NFL Gallimaufry

Some thoughts on yesterday's action...

*The 2009 Giants sure had their struggles, but I thought they had a lot more pride and fight than what they showed. However, I am strangely not that bothered by this loss for two reasons: One, I had already pretty much written them off after the Eagles loss a couple weeks ago. And two, if they don't even bother to show up in an elimination game, at home against a 6-win opponent, then they obviously don't care. And if they don't care, why should I? So 2009 is a loss, but I am confident that Jerry Reese will make the kind of offseason moves it takes to get back on track for next year. (Defensive Coordinator Bill Sheridan being fired is one obvious move.) I think I can live off of the 2007 championship, the greatest in the history of sports, for a year or two longer...but I would love to see another title run in the near future.

*I'm very disappointed in the Colts for not being interested in winning at home against the Jets. It's one thing if you're 10-0 and you've clinched the division, and you rest some starters with six games still left in the regular season. But at 14-0, and leading 9-3 at halftime, just 90 minutes away from a perfect season, they take their foot off the gas? I wonder how many more times the Colts have to go perfect the first 12 to 14 weeks, ease up for the rest of the regular season, then lose in the divisional round, before they learn? And correct me if I'm wrong, but the one year they did win it all, 2006, didn't they go 12-4 and play hard through the end of the regular season?

*If there's any team that knows how to get their fans' hopes up, only to crush them in a new creative way every season, it's the Jets. So, with this team in control of its playoff destiny, I look for them to come from ahead to lose to the Bengals on Sunday night. Maybe by a missed field goal, stupid personal foul, or a Sanchez pick-six. Hey, they're the Jets, they'll probably find a way that's none of the above! So as you can see I suddenly find myself being very anti-Jets, as I feel they don't deserve to be in this position, especially at the expense of Pittsburgh - a team that actually can do something in the playofffs if healthy. But, as Clint Eastwood says in Unforgiven, "Deserving ain't got nothing to do with it."

*As for the Steelers, they do need a win plus a lot of help...but they should have thought of that while they were losing to the Raiders and Browns a few weeks ago.

It should be an intriguing final weekend of the regular season. And coming soon, 2009 NFL Preview revisited.

Incorrect regional grammar runs deep

Let me start by saying I am a grammar absolutist. Not a relativist. (Nor a nihilist.) There is a right way, and a wrong way, to pronounce something, no matter where you live. Roof, not "rough." Oregon, not "Or-e-gone." And it's Prescott, not "Pres-kitt."

Now, I don't expect to enact change with this one because it's so ingrained in most locals, but I feel it's worth bringing up. Near as I can tell it's a California thing that sort of spread here, but what's the deal with Arizonans putting definite articles in front of numbered freeways? I have lived in this state longer than I haven't, and it never sounded right. It never became grammatically correct either.

Even some folks who came here from another region have picked up on this mistake. Whereas they used to take 287, to Route 1, to get to work, they now take "the 51 to the 10." For people who once had it right, only to come here and be convinced to speak incorrectly, the mistake is even more egregious.

Oh well. I guess it's just one of those little things that doesn't truly matter for anything in life, yet if you focus on it too much it will drive you crazy.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to be getting to the work, which is just located just off of the 24th Street and the Camelback Road.

Wow, thanks for the honesty

Now Tiger Woods has come clean - only after being caught, of course. Among the egregious details are his cheating on his wife while she was pregnant. And how about the voicemail message to one of his mistresses that Us Magazine got a hold of, where he tells her to take her name off her phone because his wife might try to call? Classy. Also, for the entertainment value alone this Taiwanese Youtube video is worth watching - it's a computer simulation of what may have happened the night of the shady car accident. It's terrific from about the 50 second mark forward, complete with wife's face-slap, wife chasing his car on foot (a la T-1000 in Terminator 2), and telephone pole collision.

Way to go, Urkel. No credit for admitting the truth after first trying to cover it up. Going forward, I can only hope he has the kind of remorse and humility it takes to repair a marriage and family.

And yes, it does matter how sports celebrities act. Now more than ever, we need positive role models in prominent positions. One of the byproducts of guys like Tim Duncan and Peyton Manning winning championships, even if they don't play for the teams we happen to root for, is that these kinds of athletes are in the spotlight more. For this reason alone, I hope the Duncans and Mannings of the world continue to win. (My favorite squeaky clean role model athlete of all, Mariano Rivera, certainly took care of his part this year.)

Well, they do play 82 games

The Knicks beat the Suns last night, 126-99. Had a 3-14 team ever previously beaten a 14-3 team, by that wide a margin before? I don't quite have the intrigue level to do this research, but I can't say it's that surprising either. With so many games on the regular season schedule - and this is even more true with baseball - it's impossible for the players to care about every one of them.

Another plea for feisty journalism

Regarding this Tiger Woods phantom "car accident" at 2 AM the morning after Thanksgiving, just outside Woods's driveway...I'm going to make the same plea to the TMZs and National Enquirers of the world, that I did to the sports media when the Bill Belichick/Patriots "Spygate" scandal was covered up by the NFL. And that plea is, Please, please keep pursuing this. Don't just let them sweep it under the rug. Of course the police aren't going to investigate further. But don't let the precious, chosen one skate here.

I really don't have a personal ax to grind against the guy. I just kind of felt pushed in the non-Tiger direction by all the worship of him that goes on. It's the same reason people find Tim Tebow or Brett Favre annoying. It's not their fault they're overexposed or gushed about. In fact, I bet if the exaggerations were dialed back maybe 10%, people could appreciate them for what they are, rather than feel like they have to push back against waves of media fawning over them. And for me, with Woods that effect is multiplied by how I don't believe golf should be paid attention as a major sport at all. (But that was another post.)

So yeah, all that...plus I simply can't stand cover-ups.