Jay Sanin Feels The Winds of Change

Change: Tupac rapped about it, President-elect Obama won the White House with the promise of it.  We’re at a point in time where things are changing more and more each day.  You want proof, you say?  How about the last week in sports?  We saw an undefeated team take the field the week after their first loss, we saw the team that beat them (and the team thought to be the new beasts of the AFC) in action, along with a few other storylines that took turns following week 13 in the NFL.  Even college football saw some change, in the form of the BCS standings.  However, we’ll start with the biggest change.

Plaxico Burress was going to sit out the Giants’ week 13 game against the Washington Redskins with a hamstring injury.  Unfortunately, things changed when his illegally possessed firearm went off, directly into his right thigh.  Call it what you will (I call it an epic fail), but things are not looking good for Burress.  He’s now been charged with criminal possession of a handgun, and has been suspended without pay by the Giants for the rest of the year.  Not only is it looking like he’s done with the Giants for good, but even the Mayor of New York wants him put away for the minimum of 3 ½ years that comes with this offense.

This continues to bother me: why do star athletes who are rich from playing games put themselves in these positions?  Michael Vick, Adam Jones, Chris Henry, the list goes on.  Now Plaxico Burress gets to add his name to that infamous group.  And I’m just going to reiterate this part of it as well: if you don’t feel safe enough in a place where you can’t leave the illegally possessed handgun at the crib, why are you going there and jeopardizing your multi-million dollar career?  That’d be like being a professional gamer and trying to do this.  Plaxico Burress, you, sir, are an idiot.

The next change was in the BCS Standings as Oklahoma leapfrogged Texas to earn their way to the number two ranking in the country.  It also won them the tiebreaker in the Big XII conference’s South Division, which means they will be playing Missouri for the Big XII title and, ultimately, a spot in the National Championship game.  How does that make any sense at all?

First of all, Texas was ranked higher in the BCS Standings than Oklahoma prior to last week, a week in which Texas beat Texas A&M by 40 and Oklahoma beat a ranked Oklahoma State squad by 20.  How a team can win a game by 40 and fall in the rankings makes no sense to me. 

Secondly, Texas beat Oklahoma earlier in the year!  So what the BCS just did was take a team who lost one game (on the last play to that prolific Texas Tech offense, at Texas Tech) and moved them lower than Oklahoma (whose one loss game to Texas, at a neutral site no less).  Now, the Sooners get to feast on Mizzou for a shot at the title against the winner of the SEC title tilt between Alabama and Florida.

Oh and, by the way, Texas Tech was tied with Oklahoma and Texas but got no consideration for even a top five ranking after losing so late in the year in a blowout against Oklahoma.  They also happen to not carry as big a name as OU or the Longhorns but there’s no way that the BCS is a corrupt system.  Absolutely zero chance.  I mean really, it’s not like there are three undefeated teams who are given no consideration for national title berths, or two undefeated teams that stand close to zero chance of BCS berths even.  Now I’m not a computer, but even I know that the math there is flawed.  If only there were a way for the best teams in a sport to compete on the field in a tournament to determine who the best really is…

Another reversal of fortune happened in Detroit.  No, the Detroit “Not-tryin’s” didn’t win their first game.  The change was in the play of the Tennessee Titans, who went from laying a huge egg against the Jets in their first loss to laying a 47-10 beat down of said Lions.  The “0-16’s” really put forth no effort as they laid back and took 292 yards rushing and four rushing scores from the Titans like men.  Trust me; the Titans are still the best team in the AFC.  Easy, Jets fans.

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