You better be ready for the Harbaugh Bowl II

I have been increasingly sickened by the hype leading up to the AFC & NFC Championship games.  The drivel logic, poppycock reasoning, and bullshit theory I am hearing these days is the purest examples of East Coast bias a-la ESPN and Bristol Connecticut that I have encountered in the past 5 or 6 years.  It is ferociously disgusting and a violent abomination to the eye and ear.

I take great solace in the fact that ya'all are about to have 10,000 pounds of egg on your face.  Not a quantum of solace but great solace.  Better hedge your bets, chumps.

The AFC Championship

Let us begin (in alphabetical order) with the AFC Championship game.  All the fools of football are utterly convinced that Baltimore Ravens don't have a chance in this game.  Why?  Because Tom Brady is better than Joe Flacco.  Believe me, your reasoning is just that simple.  It ain't any better than that.  When confronted by your simpleton-logic, you may attempt to improve on it a bit, or simply defend it, but this is your argument.  Only this and nothing more.  

Well what about the rest of the teams in question?  It doesn't matter, you say.  Brady is better than Flacco.  The Patriots will win.  This is essentially the same argument that was made about the Broncos and Steelers.  Roethlisberger is a clutch guy and much better than Tebow.  The Broncos have a 0.00000000000000% chance winning.  You saw where your logic got you, didn't you?  Still you have not take corrective action and mended your ways.  You have not discarded the super-simpleton theory you cleave to, have you?

You are forgetting that this is always a team sport, the ultimate teams sport, and very seldom a quarterback dual.  One QB does not defeat another.  One team defeats another.  If you don't think so, you are absolutely and completely wrong, point-blank period.

Only four facts need to be evaluated to understand why the Ravens are going to win this game:

1. The Ravens have the most elite defense in the NFL, point-blank period.  It doesn't matter what the bullshit yardage stats say.  Four of the NFL's top 25 players are concentrated on that unit.  They are the best defensive unit in football.
2. The Patriots do not have anything approaching an elite defense, and they don't have anything approaching a top 25 player either.
3. When the Ravens play an elite team, they rise to the occasion and win.  They defeated playoff teams like the 49ers, got two wins over the Texans, two over the Steelers, two over the Bengals.   This includes clutch-QB play from Joe Flacco, who brought them back in the final moments against the Steelers.  When they play an inferior and rebuilding squad, like the Chargers, they have a tendency to look past the opponent and lose.  I don't think they are looking past the Patriots.
4. When the Patriots play a playoff team, they mostly loose.  Consider back-to-back losses to the Steelers and Giants.  They were also had by the Bills.  They nearly lost to both the Cowboys and Redskins.  When it comes to beating playoff teams, they have beaten the Broncos and the Broncos.  That's it.  An 8-8 squad that wasn't even supposed to contend this year.   The Patriots are not a powerful team, no matter what Bristol Connecticut and ESPN would like you to believe. 

Since the Ravens are not talking much trash right now, I will do it for them.  

Tom Brady will be checking his prostate after every play in the early going of this game, just to make sure it still up in there.  That's because the Raven defense is going to be knocking it loose.  This will cease sometime during the second quarter because Brady will have a bird's-eye view of that prostate after T-Sizzle shoves his head up his ass with one violent thrust.

Say what you will about Tom Brady, but I don't think he can throw the football very accurately with his head shoved up his arse.

As far as I am concerned, the Patriots are the longest of the long-shots still left in this tournament.  This is the one team that doesn't have a chance.  This game features one heavy-weight and one rooty-poot.  In case you were wondering, the Patriots are the rooty-poot.

The NFC Championship Game

After witnessing the massacre of the Patriots, we can move on to a truly epic contest:  the Giants vs. the 49ers.  Everybody knows this going to be the game of the day.  This is going to be the nail-bitter and the big drama.   This is the one where both teams can win.  This is the heavy-weight fight.

In terms of record, the 49ers are clearly the better team.  On paper, the Giants are clearly the better team. Eli looks like the better QB.  However, Alex Smith is astonishing everybody.  Both have very violent defenses.  The 49ers are much higher ranked, but the Giants are peaking right now.

I think the 49ers win.  I'll tell you why.

Everyone is talking about how the Giants are peaking right now, but I will tell you the dirty little secret ESPN is keeping in the closet.  The 49ers are peaking right now also.  They have never played better than they did in there last game.  Further, they are the more consistent team.  Finally, they are at home.

I think this is going to be an epic contest.  We have to muddle through a poor AFC Championship game so we can get to a real contest.  I am looking forward to this one.

In conclusion, you better be ready for the Harbaugh Bowl.  It's going to happen.

My Super Bowl Predictions... Shot to hell in one day

Day of upsets

As far as I am concerned, this Saturday was just like last Saturday: Another day of upsets. Some will complain that it just ain't so, but this is the way I am taking it.

Ravens blow it in a choaker

As you know, the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Baltimore Ravens 31-24 yesterday in a pretty massive come-from-behind victory. When the Ravens took a 21-7 lead, I knew it was over. This was going to be a laugher, and I was astonished by how easy the Ravens were making it look.

Not so fast. The Ravens would blow it. You can't tell me this one doesn't smart like hell in the Baltimore locker room. The Ravens had the victory in the bag. They fucked it up. You let them off the hook.

Why is this an upset? Because the Ravens were looking like the most powerful team in the AFC throughout much of the 2010 season, that's why. Many of us considered the Steelers absurdly lucky to escape with the division title this year. This is the reason why Ben Roethlisberger gave us that post-game speech about how proud he was that the Steelers proved themselves to be the true AFC North champions yesterday.

Packers pack fudge

As you also know, the #6 seed in the NFC took down the #1 seed in the NFC last night. Why is that an upset? Whenever the 6 seed takes out the 1 seed, we usually consider that an upset.

Some would protest that designation, as the Packers are considered--by many--to be the most dangerous team in the playoffs. This is the team you don't want to play. They looked every inch of that designation and some last night.

The Green Bay Packers didn't just beat the Falcons. They took the little shavers down to the woodshed and sharpened them up with a leather strop. That was a damn ugly ass-whipping to take in front of your home crowd.

What has happened to my Super Bowl?

For those who don't remember, I was (more or less) expecting the Ravens to meet the Falcons in the Super Bowl. I didn't make playoff predictions before this tournament began because I had a heavy feeling that this is a fluke year.

This isn't entirely a disaster for me, as I had the Packers in Pre-Season. I lost confidence in them as their casualty list waxed long.

Still, I'm warning you... Any goat can climb to the top of the mount this season. Don't be too confident in any of your predictions right now. This is a fluke year.

All I can say is this: You Packers better win the whole fucking enchilada, or I am going to be pissed as hell at you. It's fine if you guys win it, but if... per chance... you or the consequence of your actions allow the Steelers to win their 7th championship, I'm going to be really fucking pissed at you.

The nightmare after the upsets

So I go to bed last night around 2:00am, well after the upsets are over, and I have an unbelievably vivid dream. It wasn't a Vivid dream. It was a vivid dream.

I dreamt I was watching the Vikings play the 49ers in Candlestick in a divisional playoff round. The 49ers were the heavy favorite. The Vikings were the 4th seed North champs. Somehow, the Vikings pulled off a major upset in a heart-attack thriller. The Vikings were dancing off the field when the clock hit zero. It was bedlam for the Vikings.

I would have thought this was a rewind to the 1980s, except for the fact that it was Jared Allen doing all the celebrating and the post-game interviews. This victory meant that the Vikings would return home to host the NFC Championship game, in a Cardinal-type scenario.

This dream makes no sense. Neither the 49ers nor the Vikings made the tournament this year. Neither looks likely next season. Nevertheless, this dream scares me. I'm going to have to watch these two teams closely in the off season. This omen does not bode well for my Rams. If the 49ers were to be the #2 seed in the 2011 tournament, this would necessarily indicate that (1) my Rams didn't win the division, and (2) Jim Harbaugh will do a tremendous job pulling them up off the carpet.

The Ravens get it done 30-7

A you know, yesterday was a day of upsets, confirming that this is indeed a fluky year where anything can happen, and any goat can climb to the top of the mountain. Given the terrible news coming out of Raven camp, I wondered if Baltimore was next.

Nope, forget about it. The Ravens slapped the chiefs 30-7. It wasn't even that close. Believe me, it could have been a lot worse. KC got a temporary stay of execution on yet another horrendous tuck-rule fumble play. The Ravens could easily have walked away with a 37-7 victory.

Though it started slow, the second half was a complete run-away for the Ravens, literally and figuratively. The Ravens defense rose up and devoured Kansas City's fragile offense, creating 3 interceptions and 2 fumbles. It should have been 3 fumbles. The tuck-rule has got to go. Damn is that communist inspired bullshit!

The Ravens didn't just beat them. They beat the hell out of them. It looks like Steelers Ravens next and Jets Patriots. This will be the third time both pairs have met this year.

The Patriots? Bah… drivel!

The 7 time defending ESPN champs

So, unless you have buried under a rock, you know that ESPN has crowned the New England Patriots the Super Bowl XV champion… before the season is over… and before the playoffs begin. ESPN has crowned the Patriots champion in each and every one of the past 7 consecutive seasons. This includes 2008 when the Patriots failed to qualify for the playoffs. The Patriots are now the 7 time defending ESPN champs.

OH BUT THEY WERE RIGHT IN 2004, 2005, and 2007, and they were undefeated in 2007! Undefeated in 2007, aye? Tell that to the Giants who have big fat diamond rings on their fingers.

I’ll never forget the time last season (2009) when Chris Berman referred to the Patriots as the de facto champs. Q.E.D. quo est demonstratum. For those who complain that there is no east-coast bias at ESPN, you need some of the reality potion the New York Yankees are brewing a little south of your position. Like the Patriots, the Yankees are very close to Bristol. Grab some potion after work.

ESPN has a real bad tendency to get stuck in a groove. This is because the main man, Chris Berman, is a May 10, 1955 Taurus dude. Though he is my Earth brother, and I love the guy, I have to warn you that a Taurus like Berman is the most suborn and fixated character in the zodiac. The rest of the organization has modeled itself around his example. I’ll never forget the time Chris Berman picked the 49ers and Bills as his preseason favorites for the Super Bowl NINE years in a row! It took him almost a decade to give up on that one. I have heard rumors stating that he picked the Raiders v Cowboys nine time in a row back in 1970s. That didn’t happen either.

They say the only dude a Taurus will listen to is a Virgo. If so, I hope I can get this message across clearly, and I hope it will get some consideration. ESPN has been wrong about the Patriots 5 of the last 5 seasons. They have misidentified Patriot weaknesses as strengths in each of the past 5 consecutive years. This has lead to quite considerable error. Who can evaluate that track record of error and not see some form of bias back behind it all?

I’m not buying the Patriots

By now, you should realize that I’m not buying the Patriot theory. Why not? I’ve got some good reasons. Here they are:

1. This team is not the dynasty Patriot team. The one and only hold-over from the glory days is Tom Brady. That is not enough. This is practically an all-new edition, and quite unproven.

2. They just aren’t that talented. You will note that this team doesn’t have many Pro-Bowlers; just three Patriots were elected. Once again, coach Bellichick is doing a lot with a little. This isn’t as good a thing as some would have you believe.

3. Last year, the Ravens not only beat the Patriots in the playoffs, they beat the hell out of them. Until these Patriots prove they can beat these Ravens in a significant game, I favor the Ravens in the AFC.

4. The Patriots are benefiting from unexpectedly weak competition. The Dolphins unexpectedly collapsed in 2010. The Jets have been much weaker than expected in 2010. The Bills… let’s just say those games constitute two free victories for the Patriots. Tough games on the schedule, such as the Packers, turned out to be dramatically easier due to key injuries, such as the Packers’ loss of Aaron Rodgers. The Patriot win total is a little bloated this year, and deceptive.

5. Andrew Siciliano describes the Patriots as “a 10-6 football team with few playmakers, a suspect defense, who are vulnerable on the road.” I am sure he was referencing the spanking the Patriots took from the Browns. I don’t see much wrong with his statement. Though their record is better than 10-6, it might easily be 10-6 under slightly different circumstances. We all know how they creep down the field. You witnessed the way in which Matt Flynn, the backup QB in Green Bay, put more than 30 points on the board against the Patriot defense. The Patriots won’t have to go on the road in this tournament, but home field advantage didn’t help them much last season.

6. The AFC is the second best conference in the league. The dirty little secret we’re all keeping in the closet is that the NFC is now the better conference. The AFC just ain’t what it’s cracked up to be. The NFC won the lion’s share of key matchups between contending playoff teams in 2010. The NFC also contains two of the past three Super Bowl winners. Note that the AFC Steelers nearly lost to the Cardinals in a dandy sandwiched between two NFC victories; one at the expense of the “undefeated” Patriots. My bet will probably be on the NFC champion when SB45 comes around.

7. Our best reasons for believing in the Patriots are the things we’ve heard in the echo chamber, and the echo chamber is dominated by the North Easterners at ESPN. I wonder what the prevailing national opinion of these Patriots would be if we weren’t living in an echo chamber dominated by the North Easterners at ESPN?

I’m making a non-fashionable choice

I’m taking the Ravens in the AFC. If you want to crown their ass (the Patriots) then crown them, but the Patriots are who I think they are, and this is why their opponents should take the damn field.

What I have seen this preason...

The first two weeks of this pre-season pretty well blew past me without much of a notable result. Everything went exactly as I expected. In particular, Tebow flashed strong immediately, and the Rams offensive line flashed weak immediately. Other than that, nothing impressed me much in week 1 or 2 of the preseason.

That changed this week, and it is well it should. The third preseason game is the so-called "dressed rehearsal" for the regular season. I saw a number of things that impressed me a great deal. Let me count them down for you.

Javid Best is going to be the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2011

The kid is looking flat-out dynamic so far. I am seeing flashes of Marshall Faulk all over the place. The sky is the limit for this kid, and Matt Stafford can't be more overjoyed about it. Now with Calvin Johnson, Javid Best and Matt Stafford, I am wondering whether Detroit is going to get up off the carpet and make one hell of a surprise run.

I have been soooo impressed by this kid, that I have already purchased his #44 jersey in white. I intend to wear that Jersey for the very first time on September 2, 2010, to celebrate my 44th birthday. Congrats kid! You impressed me so much that you convinced me not to wear the Dallas Clark jersey, and I think the world of Dallas Clark.

The Ravens look like the Super Bowl 45 champions

You better watch out for these guys. They are looking scary. This could be the most impressive end-to-end team I have seen this preseason. The super-duper off-season the Ravens had impressed me a great deal. I made them the tentative-prohibitive favorite [if that makes any sense] in the AFC based on their fantastic off-season.

That high-quality off-season is generating tangible yields, right now, in the 2010 preseason. The Ravens look very strong to me.

The main problem with the Ravens these past two years has been their own internal distrust of their passing game. They have wanted to bring Flacco along slowly, not putting too much on his plate. Now they seem to trust Flacco and are willing to put the team in his hands. Now they are showing flashes of a dynamic offense that can throw well and run like hell.

They will also beat the shit out of you defensively.

This is a goooooooood looking football team. I am mighty damn impressed by these guys.

The Saints look more than prepared to defend their crown

There ain't no sign of a let-down in New Orleans. I must say, it does might heart good to think they might defend their title. If so, they will be the first NFC team to win back-to-back titles since the Cowboys did it in 1995. I have to say: It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of fellas and better city.

I am hoping you will pull it off, New Orleans.

The Packers look like they have a Hurricane offense, but a somewhat suspect defense.

The Packers offense look like the 1st Air-Cav division: death from above. Aaron Rodgers is shooting the lights out with a 141 passer efficiency rating. If you watch the film, he looks better than the rating sounds. I saw him make effortless tight-window throws against the Colts' [pretty elite] defense. He made it look easy, and those were not easy throws. 9 out of 10 quarterbacks in this league would have had trouble making all of those throws.

Aaron Rodgers will replace Payton Manning as the NFL's All-Pro QB and MVP in 2010 if this continues. There ain't no doubt about it. He is that good. There is a reason why he is the #1 guy in everybody's fantasy pool right now.

The one problem is a suspect running defense which has given up a number of big runs this preseason. I see some deficiencies in the fundamentals of tackling here. I saw visions of Vince Lombardi screaming "GRAB! GRAB! GRAB! NOBODY'S TACKLING!" You also need to be concerned about the fact that a less-than-physical Colts O-Line shredded your front-7.

I see flashes of the Super Bowl looser's jinx on the Colts

Folks, it ain't just one thing either. First, 49ers tie one on them. Now we see that the NFL has messed up the Colts' much feared no-huddle offense. Just as their running game begins to impress us all, Joseph Addai goes down with a concussion.

Understand that the Super Bowl loser's jinx began in the year 1970 with a Don Shula,/Johnny Unitas Baltimore Colts team. That Colt team was at least as good, and probably better, than this Colt team. You can argue they were better coached by Shula. Just immediately after going 13-1, that Colt team finished 7-7, and struggled all the way. The next year (1971) those Colts would return to the Super Bowl, and win it all against the Cowboys.

That was an historically great team that struggled psychologically after loosing the big one. The Super Bowl loser's jinx is real and powerful and effective. The Colts know all about it. You know more about it than I do.

The Cowboy offense looks like shit

During the deep-off season, I joined many in thinking that the Cowboys had to be a mild-favorite to win the NFC. With a sharply weakened NFC-East, and an improved passing attack, I thought the Cowboys might enjoy a cake-walk to home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, including the Super Bowl.

Right now I am officially off the Cowboys' bandwagon. What I have seen is an ugly-struggling offense that has not pierced the end-zone this preseason... at least the 1st stringers haven't. Most problematic is the offensive line. It looks like you guys inherited the curse of Alex Barron. Now your offensive line looks like keystone cops at a Chinese fire-drill.

I am being a little facetious here. Alex has actually looked pretty good for Cowboys so far, but the rest of the line, particularly the interior looks like abject and absolutely reprehensible shit. There is no way you guys are going to go to the Super Bowl with a line that looks like that. You got some work to do, and it might be as difficult as the work the Rams have to do.

The Patriot defense looks like shit

And I mean wet, running, stinky, nasty, stenching cat shit too! If you think otherwise, you have a lot of explaining to do. Some say that the Patriots never show you anything but a 'vanilla look' during the preseason. Folks, that is not sufficient to explain what I saw against the Rams.

Understand that the NFL's 32nd ranked offense, an offense that averaged only 10.9 points per game last season, an offense that was shutout by the Redskins and the Seahawks (bottom 10 teams) just went up to New England and popped 17 points on the board before you got up to take a piss.

The Rams went on to score 36. The Patriots kept Tom Brady in the game until the 4th quarter, trying to make it look closer than it actually was. The Patriot broadcast team heaped praise on Bradford to avoid heaping condemnation on Bellichick's defense.

The praise for Bradford was mostly ledgit, but you dropped the ball by failing to condemn the Patriots defense. They looks pretty damn slow and unathletic to me. That defense just doesn't look competitive. They are more than suspect at this point.

Right now, I think 2010 is the year the wheels fall off of that Patriot defense. It would make sense. The hoodie has been keeping it going with smoke and mirrors for the past year.

Jesus looks like shit

So, I trust we are all familiar with the pecular story of Charlie Whitehurst, correct? My favorite piece on BleacherReport.com was titled "Jesus Christ to start at Quarterback in Seattle". I wrote that piece, by the way. The Seahawk fans dug it. I got a lot of nice praise for that humorous piece.

I wanted to make the point that there ain't no way in hell Charlie Whitehurst is the future of the Seahawk organization. I knew that when the trade went down. Whitehurst is a short-term stop-gap solution for the Seahawks for those occasions in 2010 when Matt is injured. Matt is often injured, by the way.

I fully expect the Seahawks to go after a certain fellow by the name of Jake Locker in this upcoming 2011 draft. He is the hometown hero, and he is being developed by Pete's buddy and former offensive coordinator Steve.

Incidentally, more than 60% of the Seahawk fans agreed with me. The polls indicates that they believe Jesus... errr... Charlie is a stop-gap, and Jake Locker is the man of the future in Seattle. Many of them are begging for this outcome. The only doubt comes from those who just don't think the Seahawks will be in a position to take Locker. They all want him.

Charlie is not giving them a reason to stop begging. He's got a QB passer rating of 61. I know he has thrown for a lot of yards, but he has not looked good doing so. Right now, he does not resemble a starting QB in the National Football League.

The Cardinal look poised for a fall, regrettably.

What I say now, I say with a heavy heart: The Cardinals look like they are going down. Not only did they deal Anquan, not only did Kurt Warner retire, not only did Larry Fitzgerald get hurt, but now Derek Anderson is looking like their top QB with an efficiency rating of 70.2. In the immortal words of Herm Edwards, "I'm calling Kurt Warner".

This is not good. I enjoyed watching the Cardinals compete over the past two seasons. I do not like seeing teams occupy the post of "perennial doormats". I enjoyed seeing the Cards get up and make a Super Bowl run.

Now it looks to me as if they are going to rejoin the cellar dwellers at the bottom of the heap. They may want to compete with the Seahawks for Jake Locker. In the meantime, you need to get Sage Rosenfels from the Vikings.

The Rams do look better, but the Jim Plunkett 2.0 remake is still on schedule

The Rams flashed a strong offense against the Patriots, but don't get too hyped about that just yet. All along, I have been warning of a Hollywood remake of the Jim Plunket story.

Do you remember that story? A brilliant Heisman trophy winning passer gets selected #1 by a football team with a shit-ass offensive line. He flashes strong, winning rookie of the year, and even defeating the mighty Raiders. All the way along the line, he takes hit after hit. Eventually the hits take their toll and he starts getting injured.

Fortunately, Jim's career had a happy ending. Mr. Al Davis put him behind one of the finest offensive lines in league history, and he detonated.

Ram fans need to be keenly aware of this historical example as we watch the Sam Bradford story unfold. Already Donnie Avery has been lost for the season on a fluke ACL tear. Lost in the turmoil of the injury was the fact that Sam Bradford got ax-handled on the very same play. I am talking about a high-velocity hit that launched Sam off his feet and pancaked him. He shook it off, just as Jim Plunkett did after so many hits. That fact is cold comfort for Ram fans.

Former 49er Randy Cross praise Bradford's poise, and warned that the Patriot defense was "massaging his chops" after every throw. Things are out-of-order on the Rams offensive line. This needs to be fixed, real soon.

The Rams also need to trade for a certain receiver in San Diego, but you didn't hear this suggestion from me. If I suggest it, Devaney will never make the deal.

The shocking death of Steve McNair at age 36

Well, I could hardly believe the news yesterday. It reached my ear via the NFL network sometime around 4:00pm. I am not certain of the time. I do know that the NFL network preempted the America's Game documentary about the 1979 Steelers to cover this story.

The facts of the case are these:

1. McNair was 36 years old, and had only been retired from pro football for 1 year.
2. McNair and his family had decided to live in the Nashville area after his retirement.
3. McNair was married with 4 children. All four of them are sons: Tyler, Trenton, Steven, and Junior.
4. McNair got involved in an extra-marital affair with a 20 year old Persian-Iranian woman named Sahel Kazemi.
5. He evidently met Sahel when she was a food server at a sports grill named "Dave & Buster's" some five months ago.
6. She May have broken off a four-year relationship with a fellow named Keith Norfleet in order to begin a relationship with McNair some 5 months ago. According to other accounts, her relationship with Norfleet may have ended a month before she took up with McNair.
7. Evidently McNair set her up with a modest home at located in the downtown area of Memphis. The exact location is the Rutledge House Apartments, 600 2nd Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37210-2063. Manager Number: 615-255-8155. This is at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Lea.
8. The apartment has been described as Spartan, lacking any homey touches. Piles of mens sneakers in the kitchen. A dozen of bottles of booze on the kitchen counter. Reviews of the apartment complex on the web are unflattering at best. This place was no 5th Avenue townhouse.
9. This Apartment is within sight of LP Field, or the Coliseum, where the Titans play on Sunday. This is situated just across the Cumberland River. The Rutlege House apartments are also easy walking distance from a local sports-talk radio station. It is just 6 miles away from McNair's 14.000 sq ft mansion where he and his family lived.
10. Although reports describe the home as a condo, McNair clearly had a rental agreement, and the Rutledge House is listed as an apartment complex.
11. McNair also recently bought Sahel a 2007 Cadillac Escalade for her 20th birthday. The vehicle was registered to both Steve and Sahel.
12. Neighbors believed McNair had moved in with her based on the amount of time he spent there with her.
13. The two were photographed Parasailing together. Evidently, he took her on trips to Las Vegas and Key West.
14. McNair had been drinking with friends on the evening of Friday July 3rd 2009. He had visited two bars: The Bluemoon Lagoon, and the Looser's Bar. No bad jokes, please.
15. McNair apparently arrived at Sahel's condo sometime around 1:30-2:00am on the 4th of July. He never left alive.
16. Police could find no sign of forcible entry to the home.
17. The bodies were discovered by McNair's friend Wayne Neely. Neely is described as a Sporting Goods vendor and co-renter of the Condo. As the co-renter of the condo, he had a set of keys to the home. He had to use these to enter home.
18. Neely then called mutual friend Robert Gaddy. Gaddy had played football with McNair at Alcorn State. Gaddy subsequently made the phone call to 911 at 1:35 pm.
19. A time of death has not been established. Autopsy evidence indicates they both died in the early morning hours Saturday July 4th 2009; perhaps 9-11 hours before they were discovered dead.
20. McNair was found seated on the couch in the main living room of the condo. He had been shot four times, including two fatal shots to the head, and two in his chest. He had been shot once in each temple. One of those head shots was at close range.
21. Sahel was found dead, on the floor near McNair, shot once. She had a single gun shot wound on the side of her head (the temple). Her head wound manifested a contact burn, meaning the barrel was in contact with her head, and the flash of the muzzle burned her flesh. This is typical of suicide gunshot wound to the head. The murder weapon--a semi-automatic pistol--was found under her dead body.
22. The pistol was not discovered until deep into the investigation of the crime scene. It was only discovered when it was time to remove the bodies from the crime scene.
23. The Metro Police have ruled McNair's death a homicide. He was murdered. It is incredibly unlikely that he shot himself 4 times, including twice in the head, and then placed the murder weapon under Sahel's body.
24. The police have not yet ruled on Sahel's death.
25. The police are not looking for suspects.
26. The police are expected to rule Sahel's death a suicide
27. It is likely that this will case will end up a murder-suicide on the county record books.
28. Sahel Kazemi's family is adamant that she did not commit murder or suicide. They are insisting that a third party was involved in the crime.
29. Kazemi's family members state that McNair was in the process of divorcing his wife, and was going to marry Sahel. Reportedly, they say she was only willing to begin the relationship because she thought he was already in legal proceedings for divorce. We should not be too quick to believe that. A girl beginning an illicit affair with a married man would be inclined to tell her family this sort of thing, whether it is true or not.
30. No one in McNair's inner circle has confirmed any hint of a divorce. The county court house has no record of divorce filings or legal separation in Steve & Mechelle McNair's name.
31. Another Kazemi family member now says she fears that McNair was just using her relative. There is some acknowledgement that the reports of divorce may have been false or premature.
32. Steve & Mechelle's 14,000 sq ft mansion had recently been put up for sale for an asking price of $2.9 to $3 million USD. This is a fact of uncertain meaning. We shouldn't be too quick to draw a conclusion from this fact. It could mean anything. The family real estate agent claimed they were selling this mansion to buy another close to the lake.
33. Mechelle is denying that she knew anything of Steve's affair. She has stated that she was completely blindsided by this news. We shouldn't be too quick to believe that. Women can live in great denial of their husband's affairs... even when they know everything.
34. At least one source has described Sahel as mentally disturbed. We may have plenary evidence of this fact by now.
35. The police have determined that Sahel recently purchased a gun. The Federal ATF traced the weapon and determined that the murder weapon was the semi-automatic pistol purchased by Sahel Kazimi. It had been purchased Thursday evening, the 2nd of July. This is perhaps 32 hours before the murder-suicide.
36. The fact that Sahel could successfully purchase a semi automatic pistol is provocative. By Federal law, it is illegal for any individual under the age of 21 to buy or own a hand gun. A resident of Tennessee cannot apply for a weapons permit until 21. This must be an illegally obtained and unlicensed weapon.
37. The Police have now told Sahel's family that they are almost certain she is the shooter, but they have not locked-down a clear motive.

So what does a man say to an event and a case like this? Looking at the facts, a clear-cut pattern emerges.

A great quarterback retires from the NFL. As always he feels his life and career have blown past him far too quickly and ended too soon. He is confronted with thoughts of his own mortality. He believes he is on the count down to death, rather than the count up to his greatest achievements. This triggers his mid-life crisis, something all men go through. He stews at a low boil for some 7 months, probably in a state of depression.

McNair solves the mid-life crisis the way all men do: He gets his groove back by getting sexually involved with a young and gorgeous exotic woman. He becomes her sugar daddy, setting her up with everything she wants and needs. He buys their 'love nest' in the shadow of Titan stadium, so he can be reminded of the glory years as he is reinvigorated for his 2nd act in life. They go through a torrid sexual affair which lasts some 5 months, in which McNair is re-invigorated.

The fact that he could maintain her on the cheap, with a sub-part apartment condo, sparsely decorated & furnished, not to mention a used 2007 Escalade, may have been a plus in his mind. But she had much bigger ambitions for this relationship. She wanted to graduate from this temporary (good enough for now) status and become the queen of the 14,000 sq ft castle. Incidentally, the quality of Sahel's abode does not speak well of Steve's generosity toward his concubine.

Many men divorce their long-time wives and break up their first families in order to marry their mid-life crisis girlfriends. Regrettably, John Elway--a long time hero of mine--completed this pattern recently. Based on what happened, this was probably not the case with Steve McNair.

No one has confirmed that McNair was divorcing his wife Mechelle. It is more likely that McNair had come to his senses, was going to put an end to this relationship, and return to his wife. The breakup discourse may well have begun sometime around 1:30am Nashville time on the 4th of July 2009.

Another plausible theory is that McNair told Sahel that he would not divorce his wife, and he would never marry her sometime on or around July 2nd. He may have told her he would be happy to continue the affair (which is why he partied with her the next night) if she was willing to continue as his concubine, but their would be no marriage with her. Shortly after that discourse, Sahel purchased the gun.

She probably freaked out, knowing that Steve intended to keep her in this bare-knuckle arrangement, as a side-bitch, with few rights and little status. This was probably totally unacceptable to her. Given her possible record of insanity, she probably gave up on the notion that her life could work out well. This is when she decided on the course of murder-suicide.

In either case, Sahel snapped and drilled McNair four times with a semi-automatic 9mm pistol, including the two fatal shots to the head. She then put the gun to her temple and pulled the trigger, blowing her own brains out.

At least this is my theory. It would make all the facts fit together in a dreadfully tight package. We'll see. Sahel's ex-boyfriend might have killer them both. We can rule out the notion that Shi'ite Fundamentalist might have killed them both for consorting defilement with Infidels. Sahel was a member of the Baha’i faith sect, a non-Islamic group. Right now the cops are not looking for anybody. This would make the 3rd party murderer unlikely. Of course, the cops could start up a new investigation at any moment; the second the autopsy is finished.

The Police finished their interview of Sahel's former boyfriend, Keither Norfleet. They say he was fully cooperative, and he is not under suspicion. No suspects are being sought. I would say they are pretty close to closing this case.

Behavioral scientists would be shocked by this. As a rule, men do all the killing. When women murder and suicide, it is not usually with a gun. As a rule, it involves poison. Women are great poisoners. However, mentally disturbed woman have used guns to commit multiple murders. Since this was almost certainly a crime of extreme passion, I suspect that she did this abruptly in a massively emotional state.

There is a terrible tragedy here. Shakespeare said that Hell hath no furry like a woman scorn. This would appear to be another Fatal Attraction situation, much like the one Michael Douglas produced back in 1987. This one had a far worse outcome.

For all of us men out there: This is one of the best reasons why you should keep your snake in your pants... zipped up. Women go crazy in these situations. You could wind up dead.

I am very sorry to hear that this is how Steve McNair's life ended. It seems like a dreadfully wrong ending to his life. He didn't seem like a guy who would either encounter or be worthy of this sort of death. Nevertheless, this is how it has apparently ended for him.