Thumpty dumpty

Wash Post.

Well, the Redskins finally beat the Giants. It’s quite the accomplishment considering they always lose to the G-Men. I don’t know what went wrong for the Giants today. Actually, I do. The injury-riddled secondary made Skins QB Rex Grossman look like the second-coming of Joe Theismann. Eli Manning stunk up the place, and just about everything that could have gone wrong did. Unfortunately the Giants have a ton of injuries. With a  full group, I feel like they would have beaten the Redskins. But no excuses. They need to learn to win with this group, because they are capable of doing so. This coming week will be a time to learn and fix this mess. And next week, we’ll see what this team is really made of. Hopefully it’s more than a team that loses 28-14 to the Deadskins.

You can’t save them all

You know that scene in movies, the one where there’s two people fighting to survive, and one makes it, and you know that the other one is about to face a more ominous fate? Well, that about describes how I feel right now with the NFL and NBA. The NFL, the league who long struggled with its lockout, ended it today. The NBA of course has not been locked out for nearly as long, but as the joy of an upcoming NFL season is upon us, it appears that the NBA may not meet the same fate. Sure, the NBA has time. But they’re in a hell of a bigger mess than the NFL was. It doesn’t look good. They’re still hanging on to the cliff. But I don’t see a rescue anytime soon. And that’s too bad. I was watching a documentary-type film on NBA stars when they were “young” today and it included Kobe, Shaq, LeBron, D-Wade, Carmelo, Dwight Howard, KG, Dirk and Tim Duncan. The replays of the early parts of the decade reminded me of the reason why I fell in love with the NBA in the first place—no specific reason. It’s just, for lack of a better word, awesome. It felt good to be reminded that there’s nothing like it. Which is why it’s tough to think that significant parts of the season will probably be missed. Literally, and figuratively.

93-year itch

With the NBA Playoffs, NFL Draft, NHL Playoffs and NBA draft lottery all in the news, it’s easy to overlook baseball nowadays. It’s that sport that is always there in the summer, and maybe never quite appreciated enough because it comes at us day after day after day. Don’t get me wrong, I love the NBA and drafts and all that good stuff, but we should appreciate baseball. It’s not going to just stop like the NBA and NFL might. It’s one of the oldest sports. In fact, a piece of baseball news recently caught my eye—the Red Sox and Cubs are playing at Fenway Park for the first time since 1918 starting tomorrow. Not sure how the two managed to go that long without meeting at Fenway, but they have. A lot has changed since then, obviously. Except for the Cubs. Ninety-three years since that last meeting, and they still haven’t won a World Series.

Strangers in a familiar land

I was looking at the Nets’ roster and I realized something. This is not the team I’m used to. Who the heck are these guys? The Nets return just four of their players from last season’s horrible record. And not many of those guys had strong ties to the franchise. Who knows, maybe these new guys can start a new Nets dynasty. But I know I’m probably not alone when I say that I wish the glory days of 2001-2004 were back. Because when the Nets aren’t good, I don’t follow them as much. And that means I don’t follow the NBA as much. Same with any sport. When the Mets were good earlier this season, I was more into MLB. Now with the Giants, I’m focused on the NFL. How well our teams do reflects our interests in that specific sport. In most cases. But with me, even if my teams suck (and half of them do), I still follow them. It’s a must.

Brett Favre retires…tell me something new

“After flirting with retirement for years, Brett Favre means it this time. The Green Bay Packers quarterback quit Tuesday after a 17-season career in which he dazzled fans with his grit, heart and rocket of an arm.”

And that was quoted in an ESPN article in 2008. Now it’s 2010, and we are hearing this for the 100th straight year. Seriously. I don’t know why people, including myself, are covering this story as news, because it’s not. He’s not actually retiring. He’ll come back at some point. Heck, he could come back the last game of the season and I wouldn’t be surprised.

But in all seriousness, he was a great quarterback, so if this really is it, then props to him on a Hall of Fame career.

And see you in September, Brett!

You’re fired

I’m sure being an NFL head coach is a tough job. Really, I’m sure it is and I certainly would not be able to handle it. Apparently, neither could Dennis Green, Dick Jauron, Marty Schottenheimer, Norv Turner, or Steve Mariucci. They managed to get fired twice this past decade. At least Turner has rebounded with the Chargers. If he hadn’t, he could have been facing axe number three. The job has got to be tough. If Tony Dungy, Jon Gruden, Mike Shanahan and Tom Coughlin, all Super Bowl winners, were fired, then it is a tough world out there. But for Dungy, Gruden and Coughlin, their firings may have been blessings in disguise. All three went on to win a Super Bowl with the next teams that hired them. (This does not mean that Shanahan will win a Super Bowl with the Redskins!). Some, like Dick LeBeau , Gregg Williams and Marty Mornhinweg, have become highly respected coordinators. Even Jim Haslett (just hired by the Redskins) and Cam Cameron (after his awful one win of a season in South Beach) are respected coordinators. A firing is far from a death sentence. Jim Mora (the second), Wade Phillips, and Eric Mangini (thanks to a strong finish) are all currently head coaches. So is Lane Kiffin! (don’t get me started). But for all of those guys, there are the Art Shells, Romeo Crennels, Greens, Jim Zorns and many others. I haven’t even named every coach or ex-coach on the list. Not like that’s necessary. But I’ll give these guys a break. They have a very tough job, albeit one that millions would gladly take. Which, with these guys, seems to be happening quite often.

Remember baseball?

I want to give some quick attention to baseball. For much of the summer, baseball gave us something to watch when there was nothing else. It was the main event. Then football came, and it got pushed to the side. I forgot for a second that baseball was still going on. Now, if the the Mets were any good, I probably wouldn’t have forgotten, but that’s a different story. I like baseball, partially because it reminds me of summer while the NFL is associated with the fall and winter. That’s all. I just wanted to give baseball its fair share of attention, even if it is just a paragraph.  And don’t forget, the playoffs are coming soon! Now that better not be overshadowed.

You didn’t really go to the bank to get your quarterback

If there’s one thing that I really like about the NFL, it’s quarterbacks. Let’s face it; they’re the most important players on the team, the most well known, and the most newsworthy. Wide receivers may draw some unnecessary attention (i.e. T.O., Brandon Marshall), but they don’t generate the news qb’s do. Quarterback competitions, quarterback injuries, failures, successes. It’s all about the quarterback. Which is why it’s obviously important to have a good one on your team. The Steelers do (Ben Roethlisberger). And he’s always in the news, sometimes for not-s0-g00d reasons. The Giants’ Eli Manning is good, and here he is receiving flack for his mega contract he just signed. Tom Brady is, well, Tom Brady. But he is just coming back from a knee injury. Peyton Manning is pretty reliable, but how will he do without Marvin Harrison and Tony Dungy? Philip Rivers is solid, but he has been injured and hasn’t won a Super Bowl like fellow draft class members E. Manning and Roethlisberger. And then there’s Tony Romo. Surprisingly, there is not much drama surrounding him at the start of this season. And don’t forget near Super Bowl hero Kurt Warner, Carson Palmer, sophomores Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan, always interesting Donovan McNabb, and high scoring Drew Brees. And those are the good quarterbacks. They are plenty others. It may not seem like it, but many of the NFL’s teams have a solid picture at QB. Then again, there are plenty that don’t.

Did I forget Jay Cutler and Michael Vick?

Brett Favre?

Update: Look at who’s on the cover of SI! Quarterbacks. They must have gotten the idea from this blog.

[They] fought the law again, law 1

On Cloud 9

Plaxico Burress may be going to jail. In sports, fans look up to athletes as if they were on a pedestal. They are superstars. We bow down to them. But this past week, Burress’s fate was in the hands of those who worship him. Us regular people had control over him. For once, an athlete was not God. Just a human being like the rest of us. Burress will do jail time, and like it or not, when released, will most likely reclaim that pedestal. But for now, he’s simply one of us, minus the gun charge.

Oh, Michael Vick. I’m not going to elaborate too much on this fellow because we’ve all heard enough. I don’t have a problem with forgiving someone. But what I do have a problem with is the players who commit murder and then rejoin their team quickly without much resistance. A few players have committed crimes that trump Vick’s in terms of just plain “badness”. Yet Vick must lick the floor and tie other people’s shoes to get back on the field. I’m sure Vick will return to an NFL team. I just hope that then players realize that behaving is not such a bad thing. And no disrespect to the majority of the players that follow the law.

Back to realityWill we see him again?