Welcome Back

Happy New Year and for you all joining me on the re-launch of Jo’s Sports Bar, welcome and I appreciate you for stopping by. I know you have better things to do, though it doesn’t get better than this, let’s get into it. First off shouts out to Alabama, I don’t think anyone in their heart of hearts outside of the Notre Dame Family thought the Irish were going to win, but let’s be real we didn’t think it was going down like that. Outside of the SEC honestly, would anyone have been a match for the Tide? I think not but that’s just me.

In case you missed it the playoffs started this weekend and regardless of what you think you saw, there were some games on Saturday. However Sunday was the main course First of all Ray Lewis’s last game in Baltimore will be a game I’ll never forget. Can you remember in the history of football where a defensive player joins the offense for the last snap of the game just to be seen one last time on his field, doin his dance one more time? One of the greatest moments in sports history. Next week Ray’s Ravens will get a rematch against Peyton Manning and the Broncos who beat the breaks off the Ravens in there previous matchup in the regular season. If I had in faith in Joe Flacco I’d pick the Ravens, but I don’t. I like The Broncos defense versus that Ravens offense and I like Peyton’s young squad versus that beat up aging Ravens defense too. Baltimore’s top players on defense are all beat down right now and the Broncos offense is just clicking on all cylinders. If you don’t kow just look to their last 11 games, all Ws. In the other AFC matchup… c’mon man the Patriots are going to destroy the Texans. All I have to say is look at what Andy Dalton did to them last week, now what do you think Tom Brady and those receivers are going to do huh? Exactly. In the NFC I’m calling it right now Seattle goes into Atlanta, into the dome and get another win. That defense and that run game lead by Marshawn Lynch is too much, and as for those Atlanta receivers they’ve never played against a pair of corners like the ones the Seahawk’s have. Big, strong, fast, and physical, it’s gonna be a good matchup, but I’m taking Seattle. Now this last matchup I cannot tell a lie I’m really struggling with. My heart takes me back to when I was a simple boy in the 80’s watching Joe Montana fling that thing around to 3 Superbowls. I remember being a teenager and watching Steve Young get one after years of having a gorilla on his back that I thought was bigger than any athlete had ever had to endure in my lifetime, until Lebron James came along. And every since then, up until last year I’ve ben waiting for my team to pose a serious threat at making a run back to the Superbowl, and who knew, it wouldn’t be on the shoulders of a quarterback. This new school 49ers team lives and dies by this defense lead by Patrick Willis, and wil have the task of trying to slow down the defending league MVP in Aaron Rogers as the 49ers will hosts the Packers. This becomes the question of the week, who will win this one? I love that 49er defense at home but I don’t know if Colin Kaepernick is ready for the Packer defense charged by the return of Charles Woodson. Honestly I like Rogers’s chances against San Fran more than Kaepernick’s chances against Green Bay’s. However, San Fran also has a guy named Frank Gore that will keep the packer defense honest enough to give Kaepernick a chance. I’m taking the 49ers.

To the world of basketball, I don’t even know where to start. I guess we can start in L.A. with the Lakers, reports have hit that a physical confrontation between Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard almost went down. Teammates are reported to have had to restrain Howard from going at Bryant who basically word on the street was calling Dwight out on his performance after that New Year’s Day loss to the 76ers. I’m sorry I don’t know what was said and I’m definitely not taking sides with Bryant if you know me then you know better than that. Dwight hasn’t been getting it done period. I know the man is coming off of back surgery, I’ll give him that but we all know his heart’s not in it because he doesn’t want to be in L.A. His personality doesn’t fit the Laker mold. I’m talking the pressure to live up to the expectations of being a dominant force. Dwight isn’t a regular player brought in as a role player he’s a Superstar and when a Superstar lands in Hollywood hell yeah he’s expected to produce. If your back is hurt sit your ass down somewhere and heal. Every athlete knows in sports 2 areas you don’t want to break down on you, your legs and your back and Howard is too young to be doing damage to his back. At the end of the day your career is a marathon not a sprint pace yourself. L.A. you might as well move him, he wants to go to Brooklyn, get you some Lopez out the deal he’s a pretty good center, debatably top 3. The way the Lakers are performing he might as well sit because they’re losing anyway. Mike D’Antoni doesn’t know how to coach. Hold up I’m not disrespecting him hear me out. A good coach does 1 of 2 things. He either gets personnel to work in his system or he designs a system that plays to his players’ strength’s. This guy does neither. He has a system and he’s going to force his players to run it rather they have the skill set for it or not, my question is, “Hey Coach how’s that working out for you?” That’s all I have for now, tomorrow I’ll start breaking down the NBA and NCAA. March Madness will be here before you know it and I’m going to help you get your mind right before the brackets are even pressed up.