football, basketball, and any other sport with balls

Sorry, did I really say that?

It's kind of like the Solar System Unit; you just can't avoid that costly "Uranus" joke, can you?

MDB and I had the opportunity to attend a couple of NFL games here in town this year and I have to admit something; I'm more amazed by the athletic prowess of these athletes now than I ever was! Why do I say that? If you've ever been to a game, you don't need to wonder. It goes something like this:

Kickoff, 5-minute TV timeout; first series team 'A', 7-minute TV timeout; 1st series team 'B', punt and return, 5-minute TV timeout. 2nd series team 'A', 2 minute station identification; 2nd series team 'B', break to the network for highlights, finish 2nd series team 'B', 10 minute break at the quarter change, etc., etc., etc.!!!!

OMA!!!! - how do these guys manage to stay warmed up enough to actually play football when they're actually PLAYING??? No WONDER there are so many pulled muscles in the NFL!!!

Speaking of the NFL, my beloved Browns hired Mike Holmgren as President al la Big Tuna in Miami and his first decision was to retain Eric Mangini as Browns Head Coach. Smart move, in my opinion. First of all, Mangini said (and I believe him) that he inherited "a mess" when he got there and he needed to do some pretty drastic things to turn things around. Since the Browns truly were "a mess" under Romeo Crenell, his claim isn't too hard to believe. Secondly, he had to turn over a large (and I mean LARGE) percentage of his personnel since they were used to how Romeo did things and would resist whatever change he brought about (obviously!). Finally, when his people and his system eventually caught on, the Browns finished with a 4-game winning streak and looked pretty good (especially on the defensive side of the ball!!!) doing it, so it would simply not have been fair to blow the Browns up AGAIN and not give Mangini a chance to finish what he started. Frankly, it's a wonder that Mangini isn't still in New York. As far as I can tell, the only reason he had eventual failure there is the fact that management crammed Bret Favre down his throat and the old man simply didn't have what it took to win over the course of a whole season! As long as Mangini was allowed to do things his way, the Jets were having success!

I have a feeling that the Browns are on their way up and the rest of the AFC North (with the possible exception of Baltimore) is on its way down. Too bad for Pittsburgh, too! I really love those guys with their silly little towels! NOT!!!

Basketball is going really well this year so far!! My 'A' team has won 5 games and has not lost as of yet; a precarious situation for any basketball coach! Why precarious? Well, the dangers are numerous! First, in Texas, we have "no pass-no play" to deal with. Players who don't pass their classes are not eligible to compete in extracurricular activities. Grades for the third 6 weeks will be posted as of Thursday this coming week and ineligibility begins on Thursday the following week, which means that any of my players who become ineligible due to grades are finished for the season! Not a pretty picture for us if any of my "A" team players become ineligible! Second, our schedule has us playing only 4 more regular season games. Three of those four games are against opponents who have a total of 3 wins between them. In other words, they're not very good! The danger there is that we'll get soft and start to think that we're "all that," setting us up for a fall in our last game, which is against an opponent who has only lost one game, that loss coming to a team that we only beat by 5 points. In other words, they're pretty good! I'd hate to have 8 wins going into the final game of the year with a team with an overinflated estimate of their own abilities only to have it handed to us by a team who's hungry and more than ready for us! Lastly, we have a real chance at injury in any one of those games. We're perilously thin in the front court and any injury there could sink us very easily. I've already lost my starting '4' to a hand injury and his back-up is currently failing two classes. We could put ourselves in a position to lose that final game and wind up in a tie for first with the first tie-breaker being head to head competition. If we lose that final game and wind up tied with that team, they would win the championship despite having the same record as us!

Oooohhhh!!! My head is swimming!

Somehow, we've developed an adversarial relationship with our girls programs and I'm not really sure why! The 8th grade girls have a new coach this year and she seems to think that her program is the only one that counts despite the fact that they're not really very good and they don't seem to be in a position to really make anything happen this year! It's getting old!

Back to football! The Bengals lost (what a surprise!) and the Eagles got beat, rather badly, by the Cowgirls! All I can say is that it's about time that team from Dallas lived up to all the hype! However, who else out there is ready to finally agree with Rush Limbaugh and state that Donovan McNabb is perhaps the most over-hyped quarterback of this generation and the main reason for it is his race!

If Donovan McNabb were white, would anyone say that he's a perennial all-pro or, as the illustrious commentator Charles Barkley stated yesterday, the greatest quarterback in Eagles history? Uhhhh.....anyone out there ever heard of Norm Van Brocklin?

That's what I thought!

McNabb is good, no question; but the "greatest quarterback in Eagles history?" I don't even think he cracks the top 5!!! I mean, come on! Van Brocklin, Cunningham, Snead, Jurgensen, and Jaworski all played for the Eagles! I'm sure if I dig a little harder, I could come up with 5 or 6 more who are better than McNabb! Let's face it; McNabb is good and the Eagles will only go as far as he takes them but at this point, he's not even the greatest quarterback on the Eagles roster RIGHT NOW, let alone the greatest in Eagles history!!!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!