What do we think will happen in 2011? Ha! We’re glad you asked. As part of our 2010 Year End Sports Review, we see good things ahead for Duke, the Celtics and the Saints. We see cursed days ahead for the Phillies and Giants, and one Florida Gator-sized reunion in Denver. We also like Carmelo to play for the…hey, why are we telling you all this? Read for yourself below, lazy. (And have an open mind – we had some fun with this section.)

Contributors: Anthony Stalter, John Paulsen, Paul Costanzo, Drew Ellis and Mike Farley

You think he’s gone? He’s not gone. He’s never gone!

Brett Favre has duped us before with his retirement talk, so why should we buy what he’s selling now? Lord Favre says 2010 will be his final season, but after spending a couple of months on his ranch next summer, he’ll get the itch to return. And some team will welcome him back. And the media will torture us with their 24-hour Favre watch. And the dreaded cycle of death will continue. So which lucky team will have No. 4 in uniform next season? While we wouldn’t rule out the possibility of Favre returning to the Vikings for one more year now that Brad Childress is gone, that’s not a very fun projection. Thus, what about Da Raaaaaaaiders? Huh? Can you see it now? Lord Favre and Al Davis at the podium holding up their pointer fingers and saying, “Just win baby.” No? Ah, you’re no fun.

Carmelo will be a Knickerbocker next year.

Book ‘em, Danno. The writing is on the wall. He hasn’t signed the three-year extension that the Nuggets offered last summer and has reportedly decided that the only team he’ll agree to be traded to is the New York Knicks. This means that if the Nuggets are hoping to get something substantial for him, they’ll have to move him before the February trade deadline. Since there appears to be only one team in the running, the deal isn’t going to be very good. We wouldn’t want to be Nugget fans right now — the rebuilding process is about to begin.
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Check out the cover of the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine:

The news of Woods’ repeated infidelity and subsequent stint in a rehab clinic for sex addition broke less than a year ago and since then Woods has attempted to rehab his image.

But I think the words “NOBODY’S PERFECT” next to a shot of Tiger looking off into the distance with the sun rising behind him like he’s Jesus or something is a little inappropriate. The phrase “nobody’s perfect” is good for a husband to use when he forgets to take the trash out or when he rips a stinky fart but can’t blame the dog because it’s not in the room.

I realize that the cover and story about an athlete’s quest for perfection, but the image of Tiger still brings to mind scandal, and that’s not going to change for a while.

So what do you think? Appropriate or inappropriate?

The inevitable has come to fruition: Tiger Woods and his wife Elin have legally parted ways.

From ESPN.com:

The divorce was granted in Bay County Circuit Court in Panama City, Fla., about 375 miles away from their Isleworth home outside Orlando. The couple married in October 2004 in Barbados and have a 3-year-old daughter, Sam, and a 19-month-old son, Charlie.

The marriage was described in court documents as “irretrievably broken” with no point in trying to reconcile. Terms of the divorce were not disclosed, except that they will “share parenting” of their two children.

Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, declined comment when asked if the couple had a prenuptial agreement or terms of the settlement. “We’re not commenting beyond what was in the release,” he said.

The sordid sex scandal cost Woods three major corporate sponsors — Accenture, AT&T and Gatorade — worth millions of dollars, and he lost his image as the gold standard in sports endorsements. A month after the scandal became public, Woods spent two months in therapy at a Mississippi clinic with hopes of saving his marriage.

The terms of the divorce may not have been disclosed, but there’s no doubt that Elin got p.a.i.d. And why shouldn’t she have been? She underwent major public embarrassment over the last 10 months and had to endure all the nasty details of how her husband banged anything with two legs and a pulse over the last X amount of years. I think that’s deserving of a little coin.

While this may be a relief for Tiger now that the divorce has been finalized, his wallet won’t be the only thing affected by this scandal. One day, when his kids are older, they’re going to ask him why he and Elin aren’t together anymore. And unless the internet gets swallowed up by a black hole sometime in the near future, he’s going to have to disclose a lot about his past.

He has only begun to take a beating for his actions.

After Corey Pavin said that Jim Gray misquoted his comments about Tiger Woods having a guaranteed spot on this year’s U.S. Ryder Cup team, the two went at it at this week’s PGA Championship.

From ESPN.com:

“There’s nobody that’s promised any picks right now,” said Pavin, who later got into a heated exchange with Golf Channel contributor Jim Gray. Gray had first reported that Pavin, while in the Whistling Straits clubhouse Tuesday, said he had assured Woods a spot. “It would be disrespectful to everybody that’s trying to make the team. I’ve got quite a few people I’m looking at.

“I would not disrespect any of the players that are potential players on the team, and obviously there was misinterpretation of what I said.”

Pavin described Wednesday’s incident with Gray in detail. Gray approached Pavin after a news conference Wednesday, and they stood no more than a foot apart, facing off. Pavin’s wife, Lisa, pulled out her mobile phone and recorded the conversation.

“He went nuts when he came in here,” Pavin told reporters. “He said, ‘You’re going down,’ then he turned around and walked away and I’m like, ‘Down for what? You making stuff up?’”

Gray is turd, so it’s hard to take his side in this argument, but obviously he went with the Tiger story because Pavin either said or insinuated that Woods was guaranteed to make the team.

That said, why attack Pavin in a media room at the last PGA Major of the year? How about handling the situation with a little class and talking to Pavin on the side? ESPN reported this morning that Gray also included Pavin’s wife in the argument and if that’s true, that was highly unnecessary and uncalled for.

Had Gray just stuck by the story, he would have been better off. But instead he comes off looking like a slime ball – a role he’s played many times before in his career. (See “The Decision” interview with LeBron James as just one of many examples.)

“It’s been a long year … It’s been a long year.”

That was Tiger Woods on Sunday after he finished 18-over par at the Bridgestone Invitational, which was the worst score of his career in a PGA Tour event. In his last 17 rounds, he’s only been able to break 70 twice and has finished at 74 or worse five times, including three times this week.

You think maybe he has something on his mind?

It wasn’t that long ago that we looked at Tiger as this immovable force at the top of the golf world. He seemed almost untouchable both on and off the links and was a permanent fixture atop the leaderboards every time he played. He played threw injuries and even the death of his father and still found ways to win.

But this year, his average finish in his last three outings has been 49th. That’s jaw-dropping considering this is the same 34-year-old man who is already third all-time in PGA Tour wins (71) and who has claimed 14 Major Championships throughout his dazzling career. Instead of finding ways to win, he’s just trying to find ways to make the cut.

Should any of this be surprising though? Less than nine months ago he took his 2009 Cadillac Escalade and ran it into a tree outside of his Florida home. Soon thereafter, the highly embarrassing details of his marital affair were made public and now after going through sex therapy, a nasty divorce and the loss of several sponsorships, he’s trying to play golf again.

Some people can’t even perform off the first tee box when they know onlookers are watching. So it’s hardly a shock to see Tiger crash and burn with everything he’s gone through over the past nine months. Of course, this was all his doing and he’s a living, walking example that karma does in fact exist. But again, it’s hardly a surprise to watch a human being go through a life-changing event like he did and not be able to perform on the job.

The real question is whether or not he’ll ever be the same. One would think that he’ll eventually get back to being the Tiger of old, but there are no guarantees in life. Maybe this is the norm for him now.

Tiger Woods has faced a ton of criticism over the past eight months – and deservedly so. But he also deserves recognition for his gesture at the British Open on Friday night, in which he helped Tom Watson (someone who hasn’t held back in his criticism of Tiger over the past half year) say goodbye to the Open in style.

From Peace FM Online:

One year after his miraculous run at Turnberry, Watson couldn’t summon up the magic once again. With the cut line hovering between 1-over and 2-over, Watson posted a 75 on Friday to fall to 4-over and out of cut contention. He knew it, the crowd knew it, and so Watson’s final holes became a farewell celebration.

With darkness rapidly approaching, Watson stepped to the 18th tee. As you can see by the photo above, the light was quickly fading. It looked as if Watson would have to play his 18th on Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m. local time, an awkward, anticlimactic ending not befitting a player of his stature.

And then: respect from an unexpected quarter. Tiger Woods, playing in the group ahead, motioned for Watson’s group to swing away so that Watson could finish on Friday evening, basking in the cheers of the adoring Scotland crowd. Watson and Woods have had their differences of late, with Watson critiquing Woods’ behavior both on and off the course, but on this afternoon, Woods put aside personal differences and let Watson enjoy one last triumphant walk up 18.

As Watson approached the famed Swilcan Bridge, the iconic centerpiece of the Old Course, he stopped to kiss the centuries-old stones. It was a perfect moment, a classic instant that will be replayed every time the Open Championship returns to St. Andrews. He joins Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, to name two recent legends, in taking a touching moment to enjoy one last view from the bridge.

Watson nearly got an eagle on the hole, but settled instead for a birdie. He’s something of a British Open legend, so for him to be able to go out like that was special.

Kudos to Tiger for respecting golf’s history and putting aside his differences with Watson so that Tom could have his moment in the sun (or fleeting darkness).

Ben Roethlisberger was accused not once, but twice of sexually assaulting two separate females, while Tiger Woods admitted to cheating on his wife with multiple women, including at least one porn star.

But neither of them hold a candle to Michael Vick in the category of most disliked athlete. The same goes for Al Davis apparently, seeing as how he was found to be the second most disliked sports personality among voters in a recent Forbes survey.

From FOX Sports:

For the second year in a row, Michael Vick topped a fan poll taken by Forbes as the most disliked national sports figure, myFOXphilly.com reported Sunday.

The Forbes survey sampled sports fans and filtered out lesser-known figures like disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis and sports agent Scott Boras, who weren’t known by a lot of fans but really disliked by those who knew them.

In the end, Vick was still held in a lower opinion than Ben Roethlisberger, Tiger Woods and Oakland Raiders’ owner Al Davis, with 69 percent of those polled disliking Vick.

Davis was a surprising second with 66 percent, given the amount of bad PR that Woods (53 percent) and Roethlisberger (57 percent) had in the past year.

Wait, Al Davis was second? So let me get this straight: you can commit adultery or be accused of sexual assault and still be more liked than if you ruined an NFL franchise. That’s kind of disturbing. I know I’m drawing a rather incomplete conclusion based on this unscientific poll, but I wouldn’t think that Al Davis would be ahead of Tiger and Big Ben on the most disliked scale.

I guess it goes to show you how much Americans love their football.