Sports Redux, Or, The Lesson As Always

Okay, a quick rundown of recent sports stuff.

Firstly, amazing news coming out of Buffalo about Kevin Everett, the Bills player who injured his neck on Sunday. It was a textbook c-spine injury situation, as he lowered his head just before running into the kick returner at full speed. My first hope was that he was just unconscious, as he clearly was out the moment of the hit, but of course after a minute of two when he still hadn't moved, you start to get much more worried. But, amazingly, his doctors are expecting him to regain much of his motion after a 3-vertabrae fusing surgery on Monday. Good stuff, and a brief reminder that, whatever we change about the US Healthcare system, we have to preserve the facts that we have the best docs, and are capable of providing the absolute best health care in the world.

Secondly, another ho-hum victory for Federer in the finals of the US Open. Just like the Roddick match, he could easily have been down 2 sets love, after the first two went to tiebreaks. I'm reminded of something I was told when I was playing in a college Ultimate tournament. It was a pretty windy day, and I had just missed an attempted catch because the wind gusted right as the disc got to me and it flew above my hands. My captain told me that it was really not excusable for me to miss that catch, and I cited my wind excuse. He said (paraphrasing) "I know it's windy out. But did you ever notice that Damien (our best player) never has that happen to him? He's playing in the same wind you are, but somehow he always manages to make that catch."

That's how I feel about Federer. Everyone can spin a good story about how close they were to beating him, but it never...quite...happens, at least not when it matters. The best players just always make that catch, or that hit, and the not-best always seem to just miss it. It's that feeling of clutchness whose rarity is why we celebrate champions. I don't normally read Scoop Jackson, but this column on this subject was pretty good.

And now, to my predictions. Firstly, in my defense, the NFL is the sport with absolutely the least season-to-season predictability. I believe the stats are that there's about 50% turnover in the playoff teams every year. Which is great for fans; it means that unless you love the Cards or the Lions or the Browns, your team has a good shot at the start of every year. Secondly, in my defense, I'm an idiot. To prove the point, my more egregious predictions for the season.

Saints up: well, the Colts are a good team, but this was pretty indefensible after week 1.
Colts down: well, the Saints are pretty good, but, well, nevermind.
Niners and Seahawks up: well, wins are wins, right?
Raiders up? Well, yeah. Not so much.
Falcons up? How could you really expect them to do well against the mighty, mighty Vikings? I mean, seriously.
Jags down: I'm still feeling good about this one. Giving up 280ish rushing yards against a so-so Tennessee team? Not a good sign.
Jets up, Pats down? I only have one thing to say about that: cheaters!