The Sports Thread #1 For 12/16/13: An Uninspired Choice (First Version)

The Thread's Top Topic 

Despite me having good colleagues at Sports Illustrated, I have to say their choice of Peyton Manning as "Sportsman of the Year" is a poor one.

Moreover, they are suffering the same problem that their "brother-in-law" magazine Time used to have when that periodical named its year-end award "Man of the Year" in the past before thankfully changing it. They have to change the name to "Sportsperson of the Year" to make sure gender bias is out. Especially when the last solo female (Mary Decker) to win the award was 30 years ago in 1983.

(The last non-man to win it was the US Women's Soccer team in 1999, while Pat Summit won it with Mike Krzyzewski two years ago.)

In a year in which Serena Williams and even the likes of Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan or Christine Sinclair (the most deserving of those three) could have won the award, it's going to take a year even better from Serena or Inbee Park to win that award. Serena and Park need to win all four of their Slams/majors to be clearly deserving than anyone, including Lionel Messi or Neymar if they win the World Cup (sorry Cristiano fans, can't see him winning the nod).

The Thread's Other Topics

Tom Brady was not a happy man after that Patriots loss yesterday, in which Michael Thomas became the star of the last drive with his two remarkable plays to give the Dolphins a massive win for their season and franchise overall.

But back to Brady, here is his press conference shorter than even Belichick's:




Funny.

And getting back to Michael Thomas, this guy was on the 49ers practice squad last week and didn't just get signed to the Dolphins depleted secondary until a few days ago. In fact, he almost missed signing for the Dolphins by a whisker.

The defensive back made two big plays Sunday on passes thrown by Tom Brady in the waning moments of Miami's victory at Sun Life Stadium — plays he wouldn't have been able to make had he waited, oh, another half-hour or so to check his phone last Monday morning. On the phone were missed calls and texts from his agent, Christina Phillips, who warned Thomas the Dolphins would move on if he didn't get back to her pronto. 

Thomas was a member of the San Francisco 49ers practice squad at the time, so the Dolphins needed his consent to sign him to their active roster. It was 10:20 a.m. PT, but it was already afternoon in South Florida and the Dolphins had to make their move. 

Thomas got back to them in time

Worse than Dez Bryant's latest immature act yesterday in the midst of the Cowboys meltdown to the Packers was DeSean Jackson's clownish "Me, Me, Me" behavior flaring up once again.

Owner Jeffrey Loria was right to talk to him in the locker room to tell him how idiotic he acted yesterday, towards Nick Foles and the rest of their teammates. Jackson was a damn fool with his attitude and he needs to still watch that from eruption again or else. Clearly he hasn't grown all the way up.

Getting back to the Cowboys meltdown, at least Tony Romo always takes the blame for himself instead of Jason Garrett. I still think Dallas will win that brutal NFC Least in the end over the Eagles in the final day.

(More to come in this sports thread in a bit)