Yep, this is a bit late, but I had to allow time for Monday Night’s game and to help tend to my sick children. After a painful few days, here are a few things I learned after a strange few days. (And no need to point out the obvious: T.O.’s a punk, Al Davis is an old psycho, etc.)
Kansas City Chiefs’ Fans = Ungrateful
I’m not convinced the Kansas City Chiefs still aren’t the worst team in football despite beating previously undefeated Denver. There are a few nice parts, young and old, i.e. Larry Johnson, Derrick Johnson, Glen Dorsey, but this team right now is still neck-and-neck with the likes of St. Louis, Cincinnati and Detroit.
So you’d think fans would be uproariously happy with a win over the hated Broncos Sunday at Arrowhead. Well, they were to an extent, but a frightening amount of the talk I’ve heard on the local airwaves has dealt with the inability to get Tony Gonzalez the ball enough to break the all-time receiving yards record for a tight end. (He finished two yards shy of setting the new mark.) It wasn’t enough that this unimpressive lot actually came together for a win, let alone one against a decent team — keep in mind the mighty Chiefs have already been blown out by Atlanta and were dominated at home by Oakland. Nope.
For the record, when my family moved to the KC area in the mid-1980s the Chiefs were a similarly hideous product on the field. Half-filled Arrowhead Stadium was a depressing place then, so I loudly called B.S. when the Schottenheimer years (and those that followed up until a couple of years ago) gave Chiefs’ fans the reputation among the best in the league.
They’re getting what they deserve now.
Rough Times for My Alma Mater
Outclassed in front of 100,000+ in Happy Valley on Saturday night, Illinois has somewhat stumbled out of the gate in 2008 with a 2-2 start. Keeping in mind that their losses have come to #4 Missouri and #6 Penn State, I’m hardly calling for Coach Zook’s head, but the Orange and Blue need to take care of business in the coming weeks with matchups against Michigan, Minnesota and Indiana to get back on the right track.
The bumps and bruises reached former Illini in the NFL this week as well. First-round pick Rashard Mendenhall, hyped to have his first pro start in primetime Monday night, was rewarded with a fractured shoulder early in the second half and is now on Injured Reserve. Salt in the wound: Former Illini fullback Carey Davis, getting carries for the Steelers in Mendenhall’s absence last night, was knocked out of the game with an ankle injury.
And there’s more. Brandon Lloyd, having emerged as the #1 threat in the Bears’ passing game, left Sunday night’s game against the Eagles with an undisclosed knee injury. Status: Uncertain. This came just three days after Lloyd had injured his hip in practice.
I’m ready for some 2008 good fortune here.
Anquan Boldin is Rod Tidwell
Surely there’s a blogger who pointed this out at around 4:00pm EST Sunday, but I’ve already mentioned that I’ve been a little slow to the keyboard lately.
Anquan Boldin was knocked out cold Sunday making a catch in the endzone in New York. Thankfully it appears he will be okay.
But this sounds like cinema to me. Boldin has widely made it known that he wants to get paid … more. And he’s blaming his current employer for his dated deal. Remember mouthy Cardinals receiver Rod Tidwell? He spent the 1996 season, at least on the big screen, trying to prove his worth after a ridiculous low-ball offer of under $2M for three years. Those who don’t listen closely might have missed agent Jerry Maguire telling Mel Kiper and crew that Rod had 110 catches and 1550 yards the previous season. Seriously, how much would that fetch a man these days? Boldin’s best year was ‘06 when he caught 102 balls for 1402 yards.
Sounds crazy similar to me, though I think Rod probably needed the money a little more than Anquan.
Mistaken Superhero Sightings
Kryptonite comes in the form of a conference foe on a nine-game skid.
I understand that Florida’s humorous home loss to Ole Miss Saturday was not Tim Tebow’s fault. His performance was fine enough. But I still find it great that the fate of the Gators was sealed when the man often referred to as Superman failed to convert a 4th-and-1 on a quarterback draw. Crying shame, I tell ya. Urban Meyer, striving to appear as arrogant as Pete Carroll these days, looked wonderful in defeat.
On a non-sports note, I was surprised to see that the Invisible Woman was running for a State Board of Education seat in my home state.
Sadly, this was not the Sue Storm I was expecting.
At 5′6″ and 120 lbs. and worthy of being portrayed by Jessica Alba in two major motion pictures, for a brief moment I had high hopes for my district.
Alas, my enthusiasm for Kansas politics remains somewhat tempered.
Bloggers Are Passionate; Those Reading Blogs, Also Passionate
I don’t get many comments on my blog, and that doesn’t really bother me. I write more as my own personal outlet. (Wife’s not much into sports, and the kids are too young.) But it’s good to know I can strike a chord every now and then. Here’s what one kind soul had to say in response to my post Saturday morning BEFORE three other Top 10 teams had lost:
Comment:
Yes USC is known for losing a game to a unranked team but every team does this; just look at what happened this weekend FLORIDA GEORGIA lost. It’s quiet obvious you are just a hater so shut the f*** up and stop b****ing you a**hole. I am a USC fan and I got over the lose and you should too you arrogant cocky piece of sh**. USC FIGHT ON!!!
Lesson: I guess next time I’ll wait until all teams have played for the week before pointing out the shortcomings of one … but I will FIGHT ON too!!
4 Comments
September 30, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Illinois has played a VERY tough schedule. You haven’t gotten killed, but you haven’t beaten a great team. It will be interesting to see where Zook takes this team from here.
http://jrwojdylo.wordpress.com
October 7, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Zook has done as good a job with this program as anyone could have hoped so far. And I suppose when you have two losses and each loss was to a Top 5 team, it’s hardly time to panic. Like I said, they need to take care of business the next couple of weeks. They’ll have a chance for a quality win @Wisconsin, then at home v. Ohio State.
Thanks for stopping by.
October 9, 2008 at 5:39 pm
With all the topsy-turvy activity in the NFL this season, I remain fascinated with the question of who is the worst team in the league…especially since no one has really established themselves head and shoulders above the rest as the BEST team. The Chefs are in the hunt, but they have some hefty competition from a number of clubs. As for the Fighting Zooks, they’ll be just fine. He is the right man for the job and the school was wise to bring him on board.
October 12, 2008 at 9:28 am
Yep, I didn’t ever mean to imply that the Illini were in trouble with Zook. Of course, I certainly would have liked to have seen a homecoming win Saturday. But you can’t blame the coach for all of the mistakes that cost them that game, including two turnovers inside our own 10 and a failed fourth down try from inside the opponent’s one. Damn it!