The Minnesota Vikings didn’t just sign Brett Favre in the offseason: They jumped through every hoop and hopped every hurdle in front of them in order to acquire the ageless one, including alienating Sage Rosenfels and Tarvaris Jackson in the process. (And while I can’t prove it, I also fully believe that Brad Childress sold his soul in order to sign Favre as well.)

That’s why if the Vikings lose this Sunday to the Dallas Cowboys, signing Favre would have arguably been a waste. A team like Minnesota doesn’t subject itself the way it did this offseason to sign a 40-year old quarterback to lose in the second round of the playoffs. It signs a 40-year old drama queen because he’s worth it and to ensure that the team is going to have a shot at winning the Super Bowl.

Okay, so there are no sure things in pro football. Signing Favre didn’t guarantee anything for the Vikings, but they knew that they were a legit passing attack away from being a Super Bowl contender and so far, suffering through Favre’s drama this offseason has been worth it.

But if they lose this weekend, then they would have accomplished nothing. Favre isn’t going to play forever (uh, I think) and the Vikings’ window of opportunity to win a Super Bowl has been shrinking since Week 1. If they lose to the Cowboys, then the Vikes will have won precisely the same amount of playoff games with Tarvaris Jackson under center last year: Zero.

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Mark McGwire admitted something on Monday that every sensible sports fan already knew: He took steroids. He’s sorry and in time we’ll forgive him, just like we’ve forgiven Andy Pettitte and even Alex Rodriguez for coming clean.

What’s interesting is that we’ll forgive those that admit taking steroids, just as long as their names aren’t Jose Canseco.

You remember Jose Canseco right? He was the guy that helped (I say “helped” because Ken Caminiti had a hand in it too) bring the steroid era to light in 2005 with his book entitled, “Juiced.” He was one of the first to come clean about taking steroids and he’s offered full disclosure on the topic since then.

When his book was published, we called Canseco a snitch and a media whore who was only looking for his 15 minutes of fame and a wad of cash. And guess what? He was all of those things. The guy was willing to name names for a price and is so egotistical that he calls himself the godfather of the steroid era, yet also makes himself out to be a pariah for bringing the topic to light. He claims he wanted to save baseball and that’s why he wrote the book, yet he was a big reason that the game needed to be saved in the first place.

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Consider this:

- A Bill Belichick-coached team has never allowed 24 points in the first quarter of any game.

- The Patriots haven’t allowed more than 20 points in a home playoff game since 1978, when they lost to the Houston Oilers, 31-14.

- The most points New England allowed at home this year was 24 to the Bills in Week 1. The Pats were undefeated while playing at Foxboro this season.

To say the Ravens beat the Patriots on Sunday would be a vast understatement. In its 33-14 blowout, Baltimore dominated in every phase of the game, was clearly the more prepared team and set the tone from the first play (which was a 83-yard touchdown run by Ray Rice, by the way) to the last.

I don’t want to sound like another member of the media that overstates things after just one game, but you have to wonder whether or not we just witnessed the end of the Patriots’ dynasty. There were signs all season that this wasn’t the same team that we had grown accustomed to over the past decade and all of their faults were on full display on Sunday.

I don’t know if he was hurt or not, but Tom Brady didn’t look right. Like many times this season, he looked uncomfortable in the pocket, was high with his passes and made poor decisions. There were times when he didn’t have any time to throw, but even when he did he was inaccurate. It was just a brutal effort on his part, and on Belichick’s for that matter.

Based on the way they recognized formations and diagnosed plays, it was almost like the Ravens were in the Patriots’ huddle every snap. That’s on Belichick and his coaching staff for not having a better game plan in place. I realize New England was shorthanded without Wes Welker, but even if he had played I don’t know how much he would have helped.

Give credit to the Ravens – they were outstanding. Rice (159 yards), Willis McGahee and the rest of the running game was excellent and so was the defense. They had the right game plan, were fired up from the start and they executed. They’ve proven two years in a row that they can win on the road in the playoffs and John Harbaugh deserves a lot of credit for having his team prepared.

The Ravens came thisclose to beating the Colts in the regular season, so next weekend should be interesting. Of course, Joe Flacco will need to throw for more than 34 yards to match Peyton Manning, but a Colts-Ravens matchup should be a great one to tune into.

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After an incredible 22-year career, the Big Unit has decided to hang it up.

Randy Johnson announced his retirement on Tuesday night and just like any sports fan or columnist does, we can’t just enjoy his career: We have to dissect it and compare it to others.

SI.com’s Tim Marchman broke down the battle between Johnson and Sandy Koufax while posing the question: Is the Big Unit the greatest left-hander of all-time?

During his five-year peak, Koufax ran up a 111-34 record with a 1.95 ERA, striking out 1,444 in 1,377 innings. From 1998-2002, Johnson’s record was 100-38, with a 2.63 ERA and 1,746 strikeouts in 1,274 1/3 innings. Koufax won five straight ERA titles, leading in strikeouts and wins three times and innings twice. Johnson won three ERA titles and four strikeout crowns while leading in innings twice and wins once.

Taking these numbers at face value, you’d say that as marvelous as Johnson was at his best, Koufax was that much better. But then Koufax pitched in a great pitcher’s park in a great pitcher’s era, while Johnson pitched in good hitter’s parks in a great hitter’s era. Going by ERA+, which adjusts for park and league effects and indexes them on a scale where 100 is average, Johnson actually has the better of it over their five-year primes, 175-167. Perhaps more impressively, he led his leagues in ERA+ four times during his best five year run. Koufax did that twice.

What makes Johnson so special isn’t that he had a five-year run to rate with Koufax’s prime, though; it’s what he did outside of it. Leave aside that run from 1998 through 2002 and Johnson’s career record is 203-128 with a 3.28 ERA –essentially Curt Schilling’s entire career, Hall-worthy in its own right. Add Koufax’s prime to that and you have something unfathomable, something that I’d say rates as the best career any left-hander has ever had.

This is a great debate, but I’m going to stay out of it because I never saw Koufax pitch and therefore, it would be unfair for me to proudly boast that the Big Unit was better. All I’ll say is that Johnson was one of the greatest pitchers I have ever seen in my era and I’m going to miss what he brought to the mound every fifth day.

The thing that often gets overlooked when people gush about Johnson is that he was a great student of the game. Even over the last couple years as injuries started to take their toll on his performance, nobody studied opposing hitters more than the Big Unit did before he took the hill.

Yes, he was a great intimidator with an electric fastball and outstanding strikeout ability. But the guy also loved the game of baseball and in an era of steroid abusers and cheaters, fans can appreciate what the Big Unit brought to the table.

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Watching Cincinnati play Florida last night was like watching 5-year olds take on the 2000 Baltimore Ravens. It was apparent from the start that the game was more of a get-together for the Gators and less of a BCS bowl.

Tim Tebow completed 31-of-35 passes for 482 yards and three touchdowns, while also rushing for 51 yards and a TD. Florida’s defense also held Cincinnati’s “high-powered” offense to just 170 passing yards and 76 rushing.

After watching that game, I’d be shocked if Brian Kelly woke up this morning and could look at himself in the mirror. He was the commander and chief of a team that he allowed to walk into an ambush by themselves with little to no direction. It wouldn’t have mattered if Kelly was on the sidelines because Florida was bigger, faster, stronger and just flat out better, but he should have been there regardless.

The guy I felt most sorry for was quarterback Tony Pike. He didn’t have a chance to succeed because the overmatched, unprepared coaching staff that Kelly left Cincinnati with didn’t put him in a position to win. They kept calling bootlegs and rollouts to the short side of the field, which clearly played into Florida’s hands. He also didn’t have any clue what to do when the Gators blitzed because every time he got the ball to his hot receiver a Florida defender was there to take the wideout’s life. I could smell the crap in Pike’s draws from my couch but I don’t blame him: I blame the coaching staff for not getting him prepared for what he was going to face.

Again, had Kelly been there, it’s not likely that much would have changed. Florida was the vastly superior team in every phase of the game and it showed. But Kelly would have gained some respect had he been there to fall with the rest of his team. I realize that he has the right to a promotion and move up the coaching ladder, but it disgusts me that he benefits from all of this, while his former players suffer (especially the seniors, who were routed on national television in their final game).

Cincinnati’s effort last night was putrid, but how could you blame them? They were down a head coach and an offensive playcaller from the start and Florida took advantage by breaking their neck and stomping on their spines just for good measure. Hopefully Kelly watched last night and couldn’t keep his food down thinking about the 80-plus kids he screwed. That game was an embarrassment to college football and so are coaches like Kelly.

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When fans think of biggest quarterback busts, the first one that usually pops into their heads is Ryan Leaf. But when it’s all said and done, the biggest quarterback draft bust of all-time might have come from this decade. As part of our ongoing Decade Debate series, here is a top 5 ranking of the biggest quarterback draft busts of the past decade, as well as a separate list of two signal callers that might be well on their way to bustville.

5. Byron Leftwich (Year Drafted: 2003)

Things didn’t start off poorly for Leftwich. After the Jaguars took him with the seventh overall pick in 2003, Leftwich led them to a 9-7 record in his second year and helped Jacksonville earn a 12-4 record and a playoff berth in his third year before an ankle injury cost him the remaining five games of the season. But after returning from the injury in time to receive a 28-3 beat down from the Patriots in the postseason that year, things went downhill for Leftwich. He suffered another ankle injury in 2006 (one that cost him all but four games of the season) and then he was released in 2007 in favor of David Garrard. He was signed by the Falcons in September of that year, but was a minor disaster and couldn’t hold off Joey Harrington for the starting job. He did win a Super Bowl ring as Ben Roethlisberger’s backup with the Steelers in 2008, but he once again failed as a starter in 2009 after the Bucs signed him in the offseason. Even though he did have some success in the league, Leftwich never lived up to his top-10 billing. His big arm was a hit in college, but his slow release has often doomed him in the NFL and now it appears he’s destined for a life as a backup.

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