Thank god for excessively long Destin City Council meeting.

Had it not been for a lengthy council meeting last night that had me working until just about 11:00 p.m., I never would have caught the lion’s share of last night’s UCLA/Stanford game at Pauley Pavillion.

What I saw reinforced my opinion about UCLA; they are a talented team but not especially deep and not especially focused. They deserved to lose last night’s game but didn’t. More surprising to me was how good Stanford is.

Led by the best front court duo in America in twins Brook and Robin Lopez, the Cardinals are a good free throw shooting team, play pretty solid defense (though not great in transition as last night showed) and they aren’t turnover prone. Those are the qualities that help a team make a run deep into the NCAA Tournament.

Stanford is a team that could easily be a number one seed, particularly if they beat UCLA in the Pac-10 Tournament. Though, to win games in March, The Cardinal will have to put opponents away. Their inability to keep UCLA at an arm’s length cost them the game last  night and a share of the Pac-10 regular season title.

GUYS

For a square-jawed dude with a five o’clock shadow, Menard sure does have an  awfully girly-sounding voice. This was a long time coming. I think he could have gone home last week but managed not to suck as bad as Robbie Carrico and the cruise boat performer Jason Yeager. Not the case this week, on a night of pretty alright performances Menard opened with a Wham! tune, not at all helping his image as a girly singer. It’s lights out for Luke.

This kid is too bizarre for words and I think America has tired of his 80s Valley girl attitude, on stage and off, and his performances haven’t been strong enough to justify keeping him around. I hope he and his emo kid haircut are sent packing this week. I simply don’t think I can handle another week of Noriega strutting around the stage like Mick Jagger.

WARM UP THE BUS

I officially declared war on the dreadlocked one after he squeaked his way through Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah this week. I acknowledge that it is a tough song choice but if you don’t have the voice to really nail it, don’t even think about it. His vocals don’t match that of David Archuleta, David Hernandez and maybe even Michael Johns and when interviewed, he is only slightly more coherent than Paula. If you don’t have the voice, you need the personality to win over voters and unfortunately, Castro has neither.

GIRLS 

  Kady Malloy is the worst performer on the show, far and away. She’s genuinely awful and deserved to go home last week. If she’s not gone after tonight, there’s a fair chance Simon will resort to accuse her of war crimes next week to get her sent home.

No charisma. No personality.  No stage presence. The worst dresser on a show chock full of bad dressers.  The judges gave her credit for Country-fying Journey’s Faithfully but I didn’t think she went far enough. Yes, there was a steel guitar that appeared at brief moments during of the song and yes, she sang with a slight accent for certain parts but it just wasn’t enough but it just wasn’t enough. Simon was right, as he often is (except for this week, did he really like Jason Castro’s Hallelujah and Amanda Overmyer’s Joan Jett cover?), Cook is forgettable and I hope to start forgetting she was even on the show after tonight.

WARM UP THE BUS

Another contestant who managed to not suck bad enough to get themselves sent home this week. She is, behind Kady Malloy, the least vocally talented performer still in the competition. She predictably did a Joan Jett song, which I contend was carried mostly by the back-up singers, and it was typical Overmyer. Lost of wailing and howling and very little actual singing. She deserves to go home ASAP, it just may not be this week.

7:03 p.m. - Asia’h Epperson comes out and tries to kick it off with Whitney Houston’s “I Want to Dance With Somebody” and it sounded pretty good. She really needs to work on her diction and really enunciate every word but by and large, it was a pretty strong performance from a girl who needed a strong performance after last week. Randy Jackson name drops Whitney Houston before praising Epperson, saying it was hot. Paula, more medicated than ever, said her for nailing it. Simon said it was too much like an impersonation of Whitney Houston. Epperson gets through, no questions asked. A good start for the girls who were god awful all the way through last week.

7:10 p.m. - Kady Malloy, who is far and away the least talented performer on the show, comes out and proves why she deserved to go home last week, wailing through Queen’s “Who Wants to Live Forever.” The song really lends itself to Malloy’s background as an opera singer but its harmonies are really lost on the tonally-challenged Malloy. Randy thought it was pretty good but not great. Paula said it was her greatest performance to date, which isn’t saying a whole lot. Simon says she has “a massive lack of personality” and calls her robotic. She’s out.

7:16 p.m. - Another girl that should have gone home last week, Amanda Overmeyer comes out and predictably does Joan Jett’s “I Hate Myself for Loving You.” The song was really sung by back-up singers. They must have turned Overmeyer’s microphone or something because you couldn’t hear her during the chorus at all. She did a bit of her patented screaming and it was awful. Randy Jackson said it was well done for reasons I’ll never understand. Paula praises her hair and says she’s found her niche. Simon said it was fantastic and I wonder if sometimes he doesn’t just say the opposite of what people expect him to for his own amusement. I still think she deserves to go home but it may wait a week after the judges’ rave reviews.

7:24 p.m. - Carly Smithson comes out in pants up to her neck and does Cyndi Lauper’s “I Drove All Night.” I feel about it how I felt about David Archuleta’s Phil Collins cover last night. It was restrained, solid, consistent and just OK. Randy and Paula loved but Simon said it was the wrong choice and says Smithson is a million times better than the song she chose and would have to agree. Smithson gets through and is still the best girl in the competition.

7:29 p.m. - Kristy Lee Cook, the Idol contestant most likely to be dressed by the staff at Fashion Bug, does Journey’s “Faithfully” and really struggles. The run she tries out at the end is just crap and a mess of mismashed notes. Randy, who can’t help himself but name drop Journey and that he worked with him, likes it because its Journey. Paula said it could be a country single. Simon calls her forgettable and she’s, at best, the 10th best girl in the competition. She’s in serious jeopardy of going home, she’s just too nice.

7:37 p.m. - Ramiele Malubay comes out and does Phil Collins’ Against All Odds, a song covered by The Postal Service if you thought it sounded familiar. I like the way the song moved and got bigger toward the end but it never took off the way it could have. Randy said it was good but Malubay needs to let go a little matter. Paula rambled about mutts and colors before saying Ramiele needed to be in the top 12. Simon said it was old-fashioned and predictable. I would have loved the peformance and felt sure of Malubay going through if that song would have gone on for another minute but it felt premature and abrupt. She could be in serious jeopardy this week.

7:47 p.m. - Brooke White comes out acoustic to Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield.” I liked the way this song started off but the rest of the performance was a little off-key and honestly a little boring. It just didn’t go anywhere and the original is anything but. Randy said he really liked it but didn’t think she brought anything new to it. Paula called it pure and wishes that the song would have built into something climatic with the band backing towards the end. Simon said it worked because there wasn’t a band and that she made it into her own. Brooke makes it through despite being not all that talented vocally.

7:52 p.m. - Syesha Mercado finishes the show with Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love for You.” The song has a couple of bright spots and shows that Mercado can sing but there was nothing exciting or innovative about this performance. A little old-fashioned, predictable and unspectacular. Gets “good” across the board as the show races to a close in time to end by 8:00 p.m. She gets through no problems. Being pretty is only going to get this girl so far and needs to stand out a little more.

A batch of performances much like the boys last night. No one was absolutely terrible. The four in jeopardy are Kady Malloy (who is out of here), Amanda Overmeyer, Kristy Lee Cook, and Ramiele Malubay who has a great, great voice but isn’t a strong enough performer in the truest sense of the word. The best part of the night, far and away, was when Ryan Seacrest announced that former idol Blake Lewis would be performing tomorrow night and someone in the audience vocally deflated. You honestly heard them go “Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh.” I share that sentiment, random audience member. Prepare for some beat boxing.

Got tipped off to this by our friends at USAToday’s SportsScope blog:

“Brendan O’Reilly is the sports director at WBNG-TV (Johnson City, N.Y.). His station covers Cornell, which just won the Ivy League men’s basketball title, earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

ESPN wanted video of Cornell’s big win. They wanted it badly. And they went to O’Reilly.”

Appparently, O’Reilly was none too pleased about the way The Worldwide Leader handled themselves when trying to get the footage and wrote a letter to the network on this blog.

Some of the highlights included:

“Thanks so much for calling my cellphone repeatedly on Saturday.
Not sure how you got that number, but it sure was super to chat. Say hi to Neil Everett for me. He’s awesome.”

“Yes, we are happy to share the video from Cornell clinching their Ivy League title. Hope you don’t mind if we go ahead and worry about our show first though. I know everyone loves the Sportscenter, with the zany commercials and all, but we’re going to go ahead and edit our stuff first.
We’re selfish that way.”

“Second, after I send you the video roughly 15 minutes after we get the tape back from Ithaca, feel free to call again and ask me to resend it because “the video quality isn’t the best.” No sweat. It’s not like I mentioned we’re a staff of 2 putting together a 30 minute show.”

“I’ll keep your number for when I want a different angle on all the stuff you send to WBNG.”

“Third, when you run our video on all your shows, please find a font size roughly one pixel in height to show that it was shot by WBNG. We want people that have 60 inch monitors to have to squint to read it. That’s the goal.”

First of all, let me compliment O’Reilly on how epic0 it was for him to call The Worldwide Leader out like this. I think ESPN is of the opinion that everyone who works in sports, indirectly works for them, you know the whole Worldwide Leader thing.

I have an idea for ESPN. Instead of badgering someone that works for a station that isn’t even an ABC affiliate, the Worldwide Leader should work on upping their journalistic integrity.  Too many times, their reporters have taken credit for the work done by print journalists or other news media outlets. In our business taking credit for something someone else has done is called plagiarism and it’s a career-ender.

Reputable news sources issue corrections, retractions or clarifications. ESPN does not. When their talking heads posed as journalists go on the air and report incorrect information, their audience is never apologized to for receiving bad information. Instead, the Worldwide Leader and its catchphrase-slinging talking heads act as if Kirk Herbstreit never reported that Les Miles was taking the job at Michigan or that Andy Katz never reported that Kelvin Sampson would likely be suspended by Indiana. For the record, Miles called a press conference to officially — and firmly — deny Herbstreit’s report and hours after Katz’s stellar reporting and fact-checking work, Sampson took a buyout and resigned as Indiana head basketball coach.

Well done, guys. That Peabody’s on the way.

7:03 p.m. Luke Menard is first. Apparently it’s 80s night. The night gets an ominous start with Menard laboring through Wham!’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” Just awful, bizaree and horrendous. Randy called it corny. Paula tries not to criticize a bad performance before inexplicably commenting that she loves it. Simon calls it girly and said there’s no chance he makes it to the final 12. See ya, Luke and not a moment too soon.

7:09 p.m. David Archuleta belts out Phil Collin’s Another Day in Paradise, a song that I remember loving from my childhood as my dad was a big Collins fan and a big fan of Genesis. I didn’t like the rendition and thought it suffered by comparison to the original. It seemed reserved and restrained. Randy Jackson called it “nice.” Paula said she liked the off notes because it proved he wasn’t perfect. Simon said it wasn’t as good as last week and said he was becoming too gloomy and needs to lighten up. He makes it through easily but a good performance by another guy or girl this week could see someone else take the front-runner position from the pixie-like Archuleta.

7:19 p.m. Danny Norriega does a bizarre cabaret version of Tainted Love. I think the arrangement is horrific as are Norriega’s awkward attempts to sex up the song by moving his head a lot and strutting around. What’s interesting about Tainted Love was while it was made popular by Soft Cell in 1981, it was actually originally recorded in 1964. Should this disqualify Norriega? Randy said he likes it but wants to see some conviction, he calls the flamboyant Norriega vocally shy. Paula rambles incoherently for a while before complimenting him on being true to himself and telling him to get the purple streaks out of his hair. Simon calls it horrible and absolutely useless. I think Norriega is in serious danger of being voted off but a couple bad performances later tonight night by Chikeze or another of the other guys could keep him around a week.

7:24 p.m. David Hernandez belts out a pretty strong rendition of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” I think Hernandez is a dark horse in this competition and could threaten Archuleta as the top boy. Randy said it was good but he overshot the notes at times but complimented the song choice. Paula says he’s becoming a good performer and that he has some of the best vocals in the competition. Simon said he prefers Hernandez’s voice when singing more soulful songs. Hernandez then attempts to schmooze with the judges about his choose, which comes off a little disingenuous and cheesy. He’ll have plenty of time to trade fashion tips with the judges for a couple more weeks — he’s through easily.

7:32 p.m. Michael Johns comes out with Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds. At first I thought I was going to really like this, as I’ve not been a Johns fan so far. The verses and choruses were a little shaky but he ended strong. Randy said he loved it, despite confusing Simple Minds who were Scottish and with INXS who were Australian, as Johns is. Paula said he’s unique and different. Simon said he likes it but said he hasn’t had his breakout moment yet and calls him a wannabe rockstar despite finishing his critique by saying that he “really, really” likes him. He gets through easily but I don’t see him as one of the final two guys.

7:40 p.m. David Cook straps on his guitar for a second week in a row and does a rock version of Lionel Richie’s Hello. I really honestly hate this — I hate it a lot. I think it’s creative but I think he’s using the guitar as a crutch and it distracts from some of the problem with his vocals. The beginning of the song was a total nightmare. Randy said the performance was emo and “brilliant.” Paula calls it fabulous and said she believes he’s going to be a “great, shining star.” Simon said it was brave and that he loved it, kind of surprising considered the harsh words he had for the thinning-haired corporate rocker. He’s through, hands down but can’t hold a candle vocally to Archuleta or Hernandez but could vie for that third-best dude spot with Johns.

7:44 p.m. Jason Castro comes out, sans guitar, and does Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” The song, for me, suffers by comparison to the Jeff Buckley cover, one of the most beautiful covers ever. Castro doesn’t have the voice to carry the song and you could tell he was reaching for notes that he just doesn’t have. Randy said it’s brave but doesn’t comment on what he thought of the performance. Paula rambles on about how good it is… clearly the medication is kicking in. Simon pledges his love for the Buckley version and then dumps praise on Castro, who appears to be about as coherent as Paula. I think he goes through and it breaks my heart to see him screech through one of my favorite songs ever. I officially have disdain for Jason Castro and will openly campaign for his departure until he is sent home, which if not this week will certainly be next week or the week after. He just doesn’t have the voice, period.

7:53 p.m. Chikeze comes out and does a song that I honestly don’t recognize. I’ve seen this before from Chikeze. He smiles a lot, kind of shuffles from side and hits a couple good notes. It’s boring. Randy said he thought it was really good and compliments the song choice. Paula said his vocals sounded really good tonight. Simon said it didn’t work and called it cabaret and didn’t think singing a song recorded by Whitney Houston to be a bad idea. I think people may forget to vote for Chikeze. He could go home this weekend.

Paula describes the night’s performances with two words: “Phu-Nomenal.” You really can’t make this stuff up. I think there are four people in serious jeopardy this week. Danny Norriega, Chikeze, Luke Menard (who is going home this week, without question) and Jason Castro.

Multiple sources are reporting that Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre has informed the team of his decision to retire after 17 seasons.

Though I’ve been highly critical of Favre’s reckless style of play toward the latter end of his career, Brett Favre is the first superstar quarterback of my youth to retire. I’ve seen the entire breadth of Favre’s career unfold before me and now to see it come to an end today is a little surreal for me. Sure, I was a football fan when Montana retired and ditto for Jim Kelly, Dan Marina and John Elway but I didn’t see their ascent from rookie to NFL legend. I remember Favre throwing touchdown passes to Robert Brooks, Antonio Freeman and Mark Chumura. I remember Favre running down the field in The Superdome with his helmet off after throwing his first touchdown pass against the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. That moment will be forever be his legacy and will serve as a snapshot, indicative of how Favre played this game for 17 years.

But Favre was hardly Superman and as fans, we were reminded more than once that number 4 was mortal. In 1996, he entered rehab to treat an addiction to vicodin. In 2003, Brett’s father, Irvin, was died of a heart attack while behind the wheel in Kiln, Mississippi. The following day Brett played on Monday night football, threw for 399 yards and four touchdowns. In 2004, Favre lost his brother-in-law in an ATV accident and shortly thereafter learned that his wife, Deanna had breast cancer. The following year Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, destroying the home of Favre’s parents in Mississippi. Favre played every down in 2005. Never has there been a more tragic, at the same time more inspirational sports star than Brett Favre and the sports world will miss him dearly but is profoundly better having had him for almost 20 years.

I honesty sit here stunned. After having a resurgence and leading his team all the way to the NFC Championship, a game away from the Super Bowl, many, myself included, believed that he would be back given that most of a team that finished with the second best record in the NFC would return in 2008. Instead, Favre has decided, finally, to walk away and return to Kiln, Mississippi.

We wish him luck. God knows, he finally deserves some.

Coming off a year in which he threw a career best 32 touchdowns (and 11 interceptions), the Pittsburgh Steelers made Ben Roethlisberger the highest paid player in the history of the franchise, inking him to a 8-year deal worth $102 million, $36 million in guaranteed money. Mark my words, the Steelers will end up regretting this deal.

Make no mistake, Ben Roethlisberger was at the right place at the right time when he left Miami of Ohio a year early and was taken with the 11th pick in the first round of

2004’s draft. He came onto a team that had most of the pieces already in place. They had veteran leadership in Jerome Bettis and Hines Ward, playmakers on the outside with Plaxico Burress and Antwaan Randle-El and a veteran offensive line. He came onto a team that was halfway there anyway. His only task was to not screw it up and his rookie season, he managed not to and they won the Super Bowl.

Since then, reviews have been mixed on Big Ben. He’s struggled with injuries and is interception prone at times but for the most part is an efficient, reliable starting quarterback in the league. He’s not Peyton Manning, he’s not Tom Brady, he’s not Carson Palmer but the Steelers sure are paying him like he is.

If  you’re a Steelers fan, you have to wonder how this will ultimately effect the rest of your team. The team has been very firm on how it pays veterans and has shown that it’s not afraid to let a beloved veteran walk (see: Joey Porter). But what does this mean for players like Troy Polamalu and Willie Parker and Santonio Holmes and Heath Miller when it’s time for them to re-sign? And perhaps most intriguing of all, what happens when it’s time to re-sign Hines Ward? The money they’re funneling into Big Ben will have long term consequences for this team as division rivals Cleveland and Baltimore continue to try to upgrade their teams through free agency. Meanwhile, this off season, all the Steelers have done is re-signed Big Ben through 2016 and let Alan Faneca leave.

What will 2008 hold for the Steelers and their new $102 million quarterback? Will it be another 32 and 11 year or will we see 2006 redux where Roethlisberger went 18 and 23? Steelers fans have 102 million reasons to be very concerned about the future of their franchise.

Steeler fans, apparently, are none too sure that this is a good deal for their team either. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a poll on their site that shows that nearly a third of the 1,100 people that have taken the poll believe the Steelers gave the quarterback too much.