SCOTT JACOBS

I’m not sure what Minnesota’s state slogan is as of the moment, but I have a suggestion that whatever it might be, it needs to be changed A.S.A.P.

Minnesota: where old retired legends don’t want to come out of retirement, no matter how good your team is.

In 1999 it was Dan Marino who opted to stay retired after the Vikings made a full court press to bring the Dolphins legend out of his then recent retirement.  The thinking was that Marino was the last piece of the puzzle that the Vikings needed to win a Super Bowl, but after flirting with the idea for a few months Marino opted for a cozy desk job with HBO instead.

Fast forward the clock 10 years, and today, in almost the same situation, with a team that many believe is just a quarterback away from being Super, the Vikings were once again spurned by a legendary signal caller.  Making matters worse, it was the man who never actually retires, who struck the latest blow.  Favre made it official today that he’s done (for now) ending a Vikings courtship that included everything but a boat (anyone who follows football will get that joke).

And with it, Minnesota’s “all in push for Favre” just blew up in their face.

The Vikings were quick to profess their man crush on Favre after he asked for and got his release from the Jets earlier this off-season, and their was a common belief that Favre would be extra motivated to come back for the purple and gold with the chance to stick it to former GM Ted Thompson and the Packers twice a year.

But apparently, motivation wasn’t enough and so the man who’s become almost as famous for his off-season waffling as his on-field accomplishments is done with the game he seemingly could not let go of.

As for the Vikings, well, they’re screwed.

They’ve completely alienated their two quarterbacks with their very public display of affection for Favre, and most likely divided a locker-room in the process.  Many are laughing at head coach Brad Childress and who can blame em.  He stuck all his eggs in Favre’s shoulder and now all he’s left with is yolk.

Favre is making the right decision.  There is no doubt in my mind.  His body is celebrating right now, knowing it doesn’t have to go through the gauntlet another year, and his legacy (what’s left of it) doesn’t have to take another hit.  And for as much as I’m completely and utterly sick of what has become an annual tradition of Favre Fascination, I kind of wanted to see him fall on his face one last time.

Favre is the last of the NFL’s elite quarterback class from the 90’s.  Marino, John Elway, Jim Flutie, Troy Aikman, and Steve Young all hung up their cleats a long time ago.  Favre was really the only one left.

But even he has apparently come to the realization that he can’t play forever, so he might as well give his body a break before it breaks down on him.

Whatever his reason: rather would stay home with his family, doesn’t have it in him to go another 16 games (remember his streak remains intact), he didn’t feel he was healthy enough, he didn’t think he could lead the Vikes to a Super Bowl… whatever the reason, Favre has made his decision.

O my goodness!  It just hit me. Brett Favre made his decision! Do you know what this means? Now the attractive red headed reporter from ESPN whose name escapes me at the moment can be given real assignments, like covering teams or games or something dignified, instead of hibernating in Mississippi outside of his house like a professional stalker.

As for Minnesota, well, let’s be honest: was Favre really going to take them to the top?  Was he going to come in, slurp up their playbook in two seconds and return to vintage Green Bay form?  No, and no.

So maybe, just maybe, all of this is a good thing.  Instead of some stupid one year experiment that was more than likely to fail, the Vikings get to find out what they have in Tavaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels.

I tried saying that with a straight face.  I really did.

But hey, for those of you Vikings fans and players who were wetting your pants in excitement over Brett Favre taking his act to the Twin Cities you can at least take solace in this: it could always be worse.  Your team could be the Lions.

SCOTT JACOBS

The man with the million dollar smile and the multi million dollar contract sat on the podium, taking questions from reporters just minutes after a discouraging game five no show, in which his team’s season was on the line (but you would have never knew it by the way he played).  You could see his frustration, but you couldn’t tell if he was crushed.

Dwight Howard may be called Superman, but for much of these NBA Finals he was anything but.  And if Superman was selfless, Dwight came across as selfish the more and more this post-season progressed.

He had his flashes of greatness, moments that left you in awe, like his dominant game four performance in overtime against the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals where he simply torched Cleveland’s bigs for 10 points in OT, refusing to let the Magic lose.  His game for the ages performance in game six of that series, 40 points and 14 rebounds, knocked the Cavs right out of the post-season and clinched a finals berth for Orlando for the first time since 1995.

But just like 1995 the Magic lost in the Finals, and I know I may not be popular for this opinion, but I put much of it on Howard.  Unlike Howard who never seems to put it on himself.

Yes, he’s only 23, and yes, he didn’t even go to college, so he’s still relatively new to this whole “handling the pressure” thing, but if I had to give Howard a grade as a team leader, it wouldn’t be all that high.  What bothered me most is it was never anything he could have done better.  It was always someone else or the team.  The great ones take it upon themselves, but you never seemed to hear from Howard during this surprising playoff run that he would, “work harder” or “play smarter” or that his foul shooting “cost the team the game.”

For a player who has so much talent, and so much potential, it was somewhat disheartening to see that Howard still has a lot of growing up to do.  Even though he didn’t pick up a technical in the Finals, Howard needs to learn to control himself better.

As for the tendency to disappear when he doesn’t get involved early?  Well, let’s just say Shaq never did that.  Howard claims that he wants the ball in his hands, but oftentimes he doesn’t seem to do everything in his power to make that happen.  I know the Magic are a jump shot happy team, but Howard can’t let that style take him out of games, especially important ones like the NBA Finals.

Just imagine the story we’d be writing today if Howard had an offensive game.  Take away his baby hook and wide open dunks and Howard has no offensive game.  His athleticism has gotten him this far, but he’s going to have to expand his offensive capabilities if he wants to become an elite player.

There were some games were you couldn’t help but buy the hype that the future of big men had arrived.  But there were other games where the big man looked lost.

That’s the problem.  For a team with no great players, and many good ones, the Magic need consistency from Howard not just defensively, but offensively to make the leap from good team to title team (and Patrick Ewing, his big man coach, is one hell of a former player to learn from).  They need Howard to run to the post, out-muscle his defender for position, take the ball up strong, and establish a presence down low.  Against guys like Anderson Varajeo, Howard looked like a stud.  But against the stronger Lakers Howard had moments in the series where he looked flat out confused.

And his foul shooting, well we won’t even go there.

What Howard needs to do this offseason is develop a much more well rounded offensive game.  Rome wasn’t built in a day, but he needs to add an 8-10 foot jump shot.  He needs to learn better how to catch the ball in traffic and go up strong.  For such an imposing dunker, didn’t it seem like there were times where Howard played really small?

Howard’s dilemna is that he doesn’t have the body frame of a Shaq to push people around, or the shooting touch that Tim Duncan came into the league with basically right out of college.  Maybe Howard would have developed a jump shot had he gone to college, maybe not.  But if he wants to make that step, that transition to greatness he needs to take the bitterness that yesterday’s loss provoked and turn it into motivation.

He needs to hit the gym, and work his tail off to improve.  Guys like Kobe and Wade have a desire and a hunger to get better, and their work ethic backs that up.  For Howard to become great he has to want it.  Right now he’s a good player with a larger than life nickname.  You would think Howard wants to be more than that.

Behind those pearly white teeth and that muscular physique is a man that needs to grow up.  He needs to become a leader, to put the pressure on himself so that he can take it off his team-mates.  Howard has the talent, no one denies that.  But does he have the drive?  Does he have the selflessness?

The sky is the limit for Dwight.  But for Superman to really start to fly he has to take that next step.

The fate of a franchise’s fortunes for the next five years and beyond are riding on it.

Photo: Getty

SCOTT JACOBS

Manny Ramirez was the latest ball player to fall victim to his own stupidity, but there’s no telling how many other players have injected themselves with performance enhancing drugs.  And that’s where the problem lies.  With pandora’s box of cheating scum out in the open, it seems that any player in MLB is open to be a cheater.  Any kind of statistical jump is no longer a great season, it’s a question mark.  Any unexpected surge in a player’s later years is no longer greeted with “great work ethic and still got it” but instead, “he must be juicing.”

It’s the nature of the beast for people to be skeptical, especially considering the spectacular wind fall of names that have come out in the last few years.  So, Kotite’s Corner compiled a list, and presumptively checked their facts twice, on some old names, re-shedding some light on 15 years of baseball that now seem as fake as the Y2K scandal that never was.

It’s outrageous and devastating that we have to look at guys who were good players, and question just how they became ‘great’ almost overnight.  In their article, which you can read in its entirety here, the author lists 20 guys, dating as far back as the late 80’s, who may have bee doing something besides, lifting uh, weights and eating, uh, the right foods.  Whether you’re ready to believe the names is on you, but as Norman Chad used to say in his Tale of the Tapes, the numbers never lie… unless you’re juicing.

Some of the names he threw out there that may surprise you: Tony Batista, Ellis Burks, Alfonso Soriano, Shawn Green, and even Esteban Loaiza.

Loaiza is the only pitcher on the 20 name list, but he’s the most interesting in my humbled opinion.  Even with Clemens kicking and screaming his way out of the Hall of Fame, there has been little allegation against many of our other greatest pitchers, including guys who suspiciously improved ‘a lot’ rather quickly.

I think its harder to tell if a pitcher may/may not be juicing just because most pitchers don’t look like freaks of nature like a Bonds or a McGwire.  And a pitcher isn’t going to go from pitching 95 mph to 112.  That’s why home run hitters are much more scrutinized.  Still, the list bears at least a glance.

Opinions strongly encouraged below.

Photo: Getty

SCOTT JACOBS

Today Manny Ramirez was suspended 50 games by Major League Baseball for failing a drug test.  Shocking!

Did I suspect that Manny was using performance enhancers?  No, not really.  Did I think that a grown man would use a drug that women use during pregnancy?  Ha, another no.  But is it all that surprising that another big name baseball player bit the performance enhancing dust?  Not in the least.

You would think a guy that signed a two year $45 million deal would be a little more careful, but hey “Manny’s just being Manny.”  The Dodgers slugger claims he wasn’t taking steroids, but reports are already surfacing that he failed the test because of hCG, a women’s fertility drug, which is considered a close relative to steroids.

Two things have already come out of this story: 1) Wow, Manny is being suspended for 50 games, this policy really must be working.  and 2) It happened this year.  First, no player is immune from the steroids/PED’s discussion at this point.  Players great, mediocre, and crappy have all been  exposed, and any player who plays baseball should expect to be under suspicion.  Once upon a time it was innocent until proven guilty, but with the slew of steroid/PED users being exposed over the years, it has now become guilty until proven innocent.

People will disuss this issue and say that this means the drug testing policy baseball has in place is working.  But I wholeheartedly disagree!  You know when a system works?  When people are so afraid of the system that they don’t even dare test it.  Suspending Manny 50 games is merely a slap on the wrist.

You know what MLB should do, if they really wanted to get rid of this issue in their game?

Take away their money.  There should be a clause in every baseball player’s contract that if he fails a drug test, the team he plays on can void 1/10 of the contract he originally signed– no matter how far along in the contract he is.  In other words with Manny, not only would he be suspended 50 games under this policy, but he would be docked a remarkable $4.5 million!  Fail the drug test a second time, and you’re suspended a season, and 1/3 of your contract.  Fail the drug test a third time, and you’re suspended for life, and you’re contract is completely voided.

I guarantee you baseball players would respond differently.  I personally believe that MLB players don’t take the policy seriously enough still.  Cause in the realm of things, what’s 50 games?  In college if you plagerize a paper, even a few lines without giving that source credit, you get expelled from the school.  Your grade doesn’t get reduced a few letter grades, the university says “bye bye, see you later, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”  IF you cheat in a regular job and get caught, you get canned.  But in the green pastures of MLB if you get caught, you get slapped… on the wrist.

You always hear players say that they didn’t know that what they were taking was wrong, or they don’t think they were taking something illegal, but that in my estimation is because the system is too soft.  Watch how many players use that line if you docked them millions of dollars for their stupidity/arrogance.  Probably none.  You know why?  Because they’d be mortified of losing tons of money!

You make the policy so stern that players become scared to even test it.

Imagine a player who signed a seven year contract with a team worth say $100 million, and is in the last year of tht deal.  Imagine said player failing a drug test in his final year of the contract.  He’d lose $10 million!  And if the team didn’t owe him that much, they could simply demand that he pays them that.

Steroids in baseball would be gone faster then you could say HGH.  Because whether they love the game, or not, baseball players play baseball for the money.  They say they’d play for free, well I’d like to see them do that for a year.  If you really take a chunk out of their exploding bank accounts, maybe others would think twice.

Players know what they put into their bodies.  These guys are machines and their bodies are their temples, and anyone who thinks that players just sort of go with the flow when it comes to what goes in their body is a fool.  An athlete can be naive, but he’s aware of what goes in his body.  You don’t kill yourself for years just to get to the majors and then go, “ya just put in me whatever you like, I trust you.”  No, it doesn’t work like that.

Now the problem with this proposal is that the Players Union would never in a million years go for it.  But it’s fun to dream.  They say it’s tough to get rid of drugs in baseball?  I beg to differ.  If you really lay down the law, and hit these pampered athletes were it hurts most– their wallet– I think things would change swiftly and drastically.

Baseball can clean their sport of drugs, but they’re just not willing to go to the extreme to do it.  Because of that, more stories like this will continue to come out, and steroids and PED’s will continue to be an issue in the national pastime.

Photo: Reuters

Charles Charles MaGalls is not a billionaire, but boy is America quick to believe otherwise

SCOTT JACOBS

Received a bizarre email today with the inviting subject of “Dwyane Wade: Man or Mouse.”  It read not, Scott Jacobs, or Mr. Jacobs, but Senor Jacobs.  Immediately I was skeptical.  But then I kept reading and the email got more and more ridiculous.  Apparently this ‘billionaire’ is challenging Wade to a game of 1 on 1.  Win by two, game up to 10.

But, there’s a catch: it’s all one big marketing campaign.

Of course the humorous aspect of this story and this email is that there are people gullible enough to believe this.  I mean, how often does someone pay for a giant billboard with their picture on it, challenging Wade to a game of 1 on 1 right in front of his basketball cathedral, American Airlines Arena?

Not many would be the obvious answer.  And so despite their greatest efforts to sabotage America into thinking this is really some crazy British billionaire challening Sir Wade, it is clearly a goofy attempt to indulge America into a competition that is faker than the MaCalls Industries website.

Of course it is clear with even the slightest bit of research that this is one big joke.

But it’s entertaining I guess.