Randomness as Tiger Becomes Human and Favre Remains in Our Lives Forever

Honestly, I'm still in shock over the loss by Tiger Woods in a major after a 54-hole lead to a man named Y.E. Yang. It started when I was checking to leaderboard Saturday and his four-stroke lead was reduced to a tie at one point. Still, I didn't think Tiger would lose. To his credit, Yang hit the shots when he needed to like at 14 when he chipped the eagle and at 18 when his approach was within 8 feet. The thing about Tiger in the majors this year, he has not putt well at all. However, I don't think this will effect Tiger's chase for Jack's record of 18 majors like my good friend Dan of Dan's Take hints at rightly comparing Tiger's loss to Tyson against Buster Douglas (at least as a singular event of itself).

After Tiger's loss, everyone is ready to make Usain Bolt the most dominant athlete in the world and after his 9.58 performance in the 100m yesterday, shattering his record from the Olympics a year ago, who could blame them. The biggest problem Bolt has is he competes in a sport that you can't trust whenever runners put up records because of PED's. When people like Ben Johnson, Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones end up in shame after it comes out they used and were stripped records and medals, you get suspicious. However, if Bolt turns out to be clean, it could save track and field, giving the world its best pure runner since Michael Johnson.

It's stories like this that make the Oakland Raiders not taken seriously. Apparently, head coach Tom Cable punched out his assistant Randy Hanson during the Raiders training camp. Sounds to me that Hanson switched to DirecTV and the Cable Guy taught him a lesson. Just remember the last time a coach punched a coach (Buddy Ryan punching Kevin Gilbride), the Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee four years later.

I'm writing this article after the N.Y. Giants play their first preseason game, so I'm finally getting a look at these players. Big Blue View wrote a post about who should make the team and Matt Mosley at ESPN wrote about the team in camp. Ahmad Bradshaw looks ready to replace and exceed Derrick Ward as Brandon Jacobs new complement at RB, Clint Sintim will be huge as the Giants attempt to win with a 5-man defensive line and more experimental defensive strategy under new defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan. Also, for the first time that I can remember, I'm excited about the Giants secondary, after Football Prospectus thinks Corey Webster will become a top-10 CB and Kenny Phillips could be a Pro Bowler this season.

It's great to have Mad Men back on in our lives again. If Curb Your Enthusiasm wasn't returning next month, Entourage would be in trouble of going on my shelf, but I'll hang around for the rest of the season and watch Mad Men an hour later.

A couple of moves for the N.Y. Rangers, they sign Vinny Prospal to a one-year deal, reuniting him with John Tortorella and they hired The Captain Mark Messier as Glen Sather's assistant. I think the fact Prospal was willing to play for Torts again is a positive, so anything I read or watch about past Torts-Prospal issues shouldn't be a big deal. On the ice, Prospal adds a scoring touch that the Rangers still need and at a little over a million is a safe investment and Scotty Hockey is right, the first three lines for next season actually looks good. As for Messier, he now takes a job like Steve Yzerman did in Detroit and Cam Neely in Boston as he gets to gain experience before being ready for a GM job in the future. I'm curious though if he gets to be the Rangers GM after Sather retires (or if we're lucky, fired) or do they promote assistant GM Jim Schoenfeld and Messier ends up having to go somewhere else like Don Maloney did. Not to mention that Doug Risebrough, former Minnesota GM, I believe is a Rangers consultant who could get a look (though I wonder why).

Looks like the Nationals avoid letting Stephen Strasburg go to waste as they signed him at midnight. He shattered the record rookie contract by signing for $15.67 million, satisfying Scott Boras I'm sure. To be honest, he ruined my tirade that I was ready to go into. I was planning on a scathing paragraph on how Boras went too far with the demands, how Strasburg is too gullible and just follows Boras and how incompetent the Nats organization is to not sign this guy. I guess I'll save my tirade for Brett Favre since he can't leave the spotlight now that Michael Vick is signed.

I just heard the news that Brett Favre will in fact return to the NFL and play for the Vikings. Already, if you turn on ESPN, they're acting as if the Vikings just picked up '07 Tom Brady or '89 Joe Montana. They think he can just walk in and the Vikings will not only win a Super Bowl, but also help fight hunger, find a way to get the economy working and send people to heaven. Nothing in sports upsets me more than the gushing over Brett Favre, so here are facts to consider: He turns 40 on October 10, how many 40 year old QB's succeed? Also, not only did Favre finish last season with five bad performances, he also had a four-game stretch against the Bengals, Raiders, Chiefs and Bills where he wasn't good either, except the Jets won three of those four so everyone forgets this.

Ask any Jet fan what they think of Brett Favre and for that matter, ask any Jet player from last year. I never advocate injury for a player, but I'm making an exception for Brett, I want someone to knock out Favre with some sort of injury so he would be forced to retire. I'm so tired of hearing about Brett Favre that if I was a Hall of Fame voter, I would never put him in; I don't care if he has all the passing records. The last player who played this game of will I/won't I in sports was Roger Clemens and thankfully for all of us, karma intervened and he became disgraced forever. Let's hope this happens to Favre.