The NFC Wild Card Playoffs

Some NFL teams waltz into the postseason, while others sneak through by the skin of their teeth. The two dominate teams in each conference get to watch the playoffs on TV this week, but everybody else in this exclusive tournament is playing today and tomorrow. The Bears, Saints, Chargers and Ravens are the luckiest ones, but the way things went in the NFL this season, I think every team should just feel grateful to be there. Yesterday I did my AFC Wild Card Weekend selections, so today it’s the NFC.

NFC

Dallas at Seattle

Both these teams are lucky to be in the playoffs and should be thankful that they’re playing each other. The Seahawks are by far the weakest team in the postseason, in my opinion. They have the talent, there’s no denying that. And the team’s core offensive players – QB Matt Hasselbeck, RB Shaun Alexander and WR Darrell Jackson – are all healthy, although Jackson continues to be bothered by a turf toe. But, if they are going to win, the Seahawks will have to pass the ball and take advantage of the Cowboys’ suspect defensive backs. Dallas has surrendered 14 TD passes within the last month, so they can be defeated in the air. The Cowboys, once seemingly a lock to win the NFC East title, limped into the postseason and will have to do just about everything right to win this one. QB Tony Romo has looked terrible since the New Orleans debacle, but I believe that RB’s Julius Jones and Mrion Barber, along with WR’s Terrell Owens, Terry Glenn and Patrick Crayton will generate enough offense to upset the hapless Seahawks.
FINAL SCORE: COWBOYS: 24 SEATTLE: 17

New York at Philadelphia

This will be the most entertaining of the four Wild Card matchups this weekend, in my opinion. Philly QB Jeff Garcia saved the day and the Eagles’ season when Donovan McNabb was injured, and the Eagles have soared since. There’s no team with more momentum, which is huge during the playoffs. With RB Brian Westbrook and TE L.J. Smith to complement Garcia, this team is poised to make a run. Conversely, the Giants are a team in disarray, but because they’re so talented and just grateful to be in the playoffs, I think they’re going to give the Eagles a tough game. NY QB Eli Manning shows moments of brilliance, and RB Tiki Barber is going to be playing like it’s the last game of his career (which it could be.) I like Philly in this one, but only because they’re at home and have the better defense.
FINAL SCORE: EAGLES: 17 GIANTS: 14

Let's Do the Wild Card Thing: The AFC

Once again, it’s Wild Card Weekend, when the pretenders and the contenders begin the NFL playoffs with hopes, dreams, and in many cases, unrealistic expectations. Some teams belong here, some do not, and after this weekend, half of these organizations will be watching the rest of the proceedings on TV, just like the rest of us. Even though I have proven to be terrible at picking winners, I will try once more to shed a little light on what I believe will happen this weekend. Today I’ll do the AFC and tomorrow the NFC.

AFC

Kansas City at Indianapolis

The Chiefs got an enormous break when the Denver Broncos pulled one of the biggest choke jobs in NFL history by losing at home to the SF 49ers, and now they are on their way to Indy to play a team that everyone has been able to run on at will. This bodes well for the Chiefs, because they have Larry Johnson, a big punishing RB who can ramble and is highly durable (416 rushes this year). The burden will be on Johnson, because KC cannot throw the ball. KC QB Trent Green has struggled since returning to the lineup after a concussion sidelined him mid-season, and his head obviously hasn’t cleared, because he’s throwing the ball as though he’s wearing fogged up glasses. Indy, on the other hand, is playing fairly good football, even though their defense gives up an average of 173 rushing yards per game. The Colts offense is clicking, however, and they will be tough to beat at home. After watching this one, you’ll be asking yourself, “Whatever happened to defense?”
FINAL SCORE: COLTS: 41 CHIEFS: 24

NY Jets at New England

The Jets surprised a lot of people this year and their head coach Eric Mangini has done a great job getting them into the playoffs. Their offense relies on short quick passes by QB Chad Pennington (average 10.2 per pass), and that just might work against a Bill Belichek defense. Pennington is a quick study and a smart field general, so if they have a shot, he’s the man that can get them there. On defense, the Jets have trouble stopping the run, which means Pats RB Corey Dillon could dominate. New England always seems to take it to another level around playoff time. QB Tom Brady is a master in the big ones, but this year the team has lacked something. Not having a big-play receiver could haunt the Pats in this one, so the pressure will be on Reche Caldwell. They say defense wins the important games, and New England has the superior defense in this matchup, so I like the Patriots.
FINAL SCORE: PATRIOTS: 20 NY JETS: 16

(This posting gave me a great opportunity to display a photo of the New England Patriots cheerleaders -- some of the very best in the business!)(See above)

This Week's Restaurant Review: Amarena in SF

Amarena is a classy little Italian joint nestled in the pristine neighborhood of San Francisco’s Cow Hollow/Marina District. It’s not in a commercial zone, which makes it nice. I get tired of restaurant rows. It’s nice to have a choice, but a large grouping of nothing but eating establishments usually means one of two things: 1.) They’re all going to be mediocre or 2.) They’re all going to be really pricey. Things like competition and complacency all have opportunities to rear their ugly heads when you put a bunch of restaurants in one location. Amarena is just the opposite. When you get there, it’s a pleasant surprise. Imagine a fine dining establishment right next door to your house. One of the drawbacks is that finding parking is literally impossible. We had to drive around the block at least a dozen times before we got lucky and found a spot. By the time my fiancée and I walked through the door at Amarena, we were hungry and starting to get on each other’s nerves. Searching for a place to park for 20 minutes will do that to you. But, once we sat down and had a glass of Chianti, we felt just fine. Amarena has tall ceilings, is decorated in warm colors, and the tables aren’t situated too close together, another one of my pet peeves. I had read in Zagat’s that the cute waitresses at Amarena are renowned for flirting with the male patrons. I was all set to flirt, so imagine my surprise and displeasure when we were waited on by the owner, who is male! And then to add insult to injury, he commenced to flirt all evening with my fiancée. Oh, well – at least the food was good. To kick things off, we had a wonderful salad called Arancio & Finocchio. It was a very simple assemblage of mixed greens, fennel, tiny pieces of orange and olives, lightly dressed with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I like my salads this way – basic and not too busy. Some restaurants, for some reason, feel like they have to throw every type of produce into a salad to make it interesting, when in actuality simplicity is the key. Next, we tried some of Amarena’s small dishes, including the Calamari Ripieni, which is baked calamari filled with sautéed Dungeness crab and shrimp, and then finished with a white wine sauce; and Carciofe e Granchio, a baked artichoke heart fillet with crab in an Argula sauce. Both were superb! We then ventured on to try a couple of the main dishes. First, there was the Sugo di Agnello, which consisted of homemade potato dumplings (aka gnocchi) with an awe-inspiring Bolognese sauce, and Spaghetti and Meatballs. Both were hearty and made with fresh ingredients, but the one thing that stood out the most was the meatballs. They were slightly crusty on the outside, but tender and succulent on the inside. A lot of places overcook meatballs and they come out like something just a little rarer than beef jerky, but these were some of the best I’ve ever had. If I were to say anything disparaging about Amarena, it would be that the dessert menu was unimpressive and predictable. Gelato and biscotti are “been there, done that” items, and I was hoping something a little more innovative. All in all, however, Amarena was a joy and I will surely go back when given the opportunity. Amarena is at 2162 Larkin Street (Larkin & Green) and the phone number is: (415) 447-0441.

Dodger/Giant Rivalry on for 2007!

Since 1969, the year my family moved to L.A. from New York, I have personally witnessed one of the most intense sports rivalries in team sports – between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants. This rivalry is so special because it’s so old, with great tradition and history behind it. This hate-hate relationship can be traced all the way back to the early 1900’s, when the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers (originally the Robins) fought and scrapped throughout many seasons. Names like John McGraw, Zack Wheat, Christy Mathewson, Mel Ott, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, Sal Maglie, Gil Hodges, Don Newcombe, Monte Irvin, Bobby Thomson and Duke Snider come to mind when you think about those days. When both teams moved to the West Coast in the late 1950’s the LA/SF rivalry became even more vicious, distinguished in the 60’s and 70’s by huge fights, both on the field and in the stands. When Giant pitcher Juan Marichal clubbed LA Catcher Johnny Roseboro over the head with a bat in 1965, the rivalry reached its apex. Let’s just say that there’s no love lost between these two teams. In 1977, I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, but I never gave up my allegiance to the Dodgers. I went to a ton of SF/LA games at windy, uncomfortable Candlestick Park for roughly three decades. After a while, I stopped wearing my Dodger stuff, because doing so meant taking an enormous amount of abuse. Giant fans would throw ice and other objects at me, and one time a guy even urinated on me in the bathroom, for which he received quite a beating. There were frequent fights and Candlestick was one big drunken brawl at times. Over the years, I learned to really despise the Giants and their fans, and I still do. That’s why this off season has been so entertaining. When the Dodgers hired Ned Coletti away from the Giants in 2005, I never imagined that he would be such a fantastic GM. The man is a real wheeler dealer and really seems to know his way around the free agent world of baseball. Last year he picked up players like Nomar Garciaparra, Greg Maddux, Wilson Betemit and Julio Lugo. He also traded for young talent like Andre Ethier. At the same time, the Dodgers farm system began producing with top prospects like Russell Martin, James Loney and Chad Billingsley. In the meantime, the Giants team that looked so promising a couple of years ago when they got into the World Series (and choked to the Angels), was rapidly getting old. Once a solid squad, the team started to look like a senior care facility, with names like Steve Finley, Ray Durham, Omar Vizquel and other assorted old timers. But, after this off season, I have to believe that the LA/SF rivalry will be as exciting to watch as ever. The Dodgers have some new players that should help their club tremendously, guys like Jason Schmidt (who they stole from the Giants), Randy Wolf, Juan Pierre and Luis Gonzalez. The Giants picked up guys like Ryan Klesko, Bengie Molina, Rich Aurilia and Dave Roberts, but the big catch was undoubtedly Barry Zito, who they signed to an incredible 7-year, $126 million contract -- the largest ever for a pitcher in the history of major league baseball. Now I can’t wait for the baseball season to start. April cannot get here soon enough. It should be another interesting chapter in one of the longest and most intense rivalries in sports – and you can bet I’ll be there to watch every single minute of it!

Happy New Year!!

Happy 2007 everyone. 2006 had it's ups and downs, but 2007 promises to be a great one. Thanks to everyone for reading LIFE ON THE EDGE and I'll be back blogging on January 3rd!

Chevy Who?

(Chevy Chase has to be the most talentless comic alive today, unless you actually count people like Pauly Shore, Andrew Dice Clay and Carrot Top as comedians. This schmuck is so unfunny that I almost get ill even talking about him. He got a lucky break when he was on Saturday Night Live, where people like John Belushi, Dan Akroyd and Gilda Radner were 1,000 times funnier than he was on their worst days. Think about this -- can you name ONE funny movie Chevy Chase has ever been in? I can name at least a dozen duds right off the top of my head (Can anyone say, "Fletch?") And don't say "Caddyshack," because that film was funny because of guys like Bill Murray and Rodney Dangerfield, so that one doesn't count. Gerald Ford was an All-American college football player at Michigan, and he tripped and almost fell a couple of times when he was President, primarily because he had a bum knee. To take that and turn it into a series of sketches was unfunny and unfair, but Ford took it in stride. For Chevy Chase's name to be spoken in the same breath as a great man like Gerald Ford is a disgrace and a travesty.)

SAN FRANCISCO (Dec. 27) - Comedian Chevy Chase, who became famous in the 1970s portraying Gerald Ford as an amiable klutz, praised the former president Wednesday and said they later became friendly in spite of the biting comedy routines. Chase, 63, was an original cast member on the trend-setting late-night comedy television show "Saturday Night Live" and frequently opened the show pretending to be Ford stumbling and falling. The parody in 1975-76 helped reinforce a popular image about Ford's clumsiness, even though the president had been a star athlete in college. "He had never been elected period, so I never felt that he deserved to be there to begin with," the actor said about Ford, who died on Tuesday at age 93. "That was just the way I felt then as a young man and as a writer and a liberal." "Later on we became friends and he was a very, very sweet man," Chase said in a telephone interview from a Colorado ski resort. "He took my wife and I on a whole lovely trip through Grand Rapids to show us where he had been as a child and what not. We kept in touch and he was just a terrific guy." Chase, who has since starred in many film comedies, said Ford helped boost his career, but said another politician could have just as easily become the comedic punching bag in such politically turbulent times. Chase was initially hired as a writer, not an actor, but the humor he wrote mocking Ford helped change that. "I wrote all those Gerald Ford jokes and (producer) Lorne (Michaels) put me on the air," he said. "Doing the stunt falls and stuff ... started me." "As far as making my career, it could have been anybody who had been a Republican after Nixon and pardoned him."

Dear Santa: My Sports Christmas Wish List

My Sports Christmas Wish List is short and sweet, for one basic reason. I haven’t really been all that good this past year, so if Santa decides to put coal in my stocking he’ll be totally justified. In the hopes that Old St. Nick will forget my transgressions in 2006, here is what I wish for in the world of sports in 2007.

I wish that….

The City of Los Angeles finally gets an NFL expansion team. It’s a shame and a travesty that one of the country’s biggest markets doesn’t have a football team they can call their own.

Ken Griffey plays a full season without getting injured…again. This poor guy has been on the disabled list eight times since coming to Cincy. How do you break your hand playing with your kids, anyway?

Allan Iverson gets along with everybody in Denver and decides to show up at an occasional practice.

Barry Bonds breaks the all-time HR record outside of SF and gets soundly booed by opposing fans.

Mark McGwire gets into the Hall of Fame “Steroids Wing.”

T.O. grows up and stops acting like a kid who just lost his allowance for talking back to his parents.

The Boston Red Sox and LA Dodgers play in the World Series, payback for all of the aggressive free agent moves they made this past winter.

Annie Duke wins the World Series of Poker because I think she’s hot….and smart – a deadly combination.

Kobe scores 101 one night.

Somebody (Howard or Pujols?) hits five home runs in an MLB game.

An MLB pitcher wins 30 games for the first time since Denny McClain did it in 1968.

The New Orleans Saints show the world that their city is back after Katrina, with a Super Bowl win.

Florida upsets Ohio State in the BCS Championship Game, thereby creating more controversy and provoking serious talks about a playoff series.

The San Jose Sharks get into the Stanley Cup Playoffs (which will be tough with the Ducks playing like they are.)

Merry Christmas Everyone: An Inspirational Message from LIFE ON THE EDGE

Make it a special Christmas this year. Tell someone you love them. Open lots of gifts. Take a minute to look at your beautiful Christmas tree. Put anger, anxiety and doubt aside for the entire day. Eat like a pig. Laugh your ass off. Smoke a cigar and break wind. The average person in this country only gets about 68-72 Christmas Days per lifetime, unless you happen to get hit by a moped or choke on a turkey bone, in which case the figure is considerably lower. So have a great Christmas (while you can.)

On Christmas Vacation

I'm on vacation until January 3rd, 2007. If I get a chance, I might post something here, but my intention is to take a break and just relax. Have a wonderful Holiday Season and thanks for supporting LIFE ON THE EDGE in 2006!

More Yuletide Yuckfest Photos

The Yuckfest Band, Chubby's All-Stars, rocked the house this year with Viv Savage, the keyboard player from the legendary band SPINAL TAP. Thanks again to all the members of Chubby's for the best performance yet! I can't wait for the 10th Annual Yuletide Yuckfest next year. It will be a blast, baby! And remember, as Viv always says, "Have a Good Time All the Time!"