Let me get right to the business of listing the five worst teams from last Sunday. And there were a lot of candidates to choose from this week…
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5. Saints: You gain 595 yards on offense and you lose the game by 15 points? That has to put you on any list of pathetic teams that anyone might compile.
3. Falcons: Only 12 first downs and 82 yards passing. The game was close at halftime and then they got blown away in the third quarter.
2. Packers: They got shut out at home and lost by 5 TDs. You've seen the Guinness ads where the two guys wear limburger slabs on their heads to "fit in" at a tailgate party. Well, that's about how bad the Packers stunk last weekend. But, notice they are not the worst team on this list
1. Lions: They lost to the Cardinals. There's just not much more to say about how bad they were on Sunday than, "They lost to the Cardinals."
Raiders' RB, LaMont Jordan, is gone for the year with a knee injury. Not having to play for that team might be considered a blessing but once you factor in surgery and rehab, that's a steep price to pay. Nevertheless, it may take a week or so for Randy Moss to figure this out, but that injury to Jordan will keep him away from the team and situation that Randy Moss feels so uncomfortable in. So, how long until Moss comes down with an ailment? Just asking…
I kind of liked seeing shots of Mike Nolan and Jack Del Rio on the sidelines wearing a suit and tie. I'm not into fashion or anything like that, but when all the coaches wear the same stylized shirts in team colors, they look more like the cheerleading squad than the coaching staff. I really do think that the NFL is overly obsessed with fashion and dress codes and the like. That's why I am glad that Bill Belichick wears the ratty sweatshirts and hoodies that he does; he follows the letter of the law yet makes the league look silly. Now what he really needs to do to add to "his look" is to have some barbecue sauce stains on the front of the hoodie…
In addition, I also appreciate that the league has taken the trouble of telling me about a thousand times that their clothing partner, Reebok, designed those suits for the coaches. Did they actually think someone might mistake them for Armani goods? Please…
LaDanian Tomlinson is having a spectacular season and LaDanian Tomlinson is a great running back. However, the talking heads on radio and TV have to stifle this talk about "greatest running back of all time" for just a little bit. First of all, Tomlinson has only had a five-year career to date so he hasn't even played as much as Gayle Sayers did yet. And it would be nice if he could lead the Chargers to at least one playoff victory before his ascension to a pedestal at or near the height of "greatest running back of all time". Look, he may actually turn out to be that player; but let's let a few more accomplishments roll his way before trumpeting it over and over again.
I suspect that the Arizona Cardinals will face a business dilemma at the end of this year. They owe Dennis Green more than $2M for next year and the Bidwell family has never liked the idea of paying someone not to work for them even when the amounts were far less than $2M. But the Cards actually sold out their games this year and part of that fan enthusiasm was based on some lofty expectations for the team. Let's just say that a finish in the 4-12 range (or worse) will not fulfill those lofty expectations. So, which would be worse for the Bidwells: pay Dennis Green and his staff - and the front office geniuses who helped put this team together in the first place - to take their talents to another time zone or lose fan support, which equates to ticket sales, concession revenues etc?
I know which path I'd follow; but with the Bidwells, you never know. They have owned the Cardinals since the 1930s and they have run the show for the team since then. Even when they hire "football people" and put them in positions with titles that make it seem as if the "football people" are in charge, the Bidwells are always right there looking over the shoulders and holding tight on the purse strings. They are sort of the mirror image of Danny Boy Snyder in Washington. He meddles and he spends oodles of money; they meddle and they spend as little money as they can get away with.
By the way, neither management model has worked all that well for either the Redskins or the Cardinals. The last championship for the Cardinals was in 1948; Harry Truman was President; the Marshall Plan was in full swing; Mao Zedong had not yet established the People's Republic of China; John Wooden was in his first year as head basketball coach at UCLA. Since that time, the Cardinals have won precisely one playoff game. Finally, here's an observation from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:
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"Barry Darsow, a former WWF and WCW rassling star, is now selling homes and property for Minnetonka Real estate in Maple Grove, Minn.
"Darsow clients are urged not to default on payments. He was, after all, once known as The Repo Man."
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