Life and Stuff

Well here we are folks, we have come to the start of another NFL season, the 88th to be exact. Welcome to the first edition of Tuesday Morning Running Back, this is sort of a forum for me to share my thoughts and recollections of the week's pro football league action. I chose to write this on Tuesday so that all games have an equal chance to be covered, though as I stated in my last column, not every game will be covered simply because not every game will provide me with ample opportunity to comment on something. Honestly, do you think I'll have anything else to say besides both of these teams stink if you asked me to comment on a Cardinals and Texans game? I thought so. No one is safe from my wrath, and people who deserve to be complimented will be. In all, 21 columns will be produced from week one to the Super Bowl. In the end, I hope this column will be well read and perhaps someone will be willing to pay me for it by season's end. I'm certainly holding out hope. If you come across this and like what you see, do not be afraid to pass this on to your friends, colleagues, family, or people you meet on the street. I need all the readers I can get. This is the only place for hard-nosed brutally honest football commentary. Now then, on with the commentary.

• What better way to begin this column then by summing up the bizarre lengths some people will go to to express their appreciation that football is finally back. While perusing ESPN.com yesterday, I came across a post on the NFL message board which read, "Football Season is finally here, I told my wife to put off our marriage counseling until February." Hey buddy, here's some advice for you, why don't you save your money and divorce your wife, then go out and marry a football. It's quite clear to me that you would rather watch football than save your marriage. It would set up a happy medium for the both of you. You can be alone with your football day and night, and she can take you to the cleaners in divorce court. Best of luck to you pal.

• Sympathy of the week award goes to Saints CB Jason David who was a part of the Colts Super Bowl team last season but signed with the New Orleans Saints for more m0ney. Since his first game as a Saint was against his former mates, you would think he'd want to prove Colts GM Bill Polian wrong for trading him. Well, he got burned on the first touchdown pass to Harrison. He then picked off a Manning pass and took it all the way, only to blow his coverage on Reggie Wayne and get burned again. So much for that big contract. Don't worry Jason, if you're a complete failure with the Aints you can always defect to the USFL, wait, never mind.

• As a fantasy football player, its always refreshing to see people who you took a gamble on pay off. Cases in point, Adrian Peterson and Randy Moss. Of course the sad part is I could look like a genius one week and an idiot the next.

• Tiki Barber not only hurt himself by not returning to the Giants but he also hurt his team and his fans. The lack of a strong running game came back to haunt them on Sunday night. Now, with their leader on offense gone for at least a month it is unclear who will step up and be the leader of the Giant brigade. I believe the real reason Barber walked away was because he no longer wanted the cold war between himself and coach Tom Coughlin to escalate any further than it had. I'm not calling Tiki a chicken, but I fail to see how he helped his team and Giant fans by retiring. The team and the fans will have to be content with him being a talking head on a football pregame show and doing silly consumer pieces for "Today."

• Do not be surprised in the least if Chester Taylor loses his starting RB job with the Vikes. Adrian Peterson was that good.
  

• How about that fan in St. Louis? He gets to see his team get clobbered by the Panthers but Steve Smith was nice enough to give him his gloves as a sort of solace for him sitting through a far from exciting game in St. Louis

• "Football Night in America" was a good show last year. It is now a great show with the addition of one Kieth Olbermann who performed as if he had never left ESPN. His commentary was bitingly satirical and honest to God truthful and the segment in which he got up from the desk and waved to the camera while Tiki Barber was talking was downright hysterical. Good call Dick Ebersol, you found a treasure with Olbermann

• From the people who brought you "duh", Chiefs coach Herman Edwards trying to explain his team's poor play during their embarrassing loss to lowly Texans claimed that you can't turn the ball over four times and expect to have a chance.

• Miami fans should take comfort in the fact that new coach Cam Cameron isn't afraid to take chances as evident by that gutsy 4th down call which resulted in a touchdown on Sunday

• Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo! Browns fans continue to ask themselves that question as the Clevelanders gave yet another pathetic performance on opening day. Crennell will most likely be the first casualty of the year in the coaching ranks

• The evacuation before the Packers Eagles game was not a false alarm as previously reported. The exact cause has not been revealed by through the grapevine it could have been one of three possibilities.

1. Widespread panic by Packer executives and fans when it was revealed Lynn Dickey would replace Brett Favre as starting QB.
2. They ran out of all cheese-flavored snacks at the concession stands.
3. Announcement that team would relocate to Milwaukee because of lack of support.

• The schmucks of the week are the Eagles special teams unit. In the scheme of things special teams is the least important playing unit on the field, but the Birds inability to handle punts and kicks cost them the game.

• There's no truth to the rumor that Bill Cosby, Robert Culp, and Harriet the Spy were asked to leave the Jets sideline on Sunday.

• Shame on the Jets fans for cheering Chad Pennington's injury, if not for Pennington the score could have been much worse, and leave it to the Jets to accuse the Pats of cheating, they're just looking for an excuse.

• The Buccaneers better hope that Cadillac Williams does not miss more than a game. Without him that offense is just a bunch of over the hill vets and kids just starting out.

• Let's analyze the Chargers and Bears shall we. The Chargers have LaDanian Tomlinson and no one else. The Bears have a great defense but no offense. The result was a relatively low scoring game on Sunday that did not surprise me in the least.

• Football is a game that excites the masses for its ability to provide violent entertainment and specular areal passing plays, unfortunately, someones something happens that reduces the game to a mere meaningless event. Bills TE Kevin Everett sustained a spinal cord injury on Sunday that doctors believe will cause him to have partial paralysis for the rest of his life. This is a hefty load for Everett to bear, for not only is his career over, but he may never walk again. This serves as a startling reminder that football is often a dangerous game and the frequency of potentially serious injuries should be looked into by the league office. In closing, I urge you to pray for Mr. Everett and his family as they try to cope with this terrible accident. I'll see you next week.