Commissioner Goodell, the next time your league has the Rolling Stones play at the Super Bowl, have them start off with ‘Sympathy For The Devil’. Good luck trying to get them to change their lyrics, though. I hear it does not go over so well with them.

If they do bite, here’s a first suggestion:

Please allow me to introduce myself
Soon be a man of wealth and (hopefully) taste
I’ve been around for nary a year
Stole many a team’s soul and faith

And I was around when Mike Ditka
Completely sold out the Saints
Made damn sure that no amount of help
Would soon erase his mistakes

Pleased to meet you
Good luck with ever knowing my name
I’ll puzzle you
With the nature of my game

Yeah. It is the Song of the Unknown Rookie. There is no need for me to go into details; suffice it to say that many - if not most - do not turn into what their respective drafting teams had hoped. And, often, the players that turn into the franchisers are those taken in the later rounds.

For those rookies who are getting paid tens of millions of dollars before doing anything worthwhile in the league that is now yours, I say this, “Relish it, because sanity has finally come to town.”

What other job do you get paid more than many who are doing it well and have been doing so for years just on the off chance that you might one day be better than they were?

Right off the bat, I’d have to say none. Why? Because it makes no EFF-ING sense, is why!!! It seems pretty straight forward, really. If owners are worried about saving money so much that they will trash the CBA, here’s a good start at doing something that might keep millions of their precious dollars from being thrown away: Put a very significant cap on rookies.

Period.

No need then to worry if Alex Smith will be a good QB, even though you have to pay him as if he were the next coming of Joe Montana. If these kids don’t prove worthy, then cut them. BOOM. Problem solved. Back to life, like every other person. Not their fault, nor yours. Just the way things go.

Sure, you may have wasted a draft pick, but better to have wasted a draft pick and be done with it than to have it hanging around your neck like a sailor with an albatross that brings your team down for years simply because of a salary cap structure that acts like an anchor on a cursed ship.

Anyway, I gotta give kudos to Goodell for taking the hard road on athletic fools who choose to think they are above the law and now for being the first person of note to acknowledge the inherent idiocy that comes each year with rookie pay in the NFL.

I honestly did not see this coming. Unlike the rookies who are soon to be, however, I love it!

FanYard should set up a Yardstick for the length of each rookie’s career. Well, maybe just the top few.

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I find it very interesting that many of the commentors at many of the blogs that I have read dealing with this subject, have, of course, found a way to politicize it - as if the whole thing were set up to further divide the American public, if such a thing is even possible. Somehow, the discussions keep getting sidetracked into tirades about the current administration, like every subject seems to these days/years.

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All of this, simply because the Republican members of the hearing rarely questioned Roger, who is a good friend of the Bush family. They did, however, pile it on McNamee. Well deserved, of course, but not necessarily the point of the hearing. Everyone knows McNamee is a liar. He freely admits it. The name-calling directed at McNamee by the Republican members of the hearing committee really ticked some people off. Although it was not incorrect, it was, perhaps, slightly out of place. The implied clemency towards Roger is what has some up in arms.

It has now been taken one step further, as one of the lawyers for the corrupt former cop / trainer / drug dealer McNamee has publicly suggested that Roger Clemens can afford to continue to lie because, “It would be the easiest thing in the world for George W. Bush, given the corrupt proclivities of his administration, to say Roger Clemens is an American hero.”

Of course a hero should not have to go to jail under this administration - just like the last one; this is not a partisan issue - and rightly so. No one wants to see another hero [of the President's] spend time behind bars for “crimes” that really did not hurt anyone anyway. People should be pardoned for this type of thing and it should be brushed under a rug. Preferably a red rug; a long one; a carpet, even, being rolled towards the entrance to the Hall of Fame. Well, some people, anyway. Friends, let’s say. Of the Bush family.

Hey, we all make excuses sometimes for our friends, even when we know we should not, right? We can’t all be above reproach, you know.

Anyway, G. W. Bush’s name is being thrown around as if people know for a fact that he is going to do something that many people would find offensive and that would show an utter disdain for the laws of the land. Surely, the President will speak out to his people and tell them that, in fact, he will not interfere with the proper workings of the justice system this time, won’t he? Mustn’t he, I mean, just to save face? He is no slave. Surely, the leader of the free world can’t let these piddly lawyers and the national press talk in such a degrading manner about him, without at least standing tall and discussing the issue, can he?

Whatever the case, I am still going to be wishing that FanYard had that Yardstick for bullshit truth, I am sure.

Who knows, the way this whole thing is turning into just another perfect American soap opera? These are, after all, important issues to the nation. With the last few important national crisis (Britney and her kids, Lindsay and her cocaine, Paris and her…whatever) now somewhat under control, we need something else to keep us occupied.

At least until March Madness or the NBA playoffs get here.

Of course, Clemens is the pitcher in real life, not the catcher. He would have had to have been the catcher if McNamee is telling the truth this time. Who knows?

Unfortunately for Clemens, his very good friend - and generally acknowledged by all sides (baseball, Clemens, McNamee, Republicans, Democrats, camera crews and local coffee shops and pub owners) all-around good, honest fellow - Andy Pettitte, is now making claims that would make either a liar, a Saint, or a probable Alzheimer’s patient out of The Rocket. If not one of those, then it would make both Pettitte and McNamee out to be liars.

Now, McNamee is a universally acknowledged liar. Granted, we have all told lies. (Well, everyone except Jesus, as he was apparently perfect in every way except that hair-do.) However, McNamee has told lies under oath on multiple occasions, and been either caught up in his lies or so close to being caught up in his lies that he had a “change of heart” and decided to come [more] clean than before. In general, as earnest as he seems, we must take his testimony with a major league size grain of salt.

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Andy Pettitte, though, must be taken seriously, we are told. Why else would he volunteer to come forward and tell these politicians that he had, indeed, received anal injections of banned substances from Mr. McNamee himself? He, too, could have denied the allegations. Instead, he not only gave himself up to the gods of truth, he also implicated his good buddy Roger in what could turn out to be a perjury case for someone.

Pettitte felt that he had done something wrong and wanted to come clean about it. Jolly good for him, I say. Unfortunately, he was so compelling in his previous testimony that when he asked to be excused from today’s hearing, his request was granted, thus denying the public of the one other person who could have helped make this whole, sordid mess even tougher to figure out.

I listened to the whole thing this morning live on television, having lucked across the only excellent, unscripted program on TV today - until that new Tom Green show comes on later. While I personally don’t care whether The Rocket did steroids or HGH, or even MDMA or LSD for that matter, I did find listening to such a well-known public persona very interesting. Clemens perfectly imitated the trademark specific-topic-evasion tactics so well cultured and fine-tuned by the very people who were grilling him and McNamee.

I mean politicians, of course. Clemens, I believe, will make a great one someday. If he so chooses. Even if he does get found out to be a liar, he could still fall back on politics and go very far with it. What other line of work can you be found out to be a cheating, dishonest, backstabbing, self-serving liar and get a promotion for it, after all?

Not that I think these things about Clemens. Right now. Honestly, I don’t know what to think, so I reserve my right to be undecidedly hopeful. I want to believe him. I want it to come out that it was not a sports legend that millions of youngsters have looked up to over the years that was the liar here.

I don’t want to find out that Roger Clemens looked the game of baseball, its fans, that cute, witty Congresswoman from D.C. that we see sometimes on The Colbert Report who was a member of this hearing, the rest of the committee and, by association, the U.S. government, its people, and the rest of the free world (Except Finland. They, too, think baseball is boring, but have their own version of it, called, Pesapallo.), and bald-faced lied straight to them while under the gun.

I would much rather see the former policeman-turned drug dealer and dream destroyer be the bad guy, again, here.

I just don’t know. Clemens said all day how he was just too trusting of people and too forgiving. Maybe we were too trusting, too, I don’t know. One day, maybe the truth will be served.

Until then, I’ll wish we had a Yardstick for bullshit truth on FanYard.

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A nice thanks by Gay would be to make a YouTube thank you himself, showing him doing your dunk at the All-Star Weekend in New Orleans followed by your original video that he copied.

It would be nice as well if you link your videos to this page, to help people with their searches when they want something other than Google and the rest of the non-human powered search engines.

Lots has happened in the past few days in sports, though…Richard Zednik had his throat cut, but he is going to be OK, they say.

Inside the NFL was cancelled. HBO probably wasn’t paying the NFL enough for the video clips or something.

The Miami Dolphins cut their team in half. Is that news?

Shaquille O’Neal had his first practice with the Phoenix Suns, showing no ill effects from the hip injury that has been the latest setback to his game. He was a little tired, though, it seems. Still, the Yardstick for the Suns at Warriors game on Wednesday has the visiting team favored by six points at the time of this writing.

Best of all, though, is Chris Bosh in his new role as Blaine Harrington, the Oxford educated interviewer.

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If he delivers, it will be one of the best-ever moves and the credit will have to start with new GM Steve Kerr, but be shared with coach Mike D’Antoni, who many thought had the trade forced on him. Apparently that was not the case, as Kerr and D’Antoni both sold each other over the course of a few days. The immediate blessing of their two biggest (would be) remaining stars, Steve Nash and Amare Stoudamire, helped the deal inch closer to completion. When the very respected team doctors - considered by many to be the best in the NBA - said that they could work O’Neal into shape and keep him there, the call to Miami was made…and the pouting teammate nicknamed the Matrix was former. Now, everyone wants to talk about it, even me.

As a fan who did not grow up watching basketball, I have enjoyed the rise of Steve Nash not because he is a fellow Canadian who grew up not far from Vancouver and who was, at one point, coached by my roommate’s father, but because he is exciting to watch and plays on a team that can make the game exciting. Still, a Nash on a slow, boring team would not make me turn on the television to see the outcome of a game. The fact that Phoenix has used him in the fast game and D’Antoni has built the team to be fast around him has made the Suns a favorite of mine.

According to Nash and Stoudamire, they can still play their fast-paced game by properly using Shaq in the passing and rebounding game. I sure hope so, and I can totally see it. If the Suns were to start playing a boring style of basketball, I would no longer be interested in watching them, and I don’t want that to happen. When the NBA bald-faced lied and allowed the Grizzlies to be moved from this city after promising they would not, I stopped paying any attention to the league for a few years.

I had believed in the NBA. I had gone to 12-15 games per year. I had become a true fan who cared about and began to uunderstand the intricasies of the game. I had climbed on board, only to be shown the door. I was unsure if I would ever watch another game. And I can hold a grudge. It will probably be a cold day in Hell when I start caring again about baseball, after the league and the players cancelled the World Series over money. Maybe, maybe when all the players who were playing at that time are no longer on the field, I might try again.

But, I digress…it may be misplaced, but I am back onboard the NBA bus, hoping the Suns are correct in making this move. For the sake of fans all over North America, I hope the Suns retain their fun-to-watch style and make sure we are not subject - at least for a few years - to another sleep-fest that was last year’s championship round.

Sure the Spurs are a great team - one of the greatest ever - but…y-awn…can’t stay awake to watch them….zzzzzzzzzz

[Pinch]

It will be fun to watch, regardless of the outcome. And even if it does not work out and people get upset…well, it is just basketball, and people are allowed to make mistakes. If that is the case, at least we know they will be held accountable. At least it is not as dumb as the U.S. funding nuclear plants in Iran. And, if recent events are any indication, no one will ever be held accountable for that. In fact, they’ll likely get promoted.

Still, in the summer of 2010, when the contracts of both Steve Nash and Shaquilee O’Neal would be coming to an end, the Suns would gain $33 million in cap space. OK, that makes sense. They’ll have two seasons after this one to see if this combination of skill will bring a ring to the desert.

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On second thought, it seemed strange that the rumors coming out of Phoenix might be true. The Suns are leading the West, have a ton of home games coming up due to the road-heavy schedule they have been playing up to this point, could very well win 60+ games again this season - for the third in a row - and they have the best offensive efficiency in the entire NBA. What better time to ruin any chemistry and bring in an out-of-shape, injured, and past-his-prime former superstar who can’t run the fast break (or fast at all) and has a shooting percentage in the single digits when he is not standing directly under the net?

On third thought, it seemed strange that the rumors coming out of Phoenix might be true. Sure, they were upset at the Pau Gausol deal that the Lakers were able to convince the Grizz to allow - reminiscent of another deal made by a California team, the Chargers, when they were able to get an established star wide receiver named Chris Chambers from the haplessly run Miami Dolphins earlier this year. With Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom and Ronny Turiaf, the Lakers bringing in Gausol gives them such a possible advantage in the playoffs against the Suns, who have no big, physical players to match up.

And, rumor has it, the Dallas Mavericks were also getting very interested in trading for Shaq. As scared as the thought of Nowitzki, Josh Howard and Shaq on the Dallas courtside made, them, it was this that likely pushed the Suns to the brink of insanity.

Insanity? That may be a bit harsh. Let’s call it acute paranoia being expressed in the form of entirely unreasonable actions. Sort of like a phobia. Or keeping up with the Jones.

The Suns could have acknowledged the fact that yet another team in their conference could gain a better chance of beating them by making a trade and having the trade work out - both on the floor and in the locker room - in some other fashion than actually usurping Dallas and taking that trade themselves. It seems the Suns are so determined not to let another team gain a possible advantage that they are willing to disrupt their own chances in order to screw up the possibility of Dallas getting one.

If it comes out that Mark Cuban started the Dallas Trade rumors on purpose just to see how the Suns would react, I would not be surprised. He’s a wily one who would get a kick out of just this sort of fiasco in the desert.

Then again, he could be wrong.

By bringing in Shaq Daddy (This guy has more nicknames than anyone I know!) and switching Amare Stoudemire back to his natural power forward position, the Suns might actually be able to come out on top here. Of course, their fast-tempo game might be slowed down somewhat, but you don’t really need all five players running the fast break, either. When Shaq misses games to injuries, the Suns have confidence now in playing Boris Diaw next to Amare, and don’t feel their game would suffer tremendously. And they still have Steve Nash, of course.

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On fourth thought…who the heck knows what to think about this trade?? Some people think it could be smart, while many thought it was a joke. In the end, what it is is a gamble. A gamble that could pay off in the area where previous great Suns teams have failed…with a championship ring.

The Suns will have to change their style of play, but Diesel gives them the chance to keep most of the best parts of their game, while having at least the chance to improve on others (second-chance points, defending against bigger frontcourt players…).

If Shaq passes the physical, the West just got a lot wilder!

Thank you all so much, who took part in helping FanYard have a successful first season. We learned a lot, and this first year will help us to bring you an even more super site for next year’s kickoff.

In the meantime, of course, we hope you will use us for your NBA and NCAA basketball fixes and continue to send us suggestions for improvements and features to add to FanYard.

We know with the group we have started off with (you), that we have one of the most knowledgeable, football-savvy groups ever collected. The Yardstick was more accurate at picking NFL winners than all but one of the many ‘experts’ at Yahoo!, ESPN and CBSSportsline!

Again, a very special thanks to all who took part in this first year of football at FanYard!

With the score 7-3 in favor of the Patriots about halfway through the third quarter, New England had a 4th and 13 on the Giants 31-yard line. Instead of calling Stephen Gostkowski in for the 49-yard try, the Pats elected to go for it. This, in a game where Tom Brady had been pressured all day and the passing game was completely out of whack. Even on the occasions where Brady did have lots of time to throw - and he had what seemed like minutes on some plays - he had no rythym at all. The only passes Brady was hitting yesterday were short or intermediates that were closer to the middle. Long passes and sideline throws were errant like those we’ve come to expect from Eli Manning over the years.

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In this game, however, Manning was able to take the reins and lead the Giants to the winning score near the end of the fourth quarter, while Brady and company looked on helplessly. The Giants had a ton of breaks go their way, but that happens sometimes, and the Patriots still would have been tied with New York instead of walking off the field dejected at the end of the fourth quarter if they had tried for the field goal - perhaps.

That’s the thing with life and football, right? Hindsight being 20-20, and all. Still, even in the middle of this game, with everything seeming to be going the way of the foe, it was imperative that each team take points when they came available. Gostkowski was six of ten career at making field goals over 40 yards, and 1-1 over 50 going into Super Bowl XLII. I could be wrong, but I’d be willing to bet that a 60% chance at taking three points here was better odds, and a better call, than showing hubris and throwing those probable points away on a long shot against a defense that was having the game of the year against you. You are talking about a defense that even Giselle could not have helped keep Tom Brady up against.

This is not the first time this playoff season that Belichick has made a bad call, but it is only the second time that I can remember all year. Unfortunately, as often happens with bad coaching, it came back and took away the opportunity for New England to salvage an overtime ending to their perfect season. The kind of hubris shown by that play might have been acceptable if the Patriots had seemed like the Patriots we have seen all year. You know, the type of team loved by the football gods? The cocky, self-assured team that kept the pedal to the floor whenever they could?

But this team that took the field against the New York Giants played like another team. A team that deserved to lose. Hey, everyone makes mistakes.

Why such a wide swing of point predictions for this game at the awesome University of Phoenix Stadium (above), which normally houses the Arizona Cardinals? Well, there are obviously a certain segment of American society that will always pick against the Patriots, as they have come to think of them as some sort of Evil Empire to rival that of the New York Yankees of baseball. Which seems kind of a stretch to me, as the Patriots do not overpay, nor do they fill their roster up with every high-priced free agent that comes along. Nor do they trace away huge chunks of their future picks for a small number of players, knowing they will simply open up the purse strings to make up for it at a later date.

People always need something to hate, and teams that approach the pinnacle of what can be done in their particular sports always attract cynics and others who just need that bit of anger in their lives in order to feel more fulfilled. New England had its share of haters long before the whole, sordid spying mess that some have come to rally around as such an injustice that they feel the need to spout off everywhere and anywhere that people will listen, just hoping to find a connection with someone out there; anyone.

It is human nature to feel the need to find a sticking point, which you can point out to show the moral superiority of yourself and/or your team, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Better to vent anger at something as meaningless - in the broader sense of the world - as a game than to have people actually hating each other. Maybe it is the best thing about sports - it gives people an arena into which they may vent very real frustrations with life without causing anyone any real harm. Where would we be as a society if people did not have this forum for release?

Some might argue that the advent of sports was a major stepping-stone in bringing the hunter-gatherers together from small groups into bigger groups with a connection that helped fuel the onset of civilization as we have come to know it.

The Romans were acutely aware of this and organized sports were instituted across the Holy Roman Empire as both a way to appease the public with some entertainment for the taxes they had to pay and as a means to bond citizens of one region into a mutual feeling of community versus the citizens of other regions. While we have all heard of and the Coliseum, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of smaller sporting arenas ( pic: Roman Coliseum in El Jem, Tunisia) that predate the building of the mammoth Coliseum dotting the wide swaths of land ruled by Roman hands.

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Much of the real and terrible violence that use to be a part of sports has now disappeared from much of the world’s arenas. In its place, we have ‘civilized’ sports to the point that the rule book on what I see as the penultimate sport, gridiron football as personified by the NFL, is over 200 pages long and reads like a law manual. There are so many rules that even the people hired to know them and enforce them on field sometimes have to be reminded of certain clauses.

Thankfully, even with all the rules we have made, no matter how far things go, we will always be able to predict outcomes in advance, regardless of how outlandish out predictions may seem to some. And, we will always be able to choose the teams we love, without having to explain our reasoning to anyone. We will also be able to hate other teams as much as we want. It is what makes us love the game…and keeps us human.

My favorite Super Bowl prediction is that the outcome will not convince any Patriots haters to start loving the team.