After a week of buying a new house and arranging for utilities/deliveries and painters and etc., I decided that Friday night was “free time” for me to do some catching up. Our furniture shows up Monday morning after two months of storage; I figure I need a weekend of relaxation to prepare for that event. In truth, my long-suffering wife is out on the town with several old friends/colleagues who are in town for the weekend and I was disinvited…
There are three interesting games in the NFL this weekend. Houston at Atlanta is interesting – not because the game has playoff implications – but because Matt Schaub returns to Atlanta as the starting QB for the Texans. And that gives him an opportunity to rub it in against a Falcons team that isn’t going to win a lot of games this year but had one victory snatched from it last weekend by one of its own players.
Quick Quiz: Which player’s rantings and ravings were most damaging to their teams and to the player’s reputation – - DeAngelo Hall or Milton Bradley. 100 words or less…
Another interesting game will be Denver/Indy. This game ought to have playoff implications but there is another angle here. Peyton Manning will be throwing against a defensive backfield with Champ Bailey at one corner and Dre Bly at the other corner. Just watching that ought to be worth the price of admission…
New England versus Cincy should be a great dessert for the weekend games. The Pats have scored 38 points per game on some decent defenses. The Cincy defense allowed 51 points to the Browns. ‘Nuff said. I don’t think the Pats can hold the Bengals under 20, so this game could have a big number at the end – - sort of like the score of a high school basketball game.
A fourth game might be interesting if Duante Culpepper starts for the Raiders against the Dolphins this weekend. Once again, it’s an interesting story-line for the game and not a game that has any playoff implications at all.
Back when Michael Vick did his apologia, I said that I had no idea if he was sincere or not in his contrition because I cannot read minds. Recent events in the form of Vick testing positive for marijuana as he awaits sentencing in the Federal dogfighting “event” now allow me say this:
1. Perhaps Michael Vick is dumb enough to buy an autographed and game worn Roy Hobbs uniform.
2. Alternatively, if he isn’t dumber than asphalt, then perhaps he wasn’t all that sincere in his statements that he regretted letting his young fans down.
3. Perhaps when he said he had found Jesus whilst going through all of these travails, he meant that he had a new “supplier” named Jesus.
Rex Grossman got benched in Chicago after three games with 1 TD and 6 INTs. People say that’s pretty awful and it would be hard to argue with that. However, down in New Orleans, Drew Brees has 1 TD and 7 INTs and he’s still the starter there. Very interesting… Oh, if you say that Brees doesn’t have any huge talent on the bench behind him – and I won’t argue with that either – then I’ll have to point out that the Bears have now gone to Brian Griese who hasn’t gotten the job done in Denver, Miami and Tampa.
The NHL begins its season this weekend. Did you know that they had already played a whole bunch of exhibition games? So, what is more meaningless:
a.) The final NHL exhibition game for any of the teams or …
b.) The St. Louis Cardinals/Pittsburgh Pirates series this weekend?
After winning more than 50 consecutive international games, the US Women’s soccer team got torched by Brazil in the Women’s World Cup last week. The US coach decided to change goalies for that game and it didn’t work out all that well on the pitch. Even worse, the goalie who was benched jumped ugly on the coach for his decision and then on the teammate who replaced her in that game. Let’s just say that it would not be a good idea for Hope Solo and Brianna Scurry to think about double-dating any time in the near future…
A reader alerted me to the results of a college football game between South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and Mayville State. In triple overtime, the final score was Mayville 10 and S.D. School of Mines and Tech 7. Imagine you are the coach for a team that will be playing either of these teams later this year and you are reviewing this game film. How much coffee would you need to watch it through to the end?
Here is another obscure statistic from another reader. Buffalo is relatively new to NCAA Division 1-A football and you don’t expect a team to step up a level and excel right away. Nevertheless, since the beginning of 1999, Buffalo’s record is 13-78 which is not good. But here’s what’s worse… If you gave Buffalo 19.5 points at the start of every game, their record is still under .500 at 42-49. Now there are some real “growing pains”!
Finally, here’s some advice that Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle gave to Indiana Pacers’ forward Shawne Williams:
Memo to Indiana Pacers’ forward Shawne Williams: If you’re going to drive your car with no driver’s license, expired plates, and a stash of marijuana, you might want to consider using your turn signal. It’s the little stick on the left side.
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…