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If I could meet any 10 people in sports, the list would be as follows (not necessarily in order):

Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali is perhaps the greatest pound-for-pound boxer of all time. The heavyweight champ fought in some of the greatest matches of all time, including his bouts with a seemingly invincible Sonny Liston, against whom he first won the title, the famous rope-a-dope match against George Foreman, in which Ali famously allowed Foreman to punch himself into exhaustion before unleashing on him and handing him the first loss of his career, and three epic matches with his biggest rival, Smokin' Joe Frazier, culminating in the Thrilla in Manilla. Ali famously called this match the "closest thing to death" he ever experienced. Ali was the heavyweight champ at a time when boxing was king. In addition, he was a religious and political icon. He was a freak athlete, a poet, a showman, and an ambassador of peace all rolled into one. Muhammad Ali is certainly one of the most interesting figures in sports history, and tops my list of athletes I'd like to meet.

Mark Cuban

There are a lot of great characters in the world of sports, but few more interesting and entertaining than Mark Cuban. Cuban started a software company, Microsolutions, which made him a millionaire by the age of 32 when he sold it. A few years later, he started Broadcast.com, and during the dot com boom, he sold it to Yahoo! for 5.9 billion. I could go on and on about the different successful business ventures Cuban has had, but one of his most interesting acquisitions was his purchase of the Dallas Mavericks in 2000. The Mavs were the laughing stock of the league when Cuban took over, but over time, they became a perennial playoff contender, and this past year, defeated Lebron James and the hated Miami Heat, to capture the NBA championship. Cuban is an outspoken owner who rarely keeps his opinions to himself. He has racked up at least $1,665,000 in fines during his tenure as owner of the Mavericks. He has also shown interest in buying a baseball team, actively bidding on the Texas Rangers, and at one point or another showed interest in both the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs. He has recently been mentioned as considering purchasing the Los Angeles Dodgers if the price is right. In the entertainment field, Cuban has also made several guest appearances on ABC's entrepreneurial television hit series Shark Tank, in which he competes with other entrepreneurs to buy the rights to various ideas people bring forward to them. Cuban is an unconventional billionaire, and his candid nature and ability to have fun no matter what he is doing, has made him a fan favorite. It would be quite the experience to grab a cup of coffee with Mark Cuban.

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Posted by John Trifone at 08:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday, the other EDSFootball.com contributors and I released all individual game predictions for the wild-card round of the playoffs.

Here are my picks for the full playoffs from this point:

NFC

Wild-Card Round:
(3) Saints over (6) Lions (see our picks and rationale)
(4) Giants over (5) Falcons (see our picks and rationale)

Divisional Round:
(1) Packers over (4) Giants
(2) 49ers over (3) Saints

NFC Championship Game (historical results): (1) Packers over (2) 49ers

I know this is actually complete chalk in terms of seeds, but most people will have the Saints over the 49ers and possibly even the Packers. I also suspect a fair amount of people will take the Falcons over the Giants in the first round. I'd love to go another way than the Packers, but they've been hands down the best team in football this year in my eyes, and if they can play to their potential, I don't see anyone beating them.

AFC

Wild-Card Round:
(3) Texans over (6) Bengals (see our picks and rationale)
(5) Steelers over (4) Broncos (see our picks and rationale)

Divisional Round:
(1) Patriots over (5) Steelers
(2) Ravens over (3) Texans

AFC Championship Game (historical results): (1) Patriots over (2) Ravens

I'm not a Patriots fan, so I'd like to see myself be wrong here, but the Patriots are the best team in the AFC. They have come out flat in a lot of games this year, and then ended up just pouring it on and winning the game easily. Since losing to the Giants, the Patriots have won eight games in a row. Their offense is as good as any in the league, and their defense, though 31st in the league in yards, is 15th in points allowed. The poor defensive numbers are a little misleading though, as they are with Green Bay's 32nd-ranked defense. Though I wouldn't call either defense "good," they are victimized by such strong offenses. The defense is on the field more often with less rest when the offense can score as quickly and efficiently as these offenses do. I do think the Ravens can pose a challenge, but in New England, it's hard to pick against Brady and Belichick, the winningest coach/player combination in league history.

Super Bowl XLVI (historical results): Packers over Patriots

I know I'm not exactly going out on a limb picking the 15-1 Packers to win the Super Bowl. That said, it certainly isn't going to be an easy road. The Saints are perhaps the hottest team in the league, and it will take a lot to get by them if need be. The 49ers have a great defense that would likely slow down the Packers' offense. And while San Fran's offense is not great, Green Bay's defense is obviously their weak point. Even the Giants are capable of knocking the Packers off, given that Eli Manning led a drive in the final minutes of the game they played earlier in the year to tie them with less than a minute to go. Rodgers was able to one up Eli and march down the field in a matter of seconds to get into field goal range and get the win, but ever since the Chiefs upset Green Bay, they certainly were exposed as beatable.

The Patriots are also beatable, as they fall behind early far too often. Although their offense seems like they can score at will, their defense is quite vulnerable, and if they fall behind to a good playoff team, the Patriots certainly could go down. Every team has their flaws, though. The Ravens have been inexplicably bad at times this year, the Steelers have injury problems and can't beat the Ravens, and the Texans lost their number one quarterback earlier in the season, realistically taking them out of top contention in the eyes of most.

As for the game itself, the Packers are just the better overall team. You can flip a coin on Brady and Rodgers, and it's likely that whoever gets the ball last will be the team to triumph. But between the Packers defense being the better group in my mind and the Patriots problems with falling behind early, I like the Packers to come out on top. In this day and age, it's difficult for a team to repeat as champion, but the Packers are good enough to do just that. And I expect that they will.

See more of John's posts here and follow him on Twitter @JohnnyT0122

Posted by John Trifone at 06:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)