Tom Talks

When's the beer tasting?

   I'm not saying the racing media is not sophisticated and urbane. But we -- this week I'm one of them -- still retain a grassroots component.

   Last night, for example, ESPN and TRG Motorsports hosted a wine tasting. The wine was supplied by Adobe Road Winery. Kevin Buckler and his wife Debra own Adobe Road, out of Sonoma, Cal. Kevin is a former driver who owns the TRG team. He is an engaging guy who loves wine and loves talking about wine.

   One motorsports journalist heard that wine and dessert would be offered and was shocked.

   "You mean you don't have beer?" he asked.

   So beer was found and carried in.

   Some folks engaged in the wine tasting, starting with whites, moving to reds, sampling. They'd taste, rather than drink, and empty into a metal pot from their mouths or glasses the excess wine.

   One patron thought the pot was a tip jar, and dropped at least one dollar bill into it. 

Several big racing names showed up. Nobody made any mistakes with the dessert. Most of us had a good grassroots time.

J-E-T-S, thanks

   The playoffs feel like one long preview. Dallas dominates Philadelphia, and wait until next week when they play Minnesota. And then Minnesota dominates Dallas even more than Dallas dominated the Eagles. So wait until next week again.

   Indianapolis' easy victory against Baltimore was predictable (a 6 1/2-point favorite, Colts were my Lock of the Week). New Orleans-Arizona wasn't even competitive.

   What has saved the playoffs so far is the fantastic Arizona-Green Bay game, and the New York Jets.

   The Jets cakewalked into the playoffs when neither the Colts nor Cincinnati even tried to beat them. And then last week they easily beat the Bengals in a game that counted and on Sunday they played with  much confidence and poise in their 17-14 upset of San Diego.

   I like it when the usual suspects -- New Orleans, Minnesota and Indianapolis -- advance. You beat one of them, and you know you accomplished something. The Saints and the Colts were the league's best teams most of the season.

   But I also like underdogs, like it when a team that's not expected to be there shows up. The Jets are this season's gatecrasher. They come with tenacious defense, a cool rookie quarterback, a great rushing attack and a coach who disdains cliches and makes us-against-the-world fun.

   Sunday's matchups are intruiging. Maybe this time the games also will be.  

Four picks, one lock and the best football weekend of the season

   My picks were miserable last week. I went 1-3. Only game I picked correctly was Dallas beating Philadelphia.

   I'm looking for upsets this weekend. I don't see any. I'm going, reluctantly, with all four favorites.

   I like New Orleans over Arizona by 4, Indianapolis by 9 over Baltimore, Minnesota over Dallas by 6 and San Diego over the New York Jets by 7.

   The advantage home field confers, obviously, will be enormous.

   My lock of the week is the Colts. They're favored by 6 1/2 against Baltimore. They'll cover.

Good luck Skip Holtz. We salute you.

   I like and admire Skip Holtz, who left East Carolina for South Florida. Football is important at East Carolina. Fans understand and appreciate it. And Holtz understood how to restore a program and make it work again.

   Always courteous, always gracious and invariably upbeat, Holtz is a football coach for whom you'd like your sons to play. South Florida made a good hire, and nobody with sense can blame Holtz for leaving Conference USA for the Big East.

   I hope the Pirates find the right guy to replace him. If you've attended a game at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, you're familiar with the atmosphere the team generates. There's a big-time feel to it. Football is better in our state when East Carolina wins.

Can't blame Kiffin for making move

   I don't blame Lane Kiffin for leaving Tennessee. If there's a job you want, one job that looms above all others, you might as well take it. Yes, you'll take a huge public relations hit for abandoning a school and its people, people who have treated you well. And if you have any decency, you'll feel guilt for leaving them.
 
   But if Southern California is Kiffin's school, he should go there. Of course he's getting crushed by public opinion now. But had he not accepted the job, he would have taken a smaller hit every day.
 
   When presented with a dream opportunity, you take it.
 
   Wouldn't you?

Arizona and Green Bay remind us why the NFL is as good as sports gets

   We needed Arizona-Green Bay. I watched only a few televised college games in their entirety all season. But I fit my Sundays around the NFL. When I wasn't there, I watched on TV.

   The NFL product, I think, is vastly superior to college ball. It's more exciting, more unpredictable and, despite the absence of alumni, more fun. By any quantifiable standard, it is the national pastime. And if nobody else liked it, I would continue to.

   But the Wild Card games were nondescript. The New York Jets handled Cincinnati. Dallas beat up Philadelphia. Baltimore ran over New England. And Arizona was running up the score 17-0 against hte Packers.

   And then Green Bay came back behind brilliant passing and offensive play-calling and an onside kick, and we were treated to one of the great playoff games of all time. Up and down and back and forth, and nobody could stop anybody, and there was Dom Capers, a true gentlemen, a great assistant and Green Bay's defensive coordinator, about to pull out his very expensive hair.

   I never touched mine. I can't remember the last time a game made me yell as often as that one did. It was a joy to watch, and as good as sports gets, and one more reminder of why the NFL is where every other sport would like to be.

Tom picks, playoff edition

   I made my picks all season in Sunday's Observer. But with two games today, I'll start early.

   Last Week: 10-6

   Season: 172-81

   Upset of the Week (picking an underdog to win) 8-11

   Lock of the Week (picking against the spread) 10-8

   This week's picks with the home team in CAPS:

   CINCINNATI 7 over New York Jets

    This is my lock, since the Bengals are favored by 2 1/2.

   The Jets didn't even have to play to get into the playoffs. Indianapolis laid down in week 16, the Bengals in week 17. But today New York has to play a team that will fight back. I love New York's defense. But Cincinnati's defense also is efficient. And the Bengals will make passes the Jets won't. Quarterback will be the difference. Compared to the rest of the playoff teams, Jets are a fraud.

   DALLAS 4 over Philadelphia

   I love Donovan McNabb. But I'm not picking against the Cowboys, not the way they've been playing, not in Dallas.

   NEW ENGLAND 1 over Baltimore

   Brady, at home, in the playoffs? Despite the absence of Wes Welker, I'm not going against Brady or his coach.

   Green Bay 3 over ARIZONA

   The Cardinals have been inexplicably mediocre at home, as Carolina will attest. Green Bay has finally stopped beating itself. Packers are loaded. They could be this season's Arizona.

  

Love the SEC, don't love Saban, what's a guy to do?

   I need to find a team to pull for tonight, and I'm struggling.

   I usually pull for the SEC. SEC football isn't a sport. It's a lifestyle. The SEC has the best stadiums and the best game-day atmosphere and the best fans and the best traditions and the best teams and -- can I say this? -- the best sundresses.

   Every September somebody writes to say that ACC football is just as good as SEC football. That's as absurd now as when I first heard it. Georgia Tech and Clemson played for the ACC championship. They also played SEC also-rans Georgia and South Carolina. The also-rans ran all over them.

   I have a problem, however. Nick Saban coaches Alabama. I spent a little time with Saban when he coached Louisiana State. I don't want to imply that he's not engaging. But talking to him was like talking to a ball bearing.

   And then there was this:

   Are you leaving the Miami Dolphins, Nick?

   No.

   You sure?

   Yes.

   You positive?

   I am.

   Anything else, Nick?

   Yes.

   What?

   I am out of here. But don't tell anybody.

     Mack Brown of Texas I know a little. We talked when he coached North Carolina. He would get sad, rather than angry, when you wrote something he didn't like. I wrote that he would freeze in big games. I wrote this because he would freeze in big games.

   These were the olden days when Florida State dominated the ACC. The Tar Heels were up and coming and ready to take the Seminoles, you could tell. And then the game would begin. And Mack would draw in.

   Mack, however, is a nice guy, remarkably unpretentious for a big-time coach.

   If this were a wrestling match between Mack and Saban, I'm cheering for Mack. But this is a football game between the SEC and Texas.

   I probably won't know who to pull for until the game begins.

   But I'm leaning toward Boise State.

One more year

   John Fox says he will return as head coach of the Carolina Panthers next season. He told this to Mick Mixon on WBT Monday night.

   I'm fine with it. I don't think it's cause for excitement or dismay.

   Players are willing to work hard for him, as Carolina's late-season surge attests. Rarely are his Panthers spectacular. Rarely are they terrible.

  Under Fox, the Panthers have been solid. If they were a neighborhood, they would be on the line between middle and upper-middle class. If they were a house, the carpets would be beige, the walls neutral, the vehicle in the driveway an SUV. It would have enough juice to get into the left lane and pass. But that's not what it was built for.

  

  

  

  

Out of the stadium and into the cold and whatever comes next

   Linebacker Na'il Diggs walks out of Bank of America Stadium Monday morning for the final time this season and instinctively braces for the cold.

   Like Green Bay, I tell him.

   "Getting there," says Diggs, who played his first six seasons for the Packers.

   After their final meeting, the players scatter. Tight end Gary Barnidge is the first to leave.

   Players wear hoodies, jackets, coats and, in the case of rookie running back Tyrell Sutton, colorfu baggy pants that look like pajamas.

   The media, which began to gather before 8 a.m., waits. We lean against the building, pull our caps down and our scarves up, guzzle hot coffee and hold tape recorders and take notes with numb hands. Mine hands are numb, anyway. I can't write with my gloves on.

  We ask some players to stop and talk. As far as I can tell, all but two do, and one talks when he reaches his car.

   "It will be the same answers as last time," says quarterback Jake Delhomme.

   Different questions, I tell him.

   "Same answers," he says.

   He's right. He is consistent. He wants to be back next season and expects to be.

   Quarterback Matt Moore does. Linebacker Jon Beason does. Tackle Jordan Gross does.

   Asked what head coach John Fox told them, Gross says, "Save your money."

   There's a good chance that owners will lock out players after the 2010 season.

   Brad Hoover walks out wearing his helmet. He's neither riding a motorcycle nor making a statement. The helmet is easier to wear than to carry, he says.

   Not all the players who asked to talk agree to..

   "Got a minute?" I ask Steve Smith.

   "Nope," Smith says without breaking stride.

   Julius Peppers walks out of the stadium, a green garbage bag full of his stuff dangling from his left hand. With him is fellow defensive end Charles Johnson. The media follows Peppers. At least 10 men and women follow the big man to his blue Maserati. Johnson, who is free of reporters, watches the scene and laughs.

   Peppers opens the trunk and throws in the garbage bag. In the trunk of a Maserati, even a garbage bag looks elegant.

   On the way to his BMW 340-pound defensive tackle Hollis Thomas looks at the crowd outside Peppers' car.

   "It's too cold out here to try to get a story," he says.

   If there's an alternative, big man, tell me what it is.

   And hurry.