I’ll see your roman numerals, and raise you spanish. What now? For some reason there’s just an abundance of boring games this week, but luckily there’s a couple that should make up for it.
Packers over VIKINGSI agree with Steve, this Favre buisness just has me all happy inside. Anybody who is cheering against the Packers and are not invested in the opposing team needs to have their arteries checked.
Raiders over DOLPHINSRonald Curry will end up being the hero in this one, but the Oakland run-D will deserve it more for shutting down Ronnie Brown after his big week.
Jets over BILLSFor [...]

While Steve takes care of the NBA preview buisness, I’ll lock down the NFL for you.
1. New England Patriots (3-0)They’re here till they lose. What bugs me about them is everyone is acting so surprised that they’re kicking arse and Moss is still good. How hard was this to predict, people? Good grief.
2. Indianapolis Colts (3-0) Part 2 of our “Incredibly easy and boring picks” portion of the program. The D is somehow still playing near the level of last season’s playoffs.
3.Pittsburgh Steelers (3-0)Willie Parker is carrying this offense while the D carries the team, so what else is new? [...]

Here are the pick rankings through the first three weeks of the season
Coup: 31-17SJ: 28-20The Bengals cost me making up some ground last week. I had to take a couple risks, they didn’t pay off but I survive to pick another day. That day is…today.
Packers over VIKINGSMinnesota is at home and has a tremendous run defense. The only problem is…Green Bay doesn’t have a running back anyways so it doesn’t really matter. If they let the Chiefs and Damon Huard comeback on them, who knows what Brett Favre will do to these guys. The Packers D shut down LT, Gates [...]

Roman numerals just make everything seem that much more important. It is Friday which means an infinite amount of football chat coming your from my mouth. Don’t worry the NBA preview has not died, you try making sense of the Eastern Conference. ZING! But seriously. Sidenote before I start the power rankings…since when did the US Women’s Soccer team lose? I remember during the Mia Hamm era a tie was a shocker. That coach deserves to be fired, I mean who makes a lineup switch in the semi-finals of THE WORLD CUP. Especially when you’re taking one of your most [...]

The final part of my pre preseason look at the Western Conference will include the lottery bound teams. Here are the links to Part I and Part II, and yes I still think Shawn Marion is idiot for ever wanting to leave Steve Nash and Mike D’Antoni. By the way Kerr won’t pull the trigger, but if I’m Mitch Kupchak I offer Radmonovic and Odom asap.

LOTTERY BOUND (but they might not be as bad as you think)

Clippers: Everybody is writing the Clippers off and who could blame them. They managed to play their way OUT of the playoffs [...]

Check out the coverage from TrueHoop and the article from the Arizona Republic for some great coverage of Marion officially saying he wants out. This pretty much throws away nearly everything I said yesterday about the Suns. And really…I have no clue where Shawn Marion is coming from. I did not think it was that insecure for someone to be a 4-time All-Star (including the last three years), play on one of the best teams in league with one of the elite point guards in the NBA. How does he not think about that? Does he not see how hard [...]

We continue with a look at the Western Conference, if you missed out here is the link to Part I.
THE CONTENDERSThese are the teams that are playoff contenders but have a couple questions or missing pieces that put them below the big 3.
Houston: I was ever so tempted to put them in the elite but they haven’t gotten out of the first round so it would be overrating them. But this is my pick of a team to make some noise out West this year. Tracy McGrady is coming off one of the best years in his career as he [...]

With training camps set to start in a week or so, I figure now was as good of a time as ever to take a pre-preseason and training camp look at the league right now. We’ll be taking a look at the top conference aka the West first by dividing the teams into three categories. The Elite, The Contenders and the Lottery Bound.THE ELITE
San Antonio: They are and forever will be the perennial top dog in the Western Conference. With the mind of Popovich, the combination of Duncan/Ginobli/Parker and the smart play of everyone else that is an no-brainer. [...]

What a game. Ugly as all hell first half, but I’ll just blame Flozell Adams and the short-bus referees for that one. Did anyone else see that 4th-down sack at the end of the half that should have left the Cowboys with two seconds left to kick a FG — but instead the Ref wound down the clock for those two seconds before waving his arms? Um, it was 4th down buddy. Good luck holding on to your job.
Speaking of dumb decisions, what was with that ugly Bears fake-fg in the third? I know Robbie Gould had never kicked a [...]

PATRIOTS over Bills 38-7When it comes to the Patriots I really am getting the feel like I’m repeating myself on a weekly basis. It is almost like being a robot or the formula to a good Britney Spears song. Patriots = really really good. Tom Brady = amazing (23/29, 311 yards, 4 TDs). Randy Moss = very good (5 receptions, 115 yards, 2 TD). They are just that good, what else needs to be said. I mean I’m running out of things to say about them. 1-1JETS over Dolphins 31-28The Jets get their first win of the year and they [...]