Anyone out there who knows the whereabouts of the New York Football Giants, please contact RedHouse HQ. There are tens of thousands of New Yorkers looking for those guys.

The other New York football team, the Rexes, er, the Jets, they not only make the postseason, they end up as the No. 5 seed. Weird but true, but Denver’s late-season implosion helped (though it doesn’t figure to do much for Broncos coach Josh McDaniel’s job jitters).

Getting into the Final Six is all that matters. The Jets will have to go on the road this weekend to face the Bengals, but Chad Ocho is Ouch-oh Cinco with a knee problem (he hurt it in warmups Sunday night) and you just have to think Cincy QB Carson Palmer isn’t exactly looking forward to seeing Rex Ryan’s defensive scheme for a second straight week.

It’s no mistake that the Jets DBs are so good; that how Rex’s dad Buddy got the job done with the 1985 Super Bowl Bears, even naming the 46 Defense after one of his safety’s numbers. That would be Doug Plank for those of you trivializing at home.

You have to like the Jets’ chances Saturday, even if they are living and dying with rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez.  Palmer needs to play to his capability for the Bengals to win, and a New York defense feeling little pressure (now that it made the playoffs) is likely to put some Big Pressure on the Southern Cal QB who preceded Matt Leinart who preceded Sanchez. The weather, which figures to be very un-SoCal-like, is likely to help the D’s and not the QB’s.

What exactly is up with the New Orleans Saints, anyway? Your guess is as good a theirs, losers of the last three after a 13-0 start, including two in the SuperDome, which maybe isn’t the home-dome advantage once thought. It is loud in there, no doubt, but teams feed off other teams winning road games, double no doubt. New Orleans coach Sean Payton has an extra week to figure things out and he is likely secretly thinking, “Not the Packers, please.”

Mike Shanahan coaching the Redskins and Mike Holmgren as Prez of the Browns. The NFL have-nots are almost exciting as the playoff teams. Another have-not with deep football roots, the Bears, will be keeping Lovie Smith (smart) and have already fired O-coordinator Ron Turner to make room (XXL) for Charlie Weiss. Whether that is a smart move, check back after, oh, about a thousand blog entries and 16 football games later.

–Bob Condor, RedHouse

When Achilles’ mother dipped her infant son in the River Styx she made him invulnerable, unfortunately she held him by his ankle and an arrow to this spot felled the mighty warrior.

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams must’ve held his team by the guards as Monday night’s stunning 82-79 overtime upset to the College of Charleston is evidence of.

The Cougars took the No. 9 Heels, minus guards Marcus Ginyard and Will Graves, to task and hit them where it hurt most: the backcourt. The Cougars’ starting backcourt outscored their counterparts 52-17, had 11 assists to the Heels’ six and made 20 of 47 field goals compared to UNC’s 5 of 21 from their starting guards.

But the real difference in the game came from beyond the arc where North Carolina could not contain the College of Charleston, who were draining threes like the NCAA Rules Committee was considering banning them.

The Cougars outscored the Heels 39-3 from outside, making 13 of their 32 attempts including a guarded buzzer-beater from 28-feet out by Andrew Goudelock to tie the game and force overtime.

Goudelock’s bucket capped a 12-1 run by the Cougars and he scored the last eight points for C of C.

The overtime was more of the same from the Cougars as Donavan Monroe opened the period with a three-point bucket to put the Cougars ahead for good. The Tar Heels made their lone three in overtime to bring the game within one but a missed layup from Dexter Strickland with four seconds left spelled the end for UNC. An errant baseball pass intercepted by Monroe ended the game and evened C of C’s all-time record versus UNC to 3-and-3.

The loss gives UNC its fourth of the year and should drop them from the rankings completely . . . that is if they were anyone but North Carolina.

That’s because the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls have an unconditional love for the Heels. Any other team with four losses before conference play, even if three were to ranked opponents, would be nowhere near the top 25.

But due to the Vitale-inspired, North Carolina and Roy Williams-can-do-no-wrong-attitude of the pollsters they’ll likely drop to just 11 or 12 when the new polls come out next week. All the while one and two loss teams like Baylor, O.K. State and UNLV languish on the outside of the 25.

Maybe when UNC drops games in the upcoming ACC conference play, which they will if they continue to have the weak guard play they exhibited last night, the pollsters rose-tinted glasses will come off.

Or should I say powder blue-tinted glasses?

–Aaron Whitebread, Red’s Editorial Staff

Everyone already knows that college football has the worst system in all of sports, perhaps the world, for deciding an outcome. The BCS is the kind of thing that would come about if you locked Hugo Chavez, Barry Goldwater and an H-Bomb in a room together and told them to come up with a solution to something. Needless to say, the results, like the BCS, would please no one.

But would you believe it if I told you that the BCS isn’t even the only thing that’s wrong with the college football bowl season?

And I’m not just talking about the fact that the majority of the games take place more than a month after most teams’ final regular season games, bowls routinely pass over more deserving schools for ones that will make them more money or that most bowls are named after fading national pizza chains.

No, all of this stuff is even besides that. So without further ado, here are some of the things plaguing college football’s “postseason.”

Orlando has two bowls. Somehow, the only other city in the entire country besides Dallas to host two bowl games is Orlando, Florida. Orlando, the home of . . . what exactly? We know it has the two things that absolutely no bowl can live without, excessive Disney product placement and elderly people who are not originally from the area (who are likely complaining at this very moment about how many bowl games there are). But what else?

The block of cheese I am eating as I write this has more personality than this city. For crying out loud, Orlando is in Florida, America’s most celebrated coastal state, and not even on the ocean. We can do better.

Cincinnati got crushed in the Sugar Bowl without its head coach. Cincinnati was overmatched against the Florida Gators on Friday night. That is indisputable. But the fact is, they were still an overmatched team that was forced to play its most important game of the season without the person most responsible for getting them there in the first place: head coach and offensive coordinator Brian Kelly.

The bowls take place so long after the regular season has ended, coaches all but consider the time in between its own separate offseason. Coaches climb the ladder in other sports all the time, including in college basketball, but never between the regular season and the “postseason.” Maybe some day all teams will be able to play their bowl games with the personnel that got them there.

ESPN. First, there’s the fact that the worldwide leader insists on calling a bowl season that stretches out to nearly a month in length a bowl “week.” Not sure which focus group told them they needed to do that, but it’s annoying.

Second, everything else. From the announcers, to the stilted opening montages to the relentless mentioning of the fact that Cincinnati wide receiver Mardy Gilyard once lived in his car, everything the channel touches turns to awfulness. Now Desmond Howard being unable to speak English on the pregame show is just as synonymous with the Rose Bowl as good football.

The pizza chains thing. I mean really, can we at least just pretend that somewhere along the line in the planning and discussions for these things that dignity is considered? Can the money the NCAA gets from allowing games to be called the PizzaHutStuffedCrustPizza.Info Bowl really be worth it? I doubt it.

–Patrick Daugherty, Red Editorial Staff

Before I get started on the Winter Classic, the Eastern Conference standings or the Olympic selections that have been released so far . . . I want to talk about Buffalo’s game against Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

You don’t even have to know that much about hockey to be impressed by a team that can deliver an old fashioned thrashing to the Pittsburgh Penguins.  The thing that was so amazing about watching this game was that anyone would have thought Buffalo was down and out by the first minutes of the second period.

Then, about halfway through the second, right after Miller got chased (a rarity), right winger Drew Stafford put some magic down by opening the scoring for Buffalo.  The Sabres never looked back; they went on to score four unanswered goals (another rarity against a team like Pittsburgh) to make it a 4-3 win for the Sabres.  It was simply magic.

On the subject of magic, I am hoping that some of you will take a time out from the innumerable bowls on the tube to watch the Winter Classic out of Fenway in Boston.   In case you’re coming back from an interplanetary peace mission, Boston will be facing off against Philly.

Both of these teams are coming off some really impressive wins and look like they are nursing a bloodlust for victory.  As some of you may have guessed, Philly is my pick going into this one, but I won’t be too disappointed to see the home team win, either (Zdeno Chara is just too good in front of the media).

To make matters more exciting USA hockey will be releasing their picks for the US Olympic hockey squad.

Looking onward to the Olympics . . . While I’ll be writing about the 2010 O-games in great detail very shortly, I just want to say that Team Russia and Team Canada look really, really scary.  I have been amusing myself by putting together lines for each of these two teams and each time I giggle with the anxiousness of a Dungeons and Dragons geek who just discovered that there’s gonna be another Lord of the Rings movie.

Have any of you seen the Eastern Conference standings lately?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’m ignoring the West (what the hell is Detroit doing in tenth place????), it’s just that there are only three points separating eighth from fourteenth in the East at the halfway mark of the season and unless you’ve reached a completely catatonic state, it makes for some pretty damn exciting hockey.

So, as I sign off for the last time this year and look forward to 2010, I would like to just thank all of you for reading me and would also like to wish you all a happy, safe and healthy New Year.

–Ryan Matwiy, Red Editorial Staff

The inability of potentially poisonous situations to boil over into unfettered chaos:

Eddy Curry, Nate Robinson, Tracy McGrady and Golden State’s entire team have all been at odds with their coaches for some time now. Yet, in all four cases, cooler heads continue to prevail. Not that any of these guys aren’t mad, but they keep handling their situations in mostly “civil” and “gentlemanly” manners. This isn’t why the New York Post exists, guys! Get to acting foolish about your grievances, or don’t be talking about them at all.

Scott Skiles:

Looking for empty discipline? Scott Skiles is your man. Just like he did in Phoenix and Chicago, he had his young Bucks team overachieving with his Mark Mangino style of coaching for a while this season before finally running them into the ground. Acting tough and yelling at your players might motivate them in September and October, before the games are being played and the nicks and bruises are piling up, but in December, January and February? Not a chance. Milwaukee’s 3-10 record so far in December should serve as a very ominous sign for Bucks fans.

The Washington Wizards, the Houston Texans of the NBA:

Every year, people have blind faith that it will finally be Washington’s year. Their big three, Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler and Antwan Jamison, will finally learn to operate as a core, and the wins will pile up while the Cavs get spited. Then the season starts. Gilbert Arenas becomes impossible to work with, Caron Butler acts like a baby and Antwan Jamison gets hurt. It’s time to blow things up and start over in D.C.

Big men:

They continue to drop like flies. Bogut. Bynum. Oden. Garnett. Griffin. Camby. Yao. Chandler. You’d think the NBA’s seven-footers worked in mines for as often as they get hurt. You guys aren’t harvesting ore, you’re grabbing rebounds. I know you have gargantuan frames, but Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain and company found ways to keep theirs on the court. Please do the same.

Andrew Bynum:

As he continues to be breathlessly hyped as some sort of a lynchpin to the future of a franchise that has both Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, Bynum continues to do what he does best: not deliver. That is unless you were looking for eight points and 4.8 rebounds per game during last season’s playoffs. Bynum has become a sort of glorified Kwame Brown. Maybe after another year or two of him doing what he does best–getting hurt and not being factor–all the hyperbole will finally stop. He could go down for the season tomorrow–a very real possibility–perhaps he’ll get a hang-nail–and it would barely cause a ripple in L.A.’s pursuit of its second-straight championship.

Number one overall draft picks that came after Dwight Howard:

Blake Griffin hasn’t played, Derrick Rose has regressed, Greg Oden is out for the season–again–Andrea Bargnani continues to be utterly invisible and Andrew Bogut, as usual, can’t stay on the floor. After two straight franchise, perhaps history, changing number ones in LeBron James and Howard, we’ve got nothing but a bunch of saps.

No team on pace to win 70 games:

In the past three seasons, the Lakers, Cavs, Mavs and Celtics have all flirted with joining the 1995-96 Bulls as only the second 70-win team in NBA history by each winning at least 65 games once. This season, however, no one is even close to being on such a pace, and another one of Michael Jordan’s incredible records looks like it will stand for at least another year.

–Patrick Daugherty, Red Editorial Staff

If you’re a college basketball fan living outside of Utah you’ve probably never heard of him, because his name is not Wall, James, Harangody or Henry. But if you’re thinking about your bracket early with March just around the corner, it’s a name you’ll want to remember.

He is Jimmer Fredette, a junior guard for the Brigham Young Bears.  Monday night he broke a 48-year-old school record by dropping a career-high 49 points in a 99-69 trouncing of the once mighty Arizona Wildcats.

The 6-foot-2 guard went off on the Wildcats’ defense and nearly everything he put up went down. He leaned, he lunged, he made off-balance shots and launched treys from beyond NBA range. He scored with such fervor that Arizona head coach Sean Miller joked with Fredette in the waning minutes to just pass the ball and stop shooting. No such luck though as he drained yet another three.

When the final buzzer sounded, Fredette had gone 16-of-23 from the field, 9-of-13 from beyond the arc for his school-record 49 points while grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out nine assists.

The win improved the Bears to 13-1 on the year, their lone loss coming at the hands of Utah State, and once again showed just how far the Pac-10 has fallen this year.

But it shows something else, too: it shows bias among the college basketball rankings. If Brigham Young were in, say, the Pac-10 or the Big 12 and sporting a 13-1 record with wins over Arizona State, Nevada and Arizona they’d easily be ranked among the top ten. Instead they sit on the outside looking in, gathering just 49 votes in the ESPN/USA Today poll.

But the bias goes further.

With Monday night’s performance and the season Fredette is having, he should be in the conversation for player of the year.

He has been every bit the leader this season for BYU. In his 31.4 minutes per game Fredette is averaging 21.6 points with 5.6 assists. He is shooting a blistering .926 free throw percentage, ranking among the nation’s highest, and his 303 points on the year is tied for second with Charles Garcia of Seattle and just 11 points behind player of the year candidate, Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody.

He is a leader on a team poised to recapture the Mountain West title when conference play opens for the Bears with a home match-up with UNLV, and a team hungry to redeem their first-round exit from the tournament last year courtesy Texas A&M.

All of this makes Fredette as legitimate a candidate as Harangody, Cole Aldrich, Sherron Collins, Dexter Pittman, Damion James, John Wall, you name ‘em.

But like I said, unless you’re a basketball fan in Utah you’ve probably never heard of him.

–Aaron Whitebread, Red Editorial Staff

Green is good. The green-jerseyed Packers were dominating in a 48-10 clocking of the Seahawks that, well, just wasn’t that close.  QB Aaron Rodgers is looking like a Super Bowl QB, if not this year (possible), then sooner rather than later. The Packers defense is ferocious, and NFC teams have to be secretly glad they don’t face LBs A.J. Hawk and Clay Matthews, plus D-back supreme Charles Woodson, up there on the frozen tundra.

Green Bay fans were ready to clean house just two months ago, but six wins in seven games changes minds in a hurry.

With New Orleans’ recent hip-deep dip into the loss column, it is not hard to imagine one of the sweetest matchups in years for a Super Bowl berth: Green Bay and Rodgers vs. Minnesota and You-Know-Who-Didn’t-Retire.

But another green machine on a late-season, the Philadelphia Eagles, will have something to say about that NFC conference title showdown. Philly is looking Super-good after Andy Reid’s contract extension was hammered out. Quarterback Donovan McNabb hasn’t heard a boo in a couple of months, wideout DeSean Jackson is healthy and Brian Westbrook is getting there (the latter scares NFC foes the most). Plus, Philly is loaded at receiver and has a tight end, Brent Celek, most people don’t know–but will by the end of the playoffs.

Philly booted Denver on a last-second FG, 30-27, in a game much more lopsided than it looked. The Eagles were cruising in the third quarter, up by 17, when CB Asante Samuel ran back an INT 40 yards. But safety Macho Harris was penalized for unnecessary roughness on the runback and Samuel drew a 15-yarder himself for spiking the ball in celebration.

The ball ended up on the Eagles’ own 1-yard line and, after three and out, turned into a Denver TD. Harris flubbed the ensuing kickoff and Denver made it a ballgame by scoring.  Kicker David Akers saved the day, but dig this, Philly might just be the best NFC team in the league right now.

And Denver must have altitude sickness from dropping so low–no longer in control of its playoffs fate–after such a fast start this season.

Green is also lucky. The green-and-white New York Jets were in the right place at the right time on the NFL schedule grid. Since Indy had clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, it (rightfully so) rested its regulars about halfway into the third quarter.

Colts fans didn’t like it, but you know Jets head coach Rex Ryan did, especially when rookie backup QB Curtis Painter fumbled his first snap from center and New York recovered in the end zone for a defensive TD. Remarkably, the Jets control their own playoff fate next weekend: Win and they’re in.

Their opponent? The Bengals, who, tah-dah, clinched the AFC North and will likely rest some starters next weekend at the Meadowlands in a 8:20 ET Sunday night start.

Seven AFC teams have a shot at the two Wild-Card berths, but only the Jets and Ravens (who travel to Oakland) can reach the playoffs by winning. Everybody else has to win and hope for some combination of losses for other contenders.

Guess you might say that makes those other five contenders–Pittsburgh, Houston, Denver, Miami and Jacksonville–green with envy.

–Bob Condor, NFL RedHouse

–Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy spoke out on Friday against the number of games the NBA schedules every Christmas, saying he “felt sorry” for anyone that had nothing to do on the holiday besides watch the NBA. The sentiment echoes that of 95 percent of the country–only they feel sorry for anyone who watches an NBA game on any day.

–In other NBA news, it was revealed this week that Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas has been keeping an unloaded gun locked up in his locker. The irony created by the fact that his gun had no bullets was not lost on long-time NBA observers. But still, what did Arenas need an unloaded gun for in the locker room? The Wizards haven’t run the “pistol whip” since 1997.

–A sampling of some of the gifts received by celebrities this holiday season: Peyton Manning? Some new socks. Dwight Howard? A new suit. Tiger Woods? A tallier normally used by baseball coaches to count pitches. He had recently been complaining that he had been losing track of the, uhh, number of pitches he had thrown during his pursuit of an illustrious Wilt Chamberlain record. So we know what Tiger received, but what did he give? If you’re actually interested in this, Hunter, Buck & Winfield Accounting has created a PDF spreadsheet outlining which woman got what on its website.

–In other relationship news, Alex Rodriguez capped one of the most up-and-down years of all time on a down note, with his relationship with Kate Hudson coming to an end. She was tired of him eating oats in the bedroom.

–Respected baseball writer Peter Gammons was recently quoted as saying Jason Bay would rather play baseball in Beirut than play for the Mets next season. He later apologized to the nation of Beirut for equating them to the Mets.

–Speaking of Beirut, that may be where Adrian Beltre ends up playing in 2010 if he doesn’t lower his asking price. The third baseman, most recently famous for suffering a testicle injury last season because he wasn’t wearing a cup, wants $10-$15 million a season in his new deal. In his defense, the Beirut Banshees are the two-time defending champions of the Lebanon Central League, so a move wouldn’t be that out of the blue.

–Finally, all Colts fans want for Christmas this year is an undefeated season. The rest of the country wants that, too, if “undefeated season” actually means “not seeing a Peyton Manning commercial every time they take a breath.”

–Patrick Daugherty, Red Editorial Staff

I’m not gonna gush about Andrei Markov, I’m not gonna gush about Andrei Markov, I’m not gonna gush about Andrei Markov, I’m not gonna gush about Andrei Markov, I’m not gonna gush about Andrei Markov . . .

Isn’t it completely awesome that Andrei Markov (the league’s top and most underrated Defenseman) is back playing after having his Achilles tendon cut?  Since he’s been back he’s at 5 points in the last 4 games, his team has gone from 27th in power plays to first with an 87% efficiency in their last five and the Habs have gone on a winning streak.

Ok, I’m done gushing.

Onward to the World Junior Hockey Championship (WJHC) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (I’m Canadian and even I’m not exactly sure where that is, so don’t feel bad) where the future of the NHL is about to shine.  The best part is that while the NHL is taking a couple of days off, the juniors are going to be playing through the holidays.

The team to beat, as is usually the case, is team Canada (I’m not just saying that because I’m Canadian, it’s just a fact; we have hockey, curling and Celine Dion while the United States gets everything else).  As it stands Team Canada has the most stacked team and is looking towards a sixth consecutive title.  Keep an eye out for goaltender Jake Allen and forward Taylor Hall (the only player going to the draft as the rest of team Canada has already been drafted).

Chomping on team Canada’s heels are Team Swiss and Team Russia.  Both teams can also boast rosters that are mostly composed of NHL drafted players and will be very dangerous throughout the tourney.

While team USA is also not looking too bad, they are coming off of an embarrassing fifth place finish last year and seem to have not quite hit their stride in the pre-tournament matchups.  The nice thing is that they are in a fairly weak group with Denmark, Germany and Finland which makes them a shoe in for the playoffs; but let’s face it, the playoffs is when the real championship tournament starts.

Speaking of international tournaments, Team Canada will be releasing their lineup for the Olympic roster on December 30th while their American neighbours will be doing the same at the Jan.1st winter classic.

Have I mentioned how excited I am for the Winter Classic?

Finally on a holiday note, Merry Chistmakah to all my readers . . . Stay safe, party hard and make sure to get into a little bit of trouble (it keeps people on their toes).

–Ryan Matwiy, Red Editorial Staff

Pittsburgh looks to have losing-streaked itself out of the playoffs, but its 37-36 thriller win over Green Bay last weekend might have been the year’s best game. Ben Roethlisberger, who connected with rookie Mike Wallace (get him on your fantasy team for next year) for a 19-yard TD on the last play, threw for 503 yards (!).

That’s high-def entertainment and a reason why Steelers fans might isolate on the Pens’ run for a second consecutive Stanley Cup a bit earlier than normal, but leaves some ballast for next season.

And while Pittsburgh’s season dropped like a clay pigeon, the Titans’ second-half-of-the-season charge looks like it will fall short of the postseason goal line too.

In case you lost track of your calculations during a month of office secret Santas and last-minute online shopping sprees, Vince Young is 7-1 as a Tennessee starter. Uh, problem spot, Kerry Collins was 0-6 as the QB to start the season. Young has regained the confidence of head coach Jeff Fisher and then some–as in the “then some” that Fisher likely keeps his job despite the dismal start and insisting Collins be the QB at least one and maybe three games longer than necessary.

The Titans finish with San Diego (ouch) at home, then at Seattle. So even if Tenn can win out behind Young’s continued stand as a newly minted top-5 QB, there is another issue: The Titans have already lost seven games in the AFC (the 0-6 gift that just keeps on giving), which pretty much bazookas any tiebreaker with other teams angling for Wild Card Weekend.

Top-5 quarterback list? Has to include Philip Rivers. Another top-5 QB, Peyton Manning, and his Indy mates have to be quietly thinking, “gee, wouldn’t it be nice for someone to upset the Chargers earlier in the postseason so we won’t have to beat them in the AFC Championship Game to reach the Supe?”

The unlikely Cowboys victory over the Saints in New Orleans officially eliminated the Falcons from the playoffs and put Dallas firmly in control of its own January fate. But the Cowboys will have to get past the Redskins and Eagles. Don’t forget, the Giants have the tiebreaker over Dallas.

–Bob Condor, NFL RedHouse