’s Steakhouse in Indianapolis, where basically anybody rich and famous goes when they come to town. Says Peter King:

At the restaurant, word passed that Dallas owner Jerry Jones would have his Dallas group in this exact room Saturday night for a team dinner. Jones had even phoned ahead, according to a waiter, to make sure a magnum of a wine he loved, Caymus Special Selection cabernet sauvignon, was ready to be served at dinner.

Sean Payton told the waiter he’d like to have that wine, too. The waiter told him: Sorry, sir. We have only one bottle left, and it’s reserved for Mr. Jones.

Payton said he’d like to have the bottle nonetheless. I assume there was much angst on the part of the wait staff at that point. My God! Who do we piss off? One of the most powerful owners in the NFL, or the coach who’s the toast of the NFL, the coach who just won the Super Bowl?

Here came the bottle of Caymus Special Selection, and the Saints’ party drained it.

But drinking Jones’ wine wasn’t enough. Payton gave the waiter some instructions, took out his pen … and, well, the Cowboys party found at the middle of their table the next evening an empty magnum of Caymus Special Selection cabernet sauvignon, with these words hand-written on the fancy label:

WHO DAT!
World Champions XLIV
Sean Payton

Hero? He showed Jerry Jones what was up. He drank his milkshake wine! Asshole? He drank his wine and left a braggy note! The two teams play each other next season, so we’ll see who gets the last laugh in all of this.

The issue comes with picking up the casual fan. If they have basic cable and are outside of the market of a team, they only have access to the NBC Game of the Week, which may not even be carried by their local affiliate. Furthermore, DirecTV subscribers don’t get Versus, due to a completely silly feud with Comcast, who owns the network. That leaves the Fox Sports channels, but they’re blocked out if you don’t have NHL Center Ice. The NHL Network is there, but again, but that doesn’t have the same number of households as ESPN or Fox Sports.

The fact that ESPN has no hockey is a major deterrent for the sport. Part of the reason they don’t cover the sport very much is that it’s the only major league they don’t carry at all. ESPN shows games from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR, and even MLS. The NHL won’t get a lot of coverage if they don’t need to promote it for their own broadcasts. To make matters even worse, the playoffs aren’t even all on national  TV, with the games being shown on Versus. That means there are only a handful of games on NBC, with the most exciting hockey of the year being shown on a network that not only is on cable, but isn’t available to 14 million DirecTV subscribers.

So how do you expect an increase in viewers if it’s that hard to watch? This is the big problem facing NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, and I’m not sure what he can do. He’s a pretty inept commissioner to begin with, but his hands are tied by his contracts with Versus and NBC. If we truly have Hockey Fever from the Olympics, he’s going to need to pressure those two networks into making the league more visible, and, in the case of Versus, accessible. This is the best opportunity the NHL has had since the lockout during the 2004-05 season to redeem itself and start getting sports fans to tune in, not just hockey fans. They have a tremendous product that is being badly missed by the general sports-watching population, and it’s now or never fix that.

This is not just a physical change for Wright, but a mental change, as well. Francouer has encouraged Wright to relax more away from the ballpark, to speak his mind more and to show more emotion on the field.

Bahahaha. Mental approach? Does that how to strike out with the bases loaded and one out? Or hitting into unassisted triple plays? Don’t worry about 2010 Mets fans, Frenchy’s on it!

“Madden has never done me wrong and all of my characters in the past have been pretty awesome…A lot of people come up to me and tell me that they’re sacking the crap out of the quarterback in the game.”

Not only is Allen unafraid of the Curse, he’s actively asking fans to vote for him! He wants it to happen:

“If I make the cover, I’m going to straighten my mullet and make it as trashy as possible…You have to highlight the tools that got you there.”

Jared Allen don’t do that! Do you want to join the ranks of Shaun Alexander, Vince Young, and Troy Polamalu, all of whom had disastrous years after appearing on the cover? Not that we’re opposed to the Vikings sucking again (I’m sick of hearing about Favre and Sydney Rice is incredibly overrated), but come one man, you invite the curse, and it will come!

Howard will now go to the Wizards. Yes, that’s right, the Wizards, who just saw two players suspended for the season because they pulled guns on each other in the locker room. The move works for them though because Howard’s contract will expire at the end of the season. Don’t forget, this is the same Wizards team that just said they’d bring Gilbert Arenas back next year. The future sure looks bright, huh?

This is just the latest in what’s becoming a major problem for the NBA. In the NBA, players are guaranteed their money whether they play well or not. The only way to get rid of players that are there for the money is to either trade them or buy out their contract. In Indiana, we had that situation with Jamaal Tinsely, who really stopped caring once we got the big contract. He was on the team payroll for a year without playing minute until Larry Bird decided to buy out his contract. In the NFL on the other hand, any player could get cut at anytime. If a guy doesn’t care and doesn’t put any effort into playing, he’ll be out on his ass with no problem. Unfortunately, the NBA won’t change, as I could never see the Players Union agreeing to change that rule. It proves again why the NBA is the worst run professional league the U.S.

What did he say? Basically that he was sorry not only to his wife and family, but to all of his fans, the media, and all of the kids he tries to help. He said he’s been working to control his impulses and has realized that he doesn’t have a separate set of rules from the rest of us. He didn’t go into great detail on his infidelity (thankfully), but he did say that he and wife Elin did not fight before his Thanksgiving car crash, accusations of performance enhancing drugs are completely false, and he asked the paparazzi to leave his family alone. The biggest part of it all for sports fans though was that he’s  not sure when he’ll return to playing golf, as he will be returning to rehab. He didn’t rule out the possibility of playing this season. Elin was not present at the press conference (which was really just a statement), but Tiger’s mom was.

I didn’t think Tiger really needed to apologize to anyone in the public forum in the first place, but now that he has, I hope we can move on from this. As far as actual sports are concerned, let’s hope Tiger comes back to golf this year. Sure, the media stories will get super annoying, but the guy is a hell of a golfer and, like him or not, he’s a presence on the course that the PGA needs. Lefty alone can’t quite do it, and guys like Jim Furyk and Padrig Harrington aren’t household names for non-golf fans.

Sure, it was a speech written for Tiger, and yes, it’s going to be talked about for the whole weekend, but I think it finally hit Tiger that you can’t do whatever you want just because you’re a superstar (by hit, I’m mean bludgeoned). Whether or not that was for appearances only is another issue, but does it matter? Let this guy figure this out with his family and get back to doing his job.

David Wright, Jose Reyes and now Johan Santana all have said they expect the Mets to win the World Series. The Mets are turning the page on an injury-plagued 2009 by making one bold statement after another.

That means the pressure is on Jerry Manuel like never before.

The manager has to produce. The Mets must get off to a good start. Manuel will offer up his State of the Mets address today with his first formal press conference of the 2010 season. He has made it clear the Mets have to get off to that good start.

A.) What are David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Johan Santana going to say? “Might as well pack it in boys. This ain’t our year!” Its the first day of spring training!

B.) Why are they making Jerry Manuel’s first press conference sound like a bigger deal than Obama’s State of the Union? Does anybody really care about what he’s going to say there?

It will be Manuel’s job to get the team ready to win from the first game of the year against the Marlins. There is no grace period. Get it done. It’s that simple.

That’s right, Jerry. One game! Did you know 100% of the teams that win the first game of the year go on to have good seasons? It must be true, because I just made it up! Just look at recent history.

P.S. Hey everyone. I’m going to be blogging here too. I’m an Atlanta Braves fan, so you can expect a lot more posts mocking Jimmy “I’m a massive tool” Rollins and kicking the Mets when they’re down.

“They’re going to get Ilgauskas back and it’s going to be one of those scenarios that we see in the NBA where you ship a player out, you get another player, then your player retires or they pay him off and then he comes back in 30 days…I don’t know what that does for the league. I think that’s kind of a weird situation.”

Seriously Phil? You got Pau Gasol a few years ago and have since won another championship with him. It’s not like the Lakers are going to miss the playoffs or something because of this, and in fact, they’re still the best team in the West. As for Rivers? His team made a deal exactly like this a few years ago with Gary Payton.  Says Doc:

“I actually do have a problem with that though. We did it…but I do think [it's a problem]. I don’t know what you do [maybe] just not allow them to go back to the same team or whatever. … I do think that will be changed eventually, but I do have a problem with it.”

I’m not sure you have two feet to stand on here Doc. I agree, it’s a really stupid loophole that needs to be addressed by the NBA, but it’s really hard hearing it not only from two guys that have made use of similar trade situations, but also have some of the best players in the NBA on their teams. Yeah, it’s Cleveland and LeBron, but we’re talking about two teams that have won the last two NBA championships that have rosters with the names Bryant, Gasol, Bynum, Pierce, Garnett, and Allen on them. Maybe it’s the bitter Pacers fan in me, but come on guys, shut up.