Gotta love the holidays.

Why must I keep writing about my teams losing?

The Cubs choke in the playoffs. Newcastle are just awful, and inconsistent. The Bears, justly so, choked on the last week of the season to NOT get into the playoffs. Where shall I begin on the ever so easy criticism of any of my favorite sports franchises?

First, Newcastle. Mike Ashley has decided that - hey - since the market is junky and since my team has won a game or two, I don't feel like selling any more. Maybe next week though. Stay tuned! Oh boy, Newcastle is such a caaraaaazy place - these Geordies are gonna LOVE me when I tell 'em the good ol news!! Uh - sorry Mike. As this week has shown we are nowhere NEAR being able to compete for European spots. We beat Tottenham at the last breath, which we all knew we would do (we somehow OWN Spurs), and that got us all in a hot mess. But then we go on to lose to Wigan on Boxing Day (even though it truly was down to some awful decisions by the ref) and then get ABSOLUTELY SPANKED by Liverpool at home. This match was just pitiful. It shows the gap in teams within the Premiership. Similar to the Bears, we do not deserve anything from this season, if anything, we deserve to go down so that the board will be forced to basically declare bankruptcy and start again. It's that bad. We're paper thin, our defense is an absolute JOKE (especially when Steven Taylor shows his face around the pitch) our midfield can NOT provide decent service to our strikers, who, by the way, will pretty much all be on the way out either in January or this summer. So we'll be left with a carcus of a squad anyway - might as well do it in the Championship.

The Bears, who truthfully were awful all season long, didn't make the playoffs, even though all they had to do was WIN against the TEXANS today, based on some other results going our way, and we could have gotten in.

But think about how poor this team is.

Lovie Smith clearly doesn't know how to emotionally prepare a team for a big game. The defense has been shite ever since Rivera left, and how DARE any NFL franchise to hire an ex-Illini coach to ANY position on the coaching staff.

The defense is the most overpaid group of players assembled in the league. Time after time after time today, they blew their coverage, didn't get adequate pressure on the qb, left GAPING holes all over the field, whether it be running or passing, made stupid penalties at inoportune times, etc etc.

The offense is run by Kyle Orton, who literally might not get a starting job on ANY other NFL team, and for some reason, we haven't gone after a QB for a few drafts now. Or free agents. Or trades. We seem to be happy watching the little bitch fight that is the annual Orton-Grossman "QB Controversy." Our wide receivers are awful. Both tight ends are better than any of our receivers. Devin Hester is an absolutely spoiled little brat who's fast with ZERO hands. He's a terrible receiver, and he didn't return a single punt this entire season. So.....what's the benefit of having him on offense -- I mean -- our team, again??? Matt Forte is clearly the best part of our offense, and he's a frigging rookie - we didn't even expect anything out of him this season, and he came on and blew it up. So good for him - but why do I see Adrian Peterson out there so much in clutch situations when Forte is the only opportunity we have of producing?

Special teams have been phenomenal all season, especially the punter and kicker. But when we needed an on-sides kick today to give us a chance, Gould put forth the most pathetic attempt I've ever seen. It's clear we hadn't practiced that - and if we had, good thing we wasted all that time, because it was certainly a waste.

Oh well, at least now I get another 5 months of watching Newcastle embarrass themselves, watching the Bulls embarrass themselves, and soon enough, I'll get to watch the Cubs embarrass themselves too. Go Blackhawks, I guess.