#IBelieve

Belief.

It’s what makes you put on that shirt in the morning.

And wear that lucky sock. And paint your face. And drink your coffee out of your lucky mug.

Belief is what makes you get there hours before the gates open.

It is what makes you sing. It is what makes you stand. It is what makes you chant.

Belief is standing in the rain. Belief is standing in the heat. Belief is standing when no one else does.

But belief is not hope. Belief is not faith. Belief is not optimism.

It is knowing. It is understanding. It is certain.

And that is what makes belief the cruelest of mistresses.

I’ve seen what belief does when it fails you.

It’s punch to the gut. It’s a soul crusher. It’s a heart breaker.

I believed when I was eight and too ignorant to know better. And then I—like my team—was crushed by five Super Bowl rings.

I believed in 1998, after the top of the fifth inning, after a so-called “pure-hitter” crushed a ball into the upper deck. Two innings later, my heart was broken by a bad call and one swing.

I believed in 2004 and 2006 and 2007. But a slip in the end zone, a toe-out-of-bounds and quarterback with no timeouts ended my belief then.

And I knew belief last week, which was silenced in 30 seconds. And I saw belief Sunday, until a cracker of a goal and a bad foul made the room quiet.

But belief when it is true to you is pure ecstasy.

It’s a stadium, 72,000 strong drowning out the critics.

It’s an invasion, when the away team that is a program with no history defeats the program of history.

It’s storming the field, the court, the pitch whenever No. 1 goes down.

Belief is four seconds left, with an entire football field and marching band in your way.

Belief is a goal-line stand that sends you to the Super Bowl.

Belief is winning the division on the final day of the regular season.

Belief is a game-winning goal that saves your life in the World Cup.

Belief can be magic. Belief can be cruel.

And it is why I still believe.

Tomlinson. Will. Be. Back.

First, my sincerest apologies. I've been a little busy the last month or so after the Super Bowl, so I haven't posted on my blog in quite some time.

But this is quite a time to write a new post.

Kevin Acee's lead should be simple. Actually, it is.

"It is finished."

That's short and sweet. It's very concise. It's all that is needed really to weigh the gravity of what so many associated with the San Diego Chargers (fans, players and front office types alike) are feeling right now.

Tomlinson will be back in San Diego. General manager A.J. Smith averts a public relations disaster. Chargers fans don't have to go out and buy Knowshon Moreno jerseys--at least not yet.

As a fan, I feel relief. Relief for the franchise. Relief for LT--who really wanted to stay in San Diego. Relief that a whole contingent of fans won't spend the entire offseason in a backlash against what could have been a nuclear disaster for Smith.

I was one of those that was ready to move on. Tomlinson is getting up there in age. He hasn't been around when the Chargers have bolted into the playoffs the last two years. He just came off his worst season statisically.

I was ready to see LT not in a Chargers uniform come fall camp.

But that sigh you just heard--that was the sigh of millions in southern California holding their breath to see whether or not Tomlinson stays or if they start protesting in front of Smith's house.

Statistically, this may not have been the most important thing for San Diego to do. Smith could have traded Tomlinson and gotten draft picks. He could have simply cut him and save cap to resign more crucial players like quarterback Philip Rivers and linebacker Shawn Merriman.

But LT means more to the organization and to the community than just mere stats--than just wins and losses.

LT is the Chargers. The Chargers are LT. He is the franchise. He is the epitome of hard work and paying your dues so that you can get to the level where you are now.

San Diego would not be where it is if it wasn't for Tomlinson, and the fans realized that. The fans felt that Tomlinson earned a little more respect than just getting shipped out of San Diego.

And in a business where loyalty seems to be forgotten, Smith and LT were finally loyal--to each other, to the franchise and to the fans.

LT always wanted to be loyal. He always wanted to stay in San Diego. Tomlinson was so loyal that he'll be taking pay cuts so that the franchise can try to keep Rivers and Merriman in town longer than LT's career will last.

If anything, LT staying in San Diego really shouldn't have been in doubt. If Smith was willing to work with Tomlinson (which he apparently was) and try to keep him in San Diego, then I'm sure LT was all for it.

LT isn't Terrell Owens. He's not a problem like Edgerrin James. He doesn't bring distractions like Tony Romo.

If anything, LT is showed that he cared about San Diego and the Chargers, and at the end of the day, that's why Chargers fans would have cried foul if Tomlinson was let go.

It is finished. Tomlinson will be back. Chargers fans can rejoice.

Today's WTF?! Moment: Suspensions Happen

Losing sponsorships was expected. Too many suits, too-tight-neckties and pants pulled up to high to understand (and forgive) Michael Phelps. All this even after Phelps apologized for his actions.

Apparently, USA Swimming doesn't think an apology and humiliation is enough either. Four days after his apology and its acceptance by the International Olympic Committee, USA Swimming has suspended Michael Phelps for three months.

But really, a three-month suspension is what Phelps really deserved--it's just a little slap on the wrist.

It's nothing to severe. Phelps will miss like one event. It doesn't really hurt him.

It's just that USA Swimming felt like it had to do something, when it really didn't have to.

Signing Day Brings Out the Best in ESPN's List-Making

Signing Day is today. I already talked about how much I don't like it.

But it also gave ESPN the opportunity to make a "Best of the BCS Conference List." The theory behind this is that in each conference, there is a school that is the "best" in that area. ESPN asks it's team of bloggers to rate a school in their conference in anything from the best recruiter to the best academics to even the best uniforms.

Most of the answers are ho-hum and relatively no-brainers.

So, here are my thoughts on the Best of the BCS Conferences. But since I went to a Pac-10 school (California) and live out on the West Coast, I'll give most of my attention to the Conference of Champions.

• Best Uniform category: Do kids really go to a school based on what the uniform looks like? And for all of those Oregon fans and alums screaming that Ted Miller didn't pick the Ducks, really? You think because you have so many combination that Oregon has the best unis? The all white is pretty sick, but other than that, they're ugly.

• Best Campus Life--Cal: So there was some objections to this in the comments made by ESPN readers. Here's an example:
  

  Have you ever been to Cal? Berkeley is the most rediculous "college town" in the country. Their are more 90 year olds biking around Berkeley than students. You should look towards Tempe. Aren't they annually in the Top 5 for party schools in the country?

  You need to do more research before writing these types of articles.
  

  Obviously, this reader is uninformed. These writers have been to every school and then some in the conferences they cover. Ted Miller is one of the best writers in all of college football and I'm going to say is the most talented of any of the bloggers that ESPN hired for their college football blog. And college life isn't about all about the parties. If that were so, wouldn't Arizona State not have finished 5-7 this year and sixth in the Pac-10?
  

  Also, being at Cal, even though it is considered a program that should compete with USC perrenially, there is a laid-backness to the student population when it comes to its football. Yes the fans come out, the students are crazy on Saturday, but that's on Saturday. During the rest of the week, the football players can just go around, acting like normal students, not being bothered by the faux-fame that comes to most athletes when they go to a school like, oh, ASU. On Saturdays, Cal is a football school. On every other day, Cal is just a school and a damn good one at that.

• I've been to Eugene, Ore., for a gameday and have to say I agree with Ted Miller. The fans and students there are crazy. And Autzen Stadium turns into an absolute zoo come kickoff time. And it gets so loud.
  

• Does Syracuse really have the best academics in the Big East?

• If recruits made their decisions strictly on playing time, then Wazzu and Iowa State should be signing five-stars left and right. Too bad (for the Cougs and Clones) that recruiting doesn't work that way.
  

Signing Day, the Circus it is

I enjoy signing day as the average person does--not really.

The only thing that signing day signals for me is that spring camps are set to open in a few months and I can't wait for college football to start going again.

But I never understood the fascination with college football's signing day. It's the only college sport where the signing day is treated as if it's the be-all, end-all to how a program will do in the next four years.

It's all about how many five- and four-star recruits a team is able to sign and whether or not those high school kids really deserve all that glory being promised to them.

The whole college football recruiting process is one where you see grown men (cue in Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy), get down on their knees and praise and promise and grovel in front of boys. It's degrading in both ways.

And I for one would support moving signing day earlier in the year. We need no more grandstanding from a bunch of kids with a god-complex who make grown men act like high school freshmen.

Moorad Takes Control of Padres

Well, not yet. The owners still have to approve it, but by Opening Day, Jeff Moorad will be the new CEO of the San Diego Padres and will have bought a controlling interest in the team.

This can only spell relief for Padres fans who have had to suffer and watch a dilapidated team march on through the 2008 Major League Baseball season with a primarily young group as the soon-to-be-former owner John Moores was in the midst of a long and nasty divorce.

Financing the divorce got in the way, so Moores decided to slash the Padres payroll in 2009 to $40 million. Hopefully, with a new owner in place, San Diego can keep at least keep its payroll where it is ($45 million) or maybe add to it in the coming months.

However, the Padres will probably still field a team that will be less than satisfactory for fans. There are still a lot of questions for this team and it will probably finish dead last in the NL West once again.

On a side note, the fans who thinks that Kevin Towers and Sandy Alderson are to blame for the failures that have come to San Diego are dead wrong.

Towers is still one of the best general managers is all of baseball. And Alderson, well he is still a baseball genius. It isn't their fault that the Padres were dismanlted in the middle of last season. Sure, they make the personel decisions, but ultimately, it is Moores who signs the checks and has much to lose if he continues to field a losing baseball team.

It was Moores who told Alderson and Towers to start dumping salary. It was Moores who probably wanted to get rid of Jake Peavy. But it was Towers and Alderson who were the frontmen for Moores, protecting their boss as he deals with a divorce that left the team--and Towers and Alderson--strapped for cash.

It's too bad Alderson won't be with the team anymore. A few more years, and I sincerely believe that he would have brought the Padres back to the World Series.

Today's WTF?! Moment: How Much is He Getting Paid?

I've decided to try to blog daily now. And by blogging daily I mean pretty much writing two sentences and I'm done. It'll just be my reaction to some story in a feature that I call "Today's WTF?! Moment." Enjoy.

How much are the Mets paying for Oliver Perez? Is that really $36 million? Really?

That's the deal Perez got. Three years, $36 million for a guy with a losing career record and an inflated ERA. Talk about desperate times in Flushing.

The Padres really should be counting their lucky stars. The deal Jake Peavy signed a few years back was for $52 million. And no, the difference between Peavy's talent leven and Perez's talent level is not $16 million. I'd say it's about $160 million.

Phelps Caught Blazin': World Takes Notice

Really, I don't care whether or not Michael Phelps smokes weed or not.

It's one of those things where if I don't know about it, I don't care. He got caught, so the world cares. It's not like Phelps is an awful person. Barack Obama did say that he "experimented" when he was younger.

It's just another example of athletes being held up to higher standards in our society--even higher than other celebrities. Why? I guess it has to do with the whole role model thing.

Kids look up to athletes. Period. They really are the first kind of celebrity that we all know. I knew Tony Gwynn's name before I knew any actor, actress or musician. Add to the fact a child's propensity to mimic what they see and bam, you get a recipe of apologetic athlete after apologetic athlete.

So Phelps got caught. He apologized. He probably won't lose any money. He handled the situation as best he could, and he won't be as scarred for it.

But this is preposterous. Apparently the Richland County sheriff is pondering whether or not to press charges against Phelps.

Really? The sherrif has nothing else to do but press charges against someone who was apparently photographed smoking weed months ago? There are no others problems in Richland County? Really?

The Week That Was Super Bowl Week in the NFL

What. A. Game.

Many of my friends immediately texted me right after Kurt Warner fumbled the ball away and Ben Roethlisberger took the final knee.

They said that it was the "greatest Super Bowl ever." And if not that, "the greatest Super Bowl that I've seen" or "the greatest Super Bowl in our lifetimes."

I thought about that instantly and said it couldn't be. My friends were living in the moment. They've forgotten about David Tyree and his heroics last year. They've forgotten about "This one's for John" a decade ago. And what about Kevin Dyson's painfully vain attempt that was stopped one yard from the goal line?

I thought about those games. But after sleeping on it, my mind may have changed. So far, in my short life, and as long as I remember, this has to be one of the greatest game I've seen. This might be as good as Super XLII, better than John Elway's first Super Bowl win and maybe even better than the Rams and Titans in Super XXXIV.

And not only was the game superb, and so was NBC's telecast, scoring high reviews for it's 10.5 hours long pregame show and the production of the game. And the contrast between the Al Michaels/John Madden partnership and the other NFL broadcast crews was shown in its full light yesterday. Imagine if Joe Buck or Jim Nantz was calling the game. It wouldn't have been the same.

But it was always about the game. And it was amazing. A back-and-forth, edge-of-your-seat, how-many-cliches-can-I-use?, thrill ride that ended with one of the best touchdown catches in the history of the Super Bowl by Santonio Holmes.

The leads coming out of Pittsburgh and Phoenix's newspapers justly tell the stories of both teams.

"The ball hung in the air for what seemed like 61 years, spinning with the potential to break the Cardinals' hearts immediately and haunt their dreams forever. And that's exactly what it did." wrote Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic.

"The Steelers not only have another Super Bowl victory to celebrate, it came in what might have been the greatest of them all, and they have another play and a winning drive for the ages to go with it," is what Somers' counterpart, Ed Bouchette, wrote in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

It's the best thing that any of us could have asked for, especially the way many people feel in this country right now.

It was the perfect distraction. It was the perfect game.

Extra Point:

James Harrison, the Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker who was named the Defensive Player of the Year, is a thug.

Did the officials not see Harrison throwing punches during the second half yesterday? Because if they did, he would have surely been thrown out of the game.

Or did they see those punches, and thought that the Super Bowl was too big a stage to eject anyone?

Whatever the case may be, Harrison must receive a swift and deserving punishment from the League office.

What he did was utterly unacceptable and shows that he has no class.

Three Main Events in less the 24 Hours, Part 4

7:09 p.m.: Wow, Kurt Warner fumbles the ball away with five seconds left. What an underwhelming way to end the game.

For Warner, the Super Bowl ends with a whimper and not with a bang.

The Steelers win their sixth Super Bowl, an NFL record.

And Arizona is still without a championship since 1947.

7:03 p.m.: Let's see how Super Larry Fitzgerald really is. Thirty-five seconds is all that is left.

If Pittsburgh holds on to win, Holmes is the MVP.

7:00 p.m.: ARE YOU KIDDING?!!! SANTONIO HOLMES, TOES AND ALL, FROM A PASS FROM ROETHLISBERGER! WOW! WHAT A GAME! WHAT A GAME! AND PITTSBURGH TAKES THE LEAD!!!

There are three defenders around Holmes, and he is still able to find a big enough hole to make the catch and get both feet in the end zone.

Amazing. Amazing. Amazing.

6:54 p.m.: Thank god Al Michaels is calling this game and not that douche Joe Buck.

6:48 p.m.: Larry Fitzgerald is Superman. A perfect pass, a perfect run, a perfect touchdown. Karma is on Arizona's side after what Harrison did. Larry Fitzgerald, Sr. stands up in the press box and the Cardinals are up 23-20.

What a slant pattern. What a slant pattern. And what a slant pattern!

Who said that this Super Bowl was going to be an awful one?

6:45 p.m.: Roethlisberger to Holmes to get out of their own end zone, but no, a holding penalty against the Steelers and Arizona gets the safety and Steelers precious four-point lead is on life support.

6:44 p.m.: Text message from my friend: "After what Harrison did, I really want the Steelers to lose."

6:41 p.m.: James Harrison is a thug. That is a thug move. Punches?! Really?! John Madden is finally right for once, he should be thrown out of the game.

6:35 p.m.: That is an awful call. What did Ike Taylor do? Give Anquan Boldin a little shove? A tiny little push? Really?!

This is the Super Bowl. Let them play. Officials need to know when to throw the flag and when to not. And that was obviously nothing on the sideline between Boldin and Taylor and if anything, it should have been offsetting penalties.

Let the players decide the game, not the officials.

6:32 p.m.: Darnell Dockett has to have some consideration for Super Bowl MVP if the Cards pull this one out.

He's got two sacks and two game-changing sacks at that.

6:25 p.m.: That is all you have to do to in the red zone, throw a jump ball to Larry Fitz. He. Is. Superman.

The Cards are now just one possession away from tying and taking the lead from Pittsburgh.

6:20 p.m.: J.J. ARRINGTON!!! FROM CAL! WITH THE HUGE GAIN AND THE FIRST DOWN!

6:18 p.m.: The most ridiculous commercial goes to cash4gold.com. Ed McMahon and MC Hammer selling all of their gold items? Hilarity and confusion.

6:15 p.m.: Finally a sack by the Cardinals (or at least a meaningful one). Arizona gets the ball back after a pretty good defensive stand.

6:09 p.m.: My favorite commercial is a Jack in the Box commercial. Hangintherejack.com.

6:05 p.m.: There is still hope for Arizona. It is slim. But there is still hope.

At the end of three, 20-7 Steelers.

5:56 p.m.: No harm after the personal fouls. The Cards stuff Roethlisberger on the sneak. And now it's 20-7 Pittsburgh.

Cards still have a shot.

5:53 p.m.: The Cardinals finally get to Roethlisberger, but the savvy quarterback throws the ball away.

And instead of just three points, Adrian Wilson runs over the place holder, giving Pittsburgh another three shots at a touchdown.

Wow. Three personal fouls on one drive. The Steelers need to score a touchdown now.

5:47p.m.: That's the second time Roethlisberger's escaped the Cardinals pressure and you tack on a roughing the passer penalty. Roethlisberger's like Houdini (or Karl Rove, always escaping those Congressional hearings).

5:40 p.m.: Cards avoid a disaster. The fumble is overturned. And instead of the Steelers starting inside Arizona territory, they're starting on their own half of the field.

In the game of field position, that was a huge challenge.

5:36 p.m.: Did Kurt Warner throw the ball? Or did he fumble? That's what's being discussed right now.

It does look like he's trying to throw the ball forward, so it should be overturned.

Even if the call does gets overturned, James Harrison is wreaking havoc.

5:29 p.m.: Great halftime show by The Boss.

There haven't been any great Super Bowl commercials. Not that much of a disappointment.