A Bunch of Stuff Worth Mentioning

**Going into tomorrow night's game in Calgary, the Islanders have picked up three of a possible eight points. Not good. But don't worry, reinforcements are on the way. The Isles sent Darryl Bootland to Anaheim yesterday for a winger named Matt Keith. Keith will report to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers just in time to play with Kyle Okposo. Keith had played 34 games with Portland this season and was 5 and 5 for 10 points. He has appeared in 24 career NHL games, all with the Blackhawks.

**Today I heard a good one. Josh Brown, the kicker of the Seahawks, is going to wear battery-powered heaters in his pants this weekend. Seriously. I guess it is a thing you wear when you're hunting but it sounds really funny. Battery-powered heaters in your pants. In Green Bay. The weather is allegedly going to be twenty degrees. Sure, you'll get cold and stuff but if I were ever to wear battery-powered heaters in my pants, I don't know if I would tell a lot of people about it.

Also, and this is the big question: have the NFL's uniform police cleared the battery-powered heaters for your pants? Could Josh Brown get fined for these heaters? Either way, it pretty much proves that kickers are not really football players.

**Red Sox Supermouth Curt Schilling is playing one more season and then he is going to retire to run a video-game company. I doubt that he will ever be able to pull himself away from a microphone long enough to do anything else. I know a lot of baseball fans who simply hate the guy. I don't even like baseball or follow it but he just pishes me off. What a media ho. We all know he faked that bloody sock thing and what's more, he knows that we know.

**Good to see that Chris Osgood is playing well in Detroit again and that he just signed a new contract for three more years. Ozzie was bigger than big when he played for the Isles and he really helped restore a measure of credibility to the team back while we all waited for Ricky to mature and take over between the pipes. Plus, let's never forget that he played a few weeks for the islanders in bright red goalie pants. No word on whether or not they were heated. I'm betting that they weren't.

Speaking of Osgood, whatever became of Justin Papineau, the guy we got from St. Louis when Ozzie was traded? Well, he signed with the Devils and then over the summer Papineau signed with EHC Basel of the Swiss National League. Thanks, Internet!

Devils still can't beat the Islanders

'Howe' huge was Andy Sutton on Saturday night? Sutton scored his first goal as an Islander with a booming slapshot past Martin Brodeur with 8:17 remaining in the third period. Sean Bergenheim's hard work was rewarded with a late tally and Mike Comrie had an empty netter that sealed the Devils' fate as the Islanders picked up two big points in a fight-filled contest at the Coliseum.

And yes, Andy Sutton had the Gordie Howe Hat Trick: a goal, an assist, and a fight.

Wade Dubielewicz played a fine game filling in for Rick DiPietro. Dubie must love playing the Devils. Remember, he beat them in the shootout on the last day of the season to put the Isles in the playoffs last season. Not only did the Nassau Faithful have a great time chanting for "Dubie", they also got to dust off last year's Ranger chestnut, "You can't beat us!" in the waning moments of the game on Saturday. The Devils have lost four games to our boys this year.

The Isles' website is reporting that Mike Sillinger and Rick DiPietro didn't make the trip to Carolina for tonight's game that starts at 8PM. Sillinger, according to Ted Nolan, has been gutting it through a variety of injuries and by missing tonight's game, he'll have four full days off to rest.

I just want to comment on the Giants-Patriots game from Saturday night if I could.

How funny was the commish in that interview before the game. Whenever they say "it's about the fans", it's really about the money. At least the NFL woke up enough to understand that it's on their shoulders to get the games to the fans, not the TV networks. So much was made of this allegedly momentous simulcast of the game on CBS and NBC that people aren't even seeing it for what it really was--a three-hour infomercial for the NFL Network.

Bryant Gumbel was exposed to wider audience and man is he ho-ho-horrible. He's the reason cable operators are keeping the NFL Network off of regular cable! They all know how bad he is! Gumbel simply has to be fired. I never thought I'd say this, but his lack of ability to recognize down and distance had me longing for (of all people) Paul Maguire. And did anyone else notice that he said Domenik Hixon had "crossed midfield" when Hixon was closing in on the Patriots' 30 yard line?

But it was, you know, one hell of a game. I have to admit that. Most fun I've had watching a Giants game in years. Cris Collinsworth (ugh) actually made a good point about Eli Manning; which was that sometimes Eli gets robotic in his mannerisms and does what he thinks he is supposed to do rather than rely on his instinct as a football player. That's why he is so successful on two-minute drills and in the hurry up-offense--he is just reacting, not thinking. Good stuff.

Anyway, a week into my sinus infection, I want to wish everyone a happy New Year. Stay safe tonight and we'll have some more stuff regarding the Isles in Carolina and the Winter Classic tomorrow.

It's Actually About The Money

Whenever anyone says, "It's not about the money," it's most certainly about the money. Doesn't matter if you're an athlete; a desk jockey; or a bank teller. So, you know, someone needs to tell Michael Strahan that we already know that no matter what he says publicly, it's about the money.

My Disenchantment with the NFL Continues

Let me get this out of the way: Michael Strahan is probably my favorite Giant player since Phil Simms. Over the past few years, the Giants have been incredibly uneven in record and effort. The drafting has been suspect; some of the trades have been short-sided; and there has been more disappointment than happiness.

Let's face this too: the team--as they are currently comprised--are probably the most unlikable bunch of malcontents that there have ever worn the Giants uniform since I have been alive. It's hard to root "for the laundry" when you have a slump-shouldered QB who looks like he'd be the last person to take charge...and yet...he plays the most important position on the field. We have a coach who looks like he is constantly whining to the officials and appears to be on the verge of an aneurysm on the sideline. The former "All World" running back constantly bitched about the coach--the guy who taught him how to carry the ball to cure his fumble-itis has left in an alleged blaze of glory he did not deserve. Then there's the wideout who runs disinterested patterns half the time and the tight end who wants the ball on every single play and yet makes two drops before he'll catch one. I can keep going on here, but I won't.

Now we can revel in the fact that we have the most insane holdout in Giants history. No, we aren't talking about LT signing a "Future Contract" with Donald Trump to play in the USFL--we are talking about a Hall of Fame Defensive End who wants the Giants to pay for his divorce.

That's why Mike is holding out, people. He got taken to the cleaners by his ex-wife and he has seen other players in the league get bigger (and undeserved) contracts that he thinks he is entitled to. He's not "contemplating retirement". If he is contemplating anything, he's contemplating keeping his lifestyle. Eight million over the next two seasons should be a pretty good life for someone who has missed 16 games over the last three years; but it's not enough. And it is apparently the organization's fault.

I am thinking the Giants are at best an 8-8 proposition right now and I applaud Giants GM Jerry Reese for the stance he is taking with Strahan: forget about it. Go retire. We're not budging.

Look--the last thing this fragile Giants team needs is another distraction. If anything was learned from the Tiki Barber Sendoff last year it was that the focus was taken off of the team (which didn't deserve it anyway) and onto Barber, which he liked a heck of a lot. Strahan is not stupid--he knows that Tiki snowed a lot of people into thinking he was the good guy while undermining the head coach with his own agenda. Mike also knows that the plan worked in a lot of respects. Strahan wants a career in TV as well when it's over and he is probably going to be very good at it. He watched Tiki leverage his future plans not for a better NFL deal but for an improved image with the mainstream media and a non-contact job introducing fireworks with Natalie Morales on NBC.

Strahan is just playing it wrong at this point. Everyone knows about his hyper-public divorce and the claims of his ex-wife--who, it should be pointed out--may be insane. (We don't know for sure.) That's surely how Mike's lawyer painted the wife and she painted Mike as an uncaring father who couldn't even remember the birth date of his daughters when there was only one day to remember between the two of them because they are twins!

As we sit here today, Mike is allegedly torn between trying to hold the Giants up--er, I mean, retirement--and actually coming into camp. The team is bringing in Simeon Rice (Doc Ock to Mike's Spider-Man) to kick the tires and no matter what is said publicly, they're doing it to take a swipe at him just as they feel he's swinging an open hand at the organization. Good for them, I say. Shit or get off the pot.

The Giants are a team that desperately needs something to make their fans feel good about the guys in the room again. The Strahan Retirement Gambit ain't doing it. The whole scenario is just another crappy distraction; which means that we are in store for more of the same at the Meadowlands this fall.