A beautiful, snow-covered Colorado landscape, as I delay reporting in to work on this Friday morning.  Much has happened since my last post, and it's difficult to decide what to jabber about. 

The Super Bowl, Green Bay beats Pittsburgh in an entertaining contest, a lot more engaging than the two weeks of pretext and preamble.  Too bad for the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro-plex that the weather was so horrible in the days before the Big Event.  Even Jerry Jones' money and influence couldn't deter Mother Nature from dampening the celebratory magnitude of the two weeks leading up to Super Bowl XLV.  Snow and sleet and ice-covered streets did more for the integrity of many  professional athletes than their normal tendencies would historically dictate.  Fewer arrests, sparser-than-anticipated attendance at the two dozen or so strip clubs in the Dallas area, difficulty in navigating Escalades and Hummers to parties really minimized the TMZ/Enquirer moments.  It's obvious gangstas don't like wintry weather.  There's an idea - sentence gang affiliated criminals to prison work camps in Wisconsin or Minnesota or North Dakota in the winter months.  They gots it too darn comfortable in California, Texas or Florida.  Anyway, back to the Super Bowl; the popularity of the game each year astounds me.  The road to that penultimate football game is a very difficult and arduous path.  It's become a 12-month endeavor for all of the organizations, beginning, really, with the Super Bowl itself.  For, it's the result of that game which finalizes the order in which the 32 teams draft the incoming class of college football players.  Lots of finagling and jockeying with trades, free agents, waivers and franchise tags are in store before the draft is conducted in New York on April 28, 29 and 30 at Radio City Music Hall.  This year, we have the added benefit of wondering and watching the owners and players' union play a huge game of chicken to see if the billionaires can subjugate the millionaires.  The threat of "no football" hangs over us all as each side tries to pressure the other into dividing up three billion dollars 'equitably'.  Thank goodness, Spring Training has begun.

The "Melo Drama" has finally concluded in Denver, and I think that the Nuggets did okay.  They got rid of a selfish, one-way offensive player and got some talent in return.  The collateral damage was that Chauncey Billups had to be part of the package.  But, let's inspect the damage.  We love Chauncey, Mr. Big Shot, Colorado's 3-time Mr. Basketball, Big-12 All-Star at the University of Colorado, All-American, first-round NBA draft pick.  Best, most beloved basketball player to come from this state, ever.  But, I maintain that the loss of Billups benefits the Nuggets.  Chauncey is at his best on physical and methodical teams that play team defense.  When Billups and Carmelo Anthony were on the floor at the same time, the rest of the team literally slowed down and watched, flat-footed and motionless.  I know that it's just been two games since they left, but the team is now back in control of one of the best coaches ever to coach in the NBA, George Karl.  One game with all the new players, against the Celtics (sure, the Boston squad was short-handed, but so what), defense and energy and passing are enjoying a renaissance at the Pepsi Center.  Karl's coaching experience can now be utilized, without Carmelo (no "D" in Anthony) and Chauncey here, the kids will listen to the ball coach again.  Twenty three games remain on the Nuggets' regular season schedule, 10 games at home and 13 on the road.  They are in 5th place in the Western Conference, and if the season ended today, they'd face the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs.  But, the Nuggets will probably finish as high as 4th and have a home-court advantage in the first round.  Then, they'll beat Oklahoma City in the first round and fall to Dallas in the second round.  We'll see.  But, I maintain, the Nuggets got better with 'Melo gone, and even losing beloved Chauncey Billups.  Still, thank god baseball is here!

Lots of warm and fuzzy reports coming out of Scottsdale.  The new Rockies' spring training facility at Talking Stick, Scottsdale, Arizona, is being credited already for improving the Colorado Rockies' chances for success in the National West Division pennant race.  No more long bus rides from Tucson and back.  Helton gets to face better competition in spring training because he didn't make the bus rides out of Tucson, therefore only faced the Diamondbacks or the Rockies farmhands who didn't make the trip up to Phoenix.  The Diamondbacks and Rockies were the last two teams to train in Tucson, and now they're together forever in their jointly owned facility at Talking stick.