Your weekly look into what's being talked about on New York's sports talk stations, as well the week's best quotes and a spotlight on a host. If you hear anything on the airwaves that you think I should mention just e-mail it to nysportblog@gmail.com or post it into the comments section below.

The Buzz:

Obviously, most of New York sports talk last week centered around the Super Bowl. Before the game, most of the talk centered on the usual pre-game topics- predictions, breakdowns, Dwight Freeney's ankle, but it was the talk after the game that really got juicy.

Sunday night and Monday, New Yorkers surprisingly seemed all too happy to bash Peyton Manning after his Colts lost the Super Bowl. Many hosts, after talking up Peyton all week, were rather surprisingly quick to place Manning much further down on their list of all-time great quarterbacks based on this Super Bowl alone.

Aside from the Super Bowl, the other significant topic was, of course, the New York Mets, who are continuing to be ripped a new one by fans and hosts alike. Nothing new here. Every player, coach and especially members of the front office are being meticulously picked apart, and nobody is giving the team much of a shot this season. More on this in the quotables.

Finally, there was a little Knicks talk, mostly determining exactly how much they suck as well as the ongoing Nate Robertson vs. Chris Duhon point guard debate. A little hockey, football and Yankee talk also filled out the week.

Notable Quotable:

"Robert Mathis had as many tackles as Carrie Underwood." -Steve Somers, WFAN (Sunday night)

The ever-colorful Somers (more on him later) points out that the star Colts defensive end made absolutely no contribution during the Super Bowl, certainly one of the less-talked about reasons that the Colts lost on Sunday.

Deplorable Quotables:

"We're the only show that simulcasts on a legitimate network. That doesn't count ESPN or ESPN 2 and any of their stuff, of course." -Mike Francesa, WFAN (Friday afternoon)

Jay Leno is America's number one late night comic, if you don't count David Letterman. Joe Biden is the American president, if not for Barack Obama. Rafael Nadal is the world's best tennis player, if you don't count Roger Federer. 98 Degrees were the biggest boy band of the late 90's, if you don't count N'Sync or the Backstreet Boys.

Get my point yet, Mike? Good, because when there are exactly two full-time New York sports stations and you make a comparison and don't count the other guy, then what's your argument exactly?

"That's balderdash." -Bill Daughtry, 1050 ESPN (Monday night)

I had no idea what the hell balderdash was, so when I got home I googled it.  And upon googling 'balderdash', two things came up: a board game available for $26.99 from Babies R Us and a one-word definition for balderdash describing it as 'nonsense', according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. You learn something new everyday. Thanks, Bill.

"Ben Roethlisberger has a chance to go down as the best quarterback of our generation." -Lori Rubinson, WFAN (Sunday night)

A lot of stupid things were said right after the Colts' surprising loss Sunday night, but Rubinson takes the cake by suggesting the quarterback for a team that relied heavily on its defense for its two titles might be better than Peyton Manning.

On paper, this quote isn't so bad. Of course if Roethlisberger wins 3 or 4 more titles, he could be the best ever. Eli could immortalize himself with a string of titles the next few years. Hell, Chad Henne could win 4 titles in a row and go down as one of the all-time greats. But Peyton Manning losing this Super Bowl doesn't move him down on the list of all-time greats; it just prevents him from moving further up.

He hasn't been the best post-season quarterback, but he's still won a championship. While Peyton made some mistakes in the Super Bowl, dropped catches and bad coaching were bigger reasons for the Colts' loss. His pick-6 at the end was a key mistake, but it was far from the only reason Indy lost.

Peyton Manning is unquestionably still one of the two best quarterbacks of this generation. Unless Ben Roethlisberger does some absolutely insane things the next ten years (which of course could happen, but still), Manning will go down as a far better QB than Roethlisberger.

"If you're a Yankee fan, how much do you love the fact that Met fans are bitching, and it's only February?"  -Craig Carton, WFAN (this morning)

Is this anything new? Met fans bitching about their team is about as certain as a sunrise every morning.

I must say though, if you get happiness from listening to Met fans bitch, you are unquestionably one of the happiest people on the planet.

Spotlight On: Steve Somers, WFAN

A New York sports talk legend with an unmistakable sing-song voice, Somers has been with WFAN since its inception in 1987 and has achieved a sort of cult-like status amongst his devoted, older fanbase.

Somers is everything you look for in a sports talk host- he (mostly) knows what he's talking about, he's witty, entertaining, blunt and funny. He's created a slew of nicknames for players and teams- amongst them he calls Alex Rodriguez "the lightning rod" and condescendingly refers to the New York Islanders as the "Ice-landers". He's full of one-liners and he's also full of himself.

He doesn't like to be challenged or taken to task; he soaks up compliments and his listeners' affection, but he will hang up on or mock anybody who disagrees with him. He has an oddly hateful obsession with the New York Islanders, he loves to go on merciless rants talking about how the Islanders are a second-rate team and how their fans are hiding their inner Ranger fan. Unfortunately for Somers, he's a Ranger fan, which means his team has won exactly one (1) more title than the Islanders since he went on-air.

Still, given his sense of humor and wit, it's kind of hard to be mad at him when he goes off on needless Islander bashing, although I'm sure die-hard Islander fans like Conor would disagree.

Judge for yourself....check out "The Schmooze" most weeknights between 7 or 8 in the evening until 12 or 1 AM on WFAN.


That'll do for this week, listen out for anything interesting and if you hear something that you want posted next week, e-mail it to nysportblog@gmail.com or just post it in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!