And the NBA Pulls Another One

I seriously think that the NBA has it out for the Suns, and particularly Shaquille O'Neal. His ejection tonight for a Flagrant Foul 2 on Rip Hamilton was ridiculous. Was it a hard foul? Yes. Was it a flagrant foul? Maybe. Was it worthy of ejection? Definitely not. Shaq's description of the play as "the laws of physics" at work was dead on. Two bodies were flying fast and hard in opposing directions. There was a collision. One body was considerably more massive than the other, and the smaller body went hard to the floor. Does that surprise anyone?

I know the league is trying to cut down on unnecessarily hard fouls. But they have to use common sense. For some reason, Shaq is given a different rule book than the rest of the league, and part of it is happening just because he's so massive. Other players in the league climb on him, twist his head and neck, whack him, rip at him, and otherwise clobber him and get away with simple fouls all the time. It's no wonder Shaq gets so angry during some games. Then, when he's on defense, a lot of his fouls look harder than they are due to the major size disparity between him and virtually all of the other players in the league.

If the NBA does the right thing -- and I highly doubt they will, given their previous performances in virtually all incidents over the past three years that have involved the Suns -- then they will not fine or suspend Shaq, and furthermore, the official who ejected him will be reprimanded and/or fined. Furthermore, they will try to get the officials to officiate Shaq more fairly. That call tonight was grossly unjustified, and future gaffes like that need to be avoided in the future for the good of the game.

Cardinals Inch Closer to Division Title

The Cardinals' magic number is now two. I was wondering if I would ever get to use the words "Cardinals" and "magic number" in the same sentence while talking about my favorite football team. Thoughts about today's win:

• There is no way that the Seahawks only committed one penalty today. None at all. I would have said this even if I weren't watching every minute of the game. I did watch it, so I can honestly say that there were at least three illegal blocks that went uncalled today, including one on the Seahwaks' first touchdown. There was also one that happened on one of Josh Wilson's really long kick returns.
• To all of those ESPN "experts" who predicted that the Seahawks would win the division and the Cardinals would only win four or five games, nice call. You probably also predicted huge gains in the stock market this fall.
• How many more dumb penalties are the Cardinals going to commit?
• The Cardinals have to convert on their opportunities more than this if they're going to have a prayer at beating the Giants next week.
• Adrian Wilson will probably get another undeserved fine for his sack of Hasselbeck because he hit him in the head in the course of the tackle, even though Hasselbeck clearly ducked into it.
• I hope the Cardinals send a tape of all of the missed calls to the league.
• If horse collar tackles are illegal, then why aren't throat tackles? One Seattle defender tackled Hightower by putting his arm around his throat. Isn't that just as dangerous?

Bring on the Giants next week! Let's improve the slip-ups and keep the winning ways going!