Conference Championship Wrap-Up

Conference Championship weekend has come and gone, with two teams punching their ticket for Miami. For the first time since 1993, both #1 seeds are headed to the Super Bowl. Here's a rundown on the week that was.

Smiley

1. Sean Payton's speech after the Saints won the NFC Championship
2. Seeing Pierre Garcon carrying the flag of Haiti around after the AFC Championship
3. LOST returns this week.
4. Following scouts on Twitter. Particularly those that are at the Senior Bowl and are tweeting updates all day. If you're on Twitter, we recommend DraftBreakdown, MockingTheDraft, and MoveTheSticks.
5. Coach Tomlin going to the Senior Bowl to watch practice. Want to see some dedicated coaches? Look at who is at the Senior Bowl this week scouting prospects.
6. Brett Favre's toughness. Honestly, besides Byron Leftwich being carried down the field by his offensive linemen at Marshall, we can't remember a more gritty performance by a quarterback not named Roethlisberger. He took a pounding all day, was barely able to walk, and still almost carried his team to victory.

Frownie

1. Tempting fate. Brett Favre's last pass as a Packer, Jet, and Viking were all interceptions. He shouldn't tempt fate. Some times, things were just meant to be.
2. Having to go through the whole "will-he-or-won't-he" media shenanigans with Brett Favre all over again. He'll be back.
3. Seeing two dome teams in the Super Bowl. As a fan of outdoor football, it makes us a bit sad.
4. New Orleans' offensive play-calling in the 4th quarter against Minnesota. Really, it was a tribute to Minnesota's defense that the Vikings were even able to take it to OT after how many times their offense turned it over. That being said, New Orleans wasn't exactly calling the most aggressive plays down the stretch. Another performance like that won't be good enough to beat Indy.
5. Peyton Manning taking dives. He did it against the Ravens and he did it against the Jets. Rather than stand in the pocket and take a hit, he just lays down when he sees someone coming. Weak.

Off the Schnide

New Orleans, after years of paper bags and bad management, finally makes it to the Super Bowl. Congrats are in order to the Saints, but also for the coaching job that Sean Payton did. Let's not forget, the Saints finished last in the NFC South last season.

Greg Lloyd "Badass of the Week" Award

Virginia Montanez

Some of you may recognize the name, some may not. For those of you that don't know, in a previous life she was "PittGirl" who ran the now-defunct "Burgh Blog." Ever wonder where the nickname "Skippy" for Jeff Reed came from? Burgh Blog. Now, Virginia runs ThatsChurch arguably one of the top 3 blogs in the city. She absolutely loves Pittsburgh and there's 1,000 other good reasons why she could get this award. But there is one specific one this week.

Obviously, the earthquake that struck Haiti was a disaster and a terrible tragedy. As you may have seen in the local news, two Pittsburgh women, Jamie and Ali McMutrie, who ran an orphanage in Haiti were stranded without food, water or supplies after the earthquake. Thanks to the efforts of Virginia, aka JanePitt on Twitter, spreading the word about their need for help, Jason Altmire, Dan Onorato, Ed Rendell, and others got on board to rescue the children and the McMutrie sisters from the BRESMA orphanage.

If you don't do anything else today, swing by That's Church and read about what went on with the rescue effort. Truly incredible and inspiring. If you only have time to read two things, I recommend these two: here and here. Special thanks from us to everyone who has stepped up to help the relief efforts in Haiti.

If you have the time, here is a list of organizations across the nation that are working on relief efforts in Haiti. There are a few Pittsburgh organizations on the list. Another good option is always the American Red Cross. Thanks to everyone out there who has already donated to the relief effort.

Bob Smizik "Douchebag of the Week" Award

There were a lot of great entrants for the Smizik Award this week, and it was really hard to pick just one to give the coveted prize to. In the end, it came down to which rated highest on the Smizik Scale of Douchebaggery^TM.

Former City Council President Doug Shields scored at the "Mid-Season Article About A Slumping Penguin" level on the Smizik spectrum.

Pat Robertson scored on the "Throwing a Well-Loved Steeler Under the Bus" level for his comments about the earthquake in Haiti.

Three Pittsburgh Police officers who brutally beat and tasered a CAPA student walking down the street scored at the "Criticizing a Long-Held Institution As Unnecessary" level of Smizik.

But the winner of this week's Smizik Award goes to AABA Grand Wizard "Commissioner" Don "Moose" Lewis.

For those of you who haven't heard, Lewis is the self-appointed "commissioner" of the All-American Basketball Alliance. Now, if the name AABA doesn't scream "racist" to you, just wait. What are the league rules? According to an "official" statement,

"Only players that are natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league"

While Lewis claims he isn't a racist, he goes on to drop this gem:

"people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here's a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like."

Last time I checked, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this one, but you'd better have a data source better than the US Census, White Americans made up about 74% of the US population. I guess 75% is a minority now. Interesting. That would mean that the 12-4 Minnesota Vikings actually had a losing season and the 4-12 Washington Redskins had a winning season.

Now, I realize that this fool's racist agenda is probably only getting furthered by people actually talking about his White's Only basketball league. But really, is this how far we've fallen? That we think the athletic arena, a place that should be the most open and accessible to anyone from any walk of life that simply enjoys playing the game, should become segregated? I know blow-hards like Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck have been touting how great life was in the time of segregation and how awesome it would be to go back to a time when all Americans were not equal, but it's even more frightening when someone takes the the ideals of segregation and tries to apply it to something like sports. Yikes.