First off, on the 0.25% chance that she's reading this, happy birthday to my sister, Lauren, who turns 20 today.

Next, as some of you know, I coach basketball at my local recreation center and have for the past decade or so.  This season I was coaching 13-16 year olds.  It was a tough season because, despite the talent on the roster, the team was not gelling.  Players talked of not seeing enough of the ball on offense and of teammates not getting back on D.  There was way too much criticism floating among the players and not enough positive reinforcement.  We lost our final regular season game and almost had a team meltdown at its conclusion.  Let's just say I didn't think I was doing my job too well, even if we only get one practice and one game per week.  We entered the playoffs as the 2 seed, won in the semis in a nail-biter and then played the 1 seed in the finals.  They had beaten us in our two previous meetings.  Our teams were pretty evenly matched but I still felt that we had a slight edge.  Well, we went into halftime with an 8-point lead, playing very well.  Our opponents came out of halftime playing with a purpose.  They cut our lead down to 1 in the first few minutes.  I started to get a bit worried but then something happened.  Everything I had been wishing for our team started clicking at the perfect time.  The guys started moving the ball and looking for each other.  Our defense was rotating.  Nothing seemed to go wrong.  We went on a 12-0 run capped off by a posterizing dunk.  Unreal.  The guys were cheering each other on, smiling, and genuinely happy together.  To top it off, 3 of the guys on the team are players whom I've coached for several years now and we got to share a championship.  One of them gave me an early shower using his water bottle as our team posed for the cameras, ok, camera.  People often times ask me why I coach.  Well, that's the kind of day that you don't get in too many other arenas.  No money at stake.  No sponsors.  Just a group of guys coming together and celebrating a group achievement.  I strongly urge anyone with extra time (if you're reading this, you clearly have extra time) to coach.  It's a lot of fun.  It's fulfilling and it's only a few hours per week.  Congratulations to my champion Ducks who are reading.  To RW reader, Alex Farahi, who came up to me after the game asking for a shout out for coming out to watch, here you go.  Thank you sir.

Okay, onto the pros.  And collegiate pros.  Here are my random thoughts:

Notre Dame is still horrible. 

So is Michigan.

So is the Big 10 in general.

Vegas is getting a bit down on Georgia for some reason.  I'm still impressed.  Knowshon Moreno is a beast.  Stafford looks great.

The 15-yard penalty at the end of the BYU-Washington game was unbelievably ludicrous.  Nobody was being shown up.  The sad part is that the refs got it right.  What a dumb rule.  Now the NCAA is more No Fun League than the NFL.  So the players aren't allowed to get paid, or have fun.  Hasn't the state of Washington suffered enough with regard to sports recently?  The Washington Nationals stink and they're not even in the state.  The name alone dooms them.  Ok, maybe having Cristian Guzman as your only All-Star doesn't help.

Under the Big 10 is horrible corollary; Ohio State has zero chance at USC.  When I'm glued to a TV because Ohio is trying to upset Ohio State, and has an 8-point lead in the third quarter as a 33.5 point underdog, something is wrong.  Then again, USC lost at home last year to 41-point underdog, Stanford, which was using its third-string QB.  Sorry, I love bringing that up.  I flipped over from a PPV boxing fight that I spent money on to gleefully watch the end of that game.

East Carolina is scary, but not as scary as South Florida could be.  Emphasis on the word, "could."

I really hope Arkansas gets the crap kicked out of them.  Bobby Petrino is not nice. 

On that note, let's transfer on over to the NFL.  Congrats to the Atlanta Falcons on winning their first game.  Haha to Bobby Petrino.  I'm sorry to the Detroit Lions though.  You're officially kicked out of the NFL for losing to the Atlanta Falcons.  Rookie QB.  Most inexperienced O-Line in football.  Atlanta put up how many points?!  I'm never betting on Detroit again. 

My Power Rankings this week will look very different than last week.

I thought of Carson Palmer when Tom Brady went down as well.  Expect rule changes from the Competition Committee in the off-season because the hit was not illegal.

Don't worry Indy.  Things will shape up when Peyton Manning gets the rust off.

I hate being a Raiders fan.  What do we have, like 3 divisional wins since getting spanked by Gruden in the Super Bowl in '02?  The announcers were laughing at every Raiders penalty.  Literally.  I hate the Mikes' announcing.  Bring back Jaworski for the second MNF game.  I'm glad I have class until 7:30 on Monday nights if only because I had to miss some of the Raiders game last night.

I was wrong about Cincinnati.  They're really bad.  Baltimore is not good.  The Bengals are just atrocious. 

Pittsburgh is not as good as they looked.  Houston is not as bad as they looked. 

I think we can all agree that it's fun to read and make picks.  Just don't bet on mine, unless of course it is Today's Pick, which finally made me look smart.  I told you that Georgia/Cent. Michigan game would yield 10+ TD's.  I love when overs hit early.  Just a great feeling.  Right, Sunday.  NFL.  Back on track.

So, I lost most of the games on opening weekend.  Apparently David Garrard does throw INT's.  Good thing to know.

Quick interlude:  Why do I follow the stock market on a daily basis?  The market basically hasn't moved this week but has fluctuated 600 points.  One of my major stocks went up 10% then down close to 15%, basically not moving. 

Quick interlude part 2:  Lance is back!  He'll be in the Tour de France.  Apparently he heard some French people talking crap about Americans and decided to show them who's boss.  Between that and the French losing 3-1 to Austria in World Cup qualifying, it's been a bad couple of days for the other red, white, and blue.

I saw nothing wrong with T.O.'s celebration.  Anything Usain Bolt related is ok by me.

Good for Aaron Rogers.  That would have sucked for him had the Pack lost.  Brett Favre ran Gunslinging plays 1-42 and lucked out because Chad "Noodle Arm" Pennington almost came back to beat Favre's Jets.  That would have been hilarious.

Philly is the one team who made me look good in Week 1.  My survivor pick survived while San Diego and Indy killed 15-20% of a lot of pools.  If McNabb stays healthy, watch out.

Tampa Bay and New Orleans are both very solid teams.

I still can't get over how bad the Rams are.  Seriously, bet against them.  You'll go 10-6, easily.  People still see Bulger, Jackson, and Holt and expect big things.  They remember the dome days of Warner and the greatest show on turf.  I don't.  The O-Line and defense are terrible.  I'm trying to figure out, after San Diego's loss, who's worse, the AFC West or NFC West?  Contract both divisions.  See, I'm a problem solver.

Arizona's not good.  If San Francisco could hold onto the ball for more than five seconds, they could be a tough team to beat.  At first glance I like them and the points next week at Seattle.  Poor Seattle.  I think I have a voicemail from them asking about my availability this weekend to play wide receiver.  I told them I was busy so they called my little sister.  How do you lose your top four wide receivers to injury?  Matt Hasselbeck has a messed up back too.  Expect a rainy season in Seattle. . . . I'm so clever.

Buffalo did look good against an overrated Seahawks team.  They're not that good though.  Very middle of the pack, maybe wildcard teamish.

Dallas is your Super Bowl favorite now.  The AFC is wide open.  But you heard this here first.  New England will make the playoffs AND win a wildcard game.  Their schedule still sucks.  Matt Cassel just needs to not be pathetic.  So what if he's started as many pro and college football games as I have.  How bad could he be?  Belichick liked him!  By the way, Belichick will now be sleeping 1.5 hours per night as opposed to his usual 3.  That guy scares me almost as much as Sarah Palin.  The only real thing that really scares me though is Keyser Soze.  Just kidding.  It's Randy Moss.  I remember him on the Raiders not trying whatsoever.  That is a distinct possibility but I don't think it will happen because everybody is talking about it happening and he likes proving people wrong.  The throw the ball up in the air to Randy Moss play will still be in effect. 

To conclude . . . shh . . . the Dodgers are in first . . . you're doing a good job of not talking about it.  Keep your focus on football.