Thought #1

With children one thing is for certain; if you let a kid get away with something once, the odds of them doing it again shoot throw the roof. Think about it. Kid steals a cookie before dinner, you let it slide, be darned sure that kid will be pounding 3 or 4 more before the meal and then refusing to eat the tuna helper you whipped up. Let a kid get away with playing hooky from school and suddenly that kid is on Web MD and claiming he has the last known case of the black plague.

Turns out NFL players and kids have a lot in common and Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger may have just proven this theory correct yet again. Big Ben, fresh off one case of sexually assault accusations in Lake Tahoe, is under investigation for similar actions in Georgia following a night of barhopping with his boys.

Now granted nothing has been even close to proven, in fact Ben has not even be charged, but you have to think that when you consistently are seeing smoke, eventually you are going to find a fire. Ben may or may not be guilty of the assault, but he is guilty of making some poor decisions. When you are a multi million dollar and extremely well known QB, hanging out at bars with sketchy chicks until the wee hours of the night is probably a bad idea. In fact, that's kind of like mixing up a batch of vinegar and baking soda and then hoping that old home made volcano doesn't take off on you. Come on Ben, I know you got off untouched in the last situation, but dude, learn from your mistakes. If you want to pick up some ladies try a Barnes and Noble or a Starbucks or even the mall. When is the last time you heard someone get accused of sexual assault buying a venti cup of joe and an overpriced muffin? Exactly, doesn't happen. Better decisions equal less accusations Ben.

Thought #2

Did the Chicago Bears just become this year's Washington Redskins? As the free agency season kicked off yesterday, the Bears looked like an old lady at a K-mart going out of business sale, rushing down the aisles, snagging as many cans of discount pinto beans and bottles of oil of olay as possible.

The Bears hit the market hard yesterday, scooping up Julius Peppers, Chester Taylor, and Brandon Manumaleuna. On one hand its hard to blame the Bears for diving in head first being that they don't have a draft pick this year until round three. On the other hand, they pushed a lot of their chips in last year when they made moves to get Jay Cutler and with this recent round of betting they've moved to the point of playing on the casino's credit. This is going to go one of two ways for Chicago. They are either going to make out like bandits, grinding it out and punching the rest of the NFC North in the mouth, or they are going to get blown up on the scoreboard by their opponents, not be able to keep up, and realize Peppers and Taylor have reached their ceiling already, having no where to go but down. Since they are still lacking a decent threat at wideout and Jay Cutler has looked painful at best, my money will be on the latter.

Thought #3

Big day for plenty of college hoops teams and of course much of the talk surrounds who is in the dance and who will get left out. Of course anytime this conversation takes place the idea of expanding the tournament comes up. What an awful thought.

Do you remember the 50 yard dash on field day in elementary school? Remember how there were really only about 3 or 4 kids who could compete to win, but yet they let nearly have the school run and get that plastic participation ribbon? Yeah, that's what some people want the NCAA tournament to become. Everybody's in, everyone's a winner, and everyone get a juice box and pack of goldfish at the end of the day. Bad idea.

It's like the girl who says every guy she dates is special. Listen chick, you tell yourself whatever you need to so that you sleep better at night, but the bottom line is if every dude you're with is "special" non of them are really special. If everyone is a winner, no one is a winner.

More is not always the answer. Let's be honest, if you aren't one of the best 64 teams, why do you deserve to play anywhere in March?