Say it ain't so Rocket. It's hard enough for me turning 40 Saturday, and now I have to deal with this!

82 references were made to Roger Clemens in today's Mitchell report. Of course, Clemens, through his attorney, denies all allegations that he took steroids. It makes sense. I deny all allegations that I eat my kids treats at night when they are sleeping. But if you believe the former Yankees strength and conditioning coach or my wife Kristine, then Clemens and I are both guilty as charged.

But our vices have one distinct difference. My late night eating habits are not illegal and only inflate my waistline. They do nothing to inflate my career stats.

Before taking steroids in the 1998 season (see the Mitchell report), Clemens, in my opinion, had already put together a hall of fame resume with the Red Sox and Blue Jays. The four Cy Young awards he won at that point spoke volumes. But now, thanks to the Mitchell report, we understand how Clemens kept his hall of fame numbers well into his 40's and ended up winning 7 Cy Youngs. And it's those added years of brilliance that made Clemens arguably the best pitcher ever, not just another really great Hall of Famer. Now, some will question if he even belongs in Cooperstown.

Clemens let us down. Period. As President Kennedy once said, to whom much is given, much is expected. I expected more from Roger Clemens.

When I interviewed him a few years ago at Yankee Stadium, for what I thought was a retirement piece, he could not have been more personable. We talked about his days in New Britain with the Red Sox and an eagle he once made at a GHO celebrity pro-am. Funny, steroids never came up.

Sure, there had been allegations in the past linking Clemens to steroid and performance enhancing drugs, but nothing was ever proven. The Mitchell report is the dagger for me.

It taints a brilliant career. It also ruins the best press clipping I will ever get. My senior year in high school, 1986, I struckout 13 batters in one game. It happened just a few days after Clemens set the Major League record with 20 k's in one game. My school paper wrote something to the effect of this: that I pitched Andover's version of a Roger Clemens game.

I keep those old scrapbooks tucked away in my basement. Maybe this weekend as I turn 40 and get a little nostalgic I will pull them out and show my kids who have never seen them. If I do, I will skip past the Clemens reference. This former 5'8, 83 mile an hour throwing southpaw does not want to be mentioned in the same sentence right now as Roger Clemens. It was hard enough explaining to my 10 year old son Ryan today that one of his heroes let him down because I felt let down too.

The Patriots have three games left in their quest for a perfect regular season. I would be shocked if the Jets or winless Dolphins beat them. The Giants, maybe, maybe could pull the monumental upset. But it would take a perfect game for Big Blue. Doubtful.

The Patriots are scary good on offense. And every week they find a new wrinkle and a new motivation. Sunday it was the double pass from Tom Brady to Randy Moss back to Brady to Jabaar Gaffney. Wow! Just like we drew it up in the sandlot. The motivation Sunday: Another win towards 16-0 and Steelers safety Anthony Smith who guaranteed a win. I guarantee we will not be hearing from Mr. Smith for awhile.

The Jets will not catch the Pats spying this week. Actually, it's the Jets who could use a few spies. But I am not sure if Bill Belichick handed over the playbook to his former protege and friend Eric Mangini that it would make any difference. The Patriots will make this thing ugly. That is my guarantee. The spread is 24 points, down from 27. I predict something like 41-10.

The Pats will go 16-0. But don't be surprised if Pittsburgh or San Diego or Indy gives them problems in the playoffs. The Pats passing game, which they use on almost every down, could be an issue if the weather turns at Foxboro in January. But my guess is that Belichick has been spying on our meterologists and already has a game plan in place for nasty weather.

Randy Edsall is not the Big East Coach of the Year? Are you kidding me? This is a joke right, wrong! Cincinnati's Brian Kelly wins the honors. This is just not right and makes one wonder if the league coaches are miffed at Edsall for something. That is the only thing that can possibly explain this. UConn was picked 7th in the league and finished tied for first. Does the coach not deserve any credit for that? Plus, UConn had only four All Big East picks, Cincinnati had 8. Give me a break.

Geno Auriemma may not be the coach of the year. But he may not have to be. With Maya Moore looking great and prized recruit Elena Della Donne on the way, how many games will the Huskies lose in the next five years..... 10, 15 tops, right? I put the over/under at ten losses between now and Della Donne's final season. Only injuries can stop the Huskies. Let the good times roll.

As for the UConn Men, they need a win over a good team like Gonzaga or Memphis. Those would actually be the two schools that have beaten the 5-2 Huskies. Those key wins could be on the way. If not, UConn will miss the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. My guess is that UConn improves after the first of the year when Big East play starts and ends up making a late season push for the NCAA's. There is too much talent and too good a coach for it not to happen.

I am going to make this short and sweet. Randy Edsall got robbed today.

The Big East handed out their postseason awards today, and in what I thought should have been a landslide, no-brainer victory for Edsall for Big East Coach of the Year, became a joke. Instead the award went to Cincinnati's Brian Kelly. It is very simple why this should have been a lock for Edsall: UConn was picked to finish in 7th place (out of 8 teams) and they ended up sharing the Big East Championship with West Virginia. That sounds like a pretty good coaching job to me.

If that doesn't sway you, well how about the fact that UConn had just 4 players on the All-Big East teams, while Cincy had a total of 8. What that tells me, is that Coach Edsall got a lot more out of his players than anyone else in the league.

Finally, I would like to bet that Edsall gets more votes than Kelly for National Coach of the Year. Put it this way, in my book he did the best coaching job in the conference and the league got it wrong.

It is 10:36 pm on Monday night, less than an hour and a half away from the deadline the Yankees put on the Twins to accept or reject their trade offer for Johan Santana (the Yankees have reportedly offered Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera, and a mid-level prospect). Let me just say this, the Yankees better get this deal done. They cannot, and I repeat CANNOT let Santana go to the Red Sox.