Crazy enough to work?

The New England Patriots are underdogs Sunday.

That's when the defending AFC champions and current AFC East title winners – like they had any competition – will face the Houston Texans in the conference divisional playoffs.

The game is in Foxboro, where the Pats arm-burned the boys from Houston, then considered by many to be a Super Bowl favorite, 42-14 a little more than a month ago on Monday Night Football.

Yeah, I know you just checked the Vegas line, and the Patriots, with their smarter than Einstein head coach and pretty boy quarterback, are 9-and-a-half point favorites.

So now you're perplexed why I say the Pats are the dogs in the playoff game.

It's all psychological, bro.

Sitting alone in my car trying to nap today on my lunch break, I was listening to Teddy Bruschi chatting with Colin Cowherd about the upcoming game. Both acknowledge the Vegas line, but Bruschi said something interesting.

He mentioned that football players, understandably, like to be the underdogs. They thrive on the notion that everyone is counting them out, thus giving them more incentive to prove wrong their naysayers.

Remember the Jets did this a couple of years back, smiting the Patriots in a playoff game in Foxboro not long after suffering an embarrassing defeat to New Englanders weeks before on the same field.

Bruschi and Cowherd were talking up this underdog, us-against-the-efin-world philosophy, giving it merit.

They're right. Houston will go into the game feeling dogged and underrated, looking for revenge.

But it's not going to happen. Not this time. Patriots' coach Bill Belichick learned his lesson against Rex Ryan and his mouthy Jets.

I see the HC of the NEP turning this around, using this philosophy, a reverse psychology or sorts, to make his players feel as if they are the underdogs because Houston is coming in vengeance on their minds.

The Texans are coming in to take care of business and there's no way in a place hotter than Houston they feel they can be stopped, Belichick might effectively communicate to his troops.

Thus, creating a no-one-feels-we-can hold-off-the-ragging-Texans underdog attitude.

Think I'm crazy.

The Patriots will win, and they'll win convincingly. Houston will look like Notre Dame trying to figure out how to beat an SEC team.

Tony Oliva Has My Hall of Fame Vote Just Because He Was So Nice to Me One Day

Tony Oliva

I saw yet another one of those exhausting Internet lists today ranking the top – I can't remember the number – players who are not in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Every time that debate is reared, I can't help but think of the time I talked on the phone with Tony Oliva.

I hate to admit, I don't remember much of the conversation. I just remember he was a super nice guy, who took time out of his busy schedule – he was still working with the Twins organization back then – to chat on the phone with a goofball college kid writing a series of newspaper stories about small-town minor league baseball.

(That's a lot more than I can say about Nolan Ryan, whose secretary told me Mr. Ryan would call me back if he wanted to talk, but not to count on it.)

At that time, I was writing about minor league and semi-pro baseball in rural Wytheville, Va. I contacted Oliva because he played there for the Appalachian League Class D Twins in 1961 – he hit .410 in 64 games – and many folks in the town remember Oliva and recall a monstrous home run he slammed off a building a long way away from home plate.

There's even a plaque describing the homer there now, in a public park, where home plate once resided. (I have photos of it… somewhere.)

I asked Oliva about the home run. He just laughed and gave me a few vague details. I'm sure he hit a lot of those and perhaps that particular one was lost in long line of moonshot memories.

His brief recollection wasn't what I wanted for the story, of course. I wanted great detail.

What was the pitch? Fastball? Hanging curve? What did it feel like when your bat struck the ball and you saw the ball smack the building? Did the crowd go wild? Did grown men cry? Did women throw panties your way?

I got none of that, but I got a lot of other good stories… and a lot of laughs out of Oliva, who seemed to genuinely enjoy our conversation.

I'm not much of a stats guy and I'm no Hall of Fame master debater, so I don't really know if Oliva belongs in the Hall of Fame or not.

But I know he would like to be included in Cooperstown. And just because Oliva was so nice to me for 10 minutes one last summer day in 1996 – I'm really good at making this about me, aren't I? – I hope he gets his wish someday soon.

-- Agnes --

Layoffs + High Expectations Can Equal Disappointing Bowl Games

You can't tell it from the quality of my blogging, but I write stories for a living.

No, I really do.

I'm not a great writer, but I do ok.

But I have to keep doing it, you know? I have to write and write and write to keep on my game, if you will.

I keep hearing – and you hear this every year – about college football bowl games and how some teams, like Florida against Louisville and LSU against Clemson – have come out flat.

Many reasons have been speculated by the sports TV and radio pundits. As a guy who lives in Virginia, I want to think those games in particular are a product of ACC football rising to dominance.

But we all know that's not the case.

You know what is the case? (I'm stating this as a fact, by the way, just like when all the college football experts give their opinions.)

Layoff!

Yep, just like me taking a month break from writing, how can we expect college football teams to end their regular season, take five or six weeks off from live competition, and then come back to the same proficiency they displayed during the season?

It's why some teams come out looking like it’s the first week of the season, and that's why many of the big schools schedule softies for opponents to open their new campaigns.

When a team takes off so much time, it's almost like beginning the season all over.

The layoff isn't the only reason these bowl games are so unpredictable – you know Louisville had a lot of motivation to knock off SEC power Florida – but it ranks the highest on my list.

When Notre Dame and Alabama take the field Monday night in the championship game, who knows how those teams will perform?

Notre Dame last played Nov. 24 against USC. Just think of all the things you've done since that date.

That was a long time ago. Forty-four days, to be exact. There was an entire month of no live football for the Irish and Crimson Tide, and we expect them to go out on the field and play the game of their lives.

Ludicrous.

I like college football, but there's a lot that needs to be fixed about the game. Implementing a four-team playoff is a good start, but even with the playoff, there will still be long layoffs.

One way to fix that problem, and a few others, is by extending the playoffs to more teams, forcing those teams involved to play games scheduled closer together.

Until that happens, we'll continue to see odd, unpredictable occurrences in bowl games… like total ACC domination!

Kobe Bryant and Avoiding the Physical Cliff

Two days ago I mixed some plyometrics into my workout routine.

Today, my legs are so flippin' sore it hurts to move. It almost hurts to think about moving.

Every day at work, I try to get up from my desk at least once an hour to walk around the building.

Today, I'd like to sit at my desk all eight hours and rest, just rest. Actually, I'd love to take a nap, Costanza style.

Hey, the boss isn’t here… Never mind. I'm sure someone would snitch when she returns.

If only I could go back to my warm, comfortable bed, sleep in between those 700-thread count sheets my mother-in-law got us for Christmas. That would be so nice.

Yesterday, I returned to work after being away from the office for 13 glorious days.

13 Days!

Do you know how great it is to sleep in for 13 straight days?

I really paid for that mini vacation of laziness yesterday when it was once again time to drag myself out of bed at 5 a.m.

Yuck a duck!

Oh, and the plyo did me no short-term favors.

I turn 42 in less than two weeks, but today I feel 62. Kobe Bryant would say I'm old as s**t.

I need to get my act together if I'm ever going to reach my goal of living to 104.

What do I need?

More sleep. A better diet – no more sugary drinks. More exercise. Yes, ever more plyometrics.

I know. I know. This sounds like a New Year's resolution, but it's not really. This is my everyday struggle. The day, the time of year doesn't matter. This is the crap I remind myself of everyday… usually after downing a Starbucks Frappuccino.  

It's time, I guess… no, I know, to get better. I'm not in horrible shape, but I'm not nearly where I'd like to be. And I'm quickly, at 41 years and 11 and a half months, getting worse.

So, yes, dammit, it is time to get better… before I fall over the physical cliff.

Or sign with the Lakers.