First, if you are at all a golf fan, like me, then you had a great television-watching weekend.  The Ryder Cup exceeded any expectations that I had as far as excitement goes.  First, the U.S. won.  That happens about once a decade in the Ryder Cup, so that's always nice.  Second, the U.S. team treated the event like it was a combination of the Olympics and March Madness.  They were hyping the crowd, pumping fists, exchanging uncoordinated high-fives.  It was amazing.  Now, the Europeans were complaining about a lack of etiquette on the part of the U.S. and its fans.  I understood Lee Westwood's gripe with getting a midnight prank phone call, but aside from that, stop whining.  Even though it's golf, the Ryder Cup is still a team event.  Europe, you're the visiting team.  If you hit a bad shot, it's not only bad for you, it's good for the other team, therefore the fans rooting for the U.S. are going to cheer.  It's nothing personal.  I don't care if it's Miguel Angel Jimenez (and by the way, how annoying is it to hear his name pronounced by American announcers with the proper "z"), Ian Poulter, or anyone else on the Euro squad.  I'm rooting for them to miss.  That's what team sports are about.  I'm not going to go as far as to defend Boo Weekley's Happy Gilmore impersonation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_tMOE4-tKc), but I am typically a fan of supporting athletes' right to entertain.  I watch sports for my own enjoyment.  As long as something does not personally affect a fellow competitor, I'm all for it.  There's a difference between showing up an opponent and having fun.  To make my point in a clearer fashio, I like taunting getting flagged but unsportsmanlike conduct being penalized I'm usually against.  Pointing at a guy that you just beat I may have a problem with, whereas entertaining the crowd with a dance after the same play I have no problem with.  Moreover, the NFL fines Chad Johnson more for dancing and sketches than they do Roy Williams for almost ending people's careers with illegal hits.  Getting back to the Ryder Cup, even if you didn't have a rooting interest, and had a problem with the U.S. enthusiasm, you were still probably watching because of how amazing the quality of play was.  It seemed like you couldn't go 10 minutes without seeing a 25-footer getting drained.  I saw two guys hole out from greenside bunkers within five minutes of each other on Sunday.  Guys were sticking irons to gimme-range one after another.  That even made their drives worth watching just because you knew that if they put the ball in the fairway that there was a great chance of a birdie.  All in all, it was a great weekend of golf to watch, especially if you were rooting for the U.S.  team.  I think Anthony Kim's victory over Sergio Garcia said it all.  Kim made an 8-foot putt for par to halve the 14th hole.  He pumped his fist and gestured to the crowd before heading to the next tee.  The only problem was that his halving the hole closed the match out.  He was so into the match that he didn't even know that he had won.  It seemed like the perfect combination of focus and enthusiasm.  Very Manny Ramirez-esque.  I love Manny.

Moving onto a sorer subject, there was some football played this weekend.  Why does UCLA even field a football team?  I got invited to the game by my friend Jeff and had to work so I couldn't go.  But you know what?  Outside of missing out on a nice day with a friend, I didn't feel like I was missing too much.  We're that bad.  If it wasn't for my being a general football fan I'd be counting the days until Jrue Holliday makes his first appearance in Pauley Pavilion.  As a football fan, we're not talking about the Raiders game.  Now the Raiders have no defense apparently either.  And Lane Kiffen is getting fired every day it seems like.  Al Davis is insane.  I'll say this, if the Chiefs couldn't beat the Raiders at home, or Atlanta on the road, 0-16 is looking like a real possibility.  It's like Tennessee losing to UCLA.  Speaking to the NFL as a whole, there are four teams that I think you can count on right now.  You can count on Dallas to be good and put up enough points to win every week and you can count on St. Louis, Kansas City, and Detroit to do the exact opposite.  If I gave you an over/under of 5 for those teams' total combined wins this season, what would you take?  The rest of the NFL is utterly unpredictable. 

(Quick note:  Sorry to Aaron Rodgers for spelling his last name wrong the whole season thus far.  See, he doesn't even get respect from RW.  He's lower than Rodney Dangerfield.)

As to the rest of college football, I think Georgia is the #1 team in the nation and will prove it again this weekend against Alabama.  USC is a very good team but remember, Virginia got killed by UConn and it wasn't basketball, and Ohio State was down 14-6 at home in the third quarter to mighty Ohio.  I promise you that USC will be giving an extra touchdown in the spread every week for at least a month.  The Big Ten is horrible.  Sorry, they just are.  The Pac-10 is not much better.  I would mention BYU's having outscored its past two opponents by a combined 103-0 if fifty-nine of those points didn't come against UCLA.  Missouri is very good and Chase Daniel is leading the Heisman vote with my favorite Knowshon trying to keep up.  Oklahoma is cleaning house too.  I think that you're going to see USC go undefeated and have about 6 different teams with a legitimate gripe/case for being in the BCS Championship game.  There's no such thing as bad press when it comes to college football I guess.

What's getting lost in all of this is the baseball season's winding down.  If you're like me, you're in a heated battle for positioning in at least one fantasy baseball league.  If you're like me when it comes to real baseball, you're doing your best not to talk about baseball for fear that your favorite team will catch wind that it's September, that they're in a playoff hunt, and that they will therefore fold per usual.  At least Brad Penny is not involved.  I have had several emails with "The Magic # is 5!" as the subject line.  As a fan of the team that we're not talking about, I am beyond scared that the magic number isn't going to move for at least another day or two.  I feel like I'm cheering on a football team that has a four-point lead with 1:57 to go and is sitting in a prevent defense.  There is no more sinking feeling than that, unless of course you've been a Mets fan the last two years.  If the Mets lose to the Cubs at home tonight with Johan Santana going against Sean Marshall, they could be in a very precarious position if they weren't in one already.  Moving on to the AL, how dumb were the schedule makers not to have Yankee Stadium close out its regular season against the Red Sox.  I don't care if the Yankees have been in the playoffs longer than the lifespan of every Chinese gymnast allegedly was, you close out the regular season and have that grandiose ceremony against your long time rival.  It's what you do.  Sure you guaranteed yourself a win by hosting the Orioles but it just took a little steam off of the occasion.  Oh well, the Yankees will cry themselves all the way across the street to their billion-dollar plus stadium with Dr. Evil and Scott Evil running things.  As a final aside to the AL, if Minnesota couldn't win with Johan in the playoffs, then proceeded to shave salary, and then threaten to move because they didn't get taxpayer money for a new stadium, they don't deserve to win the AL Central.  If we could figure out a way to have the White Sox in the playoffs and have A.J. Pierzynski put on waivers then I'd get the best of both worlds.  Although with Minnesota fans having to put up with the Timberwolves, Golden Gophers, and Tarvaris Jackson, maybe they deserve a break.  What's that Seattle fans?  No they don't?  Ok, no they don't. 

Just in case you forgot, O.J.'s on trial for murder!  Fine, they're calling it something else, but he's really being tried again for killing people.  I'm not sure how I feel about a legal system that's going to have a jury likely criminally punish a man for something he was already acquitted of.  Morally it's fine because he's punished for killing people, but as a precedent, it's kind of scary.  It's like the mob trials all over again.  Shred the Constitution a little to get things done.  I don't like the sound of that.

Quick note:  I'll be doing my monthly mailbag later this week after the RW Power Rankings come out.  As always, feel free to email me with your questions at Eric.Rudin@gmail.com if you'd like your question to be considered.