Fri 17 Aug 2007
Sorry for the lack of recent posts. The games have been so blah this week, I really couldn’t summon up the will to write about them. The dog days are indeed upon us, time to get back in the swing of things, but first…With NFL season looming nearer and nearer, I think I am finally at a point where I sever ties with the New York Football Giants. I have been a Giants fan all my life, but I can’t find anything that attracts me to their team anymore except maybe for Shockey (and that’s a big Maybe). Tiki, Seahorn, Kerry, Phil, LT, Bavaro, Pepper, Meggett, Reasons, Stephen Baker, Lenard Marshall, Jim Burt, Harry Carson, Carl Banks and Jim Fassel are all long gone, replaced by Eli “Silver Spoon” Manning, Tom “sucks-ass” Caughlin, and a bunch of other players I am not inclined to root for or against.
I find myself eager to watch how Wes Welker does with the Patriots and some other Texas Tech players I really liked when they were in college, but other than that, I think I will watch this season just to be entertained, without rooting interest. I truly feel like a fan without a team.
Of course there is still one test to pass; kick off weekend. On that Sunday night, the Giants take on the hated Dallas Cowboys on national TV. If the Giants want to win me back as a fan, they can start on that game. My Cowboy Hate could collide with Nostalgia for Tuna’s 90 Giants and mix in with my craving for a team to pull for into a perfect storm to ignite my NFL fandom. We’ll see.
I think it may be a fun season to listen to Monday morning Dallas radio. The fans in Dallas don’t have realistic expectations about the Cowboys and boy are they knee jerky. Cowboy fans are already anointing the Cowboys win the NFC (if there were only a grumpy old guy here to tell us to put away the anointing oil). But as they say, there is many a slip between the cup and the lip. Granted they have a defense loaded with talented first round picks and a coach that really knows how to coach the 3-4, but on the here are 5 on the con side:
- There is a reason they call it the sophomore slump. Maybe Tony Romo should have spent some time working on his passing game instead of making passes at American Idol contestants.
- The receiving core is thin and old. Dallas has one of the best wide receivers in the league in T.O. and a solid number 2 in Glenn but if one of those guys goes down with an injury, Dallas have some big offensive problems, expecting the running game to shoulder the load.
- The backs are ok, but not top shelf in Jules Jones and Marion Barber. See point two.
- How unfair is it to expect Wade, in his first year, to take over a team and grade anything besides a Superbowl win as a failure? How about a playoff win as the benchmark of success?
- Best pass rusher, Greg Ellis is coming back from injury and spent most of training camp trying to leverage a new contract.
How Bout them Cowboys!?!?
There you have it, now back to things that really matter, New York Mets Baseball. More to come shortly.
