Goodie bag Vol. 1

A few random thoughts, like a good blog should:

• I was not bothered by the Huskies' last-second loss at UCLA on Thursday. I think it has to do with my sincere (and growing) lack of faith in this particular team. I didn't jump on the "they're so good this is going to be easy" bandwagon early in the season because I never really believed it. I guess that makes it easier to swallow when they lose. Still, go Dawgs!
  
  
• I love Rex Ryan. He might be my favorite football coach of all time. Why? He does NOT talk about losing. You never hear him say anything other than, "We're going to kick their ass." That's a football coach I'd like to have on my team. Great stuff.
  
  
• Felix Hernandez signing a five-year, $78-million deal to stay with the Mariners is a very good thing. I like King Felix's intensity and he's only 23 years old so the hope is that he will be legendary good by the time he eventually signs with the Yankees. Let's just hope he keeps his head on straight and his mugshot out of the newspaper.
  
  
• Speaking of the Mariners, Mitch Levy and Steve Sandmeyer absolutely blasted the team's management this morning on KJR. Their whole rant had to do with the fact that Ken Griffey Jr. is too old to play DH and that Ichiro should hit second behind Chone Figgins. They said the team is pandering to the fans and thus sacrificing wins. Baloney. Griffey's not going to play every day anyway. And who really cares where Ichiro hits so long as he gets on base.
  
  Griffey's going to live it up on the bench, hit a long homer here and there, strike out a ton, and inject the clubhouse with Beach Boys-style good vibrations. He's hardly costing us any money and we're not paying him for production. We're paying him to be a positive influenence on everyone wearing Seattle Mariners blue. Suck it Mitch Levy and Steve Sandmeyer. You said the Mariners are more about the marketing and not about the baseball. I think you stink. It's definitely about baseball. You guys just see it differently.
  
  
• Colts 24, Jets 13 ... Saints 41, Vikings 26.
  
  I like the idea of a Colts-Saints Super Bowl so I'm going to lean that way. Plus, I'm a huge fan of the Saints after my three years in the Dirty South. Drew Brees is going to torch the Vikings' defense because he's good enough, he's smart enough and dog-gone it people like him. Who dat?!

-- Derek Belt