The Danica Patrick NASCAR Era Begins

Saturday was the first race of the NASCAR Nationwide Series season and NASCAR fans everywhere are stoked for the new NASCAR season which constitutes 36 races and runs from the middle of February until late November. Today's opener on the Sprint Cup side was just won by Jamie McMurray after nearly 3 hours of delays due to potholes in the pavement. A good race to be sure, but no one wants to talk about the Daytona 500 or Jamie McMurray right now. Instead, more people are concentrated on Saturday's race and a superstar bigger than any superstar racing has seen in a long long time.

Quick question...does anyone actually know who won the Nationwide race on Saturday? I'll save everyone from having to test your google skills and tell you that it was Tony Stewart who won the race (I'll admit, I had to look it up as well). The real story behind that race was not Stewart however--it was Danica Patrick's NASCAR debut. If you don't believe me, believe the newspaper. In today's sports section, they had the 2010 NASCAR preview. The #1 story they mentioned was not Jimmie Johnson's pursuit of an unprecedented 5th championship in a row (his current streak of 4 in a row is already a record). It wasn't about Hendrick Motorsports trying to continue its domination of the Sprint Cup Series. It wasn't about Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Juan Pablo Montoya, or any of the other extremely talented drivers trying to end Jimmie Johnson's record run. It was about none of those things. The #1 headline in the NASCAR preview section today read, "Danica Patrick can compete with the big boys."

If we look back at Patrick's week, we can see that it was a week full of ups and downs. On the first day of practice, Patrick managed to clock just the 27th fastest time (down). However, on day two of practice she was 5th fastest (up) and ended up qualifying 15th for Saturday's race (also an up). The good times did not last long however. Patrick started losing ground almost immediately after the race began, falling from 15th to 18th to 23rd to 27th to 33rd. On more than one occasion she fought her way back up into the low-mid 20's, but it was clear that she did not have the car, nor the confidence in the car, to compete with the leaders. Then on lap 69, she became collateral damage in a wreck that took out 12 cars. The wreck was certainly not her fault, and she did her very best to avoid it, but she had nowhere to go and her day ended on lap 69. She finished 35th.

I give Patrick all the credit in the world for going out there and trying something new. Racing stock cars is nowhere near the same thing as racing Indy cars. Just ask Sam Hornish Jr., who left open wheel racing for NASCAR a few years ago and has never come close to competing at the NASCAR level. Or Dario Franchitti, whose journey to NASCAR was so successful that his team was shut down half way through the 2008 season and resulted him crawling back to the IndyCar Series with his tail between his legs in 2009. Racing is racing, but comparing stock cars to Indy cars is like comparing apples to oranges--they are just two very different entities. Anyone who thought that Danica Patrick would come to NASCAR and compete right away was only fooling themselves. This is going to take some time.

My issue here is not that Danica Patrick has decided to try her hand at NASCAR. If she wants to do that, I think that's great. My issue is the amount of coverage she gets without doing anything on the track to justify it. My issue here is headlines like "Danica Patrick can compete with the big boys" after she finished her one and only race with these "big boys" 35th. Let me say it again in case you missed it--she finished 35th! That's like saying the Slovakian national hockey team can compete with the Canadian national team after Canada beat Slovakia 18-0 in the Olympics on Saturday. Yeah, they sure can compete if your definition of competing is being on the same ice as the Canadian team. That goes the same for Danica Patrick. She was on the same track as Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, and Clint Boyer, but that is the only way she competed with them. She was never able to directly compete with them--she never found herself running up front with the leaders. That isn't saying that she won't get there eventually, but she is not to that point yet. Headlines like "Danica Patrick can compete with the big boys" are a little premature. How about we wait until she actually does something on the track before making declarations that she will be a dominate force in NASCAR.

Now you are reading this and some of you are probably thinking, "he's just a Danica Patrick hater." This is not the case at all. Danica Patrick is a talented driver and is very important to the sport of racing as a whole. All I am saying is that we should not overpraise her until she does something that justifies our praise. I don't care if she's a man, woman, or martian...a 35th place finish should not be celebrated like it is the best thing that ever happened. If her name was Dan Patrick and she finished 35th, there would not be word one spoken about Dan. No one would pay any attention to Dan until Dan did something that warranted that attention. I believe we should apply the same standards to Danica Patrick that we would anyone else.

Keep racing Danica. When you actually show that you are a competitor in NASCAR, I will be in the front of the line, ready to declare you one of the elite drivers. But you have to show me that you are before I am ready to do that.

Jets Should Thank the Colts

If you turn on Sportscenter or NFL Live or any other sports talk show right now, you probably hear about how the Jets are going to beat the Colts this weekend. They are going to be more physical, play with more heart, and their tenacious defense will end up rattling Peyton Manning. Pro Bowl cornerback Darelle Revis will shut down Reggie Wayne, and Manning will end up watching the Super Bowl from his sofa. It is amazing that a team that no one knew if they would even make the playoffs or not a year ago, is now the "favorite" to win the game against the team that was unbeatable all season. But, when teams are hot, people usually like to jump on the bandwagon. This is especially true when the team happens to be from New York.

I am not sure who is going to win the game between the Jets and the Colts. I look at the Jets and they look a lot like the team the Colts beat last week, the Baltimore Ravens. They both have great running games, play tough physical defense, and have young quarterbacks who do just enough to ensure that their team wins. Against the Ravens, it was the Colts defense that dominated the game, holding the Ravens to just three points. And while the Colts offense did not play as well as they typically do, they scored 20 points and the Colts won the game easily.

Jets supporters will argue that all you have to do is look at the regular season matchup to know what is going to happen in this game. The Jets came into LucasOil Stadium and beat a previously undefeated Colts team 29-15. This was a "win or go home" game for the Jets, just as the playoffs are. If the Jets would have lost that game, they would have been eliminated from playoff contention. So when their backs were against the wall, the Jets came into Indianapolis and took it to the Colts. Jets fans will tell you the exact same thing will happen this weekend. I am not arguing that fact. As I said before, I have no idea who will win this game. However, if the Jets do win, Rex Ryan's team owes a big "thank you" to the Colts coaching staff and Colts management.

Let us go back to Week 16. I am sitting in LucasOil Stadium with my sister, excited to see the undefeated Colts and Peyton Manning (who may go down as the best quarterback ever) play the Jets. On their second drive, the Colts looked like the Colts. Peyton marched his team right down the field--8 plays, 54 yards, 4:20 time of possession, and a Colts touchdown. Joseph Addai scored the touchdown, and he looked very strong in those first two drives--6 rushes for 40 yards and a touchdown. Then, after that touchdown, Joseph Addai disappeared for the rest of the game.

Colts fans were not worried however because they still had their not so secret weapon--Peyton Manning. The Colts next drive they went 10 plays, 86 yards and got a field goal out of that. Two drives later, Peyton marched the Colts down the field one more time--9 plays 81 yards and the Colts last touchdown of the game. At this point they were ahead 15-10 halfway through the third quarter. Then Colts management decided the game was over. Peyton Manning's day was done, as was each of the starter's. Welcome Curtis Painter, rookie quarterback out of Purdue.

Painter's first drive went 3 plays and 8 yards and resulted in a punt. And that was Painter's BEST drive of the game. On the first play of the next drive, Painter fumbles the football and it is returned for a Jets touchdown. Jets now lead 18-15. When Manning still did not return on the next drive, everybody in the arena knew the game was over. Jets win, Jets win and their playoff hopes are still alive as a result. The Jets went out the next week and completely destroyed the Bengals 37-0. The Bengals, who had already clinched their playoff spot, looked as disinterested in the Week 17 game as any team could get. So after the Colts and Bengals gift-wrapped a playoff spot for the Jets, the Jets entered the playoffs and Rex Ryan declared that his team should be Super Bowl favorites. People laughed until this team went out and beat up the Bengals (again). I wonder if the Bengals are sitting at home today thinking that they might have wanted to actually try to beat the Jets in the last game of the regular season. At the time they did not think the game was important, let the Jets into the playoffs, and the Jets made them pay for that mistake.

This weekend the Jets have a chance to "thank" the Colts for their playoff spot, just as they "thanked" the Bengals in the Wild Card round. And if the Jets do indeed beat the Colts, the Colts have no one to blame but themselves. When Manning and the starters were in the Week 16 game, the Colts were in control. The offense was doing what it wanted to do, and the defense was holding the Jets in check. Had Jim Caldwell, the Colts coach, kept his starters in the game, one could make the argument that the Colts win the game and the Jets are currently watching the playoffs from home. Would it not be ironic if, by pulling the starters to make sure they are healthy and rested for a Super Bowl run, the Colts end up costing themselves a Super Bowl berth by letting a team that would not have made the playoffs in AND giving them confidence? Jim Caldwell better hope his team goes out and beats the Jets this weekend or all people in Colts country will talk about is how the Colts beat themselves and cost them a chance at the Super Bowl.

Memo to the Cubs: You should have known better

3 years, $30 million. That's how much time and money the Chicago Cubs invested in outfielder Milton Bradley. They thought that Bradley was going to be the missing piece to the puzzle. Lou Piniella and the Cubs thought that all they needed was a left-handed run producer to stick in the middle of their lineup. With a lineup that had Derek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Milton Bradley in the heart of it, not to mention guys like Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome, the Cubs felt that they had an unbeatable lineup. This was going to be the Cubs year. They were going to be contenders, maybe even World Series contenders. Milton Bradley was the missing piece to the puzzle.

Or so they thought. Alfonso Soriano was downright horrible this season before finally getting shut down. Year two of the Kosuke Fukudome has proven that he is not a run producer or a difference maker in the Cubs lineup. Aramis Ramirez suffered a shoulder injury early in the season and missed a significant amount of time. Mike Fontenot, the guy who made it so easy for the Cubs to let go of Mark DeRosa, has had a sophomore slump season that would be noteworthy if not for Geovany Soto, who has one-upped him. And then there is Milton Bradley.

Milton Bradley's numbers this season: .257 BA 12 HR 40 RBI in 124 G. Not exactly the numbers that a middle of the order corner outfielder who is making $10 million a season should have, is it? And those are his final numbers this season after Cubs GM Jim Hendry suspended Bradley for the rest of the season for conduct detrimental to the team yesterday.

The Cubs should have seen this coming before they even signed Bradley. When the Cubs signed Bradley last spring, baseball experts greatly questioned the move. They pointed to the fact that Bradley had been on 8 teams in his 10 year career, a result of his negative clubhouse presence and many run-ins with management. How could Bradley and the fiery-tempered Lou Piniella possibly co-exist?

The answer: they couldn't. Bradley and Piniella had many issues throughout the season. Bradley often did not appear to be giving his best effort on the field. On more than one occasion he did not run out ground balls. He argued with umpires. He was not in the game mentally, as shown earlier in the season when he tossed a ball into the stands with only two outs in the inning.

There were signs that this was coming. In June Bradley was sent home for a day by Lou Piniella who said that he had had enough of his act. Bradley became more and more agitated with the Chicago media and the Cubs fans. Cubs fans booed Bradley constantly due to his poor play and even worse attitude. Then last week, after getting a basehit Bradley removed himself from the game. He did not call timeout and have the trainer and Piniella come out to see what was wrong with him. He just walked off the field without warning and went straight to the clubhouse without talking to anyone on the Cubs staff. After the game, the media wanted to know exactly what was going on with Bradley, not an unreasonable request for someone who left the game so mysteriously.

Bradley was extremely short tempered and refused to answer questions about his injury. He then removed himself from the lineup on Saturday and got into a confrontation with hitting coach Von Joshua. After one more rant against Cubs fans, the Cubs media, and the Cubs organization, Hendry made the only choice he felt he had and suspended Bradley for the rest of the season.

How the season ended for Bradley and the Cubs should not come as a shocker to the Cubs organization. Bradley has been a clubhouse cancer everywhere he has gone, the evidence of this is how many times he has bounced around. When a player with as much talent as Bradley has changes teams as many times as Bradley has, you have to start looking at the character of the individual in question.

Milton Bradley is baseball's version of Terrell Owens. His tremendous talent is overshadowed by his less than tremendous performance on the field and the fact that he leaves every clubhouse or locker room he has been in in shambles. And yet, because of their tremendous talent and the what they can theoretically do for the team on the field, these players continue to get chance after chance after chance. And when the team reaches its breaking point and dismisses these players because they are cancers, everyone is shocked that this could happen again.

Milton Bradley's suspension from the Cubs doesn't surprise me. When the Cubs let him go during the offseason and he signs with another team it won't surprise me either. Other GM's think that a similar situation can't possibly happen again and that the benefits of having a player like Bradley will outweigh the consequences. My prediction: Milton Bradley will be playing for yet another team in 2010. I will be extremely surprised if teams decide that Bradley has been given enough chances and do not go after him next year.

For the record: I hope I am surprised. Maybe then Bradley and other players like him will learn that tremendous talent does not let you do whatever you want and get away with it.

Move over Derek Jeter, this year belongs to Joe Mauer

So much has been said about the MVP race in the American League this year. Names have been thrown around left and right: Derek Jeter, Ichiro Suzuki, Joe Mauer, Mark Texeira, and so on. And while it looks like Albert Pujols and his 47 homeruns have pretty much locked up the National League MVP, the American League race seems much more wide open. There are so many players having outstanding years in the American League that it is hard to choose just one. However, that is what I am here to do.

Many people will tell you that the 2009 MVP award should go to the face of baseball's most prestigious franchise, the New York Yankees' Derek Jeter. Jeter would not be a bad choice either. His numbers this season warrant him to be in consideration: .332 BA, 17 HR 64 RBI .400 OBP 26 SB. He's done everything that the New York Yankees have needed him to do this year. He's a winner, the leader of the best team in baseball. And this should be his year because the 35 year old has never won the MVP before.

All of these things are very valid points. His numbers are very impressive. He always seems to come through when the Yankees need him. And it is true--he has never won the MVP award. The problem is, the MVP award is not a life time achievement award--that is what the Hall of Fame is for. There is no doubt that we will be seeing you in Cooperstown when you are done playing baseball Derek, but giving you the MVP award this year because you have never won one and are therefore somehow entitled to one is flat out wrong.

Remember Jeter's current 2009 numbers: .332 BA 17 HR 64 RBI .400 OBP 26 SB (warning: you will see these numbers again). They look very good, and the Yankees have the best record in the league. But are they MVP worthy? Compare those numbers with these numbers: .349 BA 24 HR 102 RBI .438 OBP 19 SB. That second set of numbers looks better than Jeter's of 2009, doesn' t it?

I can hear the arguments already: "Yeah but the 2009 season isn't over yet." And "yeah but Jeter is going to lead the Yankees to the World Series this year." And to that I tell you this: Derek Jeter will come nowhere close to that second set of numbers by the time the season ends this year, even if he has a monster last couple of weeks. And do you know who that second set of numbers belongs to? Derek Jeter, the 1999 version, in what was probably his best statistical year of his career, a year in which the Yankees swept the Atlanta Braves to win the World Series. Jeter did not win the MVP that year, Ivan Rodriguez did for the Texas Rangers. In fact, Jeter finished 6th in MVP voting that year. So if Jeter couldn't win the MVP in 1999 with better numbers and a World Series championship, exactly how is he going to win the award this year?

It can be argued that Jeter isn't even the MVP of his own team this year, much less the league. What about the addition of Mark Texeira to the middle of the lineup? What about the dominating performance we've seen from C.C. Sabathia virtually all season? What about the always consistent and never hittable Mariano Rivera at the end of games? Strong arguments can be made for any of those guys to be the MVP instead of Jeter.

The real of MVP of the American League this year has to Joe Mauer without question. His 2009 numbers as of today are: .374 BA 27 HR 87 RBI .441 OBP and a whopping 1.051 OPS (on base + slugging percentage). When you stack Jeter's .332 BA 17 HR 64 RBI .400 OBP up against Mauer's it is pretty much no contest. Mauer's numbers are better than Jeter's across the board. And let us not forget that he missed the entire month of April with an injury. Think about what kind of numbers he would have if he played all six months of the season and not just five. Mauer has always been a tremendous hitter but this year he has added power to his arsenal. Making Mauer's season even more remarkable is the fact that he plays the tolling position on the body: catcher.

I know that the Twins do not look like they will make the playoffs this year, while the Yankees appear to have their best shot at winning the World Series since their last title in 2000. I know that in the last 25 years there have only been 2 MVP winners from losing teams (Andre Dawson for the 1987 Cubs, Alex Rodriguez for the 2001 Rangers) but the red hot Twins do not look like they are out of the playoff race yet and Joe Mauer has just flat out outplayed everyone else, hands down.

MVP stands for Most Valuable Player and if you look at it from that standpoint, Mauer is the only choice here. If you take Derek Jeter out of the Yankees lineup they might lose a few more games, but with all the weapons in that lineup and in that pitching staff, the Yankees still make the playoffs without much trouble. If Joe Mauer is removed from the Twins lineup, the Twins are nowhere close to where they are today. I am sorry Derek Jeter, but 2009 has been Joe Mauer's year.

Welcome to Minnesota "Old" Brett Favre

After one week of the Brett Favre experiment in Minnesota, one thing is crystal clear: the Brett Favre of "old" is gone forever, only to be replaced by "Old" Brett Favre. The gunslinger who holds pretty much every major passing record in the game (including some not so great records like the one he has for most interceptions thrown) is a mere shell of his former self. Picture Robert Redford as the Sundance Kid in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Sundance was the ultimate gun fighter. No one could beat him on a draw. He could pick off people left and right. Now picture Sundance if he were alive today: old, maybe with one or two bullets left in the gun that he could use if he needed to, but with a greatly diminished skill set that makes it hard for him to ever use the bullets he has left. Welcome to old age Brett Favre.

The Vikings won their game on Sunday, beating the hapless Browns easily 34-20. And we saw the birth of Brett Favre: the roleplayer. Yes, Favre went 14-21 and threw one touchdown and no interceptions. His QB rating (a stat which no one on the face of the planet understands) was a solid 95.3. But a closer look at his statistics will reveal just 110 yards on those 14 completions. That's less than 8 yards a completion. In fact, his 110 yards were the fewest by any quarterback in week one that played the entire game (this excludes Donovan McNabb and Jake Delhomme).

Vikings fans and Brett Favre supporters will make this contention: the Vikings did not need Favre to do any more than he did on Sunday. They have this guy named Adrian Peterson, who is arguably the best running back in the game today. And Peterson ran through the Browns defense like it was swiss cheese to the tune of 25 carries for 180 yards and 3 touchdowns. And when you have Adrian Peterson in the backfield, you give him the ball and force opposing teams to stop him. And you laugh when you hand him the ball because you know that there probably is not a defense on the planet that can. I am of the personal opinion that the only person who can stop Adrian Peterson is Darrell Bevell, aka the Vikings offensive coordinator.

However, I cannot help but think that trouble is on the horizon for the Minnesota faithful. At some point during the season the Vikings are going to play a more talented defense than the one the Browns run out there. At some point during the season, a team is going to put 8 men in the box and find a way to contain the amazing Adrian Peterson. That team is going to hold up a sign that reads, "Alright Brett, go ahead and beat us."

Therein lies the problem in Minnesota. Can this Brett Favre, "Old" Brett Favre, put a team on his back and carry them to a victory? Can he make the throws at this point in his career to make teams think twice about putting 8 men in the box to stop the run? Can "Old" Brett Favre step up in that game where Peterson does not have his best stuff and lead his team to victory by throwing for over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns?

Prediction: The Vikings will win as many games as Adrian Peterson's legs can get them. And they will struggle in the games where Brett Favre has to be a difference maker. The games that he has to do more than just physically show up will be the hardest games of the year for the Vikings. "Old" Brett Favre, do you have enough bullets left to carry the Vikings to the Super Bowl, or will Vikings fans be disappointed once again?

Now unranked Notre Dame shows how to lose games that you should not lose

If any sports fan wonders how a team can lose a game that they have no business losing, look no further than South Bend, Indiana where the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were giving the rest of college football a crash course.

On paper, there should have been no thinkable way for the Irish to lose their game against Michigan. They came into the game ranked #18, while Michigan was unranked. The Irish are coming off a season where they won their first bowl game since 1993. Granted, it was only the Hawaii Bowl, but when you haven't won a bowl game in 15 years, a win is a win. In contrast, the Wolverines were coming off a miserable season in which they went just 3-9.

If we look at the two teams from a player standpoint, Notre Dame wins this game easily. Notre Dame has Jimmy Clausen at quarterback. Clausen, a junior in his third year starting for the Irish, is thought of as one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and there are rumors that he could enter the NFL Draft after this year if he performs up to expectations. On the other sideline, Michigan has unproven freshman quarterback Tate Forcier as their starter. Advantage: Notre Dame

The announcers for this game constantly mentioned how Notre Dame's offensive line was much bigger and stronger than Michigan's front seven. They mentioned how wide receivers Michael Floyd and Golden Tate could do anything they wanted to against Michigan's embattled secondary. They told us what we could see on the television. Every time Notre Dame wanted to move the ball down the field they could and did, and Michigan did not have an answer defensively.

Throughout the game Notre Dame proved to us these very points. Down 14-3 early, Notre Dame scored the next 17 points to take the lead 20-14. Then, down 31-20 in the 4th quarter, Notre Dame rallied one more time to take the lead 34-31 with just over 2 minutes left in the game. These facts should be comforting to the Irish faithful. They fought back twice from 11 down to take the lead, something that Irish teams from years gone by would never have done. And yet, they found a way to lose the game.

How they lost that game was the worst way to lose a game. I've been in my share of locker rooms and I can tell you for a fact that losing a game the way Notre Dame lost frustrates you so much more than losing to a better team by a ton of points. You don't want to lose those games either, but if you go out and get dominated in all facets of the game by a team who is bigger, stronger, faster, and all around better than you are, all you can do is tip your cap to them and realize that you got beaten by a better team.

The problem for Notre Dame is that they were the better team for all the reasons I mentioned above. Losing to Michigan on Saturday was nothing short of inexcusable. I do not want to take anything away from Michigan here. They played a great game. Tate Forcier stepped up in a big game, just his second game at the collegiate level, and opened a lot of people's eyes. He showed everyone that he is the future of Michigan football. And at the end of the game, with the clock running down, they came together as a team and won the football game. They were rewarded for winning this game by getting themselves into the top 25.

But I want to make one thing absolutely clear: Michigan did not beat Notre Dame as much as Notre Dame beat themselves. You can go back to the very opening drive of the game. Notre Dame marches down the field. Michigan's defense keeps them out of the end zone, which leaves the Irish with a 28 yard field goal attempt. High school kickers can make field goals from 28 yards out. Chris Mahoski, the kicker on our state championship winning high school team in 2004, would have made that kick. In big games against your rival it is important not to give points away. The Irish could have scored 7 on that opening drive, or at the very least 3, but instead walk off the field with no points.

Scoring first, having that momentum on your side is big in games like this one, and instead of Notre Dame scoring first, Michigan scored first. And then when Notre Dame got a field goal to make it 7-3, the best kickoff coverage team in the nation in 2008 gave up a touchdown on the following kickoff. Michigan 14 Notre Dame 3.

These were not the only incidents where Notre Dame blew opportunities to put more points on the board than they ultimately did. Armando Allen caught a screen pass in the 2nd quarter and took it all the way for a touchdown--except that he stepped out of bounds before getting there. Instead of 7 points, the Irish have to settle for a field goal.

In tennis there is a statistic called "unforced errors." Logic would tell you that the player with the least unforced errors typically wins the match. The same thing happened during this game. The lone touchdown of the third quarter was scored by Michigan and caused by an Irish fumble in the backfield, giving Michigan excellent field position. It is hard to win if you turn the ball over.

Perhaps the biggest error the Irish made was in all of the penalties they accumulated. Notre Dame was penalized 9 times for 75 yards. Charlie Weis said at halftime that all the penalties were really hurting the team but it did not stop them from committing costly ones in the second half. One of them was a 72 yard pass play that was called back because of holding. It is hard to win when you commit that many penalties.

Lastly, it looks like Charlie Weis himself did them in. His play calling on the final Irish possession was questionable at best. You have the ball and the lead late in the game---time to run the clock out. But that's not how Charlie was going to play it. After running the ball once, he called two pass plays, that both ended up incomplete, allowing Michigan to save its final 2 timeouts and stopping the clock at the same time. Looks like those timeouts came in handy when Michigan scored the game winning touchdown with 11 seconds remaining.

There is an old adage in sports that says that good teams find a way to win games that they shouldn't and bad teams find a way to lose games that they shouldn't. On Saturday, Notre Dame proved that while they might be better than they have been, they still have a long way to go to become a good team.