Salutations... and Game On.

Greetings loyal followers!!!!

For anyone wondering why Taylor needs a blog to rant about things in his spare time, even though he has a wife at home now that has to listen to him go on and on forever about every little thing he can't let go, I would like to point out B.J. Allen as a person to dish your anger out onto. Football season had ended about two weeks ago when B.J. approached me while I was hanging out at the front desk and asked what I'm sure he thought was a simple question: "What are you going to waste your time writing about now that football season is over?" I had given no thought to continuing writing after the season ended, but B.J. played the part of a snake in the Garden of Eden and planted a seed of evil in my mind. I always have dealt with the horror that is a football offseason by simply putting on my sad panda face, downloading some old NFL Films clips, and following the free agent news wire as if something that happened could actually make Miami a Super Bowl favorite. Suddenly there were other options floating in my mind. So I have spent the last few months feverishly working on possible future blogs, hoping that someday soon, I would find the time to write them. I planned on waiting until the end of this tortorous spring semester but following today's most holy events (Miami's acquisition of the Denver wide reciever Brandon Marshall for those of you foolish enough to not check ESPN.com every 30 minutes or so) football quite simply just had to be blogged about.

For those wondering what to expect from the sports nerds blog, I offer the following as things you should expect:

1. Football bias - I love sports, not just football, but all sports. However, I love other sports less. I will not intentionally be bias towards the sport of football but when you care less about other sports, you watch them less, and follow them less religiously. For this reason the football bias exists, because I have not stayed in touch with any other sport equally since about 2001.

2. Nerdisms - I love comics, they will inevitably find their way in here. I have to cover my comic-nerdiness enough in real life to avoid being despised by athletes, most adults, frat boys, and D&D uber-nerds who think I'm just half-assing it, I will not cover it up online.

3. PG-13 - Come on, we're all adults here, at least I think we are. I am not a G rated person, therefore, I will not pretend to be PG simply because I will be sending links to people who are. To my beloved sister Angela, and my grassrott ministerial parents, I promise, PG-13 is the limit, I will be others-concious enough to keep the rated R monster that lurks inside away from my blog. Whether or not you think Clayton should read it is up to you.

4. Lists - Oh, lists!!!! I stopped making you with regularity my Sophmore year of high school, but my love for you has never died. I tried to supress you but no matter how hard I tried, VH1 always managed to find some ridiculous countdown to put on that would keep your awesomeness fresh in mind. Top 10's will be common and likely the standard format, at least for the offseason.

5. This is kind-hearted blogging, first and foremost, but every time Kobe Bryant sticks his jaw out to recieve attention over how intense he is playing or a certain quarterback whose name is not allowed in my blog comes out of retirement. Tune in here for a bucket of hate spewed in their direction.
Seriously, he WILL NOT BE NAMED!!! Comments with his name will be deleted, if you must reference him, refer to him as grandpa, Voldemort, or simply he who shall not be named. Whatever strikes you fancy, just not his real name. He was buried six feet under to me as soon as he left Green Bay and has spent the last two years with a shovel in hand digging his way down, closer and closer to the pit of hell.

6. Responses to comments - I love comment wars, start one, but be warned I'm packing heat and fight dirty. Comments are encouraged and hoped for but I feel a forewarning is necessary for any Quakers out there that managed to survive the turn of the century. Seriously how many of you guys can possibly be left?

7. NASCAR is not, has never been, and will never be a real sport. It's existence will be ignored. Other things that appear on ESPN, such as poker, golf, and billiards will be considered on an as needed basis.

8. Brandon Marshall becoming a Dolphin is the greatest thing to happen to the NFL since Tom Brady tore his ACL. That is all that needs to be said here.

9. Honestly, I don't really have enough spare time to be writing this, therefore, I certainly don't have time to proofread it. There may be some spelling or grammatical errors throughout, deal with it, if you're lucky I'll make my wife check it before I post it.

With that said, let us start with our inagural top ten list.

Top 10 Games of the Decade

Now this column, as warned about earlier, will have a strong football bias. There is only one game on this list from any other sport, because even though I watched plenty of great games in other sports this decade, I was not emotionally invested in them enough to remember them. After all, should a game that I have to look up the year on really be considered? Not in my eyes.

I also believe that it is only fair that I let everyone know how I judge in the ranking. The quality of the game is foremost among qualifications with significance of the game also playing a factor. However, significance of the game is not all that matters, I am not one of those poeple who believes that Tom Brady is better than Dan Marino or Dan Fouts ever were because he has won three Super Bowls. He's not, he never will be, those are team accomplishments. Likewise, if a preseason baseball game ends with a score of 45-40 it might be top ten material, but you're not putting a preseason game at number one. There must be a balance between the two factors.

With that said, let the countdown begin.

Honorable Mention: Super Bowl 36 - New England vs. St Louis: A great game no doubt, but this decade produced so many classics, that this just didn't cut it. I know many think of this as one of the greatest games of all time, but honestly all I really is the finish, the MVP, and that it "started the dynasty" of the New England Patriots. However, I don't award started the dynasty points.

Syracuse vs. UConn - 2008-2009 Big East Tournament: This should be on the list and I know it, I will not dispute that arguement with anyone. However, I did not see it and cannot give it a fair ranking on the list. For that reason it stays right here.

Tennessee vs. Buffalo: The Music City Miracle.

A great, great, great game that just barely missed out on the list.

#10 Super Bowl 34 - St. Louis vs. Tennessee

Anyone who watched this game knows why it is on the list. That being said, anyone that remembers this game well, knows why it is only number ten. At halftime, the Rams lead an ugly game by a scre of 9-0. I took Tennessee until the last five minutes of the third quarter to get on the board but once they did they came back quickly. The Titans tied the game up with about three minutes left and looked like they would have all the momentum heading into the first overtime Super Bowl ever. It didn't quite work out that way. Kurt Warner hit Tory Holt for a 73-yard TD pass on a lucky lob to take a seven pont lead. Steve McNair rallied his team down the feild only to fall one yard short when Kevin Dyson was brought down at the one-yard line as time expired. Greatest Super Bowl finish ever, yes. Greatest game, no.

#9 Boise State vs. Nevada - October 2007

This game has a personal significance to me: it was the greatest game I have ever had a ticket to. It is also by far the greatest game I've ever decided not to go to because the stadium was too long of a walk from my room. Yes, I will undoubtedly never forgive myself for that decision. However, this has nothing to do with why the game is on this list. Live on a Sunday night on ESPN, two WAC teams that no one cared about played the highest scoring game in the history of college football at any level. They traded back and forth for four quarters, and then a overtime..... and then a second overtime...... and then a third, finally it was decided in the fourth overtime after Boise scored a touchdown and converted on the mandatory two-point attempt that goes into effect after the second overtime in college football. Nevada scored a touchdown as well and then failed on the conversion. The final score 69-67 Boise State in a game that featured over 1200 combined yards of total offense. Even more astounding is that the Broncos entered the game with the nations 4th ranked defense. The insignificance of this game is the only thing that keeps it out of the top five.

#8 New York Jets vs. Miami Dolphins - October 2000

I once told a friend that in my lifetime, the only games worth going back and watching again have been games where my team loses. That isn't always true, but if someone had handed me a basket of 50 baby rabbits at the end of the third quarter of this game to babysit for two hours, they would have come back to find 50 mutilated baby rabbits. In my years as a sports fan, no game has ever made me hate my team more, not even the 63-7 trouncing at the hands of the Jags in 1999. After three quarters, the Dolphins led 30-7, and since they were a 6-1 team playing for the division lead, it seemed they were way too good to lose this one. Wrong. 15 minutes later, the Jets had tied the game after the appropiately named Jumbo Elliot juggled a easy catch in the end zone before falling on it in what looked to be accidental. Seriously look it up, Dick Cheney would have handled the ball more gracefully. In overtime, Jay Fielder threw an interception on the first possession, however, the Jets fumbled and gave it right back. Fielder was determined not to let the Jets lose, so he threw it right back to them, and four plays later the game winner was kicked. Jets 40 - Dolphins 37. This game is the reason I gave up on Dave Wandstedt and will probably be the biggest temptaion I ever get to trade in my PG-13 rating for an R rating. I hate this game.

#7 AFC Championship Game: Colts vs. Patriots - January 2007

Yeah, thats kind of what the first half felt like. At halftime Peyton Manning was staring down a 21-6 deficit to the hated New England Patriots. It was the sixth straight year he would have failed to last longer than the Patriots, had the score stood. This time at home would likely have stuck Peyton with a permanent label as a choker. After halftime, Peyton went on a tear, finishing the game with 349 yards through the air. The defense, however, left the game in doubt until the final minute. The Colts offense just barely was good enough to get past the Colts defense, which allowed 34 points in the game, and with 1 minute left when they got the game winning score it seemed like they may have left too much time on the clock. This game was this great not exclusively because of the game itself but the environment surrounding it. The Colts had been one of the best teams in the AFC all decade long, but constantly choked in the second round, either losing to the Patriots directly, or watching them advance past the team that beat them in the round before. The Patriots at this time did not blow leads and for a choker team like these Colts to come back and win was almost inconceivable at halftime.

#6 World Series Game 7: Arizona vs. New York - November 2001

A sport other than football makes its lone appearance on this list and it is a much deserved one. The New York Yankees, the most hated team in all of sports, was looking to capitalize on 9/11 sympathy and actually win with the whole country cheering them on for the first time in history. It would have been the fourth straight title for the Yankees and would have undoubtedly made them the greatest team in the modern history of baseball. Randy Johnson had come on in relief and shut down the Yankees late in the game, but they still were nursing a two run lead heading into the bottom of the ninth. Two runs, no big deal, a very attainable goal. One problem, the dirty Yanks had Mariano Rivera closing the game. For those not familiar with early decade baseball, please know that Mariano Rivera in 2001 is like ten times the pitcher of Rivera 2010, and Rivera 2010 is still pretty damn good. Rivera was almost godlike in the postseason, he had a career playoff ERA of something like .25. Ridiculous numbers. After what seemed like the longest inning in the history of the sport, Luis Gonzalez knocked a bloop single into left field to bring in the game winning run. The wicked witch of the east was finally dead and it was the year that people wanted them to win. Except for me. I'm still thankful they died.

#5 New England vs. New York - Super Bowl 42

The game itself was good, but no different than any hard fought football game in the NFL playoffs on the field, what separated this game was the history. The Patriots were on the verge of finishing the season as undefeated Super Bowl champions, something nobody had accomplished since the NFL changed its regular season schedule to 16 games. Don Shula, the coach of the infamous 1972 Dolphins had even attended the game to congratulate the Patriots on becoming the greatest team of all time in the case of their victory. What followed was shocking to anyone who had watched the Patriots play all year. The Giants shut down a team that had broken every significant offensive record on their march towards history, holding them to only 14 points. In the final minutes of the game, Eli Manning did what Eli Manning never does and broke tackles, then made the clutch throw to save the game. The Giants capped the drive with a game winning TD by NRA jailbird Plaxico Burress. The upset was epic, the football was pretty good, and the Giants finally saved Taylor some tears after the NFL's most painful season in memory. The image above was ranked by ESPN as the most memorable photo in sports of the decade.

#4 Texas vs. USC - The 2005 Rose Bowl

In the season, football's most historic game was played for the National Championship, an USC was looking to establish their squad as the most dominant in the modern era of college football. Texas had been overlooked all year, spending the entire season at number 2, to USC's number 1. The Longhorns stepped out of their shadow by matching the Trojans blow for blow for 60 minutes. Luckily for Texas, they had the ball last, Vince Young produced magic, and the entire country watched the QB sneak that shocked the world. The Trojans had finally fallen and Texas was the new king of college football.

#3 Arizona vs. Pittsburgh - Super Bowl 43

After a season of looking great and terrible depending on which week you watched, the Cardinals managed to luck themselves into the Super Bowl as a number four seed. Arizona had a poor defense, the leagues worst running offense, and one hell of a passing game. Pittsburgh had flown under the radar all season long, watched all the usual favorites in the AFC go down in the early rounds, and beat Baltimore for the third time in a year in the AFC championship game. Neither team really inspired fear and a fan of either could confidently declare theirs to be the favorite. What followed was chaos, Arizona taking off early, Pittsburgh dominating the second quarter, and Arizona charging back down the field near halftime only watch a turnover returned 99 yards for a touchdown on the last play of the half. The Cardinals spent the entire second half battling back, and with only minutes left, Larry Fitzgerald broke free for a 63 yard touchdown in what surely seemed like the miracle moment that would finally bring glory to a franchise that had been in shambles for the last 40 years. However, Big Ben led the Steelers down the field quickly and broke Cardinal hearts everywhere by throwing the worlds greatest toe-tapper in the back of the endzone to Santonio Holmes, creating an image that should be a poster on the wall of every Steeler fan. The Cardinals were returned to the shambles from whence they came, and the Steelers won their NFL record sixth Super Bowl.

#2 New England vs. Carolina - Super Bowl 38.

This was a Super Bowl that almost no one was excited to watch. On one side you had a Patriots team that really was not very exciting at all, playing for their second title in three years, and on the other side, a Carolina that kind of snuck into the game with no hype but also was not bad enough to inspire much of an underdog effect. The game, however, was wickedly entertaining. After one quarter the game was deadlocked at zero but going into halftime the score was 14-10 Patriots and it appeared both teams had got their offenses moving. Both teams came out of halftime slow again though and there were no scores in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter both teams went nuts. The Patriots and Panthers combined to score 37 points in the fourth quarter after only scoring 24 during the rest of the game. The Panthers appeared to have it all sewn up after a score with only a little over a minute left but then Tom Brady went all Tom Brady, and more importantly, Adam Vinatieri went all Adam Venatieri. The Patriots were champions once more and the Panthers were just another team that lost the big one after upsetting the Eagles.

#1 Boise St. vs. Oklahoma - Fiesta Bowl 2007.

This game is like a folk lore tale on the Boise campus and with good reason, it is arguably the greatest football game ever played. Although this game has sentimental value to me, I feel that I can put it here with no bias whatsoever, the game was great, and the ending is unbeatable. The Broncos, who had just finished an undefeated regular season, were expected to do what most undefeated teams from garbage conferences do: show up and get crushed by the big boys. The Broncos were ranked two spots ahead of the Sooners in the final BCS standings, but because they were essentially untested in the regular season, were 17 point underdogs anyways. The Sooners realized early on that Boise was not going to wither and die as expected as the Broncos jumped to a 14-0 lead quickly. The Broncos led for almost the entire game, until with a little over a minute left, a Sooner TD and 2-point conversion tied the game. Bronco QB Jared Zbransky responded by swiftly throwing a pick-6 to essentially flush the season down the toilet, despite outplaying the big boys all game long. The finish was a little crazier than expected, however. On a desperation 4th and 18, the Broncos called a hook and ladder play, which resulted in a long TD. In overtime, the Sooners again scored with minimal effort and the Broncos were rapidly losing steam. After a fourth down conversion, the Broncos scored on another fourth down with a trick play. They were done going back and fourth and Coach Chris Peterson made the gutsiest call I've ever seen. With the game (and season) on the line, the Broncos ran a 2 point conversion attempt. Again, a trick play (this time a "Statue of Liberty") scored the Broncos a huge victory and perhaps the most memorable moment in college sports this decade. I am not afraid to admit that when I need motivation, I will put this game on, watch the opening video and the ending, and go off into the world to make a difference. Most of the time I end up just stomping away with my hatred for the BCS renewed but sometimes gain the motivation I was seeking. This is hands down the game of the decade, 10-2 do not even come close.

And that my friends completes The Sports Nerd's first blog. What did you think? Comments, questions, and beggings for a verbal-debate/ass-kicking in type form will be graciously accepted. Until next time please remember.....

he's a Dolphin now!!!!!