Real Sports Talk with E$

There are so many ways that I could start this column off this week. To keep it sports related for now (I guess), my bad for not coming up with one of these over Winter break. Kept saying "oh I'll make one tomorrow," but, clearly, it never happened. With that said, time to get down and dirty.

How about that Super Bowl? Don't look at it as the fact that Peyton Manning choked in the big game, but the fact that Seattle had a MUCH better team than Denver had to offer. When you compare both defenses, clearly the Seahawks had a better one from top-to-bottom. The secondary of this year's Seahawks will go down as one of the best of all-time, and their defensive line had the ability to put a ton of pressure on the quarterback, even when they sent only four lineman at the quarterback. On the offensive side of the ball, Peyton Manning is much better than Russell Wilson, but Russell Wilson didn't need to win his team the game. Peyton Manning did. When Peyton saw a defensive front that he assumed he wouldn't be able to pass against, he handed the ball off to either Knowshon Moreno or Montee Ball, but both of them were limited to 18 yards on 11 carries. Since the running game was unsuccessful, Manning had to throw the ball 49 times, but throwing two big interceptions essentially led to the Broncos being defeated. To wrap up NFL talk here, it surprises me that the Broncos are 5-1 favorites to win next year's big game (as are the Seahawks), but if I wanted to make an underdog pick, I'd go with the Tennessee Titans (60/1) or New York Jets (75/1).

In other Irrelevant (though I find interesting) sports news:

-Good luck trying to stop the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference. They have a 17 point lead over everyone else in their division, and show no signs of slowing down anytime soon,

-I'm still going to take the Chicago Blackhawks out of the West, despite the fact that they are in 2^nd place while I am writing this. Patrick Sharp and Patrick Kane are unbelievable players.

-Will the Indiana Pacers choke come playoff time? Until LeBron and the Miami Heat are stopped, I find it hard to believe that they won't be NBA champs again. The Brooklyn Nets could/will be a scary team in the playoffs.

-Kevin Durant has been on an unreal tear over the past month or so, and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

-With that said, Kevin Durant should be the MVP, but LeBron James is the best player in the NBA.

-As much as I dislike the Los Angeles Clippers, they will be a tough out for whoever they play in the second round of the playoffs.

-With that said, Kevin Durant should be the MVP, but LeBron James is the best player in the NBA.

-Aside from Utica College, where the hell did Gordon Caesar come from?

-Is it time to fill out brackets yet for college basketball?

Non-Sports Information of the Week

-Rest in Peace Jeff Sass.

-My grandmother, who I am really close with, was diagnosed with lung cancer over break. As I have found out as break continued, it wasn't as severe as originally thought to me, but it told me something else. Spend as much time you can with the people that you love, cause you truly don't know how long they will be around for.

-Rant of the Week- I guess this is a sports thing, but why did Richard Sherman get crap for speaking his mind after the Seahawks beat the San Francisco 49ers? It's too common that athletes are criticized for being to vanilla, and once one opens their mouth to speak their opinion, he gets criticized. There is a double standard. Let him, and other athletes speak their minds without having to worry about getting criticized.

-There really are so many people on campus that do so many crucial things on campus that go unrecognized, such as the dude that has a gnarly beard, and is a groundskeeper (and goes to literally ALL sporting events), the people that work in Union Grill, and many, many others. Please know that you don't go unnoticed!

-I got some footage for the Men's Lacrosse team in which I am going to make a video preview. Look for that to come out relatively soon.

-On that topic, thanks Zach Frank, Nick Allard, Scott Giusti and Chris Annunciata for helping me out with that.

-It is crucial to stay on top of work through the early stages of the semester.

-Semi-Real Talk- Don't give a half-hearted effort with things. Either be completely into something, or don't. Simple as that.

Real Talk with Eric- Cover your nose when you sneeze, it will only get everyone around you sick (as I am now)!!