Two Thanksgiving Treats

BY SCOTT MORGANROTH

Fox Football Analyst Jimmy Johnson predicted on Sunday what everyone was hoping would happen.

The Detroit Lions would defeat the Carolina Panthers to improve to 7-3 and face an undefeated Green Bay Packers squad on Thanksgiving Day. The 10-0 Packers defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 35-26 to set the stage for what could be the best game of the holiday.

Do you think Packers Defensive Coordinator Dom Capers is going to get much sleep knowing Detroit has scored 48 points against Kansas City, 45 on the road to Denver and the defeated the Carolina Panthers 49-35 on Sunday?

In the Lions seven victories, the least amount of points Detroit's offense has scored is 24 with a young gunslinging QB Matt Stafford, who is destined to break every team passing record. He had five touchdown passes against Carolina.

The Lions are 33-35-2 on Thanksgiving. They have faced the Packers 19 times, which is the most of any team invited to play in the traditional contest. Detroit is 11-7-1 against Green Bay.

The 1962 game saw an undefeated Packers team, also 10-0,  lose to the 8-2 Lions, 26-14, before 57,000 plus at Tiger Stadium. The Lions sacked Packers Hall of Fame QB Bart Starr 11 times for 110 yards. Green Bay finished the season 13-1 and won the NFL Championship.

Will history repeat itself on Thursday as the Lions Ndamukong Suh, Kyle Vanden Bosch, Nick Fairley, Stephen Tulloch, Cliff Avril and Corey Williams attempt to make life just as miserable for Aaron Rodgers like the 1962 defense did for Starr?

We'll find out if Rodgers is running for his life at Ford Field just as Starr did a few miles away at Tiger Stadium.

Will Mike McCarthy be able to do what the legendary Packers Coach Vince Lombardi couldn't pull off by going undefeated?

The Lions biggest fans will be their former Assistant Coach and Miami Dolphins legend Don Shula, who piloted Miami to a 17-0 mark and a Super Bowl title in 1972. I'm sure the rest of the Dolphins are hoping to pull the corks out of the champagne with a Lions victory.

Another thing to be thankful for is that Major League Baseball agreed to a new labor deal on Tuesday that will ensure labor peace through 2016.

What's so refreshing about this, is that these negotiations were kept out of the media and held privately.

HGH testing will be included and violators will serve a 50-game suspension on the first offense.

The Houston Astros will move to the AL West in 2013 and there will be two 15 team leagues to ensure a balanced schedule and expanded inter-league play.

Did you think any player was going to object to another wild card team being added for a one game play in contest?

No way!

The revenue and interest generated in baseball will only get higher than it is. I wouldn't be surprised to see this take place in 2012. You can bet that about 60 players for two teams, in addition to managers, coaches will be chomping at the bit to have an opportunity to win a championship ring.

Meanwhile, if an extra wild card team had been added this year, the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves could eliminate the words "Monumental Collapses" from their vocabularies.

You can't ask for two better Thanksgiving Treats than these.

Scott Morganroth can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com and his blog can be seen at www.scottsports33.com.

A GREEN SUPER BOWL!

BY SCOTT MORGANROTH
The best way to describe Super Bowl XLV is by the numbers and believe me, they tell the story.

• There were 111 million viewers that watched the Green Bay Packers defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25, the largest watched program in USA Television, surpassing last years Super Bowl total of 106.5 by the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts in Miami.
• The Packers won their 13th Championship, the most in NFL history and fourth Super Bowl against a franchise that has won six Super Bowls of it's own. Green Bay did it by scoring 21 points off of three Pittsburgh turnovers and the Steelers committed costly penalties on kickoff returns. This is Green Bay's first title since 1996. The Packers became the second sixth seed to win a Championship and they had to win three road and one neutral site game to capture this title.
• Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers will no longer have to worry about Brett Favre comparisons as he was 24-39, 304 yards and three touchdowns. His numbers would have been even better if six other passes were not dropped for over 100 yards. He is the first Packer to win the MVP since Bart Starr.
• The biggest fumble occurred before the game started as Christina Aguilera sang her own version of the National Anthem. Unfortunately, her version has now become the laughingstock all over the media and the world. She is probably the most unpopular person on YouTube for all the wrong reasons. I know an amateur named Jacque' Palmer, stage name NeoPopsicle, who would have done much better!
• The Packers were able to win the Super Bowl despite having 16 players on injured reserve. Star players Charles Woodson and Donald Driver were knocked out in the first half of the Super Bowl. Woodson suffered a broken collarbone and was in a sling while Driver sustained an ankle injury and was wearing a protective boot on the sideline.
• Coach Mike McCarthy gave the boldest pre-game motivation speech by having his team sized for their Super Bowl Rings the night before. Now that's confidence!
  
  As I watched the contest at Hooters in Boca Raton, it was neat to get a unique perspective from the fans.

Travis Kidwell, 34, Boca Raton "I was pulling for the Packers because I wanted to see Rodgers win the Super Bowl and make a name for himself by pulling out of Favre's shadow in an excellent game. He did it in convincing fashion as the Steelers will have to wait for their seventh Super Bowl win and the Vince Lombardi trophy is returning home to "Titletown" back in Wisconsin."
Katie Strassburg, 18, Tampa, FAU Cheerleader "I am rooting for the Green Bay Packers because I am a Denver Broncos fan and the Steelers are in the AFC with the Broncos, therefore, they need to lose. I also wanted to support the Black Eyed Peas along with Usher's Comeback during the half-time show."
Mike Deson, 19, Tampa, FAU Student "I'm just here for the Super Bowl. I'm not rooting for either team and just came to join in on the spirit of a Great American Tradition."
Gladys Echevarria, 46, Pembroke Pines "It seems things were going right for the Green Bay Packers from the coin toss. Since I am a history buff, I loved the presentation of the Hall of Famers. That was a proud moment not only for myself but for anyone who appreciates great accomplishments."
Finally, my good friend Bob Schultz, whom I've known for 28 years, was naturally disappointed when his Chicago Bears lost to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game 21-14 two weeks ago in The Windy City.
Schultz, 48, resides in the Dallas suburb of Hurst, Texas and his hatred towards the Packers was quite evident as he pulled for the Steelers.
"I HATE THE PACKERS and think by far are one of the most overrated teams to perform in the game," Schultz said. "If it wasn't for lucky calls by the refs getting the bounces of the ball their way, I guess you need some luck from time to time. What the PECKERS got this year was unbelievable! The condition of the field at the so called DEATH STAR (Cowboys Stadium) to me it looks like a cockroach because it was so poor, very slippery and many seams and just plain poor."
Schultz thought that Steelers signal caller Ben Roethlisberger's off the field legal troubles with women caught up with him in this contest.
"After a game like this, I think that the NFL is rigged. No matter if you think Roethlisberger was guilty or not, I think the fix was in for him not to win."
If the NFL doesn't reach a new labor agreement soon, it looks like this Super Bowl will last longer than most, much to the dismay of next year's host, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Scott Morganroth can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com and his blog can be seen at http://www.scottsports33.com/.