New England Football is Over – What Next? Olympics + Baseball

Maybe it was the missing pieces, like Gronkowski, Mayo and the others out for today's game? Maybe it was the fact that Denver wouldn't sell tickets outside of the commuting area? Maybe Tom Brady is getting older and his swagger isn't what it was? We can blame tonight's loss on whatever we want but the truth of the matter, New England didn't bring "it."

It was a good run all things considered. Let's try again next year. I write this as the Seahawks and San Francisco play in the NFC championship game. In February Denver will play the winner of the NFC title game tonight in the Superbowl in two weeks and I'll be watching for a great game and those popular commercials.

As football season more or less has ended for me, I turn my attention to Red Sox spring training which starts in under a month. Baseball will be back before you know it and to bridge the lull, we have the winter Olympics which start early next month.

It used to be that it was only amateurs who went to the Olympic games but now all of the professional players are eligible. Professional athletes competing in the Olympics isn't anything new, remember the 1992 "Dream Team?" They were the basketball team made up of all of the best American NBA players but how do you feel about it? For me it's seeing a high level of competition so I'm on board.

Back in the cold war era, the Soviets and other communist countries would send their best players as amateurs because they weren't paid in the same way the free world pays their players. To the free world it wasn't fair, so the International Olympic Committee changed it so anyone could play. If you were good enough to get to the games, you could play.

The downside to professionals playing is that the college players and child proteges don't really even get a chance.

How do you feel, should pros be allowed to play in the Olympics, or should we go back 25+ years and only allow amateurs?