If it’s Monday, it must be time to take the weekend trash out of a polluted sports mind:

I’m going to withhold final judgment on the Coco Crisp trade, at least until I see exactly what the Red Sox give up and get in return. Right now, there are all sorts of scenarios out there, ranging from the simple (Marte and Mota for Crisp) to the complex (a six player deal perhaps involving another team as well).

My sources tell me it’s simply Marte and Mota for Crisp and a prospect, and that it’s a done deal. Whether I like the trade or not depends on how highly regarded the Indians minor leaguer is. But what this underscores is how expensive it is to get good players. You either have to pay in money (as in $52-million over 4-years for Johnny Damon) or in prospects (as in Marte, one of the best in all of baseball).

The fantasy geek in me is excited about Crisp’s speed and power combo and what that could mean in a lineup like Boston’s and a ballpark like Fenway. I also like the fact he’s under contractual control for four more years. What I’m nervous about is his career .271-batting average as a leadoff hitter, and the fact he’s going from left field in Cleveland, to a very tricky center field in Boston.

The Alex Gonzalez signing is almost as intriguing to me. Great glove and some pop in his bat. Sound like another previous shortstop acquisition? If you guessed Orlando Cabrera, come on down and claim your prize.

Watching the NFL Conference Championships without the Patriots in them was a bit like watching Charlie’s Angels after Farrah Fawcett left. You still tuned in, and the talent was still impressive, but that something special was missing.

The Steelers are just the second team in NFL history to win three road playoff games on the way to the Super Bowl, joining the 1985 Patriots. It says here, the Men of Steel will fare much better than Raymond Berry’s band of overachievers.

That Denver doctor offering a free vasectomy for tickets to the game might have been on to something. The Steelers certainly clipped the Broncos manhood on the field, didn’t they?

I know it might be blasphemous to say around these parts, but Ben Roethlisberger is having a Brady-like run. Put aside the sub-par performance in last year’s playoffs. That was his rookie year. Brady barely saw the field his first season. In year two, Big Ben has been the playoff MVP thus far, and as close to perfect as a QB can get while playing the best the NFL has to offer. And that 14-1 career road record, the only loss coming at Indy this year in Roethlisberger’s first game back from injury, shows a mental toughness and big-game calm eerily similar to our own 2-time Super Bowl MVP.

Thankfully won’t have to hear any more of this garbage about Jake Delhomme having the highest quarterback rating in post-season history. That’s what a 15-for-35; 3-interception performance will do to that overrated stat.

On the other hand, it's great to see former Boston College star Matt Hasselbeck getting his due. Was it just a few years ago he was benhced in favor of Trent Dilfer?

Kobe Bryant nets 81-points, the second highest total since Wilt Chamberlain poured home 100 back in 1962. Wow!

Before the “Kobe shoots too much‿ talk enters the equation (he usually does), consider the Raptors led the Lakers 71-53 in the second half before Bryant took the game over like no other current player can. 27-points in the 3rd quarter followed by 28 in the 4th….did I already say Wow?

I know it sounds like bandwagon jumping today, but for more than a year I’ve been telling anyone who’ll listen that the Lakers made the right decision keeping Kobe Bryant over Shaquille O’Neal. One is the best all-around player in the game and just entering his prime, the other is often out of shape, injury prone, and on the downside of the career slope. Kobe will win another championship before Shaq does.

And I know it’s easy to side with the big guy in their little rivalry, especially after Bryant’s legal problems and egotistical behavior. But isn’t O’Neal the guy who couldn’t get along with Penny Hardaway either?

Watching Kobe put up monstrous numbers, I can’t help but think not drafting him was as big a blow to the Celtics as losing out on the Tim Duncan lottery. I remember vividly how impressed then General Manager M.L. Carr was with Kobe’s pre-draft workout for the Celtics. I also remember M.L. saying the kid was going to be a star for years to come, but how the C’s couldn’t draft a high school kid with the #6 pick overall pick. So instead Carr waved his draft towel in Antoine Walker’s direction. Too bad Danny “I love high schoolers‿ Ainge wasn’t in charge back then.

I watched some of that Bruins-Rangers game Saturday night, and caught the entire shootout. The Bruins scored once in six tries. Think about that for a second. One goal on six unobstructed breakaways. Oh where, oh where has Phil Esposito gone. Oh where, oh where can he be!

Not that the Rangers were much better. They lit the lamp only twice in the shootout. For those of you keeping track, that’s three goals in twelve attempts for some of the “greatest‿ players in the world. Has goal scoring become a lost art or goaltending a perfected one?

And finally, props to Chelmsford’s Keith Aucoin, called up from the Lock Monsters to help out the Carolina Hurricanes in their Stanley Cup quest.