(no, this is not my house, nor did mine look nearly this perfect, LOL)

The last 2 or 3 days in baseball have gone by quietly (as was mostly expected) without any major signings or trades. I took a couple days off from blogging to spend time with my family for Christmas, as I hope everyone else was able to do as well. I hope all of you had a great Christmas holiday, I certainly did. I loved sitting down with my extended family and watching the Celtics play a great game against our  would-be rival, the Orlando Magic, on one of the few days a year we all gather together. I am very thankful for that.

Because of the lack of baseball news, I’m going to use this entry to talk about the other big sports events in the news, as well as anything important that has gone on in my life during the past 3 days.

Firstoff, another week of NFL football capped off today, excepting the Monday and Sunday night games. Just 20 minutes ago, I had the pleasure of seeing my favorite NFC team, the Eagles, beat Josh McDaniels’ Broncos on a field goal with 4 seconds remaining. I adress them as “Josh McDaniels’ Broncos,” because part of the satisfaction from this win is seeing a loss for a young hothead coach who ran up and down the sidelines celebrating after beating my Patriots earlier in the season. Mr. McDaniels, justice is served.

Speaking of the Pats, they played one of the best games of football I’ve seen out of them this year, beating the Jaguars 35-7 and clinching the AFC East. It’s quite a relief, as just a week ago the Dolphins and Jets were breathing down our necks.

The Indianapolis Colts also took a surprising loss to the Jets, ending their quest for an undefeated season. Additionally, the Saints, the only other undefeated team before their loss last week, fell in overtime to the Buccaneers. It’s interesting that this offensive juggernaut of a team struggles so greatly when facing sub-par teams like the Redskins, Buccaneers, and Falcons, all of whom gave them very close games in the past 4 weeks. Strange how each team has its kryptonite.

More big sports news came yesterday evening, as longtime Florida University football coach Urban Meyer announced his retirement from the helm. Meyer has been dominant as a coach for his entire career in the NCAA, and is the winningest active coach (percentage-wise) with one team, as seen below (stats courtesy of espn.com).

Coach	School	Record	Win pct.
Urban Meyer	Florida	95-18	.841
Pete Carroll	USC	96-19	.835
Bob Stoops	Oklahoma	116-29	.800
Mark Richt	Georgia	89-27	.767
Gary Patterson	TCU	85-27	.759

 Meyer’s decision to retire was analyzed here; heart conditions and intense stress were cited as major factors in the decision. Tim Tebow and several other players reportedly cried when Meyer announced his decision, however Meyer had planned to coach Florida in the Sugar Bowl against Cincinnati on New Year’s Day. Florida’s athletic director, Jeremy Foley, said last night that he believed there was no chance Meyer would change his mind on this decision.

However, today news broke that Meyer had pulled a Roger Clemens/Brett Favre, and had changed his mind about retiring (I think that Urban Meyer, despite the connection to Clemens, possesses some good qualities Clemens certainly didn’t and his decision should be significantly less controversial than Clemens’, if at all). He is instead taking an indefinite leave of absence, but will coach Florida in the Sugar Bowl and plans to be ready to coach once more next season. Coming out of retirement seems to be a real fad for sports figures these days, and some would say it’s a disturbing one. I personally don’t always mind it. If a guy thinks he has enough left in the tank to really put on a show (e.g. Favre), it’s one that I wouldn’t mind watching. Who knows, Meyer could be coaching Florida in the BCS Championship next year around this time.

 Going back to the NFL, I found a very interesting poll on the front page of espn.com. It’s a tough one to answer, and I’d be interested to see what you think on this matter, as it relates well to a situation many baseball managers face late in the season. Vote or just check it out here.

My final suggestion for some sports related stuff to check out comes in the form of a year in review piece, which are popping up all over the web as 2009 comes to a close. The New York Times and nytimes.com summed up “The Year in Pictures” here, and some sports shots made the cut. It’s a nice review to what has been a very eventful year.

I hope everyone has a nice evening, I hope to find the time to post tomorrow. See you then.

-AL