On Paper
Ny Rangers vs. Philadelphia Flyers
The game pits the two top teams in the NHL Atlantic Division in an afternoon battle. The reason the Flyers are in second place…The Rangers! The teams have played four times this year with New York taking each game. Philly is 2-3 in their last 5 and really need to stop the Rangers if they want to keep the top spot in their sites. The Rangers are 6-3-1 in the last 10 and have surprisingly kept their form throughout the season. Marian Gaborik leads the NY attack with 26 goals on the season while the Flyers are lead by Scott Hartnell with the same total. If the Flyers want to break their fall, the defense is going to have to step up and the net minder is going to have to stop the shots. Their last meeting, 6 days ago, saw the Rangers score 5 goals and who ever is in goal, Bryzgalov or Bobrovsky, can’t let that happen for Philadelphia.
NYR 2 Phi 3

Upset Potential
Jerry Sandusky
Jerry Sandusky is upset…because he can’t feed his dog a biscuit on his back porch. Is that really what he is concerned about?

Don’t Bother
Stopping Jeremy Lin
Jeremy Lin’s first 9 games he logged minutes this season he scored a total of 30 points. Last night against the Lakers he scored 38! In fact his last four games he has scored 25, 28,23, and 38. This is the same guy that scored 76 points in all of last year for the Golden State Warriors. In his junior and senior seasons at Harvard, the current top 25 Ivy League school, Lin averaged 17 and 16 points respectively. His senior season in a game against UCONN he put up 30 points. Jeremy Lin is 6’3″ guard from Palo Alto, who has taken the NBA by surprise. I just hope Spike Lee makes a movie for this guy.

Follow @StraitSportsG on Twitter

Knights Hall was rocking, in front of a sellout crowd of 2450. Bellarmine took the lead at 6-5, with over 16 mins in the first half, on a 3 pointer by Keisten Jones and never looked back. By half time the game was out of reach for the Pumas, 54-31. The Knights had 5 players in double figures, led by Chris Dowe at 17. They shot 63% from the field and held St. Joe’s to only 42% from the field. Bellarmine out rebounded their opponent, 41-23 but the Knights did commit 14 turnovers. In a 30 point victory that could be overlooked but I am guessing Coach Davenport reinforced the importance of protecting the rock. This tied the Bellarmine record with 16 wins in a row.

A different team walks in tonight to Knights Hall and the home team is going to need every one of you there to avenge their last loss prior to the 16 game run. The University of Indianapolis comes to town on the heels of loss to Northern Kentucky. This team is much different at home than on the road but they still have the talent to compete. The Greyhounds are 10-3 at home with victories over Kentucky Wesleyan and Bellarmine but are only 4-3 on the road with losses to Quincy and Lewis. Game time is 8pm and Straitpinkie wants the house full to cheer on the Knights. We also hope there are a few signs urging Coach Davenport to put on the white suit!

Follow @StraitSportsG on Twitter

The Indianapolis Colts would never be the same.

That year, Peyton Manning took his first snaps as a Colt. In the next 13 years, Indianapolis would see three mayors, a population increase of over 5%, and a new stadium – but only one quarterback. That is until the calamity that was this past season, when Curtis Painter, Kerry Collins, and Dan Orlovsky all proved what many football fans had assumed for years: Peyton Manning is the Indianapolis Colts.

The Colts moved to Indianapolis from Baltimore in 1984. Before Peyton Manning took the helm, they were a laughable franchise. In their first 14 years in Indianapolis, they had only five winning seasons (all 9-7) and an overall record of 88-137. Since Manning became the face of the franchise, the Colts have had 11 winning seasons, and not counting this year, a record of 141-67.

Peyton Manning and his superb quarterback play saved the franchise. It brought a Super Bowl trophy and a Super Bowl weekend to Indianapolis. It built a new stadium. It made the number “18” synonymous with superstar. And now, it seems almost a foregone conclusion that the era will end. Andrew Luck is coming. And Indianapolis isn’t big enough for two franchise quarterbacks.

The argument seems simple enough. Manning’s health and the strength of his regenerating arm is a huge question mark – almost as huge as the paycheck the Colts’ management would owe him if they keep him. Andrew Luck (aka the Colts’ Second Coming) is the surest thing since John Elway. Clearly, the future and the long-term win column seem to be pointing to a single conclusion: Draft Luck and let Manning ride off into the sunset.

But I think it’s time to dispel one of the newest myths of sports: “It’s all about winning.” I mean no offense to Vince Lombardi or his newest contemporaries who spend their afternoons throwing knives at Lebron James and Dan Marino, but this mantra is simply not true. Sports are not all about winning. Winning is not the only thing. If winning were all that mattered in the world of sports, steroids would not have left fans sick to their stomachs and tainted an era of baseball. If winning were all that mattered, Ted Williams would be a chump –another good hitter that never won the October classic. If winning were all that mattered, we wouldn’t celebrate the stories. But we do. The stories are what matter in sports because there is a human connection. When we lose that, we lose everything –even when we “win”.

The emotions that this image of Joe Namath produces are why this Manning situation goes beyond “winning”. It just doesn’t feel right. Teams will always win championships. Fans will always faithfully fill the seats. What is truly rare is finding a player that is not just a star and not just a champion, but a hero – the entire town, the entire franchise – the embodiment of the horseshoe. What is the price tag on that? How many wins is that worth?

It’s easy to be practical. Sometimes, it’s harder to do what is right. Without Peyton Manning, the Colts may have been a football franchise located in Los Angeles. With Peyton Manning, the Colts breathed new life into the city of Indianapolis, and more importantly, gave fans young and old a town hero.

Is it worth a good Luck charm to throw all of that away?