Plaxico’s days as a Giant are probably numbered now. He was already on thin ice for missing meetings earlier in the season, having been fined by the team a bunch of times. He’s a distraction and this year he’s injury prone on top of it. Sure, Plax was a big reason why they won the Super Bowl last year, but at this point you have to wonder if dealing with his shenanigans is worthwhile. Another interesting point to this whole incident was raised by Florio at PFT: what were Burress’ intentions? Was he carrying the gun for protection knowing that teammate Steve Smith had been robbed the week before? Would that excuse even fly with Commissioner Goodell? And why wouldn’t Burress just get licensed to carry the firearm in the first place?

It’s too bad the Giants have to deal with all this crap when they’re having such a good season and looking to repeat as Super Bowl Champs. By the way, does Jerry Jones have enough money left for Plaxico?

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That makes you wonder if the coach chews his players out for botching the tackle. Can you really get mad at them for not bringing the player down? I guess you need to remind them never to stop until the whistle blows, but then again we have the same problem with personal fouls to deal with.

Croom scored a big win over Florida in his first year as the Bulldogs’ head coach, helping launch the fire Ron Zook movement. In 2005, Croom’s squad obliterated rival Ole Miss 35-14. Finally by mid-season in 2006, his third year with the program, Mississippi State started to play at a respectable level. The Bulldogs kept all of their games in the second half of that season close, proving to me that Croom was getting Mississippi State to a respectable level.

In 2007, everything came together for Mississippi State as they got SEC wins over Auburn, Bama, Kentucky, and rival Ole Miss en route to an 8-5 season that ended with a Liberty Bowl victory against Central Florida. Honestly, the folks at Mississippi State probably should not be expecting more than that. Croom thrice contributed to the firing of a fellow SEC coach; Ron Zook, Mike Shula, and Ed Orgeron were all axed in years Croom beat em. The way I look at things, Croom did a good job by making a crap team competitive, and even a winner last year.

This year the team took a step back going 4-8, but if you look at their schedule, what would have been realistically better, five wins? They play in the toughest conference in America and have some of the worst talent. What do they expect to happen? Furthermore, the Mississippi State defense struck me as legit this year, but their offense was crap. They weren’t completely outclassed until the Egg Bowl because of the defense. And to be fair, Ole Miss is one of the hottest teams in the country, and the only team to beat Florida, so we know they’re good. If Mississippi State could just get one or two strong play-making recruits in on offense, I bet they would have been a .500 team next year. And really, can they expect to do much better? I don’t think so, and that’s why I think they’re going to have a hard time finding a coach who can do more for them than Sylvester Croom did.

That reminds me so much of the John Elway play from the Super Bowl, the way they both just laid their bodies on the line. Bradford said after the game that he felt his team needed the lift and that’s why he went airborne. The move must have worked because the Sooners were pretty charged up after that point and went on to win the game. Now it’s just a little computer mess to sort out before the National Championship Game is decided.

Picks to follow.

Steelers +1.5 @ Patriots - The Pats offense is starting to click, but I think they come back down to Earth this weekend against one of the top defenses in the league. Roethlisberger finally has his crap together, and it looks like Fast Willie is going to play, too. That Steelers pass rush is vicious and will make life difficult for Cassel.

Broncos +7.5 @ Jets - Either Favre’s gonna throw an interception to help win this bet, or Cutler will. It’s a tough way to live. But seriously, after two extremely tough games at New England and at Tennessee back-to-back, I expect the Jets to have a let down. The Broncos should sneak up there and make it a close game. They’ve already proven in Atlanta that they can win on the road, too.

Bears +3.5 @ Vikings - The big factor here is the health of Kyle Orton. His ankle must be better judging by last week’s game, so I like the Bears in this one under his leadership. The Vikings just don’t have the passing game to take advantage of a weak Bears secondary, so I expect it to be a close game.

Lane Kiffin only had to put up with Al Davis for a year and a half, getting compensated handsomely in the process, before moving on. He got to skip a couple steps in the coaching tree to get to the top level — NFL head coach — and raise his profile in the meantime. It’s unlikely that he would have drawn serious consideration for the Tennessee job had he remained at USC as their offensive coordinator. Usually top coordinators at top schools are offered head coaching gigs at second level schools, not top notch schools such as the Michigans, Tennessees, and Alabamas. Those schools are looking for guys with head coaching experience. But having been in the NFL working for the Raiders, Kiffin got to pad his resume and make himself qualified for any job out there. If he could make a dysfunctional team like the Raiders competitive, he surely could compete with any college program.

I wondered what Lane Kiffin was doing when he took that Raiders job, but now I know. And when someone else accepts the gig in the near future, I’ll understand that they have a reason for doing it, too.

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Well, I guess you can’t accuse the guy of being lazy. Funny thing is, he was trying to buy a present for Marvin Lewis, he said. I’m sure Guitar Hero is right on the top of Lewis’ list. And I always knew that Ocho Cinco and Ron Artest were on the same level mentally, considering Artest tried to work at Best Buy while he was with the Bulls for the employee discount. This Ocho Cinco guy is a riot.

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1. Boras wants monster deal (10 years) for Teixeira, needs lots of bidders
2. Angels willing to offer Tex big deal, but not 10 years
3. Boras/Teixeira waiting for better offers
4. Angels drop rumors they want Sabathia to try and make Yankees overspend
5. Yankees panic, bump up offer to Sabathia, leaving less money to offer other free agents
6. Market for Teixeira comes back to earth, he now decides between 7 year $150 million offers from Angels, Yanks, Red Sox and maybe another team

See, the whole thing is part of a plan by the Angels to help themselves out. Everyone’s just waiting around for a player to sign before everything else gets decided. And don’t forget, the Angels still have to extend John Lackey whose contract is up after this season. Expect them to pour around $90 million over five years into Lackey, just like the Cubs did with Zambrano. How could they afford to extend Lackey AND sign Sabathia without addressing their offense? They can’t, which is why they’re not signing CC.

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From the moment the ball was tossed up to start Tuesday night’s game against Loyola (Md.), Davidson’s star guard was hounded by two defenders.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Davidson coach Bob McKillop told FOXSports.com shortly after the victory. “From the time the ball entered the court, there were two guys on him and they didn’t leave him the entire game.”

So Curry decided that he would hang out by the sidelines to make it a 4 on 3 game for his team — a clear advantage. Curry’s personal stats took it in the shorts as he went 0-3 with zero points for the game, but his team won easily, 78-48. I’m guessing they wouldn’t have won by as large of a margin had Loyola (Md) played a standard defense and not allowed the open man each time. Curry took it well and decided to put the team first, something I really respect. And I think this further cements my point: it’s not about how much the top scorer gets, it’s about how much he helped his team while scoring the points.

This video also shows a good message — basketball and sports aren’t about the highlights, but the outcome. Mason may get on the reels for that dunk, but Notre Dame got the W and that’s most important. Let’s not forget that. (Still, it was an awesome jam!)