After the Saints picked Ingram, Reggie Bush tweeted, “It’s been fun New Orleans”, which means that he’s looking at other options outside of his current team. Coach Sean Payton is confident that he can persuade Bush to stay with the team (although NFL predictions at BetUs probably wouldn’t include them), but his contract calls for him to be paid $11.8 million next season and that’s a lot of money to pay for someone who isn’t going to play every down. Bush has been battling injuries for two of his first five seasons in the NFL, and he’s the latest in a long line of Saints running backs to try and fight through injuries, as Deuce McAllister, Chris Ivory and Pierre Thomas have all had troubles staying on the field; McAllister even had to retire because of multiple knee surgeries.

Bush will probably find another spot to land as he is an exciting open-field player, but you have to wonder how much of his explosiveness he has left because of injuries. Without that, Bush isn’t worth almost $12 million a season as he doesn’t have the size to handle the grind of being an every-down back. That’s why Payton probably wants to keep Bush, because Ingram isn’t that much bigger than Bush, and as was mentioned before, he also has issues with his knees, which is why it was a bit strange that the Saints picked him in the first place. It’ll be interesting to see what Payton has up his sleeve in regards to this situation, although we don’t doubt that he can. It’s going to take a lot of convincing to keep Bush in the Big Easy.

Word is that the owners declined an invitation from the players to go back to the bargaining table at the end of March, as they wouldn’t agree to details stating that the settlement of the lockout and/or antitrust cases would have no bearing on the case of the decertification of the players’ union, which is a separate matter. All this really says is what a lot of people (but not enough) have been saying and thinking since the discussions about a lockout really started:  the owners in the NFL are prepared to sit and wait out the players to get what they want, and they’re not interested in the art of negotiation.

So what does this mean? It means the likelihood of having a season is decreasing more and more by the day as long as the two sides aren’t even talking. The players said they would play this season as the two negotiated a new CBA, but the owners declined and are now resorting to strong-arm tactics. This could be retaliation by the owners, who can’t be happy that the players fought and won a decision that would keep them from collecting money on television deals even if there was a lockout (and in one case, the owners would get more money if there was a lockout).  But one thing is for sure: it is going to be a long time before this is sorted out.

Here’s tonight’s lineup:

RED SOX (0-3)
Ellsbury CF
Crawford LF
Pedroia 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Youkilis 3B
Ortiz DH
Drew RF
Saltalamacchia C
Scutaro SS

Pitching: RHP Josh Beckett (6-6, 5.78 last season)

INDIANS (1-2)
Brantley CF
A. Cabrera SS
Choo RF
Santana C
Hafner DH
O. Cabrera 2B
Kearns LF
LaPorta 1B
Hannahan 3B

Pitching: RHP Josh Tomlin (6-4, 4.56)

Kansas

The Jayhawks should also get the No.1 overall seed if they win the Big 12 tournament, but even if they lose that, a trip to the finals would be sufficient. Kansas has the depth, talent and skill to win it all this year, they just have to stay disciplined.

Duke

The defending champions should also receive a top seed if they make it to the finals of the ACC tournament, and to be honest, the conference isn’t as bad as many are making it out to be. They have a Player of the Year candidate in Nolan Smith, and of course, they have a Hall of Fame coach in Mike Krzyzewski.

Pittsburgh

The Panthers have been the most consistent team in the gauntlet that is the Big East this season, and they’re the most balanced team in the toughest conference in America. They can score, they can stop yo from scoring, they hit the boards and most importantly, Pitt is as mentally tough as you’ll find in the nation.

BYU/Ohio State

The Cougars get this if they can win the Mountain West tournament in light of the suspension to forward Brandon Davies, but if they don’t, look for major-conference bias to creep in and the committee to give this spot to the Buckeyes, who won the first 24 games of the season and is a very dangerous threat to win it all with freshman powerhouse Jared Sullinger and his merry band of three-point shooters.

The main story of the week is how will the Pittsburgh Steelers – or will they even be able to – stop Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers has been outstanding so far in the 2010-11 season and he’s been even better in the playoffs. Through three playoff games, he has complete 66-of-93 passes for 790 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions – one of those interceptions being the receivers fault. He’s also rushed for two more touchdowns.

If the Steelers can’t pressure him, rattle him or sack him, they are going to lose.

The good news is that there was no team in the NFL better than doing exactly that in the regular season. The Steelers 48 sacks led the league and they will have to bring the house again on Super Bowl Sunday if they want to get the win.

What’s an even scarier thought is how good Rodgers has played in indoor games throughout his career.

In total, he’s played 12 dome games and the statistics are astounding. Rodgers has 26 touchdowns and just five interceptions in those games. The Packers offense has averaged 31.8 points per game in those contests and in their two playoff indoor games, they have surpassed 40 points twice. Rodgers quarterback rating is a sparkling 111.1 in that span.

In the 2010 season alone, Rodgers played four indoor games and finished with eight touchdowns and just one interception while completing 75.2% of his passes. Without a doubt, if he has time to stand around and make the best decisions, the Packers will score plenty of points and they’ll likely win the Super Bowl.

Tune in on Sunday to see who wins this key matchup and Super Bowl XLV.

When looking at the Super Bowl favorites at BetUs in the preseason or examining the odds of the 12 teams left just before the playoffs start, the one consistent is that’s blatantly clear that teams who have the best man under center are considered the best choices to win it all.

In the AFC, the six teams there are led by Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning, Matt Cassel, Joe Flacco and Mark Sanchez. In the NFC, the six quarterbacks are Matt Ryan, Jay Cutler, Michael Vick, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Matt Hasselbeck/Charlie Whitehurst.

Aside from the Seattle Seahawks and their duo of Hasselbeck and Whitehurst, every other team has a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback.

Some people seem to think that defense wins championship and there’s no question that a good defense is required in addition to a quality quarterback. But nowadays it’s fairly clear: to overcome a bad quarterback is near impossible.

We’ve seen it happen before and at least twice this decade. Rex Grossman led the Chicago Bears to the Super Bowl and Trent Dilfer led the Baltimore Ravens to the championship game. But the truth is that in both of those cases, the quarterbacks were supported by a record-setting defense along with an elite running game.

Taking a look through the recent Super Bowl winners, the same theme rings true: premier quarterbacks bring rings.

Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady have accounted for the last seven Super Bowl rings. Considering four of those quarterbacks are back in the playoffs guiding a third of the 12 teams, there’s an excellent chance another one of them wins again.

The bottom line is you don’t get anywhere in the NFL without an excellent point man. The 20 teams that aren’t in the playoffs should take notice and reevaluate their situation.

Every time you turn on the TV or surf the Internet, you are seeing more advertisements, news articles and blog posts about online casino games and making money playing in an online casino. And now, people don’t seem to be phased by it. They are more likely to actually sign up for one of these online casinos and give it a shot. They are more open minded about the idea, and that is one of the first stepping stones towards social acceptance.

More people are even starting to skip their planned casino outings, opting to stay home, have people over, and play online casino games with their friends in the comfort of their home. They don’t feel embarrassed about playing online casino games any more.

In the span of a few years, playing online casino games has gone from being frowned upon and believed to be an activity for compulsive gamblers to a socially acceptable pastime for young and old alike.