Now the chase is really over.  Jimmy Johnson has captured his third Cup Championship in three years.  I think that after all is said and done, old JJ will be mentioned in the top lists of drivers of all time.  Just don’t hold me to that.  Even with the win this week, Carl Edwards just couldn’t overtake a huge deficit that JJ had built up.  For all his efforts he’ll have to wait until next year to try and get on the podium.  In third place was Greg Biffle who had two wins this season, followed by Kevin Harvick who was consistent all year, but couldn’t manage to get to victory road.  Clint Boyer rounds out the top five.  The bottom five were Jeff Burton in sixth and Jeff Gordon in seventh, win-less all season for the first time in his career. In eighth place was Denny Hmlin and in ninth was pudge-Tony Stewart.  Kyle Busch rounds out the top ten and Matt Kenseth and dale Jr. bring up eleventh and twelvth places.  A dissapointing finish for Jr. after the off-season moves got everybody excited again.

The BCS is out and nothing of importance has changed.  With a win over Miss. State, Alabama stays in the number one spot.  In second, with a week off, is still a surprising Texas Tech team waiting for a chance to play in the FedEx championship game.  Still in third place is a Texas team wishing it had been able to finish against that same Texas Tech team comfortably in second.  In fourth place, a fired up Gators team coming off a big win against South Carolina.  Giving the Old Ball Coach the worst loss of his career.  either as a player or a coach.  I was surprised not to see Texas and Florida swap spots in the final rankings, but it makes for good drama these last few weeks.  And before I forget, Oklahoma still has a good shot at screwing everything up for these top four teams.  If they can beat Texas Tech this weekend and Oklahoma State the following week, then they’ll be right there at the end, possibly playing in the title game.

After a long season and what seemed like a longer post-season, the MVP awards have been announced in the National League.  Albert Pujols won his second MVP, his first being in 2005.  Pujols hit .357 with 37 homers and 116 runs batted in.  He was consistent all year and won the award even though his Cardinal team finished in a disappointing fourth place.  Coming in second was Ryan Howard of the Phillies who led his team to a World Series title and also led the majors in homers with 46 and rbi’s with 146.  Why he didn’t win is up for debate, but possibly an overall season average of only .251 might have had some influence on the voters.  I’m sure the World series ring is a big enough consolation prize for the young slugger.

The NASCAR season is drawing to a close and we will have the same result that we have had for the last two seasons.  Jimmy Johnson standing up and accepting the championship for the third year in a row.  Maybe he is pretty good after all.  It would take a complete collapse of unseen proportions for him to lose the Chase.  He would literally have to start his engine at the start/finish line and blow his car up on the first turn, and not be able to continue in order to lose.  Oh, and then Carl Edwards would still have to win the race which I’m sure thirty other drivers would have something to say about that.  It seems like the big teams with all the money just keep getting better and more money and keep winning week in and week out.  It’s doesn’t seem to be about the drivers so much anymore as it does the money and how much the team spends.  Oh, wait.  If that was the case, then Jr. would have won this year instead of having to tell his legions of blinded fans-”Wait ’till next year.” And then he walks off into his trailer drinking a Mountain Dew and counting the money that he can pretty much print.

Week 10 in the NFL did little to change any bodies mind about any team.  No up-sets, and no big shockers.  The top story might be Tennessee’s march towards perfection.  With nine wins already, they have all but guaranteed themselves a ply-off berth and more than likely a first round bye.  The Jets continue their impressive start with another win which sets up a huge Thursday night game against New England who also won on Sunday.  Beating a floundering Buffalo team that started hot and had play-off hopes which are quickly going up in smoke.  Miami posted another win, bettering their record to 5-4.  With such an awful start, I don’t think anyone predicted a winning record at this point in the season for the fish.  The Colts also got back on track, beating a Steelers team that has been riddled with injuries.  Even with the win, it is highly unlikely that the Colts will win their division because of the undefeated Titans.  The NFC south has its own Cinderella story with he Atlanta Falcons winning their sixth game.  After such a debacle last season, I didn’t think that they could pull it together in just one season.  They still should come in third to the Bucs and the Panthers in the division.

The BCS is out and there has been a little change in the rankings.  The top spot is still held by Alabama who narrowly escaped with a win own in Baton Rouge.  Les Miles almost pulled the upset as the Tigers eventually lost in overtime.  Number two is still occupied by a surprising Texas Tech team bent on playing for a national championship.  They killed an OK State team that was supposed to make a game out of it.  They didn’t.  Then we get to number three Texas, which takes over for the missing Penn State team that lost a heart breaker to an unranked Iowa team.  They fall all the way down to the ninth spot.  Florida moves up a spot to number four with an easy win over Vandy.  Oklahoma rounds out the top five and with just a couple weeks to go, anything can happen.

The Bucs are not as good as I hoped they were, but they at least showed enough self respect to not let the Chiefs beat them.  Everybody knows how hard it is to win on any given Sunday in this league.  It has always been difficult to win at Arrowhead Stadium, especially for a visiting team that doesn’t play there very often.  The Chiefs jumped out to an early 14-0 lead, taking advantage of a total of 4 turnovers by the Bucs.  Just a few minutes before half-time, the Chiefs led 24-3 before a 97 yard kick-off return for a score.  It was an uneventful third quarter, and the Bucs held KC to only three points in the fourth.  With only 19 seconds the Bucs converted a two pointer to tie the game and eventually went on to win the game on a Mat Bryant field goal in over-time.  They must play better if they want to go anywhere in the playoffs if they even get there.  They get a rest with the bye week the weekend.

It’s always fun to watch a team or player that you don’t like get beat to a pulp.  Such is the case in the stomping that the Giants laid down on Dallas this past Sunday.  If you think that it’s just a quarterback that the Cowboys need, that would be overly optimistic thinking.  Although the play from the quarterback position has been lacking and unproductive, the rest of the teams faults have been exposed.  The defense has all but given up, and I predict a couple more losses and TO will come out of his shell.  With all the problems that the Cowboys have had, I would have to admit that that Romo guy they have is pretty good if he could hide them so well.  And I am not a Tony Romo fan.

The Gators have put themselves into a good position for the final stretch of the season.  With their thumping of rival Georgia this weekend, beating them 49-10 in Jacksonville Saturday.  It was payback for the beating the Gators received from the Bulldogs last year.  When the Georgia players danced in the end-zone after scoring the first touchdown of the game.  The Gators players and coaches have a long memory and did not forget the disrespect.  But, bigger than that, they have put themselves in the top 5 in the BCS, if they can run the table with three winnable games coming up and presumably playing Alabama in the SEC title game, they could play for the national championship if everything falls into place.

I thought that Dale Jr. was going to have a break-out year this season.  I thought that he just needed a fresh start with a top notch team and to get away from his late fathers ex-wife.  What happened?  I mean, it’s true that he did make the chase, up to second and third place at one point.  But he just can’t seem to finish it off and this year will end like all the others, with Jr. watching someone else win the championship and him and every other Jr. apologist saying “Wait ’till next year.”  If people sat back and looked at it from an unbiased, which I know is nearly impossible, point of view; they would realize that Dale is no more than an average driver at best.  Maybe a little above average, but not elite and definitely not near the caliber driver his dad was.  Not that many are and I know it’s unfair to even compare anybody, let alone Jr. to his dad, but people who thought he was the second coming of the Imtimidator need to wake up and face reality.