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.