Week in Review

From top: Tiger Woods with his wife, Elin, and daughter at a Stanford football game before news of his affair. Alabama running back Mark Ingram on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Kurt Warner during his game against the Minnesota Vikings.

This is a slightly different type of blog post than I have done before. Instead of focusing on one game or event I took a look back on the week's most important sports stories. And of course, there is a bias towards bay area sports, as always.

NFL:

49ers:

Right when a friend mentioned to me the 49ers have a chance of making the playoffs, (yes, in fact they do) they go out and lose a very winnable game. And the Cardinals win against the Vikings (assuming they don't blow the 17 point lead they currently have).

With a 5-6 record, two games behind the NFC West leading Arizona Cardinals, the 49ers still had a shot at winning the division if they beat the Seahawks, and beat the Cardinals next week and then won out the rest of the season. Very doable, but a tough road game against the Eagles would have been problematic.

Instead the Niners don't even hold up their end of the bargain, falling 20-17 to the Seahawks in a mistake filled game. The Cardinals meanwhile, are dismantling the 10-1 Vikings behind the return of QB Kurt Warner and his 3 TD passes.

It seems as if every year is "the year" for the Niners. Every year they are picked by at least one magazine or called out on a sports tv show as the sleeper team of the year and each time they fall short behind mediocre play.

Rest of the NFL:

The Saints barely squeaked out an overtime win over the Washington Redskins, keeping their perfect season alive. Speaking of unbeaten teams, the Colt defeated the Titans 27-17 to tie the Patriots' regular season record of 21 straight victories.

In Michael Vick's return to his former team, the Atlanta Falcons, the Eagles QB rushed and passed for a TD for the first time since 2006 in a 34-7 romp. When Vick first took the field, he received a mixed welcome, but by the end of the game the crowd was behind him.

The Steelers, last years Super Bowl champions, got upset by the Oakland Raiders on a last second touchdown. This is the fourth straight loss for the Steelers and they are in serious danger of missing the playoffs.

And apologies to the person who I advised to pick the Steelers to win in their dad's office pool of NFL pick'em. He had picked the first 11 games correctly.

All of a sudden 2 stud NFL teams, the Steelers and the Patriots appear suddenly vulnerable. Tom Brady's efforts weren't enough to stave off a 22-21 defeat at the hands of the Miami Dolphins.

College Football:

After a 32-13 win over the then #1 Florida Gators, the Alabama Crimson Tide will be playing in the BCS Championship game on Jan. 7 versus the Texas Longhorns, who beat Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship on a field goal with 1 second left.

Mark Ingram was the best of all the Heisman candidates playing on Saturday and in my opinion won the award with 113 rushing yards and 3 TDs. I still think Toby Gerhart did more for his team this season than Ingram, but Ingram is a worthy candidate. Sports Illustrated wrote a great article on him last issue that is worth checking out.

The Stanford Cardinal will play in the Sun Bowl against the Oklahoma Sooners in El Paso, TX on New Year's Eve. Despite the Sooners down season, which can be attributed largely to their quarterback Sam Bradford's shoulder injury, Oklahoma should not be taken lightly. They are a Big 12 powerhouse and snuffed Oklahoma State's BCS dreams with a 27-0 smackdown.

Tiger:

The Tiger Woods affair story became official this week. His wife, Elin, enraged that he was having an affair, smashed the windows of his car with a golf club, causing him to crash. It is sad to see arguably the world's most famous athlete caught in such a quagmire.

But Tiger did not react well to the news and instead continued to deny any "malicious rumors." He should have come out and held a press conference admitting his mistakes and then moved on. Go here to see a parody of Woods's affair done by SNL.

Alex Rodriguez, another incredibly famous athlete was found out to have been using PEDs while he played for the Texas Rangers this spring. He acknowledged his mistakes and apologized and recovered nicely from hip surgery and won the World Series.

It is likely that Tiger will come to terms with his transgressions, but it will be remembered as him vehemently denying that anything was up. Or will the sports world just let it go, as it has done with so many high profile athletes in the past? In my opinion, this is not nearly as bad as taking steroids or dogfighting and he will be able to move on without as much public criticism as other athletes. Tiger, however has the disadvantage of being so famous that people will have a hard time letting this go. His sterling, and almost boring reputation are no more.