NFL: Week One
There’s nothing much fun to lead off with about football when so much bad stuff is happening in the Gulf Coast. Obviously, give if you can. The loss of life, humanity and basic things I thought could be taken for granted in the US, is stunning and awful.
Of all the horrible stories like those above, one that’s relevant to football is the sickening behavior of Saints owner Tom Benson. Obviously, New Orleans can’t field a team this year and the Superdome needs repairing – but that’s a low priority, obviously, for the city of New Orleans. Benson is reportedly thinking of keeping the Saints in San Antonio not just for this year, but forever, or at least keeping them OUT of New Orleans. What a major slap in the face to a city in the midst of a natural disaster – not only that, but he’s planning on doing so by not refunding any Saints ticket holders for this season. So, he slaps the city and kicks the residents of the city while they’re down. REAL classy, Benson. Real sense for what’s important in life, and a fine way to enjoy the luxuries your life provides you. Unbelievable.
Then there are guys like Warrick Dunn, who challenged every NFL player to fork up at least $5,000 – his basic quote pointed out that the league minimum was just under $400K, and told any NFL player who thought he couldn’t afford the $5,000 should talk to Dunn directly to explain why. (Dunn himself gave something like $250,000.)
Anyway, onto the games.
Welcome to all of you participating in the league for the first time, and welcome back to the rest of ya. Good to see some familiar faces as well. The payout stuff won’t be finalized until I get the total funds, but in general, my idea is to pay out more than the league entry for each week – it’s hard enough to win a single week in this thing, you might as well get a net benefit for it. Obviously, that lowers the yearly payout accordingly, but it will still be a nice chunk, don’t you worry.
Everybody should be well aware that their own skills are now being matched up against a team comprised of…eight and nine year olds. That’s right, Jeff Mester’s kids – otherwise known as B Money and Sibs – are in the mix. I predict that they’ll end up at least in the top half of the standings.
In my yearly quest to incessantly be wrong about my NFL picks for the season, I’m not picking the Pats to three-peat. For one, they’d have to pay Pat Riley for the rights to use the word “three-peat” in all their merchandise, and I can’t see that happening. I don’t see any reason the Steelers will be worse than they were last year – if anyone thinks Plaxico Burress leaving for the Giants isn’t addition by subtraction, I don’t know them. And if Indy cleans their defense up like they seem to be, they might contend as long as they can play at home through the playoffs.
In the end, I can’t put my money with Tony Dungy winning a clutch game, so I see the Bill Cowher and his finely trimmed beard leading the Steelers to the Super Bowl, to face…
Look, the obvious pick is the Eagles, right? But it’s harder to pick them getting to the NFC Championship four years in a row than it is to see New England winning it all again, so I can’t go there. Like our government, at least I’m consistent -- consistent in being consistently wrong, but consistent nonetheless.
There’s no Colts or Steelers lurking in the NFC, let alone Chiefs, Ravens, Chargers or Bills. (And surely I’ve forgotten another contending AFC team.) Who is going to beat up on the Eagles? The Vikings? To quote an NBA commercial, “KNICKERBOCKER, PLEASE.” I don’t bet on Mike Tice, he doesn’t bet on me. The Rams? Seahawks? Carolina? I’ve seen people pick the Panthers and the Vikings, and that seems preposterous to me. If the Eagles aren’t going to the Super Bowl, it’s going to be one those insane, how-did-that-happen kind of thing. Think the Falcons vs. the Broncos, or the 1994 Stan Humphries-led Chargers against the LEAGUE’S GREATEST DYNASTY FORTY-NINERS. (Sorry.) So, on that note, I’m going with…Carolina. (Come to think of it, they were another odd Super Bowl participant a few years back themselves.) The defense is solid, Delhomme is a poor man’s Brett Favre which is no small thing, and Steve Smith will come in and easily replace Muhammed. The running game is a mixed bag of talented backs and they could win a lot of games by rotating change of speeds that way. Are they a Super Bowl talent? Nope, but I’m saying they make it there, and lose big to the Steelers. Get ready for a lot of Ben Roethlisberger commercials.
A few other random thoughts on the season:
The Titans are not a good team – Steve McNair coming back helps, but not a lot.
The Redskins are better than some think they are, and I’m not just sucking up to Amy Shriber and Russ Launer who is sick of them losing. It’s hard not to see a young team with a solid defense can’t improve in the second year under Joe Gibbs, assuming he’s still fired up.
Last night’s game tells me pretty much what I need to know about Oakland and New England. Oakland will score a lot of points and lose a lot of games, and New England will do whatever it needs to do to win a lot of games.
Terrell Owens is a nincompoop. I think they both make it work in some way this season, but not without an unnecessary flareup or three from Owens. McNabb is a pro and a great player to boot, and he made it work with Freddie Mitchell and Todd Stinkson for years, so he’ll deal with T.O.’s bad ‘tude.
A lot of people seem to think Green Bay has a fighting chance this year – yeah…I don’t really see that. They won’t stink, but I don’t think they are nearly complete enough team to win.
The 49ers will improve enough for die-hards to see good, intriguing progress…but not enough to matter in the standings. And their odds of sweeping Arizona again are pretty low.
Thank god the NFL is finally here.