It’s impossible to argue that Brett Favre is the NFL’s best quarterback. So of course I’m going to – but not by looking at the numbers. That wouldn’t work.

A quarterback does more for than provide X number of catches in Y attempts. He’s also a leader, and his effect on his teammates (and the general public that follows him) is emotional by nature. If charisma were measurable by statistical analysis, Favre would lead the league.

You won’t find a lot of hating out there on No. 4. Tony Romo, Peyton Manning and even Tom Brady get looked at sideways now and then, but America has had a 16-year love affair with Favre. He is a celebrity. Women fantasize about him during sex. In the future, people will engineer their cloned children to match his DNA. Which, come to think of it, would really bring some parity to the NFL. The National Favre League.

It’s sad, but true: Monday Night Football has been on a steady downhill slope since Howard Cosell left the show following the 1983 season. It was arguably inevitable that the former ABC flagship program would end up moving to cable. But ESPN has taken the ball and fumbled it.

You knew things were going to go badly when commentator Al Michaels was released from his contract and allowed to sign with NBC, in exchange for some intellectual properties including Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Mike Tirico has been the play-by-play man since ESPN took over; he joins Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser and whatever celebrity is promoting a Disney product that week.

Kornheiser is getting the brunt of the criticism – ironic, because his willingness to actually be critical of the NFL is the only thing Cosellian the program still has going for it. Corporate and dull rule the airwaves, which explains the Jordin Sparks-themed highlight package during the Titans-Broncos game.

Even though the NBA season has started up again it doesn’t mean that all you basketball action junkies and betting afficionados can’t look elsewhere for some added action. Ever thought of betting on the WNBA? An increasing number of people are looking towards the WNBA to fill in any betting and action gaps they may be experiencing. Better yet, many bettors are finding that the WNBA is a profitable place to play.
Gerry Umana from Bodoglife says that his company has seen both the handle and the number of bets on the WNBA grow by 60 percent per year on average since 2003. They’re expecting it to go up another 60-75 percent this year. The increased TV coverage that the WNBA is getting, player’s presence and participation at the NBA All-Star weekend and the added attention that some of the players are getting in the media are all pointed to by Umana as factors contributing to the growth.

One of the reasons that bettors stick with the WNBA once they’ve tried it is the consistency. Five of the seven series in the 2005 playoffs were one by higher ranked teams in a sweep. There are teams that are consistently good (Connecticut Sun) and others that are consistently bad and when it comes to consistency it’s nothing for bettors to complain about.

They can’t keep comedian Dennis Miller off the television for very long. After his run on Monday Night Football, he is back in the sports genre for another go with his own show “Sports Unfiltered with Dennis Miller”.

The show promises to deal with tough issues in sports, while at the same time being sarcastic and funny. It sounds like a winner, although it might get Miller’s face messed up if he makes fun of the wrong steroid junkie.

Miller has teamed up with producer Arthur Smith, and the show will air on the Versus Network (formerly the Outdoor Life Network). Miller gets another chance to point out how stupid sports can be at times, and as long as he doesn’t use comedic references that are too obscure for the average sports fan to understand, he should do just fine with the new show. I’ll certainly give it a try.

There was a time when Sports Illustrated meant everything to me – and not just because Paulina Porizkova was on the cover. This magazine was the place to go for smart sports journalism, not to mention brilliant photography and some fantastic writing. George Plimpton, you are missed.

Josh Levin recently popped up on Slate’s website to remind me how crappy SI has gotten. They hired former ESPN host Dan Patrick last month; days later, Rick Reilly absconded to ESPN. Levin’s response: “Who needs a journalist when you can get a celebrity multimedia empire?”

Personally, I applaud the demise of Sports Illustrated. Because it’s not really a demise, it’s just a necessary narrowing of focus to that group between 18-24 years of age who somehow cannot navigate the Web. I’d lament the death of music television, too, if I weren’t too busy watching videos on YouTube. Now, how about some affordable (by which I mean free) live sports webcasts?