2017 Conference Championship Previews

There's quite a bit of smaller sports stories going on during the headliner that is the NFL Playoffs and it's easy for things like Chris Paul's broken thumb to go under the radar when all sports media wanted to discuss this week was Antonio Brown's Facebook account (who under the age of 30 regularly posts on there anymore?). Here's a quick rundown of some things going on in baseball, basketball and football that people may have missed...

• Clemson upset Alabama in the National Championship for college football on a last-second touchdown pass from DeShaun Watson to Hunter Renfrow. Watson should cement his status as a top five pick in this year's draft (Chicago, San Francisco or a trade-up) with back-to-back awesome championship performances against the nation's best defense.
• Chris Paul, Pau Gasol, Rudy Gay and David West all suffered multi-week injuries. The West injury just paves a path for more James Michael McAdoo early in games for Golden State. The Gasol injury creates an interesting reality where the Houston Rockets could be the second-best team in the West. This theory was helped immensely by Blake Griffin's six-week absence (of which, he is about to return from) and Chris Paul's freshly broken thumb, which could leave him off the court for six weeks as well. Rudy Gay has made it loud and clear that he hates Sacramento with a fiery passion (and who could really blame him?) and the forward was looking to begin a new chapter in his career with his impending free agency or a midseason trade. Unfortunately, Gay tore his Achilles and will not only crush any intrigue in this season's trade deadline but, likely cost himself a ton of money and explosiveness.
• Tim Raines, Jeff Bagwell and Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez are 2017's Baseball Hall of Fame inductees. Many deserving players saw their voting percentages increase (Bonds, Clemens, Edgar Martinez) and one former Pitcher with an incessant desire to be portrayed as a martyr saw his odds fall in a year where he kind of.... sort of.... maybe... not quite endorsed the lynching of journalists (the same people that control the votes for the Hall of Fame. Curt Schilling loves being a story so, why not indulge him some more?  
• The starting lineups for the NBA All Star Game were unveiled. The West is represented by Stephen Curry, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis. The East will consist of Kyrie Irving, DeMar DeRozan, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jimmy Butler. The reserves will be announced on the 26th and TNT will again host the announcement show. In the meantime, here's who I would take...

Eastern conference

Kyle Lowry

Kevin Love

John Wall

Joel Embiid

Paul George

Isaiah Thomas

Andre Drummond (I guess)

Western conference

Russell Westbrook

Draymond Green

Marc Gasol

Karl-Anthony Towns

Klay Thompson

DeAndre Jordan

C.J. McCollum

With baseball, the NBA All Star Weekend and the Super Bowl coming up, sports are alive and well. Also alive and well? The Packers, Falcons, Steelers and Patriots for a few more hours. Time to figure out the last two standing!

Packers 48 - Falcons 45

USA TODAY Sports
If the Falcons want to stop Aaron Rodgers, they'll need help from 36-year old Dwight Freeney.

I could just pull the ultimate cowardly move and pick against my preseason Super Bowl prediction with no way for me to possibly be incorrect but screw it, I'M DOUBLING DOWN. Neither of these defenses are any good but, they both have an occasionally present pass-rush that could end a rare drive before the end zone. Names like Julius Peppers, Mike Daniels, Clay Matthews, Nick Perry, Vic Beasley, Brooks Reed and Dwight Freeney will decide this game since both secondaries are awful and nothing else will stop the top two MVP candidates. 93 total points might be a bit much but, it will probably take 48 points from Aaron Rodgers and his receiving group that likely includes a dude with an eyepatch, a broom, Stephen Hawking and a decapitated corpse at this point. Oh yeah... and Jeff Janis is still there, sitting at #5 on the depth chart. Atlanta's offense is too consistently impressive to not end this game with 40+. I just trust Green Bay's healthy veteran defenders a little bit more than the Falcons' crew that is now missing Adrian Clayborn.

Patriots 26 - Steelers 13

AP Photo/Steven Senne
Malcolm Butler has already single-handedly won a Super Bowl and now faces the far more difficult task of stopping Antonio Brown.

The Patriots defense gave up the least amount of points in the regular season but, have also gone two months without facing a great quarterback (Russell Wilson). Just because they performed nicely against weaker opponents, that does not automatically imply that New England is unprepared to face the most lethal offensive trio still alive in the postseason (Antonio Brown, Le'Veon Bell, Pittsburgh's offensive line). After all, this season has come down to quarterbacks and Big Ben Roethlisberger has not been reliable since October (16 TD, 12 INT since October 16th). The Patriots-Steelers game from the regular season saw New England defeat Landry Jones 27-16 as Rottenburger was out with an MCL injury. This game should come down to coaching and I will take the greatest week-to-week adjustment maker ever (Belichick) and his superstar staff of future head coaches plus Dante Scarnecchia over Mike Tomlin, Todd Haley and Mike Munchak. Pittsburgh's pass-rush might be getting hot and they may have the best remaining offensive line among everyone but, New England still has a solid offensive line themselves and don't let errors made by their opponents go unpunished. I trust the turnover battle to end in favor of the Patriots and the revenge factor to fuel up a huge game from LeGarrette Blount. If Blount keeps New England on the field, the three B's won't "B" on the field enough to matter.

Good luck to the highly successful quarterback of your choice and may the outlook for the Super Bowl be nothing but fun, fun, fun 'til the buckets take our attention away.