An ode to Odell

By now, anyone even remotely familiar with the concept of news and media has already been made aware of what happened on the field at Giants Stadium last Sunday. Odell Beckham's actions have been, and still are, all over sports news channels, and I have seen stories about him on national television news channels, newspaper stands, and over the radio airwaves. So, for the sake of saving some space, I won't give you a summary of what happened, because you most likely know. What I want to do is tell you all about what I was thinking watching the game on Sunday, and what I think now, a few days removed from the game.

As usual, going into any Giants game, I had no clue what to expect. I thought the Giants had a chance to win, and I said that the reason for that is that they play to the level of the competition. They have done it this year, and they have done it for a long time now. If you look at the results of the 14 games that the Giants have played this year, it is mostly games decided by one possession. In Weeks three and four, the Giants had two convincing wins over Buffalo and Washington. Two weeks after that, the Giants were completely shut down by the Eagles in a game that was really hard to watch. Aside from those games, the only other one decided by more than one possession was a win over Tampa Bay, and that was only so because the Giants got a defensive touchdown on the last play of the game, so I don't really factor that into the equation, because the game was still technically able to be decided as the final play began.

That means out of 14 games, 11 of them were competitive to the final whistle. And that is why I thought the Giants had a shot to beat Carolina last Sunday. When I saw Eli Manning throw a long pass down the middle of the field and Beckham running underneath it, I knew that the game was really on. However, Beckham dropped what would have been a sure touchdown, and the Giants blew an early chance to jump out to a lead over the undefeated Panthers. I usually watch the first half of games that Giants play at 1:00 at work, so while I am able to watch, I can't really get completely into the game until I leave and can fully watch the second half. During the first half, I saw that things seemed to be getting heated with Beckham and whoever he was matched up against. It was mostly Josh Norman, but it certainly wasn't only those two. However, it always involved Beckham, and it started to seem like a problem.

When the second half began, and I could really take in the rest of the game, it wasn't about the players on the Panthers anymore, it was only about Beckham. It seemed like he was getting into unsubstantiated confrontations after every play, and some time about halfway through the third quarter, I thought that no matter what the score was, and no matter what the game meant, that Beckham should be off the field. Could the referees have ejected him? Sure. Would they have been right in doing so? Definitely. But, in my opinion, this should not have been a decision made by the officials. The team should have told him to go to the locker room, and that he was not going to play for the rest of the game. People I was speaking to during the game seemed to agree with me for the most part, and earlier today I heard a clip of Bob Papa and Carl Banks doing the game for WFAN, and I was glad when I heard both of them reacting the same way as the game was going on. I don't care who you are, what you have done, and what you might do for years to come. Odell Beckham, Jr. should not have been allowed to complete that game.

So the first question to ask is, why did he stay on the field? The answer varies depending upon who you ask. According to the league, his ejection would have been warranted, and in suspending him for this Sunday's game, they have somewhat backed up that stance, although I still wonder if the officials had the thoughts lingering in their minds during the game that if they threw Beckham out of the game, they would take heat from their bosses for tossing one of the marquee names in one of the marquee matchups of the week.

For the most part, I lay the blame at the feet of the Giants team and coaching staff. Where was Eli Manning when all of this was going on? Eli, I love you, and I know you aren't as vocal a leader as some people would like, but how could you see this happening and not do anything about it? Tom Coughlin is the head coach, so he certainly has to take some heat here as well. Following the game, Coughlin said that he was "trying to win the game" and the sad reality of the NFL is that sometimes, in the case of a head coach, winning means putting morality aside. Is Coughlin on the hot seat? Maybe. I think it is closer to probably than maybe, but in order for him to keep his job, he needs his best players out on the field, and right now, Beckham is the best player that the Giants have. It is a sad contradiction, but I think in the back of Coughlin's mind, even though he would never admit it, he had to have been thinking that if Beckham was out of the game, the Giants had no chance to come back and win. And what makes that point even more valid is that the Giants did score 28 straight points (including Beckham's game tying TD) and did have a chance to win. So Coughlin's answer as to why Beckham stayed in the game was completely true.

As I was watching the game though, I really thought that Beckham was going out of his way to be a problem. I don't mean to sound like some naïve old man who thinks that football is a sport of gentlemen. I know guys are going to talk and fight. Did Beckham taunt Norman when he caught the touchdown pass to tie the game? Yes, he absolutely did. But is that a terrible thing? No. If Norman didn't want that to happen, he should have made a play. It was a late-game tying TD, and Beckham made a great catch. I was happy. Eli Manning was happy. Tom Coughlin was happy. Odell Beckham was happy. But in the end, that play should never have happened, because Beckham should have been long gone from that game by then.

There are countless reasons that the Giants always have been, and always will be, my favorite team in all of sports. In my opinion, they do things the right way. The ownership of the team is full of class thanks to the Mara and Tisch families. Some of the greatest players to ever play the game have played for the Giants. Michael Strahan, Lawrence Taylor, Frank Gifford, Harry Carson, Eli Manning, the list goes on and on. Ask fans of the Cleveland Browns or the Buffalo Bills or the Detroit Lions if they would love to have been able to witness some of the things that the Giants have done. Each and every one of those people would say yes, they would. The Browns have Jim Brown and then what? The Bills are the most famous Super Bowl losing team of all time. The Lions have Barry Sanders and home games on Thanksgiving Day. None of that comes close to matching what the Giants have done as an organization.

Odell Beckham, Jr. has a chance to join that list of great Giants players. The fact that I am saying that even plays more into the fact that Beckham was the center of attention last Sunday. The entire football world has seen what this kid can do. I don't care what you think about his pregame routines or his cleats. What no fan of football can deny is the talent that this kid possesses. It is only his second season and he is already being mentioned with the greatest receivers to ever play the game. Is it too much hype? Absolutely. Are we crowning him too soon? Probably. However, it is impossible to see Beckham play and not see a world of talent.

One week ago, Odell Beckham's lasting image was making a one-handed touchdown catch on a Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys. Now, that image has changed completely. I hope that this image is not one that defines him. The Giants have tolerated some wild personalities before. The greatest player in the history of the franchise was not exactly a choir boy to say the least. Beckham is still very young, and if he can use last Sunday as a learning tool, I hope he does just that. I honestly would not be mad if he didn't see the field for the final week of the season as well in addition to the one game that he has already been suspended.

When you are so young and so talented, sometimes you need landmark events to occur in order for you to keep yourself focused on the main goal at hand. There is going to be a time when Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning are gone. Coughlin's time might be sooner than Manning's, but that time will eventually come. As a Giants fan, I think that Odell Beckham has so much talent that he could surely become the face of the franchise after those two men leave. However, what I saw last Sunday worries me.

As a lifelong Giants fan, I implore the players, the coaching staff, the organization, but most of all Odell Beckham, Jr. himself. Please, get this right. This is a once in a generation type of talent we have. Decades from now, I hope that number thirteen on the Giants will be immortal. I think it can happen, but it isn't given. Nothing is given to you in professional football, and I think that nothing should be given to Odell Beckham by the Giants for the rest of the season. We are witnessing potential greatness here, but every rose has its thorn. I hope for the sake of Giants fans everywhere that last Sunday was only a small bump in the road.  The New York Giants organization is too good to let a chance like this slip, and I hope that everyone there, from top to bottom, remembers that.

Daily Giants Update: Obviously, I don't need to elaborate much more, but the season is on the line this Sunday night against Minnesota. Win and there is still a chance. Lose and it is over.

Daily Rangers Update: The Rangers finally got a win last night against Anaheim, but the team has hit a very rough stretch over the past few weeks. Henrik Lundqvist has been nowhere near sharp, and the fact that the team still remains near the top of the Eastern Conference is a testament to how hot they were to start the season. Maybe a little holiday break will be good for the team, because they have looked nothing like an upper-echelon team in recent weeks.

Daily Diamondbacks Update: I think the offseason spending spree is probably over, as the Diamondbacks were being mentioned in the Mike Leake sweepstakes, but he just signed with the Cardinals. Nonetheless, Arizona has officially declared itself all in for the 2016 season, and it has been quite a while since I have been anticipating Opening Day like I will be this season.

Daily NBA Update: The Warriors are good and the Cavaliers are good. We get it. Christmas Day should be really fun when they face off for the first time since the Finals last season. However, I saw today that Dirk Nowitzki is only 10 points shy of passing Shaquille O'Neal for sixth on the all time scoring list. I never realized historically, how great Nowitzki really has been. That means, 10 points from now, Nowitzki will trail only five people as far as all-time leading scorers go. Chamberlain, Jordan, Bryant, Malone, and Abdul-Jabbar. It will be tough for him to crack the top five, but wow, what an underappreciated legend you are, Dirk Nowitzki.

Another shot at NBA history

While in my last post, I wrote about the historically good start that the Golden State Warriors had gotten off to opening the NBA season, tonight we could possibly see another record broken, except this one is at the opposite end of the spectrum. The Warriors have already broken the record for the most consecutive wins to start an NBA season, and they now sit at 19-0. However, on the other side of the country, the Philadelphia 76ers sit at 0-18, and with a loss tonight, they would break the record for the worst start to a season in the history of the NBA. In 2009, the New Jersey Nets opened the season 0-18, before finally notching their first win in the 19th game of the season. With what is happening in Philadelphia right now, I would not be surprised one bit if that record fell a few hours from now.

In every major sport, teams go through re-building phases. Dynasties never last forever. Whether it be front office changes, bad drafting, or player movement, every team in every sport is destined to face some tough times. Let's just take a look at this from the perspective of the teams who currently could be categorized as "dynasties" in sports today, and for the sake of this conversation, let's begin in the NBA. I think that over the past decade, the closest we have seen to a dynasty in the NBA is the San Antonio Spurs. Thanks to Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich (among many others), the Spurs have exemplified success. However, it was not always that way. Duncan's rookie year was 1997. The year before Duncan was drafted, the Spurs finished with a record of 20-62. Duncan was added to team with David Robinson and the two would form one of the best 1-2 punches in the history of the league. However, in the four years before Robinson was drafted, the Spurs had a combined record of 115-213.

In the NFL, let's look at the New England Patriots. Prior to the Bill Belichick and Tom Brady regime, the Patriots were actually a very good team. They made a Super Bowl appearance, ultimately losing to Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers, but from 1996-2000, their win total declined each year. Before Bill Parcells, Drew Bledsoe and Curtis Martin, things were even worse. From 1987 until 1993, the Patriots never had a winning record, and that stretch included one 1-15 season, as well as one 2-14 season.

In baseball, obviously, when we talk about dynasties, it is impossible to have a conversation without mentioning the New York Yankees. My generation of fans has a hard time remembering the Yankees ever being an afterthought, but it did actually happen many years ago. Derek Jeter won the Rookie of the Year award in 1996. In the 14 years prior to that, the Yankees made the playoffs only once (that does include the 1994 season that ended with a players strike, and the Yankees were clearly one of the best teams in baseball that year, but there were no playoffs, so the history books will never see it as a postseason berth). The Yankees did actually have a shortstop before Derek Jeter, even if it might be hard to believe for some. Jeter's career wiped away memories of Pat Kelly and Luis Sojo and Randy Velarde, but those guys did play, and from the mid 1980's until the mid 1990's, the Yankees were simply not a good team.

So, what I am trying to illustrate here is that there will never be a sports franchise that is good forever. Players and coaches retire, teams make bad draft picks, and sometimes guys just do not meet expectations. The difference between good franchises and bad franchises though, is how they can bounce back after such lean years, and what is happening within the Philadelphia 76ers organization right now is very tough to watch. It isn't like this is a franchise devoid of any type of history either, which makes it even tougher to stomach the abomination that is the 2015 Philadelphia 76ers.

The Sixers won a title in 1967 and had Wilt Chamberlain, who is probably the most dominant player in the history of the league. While they definitely did not reach the level of Bill Russell's Boston Celtics teams of that era, the 76ers were still a very good team for a span of multiple years during the 1960's. When Chamberlain was gone, there were certainly tough times (including a dreadful 1973 season that saw the team go 9-73), but with the arrival of Julius Erving, the Sixers once again returned to prominence, winning another title in 1983. Then Allen Iverson arrived, and while he never led the team to a title, they did reach the Finals once, and experienced a lot of success while he was their star player. So is this just a lull in between title contenders, or is this something different? If you look at the results of the past few years and the makeup of the current roster, I have to say that this seems like much worse than just a temporary lull. What the 76ers have done over the past two years, and what they continue to do into this season is historically bad, and I'm not sure that it will get better anytime soon.

In 2013, the Sixers finished 19-63. In 2014, they finished 18-64. In 2015, they are already 0-18. I have heard of organizations trying to "tank" a season in order to get a shot at an incoming rookie superstar, but this isn't just one season. The 76ers have been mailing it in for multiple seasons now. Philadelphia took Jahlil Okafor, a college superstar with their first pick in the past draft, and he has the potential to become a very good NBA player, but the organization is doing a terrible job of surrounding him with a network of support that can allow him to grow and flourish. Instead of a knowledgeable head coach or a roster of experienced veterans willing to mentor younger players, the Sixers have surrounded him with nothing but inexperience and mediocrity (at best). Brett Brown is an undeveloped and unproven head coach. The roster is made up of only one player born before the year 1990. There are a few top draft picks, and absolutely nothing else right now on the floor for the 76ers. The fact that the "veteran presence" of the team is Carl Landry is laughable. I mean no disrespect to Carl Landry, but he is not the type of established veteran player that can lead a group of young players to the promised land.

Let's look at some of the other top picks in this past NBA Draft. There were two players drafted ahead of Okafor, and they were D'Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns was drafted by a bad Minnesota Timberwolves team, but he has future Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett as a mentor, as well as experienced veterans like Andre Miller and Tayshaun Prince. D'Angelo Russell went second overall, and he has an experienced head coach in Byron Scott as well as one of the greatest players in the history of the game, Kobe Bryant, to teach him how to become a better player and more importantly, teach him how to become a professional athlete.

I understand that surefire Hall of Famers like Garnett and Bryant don't grow on trees, and Towns and Russell are lucky to have mentors like that, but the Sixers have zero veteran leadership at all. Nothing. Coming into the draft I heard no questions at all about the character of Jahlil Okafor. He had all the talent in the world, he was coming off a national championship, and he had been coached by arguably the greatest coach in the history of college basketball, Mike Krzyzewski. They don't recruit guys at Duke who are problems off the court. They recruit not only great players, but great people as well, so no one had any inclination to question Okafor's character as he left school, and they had no reason to question it.

Yet, since Okafor has arrived in Philadelphia, he has had multiple off-court incidents that have raised my eyebrows. He was cited for speeding while driving as well as being caught using a fake ID to try to get into a bar. These are surely not serious problems, and I am willing to overlook them as immature mistakes, but they are not the only ones. Okafor also supposedly had a gun pointed at his head during a late night dispute, and now video has surfaced of him fighting outside a nightclub. Things like this are serious. I don't understand why the national media glosses over the fact that Okafor had a gun pointed at his head by someone else. Is that a problem? Yes, it definitely is. Now we see him fighting outside a club, and it is no longer a problem that we can just chalk up to immaturity. It is a problem that the organization has to address, and they did so by assigning a security guard to accompany him during any and all public appearances from now until further notice.

Jahlil Okafor is a very talented and very young basketball player. He is entering the NBA and not even close to fully matured as a man. What happens during the second decade of any man's life is crucial to his growth, and I just worry that Okafor is off to a bad start. I don't know for sure, but I am willing to bet that Okafor has already lost more games this season than he did during his entire high school and college career. I don't know what losing so many games can do psychologically to a young player, but I do know that this is uncharted territory for Okafor, and this is almost uncharted territory for any team in the history of the NBA.

76ers fans may look at Okafor and Nerlens Noel and potentially four first round picks in the upcoming draft as a reason for optimism, but I would caution them to temper those expectations. The 76ers organization has dug itself into an extremely deep hole over the past few years, and it seems like it could be a long time until they reach ground level again. The Lakers come to town tonight, and at 2-14, they are surely not in good shape either, but when you are 0-18, you are really never in good shape. Even with a win tonight and a home run of a first round selection in the upcoming draft, the 76ers still have a long way to go in terms of even becoming a mediocre NBA team, and I can't imagine being a fan of the team and wanting to spend my own money to go see them, because they are beyond putrid, and with a loss tonight, their level of putridity will reach historic proportions.

Daily Rangers Update: After three straight losses, the Rangers got back into the win column last night with a victory over a struggling Carolina Hurricanes team. The Rangers will meet the Islanders tomorrow night for the first time this season, and obviously, bragging rights are always on the line when the Rangers and Islanders meet. Both teams have started the season well, so tomorrow night should be fun.

Daily Diamondbacks Update: David Price signed with the Red Sox and it was announced that Johnny Cueto turned down a big offer from the Diamondbacks in recent days. Between that, Zack Greinke and Jordan Zimmermann already being gone, and the team having to give up a first round pick in order to sign one of the next tier of free agent starting pitchers, I think the time to improve the rotation via free agency may have already passed. I won't rule anything out, because spring training is still months away, but we need to focus on guys like Braden Shipley, Aaron Blair, Archie Bradley, and Patrick Corbin in the rotation right now. I like the offense, but the pitching is going to be unproven.

Daily Giants Update: Everyone was on the Giants last week. Newspapers, television, radio...everyone was saying that the Giants had the division in their grasp. And you know what happens when everyone thinks that? The Giants lose. And that is exactly what happened last Sunday. At 5-6, the Giants are tied with the Redskins atop the NFC East, although the Redskins hold the tiebreaker. The Jets are next up this Sunday, and even though we only play the Jets once every four years, this is obviously a huge game not only in terms of bragging rights, but in terms of playoff position as well, as both teams are fighting for their playoff lives heading into December. As usual with the Giants, I have no clue what to expect, but hopefully it works out better than last Sunday.

Daily NBA Update: As I already highlighted, the 76ers will try to avoid history tonight, and this actually may be their best chance to do so, as they play a Lakers team that has at least won two games, but is surely not good at all. Aside from that, the Warriors are still unbeaten, and Stephen Curry could somehow be in line to not only win the MVP, but also win the Most Improved player award this year. That is how good he has been, and that is how dominant the defending champions look.

A shot at NBA history

After last season, we knew the Golden State Warriors were good. Coming off of an NBA title, led by league MVP Stephen Curry, all was well in Oakland. They were able to avoid both the Spurs and the Clippers in the playoffs, and that surely helped. When they did reach the Finals, they faced a Cleveland Cavaliers team that was severely depleted by injuries, and Golden State was fully healthy, leading them to a series win and the team's first NBA championship since 1975. So, a detractor might say that the Warriors caught some breaks along the way. However, in the end, they were the ones lifting the championship trophy, and that is all that really matters. The team was young, talented, and coming off a dream season. Coming into the 2015-16 season, no one could take Golden State lightly, but I don't think anyone could have predicted the kind of start they have gotten off to so far.

Going into a game tonight against a very poor 2-11 Los Angeles Lakers team, the Warriors have a chance to win their 16th straight game to begin the season, something that has never been done before. Stephen Curry has been by far the best player in the league so far this season, and I think everyone not named Kobe Bryant expects the Warriors to win tonight and go to 16-0. In any sport other than football, it really isn't reasonable to look at the schedule and be able to predict each game because there are just too many games and teams and players are bound to have bad games here and there. At least, I think that is the case. What the Warriors have done out of the gate this year is making me give that a second thought though.

After tonight, the Warriors go to Phoenix to face a sneaky good Suns team, who have been led by a very formidable backcourt combo of Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight. I wouldn't be surprised if Phoenix handed Golden State their first loss of the season there. After that, they get a below average Sacramento Kings team at home, and then go to Utah to face an average to maybe slightly above-average Jazz team. With the ups and downs of the NBA, and the daily grind of an 82 game season, anything could happen, but you have to say that the Warriors are clearly better than all of those teams, and that brings me to the real question. Is this team good enough to challenge Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls team for the best single season record in the history of the NBA? I think the answer is yes.

I will not go into a soliloquy on Michael Jordan, because lord knows we get enough of that anywhere you talk about the sport of basketball. Let's just say that team that went 72-10 was really, really good. However, what the Warriors are in the midst of doing is literally changing the way the game of basketball is played at the highest level. While this shift did not begin with Golden State, they sure are a prime example of how the game has evolved over the past few decades. In the 1990's and into the new millennium, so many teams were built from the middle out. The goal was to find a big man to hold down the paint, and then surround him with players who could get him the ball. The Houston Rockets won titles with Hakeem Olajuwon as their centerpiece. The Lakers had Kobe Bryant, but they didn't become a dynasty until they added Shaquille O'Neal to the mix. The Spurs did everyone one better by having two great big men when they had David Robinson and Tim Duncan in the middle.

Somewhere in between now and then, teams began to focus less on the center position, and more on the wings. No more Michael Olowokandi or Kwame Brown or Greg Oden. Teams wanted guys who could score inside, but score from the perimeter as well. The bogged down, low tempo style of play became a thing of the past, and guys like John Wall, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Derrick Rose were being picked at the top of the draft. Blake Griffin and Anthony Davis have been first overall picks, and they are big men, but they are two guys who can do more than just stand in the paint and wait for someone to get them the ball. They might be big, but they are far more versatile than guys their size were 20 years ago.

You now need a strong perimeter game to win in the NBA, and that is why the Warriors are 15-0 right now. They won last year because of their outstanding perimeter players, and that is a large part of the reason they are winning this year as well. Curry is the centerpiece, but his supporting cast is extremely formidable. Klay Thompson, who by his lofty standards, is actually off to a pretty mediocre start can knock down shots from all over the court. Harrison Barnes plays his role perfectly. Andre Iguodala might be getting a bit older, but he fits perfectly as well. Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli do what they need to do in the paint, and Draymond Green has to be one of the most overlooked stars in the league. Obviously, it is easy to overlook someone who plays alongside the reigning MVP, but Green fills up the stat sheet night in and night out.

So, is making a run at 72 wins really possible for this team? They have been very fortunate to be able to avoid injuries, and that will surely play a role in whether or not they can get there. We have seen the San Antonio Spurs rest their players somewhat frequently in recent years in order to stay fresh for the playoffs, and the Cavaliers have said that they will try to do the same with their guys since they were so devastated by injuries last year. As of right now, the Warriors do not have that to worry about. The core of their team is young. The older players are all role players who do not play a ton of minutes each night anyway, so keeping them fresh is much easier than it is for other legitimate contenders who have older rosters.

The next thing you need to look at is just exactly how significant trying to break Chicago's record is to Golden State. While most of their players will not say anything publicly, you know that behind closed doors, these guys have to be thinking about it. What started as a few wins could now turn into the best stretch to open the season in league history. Questions are already being asked, and they will only be asked more and more if the wins keep piling up like this. As I said before, the NBA season is a long grind. What really matters is what happens in the postseason, and that is when teams need to be at their best. But that doesn't render everything that happens in the regular season meaningless. 72-10 is the best it has ever been, but records are made to be broken.

Golden State is as good as it gets right now in the NBA. Stephen Curry is following up his MVP season with another one that seems like it may be even better. When I first read this I thought it could not have been correct, but he has actually already surpassed his father in career three-pointers made. Dell Curry was surely not an MVP caliber player, but he was a very good shooter in his day. In 16 seasons, Dell hit 1,245 threes. Stephen has connected on 1,265 and this is only his seventh season in the league. That is unbelievable. And did I forget to mention that all of this has gone on without their head coach even on the bench? Steve Kerr led the team to a title last year, and after back surgeries following last season, he is still not fully recovered and no one knows exactly when he will return. That is unbelievable as well. The team lost its head coach after he announced he was taking a leave of absence soon before the season tipped off, and they have not missed a beat. Luke Walton has taken his place, and at only 35 years of age, he is only three years older than Leandro Barbosa, who is his backup point guard.

I have been asking the question to all of the basketball fans I know for a week or two now. Is 70 wins possible? While it is still far too early to tell, I have not heard anyone say no. Over an 82 game haul, things might get dull or boring, but having a team like this able to seemingly make a run at history like this is something that will drive up interest each and every night they play. Injuries are always the ever-looming equalizer, but barring that, I don't see why this team should not want to make a run at 72 wins. In the end, what you do in the regular season doesn't mean as much if you don't end the season with a championship, but if the Warriors were able to do what the Bulls did in breaking the wins record and winning a title, they could go down as one of the all-time greatest teams in the history of the sport, and that is a conversation anyone should love to be included in.

Daily Giants Update: The bye week worked out pretty much as well as we could have hoped. Dallas won, and I still don't think they are out of the hunt (which is pretty sad since they are 3-7). If they win every game from here on out, I think 9-7 is good enough to win the NFC East. They get Carolina on Thursday though, and the Panthers are 10-0. The only way spending Thanksgiving with a big plate of food and family could be any better is if we all got to watch the Cowboys lose as well. Speaking of Carolina, they are coming off a blowout win over the Redskins, which dropped Washington to 4-6. The Giants get the Redskins next Sunday, and having already beaten them once, a win on Sunday for the Giants would go a long way in trying to finally finish off Washington's season. The news is just as good in Philadelphia where the quarterback situation is a mess, the team is coming off an ugly loss to Tampa Bay, and I heard radio clips today from Philadelphia of fans going off on Chip Kelly and the team. Hopefully the implosion continues and we can all laugh while Chip Kelly and the Eagles sink.

Daily Rangers Update: The Rangers shut out the Predators last night, and Rick Nash has come alive in the past few games. Next up is a battle between the top two teams in the Eastern Conference, as the Canadiens visit Madison Square Garden tomorrow night. Montreal shut out the Rangers early in the season, so winning tomorrow would not only put the team alone atop the Eastern Conference, but it would be some nice revenge on the only team who has shut the Rangers out so far this season.

Daily Diamondbacks Update: Still pretty much no news at all in the MLB offseason, but there are obviously discussions underway all over the league. The winter meetings are still a few weeks away, and that is usually the official beginning of the MLB offseason. Until then, I don't expect much news to come.

Daily NBA Update: Obviously, the Warriors go for history tonight, but aside from that, at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, the 76ers still have not won a game, and I really don't know why anyone would want to pay money to go see them play. They have a potential four picks in the first round in the upcoming draft, but until then, it is going to be painful to watch basketball in Philadelphia for quite a while.

A change for the better?

The U.S. Soccer Federation recently announced that it was banning the use of the header in youth soccer for children 10 years and under, and only allowing it in practice sessions for children aged 11 and 12. When I heard this, I must say that I was pretty surprised. The one sport that I did play throughout my childhood and high school years was soccer, so I feel like this is a subject that I can speak on with some form of experience. The focus in recent years when it comes to head injuries has been mainly on football. Because of the violent nature of the game, we have seen a drastic shift, at every level, in not only how to handle head injuries, but how to prevent them as well. While people have all types of various opinions on what these safeguards have done to the sport itself, at the root of the movement is the goal to keep participants safer, and that is surely a good-natured goal. While football has been in the spotlight, this announcement by the U.S. Soccer Federation should make us remember that there are plenty of kids playing other sports who are susceptible to head injuries that need to be looked out for as well.

What this ruling does, in terms that might be easier to understand, is to completely disallow elementary school age children from heading the ball, and limit the number of times middle school level players can use their heads. Whether this is good or bad depends largely upon who you ask. At the most basic level, I think most outsiders would say that this ruling makes perfect sense. The first 18 years of a child's life are extremely important in terms of how that child will live as an adult. Bad choices or traumatic events that occur at a young age can cause irreparable damage that could last for a lifetime. A child's brain takes years to fully develop, and a soccer ball banging into their head surely cannot be a good thing. However, heading the ball is a fundamental skill that is vital to playing the game of soccer at the highest level, and it is a skill that is absolutely essential to master in order to play the game at that level. So then, is this ruling something that will do more good than bad? I still can't say that I really know for sure.

I started playing organized soccer around the age of five or six, and I played it through high school. During that time, the way I played the game, and the way all of my peers played the game changed quite a bit. At the lowest level, no one headed the ball. We would see it happen on television, but there was little to no focus on using the header as a legitimate skill. As I continued to grow and play, we would practice heading the ball, but that involved very little impact as far as the speed of the ball and the technique we used. I can honestly say that if I were a parent and my child played soccer as an 8-10 year old, I would be more worried about him or her sustaining a head injury on a bicycle or at the playground than playing soccer. So from that standpoint, it seems like this ruling would not have changed the way I grew and developed as a young soccer player.

Even as I reached middle school and began to play more competitively, heading the ball was still not an essential part of play as far as the games were concerned, but it was around that time that it became something that really needed to be learned if you wanted to continue to play soccer into high school. I honestly do not remember the first time I witnessed someone score a goal using a header, but I don't think it was before I was at least 12 years old, so that seems to be perfectly in tune with how the U.S. Soccer Federation came to this conclusion as far as the way the header is used in soccer in this country.

In the short time since this new rule was announced, I have heard more support for the ruling than disdain, and as I write this and think more closely about it as it applies practically to how I grew up playing soccer, I think I have no problem with it. People who are not in favor of the decision use the argument that heading the ball is essential to the game of soccer, and they are completely correct when they say that. I have heard some people say that this will allow children to focus more on footwork and skill handling the ball with their feet, but I really don't buy into that. There are plenty of times during a game of soccer that in order to make a play, your only option is to use your head. What I surely do remember about playing soccer when I was younger is that a "high kicking" rule was strictly enforced. Going up for a ball in the air with your head may be dangerous sometimes, but it is surely not as reckless as trying to win a ball in the air by swinging your cleats up near the eye level of your opponents.

Then what about helmets? Goalkeepers were required to wear helmets from the start when I played soccer in order to prevent head injuries, so then why not allow headers as long as all of the players wear helmets? In my eyes, this seems to be a valid answer. Like I said before with bicycle injuries, helmets were not always mandatory when riding a bicycle, but now any parent with any inkling of care for their child would not allow them to get on a bike without a helmet. Helmets did not always exist in football and hockey, and those sports eventually adapted and made them a requirement. Could that eventually happen is soccer? In my eyes, it absolutely could.

This newfound heightened awareness when it comes to head injuries will, in the long run, do nothing but good for athletes of all ages in all sports. Youth wrestlers and boxers were not always required to wear helmets, but now they are as well. Maybe soccer is next. And then after that, maybe basketball will follow. It may seem outrageous to think that, and "purists" may not like it, but if it helps to protect all athletes, and young ones in particular, then why is it a bad thing?

I wasn't really sure how I felt about this ruling when I first heard it, but I think now that I have given it some thought, I don't have a problem with it. While young children should definitely be aware that heading the ball is vital to playing the game of soccer, I also know that when it comes to actually using the header in a game setting, this ruling is really right on the money. Over 20 million Americans play youth soccer, and that number seems to be continuing to grow. There is a reason they call it the beautiful game, because at its highest level, soccer requires a wide variety of skills and traits, and when played by the best, it can be a beautiful thing to watch.

I will always believe that every kid should get out there and play some kind of sport. It doesn't have to be organized or competitive, but it should be fun, because it is fun. For the 1% that make it to the highest level, then congratulations. But for the other 99%, they should still enjoy the games even if they end up only being a hobby. When you do play sports, injuries will always be a possibility. That is an undeniable fact. However, is the everyday, working class person who never played a sport in their life but smokes a pack of cigarettes a day or goes home to a glass of wine every night just as much at risk as an athlete? Yes, they are. Plenty of people live their lives cleanly. They don't smoke, they don't drink, they don't put themselves at risk by playing contact sports, and that is totally fine. More power to them, and I commend them for living that way. But there are so many ways that sports and athletics can be a positive way to spend your free time that you will never find me campaigning against getting out there and having fun, no matter your age or ability.  The safer it is, the better for everyone, and what the U.S. Soccer Federation ruled definitely, in my mind, will help make the game safer for anyone who ever wants to lace up their boots and step on the pitch from now until eternity.

Daily Rangers Update: The freight train that is the Broadway Blueshirts continued to roll last night, as the Rangers made it ten straight games earning at least one point, with eight of those games being wins. A very good and unfamiliar foe will come to town tomorrow night in the form of the St. Louis Blues, in what will be the first of only two meetings between the teams this season. The Rangers sit second in the Eastern Conference, while the Blues sit second in the Western Conference, so this will be a nice test for both teams.

Daily Giants Update: Losing Jonathan Hankins for the season will be a tough blow to a defense that is already questionable, and having to plug in a replacement with the Patriots looming surely is not a good way to start. The Giants opened the season defending the run very well, but without Hankins in the middle, that will definitely be a tougher task. The Patriots could come out and throw the ball 50 times, or they could run the ball 50 times. With this team you really have no idea. We will find out on Sunday.

Daily Diamondbacks Update: Paul Goldschmidt won his second Gold Glove award yesterday, and A.J. Pollock earned his first, and both were well deserved. Goldschmidt was also announced as a finalist for the National League MVP, but I still expect Bryce Harper to win the award despite a great year by our first baseman. Matt Williams was also brought back in to coach third base after losing his job as the manager of the Nationals. That means the Diamondbacks baserunners better get ready to work on their turns around third base, because Williams is like a human windmill in the third base coaching box. Send 'em in, and send 'em often.

Daily NBA Update: The Cavs won again last night to move to 7-1 on the year, and Russell Westbrook notched another triple-double after Kevin Durant went down with an injury in a win for the Thunder. Durant's injury does not appear to be anything serious, so Oklahoma City still seems like they have the potential to challenge Golden State in the Western Conference. The Clippers visit Dallas tonight as DeAndre Jordan "returns" to Dallas after verbally agreeing to sign there this offseason before ultimately re-signing in Los Angeles. People are over-blowing this far too much, and they have been since it happened. Maybe, to get back at the Mavs fans, who will surely be all over Jordan, he can shoot above 40% from the free throw line tonight. However, that might be asking too much of a guy that makes Shaquille O'Neal look like Mark Price from the free throw line.

The power of sports

In the eyes of most people, sports have no connection to any sort of legitimately significant part of the "real world." Many people view athletes as over-paid and ungrateful for the lifestyle that they live. These guys make millions of dollars to play games, and they have no business making exponentially larger amounts of money than the average, every day, 9-5 working class members of society. And, in some cases, those people are correct. There are definitely athletes who abuse the privileges that come along with the fame and money they may have earned. However, that doesn't mean that there are also many times in which athletes can use their platform to do good as well, and we saw that happen in an alarmingly short matter of time over the past few days in Missouri.

When I heard that the Missouri football team was in essence, "going on strike" until the president of the University was removed, I will be completely honest that I had no clue whatsoever as to why they were doing so. As I looked into the details of the reason for the announcement for the football team doing what they did, I realized that what these kids were doing was very risky. Black students on campus at the university were becoming more and more outspoken about what they felt were racial inequalities that were not being addressed by the higher powers at Missouri.

At a university with a student body that is less than 10% black, it seemed like these cries were coming from a small minority, and this was likely one of the reasons that the university paid little attention to it. However, no one can argue the fact that the reason colleges exist are to educate people from all different backgrounds before the students graduate and go on to find careers as true adults. A very important piece of the full college experience is to be able to be exposed to peers that may be different in many ways, but ultimately, have the same goal in mind. It is the responsibility of the university to make its entire student body feel included, and if that is not the case, then the school is not doing what it owes to each and every student on campus.

Growing up where I did, and being raised as I was, it really never ceases to amaze me that racial issues still can be so drastic in some places. New York is a place filled with such a wide variety of people from places all over the world, that it is impossible to live here without being able to coexist with people from all types of different backgrounds. Whether it is skin color, religion, education level, or simply attitude, I see a wide array of each every day. That is why it just seems so hard to understand how so many people still see race as such a defining factor in judging the character of people. What was happening on the Missouri campus proved once again that there are still far too many people who have such closed-minded and outdated ways of living.

Black students at Missouri spoke of a number of different racial issues that the university was failing to address, and their pleads were not being heard by anyone with any power to bring about any sort of legitimate shift. However, that all changed when the football team became involved by threatening not to play its game this Saturday unless the president of the university was removed. Suddenly, in what seemed like an instant, the story was gaining national headlines. As media outlets from all over the country flooded to the Missouri campus, president Tim Wolfe stepped down yesterday, effective immediately. Not only had the football team brought attention to a continually overlooked problem, it also brought about a truly significant change. Had it not been for the actions of the football team, it is highly likely that no one outside of the campus of Missouri would even care about the issues that this small minority of students was trying to address.

Cynically, if you look at this situation and you hear that the University of Missouri would owe its opponent this Saturday, BYU, $1 million for the game not being played, you would say that once again, all this was about was money. And in all honesty, I would not disagree with you. Any university staring at a $1 million loss is going to cringe and do everything in its power to avoid something like that from occurring, and you would be ignorant to think otherwise. However, I would also respond by saying that the only reason any of this ever happened was due entirely to the football team standing together and representing the feelings of the student body that it represents.

On the field, this Missouri team is having a subpar season, and they are now simply fighting to stay out of the bottom of the standings in the SEC. The amount of legitimate pro prospects on the 2015 roster can be counted on one hand. That means that most likely, at least 98% of the kids on this team will never go on to a career in the NFL. Playing college football will be the best it will ever get for them as athletes, and they will have to make a living doing something other than playing a game. With that being said, I would also submit to you that every member of this team will have experienced something in college that goes far beyond the field of play. These kids brought about a truly significant change in the way that a college campus operates. Whoever it is that replaces Tim Wolfe as president will now be in full focus of the students, the media, and the governing body of not only Missouri, but the entire nation, and it will force a change to be made in the way people conduct themselves at that school, from top to bottom.

I am not going to look at this situation through some sort of utopian viewpoint and say that what the football team did will end all problems at Missouri, because it won't. Nevertheless, it will at the very least address some problems that the governing body of the university was wrongly either overlooking, or just simply looking at indifferently. Racial problems will still occur at this school, just like they will at schools all over the country, but what this situation showed us was that sometimes sports are more than just a game. Sometimes, sports and athletes can truly bring about changes that would not be otherwise possible.

When anyone who graduates college looks back at their time in school, they all have their fondest memories, and for each individual, those cherished moments will never be forgotten. For the kids on this football team, this season will no longer be remembered for hard times on the field, but it will be remembered for the change they spurred off the field. When head coach Gary Pinkel goes on recruiting visits to the homes of prospective players, he can look into the eyes of young men and say without question that not only does he care about what they can do on the field, but he also cares about what they do off the field as well. While that may not bring about any national championships, it surely is something he can offer that should comfort high school kids and their parents.

Sports will always be games played that have no true bearing on the way our society operates, and I understand why so many people see professional athletes and look at them misanthropically. However, sports can still be used as a platform to bring to light real societal issues that, if addressed, can truly impact the way we go about our everyday lives. Athletes have brought about significant changes before, and they will continue to do so in the future, and you don't have to be a die-hard sports fan to appreciate that.

Daily Giants Update: After a nice win last Sunday in Tampa Bay, the Giants still sit alone atop a very mediocre NFC East as we play into the second half of the regular season. The task this Sunday will be daunting though with the undefeated and seemingly invincible Patriots coming to the Meadowlands. I hate hearing about how the Giants are the "kryptonite" of the Patriots, because I feel like it almost puts more pressure on the Giants to win and casts the Patriots as the underdog even though New England has been absolutely dominant over its first eight games. As is the case going into any Giants game though, I have absolutely no clue what will happen because this team is the definition of bipolar. They could play great, or they could get run off the field. Hopefully the former occurs, because the division is there for the taking, and all you have to do in order to win a Super Bowl is make it into the playoffs. No team has been a better example of that in recent memory than the New York Giants.

Daily Rangers Update: Through 14 games, the Rangers sit second in the Eastern Conference at 10-2-2. It is nice to see guys like Mats Zuccarello and Oscar Lindberg at or near the top of the team leaderboard in points, and Antti Raanta is undefeated in three starts backing up Henrik Lundqvist. If Raanta can come anywhere close to equaling what Cam Talbot did in relief of Lundqvist last season, it would go a long way in helping keep the King fresh and ready when the playoffs start and things really get serious. A middling Carolina Hurricanes team visits Madison Square Garden tonight.

Daily Diamondbacks Update: Starting pitching will definitely be the main focus of the team this offseason, and there are a few big names that will be on the open market. Zack Greinke and David Price will most likely be too expensive, but adding someone like Jeff Samardzija or Johnny Cueto would be a nice surprise. It might be expecting too much, but the new regime with Tony LaRussa and Dave Stewart in control spent more money than I expected last offseason, so maybe they will be willing to open the checkbook again to address a starting rotation that is in big need of help.

Daily NBA Update: We are less than a month into the season, but the Golden State Warriors look even better than they did last year, and they won it all last year. We are still eons away from the end of the season, but the Warriors and Cavaliers are a combined 14-1, so the two Finals participants from last year sure look like they have gotten right back to business in 2015.

A (halfway) unexpected World Series

In early April, each of the 30 Major League Baseball teams had high hopes and expectations. Like the beginning of any season in any sport, the new year brought about a renewed sense of excitement. Even as I was anticipating the start of the Diamondbacks' season, I pushed aside the fact that my team had finished with the worst record in baseball in 2014. We had a lot of young talent ready to step in and make some noise, we had a new manager, and we had the best first baseman in the league. While the team certainly did progress in 2015, it was clear before the All-Star break that my team wasn't exactly championship caliber. It might have been disappointing, but in retrospect, I think the Diamondbacks did show quite a bit of improvement and in April of 2016, I will have those same championship aspirations, even though most people will probably find that laughable. However, sometimes laughable scenarios can turn out to be reality, and starting tomorrow night, we are going to see one of those times when fantasy becomes reality.

After the conclusion of the 2014 season, we were enamored with the progress that the Kansas City Royals had displayed, and we saw that hope of their organization had become reality, as they reached the World Series. While they lost to the San Francisco Giants, the Royals roster was littered with young and talented players, and it seemed as though the fans in Kansas City were only seeing the beginning of a stretch of great baseball. 2015 was no different, as the Royals motored from Opening Day into October, and now into the World Series. In an American League Central division full of mediocre competition, the Royals finished the regular season 12 games ahead of the second place Minnesota Twins, and their 95 wins earned them the top spot in the entire American League. So, if you told me in April that the Royals would be back in the World Series, I would not have been surprised to hear so. What would have shocked me though, is the team that they would be facing for baseball's biggest prize.

At the beginning of the season, I can't recall anyone saying that the National League East division race would even be close. The Washington Nationals had all the young and talented players, and they would run away and hide with the division crown easily in their grasp. Yet, a funny thing happened along the way, and it has become the new calling card of baseball over the past decade. The only thing to expect is the unexpected. The NL East saw a runaway winner, but the Nationals were on the wrong end of the race. The New York Mets, despite pretty much all preseason prognostications, took the NL East by storm, and they were actually the dominant team in the division. Bryce Harper had an MVP-caliber season for Washington, but the rest of the roster did not come close to meeting expectations, and because of that, the Mets will now be playing tomorrow night in their first World Series in 15 years.

Major League Baseball is in the midst of an unprecedented youth movement, the likes of which we have not seen before. Madison Bumgarner dominated the World Series last year, and he is only approaching the prime of his career. Guys like Harper, Mike Trout, and Giancarlo Stanton are outfielders who are not only household names right now, but will be household names for the next decade. In comparison, those guys are ancient compared to other youngsters who are only beginning to burst onto the Major League scene.

We saw the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros in the postseason for the first time in quite a while, and guys like Carlos Correa and Kris Bryant are already superstars despite being 21 and 23 years old, respectively. A youth movement is sweeping all across baseball, and the World Series will showcase that movement in full form. Last season, we learned names like Lorenzo Cain, Salvador Perez, Yordano Ventura, and Kelvin Herrera. This year, the league has been enthralled with the abundance of young pitching talent that the Mets have shown. Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, and Noah Syndergaard are all flame-throwing studs, and their talents will be on full display in the 2015 World Series. Add Steven Matz to the mix, and the Mets have so much young pitching talent that, at least in my opinion, it has made the increasingly harder to like Matt Harvey actually expendable (however that is another story for another day).

I cannot say that I know what will happen once the World Series gets underway tomorrow, but what I do know is that it will be filled with a whole lot of young and talented players who are only beginning to scratch the surface of their unbelievable levels of talent. The hot bats of Daniel Murphy, Yoenis Cespedes, Alcides Escobar, and Alex Rios will all be ready, but they will be met with a whole lot of young, flame-throwing arms. I won't predict what will happen over the course of the next (at most) seven games, because if I did, I know I would be wrong. What I can tell everyone though, is that the names we hear over the next week or so will be names that we will be hearing for many years to come, and Major League Baseball should be ecstatic that on its biggest stage, they will be able to showcase some of the best young talent it has to offer.

Daily Rangers Update: A win last night over Calgary now puts the Rangers at 6-2-2, which is good for the second best record in the Eastern Conference, behind the red hot Montreal Canadiens, who have started the season with nine wins in their first nine games. Through the first 10 games, the Rangers are off to a nice start. After a few days of rest, the Rangers will be at home to face a Toronto Maple Leafs team that has stumbled out of the gate with only one win in their first seven games.

Daily Giants Update: A win against Dallas, paired with an Eagles loss to Carolina, has put the Giants back atop the division with a record of 4-3. I will get into more detail tomorrow with a full recap of the NFL weekend, but there are plenty of ways to spin this game positively, as well as many ways to spin it negatively. The bottom line is, the team is in first place, and like Bill Parcells once said, "you are what your record is." Right now the Giants have the best record in the NFC East.

A disturbing recent trend in sports

Vices and addictions come in all different shapes and sizes, and they affect all different types of people in seemingly endless ways. They transcend lines of gender, race, social status, and any other sort of category that one may or may not fit into. I do not pretend to be an expert when it comes to this subject, but I do know that there are a whole lot of people fighting personal demons, and even if you may not see it in the way they live their everyday lives, those demons can often times end up being too much to overcome.

I write about sports, and this is the type of subject that usually does not come up unless things end up truly tragic. Sadly, we may be in the midst of one of those moments, but I hope that I am wrong. We have seen star athletes pass away far too early in various ways. Names like Pat Tillman, Junior Seau, Roberto Clemente, Ray Chapman, and Len Bias will always be remembered more for how they were lost and less for how great they all were in their own individual sports.

Only a few weeks ago, the sports world was shocked to learn that, on the eve of the playoffs, C.C. Sabathia announced that he was entering an alcohol rehabilitation center. The news itself was surprising enough, but the timing of it was what made it even more unbelievable. For Sabathia to make such an announcement the day before his team was about to fight to make the postseason demonstrated to me that he must have been in desperate need of help. On the surface, the public was unaware of any kind of problem Sabathia may have had, but for him to make such an announcement at that time means that we had no idea whatsoever the kinds of demons he was trying to battle.

Then, only a few days ago, The University of Southern California fired head coach Steve Sarkisian only one day after putting him on an indefinite leave of absence due to recurring problems with alcohol. Sarkisian had shown signs of his problem here and there, and in retrospect, it is easy to say that his addiction was being wrongly overlooked.

On the surface, it seemed like Sarkisian was leading a storied football program back towards the promised land. After finally seeming to overcome the sanctions levied upon the program thanks to the previous regime, USC had put together a few good recruiting classes, and it seemed as though Sarkisian was guiding the program back to a place that we have become so accustomed to seeing it. Just like Sabathia, it may have seemed as though everything was fine from afar, but after learning more about just exactly what was going on in Sarkisian's personal life, it is easy to see that what he was fighting had become too much to brush aside.

After these two instances, a bombshell dropped on the sports world yesterday, when it was learned that former NBA star Lamar Odom was found face down and unresponsive on the floor of a Nevada brothel, and had to be rushed to the hospital and to this point, is still unable to breathe on his own. According to reports, Odom had spent the past few days at the brothel, and had been using sexual performance drugs, at least one illicit drug (cocaine), and drinking alcohol as well. Being found face down and unresponsive on the floor clearly points to an overdose, and Odom is now fighting for his life in a hospital.

As Odom neared the end of his playing career, we started to see signs of drug and alcohol addiction, and it continued after his playing days ended, as he remained in the national spotlight because of his marriage to a member of the Kardashian family, and his presence on their television show. Odom and his wife eventually divorced, and he began to fade from the national spotlight. Clearly though, his addictions did not fade. In fact, they most likely worsened.

As a player, I remember Odom as a dominant collegiate player at Rhode Island, and I remember him as a key member of championship Los Angeles Lakers teams. He seemed like a nice guy, and I don't recall ever hearing any type of negative feelings towards him. However, this is the gift and the curse of being a star professional athlete. Sometimes, the athletes that we watch and idolize are just exactly who we think they are. Other times, we only see the good, and we never have any kind of clue about what might lie behind the curtain when an athlete steps off the field of play. We saw Len Bias as an unbelievable talent on the court. We saw Junior Seau as a Hall of Fame linebacker, we saw C.C. Sabathia as a proven pitching star, and we saw Lamar Odom as a very good NBA player. However, what recent weeks has taught me is that despite their athletic gifts, these guys are all just regular human beings at heart, and despite how we may idolize them, they are far from immune to the problems that any other person may be subject to.

As I said, I do not pretend to be an expert when it comes to a subject like this. I am just relaying my feelings to anyone out there who may take a few minutes out of their day to read this. I also know that millionaire athletes with addictions are surely not exactly sympathetic figures in the eyes of many people. There are millions of people out there that the public will never know about who are dealing with similar and far worse problems than these guys, but the point is that there are some things that no one is immune to, and recent weeks in the sports world have been a sad example of this fact.

I was deeply saddened when I heard about what happened to Odom, and I really hope that he can make it through this and some day come out on the other end fully recovered. Because no matter how much money you may have or how famous you may or may not be, it is never ok to have to see someone succumb to any kind of serious addiction. This isn't about just one man and just one moment in time. It is about an unseen world of personal demons that far too many people deal with. If even one person out there somewhere can learn from Odom's situation, then it is one less person that has to deal with such a personal burden. I hope that Lamar Odom is able to fight through these extremely saddening and depressing circumstances, and if that does happen, I'm sure it will make him feel better than any sort of acclaim he ever received on the basketball court.

Daily Rangers Update: The Rangers suffered their first loss against Winnipeg last night, losing 4-1 at home. Next up is a trip to Montreal to face the 4-0 Canadiens, in a matchup of teams that will both have expectations of playing deep into the postseason. Young Oscar Lindberg has gotten off to a great start, with four goals in the first four games, and if he can provide a spark like that moving forward, it will be a huge boost for the Rangers.

Daily Giants Update: With the next game coming on Monday night, the Giants will have an extra day of rest this week, and that could prove extremely helpful, as both Rueben Randle and Odell Beckham Jr. were injured last week. Beckham was able to return, but Randle was not. Hopefully an extra day off will be enough to get them both back on the field Monday night because without them, the receiving corps was in total shambles. Here is to a speedy recovery for both!

Daily Diamondbacks Update: Nothing new here from a team standpoint, as the offseason hasn't even really begun with the postseason now in full swing. Until the news starts coming in, I will use this section as a daily recap of the baseball still being played.

The Chicago Cubs (yes, the Chicago Cubs) have officially moved on to the NLCS after defeating the St. Louis Cardinals last night, and the Toronto Blue Jays won a thrilling game just only a few hours ago to advance to the ALCS for the first time since 1993. The Astros are currently up 2-0 in Kansas City in the final game of that series, and the Mets and Dodgers will play a decisive fifth game tomorrow night in Chavez Ravine. This entire season has only proven one thing, and that it to expect the unexpected. I would make predictions, but I would only make myself look bad, so instead I am just going to sit back and enjoy October baseball.

Dear Major League Baseball: This is your chance, now go and take it!

Even though baseball will still always be referred to as "America's Pastime," anyone with any kind of sense of reality knows that in 2015, that is simply not the case. If you don't believe me, I have the data to prove it, and the data is overwhelmingly convincing.

October is what baseball purists love. Parity has (for the most part) started to seep through baseball, and we have seen all kinds of new faces and teams play into October. While we are used to seeing the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, and San Francisco Giants in the playoffs, the rest of the field has been filled with all sorts of newcomers in recent years, and 2015 is no different. Who would have ever thought in April that we would see the Cubs, Astros, Mets, and Blue Jays all in the postseason in the same year? Nobody. And at the same time, the Kansas City Royals entered the postseason as a team with World Series experience and expectations to be back right there again. 2015 has seen a youth explosion in Major League Baseball, and this is the stage for that youth movement to take full stage on a national level. The only problem is, that isn't happening.

Yesterday was an amazingly great day of baseball. All of the eight remaining teams played, and we were treated to some unbelievable games. The Blue Jays staved off elimination against the Rangers, and that series is going to a decisive fifth game in Toronto in a series which has seen the road team win every game. The Royals climbed off of their death bed in Houston with an amazing rally to force a decisive fifth game back in Kansas City, and they now have the momentum in a series that the Astros were six outs away from winning.

In the National League, we saw Jake Arrieta, in the midst of one of the greatest stretches of individual pitching in baseball history, face off against Michael Wacha in what would seemingly be a pitchers' duel at Wrigley Field, and the ball was flying all over the ballpark as the Cubs have now given themselves a chance to move to the NLCS with a win in Game Four at home tonight. Then to finish the day off, the Mets continued their improbable run, and they too have a chance to reach the NLCS with a win at home tonight. It was a great day for baseball. But then, Monday Night Football happened, and reality sunk back in.

The Pittsburgh Steelers took on the San Diego Chargers last night. While those are two intriguing teams in many ways, Pittsburgh vs San Diego isn't exactly the prototypical primetime, edge of your seat type of matchup, even though the game did have a thrilling finish (as well as a serious game clock issue that no one is talking about). The two National League games drew an average rating of 3.5 nationwide, with the ratings obviously being higher in Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and Los Angeles. The Monday Night Football game drew an 8.5 national TV rating. So, not only is the nation more interested in a Week 5 matchup of not so epic proportions than primetime playoff baseball, but the race isn't even close. Why is this happening? There are so many good things going on in baseball right now, but it still just cannot come close to touching the NFL. I don't know if I have all of the answers as to why this is, but spending my morning off watching sports television certainly gave me some insight as to what the problem is that Major League Baseball continually fails to address.

Think of all of the young talent that is now shining on baseball's biggest stage. The Cubs have a seemingly endless supply of young, powerful, and exciting position players. The Mets have an embarrassment of young pitching depth. The Astros have an entire roster full of kids who seemingly could still attend a high school prom and not stand out as a bit too old to be there. The Royals have a team full of young stars, and they are actually a seasoned group of experienced veterans in comparison to these other teams. Major League Baseball should be taking this opportunity to showcase its youth and vitality and running with it, but that just is not happening. It is no fault of the players, as they are most certainly doing their part. The fault lies right at the feet of the commissioner, the owners, and the executives in the MLB offices.

When Rob Manfred took over as MLB Commissioner, he had an opportunity to put his stamp on the game of baseball. I don't mean adding instant replay or adding interviews with managers in the dugouts during games. I mean that he had (and still does have) a chance to market the game like it needs to be marketed. As I watched TV for a few hours this morning, I saw Andrew Luck in a commercial for DirecTV. I saw Peyton and Eli Manning. I saw J.J. Watt. I even saw Richard Sherman and Cam Newton marketing beef jerky and yogurt. Beef jerky and yogurt! Take a moment to think about that. These NFL players aren't marketing rough and tough products, they are doing ads for beef jerky and yogurt. In that same span of time, do you know how many baseball players I saw in those dozens and dozens of commercials? The answer is zero, and this is what MLB somehow just doesn't seem to understand.

The list of young and budding superstars in the MLB postseason right now seemingly reads like an encyclopedia. Carlos Correa, Kris Bryant, Jacod deGrom, Addison Russell, Lorenzo Cain. Kevin Pillar is a human highlight film in center field for Toronto. Noah Syndergaard and Matt Harvey are absolutely dominant young arms for the Mets. Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez are elite talents in Kansas City. And then there are dozens of players who aren't even playing in October who have seemingly endless amounts of talent and are only entering the prime of their careers. Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen, Giancarlo Stanton, Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, the list goes on and on. Yet, if you asked a casual sports fan to pick these guys out of a lineup of faces, most of them would have a tough time doing so. Ask someone who knows nothing about sports who Peyton or Eli Manning are. They are those guys who have hosted Saturday Night Live. Aaron Rodgers is the Discount Double Check guy. Tom Brady is the guy married to the supermodel. NFL stars are not only great players on the field, but they are known nationwide. Major League Baseball just doesn't seem to realize that in order for their postseason games to be more appealing nationwide than a matchup of middle-of-the-pack NFL teams, it has to do a far better job of marketing these guys than they do now. NFL players spend their Sundays covered in helmets and facemasks and they are still more recognizable than MLB players who are in plain sight for nine innings! Come on, MLB, what are you doing?!?!

What yesterday showed us was that baseball has become relegated to a regional sport. People in Wrigleyville and Dodgerstown might be interested in baseball right now, but if not for their Cubs and Dodgers making the playoffs, they wouldn't watch any baseball until 2016. As a native of Brooklyn, New York, I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt, that without the Mets, everyone in the five boroughs of New York City would be 100% focused on the Jets and Giants, and would have no impetus whatsoever to watch the MLB postseason, and as I look at the NFL primetime schedule for next week, it is going to be more of the same. On Sunday night, the Patriots go to Indianapolis to play the Colts, and I will be watching that game without question unless something unbelievable happens in whatever MLB game might be going on. Either way, I will be watching football, and maybe, occasionally, switching to baseball. Then, on Monday night, the Giants will be in Philadelphia, and the chances of me ever switching channels while that game is on is even less than the chances of a snowball surviving in hell.

I really like baseball, and when I watch my team, I am hanging on every pitch. When I watch anyone else though, baseball just seems to sort of be background noise, and based on what cable ratings say, I seem to be in the vast majority. When I watch my football team, I am hanging on every snap. When I watch any other team, the game is still front and center, and I don't see that changing anytime in the near future, unless Major League Baseball can make these young stars recognizable not only on the field, but off the field as well. The last time Major League Baseball was truly on the top of the charts on a nationwide scale was when the sport was dominated by athletes pumping all kinds of performance enhancing drugs into their bodies. The substances may have been legal at the time, but the entire steroid era has really skewed the baseball record books, and looking back on the time with 20/20 vision, it seriously hurt the history and tradition of a game that I love.

So, to conclude this far too long diatribe, I just want to try to get my point across that the players are doing their job. It is the MLB executives who are failing them miserably. If they could market their stars to a national audience, it would mean more money for everyone. Why they don't seem to realize this fact is beyond me, but until it changes, Major League Baseball will continue to be background noise in the national sports consciousness, and the NFL will dominate the sports world just like it has been doing for quite a while now.

Daily Giants Update: With a typical, New York Giants, teetering on the verge of defeat kind of comeback victory, we now sit alone atop a very mediocre NFC East. A win in Philadelphia this coming Monday would be huge, and with the Cowboys facing a dire situation due to injuries, the Giants need to take this opportunity and run with it. Anything less will be unacceptable.

Daily Rangers Update: It is only three games into the season, but the Rangers couldn't have started off better at 3-0. We get Winnipeg tonight, and as is the case now with every single game the Rangers play, I expect to win. It is all about the postseason now with this team though. I thought they had the best squad heading into the playoffs the past two seasons, and they failed to get it done. Excuse me for saying this so early, but this regular season really doesn't matter. It is Stanley Cup or bust. Nothing else matters.

Daily Diamondbacks Update: 2015 brought about a whole lot of positive things for Arizona. We actually have an embarrassment of riches in the outfield, and while we also don't exactly have two concrete starters in the middle infield, there are certainly a number of solid candidates. With #1 pick Dansby Swanson on the way as well, I think the future looks a heck of a lot better than finishing 2014 with the worst record in all of baseball. The pitching staff needs to be the main focus of the offseason, because Patrick Corbin may be a future top of the rotation fixture, but we really need to shore up the spots after him. It will be interesting to see what Dave Stewart and Tony LaRussa can do this offseason.