I totally whiffed on this story from the weekend, probably because I missed all the games and highlights. Philip Rivers was caught on camera jarring with Jay Cutler late in the 4th quarter of San Diego’s easy win over Denver. Just like Signal to Noise wrote, Rivers has no place to be talking trash in a game. Sure, if it gives you an edge as a player, more power to you, but we all know that Rivers is not one of the top players in the league and hasn’t earned the right to talk smack. Funny enough, that’s exactly how All-Pro CB Champ Bailey feels:

“And I don’t really care for the guy, first of all,” Bailey said of Rivers. “He’s not a respectable guy right now because you talk too much trash and do this and that, but you’re really not a great player in this league right now.

“You’re surrounded by great players, but you’re not a great player. I think he needs to understand where he stands in this league - where he stands on his team first and foremost.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Didn’t we go through something quite similar when an unknown from the Steelers guaranteed victory against the Pats? The parallel isn’t that Rivers is an unknown, rather, that Rivers should know his place in the league. Take away Gates and LT and we’ll see how well Rivers compares to Cutler as a QB.

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Every single year, one of the bowls that always catches my attention is the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. By nature, it’s an exciting game since it pits the 2nd place team in the Pac-10 against the 3rd place team from the Big 12. That means you’re usually seeing two top-20 teams that won anywhere from 8-10 games during the regular season. This year, it’s Arizona State going up against Texas. So if the Holiday Bowl provides an excellent game annually, why is it so bad for the Pac-10? I’ll tell you.

Can you name any other bowl of significance played this far in advance of January 1st? Squaring up on December 27th I’d expect to see a MAC and WAC team, not the 2nd place team from the Pac-10 and 3rd place team from the Big 12. This sort of game deserves to be on New Years Day, or at worst, New Years Eve. Secondly, the match up is an inherent display of inferiority on the part of the Pac-10. Regardless of whether or not the conference has two fewer teams, by agreeing to have their second place team play another conference’s third place team, it’s a sign of inferiority. Seriously, what sort of exposure is it for the conference when the only team the rest of the country gets to see play is on January 1st in the Rose Bowl? The Pac-10 needs to get itself together, move the Holiday Bowl to a later date, and find a conference that will match two equals. Until that point, the Holiday Bowl will always serve as a joke for the Pac-10, marring its collective attempt at gaining national respect.

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ESPN, whose reporter Buster Olney wrote up the news of Prior’s agreement to a one-year, $1 million deal with San Diego, has a great graphic on Prior. In 2003, he won 18 games and finished third in NL Cy Young voting. In 57 starts since then, Mark Prior has won just 18 games. I don’t think anything else can better describe Prior’s downfall. Regardless of Prior’s lack of recent success, I agree with Obscure Sports Quarterly and think the signing was a wise gamble for Kevin Towers and the Padres.

With the rest of the NL West actively beefing up this offseason, San Diego needs to make some moves. They’ve acquired Jim Edmonds and signed Tadahito Iguchi and Randy Wolf. Their offense is so anemic they’ll need all the pitching they can muster. Even though he might not be able to pitch until June, should Prior give San Diego just 7-8 good starts before he gets hurt again, he’ll have been well worth the money.

Arizona is the defending NL West champ and they improved significantly by adding Haren. The Rockies re-signed Aaron Cook and added a few relievers. The Dodgers brought in Andruw Jones and Kuroda. The Giants signed Aaron Rowand (hehehe). With a small budget to work with, the least San Diego can do is gamble on a pitcher like Prior who has a high ceiling. For only a million bucks, the investment was well worth it and makes me wonder why no other team tossed out a few more greenbacks for the rights to Prior.

(Though this post has nothing to do with Kerry Wood, it has everything to do with the picture I selected. Oh the days, Cubs fans.)

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It took me traveling halfway across the world to finally catch an NFL Network televised game. I live in Los Angeles which is where the NFL Network is based, but my local cable system does not offer the channel. In Australia however, 17 hours ahead in time, and only about what, 10,000 miles away in distance, I was able to watch NFL Network games. Go figure.

First I saw my Bengals get embarrassed by the Niners on the Saturday night game two weeks ago. Less than a week later, I got to see the Steelers bring the pain to the Rams on Thursday night. Both telecasts were commercial free — it was amazing. The only thing that would have made the games better were if Gumbel weren’t doing the play-by-play; it’s really embarrassing how bad he is. I heard Gumbel screw up names, plays, and strategy analysis. I didn’t even have a spotting board or producer with me and I still knew the names of guys making plays on the field better than him.

So with the final game of the regular season for New England set for kickoff Saturday night against the Giants on NFL Network, I may have left Australia about a week too early. It sucks that most of the country won’t be able to get this landmark game. Further, I’m left scratching my head wondering why we can’t get our asses together to have it air 10 miles away, but they can figure it out 10,000 miles away. Incredible.

UPDATE: Per Signal in the comments, the game will now be simulcast on NBC and CBS

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As the Pats head into the final weekend of the regular season, they are poised to break several records. With a win, they will become the first team to go 16-0 in the regular season, joining the ‘72 Dolphins as the only team to finish the regular season undefeated. With two touchdown passes, Tom Brady will beat Peyton Manning’s record of 49 during the regular season. And with two touchdown catches, Randy Moss will beat Jerry Rice’s record of 22 during the regular season.

Putting aside the Patriotgate issues that have given reason for people to doubt the legitimacy of New England’s pursuit of perfection, there is another record that is called into question: Randy Moss against Jerry Rice. In 1987, Rice caught an incredible 22 TD passes from Joe Montana in only 12 games because of the strike. Through 15 games this year Moss has 21, not 22 TDs. Does it hurt his record if it took him more games to break Rice’s mark?

I think it’s just a small footnote in the record books should Moss catch more than one TD and break Rice’s record. Did anyone say anything about McGwire or Bonds or any other modern baseball record that was achieved in 162 games rather than 154? Not much of a fuss has been raised about this issue since 1961. Just like nobody will remember the close calls against the Ravens and Eagles, nobody will remember that it took Moss extra games. One caveat however: Moss still needs to catch at least two touchdowns to make this argument relevant.

*You might also enjoy a previous comparison in which I argue that Randy Moss is better than Jerry Rice.

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I missed a lot of good stuff the past few weeks, but here is my feeble attempt to highlight some of the better stories from the blogosphere while I was out. Let’s start with this classic video courtesy of Deadspin to get you warmed up (give it 30 seconds and keep your eye on the bottom left part of the screen):

Larry Johnson finally graduated from UNLV [FanHouse]

Scott Boras’ statistical info packet used in A-Rod contract negotiations [YBB]

An interview with CBS/Knicks broadcaster Gus Johnson [Awful Announcing]

Tony Parker caught cheating on Eva Longoria? Smart man. [With Leather]

If American athletes were Brazilian soccer players … [100% Injury Rate]

A visual diagram of the Mitchell Report steroid social networking tree [Slate]

Arizona St. cheerleaders send their finest Holiday wishes [Mr. Irrelevant]

Hotel selling off bedding from Maria Sharapova’s stay [SPORTSbyBROOKS]

Lawyer Milloy called Bobby Petrino a coward [AJC]

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