At least, unless he's not a man of his word, that is:

Johnson admitted Thursday on the NFL Network that he has "gotten out of line every now and then." But he added, "What great one doesn't? What great one is not emotional about what he does? What great one does not have passion about what he does? What great one hates losing?

"Find me a great one that doesn't do the same things that I've done in the past and I'll stop playing. Period."

All it should take to end his career is a phone call from this guy...

...as well as those of us who are not too fond of the Manning family as a whole. I have to give the Giants props though, as they played the perfect game plan to take the Patriots out of their rhythm. Towards the end of the season, teams realized that the only way to beat the Patriots was to pressure Tom Brady (which takes Randy Moss out of the game as Brady doesn't have time for those deep bombs), but the Giants were the only team with defensive players good enough to actually make it happen. I guess we'll have to wait until next season to see the Patriots go 19-0!

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The Hazean is hosting a mock draft, and we're bravely taking on the role of the Mangenius in this one. The Jets are one of those teams that has so many different needs, I think it's almost pointless for them to target any specific position. They can use the help all over the field. The defense, though, was even more pathetic than the offense, so my instinct is to go for the best defensive player available when the #6 pick comes up. Chris Long would be the best-case scenario since he's got the most experience in a 3-4. Vernon Gholston's been jumping up draft boards lately and Mel Kiper's got him as the Jets' first-round pick on his mock draft. Sedrick Ellis and Glenn Dorsey are the other obvious names here, but I highly doubt that Dorsey will fall to #6, and Ellis isn't a great fit in a 3-4 (though I read things like this and wonder if it matters).

Some positions I'd rule out right away in the first round:

• Wide receiver: The Jets are OK with Coles and the Cotch Rocket for another year.
• Running back: Unless McFadden's available. You've gotta at least consider him. But this O-line is so bad, I don't know that he'll make much of a difference.
• Quarterback: I like Kellen Clemens a lot. Don't forget that he was in the running for the 2006 Heisman until he broke his ankle. Pennington, if he can stomach it, will serve as a better-than-average backup.

Jake Long's the only OT worth taking at the #6 spot, but he won't fall that far. Too many teams have a desperate need at that position, most notably the Rams (#2) and Chiefs (#5).

And I REALLY wish it wasn't against those damned Giants! While the Patriots have one more game to go to become the first 19-0 team of all time, unfortunately it has to be against the team that came the closest to beating them last and a team that has beaten the Cowboys and Packers, back to back. I'll also admit that while I don't really like Philip Rivers (and the Chargers as a team overall after all the whining they've done the past few times the Patriots have beaten them), I like Eli Manning even less after all that sheisty business that the Manning family did during the 2004 NFL draft and would love to see him lose. Of course I'd also love to see the Patriots win another Superbowl! So I hope everyone has bought a "Free Randy" shirt by now and is rocking it next Sunday when the Patriots dominate the Giants.

Prediction: Patriots 35, Giants 17

Go Pats!

Honestly, could things have worked out any better for the Patriots this weekend? First of all, they win their own game against a tough Jacksonville team, but then the Colts lose to the Chargers! The even better part about that is that the Colts didn't go down without a fight. In fact, they injured Philip Rivers and LaDainian Tomlinson. If these two guys are still hampered by injury this coming weekend, I have to predict a similar outcome to the week 2 matchup when the Patriots put a hurting on the Chargers, 38-14.

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...and I'm already sick of all the Tony Soprano jokes we're going to be treated to by Boomer, Kornheiser, and that greasy moron who arbitrarily pushes buttons on Around the Horn. Why, you ask, are we going to be hearing so many jokes involving Tony Soprano and the excellent HBO drama named after his fictional family?

Because the Dolphins plan to offer their head coaching job to this guy:

His name? Tony Sparano. Close enough for Keyshawn!

If you're participating in a league with friends (or one of those online contests) that applies fantasy rules to playoff football, we'd love to hear about it. Use the comment portion of this post to share your experiences and recommendations.

This year, I'm giving CBS Sportsline's "Playoff Challenge" a try. It seems pretty straightforward - pick some players each week (each of whom is worth a certain number of "units"), keep your total number of units under 300, and then hope for the best. Unfortunately, there's only one prize, $5,000 to the person who does the best. Seems kinda lame, but whatever, it's free. For week 18, I'm going with:

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As the fantasy football season wraps up and the NFL playoffs begin, Matt and I would like to thank all of you readers that made our first season a great success. We plan to continue blogging throughout the offseason and also have plans for a redesign of the site before the next season begins. Feel free to send us any suggestions that you think might make our site even better for next year. Thanks again and go Patriots!

Hopefully everyone got what they really wanted this year...a fantasy football championship! I guess I wasn't a good boy this year though, as Santa couldn't even bring me a third place finish. Oh well, there's always next year!

That's how many points I lost my fantasy championship by.

This is one of those days where you think you might just skip next season. Though I'm not (yet) drunk enough to forget that I'm about as likely to do that as I am to follow through on the "I'm never drinking again, ever" phase of a hangover.

This was a particularly miserable defeat, since at around 4:30 yesterday, I was more or less certain that I had won. After the 1pm EST games had concluded, I was down by 11 points, with Earnest Graham and the Tampa Bay defense still to go. Tampa Bay had just manhandled the Falcons the week before, so I was pretty confident that they'd do something similar to San Fran and make up the margin all on their own - and then I had Graham, the free agent pickup of the year, who would certainly rack up at least ten points even if Tampa did decide to rest him a bit.

Then Tampa Bay lost to San Fran, while giving Graham's backups the ball more than they gave it to him. And he did jack squat with the carries he did get.

Then I lost by 0.47.

The beer, if you're wondering, is delicious tonight. Merry fucking Christmas.