Hey! There's a Super Bowl This Weekend!

We're a little bit more than 48 hours away from the 11th and final playoff game of the 2006 season, so it's time to offer up some predictions (and then catch up on some of the doings around the NFL). Thus far, I'm 7-3 the playoffs. Somewhere, Marty Schottenheimer is very jealous.

Indianapolis Colts vs. Chicago Bears

Nobody is giving the Chicago Bears much of a chance in this one, and truth be told, I don't either. I'm rooting for them (my loyalty goes a.) team, b.) division, c.) conference), and I think that Brian Urlacher could outsmart Peyton Manning and will take away those seam routes to Dallas Clark that Manning loves to throw, but ultimately, I think that Indianapolis has too many weapons and the Bears can't account for all of them.

The Colts run defense has silenced all critics in the last month, so it could be up to Rex Grossman to beat the Colts secondary, a feat not even Tom Brady could adequately do.

Mac's Pick: Indianapolis 38, Chicago 13

MVP - Peyton Manning, Indianapolis

It frustrates me to make that pick, because it's going to be another 12 months of talk about how "superior the AFC is to the NFC", but I can't deny that the Colts appear to be a team heading into Sunday's game with destiny on their shoulders.

The Days and Weeks Ahead

Once Super Bowl XLI concludes, the talk around here will focus squarely on NFL free agency, March Madness, baseball and the NFL Draft. In fact, one reason for the lack of posts lately is that Strat-o-Matic held their "Opening Day" last Friday, and for the 9th year in a row, I made the 3.5 hour drive down to Long Island to pick up the new cards. We're entering the 13th season of the CMSBL, and as you can see from this list, I've yet to win my first Blue Jacket. (The "Blue Jacket" in question is a satin Milwaukee Brewers jacket from the late 80s/early 90s. It's fantastically exciting in a really cheesy way)

NFL Free Agency

I saw a preliminary/unofficial list of the available cap room over the weekend, and it appears as though the 32 NFL teams will have $670M in available room under the cap heading into 2007. Leading the way are teams like San Francisco ($42.1M), Buffalo ($39.7M) and Arizona ($36.7M). In the negative, as always, are Carolina (-$3.1M) and Washington (-$2.388). Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Kansas City and Denver are the only teams under the cap that have less than $10M in cap room.

Now, these numbers are essentially meaningless. Once teams make decisions on restricted and exclusive rights free agents, and extend tender offers, the available cap room dwindles. Then there are issues with the franchise tags. ESPN.com's John Clayton posted the franchise numbers on his weblog, and they loook like this:

QB - $12.615M
RB - $6.999M
WR - $7.613M
TE - $4.371M
OL - $9.556M
DT - $6.775M
DE - $8.644M
LB - $7.206M
CB - $7.79M
S - $4.49M
K - $2.078M

There's no need to post the transition figures, since after the Minnesota/Seattle poison-pill brouhaha of 2006, no team in their right mind will place the transition tag on an unrestricted free agent.

College Basketball

Aside from rooting for the Celtics to lose (so they can get either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant in the '07 draft), I have little interest in the NBA. I do, however, love college basketball.*

*-I can only watch college basketball from mid-January through early April, and oh yeah, I hate Duke.

If you like college hoops, you have to check out Joe Lunardi's Bracketology over at ESPN.com. In six weeks, when Creighton is sticking it to Michigan State, you'll be screaming at your TV wondering a.) where the hell is Creighton? and b.) why you didn't check out sites like this earlier.

Do yourself a favor, and start boning up on this stuff...now.

MLB Baseball

You could look at the links on the right-hand side of this blog, and seeing that I'm from Massachusetts, you'd assume that I'm a Red Sox fan. You wouldn't be wrong, but the truth of the matter is I'm much more of a fan of baseball than I am of any one team. Last year, I attended one Red Sox game, in the second week of the season. That was enough for me.

I'd much rather drink my own beer, have no wait for the men's room, and watch as many different games as possible, thanks to the MLB Extra Innings package, which I order through DirecTV.

Now, it appears as though the only way you'll have access to up to 60 out-of-market games a week is by ponying up the dough and converting to DirecTV.

MLB and DirecTV are currently working on a $700M deal that would make the satellite provider the only place you can get the Extra Innings package. Don't worry, baseball fans. John Kerry is working on it.