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Let me preface this by saying that I don’t think they’re going to. As a fan of football (and not commercials or halftime shows featuring old white guys chosen because they have virtually no chance of getting undressed on national television), I hope this game is closer than it has the potential to be. I wouldn’t read too much into the last game of the year when the Giants came three points from beating the Patriots. This game has the potential to be a rout.

To win the game, the Giants will have to do a couple of things really well. The first is rush the passer. The teams that have faired the best against New England have been able to get in Brady’s face and not give him time to find any of their 6,000 receivers. You certainly don’t beat the Patriots by rushing four. New York defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is going to have to roll the dice, bring a variety of blitz packages and bet that his pass rushers can get to Brady before he can find a receiver. If you give Brady time, you’ll end up losing by 35 points.

Secondly, the Giants have to find their rushing game, meaning that Brandon Jacobs can’t be the non-factor he was in the NFC Championship game. The Patriots aren’t terribly strong up the middle and the linebacking corps is just younger than John McCain so it is a unit that can definitely been had.

Last but not least, Plaxico Burress cannot, at any point in the game, do his Pre-Patriots Randy Moss impression and pout when he’s not getting the ball and not finish routes. Without a mentally stable Burress, the Giants have no chance.

For the Republicans, I really think it will be a toss-up between Romney and McCain. The winner will win by no more than 3 percentage points. A latest Rasmussen poll showed McCain and Romney knotted at 31 percent. There will be no early winner here, particularly with historically conservative Northwest Florida’s polls closing an hour later than the rest of the state.

On the Democratic side, the latest polls show Clinton with a double digit lead, to the tune of 19 percent according to a poll released earlier this morning. While the win in Florida is largely representative of nothing, as the DNC has stripped Florida of its delegates for moving their primary up without permission, a win in Florida would be big for Clinton after getting mopped up in South Carolina. I’d look for Clinton to win today but by less than the 19 and 25 percent the polls have projected. I’m guessing more than like 10 to 12 percent.
With the race tightening, Super Tuesday (Feb. 5) is still  huge for the candidates with 22 states holding primaries including California and New York. If nothing else, the early primary appears to have weeded out the gaggle of candidates in the race initially. It appears, and today’s election will go a long way in solidifying, that both parties have essentially a two-man race.

The Associated Press is reporting that reserve running back Luke Caparelli has been dismissed from the Wake Forest football team after posting threats to his Facebook.

The threats reportedly included Caparelli saying that he would blow up campus and would be carrying a loaded Uzi in his backpack. A search of the running back’s dorm room produced no weapons.

At first blush, I was outraged at this story. Upon reading a few more details, I am less incensed but still bothered. For starters, Caparelli has to be smarter than this. Post-Virginia Tech university officials and law enforcement will handle any threat, no matter how vague or taken in what context, as a serious one and justifiably so. You can’t post these kinds of remarks anywhere and not expect a visit from the police in short order, particularly on a university campus. Our generation has got to become smarter about what is and isn’t appropriate when utilizing all of this new technology.

But I have an issue, at least for now, with how this issue was handled by the football team. I doubt, very seriously, that if this were not a reserve running back and was instead a starter that he would have been dismissed from the team. However, injustices like this are hardly common in big-time collegiate athletics. But where is the support for this young man in the event that his comments were not made in jest utilizing stupendously poor judgment? So by removing him from the football team, you risk alienating him even further and additionally depriving him of the help that he may potentially need. This appears to be a really classless, spineless action taken by Jim Grobe and the Wake Forest football team and the athletic department.

All of this may be premature when and if additional details become available. The AP says that Caparelli has not returned phone calls and has not provided a comment on the matter. There is a suspicious lack of coverage on this story locally, far as I can tell. The Winston-Salem Journal has nothing, the Wake Forest student newspaper has nothing and there is no statement that I’ve seen on the Wake Forest athletic department website.

This situation stinks.

A mini-review here at The Bottom Line of Michael Clayton, which I caught over the weekend. I’ve been itching to see Cloverfield but the girlfriend offered up Michael Clayton instead and given the great things I’ve heard about the film, I couldn’t say no. And I’m glad I didn’t. Believe every positive thing you have heard about this movie.

First let me say that every single performance in this movie is masterfully done. From George Clooney to Tilda Swinton to Sydney Pollack, every person in this film is perfectly cast and gives the film an ultra-realistic feel.

My hats off to Tony Gilroy, who wrote and directed the film. The guy already is a winner in my book, having written The Bourne Trilogy which I love so much. The film is well-written and the Gilroy’s visuals are enveloping and wonderful and I love the way the story moves and the way that by the end of the film, the story comes into focus for the viewer in a way that it hadn’t before.

I should preface this review by saying that this is not The Firm or any of the other legal thrillers. The film does have suspenseful moments but more than anything, I think this film is a wonderfully compelling character study.

Please, if you’re thinking of going to see Cloverfield or Rambo or Meet the Spartans (if you are seriously thinking of going to see Meet the Spartans, let me know and we will try to set up a meeting with a neurologist of your choosing), please check out the re-release of Michael Clayton.

For those of you who don’t know (a fact that cements the follow argument, in my opinion) this is New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker donning the milk mustache in an upcoming print ad. To put my dismay at the inclusion of Welker in this campaign in proper perspective, let me briefly note the people that have been featured in this ad in the past: Glenn Close, Spike Lee, Ron Howard, Matthew Fox, the cast of Scrubs, Larry King, Conan O’Brien, Bob Costas, Al Michaels, Muhammad Ali, Tom Brady, Brett Favre, Kevin Garnett, Marvin Harrison, Tony Hawk, Jason Kidd, Peyton, Eli and Archie Manning, Pete Sampras, Steve Nash, Alex Rodrgiuez, Cal Ripken, Jr… ok so maybe that wasn’t so brief. But Wes Welker?!?!

Don’t get me wrong Wes Welker is a nice player but make no mistake that the better receiver, arguably the best receiver since Jerry Rice, is the guy lined up on the opposite side of the field, Randy Moss. Welker is a shifty slot receiver, impossible for an outside linebacker to cover and a perfect compliment to a great receiver like Moss but let’s not get carried away. He is not, irrespective of his numbers, one of the top 20 receivers in the NFL.

If you didn’t recognize Welker’s picture at the top of this post, there’s probably a reason for that.

The North team features an interesting mix of quarterbacks with Michigan’s Chad Henne, USC’s John David Booty and Delaware’s Joe Flacco, a quarterback that didn’t get a whole lot of attention but had scouts buzzing with his size and mobility, comparing him to a Ben Roethlisberger-type threat.

Senior Bowl rosters are out and the South team is loaded to the gills with elite SEC talent and also features the most prolific quarterback in the history of college football.

I was happy to read in USAToday that voter enthusiasm is up and it really leaves one with the impression that this is going to be one of those landmark elections like when Kennedy was elected in 1960. I try to stay apolitical in my work and kind of keep my political views entirely separate from my professional work but I like what Barack Obama’s candidacy means for the advancement of race relations in our country. If nothing else, we need change and I like thc change that his presidency represents. Judging from the stories I’ve read, a lot of other people feel similarly inspired.

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Playoff picks

NEW ENGLAND over San Diego

GREEN BAY over New York

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A word of advice to Pac Man Jones….

STAY OUT OF STRIP CLUBS, DOOFUS 

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Weekend Watching..

Eastern Promises

Pan’s Labyrinth