Had a life-altering experience this weekend as the girlfriend and I ventured to Ikea in Orlando. It was not her first time in the store but it was mine and I was blown away. I think Ikea has a genius business model and I am a little surprised that given the store’s tremendous success both in the United States and abroad that it hasn’t been imitated. The store was just smaller than an aircraft carrier and seemed to house more customers than Rhode Island has citizens but the stuff is incredibly a) cheap and b) aesthetically pleasing in a modern, quasi-hipster sort of way.

What I will say is while I love the pair of lamps, silicone tipped tongs and slotted spatula, and $1.99 cutting boards, I would never ever attempt to assemble some of the larger furniture pieces the store offers. Walking into the store, you notice all the people backing their SUVs up to the Returns/Exchanges department, a look of defeat on their face, as they haul the flat box that was supposed to be that trendy-looking armoire back to its home.

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Good for San Diego, bad for football

I watched the end of the San Diego/Indianapolis playoff game this weekend from an elliptical machine at the gym, in front of a guy on a treadmill, rooting rather loudly for the San Diego Chargers as the game neared its finish. I suspect that this guy had no particular alliance with either team and wasn’t rooting for either team but rather rooting against the Colts, presumably because they were the favorite in the game. I felt like shaking that man and making him realize what the Colts losing meant. What it meant was that one of only TWO games that we will get to watch next week will feature a Chargers team that lost to the Patriots by 24 points earlier this season. In contrast, the Colts lost to the Patriots by a mere four points, in a close contrast that was the highest-rated Sunday afternoon game since at least 1987.  I would suggest getting a good movie to watch before Sunday’s Giants/Packers NFC Championship game/Brett Favre lovefest at 4:30. This thing is going to get ugly early. I’ll take the Patriots by 65 points.

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Shut up, Philip Rivers

Did anyone see the Chargers quarterback jaw-jacking with Colts fans at the end of Sunday’s game? I am tired of this kid. Shut up and play. What I’ll say about Rivers is that he has done an awful lot of talking and fist pumping for a guy with 21 TDs to 15 INTs on the year and not to mention.. HE DIDN’T EVEN FINISH THE GAME! If you had nothing to do with the outcome of a game, which he didn’t give credit where it’s due, in this case to Billy Volek, you can’t be trash talking to anyone. I’m tired of Philip Rivers. The dude has been to a single Pro Bowl and is lucky to be playing on a team with LaDanian Tomlinson and Antonio Gates.

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T.O. Cries

That’s all…

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Toshiba’s Hail Mary 

Word in the tech world this morning is that Toshiba is slashing prices on its HD-DVD players. The players, one of which I happen to own, will now range in price from $150 to $300. This is all fine and good but what Toshiba doesn’t seem to realize is that the problem isn’t the cost of the players. The problem was never the cost of the players. They are losing the format war agains Blu-Ray because studios have aligned themselves with the Sony’s technology and signed exclusive deals. What this means for consumers is that sure, they will have a top of the line HD-DVD player but they won’t have any High Definition content to play on it. I think it’s very unfortunate that this has played out the way it has for consumers. Consumers are the real losers here because instead of allowing the market to play out and consumers decide which technology they prefer, the studios have decided it for us by signing this exclusivity deals with Blu Ray or HD - DVD (much more so the former than the latter). My hope is that the two sides can make some sort of agreement that will allow the Blu Ray discs to be formatted to play on the HD DVD players or else a lot of consumers will be out a lot of money.

Dead horse files assault charge against Rev. Al

As some of you may have heard, Golf Channel analyst Kelly Tilghman has been suspended two weeks for a remark she made while calling the Mercedes-Benz championship last weekend.

On air, Tilghman joked that to stymie Tiger Woods’ dominance on tour young golfers needed to “lynch him in a back alley.” Tilghman has since apologized for the remark and has received the suspension I’ve mentioned above. Tiger’s camp has accepted her apology and the whole thing appeared to be over. A very poor choice of words into a live microphone had earned Tilghman two weeks off from work and a fair share of embarrassment.

If only that were the end of this story. Rev. Al Sharpton, as he seemingly always does, has interjected on behalf of… well at least himself, saying that Tilghman’s comments were no less inflammatory than Don Imus’ famous comments about the Rutgers womens basketball team and that Tilghman ought to be fired.

I should preface this post by saying that I think this country needs people like Rev. Al Sharpton serving as a watchdog for civil rights.

Al Sharpton is just flat out wrong about Kelly Tilghman. What he does when he injects himself into situations like this is compromise his own legitimacy as a leader and as a public figure when called upon to lend his voice to causes that are actually socially significant (the Jena Six most readily comes to mind).

You absolutely cannot make the comments that Tilghman and I do not condone making those types of comments because of the emotions and years of vicious violence they invoke. But Imus and Tilghman are not the same because there is nothing in her past that suggests that she is bigoted in any way (her friend, Washington Post columnist and PTI host Michael Wilbon said as much on last night’s program), the same cannot be said for Imus who, on a number of occasions, referred to Illinois Senator Barack Obama as “that young colored fella.”

Leave Kelly Tilghman alone, Al.

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Playoff Picks

GREEN BAY over Seattle

NEW ENGLAND over Jacksonville

INDIANAPOLIS over San Diego

DALLAS over New York

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When did Sports Writers become gossip columnists?

Does anyone really, truly, honestly care where and with whom Tony Romo spent his off weekend?

It is an absolute embarrassment to our profession that sports writers are asking Dallas Cowboys players and coaches what they think about Tony Romo heading to Cancun for a couple days during the Cowboys off week. A trip, it should be noted, he did not take alone, pro bowl tight end Jason Witten went along.

Romo broke no team rules by going, didn’t miss any practices or team functions. In fact, Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips instructed his players to get away from the game for a couple days. So what’s the problem? Do we care at all if Marco Rivera mowed his lawn over the weekend? Or if Marion Barber took a nap, played a little Call of Duty 4 and went to see No Country for Old Men? No and we shouldn’t care about this.

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Am I really excited about a flick called Cloverfield?

Answer: Very much

Ever since this film began it’s somewhat cryptic viral marketing campaign, I was interested to see what producer J.J. Abrams had in store. The trailer is out (and below) and what I like most is that they let you know just enough about the plot but leave it at that. Too many times trailers are giving away the movies they are advertising for to lure moviegoers into theaters. This film doesn’t need to do that and I’m itching to see what this movie has to offer.

That being said, I’m not expecting a whole lot. My guess is that this is a monster movie in the same vein that we have seen monster movies before and I hope that, after seeing the film, my favorite part about it isn’t the build-up before I saw going to see it.

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Senior Bowl adds some more big names

Add to the list of players committed to playing in this year’s Senior Bowl, five LSU Tigers. Those players are Jacob Hester, Craig Steltz, Early Doucet, Ali Highsmith and Chevis Jackson.

They join a nice contingent of players from the SEC who’ve committed already.

Also announced this week were Missouri tight end and First team All-American Martin Rucker, Texas wideout Limas Sweed, and Biletinikoff finalist Jordy Nelson from Kansas State.

The final rosters are to be announced on Sunday, Jan. 20 and will be posted here on The Bottom Line. This year’s Senior Bowl will be played on Saturday, Jan. 26 at 3 p.m. and will be televised on the *sigh* NFL Network.

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Sampson vs. Weber, Round 1

It’s a big afternoon for Indiana sports Sunday as the Colts kick off against the Chargers at 1 and IU and Illinois square off at 4:30 in Bloomington. If you thought the relationship between Bill Belichick and Eric Mangino was contentious, watch the IU game on Sunday on CBS. These are two men who genuinely hate each other’s guts, due in large part to Weber’s belief that Sampson contacted Gordon after the guard had verbally committed to play at Illinois in 2008. Sampson claims a member of Gordon’s family initiated the contact with his staff and that led to Gordon de-committing to Illinois and signing with the Hoosiers. What we have here is a good, old fashion Big Ten Bloodfeud and while the game Sunday won’t come close in the palpable hatred department at Feb. 7’s game in Champaign, it should be entertaining none the less. The end of game handshake will be like Patriots/Jets minus Belichick assaulting a photographer.