And it’s understandable on some levels, considering he’s 36 years old, and has a reputation as a coach-killer, but still… when the other options are Jonathan Quinn and Craig Krenzel, there should be a parade when Jeff George rolls into town.

Jay Mariotti doesn’t like the George signing, and neither do most of Bears fans. It’s easy to make fun of, but in reality, George is without question the best quarterback on their roster right now. I’m not an NFL scout, but I’m pretty sure that Jonathan Quinn is ass-awful. I saw the Thanksgiving Day game… Vinny Testaverde was the best quarterback in the building, and there wasn’t even a close second.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that I could do as well Jonathan Quinn did. Put me in the shotgun, send a guy to the flat, I might hit him every other time. Ask me to go downfield, or put some pressure on me, and I’d be fucked, sure… but so was Jonathan Quinn.

Embrace Jeff George, Bears fans. His reputation has never recovered from the sideline screaming incident with Jeff George, but… that was 10 years ago. In that respect, he reminds me a bit of Rasheed Wallace. I’m not saying that Jeff George ‘s the missing piece to a Bears championship, or that he’ll buy the Bears WWF championship belts after they win the Super Bowl, but… like Rasheed, Jeff George has a bad rep, but his teammates have all loved him.

Give him a chance. He’s not going to be worse than Jonathan Quinn.

Tracy McGrady + Yao Ming = Suck. Things aren’t going well in Rocketland, as the much-hyped 2004 version of the Rockets is out to a 6-9 start. A few telling quotes…

Tracy McGrady: “I’m used to running a play five, six times in a row (with the Magic). “Coach likes to get everybody involved. It’s tough for me to get in rhythm like that.”

Jeff Van Gundy: “When you’re taking guys from losing situations, you don’t know their mental toughness; you don’t know their habits. You don’t know if they get stronger as the season goes on or weaker. It turned quickly from good to bad. That’s usually what happens in this league. It’s usually dictated by attitude.”

Tracy McGrady’s just not a leader. Neither is Yao Ming. I don’t think it works if your best player is also not your leader, and in the case of the Rockets, the two best players are clearly not leadership material. They might want to believe they are, they might pretend to be sometimes… but they are not. A leader doesn’t have to be in-your-face, screaming all the time, etc… but he should want the ball in the clutch, he should be working hard night-in night-out, trying constantly to improve, and doing all of the little things. I just don’t think that description fits either T-Mac or Yao, and the Rockets right now are a team without a personality. They’ll probably have a stretch this season where they post a lot of wins, but I don’t see them being a serious factor in the playoffs.

I’m not an advocate of the bowl system at all, and I’m probably never going to watch the GMAC Bowl, however… I’m also not down with the calls to limit the number of bowl games. If we’re going to have a completely ass-backwards system of determining a national champion, we might as well let as many teams in on it as possible. Depending on how much beautiful merchandise we sell during the holiday season, and how many ads you click over on the right, themightymjd.com could even be sponsoring a bowl game sometime in the near future. It will be called the Smoke A Bowl.

Although, it was dangerously close this year to not having enough teams to fill all the bowl slots. There are 28 bowl games, accommodating 56 teams… with exactly 56 teams that are currently eligible for bowls. Hawaii and Tulane could get still themselves eligible with victories this weekend, though both are underdogs. Clemson and South Carolina would have made it 58, had they been able to keep from kicking the bejeezus out of each other.

I just don’t see what it hurts. The Tulanes and Hawaiis of the world make some nice coin for going to a bowl game, the bowl itself is a nice boost for tourism in the area its held… I don’t know why they’re seeking to cut down the number of bowl games. If people don’t care about them, then they don’t have to watch them, but to the athletes themselves, the Champs Sports bowl might mean something. Let them have it.

Tonight, Brett Fav-ruh will play his 200th consecutive game as quarterback of the Green Bay Packers. That’s the equivalent of 12 and a half straight 16-game seasons without missing a start. He’s taken a ton of huge hits, played through injuries, concussions, the death of his father, a break-up with Mary, a piggy-back ride for her brother Warren, and he even managed to get hooked on painkillers somewhere along the line… but never missed a start. Something like that happens because of two factors… a giant set of balls and a lot of luck.

Does it rank up there with Cal Ripken’s streak? Yeah, kind of in the same way that Tupac’s All Eyez on Me ranks up there with The Best of Vanilla Ice. Cal Ripken’s streak… give me a break. I’m not saying it isn’t somewhat impressive, but basically, he showed up for work about 2,000 times in a row. Congratulations and all, but… there are newspaper delivery guys out there was streaks just as impressive. Ripken’s well-being was threatened as much in his entire career as Favre’s is on one three-and-out. Favre’s streak will be in the news tonight and tomorrow, but it won’t even approach the ultra-annoying hype parade that led up to Ripken’s streak-breaking game.

And I’m really sorry about it, but it wasn’t avoidable. I missed most of the afternoon games this week… sometimes my job really interferes with this website. Believe me, I’m no happier about it than you are. I’ve never missed a Smorgasbord before… I feel terrible about it. But a few random Sunday thoughts for you…

- If you’re looking for a guy to get you 400 yards through the air and an L, Kelly Holcomb is your guy. He seems to be the king of that kind of game. He’s over on the sidelines, “Coach, put me in. We won’t win, but… it’ll be fun.”

- I think I said this last week, but it’s worth repeating… Michael Vick constitutes an entire offense. You can’t really that about any other player. Take a guy like Barry Sanders or Ricky Williams… as good as they were, they couldn’t carry a whole offense. If they had to, the best they were going to do was be a marginal playoff team. Michael Vick is a running game, a passing game, and means that the offense never has to lose yards on a play. I doubted Atlanta early in the year, and I still do to an extent, but… I kinda wish I hadn’t said that if they make it to the Super Bowl, I’d blow the Los Angeles Dodgers.

- Man, Seattle sucks. And someone in Buffalo must have something against Mike Holmgren. On a 4th and 1, up 24-3 in the 4th quarter, Buffalo fakes a QB sneak (I’d never seen that before) and flips the ball out to Willis McGahee, who houses it. If someone from the NFC West has to make the playoffs, I don’t want to hear any bitching about how it’s unfair that a Big East team makes the BCS.

- Eli Manning… 6/27, 148 yards, 2 INTs. TeeHee.

- Titans led 21-3, and lost 31-21 while Steve McNair had a great first half, and a really bad second half. I’ve got a bad feeling that we might’ve seen our last really good Steve McNair game. I might be wrong, and I hope I am, but… Tennessee’s heading in the wrong direction, and McNair probably feels about 20 years older than he is.

- Not a good day for Butch Davis. The guy’s already almost a sure candidate to be fired, and then he goes out and gives up 58 points to the Bengals. Now, not only will he be fired, but he will probably be physically beaten by Browns ownership. 58 to the Bengals… wow. Imagine if they were playing the Colts. Peyton might’ve gotten the Colts over 100 against the Browns today. Even the Redskins would’ve probably scored 20 against them.

Singapore’s an ultra clean place. The people running Singapore put up with no graffiti, no dirtiness, nothing like that… I think if you drop a gum wrapper in a public street, they can cut your nipples off. You might recall a couple of years ago an American kid was in Singapore and vandalized some cars, and they flogged his pasty white ass.

I’m not saying it’s cool, and I’m not saying I’m down with the Singapore stay-clean-or-have-your-ass-ripped-to-shreds culture, but what Nike did there is wrong. In their worldwide LeBron James marketing push, they went to Singapore and pasted little LeBron posters everywhere, strewn recklessly about the city. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not the end of the world, and ultimately, it just meant that some poor Singaporian sanitation worker had a tougher work week, but still… it’s a blatant slap in the face of a culture. And the worst part is that it wasn’t cultural ignorance on their part, they knew what they were doing… they knew that the Singapore people would hate, but… they know it’s a lot easier to flog a teenage kid than it is to flog the Nike corporation. So they just said, “We’re Nike, we’re huge, we’re American and rich, and we plan to willfully urinate on your silly little culture.”

Bears/Cowboys and Colts/Lions… what a special treat for NFL fans. Nice work, Tags… what, you couldn’t get 49ers/Dolphins moved to Thursday? I like the Colts and the Bears tomorrow against the spreads. I’m not counting on Drew Henson having a very good day against a solid Bears defense, and I’m starting the entire colts receiving corps in one of my fantasy leagues this week. That’s right, Harrison, Wayne, and Stokely are all getting the starting nod.

So, while we’re on the subject… here’s a few things I’m thankful for.

I am thankful that I don’t live in Oakland.
I am thankful that , for the first time ever this past year, a team I support won a World Championship.
I am thankful that this website is still alive.
I am thankful that Drew Brees has become the excellent quarterback he was always destined to be.
I am thankful that the Tiger got to Siegfried and Roy before Cole Ford did.
I am thankful that the BCS is going to be an embarrassing clusterfuck again.
I am thankful that the sex tape of me and R. Kelly hasn’t gotten out yet, because it is absolutely filthy.

And I am thankful that you visit this website. I mean, I’d be a little more thankful if you told a few friends, and really, would it kill you to click a fucking advertisement every now and then? But I really am thankful… have a great holiday.

Phil Mickelson shot a 59 yesterday to win golf’s Grand Slam, and was pretented with a handsome trophy and these six Hawaiian children.

Is anyone going to have a better Thanksgiving than Phil Mickelson? Beautiful family, $400,000 check the day before, he shot a 59, and is in Hawaii… I like Phil, but looking at the big picture… kinda makes me wanna punch him in the stomach. I’ll be spending tomorrow watching Bears/Cowboys and eating some dry-ass turkey.

I was lucky enough to be watching it live, and it was impressive. On the par-5 18th, he needed a birdie, and after watching Todd Hamilton dunk his approach into the pond… Phil stepped up and hit it to about 6-feet. He missed a pretty makeable putt for a 58. A 59 isn’t bad, though… and hopefully he’s celebrating his 59 with a 69 with the wife.

It actually won’t count in the PGA record books, though, as it didn’t occur during a PGA-sanctioned event. If someone shoots a 59 on a Thursday in the Greater Dubuque Better Homes and Garden Open next summer, though, that counts. Doing it against the other 3 major winners this year, though… that’s not good enough.

LeBron dropped 43 on the Pistons last night, and everyone wants to take it as, “Oooh, he showed Larry Brown for not playing him in the Olympics!” It’s a cute and simplistic little story line that makes thing easy for the AP writer, but it leaves out the tiny detail that LeBron kinda sucked during the Olympics. And they act like Larry Brown hates LeBron or something… If you were the head coach, and you saw how LeBron played in the first few games with the Olympic team, you’d have sat his ass on the bench, too.

Anyway, the Pistons are officially struggling. The “championship hangover” clearly has had an effect. The defensive intensity isn’t the same. Rasheed Wallace is out of shape. Ben Wallace and Larry Brown have missed a lot of games. Fortunately for the Pistons, the NBA season is about 30 games too long, and there’s plenty of time to right the ship, but so far… this isn’t the same team.

As for the Cavs… they’re looking like an Eastern Conference contender. And yes, I realize how absurd it is to be talking about who is and isn’t a contender in November. They don’t have a ton of depth, but the first few guys make a really nice supporting cast for LeBron. Said Tayshaun Prince of LeBron, “He’s the hardest guy in the league to guard. His speed, quickness and athletic ability are unmatched.” That’s high praise, and it comes from a guy who would know.

Excellent stuff from ESPN.com’s Page 3 today, going back and listing the 10 best sports-related Seinfeld moments. My personal favorite was the George Tries to Get Fired from the Yankees episode… a high-quality read. Check it out if you’re a Seinfeld fan.