Where I Watched: The PTI Newsroom
Who I Watched With: My Friend Tony
1) RIP Sean Taylor
Most of us watch football as a Sunday escape from our monotonous lives or as a salvation from unattained goals to play professional sports. Yesterday football fans all woke up with the scary news that Sean Taylor had been shot in his home and was in critical condition. Today we woke up with the horrifying update that Taylor died, leaving behind his 1-year old daughter.
By now we have heard about his spotty past, how much he had changed, and how his absence will affect the Redskins; basically heard enough to give us another reason to wish it hadn’t happened. What hasn’t been mentioned is how far removed from life us NFL fanatics become on Sundays.
The wins, losses, and stats from our favorite teams and players are a one step removed real life, where the players are just like us, surviving life. Further down the road of reality, we get hung up on players’ fantasy values, cursing them to high hell for fumbles or bowing out of bounds instead of trying for a few extra tough yards. Like millions of other fans, I value fantasy stats on Sunday like Catholics value going to church and having a drink after.
This is two degrees of separation removed from what actually does matter, that these workhorses are emotional, living, breathing people who go home to family and who can have tragedy strike in the middle of the night. I see guys as 12’s or hopefully 22’s instead of as fathers, brothers and sons to people we have never heard of.
This Sunday I promise to try to remember that football is just a game and fantasy football is an extension of just a game. I doubt the sobering reality will linger for too long but this is how Taylor’s untimely death influences me as a mainstreamer. It would be nice for pundits to place the event in context of everyday life.
2) Madden’s Blew-Print
Look John Madden, I agree with you that the Eagles created a scheme to keep a close game with the Patriots. Throwing over the middle, playing the Patriots to pass every down, applying pressure to Brady, and a surprise onside kick, bake at 450, and hope the Patriots make enough mistakes. The Patriots definitely looked vulnerable, especially considering the Eagles kinda sorta stink.
So are there blueprints out for other teams to beat the Patriots? Eh… The reveal of the Patriots doesn’t just help the Ravens, Steelers, and Giants, but also the Patriots. Who do you think is going to be working harder this week: Brian Billick to emulate the Eagles’ plans or Bill Belichick revamping a defense that looked like it was still working off its tryptophan?
So sure, the Pats future opponents saw what worked on Sunday night, but as someone who’s watched every Patriots game, I expect to see a new team next week and the week after and the week after that. There are many faces to this Keyser Soze-ian Patriots team.
John Madden had the right idea but didn’t think it through the whole way. (Tangent 1- Just like his turducken. I had the good fortune to eat turducken last week and its good in the sense that its nice to eat three types of meat. But the idea may be a bit halfcooked… (see what I did there?) Getting a bite with all three types of bird is almost impossible. I’d eat it again but wont miss it in the meantime; just saying.) Andy Reid exploited the weaknesses of the week 12 Patriots enough to make Philly fans think they may not end up bitter and spiteful by the end of the night. But for sho’ dont expect a Belichickian team to side idly by as teams use the same old strategies to defeat a changing foe.
3) Eli the Sub-Par
No surprise, the Giants are set up perfectly for another second half swoon. Teams are only as good as their leaders are confident. The Giants putting up L’s in the winter is a New York tradition like the Rockefeller Christmas Tree, the Rockettes legs, and bums sleeping on steam vents. In probably the Giants most horrendous loss, Eli the defective had his most embarrassing performance since his infamous 2004 NFL Draft denial.
Eli the feeble knows about second half success about as much as he knows about San Diego real estate values. Eli the pitiable has lost both playoff games he’s started. Eli the grave has thrown 26 INTs and 23 TDs in games after week 10 over the last three years (the Giants are 8-11 in those games down the stretch).
This year the Giants are without Tiki and have injuries on their number one receiver and runningback as well as all over their defense. Eli the impotent doesn’t have enough help to hide 
his debility under center, in the pocket, and leading a huddle. Yet at 7-4 it will be tough to miss the playoffs coming from the NFC, even for Eli the forgotten.
And speaking of forgotten, I haven’t forgotten to mention Eli’s last name and the reason he still has a starting job in the NFL. He’s a decent quarterback in the same way that the New York Football Giants play football in New York. The Giants don’t currently have a better quarterback than Peyton’s brother but for sho’ plain old Eli doesn’t sound like quite the footballer without the convenient Manning title on the end.
4) Quarterback Dropoff
Why is it that the NFL has less than 30 serviceable quarterbacks? With the NFL gaining popularity abroad and with college football talent widening beyond the same old 25 teams, are we serious that only 30 or so quarterbacks are worthy of wearing an authentic jersey?
Here is my exclusive QB Club (in some order): Brady, Manning, Favre, Romo, Anderson, Roethlisberger, Palmer, Brees, Hasselbeck, Kitna, McNabb, Garcia, Young, Cutler, Rivers, Warner, Schaub, Garrard, Campbell, Bulger, Leinart, Delhomme, and McNair. And that leaves Losman, Clemens, Grossman, Gray, Feeley, and regrettably Eli in the just short of serviceable grouping, which makes 29. And we haven’t given Jamarcus a chance yet but even including him makes 30.
Let me remind you that there are 32 teams in the NFL. We don’t even have a suitable leader of the offense for every team. Quarterbacks stand out every year in college whether it is whoever Hawaii plugs into their system, a stud from the SEC, or the small school QB whose last name becomes an ESPN buzzword for months.
Not much in the NFL makes sense but this is beyond ‘limited touchdown dances’ and ‘running into the kicker’ stupid. Quarterback controversy is a term that should be saved for teams deciding between two chumps who make their fans nervous on every three-step-drop. For sho’ there must be some program to make transition from amateur to professional quarterback easier so that the world serviceable becomes a standard linked with backups.
