Thank You Shaun Ellis and Dionte Christmas for a Wonderful Weekend

This past weekend was one of the best for the sports nut that I am.

I was in Philadelphia for the weekend, and after Saturday's hangover subsided, a friend of mine and I remembered that No. 8 Tennessee was playing Temple at the Liacorous Center. We decided to check out the game on TV before we tried to attend.

At halftime the Owls were up, so once the second half started we walked over and with his expired school ID we got in for free and joined the students in the standing room only section. At that point it was close, but that was before Dionte Christmas, who will be a first round draft pick, hit three 3's in a row. I called another friend who couldn't attend due to work, and he hung up on me. This is the friend that told me it wouldn't be a good game. Ya dig?

Temple won, and we joined the students on the court in a jubilant celebration. It was an incredible game. Every time Christmas pulled up, you knew it was going in, and it merited an AND 1 Mixtape-esque celebration each time. He finished with 35 points, but it was Temple's defense that was the most impressive to me. The Volunteers couldn't do much, and really the only chance they had was free throws.

After the game, both my friend and I's phones were dead, and we had nowhere to go except our friends' old house with nothing but a TV in it. We had no phone, no car, no money, but we both agreed it was a great afternoon in which we accomplished a lot.

To keep my streak of attending great sporting events alive I covered the Jets-Bills game at The Meadowlands Sunday afternoon for my internship. The Jets won in dramatic fashion when Shaun Ellis picked up an Abram Elam-induced fumble and took it 11 yards to the house.

It put Giants Stadium into a frenzy as the Jets took the lead 31-27 right around the two-minute warning. Two Jets INTs cemented the AFC East victory, and it capped off an incredible weekend of sporting events attended by me.

It makes me feel lucky and blessed to have witnessed first hand such dramatic and thrilling games. From college basketball in Philadelphia to the NFL in New York and/or New Jersey. On paper I had to have the best weekend out of any sports enthusiast/writer/nut.

To top that off, my Steelers won the AFC North and clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs with a dramatic win over the hated Ravens. There isn't a team in the league that I enjoy watching the Steelers beat more so than Baltimore.

There was a questionable call at the end, one that was probably too close to call, but let's face it, Pittsburgh drove 92 yards. They were winning that game come hell or high water.

I got chills when I watched Sal Paolantonio give his post game feature on SportsCenter, saying that when he asked where the team got its 'never say die' attitude, he said, "Our quarterback." The playoff bye is exactly what we need given Roethlisberger's physical state, and I couldn't be happier.

My roommate, an Eagles fan, told me congratulations. My other roommate, a Ravens fan, didn't want to talk about it. Ahh sports. It really gives us something. I told my Eagles-fan roommate that I would have sacrificed a testicle to have been in Baltimore for the Steelers game, to which he responded "It wasn't a good game." And he's right, the final score was 13-9 in a smashmouth thriller that featured one touchdown, but it's the rivalry. The hatred and respect the teams have for each other. From York, PA-barely an hour north of Baltimore-I read mostly Ravens coverage in the local papers growing up, so I have a reason to hate Baltimore.

But don't worry 'bout that. Pittsburgh's got the bye, the Jets live another week, and my relationship with sports sees another high.

Merry Christmas. I love everyone.