Monday, October 29, 2007

After watching the NFL games over the past two days, I have come to a few obvious conclusions. One, that there is no better team right now than the New England Patriots.

Two, Indianapolis vs. New England is this decade's version of the 1990's Dallas vs. San Francisco.

Three, Brett Favre throwing well at 37 is no more amazing (maybe even less so) that Roger Staubach doing the same at 38.

Four, St. Louis will not finish 0-16, but Miami very well could.

Five, Don't overlook the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I could spend a few minutes blasting Bill Belichick for what many are calling a "classless" move on his part to still be throwing long with his team leading 38-0 late in the game. I guess he's no different from Buddy Ryan when Ryan did it against Tom Landry's woeful Cowboys back in '87 and '88. But in truth, this is professional football we're talking about. As long as the Redskins are trying to win, the Patriots have every right to beat them.

On the other hand, what surprises me is how careless Belichick is in regard to his starters. If I were the coach, and my team was up by 38 after three quarters (especially if my defense was shutting the other team down), I would bench my QB's rear end and give his backup some reps. For one thing, when a defense sees the start QB continue to light them up, it makes them start aiming to hurt the QB. Secondly, should your star QB get hurt, it helps to give his backup some real-time experience. I'm just not sure what Belichick's deal is.

Speaking of mega-superstars, it was good to see the classless Alex Rodriguez get pummelled in the New York tabloids today.

In case you missed it, A-Rod announced (through his agent, the equally classless Scott Boras) that he was opting out of his New York Yankee contract during the middle of game four of the World Series. Now I have nothing to say about how much money he earns (a lot) or how much he could earn in free agency (a lot more). But to make the announcement then, during the deciding game of the series, smacks of self-righteous, egocentric selfishness. Apparently, since he can't bring his team to the series, he'll make the series about him.

As far as I'm concerned, I love the fact he opted out. Since Texas was paying a good portion of the contract (per the trade agreement with the Yankees, in exchange for Alfonso Soriano), they have suddenly found money they didn't think they'd have. I have to wonder if Ranger's owner Tom Hicks knew in advance of Rodriguez' plans. Perhaps he assured Hicks that he would opt out after 7 years (per the contract allowance) if Hicks would okay the trade (and the bucks) to the Yankees. It would explain why Tom Hicks is the only man in the DFW metroplex to have anything nice to say about the former MVP.

No comments: