Sports this 'n' that

While the Super Bowl will be the final game for Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis, the Pro Bowl, which took place on Sunday night in Honolulu, was the last for Jeff Saturday.

After spending most of his career in Indianapolis, Saturday left the Colts as part of the team's offseason fire sale in 2011, following a putrid 2-14 campaign. Saturday signed with Green Bay, but right before the Pro Bowl, the veteran center announced that the all-star classic would be his last game.

To comemmorate the occasion, Saturday was granted the opportunity to line up with the AFC offense for one play, to snap the ball to former teammate Peyton Manning, now with Denver. Later, Saturday was back with the NFC offense, snapping to Peyton's younger brother Eli, the Giants' QB. The NFC won in a romp, 62-35, and this was over by halftime. Isn't it that way most of the time?

Comes word now that there may be more trouble ahead for injured Yankees 3B/tabloid magnet Alex Rodriguez. An article on Yahoo! says that A-Rod may still have been involved with PED's (Performance Enhancing Drugs) as recently as last year, according to information supplied by a former employee of a Florida clinic, which apparently was also where ex-Yankee Melky Cabrera got his PED's, and led to his season being flushed after he was suspended for 50 games. San Francisco decided not to include Cabrera on their post-season roster, and he has since signed elsewhere. You'd think A-Rod and others would've figured out by now that this stuff is toxic to their careers, but they just don't get it........

You can't say I didn't warn you about the Royal Rumble PPV on Sunday. The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) won his 8th WWE title, and first since 2002, defeating CM Punk in a match marred by predictable controversy. The mercenary pseudo-vigilante group, the Shield (Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, & Dean Ambrose) attacked Rock during the match, their 2nd such ambush of Johnson in a week, this after Punk had told the trio on Friday Night Smackdown two days earlier he didn't want or need their help, wanting to prove to a skeptic audience that he could beat Rock on his own. However, it was clear that wasn't what WWE Chairman-CEO Vince McMahon had in mind, as he had dealt himself into the storyline a week ago, threatening to strip Punk of the title if the Shield attacked Rock again.

Instead, Rock asked for and got a restart, and promptly got off the mat---literally---and defeated Punk. The two will meet again at Elimination Chamber on February 17 in a rematch, with the roles reversed, but with Punk now a delusional former champion whining and complaining about how he had been screwed.

Last night, Monday Night Raw wrapped with McMahon confronting Paul Heyman, the advisor to Punk, with a tape of Shield attacking rookie Brad Maddox, presented as a kid desperate to make his break in the business, after Heyman had decided Maddox was expendable. Heyman's other client, Brock Lesnar, showed up and F-5'd the 67 year old chairman to end the broadcast, which guarantees Triple H will return on next week's show. Internet message boards have lit up with complaints about how the PPV was so predictable (John Cena won his 2nd Rumble, having previously won in 2008, setting up Cena-Rock II at Wrestlemania in April), and, as usual, McMahon and his staff of idiots couldn't think outside the box. Well, what else is new? McMahon is more concerned about raising the profile of the title, and since Johnson has movies coming out the next two months ("Snitch" next month & "GI Joe: Retaliation" in March), what better way than to have the champ walk the red carpet? That hasn't happened since '02, when "Scorpion King" came out. Problem is, McMahon continues to alienate potential new fans with his lack of common sense. He doesn't get it, doesn't want to, and never will, and that's the bottom line.