I watched a lot of 'pussy ball' yesterday and came away unimpressed by the quality and ferocity of what I saw. Please spare me the drivel about the NFL being serious about cracking down on the helmet to helmet hits on 'defenseless' receivers. Roger (Wonderbread) Goddell could care less about the guys getting hit into next week - he cares about law suits by the hittees and their families.
I bet if a poll were taken as to how we fans feel about the issue we would overwhelmingly vote to allow brutality and head-to-heading to continue. That is why we watch the games. It's much they same for NASCAR fans. Even rednecks and goobers (does anyone else give a shit about NASCAR?) watch the races hoping for wrecks and blasts of orange flames. Face it- watching drivers make left turns for 500 miles is boring, but explosions are cool.
There was once a guy who came out of Ohio State and played for the Oakland Raiders. This was when Al Davis knew he owned the team. The guys name was Jack Tatum and his nickname was the "Assassin". He played cornerback and had a habit of hitting receivers and running backs so hard that they wished their parents had never met. Tatum said that his hits bordered on felonious assault, and when asked if he felt bad about hitting Patriot receiver Daryl Stingley so hard that he became a quadriplegic his reply was that it had been a clean hit, and that he felt no need to apologize for doing his job well. Tatum struck fear in all who played against him - my kind of player.
Hey look. I wouldn't get any pleasure if someone became paralyzed after a hard hit, but they are playing football, not futbol, or baseball, and shit does happen. Ellis Hobbs got off light yesterday against the Jersey Giants. Shit, he didn't even have to walk off the field - he got to ride off in a cart, just like the assholes who think that golf is a real sport.
And what is all this bullshit about protecting the quarterbacks? They call them field generals don't they? Well read some Civil War history and you will discover that generals used to get killed along side their troops. I say it ought be open season on the prima donnas - fuck them. They are football players aren't they? Football players get hit - ergo QB's need to get hit and hit a lot. One of my favorite sports photos is of long ago New York Giant quarterback (NYC used to have a team) Y.A. Tittle on his knees all bloodied up and with a glazed look in his eyes from getting hit for an entire game. It would have given me a great deal of joy to have seen Eli Manning look like that last night, but my joy was denied because of the way the game is played today.
As to last nights game. The good news is that the Eagles won. It wasn't pretty, but the W is a whole lot better than the BIG L assigned to the Jints. I don't like the Jints or anybody who plays for them. I'm also not very fond of anyone who roots for them either. About the only thing nice I can say about them is that at least they don't wear one of the new styled uniforms that are the vogue today. You know what I'm talking about - and if you don't take a good look at the Bengals, the Bills, or the Vikings. Those uniforms might look good on a fashion runway, but not on a football field. I prefer traditional uniforms - without the piping and stripes that go no where. (So you'll know exactly where I'm coming from, my favorite uniform in all of sports is worn by Penn State.)
Back to the game. After all the hype about Michael Vick last week we saw last night that the guy is mortal. He just played well enough for the Eagles to win, but couldn't work any magic in the red zone so we saw no TD passes although he should have had one on the pass dropped by Avant.
And Fat Andrew reverted to his old self by calling only a handful of running plays. I don't think he even put Harrison in the game last night even though the guy had run all over the Skins the week before. McCoy played well, but someone needs to remind the Large One that the teams who generally win the Super Bowls do so by having a good ground game. Don't believe me - check it out, because you'll discover that the Steelers, Patriots, and even the old 49er teams could run the hell out of the ball.
A last thought on the hitting penalties being dished out by Wonderbread and the No Fun League officials. I have a perfect way to stop the head hunting - if that's what they really want to do. Some have called for taking the face masks off the helmet as a way of solving the problem. I have a better solution. Make the players play without helmets like they did once upon a time ago. Who playing today would lead with their head if they weren't wearing a helmet?
The football gods have installed the Eagles atop the NFC East, which will have the effect of sending sales of green kool-aid to new heights. Some of you are already sipping the stuff, just like you sipped the red kool-aid during the baseball season. This long suffering fan will of course have none of it. I've been down this road before and I will have none of it. Remember we haven't played the Cowboys yet and we do have a date with the Giants in their home state of New Jersey in a couple of weeks. The gods could be setting us up like they did with the Phillies so until the parade starts I'll just sit back and watch - hoping that the level of hitting goes up a level or two.
Until the next time, have a good Thanksgiving!
No comments:
Post a Comment