January thoughts

- BYU's 2012 football season felt like a failure. To have an excellent defense (Oregon State and Notre Dame notwithstanding) and a terrible offense was very frustrating. It often seemed the team was a decent quarterback and a mediocre offensive line away from 10 wins, but when James Lark is probably your best quarterback and the O-line is dealt six season-ending injuries, reality sets in. Here's hoping the big boys up front can put together a good year in 2013, and Taysom Hill develops his arm. I think Hill can be a lesser version of Colin Kaepernick or Johnny Manizel when all is said and done.

Oh, and Kyle Van Noy is ridiculous.

-Speaking of those guys, holy cow are they the best running quarterbacks I've ever seen. Amazing speed and quickness, but their ability to complete long passes is really what makes defenses throw up their hands in  frustration.



-BYU basketball is simply not great this year. Good, not great. Brandon Davies is a disappointment, frankly, as his weaknesses in strength and speed have not improved much at all over last season. And Tyler Haws, while able to drop 40, has consistency issues to the point that he went 0-9 against Gonzaga earlier this week. When these two are your best players, fans really shouldn't make any plans for the Final Four. Or Final 64.

-The gun control debate rages on. I believe gun ownership is like car ownership. Both are tools which can be used for good purposes or destructive, murderous ones. But as long as someone isn't mentally imbalanced and passes a few tests, they can drive a car. The same should go for using a gun.

-The Jazz need to trade Al Jefferson as an expiring contract. His defense is soft and his offense is not dominant, as against great teams he folds quickly. Shooting 5-14 last night against the Lakers, when 90% of his shots are within 10 feet of the hoop is embarrassing. He doesn't rebound and he's a black hole on offense. The Jazz are better without him. If they can turn him into a piece they need before losing him for nothing this summer, I'll be ecstatic.

And if they re-sign him this offseason? I'll be speechless.

-On that note, Coach Corbin needs to play Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter a lot more. They show flashes, and Kanter, especially seems to be improving. But this team is not great. Let's allow the kids to figure out how to play against real competition. This will either speed up their progress and make them focal points of the team, or eventually reveal they are busts and not worthy of their original draft status. Either outcome is fine with me. This limbo, however, is not.

-I'm watching the final season of Fringe, which is the only show I've ever followed live, from the pilot to the finale. Everything else I've ever started watching two or three or six seasons in, or lost interest after following it from the start. The weird thing is that Fringe isn't even super amazing. It has some good characters and interesting storytelling, but it definitely has some big weaknesses, as well. Go figure.

-I'm currently waiting on the remaining parts for a new computer I'm building to be delivered. It's my first build in eight years, so I'm pretty excited. I went middle of the road on parts; an i5 instead of an i7, a 1 terabtye hard drive instead of 2 or more, etc. Still will be a major upgrade over the $350 Compaq I bought in 2009. Woohoo!

-I attended Mandi's latest opera production last night with my sister Amy. It is Florencia en el Amazonas, a relatively new production that premiered in Houston in 1996. Modern opera has a reputation for being weird, and Florencia did not disappoint. The performances were mostly impressive, and the main storyline was interesting enough, but I felt like most of the characters were shallow and certain plot elements were lazily constructed. Overall, it is always good to get some culture, and the Utah Opera is a good place to get it.

-I have no idea who will win the Super Bowl. I've picked against the Ravens for their last two playoff games, but they manage to pull off wins despite having what I think are an overrated defense and quarterback. That said, Joe Flacco has shown he has the guts and ability to throw deep, and in today's NFL, that's something of a rarity. On the other end, the aforementioned Kaepernick is a marvel, but he's a second-year player and this is his first rodeo. I expect the aging, sneaky Ravens defense to account for his running and do enough to confuse him in the passing game to slow the 49er offense down. Baltimore 24, San Francisco 21.

NFL and NBA lockout?

Bill Simmons has been talking about this on his podcast for a while now, but apparently both the NBA and the NFL are headed for a lockout in 2011. The economy doing poorly = less people buying tickets to sporting events = less money for the owners. So the owners want to cut player salary, but the respective player's unions are not okay with that.

And presto: lockout for two of the three major sports in the United States simultaneously.

Here are two links discussing each lockout possibility in depth.

If the [NBA]and the players continue down this path, it is clearly not going to end well. It is an unfortunate circumstance. Sure, there are plenty of negative comments made by those who don’t follow the NBA (“it’s too boring”), but right now, the league is the most entertaining it has been in years, with several superstars in both conferences (LeBron, Kobe, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, among others).

I concur with the last sentiment... the NBA has great games almost every night. I'd miss them for sure.

Don’t expect anything to be resolved between the [NFL] and the Players Association. But expect for the rhetoric, posturing and chest beating to be ramped up. This is all a precursor to the inevitable showdown next February, when the threat of a lockout likely will force an agreement.

Oh well, at least we'll have hockey and baseball. :(

Favre to the Jets

You may have noticed a lack of Favre talk on this blog.

That's because I've avoided talking about this whole Favre unretirement thing until something actually, you know, happened.

This is in direct contrast with ESPN, who has spent hours on the "story" every day, despite the fact that no one outside of Green Bay, Minnesota and Chicago cared that Favre was "having talks with Packers management," and "flying into Green Bay," absolutely meaningless facts.

But finally, the long and boring saga appears to be over. Foxsports.com broke the story, and now ESPN is reporting that Favre has been traded to the New York Jets.

Praises be to news that is actually news.

I'll now go back to ignoring Favre and his indecision.

Atlanta breaks the bank for Matt Ryan

The Falcons signed rookie quarterback Matt Ryan to a six-year, $72 million contract today.

Wow.

I admit I didn't catch many Boston College games last season, but I did watch the BC/Virginia Tech matchup last October. Yes, this was a win for the Golden Eagles. Yes, Ryan threw two touchdown passes with under two minutes left in the game to lead his team to the victory.

And I came away unimpressed.

For much of the game, the Hokies had Ryan flustered and playing poorly. Boston College scored 0 points in the first three quarters, as Virginia Tech's defense blitzed and harassed Ryan every single down.

And then, with two minutes to go, the Hokies went into a prevent defense.

The stupidity of this decision by Virginia Tech's coaches aside, Ryan suddenly found he had plenty of time to throw, and was able to find his receivers for scores.

Forgive me for not falling in love with the guy.

And I think defenses in the NFL are a bit better than Virginia Tech's defense, which was admittedly outstanding. Ryan's not getting all day to throw no matter whose line he is standing behind.

And in Atlanta? Hmm.

Maybe Ryan blew the Falcons organization away during camps, but in this era of parity, where the salary cap rules the NFL, that's a lot of money to throw at an unproven quarterback.

Sports fandom

What makes someone a fan of a particular team?

This is something I've been wondering about recently, as a friend of mine (from Utah) is a "Jazz-first Lakers fan" and one of my cousins (also in Utah) is a hardcore Lakers fan.

In my opinion, here are the circumstances in which you can become a fan of any sports team:

1. You attended the school (if it's an NCAA team), or your parents attended the school.

2. You live in the state the team is in.

3. If you live in a state that doesn't have a professional team (ie. Utah and the MLB or NFL), you can adopt any team you want.

That's it. Now, I'm not saying you can't like other teams. When the Patriots won their first Super Bowl, I liked the team. Doesn't mean I watched all of their games or bought a Patriots hat. Same with the Suns. I like the team (moreso before they got Shaq), but I don't call myself a Suns fan.

I despise bandwagon fans. People who are suddenly diehard Red Sox fans (starting around October 2004) make me roll my eyes. Yankees fans who live in Seattle are posers.

Part of being a fan is sticking with your team even when things are bad. If you're just around for the good times, it's like you married someone and only live with them after they win the lottery.

In this way, I admire Cubs fans. An old roommate of mine is a diehard Cubs fan. He was born a good eight decades after they won their last World Series. Can't accuse him of jumping on the bandwagon.

Assuming the Jazz win an NBA championship sometime in the next ten years, I guarantee the year following said championship will result in the number of Jazz fans doubling.

BYU fans who attended home football games during the horror years of 2002-2004 are true fans. Those who showed up last season, after the 11-2 2006 season, not so much. Same will be true for many who come to games this upcoming fall.

I saw a lot more Utah Ute flags on cars in 2004 than I do today.

If you can think of other rules for becoming a fan of a team, let me know what you think.

BYU sports news

BYU forward Trent Plaisted has declared for the NBA draft, but has not hired an agent.

BYU small forward Lee Cummard also declared for the draft without hiring an agent.

The significance of them not hiring agents is that if they are not drafted, they can return to BYU for the next season. If a college player does hire an agent, they are not allowed to return to their team, even if they end up undrafted.

My quick take on each:

Plaisted has a ton of athleticism and little skill. How he's gone through at least six or seven years of organized basketball without learning how to shoot a jump shot is beyond me. That little shot he flips from his waist is not going to cut it in the NBA. A team might take a flyer on him and hope they can coach him into a great post player.

Cummard is long, quick, and plays great on both ends of the court. He weighs 170 pounds soaking wet, which is a concern for any team drafting him. On the other hand, Kevin Durant had a pretty good rookie season, and he's a stick, too. His jumper has great range, and his long arms bother opposing guards. I can see him going late in the first, early in the second.

But we'll have to see.

In other news, the NFL draft is today. That means Cougar fans were watching to see if the Miami Dolphins would draft a quarterback or not, because that's be a good sign about whether they trust former BYU QB, current Miami QB John Beck or not.

And Miami did, drafting Michigan quarterback Chad Henne in the second round.

Many BYU fans believe this means Beck is done. They view Miami's pick of Henne as a vote of no-confidence for the former Cougar.

I'm taking a more balanced view. While Beck was not spectacular last year in Miami, he was thrown into the fire with no running back, no offensive line, and few options to throw to. This hearkens back to Beck's first season with BYU, a season where the team went 4-8.

But by the time he was a senior, Beck was possibly the top quarterback in the NCAA, leading the Cougars to an 11-2 record, including a dominating win in the Las Vegas Bowl over Oregon. Beck was simply unstoppable that season, completing 70% of his passes for 3900 yards and 32 touchdowns, while throwing only eight interceptions.

Beck may lose the QB spot in Miami, but it will only be if Henne is very, very impressive.

All in all, it's a fairly interesting time for Cougar fans... at least as interesting as it can be with no college football or basketball to watch.

Why we watch

This article originally ran in the Feb. 20th edition of the Scroll.

Why do we watch sports? It's a question posed by millions of disgruntled girlfriends and wives to their armchair-planted significant others. What makes us sit and watch sweaty guys run around a field or court or track for hours on end?

I'll tell you what it is.

It's the Red Sox coming from down 0-3 in the 2004 ALCS and winning seven straight games to earn their first World Series trophy in 86 years. It's Tracy McGrady scoring 13 points in 39 seconds to beat the Spurs in a regular-season game. It's BYU completing miracle play after miracle play to beat Utah in 2006 and 2007.

And it's the Giants, huge underdogs in the Super Bowl, defeating the previously unbeaten Patriots two weeks ago.

The Patriots had an average winning margin of 19 points per game during the regular season. The Giants started the season 0-2. New England relied on the play of star quarterback Tom Brady and new acquisition Randy Moss, who caught a record-breaking 50 touchdown passes in 2007. New York lost their star running back, Tiki Barber, at the end of the 2006 season.

Yet we tuned in to watch the Super Bowl in near-record numbers. There were enough reasons to think the Giants might be able to pull off the upset that we wanted to see if they could. The Patriots and Giants had played in the last week of the regular season, and New York had given New England all they could handle. The Giants' defensive front four were able to put pressure on Brady, and New York's offense moved the ball well enough to score 35 points.

Plus, the Patriots had been discovered cheating in an early regular-season game. This drew the ire of the American people to the point that some described New England's coaches as “demonic.”

These elements created the perfect “Good vs. Evil, Underdog vs. Superpower” mix that we love. The U.S. hockey team beating the U.S.S.R team in the 1980 Winter Olympics is quite possibly the best sporting moment of our country's history. Why? Because we had a team of college kids, while the Soviet Union's team was stocked with professionals. The little guy beat the clear favorite.

So when New York's David Tyree was able to pin the ball against his helmet for a game-clinching first-down catch on a throw from Eli Manning, it meant something. It meant that the unthinkable had happened. David had gotten the better of Goliath.

Again.

And that is what draws us to sports. We watch to be there for the moments when the unthinkable happens. We watch so we can tell our kids about the time we saw the Pistons beat the juggernaut Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals. So we can laugh with our friends when we remember watching the eighth-seeded Warriors route the Dallas Mavericks, four games to two, in the 2007 playoffs. So we can smile when thinking about our little brother's game-winning field goal with no time left on the clock.

And that is why we watch.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback continues vendetta against Patriots

I'm not a big fan of Greg Easterbrook. For those of you who don't know, Easterbrook writes a column named Tuesday Morning Quarterback for ESPN every week during the NFL season. It's a rambling, ranting series of thoughts about the past weekend's football games; his writing style is disjointed and sometimes difficult to read.

This seasons he's taken to attacking the Patriots every chance he gets. It's difficult to tell if he's being facetious or not, but either way, it gets annoying. He tagged the Pats/Colts game in October as "Good vs. Evil." He wrote

Argument for the New England Patriots as scoundrels in the service of that which is baleful: Dishonesty, cheating, arrogance, hubris, endless complaining even in success. The Patriots have three Super Bowl rings, but that jewelry is tarnished by their cheating scandal. They run up the score to humiliate opponents -- more on that below -- thus mocking sportsmanship.

Give me a break. I haven't been a fan of the Patriots' running up the score, but in the NFL, you're getting paid millions to play the game. I suppose it's kinda mean to run up the score, but I'm sure the linebackers on the wrong end of a blowout can cry himself to sleep on his giant pile of money.

And regarding the scandal... it happened. New England was punished. Get over it.

For all I don't like about Easterbrook, he's good with numbers. He makes a list of Interesting Stats of the Week that are insightful and, at the risk of being redundant, interesting.

This week he brings up the fact that quarterbacks who led the NFL in passing yards during the regular season are 0-42 in the Superbowl.

Wow. I'm guessing this stat is closely related to the "if you can't run or play defense, you can't win in the playoffs," idea. Easterbrook attributes it to how defensive backs are more willing to play all-out when there's no tomorrow, and it's easier to blow a coverage in the regular season.

Easterbrook is so desperate to see the Pats lose he's clinging to this like it's the last slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.

Anyway, we'll have to see. I don't know that the Patriots have passed so much because they can't run, but more because they haven't wanted to. I think Brady set out to break the passing touchdown record from the beginning, and ending with 4800 passing yards, 50 touchdowns and only eight picks would indicate he reached his goal.

Of course, if the Patriots don't win the Superbowl, the season will be ultimately meaningless, in my opinion. Beating most everyone down in the regular season is nice and all, but it's all about the rings.

This is why you don't gamble, kids

Bill Simmons, writer for espn.com, writes a column every Friday where he picks who's going to win the NFL games over the weekend. This year he got his wife to make her picks, too, and they kept a running total over the season to see who was more accurate.

Turns out, she picked way more effectively than he did. This week, he let her write the column and give us insight into how she did so well.

It's luck, boys and girls. She used factors that ranged from mascots to where her friends live to the weather to celebrity news. As she writes:

I have probably seen a total of six minutes of football and never turn on ESPN because I'm always afraid someone yelling is going to make one of my kids cry. After 16 straight weeks of not watching football, then finding out at the end of every weekend that my picks had beaten Bill's picks, I came to realize that it's an advantage not to know anything and continue to ignore all things "football."

Then there's Bill. He goes to a friend's house on Sundays so he can watch five games at once. He watches Monday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, Thursday Night Football and Saturday Night Football (two more nights than we agreed on in our prenup). He's in two fantasy leagues and a picks league that, combined, somehow involve everyone he's met over the past 25 years.

So there you go. Gambling on sporting events in a crap shoot. Might as well blindfold yourself and make your picks based on how many times the dog next-door barks over the next ten minutes.

The Patriots and cheating

Warning! Obvious opening sentence alert!

The Patriots are a pretty durn good football team.

I've been a casual fan of New England since they won their first Superbowl in 2002. Back then, they were a team of no-names who managed to beat the juggernaut Rams, who featured sold-his-soul-to-the-devil-in- return-for-two-great-years-at-quarterback-in-the-NFL Kurt Warner and star running back Marshall Faulk.

I didn't follow New England religiously or anything, but I appreciated their defense and the way a bunch of non-star players could perform at such a high level.

I also never considered myself a Patriots fan. I'm not a fan of bandwagoning, and in my opinion, you should stick to rooting for the teams you grew up cheering for. For me, that's BYU and the Jazz. There isn't an NFL or MLB team in Salt Lake, so I never developed any allegiances in those sports.

Then the Patriots won two more Superbowls and the novelty kinda wore off. I paid attention to their record and watched highlights of their games from time to time, but didn't really care if they won or lost.

This offseason, New England picked up Randy Moss and Dante Stallworth and immediately destroyed the Jets in the first game of the 2007 season.

Then Cameragate happened.

Here's my take. Belichek was busted for having someone use a video camera to record the signals of Jets coaches during the first half of the game. This recording in and of itself was useless. The only way it could give New England any advantage was in conjunction with game film, as signals from the coaches could be synced with the plays that were run.

And then the signal-to-play information would have to be memorized and applied to future plays.

The only time they'd have time to do this would be during halftime or after the game was over.

So really, not much of an advantage was gained, in my opinion.

Also, what is the difference between a.) using a camera to record signals and b.) hiring someone (or a team of someones) to stand on the sidelines and write down the signals the opposing coaches make on the opposite side of the field?

The former is against NFL rules, and the latter is not. I don't see much of a difference.

Nevertheless, using mechanical means to record signals is against the rules, and as such, I'm fine with the punishment handed out by the NFL.

I also believe it happens all the time in the league, and assuming only the Patriots have done so it naive.

The Patriots play Miami on Sunday and will destroy the Dolphins. Miami is in a major state of disarray.

Tough times to be a Phins fan, the hiring of Big Tuna notwithstanding.

Sportsy Post (tm)

Thoughts from the world of sports:

-The Suns beat the Spurs last night 100-95. True, the Spurs were missing Tony Parker, but this is still a victory for the sport of basketball. San Antonio represents everything that is wrong with the game. I hate how they slow the pace of games down so much. I hate how Tim Duncan whines about every call that doesn't go his way. I hate how Ginobili initiates contact as the offensive player and gets calls. I hate how Parker drives wildly into the key and gets calls. I hate how Bowen gets away with slapping and grabbing on defense because of his "reputation as a great defender."

So when the Suns, a team I love to watch, beat these guys, I'm okay with that.

-Roger Clemens probably won't be speaking at a Texas High School Baseball Coaches' meeting in January.

The title of this aborted speech?

"How I played so long [in professional baseball]."

Awesome.

-Gotta love fantasy football. In one of my leagues, my team scored 35 points for the week.

Total.

To give you an idea of how bad that is, my previous low point total was 56 points. My high this season is 151 points. My starting QB, Tom Brady, has frequently had weeks where he scored over 35 points by himself.

In my other league, I'll be playing my little brother Matt for the title. If you could please root for Drew Brees, Donovan McNabb, and Chester Taylor this Sunday, I'd appreciate it.

-I love watching the train wreck that is New York Knick basketball. After following this saga as Isiah Thomas put together a horrible team and was then forced to coach it, the story gets more interesting all the time.

Seems Isiah has decided that questioning the heart of his players is a great coaching strategy right now. After losing to the Pacer 119-92 last night, Thomas said, "Very rarely do we discuss something that happened strategically. I look forward to that day when I'm not talking about heart and courage.''

Did lack of heart cause the Knick players to miss 20 straight shots last night? Is fear the reason New York is 7-17 on the year? That they are are 116-185 since Thomas arrived, 36-58 since he became the head coach, and 7-24 since he received a contract extension?

Maybe Isiah should take a closer look at himself when trying to figure out what's wrong with the Knicks.

-So Brett Favre finally passed Dan Marino to become the NFL's record holder for all-time passing yards at 61,367. I guess since he's already won a Super Bowl, something Marino never did, Favre has to be seriously considered as the greatest QB ever.

I believe Favre's biggest secret to his success has been longevity. For him to play 17 years in the NFL at quarterback is unheard of. As defenses have gotten faster and stronger, the fact that he's avoided major injury has become even more impressive.

Sure, Brett plays with reckless abandon and makes stupid mistakes at times (he holds the record for most career interceptions with 286). Heck, he didn't know what a nickel defense was until he'd been in the NFL for a few years.

But he has fun when he plays, and that's fun to watch.

Here's hoping Brett doesn't die on the football field, like Joe Paterno will one day.

But it's looking more and more like they'll need to physically drag him off the field to get him to stop playing.

-Finally, Bill Simmons released his seventh-annual NBA Trade Value Column today. It's always an interesting read; this year Dwight Howard is ranked second-most-untradeable. Howard's getting his own post here soon. Trust me.

Monday thoughts

-Boy, this blog is less than a month old, and already my prognostication record is horrible.

First, I go off on how great the Jazz are, and they promptly lose six in a row.

Then I post about how the Dolphins will most likely go 0-16 on the year, and they immediately beat Baltimore, albeit in overtime, ruining a potentially historic season.

And after insinuating that the Patriots might lose against the Jets on Sunday, New England squeaks out a 10-point win in the snow.

Let's just make it clear early that I am horrible at making predictions.

-The first full-length trailer to Batman Begins, named Dark Knight, is available here. This film looks to be as good as its predecessor; Batman Begins is one of the seven I've given legendary status to. Christopher Nolan may be my favorite director, and Christian Bale is among my top-five favorite actors. I need to dedicate an entire post to this.

-The Seattle Supersonics: Cure for What Ails Ya! The Jazz finally won a game, beating Seattle 96-75 Saturday. Of course, since the Sonics have become "Rookie Kevin Durant takes 40 shots a game", forgive me if I'm not overly impressed. Utah plays Atlanta tonight for a shot at winning two in a row.


I'll be posting more later tonight.

Sportsy Post (tm)

Some thoughts on a few current sports topics:

The Patriots can complete the first perfect regular season with by winning its final three games. This would be the first perfect season since the Dolphins did it in 1972. New England's next game is against the Jets. Conventional wisdom prior to this week was that the Pats would destroy this team, mainly because Jets coach Eric Mangini was the one who ratted them out in Cameragate.

But after learning that the forecast in Foxboro for Sunday is snowy with 40 m.p.h. winds, I'm thinking it wouldn't be that much of a shock if the Jets won. The Patriots have been less than impressive on the ground, averaging 78 ypg on the ground over the past five games. Sure, this is mainly due to the fact that Brady has been slinging the ball around like he's Brett Favre, but I'm not sure that Laurence Maroney can run the ball 30 times in a win.

The other fun aspect of the Pats' quest for perfection is that the Dolphins are winless, and have a great chance to go 0-17, setting a new NFL record for futility. The 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers went 0-14, but 17 losses is that much more impressive. The Fins have no defense and a horrible offense. Former BYU QB John Beck started a few games for Miami and didn't achieve any better results than Trent Green or Cleo Lemon have this season.

For one team to go unbeaten and one team to go winless in the same season would be pretty historic. And for the team that went winless to be the same team that first went unbeaten is even more interesting. I think Dolphins fans may commit mass hara-kiri.

Why did the Mitchell Report cost $20 million to make when it basically says, "A bunch of MLB players took steroids and HGH. Roger Clemens is one of them. We got this information from a couple batboys and Jason Giambi."

In other news, the Jazz still stink. They lost to Portland last night, 91-99. Two more games like that and Utah will sit at .500 on the season, after starting 13-5.

Go Jazz go!

Ricky's out again

After hyping Ricky Williams' return to the NFL yesterday, I'm embarrassed at how quickly Ricky went down during the Dolphin's 3-0 loss to Pittsburgh. On his fifth carry of the night, Williams tore a chest muscle and is done for the season .

Well that was anticlimactic.

In other NFL news, Redskins safety Sean Taylor died today after being shot during what appears to be a home invasion. As much as some of us tend to see the NFL as being filled with thugs waving guns around all the time, it's sobering to see a player actually die from gunshot wounds.

Here's hoping Taylor's family can overcome this tragedy. ESPN is wondering how the Redskins organization will cope with the loss of their talented safety, but in my opinion, this doesn't matter much. As much as I love sports, even I can occasionally recognize that they are not that important in the big picture.

Christopher Hitchens, columnist and well-known atheist, wrote an article demanding Mitt Romney explain his faith. Hitchens writes with his typical amount of vitriol... I imagine him foaming at the mouth while typing about how Romney's family is part of "the dynastic leadership of the mad cult invented by the convicted fraud Joseph Smith."

Wow.

Overlooking Hitchens' obvious biases, I think he makes some decent points. He is correct in stating that Romney needs to assure America that he won't be taking direct orders from Salt Lake if elected. JFK, Jr. did it and America was appeased.

I also believe Clinton, Obama and Giuliani need to explain where they stand on religion as well if we demand it of Romney.

Hitchens is dead wrong, however, in his claim that we claim that out "leadership is prophetic and inspired and that its rulings take precedence over any human law."

Do you have any examples of that, Mr. Hitchens? Because I've been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all my life and haven't seen any situation where the prophet has told me to break the law of the land.

I believe we'll only see more articles of this type as Romney grows in prominence. Polls show him leading in key primary states like Iowa, New Hampshire and Michigan. I'm not sure he can overcome the prejudices Southern Christians have against Mormons and gain the Republican nomination, but if so, I believe he can win versus anyone the Democrats put out there.

The thought of Southern Baptists being forced to choose between a Mormon and a Hillary makes me laugh.

Ricky's back!

Ricky Williams will be starting for the Miami Dolphins tonight in their game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football.

Oh boy.

Everyone is familiar with Ricky's continuing battle with the NFL drug-use policies; I've never understood why it's so hard for Williams to choose between a lucrative career playing football and smoking dope. "Ricky!" I want to tell him. "Play football for a few years, earn a few tens of millions of dollars, retire, then smoke all the pot you want!"

But Ricky was unable to make that choice until it was too late. After failing multiple drug tests and admitting to frequent marijuana use, Ricky left the league to smoke pot in countries like Nepal.

But Ricky found that a life of getting high and no income was difficult, and soon found himself playing in the Canadian Football league. Ricky loved playing in Canada. "Up here, I can play offense, defense, special teams. I can do everything. I can block, play tight end, running back, receiver — even play the line. The NFL is so structured — 'You do this.' Here I can do so much."

Nevertheless, Ricky applied for reinstatement into the NFL and was allowed back in, I'm assuming under strict and frequent drug-testing standards.

If Williams loved Canadian football so much, why return? My guess is the money. Only a few CFL players make over the NFL minimum salary of $285,000 a year.

It will be interesting to see how Ricky does in his return the NFL. As an added bonus, I'll also be watching Dolphins QB and past BYU great John Beck in his MNF debut.

Go Phins!