From Across the Pond..

I definitly viewed getting to watch last nights games with some skepticism when I heard, " We found an American sports bar thats going to play the Pats and Packers games through the night." As it turned out it was about half accurate. I got to see the entire Packers game in a bar in which about everyone was cheering for Farve and Co. but this all ended at about 2:15 local time when the bar owner finally realized he had made enough off the 90 American college students, and didn't want the garda (irish police) shutting down his establishement for serving late 13 days into the new year. Some observations on my first NFL experience in Europe.

-Casual European sports fans know 3 players Farve, Manning and Brady. I was guessing the man next to me wasn't to familiar with Hasselbeck, when i heard, "Is that bald man actually playing". Back to knowing only 3 American football players, I thought this was more stange until i noticed I only know about 8 epl players, Gerrard, Rinaldo, Rooney, Owen, Crouch, Van Nisterooy, and two or three more guys id probably recognize from Fifa.

- The two studio guys were Ian Allen ( a five year NFL lineman, who I think was SKY Sports version of funny ex-NFL player who never says anything relevant , a la Shannon Sharpe), and the host who looked exactly like Bill Belichick.

- I liked the whole "we need collumns, so lets write about how the Jags are going to the beat the Patriots angle," but it came down to one simple thing who do you trust to make plays in a Playoff game David Garrard (1-0 postseason) or Tom Brady (14-2 postseason). Garrard has a chance to be very good, and I think hes a step above a game manager, but he was expected to go into New England and beat a 16-0 team with the greatest quarterback and coach of the generation. I was expecting an even bigger blowout, which is why I might change my name to Sam from texas, to avoid 'V. Doherty bookmaking.'

Some predictions for Today..
Indy beats San Diego - I feel like everybody is sleeping on this colts team a little bit. I mean they did go 13-3 with losses to..
- SD: when Manning threw 38 interceptions and they still should have won.
- Pats: were leading in the 4th quarter, and looked every bit as good as them for 60 minutes
- titans- When Jim Sorgi played for a half.
They are playing unbelievable which would probably be getting a lot more press if not for a man named Brady. Take the points, and get ready for armagedon in Foxboro next week.
Dallas over NYG- I love how everybodys starting to trust ELI Manning. You'll see what I am talking about when Terence Newman becomes his favorite third down reciever. Take the points, and throughly enjoy the meltdown.