Category: NFL (Page 7 of 7)

The Chart is for Losers

January 7, 2008 / Allan / 4 Comments

I’ll get to Tony Romo’s weekend later on in this post. But, first things first.

The Chart is for losers. You know, the two-point conversion Chart that every football coach references after an unsuccessful two-point conversion try. The Chart tells coaches when to kick the PAT and when to try to score two based on the point differential between the two teams being three or seven points. When you’re behind in a game, the idea is to do what you can to close the gap so there’s one full score difference between you and your opponent so you can tie or take the lead with a score of your own. If you’re ahead, do the same thing so your opponent can’t take the lead or beat you with a single score of their own.

And, by overthinking it, coaches blow this call every single week.

There’s only one reason the Steelers lost at home to the Jaguars Saturday: Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin went for two, not once but twice, when he should have just kicked the extra point.

The Steelers scored a TD with 10:25 to play in the game to pull to within 28-23. An extra point makes it a six point game. But Tomlin elects to go for two, even when a holding penalty on the play pushed the attempt back to the 12 yard line. There’s still two-thirds of the fourth quarter to play, and he went for two. And failed. The Steelers scored again at the 6:21 mark to go ahead 29-28. And now they HAVE to try for the two-point conversion so a Jacksonville field goal won’t beat them, it’ll only tie them. The run failed. And Pittsburgh’s only up one. And, of course, the Jags march down the field and kick the game-winning, not game-tying, field goal with 37-seconds left to win the game.

And somehow today Tomlin is still employed.

I haven’t done the research on the numbers in almost four years. But four years ago in the NFL, a one-point PAT was more than a 99% certainty while a two-point try was good only 54% of the time.

If Tomlin kicks the automatic point on both of his TDs there right in the middle of the fourth quarter, the Jaguars cannot beat them with a field goal. The worst case scenario is that the game goes to OT. And Pittsburgh’s at home!

And I knew Tomlin would invoke The Chart in his post-game meeting with reporters. I knew Tomlin would deflect all personal responsibility for the poor decision to go for two by blaming it on the chart. And he did.

“We’re playing The Chart. That’s not out of bounds. That’s just baseball; everybody’s got The Chart.”

But then when these coaches are pressed on it, when they ought to be, they get defensive.

“If I had a crystal ball and I knew we would lose by two, we would have kicked the extra point if that makes you feel good.”

Here’s my beef with The Chart: it’s just a lousy excuse for a coach who won’t take responsibility for his call. If the two-point try is successful the coach talks afterward about how they had scouted out the situation, they had planned for just that exact circumstance, they had seen something during the week they could exploit, they had prepared for just that moment and just that play. But if the try is unsuccesful, they blame it on The Chart. It was out of my hands. The Chart said to go for two, so we went for two. I have no control.

The problem is that football coaches are the most controlling freaks in all of sports. They demand complete control over every single aspect of their football teams. They take great public and private pride in over-preparing for every single hypothetical situation. They drill their assistants and their players on the minutiae of every single circumstance, real and imagined. They leave no rock unturned. They don’t leave anything to chance. They’ve studied and re-studied every single angle looking for the edge. And we’re to believe that in the fourth quarter of a playoff game they say to their offensive coordinator, “Let’s just go with The Chart.”

No. They make the decisions every time. You only hear about The Chart when they’re wrong.

I tried to pin Bill Parcells down on all that following a Monday night game in Seattle in which he had gone for two in the second quarter of what wound up being a nail-biting win against the Seahawks. He, too, claimed The Chart. He said he went with The Chart everytime. But on their very next TD in that same game, The Chart would have said go for two also. But Parcells kicked the PAT. When I pointed that out, he got defensive and used the crystal ball answer that Tomlin threw out there Saturday. They only reference The Chart when they’re wrong. And they attempt to escape all blame by saying they always use The Chart in every situation. And when the inconsistencies are pointed out, they get angry.

I’m not really sure there is a Chart. I think, instead, there’s an agreement among the coaches to call it a Chart when they mess up the two-point conversion.

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What do you think the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys was doing this past weekend? Up at Valley Ranch watching film or getting some treatment or maybe working out? He was at least hanging out at the house and watching the wildcard games, right?

No. Your quarterback was with Jessica Simpson and Jessica Simpson’s parents in Cancun.

Somebody explain to me what this guy’s doing!

You’re the quarterback of a team that hasn’t won a playoff game in over a decade. Your team has really struggled, especially the offense, over the past four weeks. You’ve already been in the news way too much with your celebrity girlfriend. The last time she was seen with you publicly you turned in the worst performance of your career. What are you doing?

Do you suppose Peyton Manning or Brett Favre thought the wildcard weekend would be a good time to get out of the country and hit the beach?

I doubt Simpson has much, if anything, to do with Romo’s execution on the field. But Romo knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if he went to Cancun with his celebrity honey and her parents right in the middle of the playoffs it would dominate the conversation in the media and in the Cowboys lockerroom all this week. And he decided to go anyway. He knew his teammates and coaches wouldn’t be thrilled with his very public romance being headline news again, but he decided to go anyway. At best that shows a lack of judgment. At worst it shows that he doesn’t care.

I didn’t hear all of Wade Phillips’ media session with DFW reporters today. But I heard enough of it to know that Romo’s weekend getaway with Daisy Duke was the main topic. Not the Giants. And not the New York pass rush.

Add to that Tony Sparano and Jason Garrett jetting all over the country for job interviews with the Falcons and Dolphins and Ravens. Who’s actually thinking about Sunday’s game against New York?

Peace,

Allan

Living Like Jesus

December 31, 2007 / Allan / 1 Comment

Living like Jesus is not something we do to get salvation. It is our salvation!

After Jesus was born we know that he grew in wisdom and stature in a normal God-designed way. We see in the life of Jesus decisions made and actions taken as a result of his education in Scripture. His regular fasting. His continual praying. The time alone he spent with God. The time he spent in Scripture. The time he spent in the synagogues, helping the needy, healing the sick, blessing the downtrodden, teaching his disciples. All of these things were formative experiences for Jesus.

And if we’re going to look like that, individually and as a church, we have to realize that there aren’t any shortcuts. Prayer, study, reflection, instruction, and experience all play a vital role in maturing us and transforming us more and more into the image of Christ. God designed these processes. And he’s so commited to them that he became human and went through them himself. To show us how.

We have to take very seriously the call to collaborate with God in this. We have to design and pursue on-going programs of spiritual formation.

Baptism should never be seen nor ever taught as the last rung on the steps to salvation. We have to go beyond simple conversion and ask the church to commit — to be resolved — to a lifetime of growing in our relationship with our Father; growing in prayer and study and the other spiritual disciplines; growing in our love and service to one another in Christ. Living like Jesus. This is our salvation.

I know you’re going to lose weight. I know you’re going to give more. You’re going to spend more quality time with your family in 2008. I know. But as we’re making our spiritual resolutions for the coming year, let’s find ways to join our God as partners in redeeming the world back to him.

May we pursue God’s Kingdom plans in humility and submission. May we reach out to others without distinction. May we honor and celebrate our differences in the Body of Christ. May we grow and mature in the faith through the spiritual disciplines of prayer and study and service to others. And may our God bless us by completing in us his work of salvation.

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The Cowboys needed to win yesterday to achieve the highest single-season victory total in club history. They lost. Jason Witten needed six catches to reach 100 for the year. He got two. Marion Barber needed 19 yards to hit a thousand for the season. He lost six. The Cowboys lost their regular season finale for the eighth year in a row in miserable fashion. They finished with a franchise record low one total yard rushing on 16 carries against the Redskins. They went 0-11 on third downs, eight of those tries needing at least eight yards for the conversion. They allowed a one hundred yard rusher for the first time all year with Clinton Portis’ 104.

Yuck.

It’s been weeks since this team looked any good. Wade Phillips said they were uninspired and took the blame himself. But yesterday’s loss in Landover reflects the poor-to-mediocre play of this team for the past month and a half. You always want to be playing your best ball heading into the playoffs, but the Cowboys are in the middle of their worst four week stretch of the season.

And there aren’t any more warm up games before the postseason. They go into the next two weeks with a horrible taste in their mouths and nagging doubts about their legitimacy as a Super Bowl contender. Five weeks ago they were a lock to represent the NFC in Arizona. Now nobody would be shocked if they lose in the divisional round to Seattle or these same Redskins.

Romo’s thumb. The Gurode, Newman, Ratliff, and Owens injuries. The disappearance of the running game. Poor tackling in the secondary. Wade Phillips’ record as a playoff coach. All of these things now become magnified in the wake of yet another December swoon.

And to think (this is the part I really love!): most of all this hinges on Terrell Owens.

The Cowboys have not scored a single touchdown since he was injured against Carolina. Without Owens, Jason Witten’s drawing double coverage. Patrick Crayton’s drawing attention. Defenses are stacking the box to stop the run, unconcerned with the prospect of Austin Miles or Sam Hurd beating anybody deep. Without Owens, the Cowboys offense can’t go. And Phillips said last night that Owens is “iffy” to make it back onto the field for that first playoff game on the 13th.

That’s usually how it happens, Jerry. When you sell your soul to the devil, the payback usually comes at the end.

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Congrats to the Patriots for their 16-0 season. It’s very difficult to get wins in the NFL. And they put 16 of them together in a row. That is an amazing accomplishment. In fact, it’s a unique accomplishment. And I don’t want to take anything away from that. But I do want to make this observation: the Pats racked up six of those wins within their own division, the lousy AFC East. That division would have to improve just to stink. The Bills, Jets, and Dolphins combined to win only 12 games this year. The Pats won 16, six of them against these awful teams.

They do not belong in the same class as that 1972 Miami team that went undefeated and won the Super Bowl. Not yet. That Don Shula squad is still the only frachise in the nearly 100 year history of the league to go without a loss all the way through to the championship. When Brady and Co. overcome the tremendous pressure and fight through the impossible expectations that do appear to be giving them trouble lately to win the Super Bowl, then and only then can the argument be made that they are the best team ever.

Plus, I do have a difficult time rooting for Bill Belichick, mainly due to his background with Bill Parcells.

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Speaking of the Dolphins, Bill Parcells met with the team’s GM, Randy Mueller, this morning and promptly fired him. He also canned the director of player personnel and the college scouting coorinator. He’s meeting with the coach tomorrow. If I were Cam Cameron, I’d be spending all day today updating the resume and downloading files. Won’t the Almighty Tuna conduct a three-month coach search and then declare at the end of the Spring that he’s actually the best man for the job himself? Won’t he use some sort of variation of the cooking-dinner-and-buying-the-groceries explanation?

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Finally, two more Cowboys notes: my otherwise sane little sister, Rhonda, gave me a Tony Romo jersey for Christmas. It’s the super nice one, too. Everything’s stitched on. And it’s the 1961-63 bright blue and white throwback style with the single star on the shoulders that I absolutely love. But I can’t wear it. It doesn’t say Lilly or Staubach or Howley on the back. It says Romo. And while I have nothing against Romo, he does represent the current configuration of the franchise which I cannot support. I’m not sure what she was thinking. But here’s the deal. If they win the Super Bowl, I’ll wear it for a week. Every day for a week. But that’s it. That’s the deal.

And if you’re still super bummed about the Cowboys loss yesterday and the fact that the Redskins are going into the postseason as the NFC’s hottest team, click here. It’s the old Tom Landry American Express commercial from 1982. Classic. If that doesn’t put a smile on your face, you’re hopeless.

Hidey,

Allan

All Sorts of Possibilities

December 4, 2007 / Allan / 3 Comments

The Screwtape Letters, a collection of theologically profound and provocative messages between a senior tempter and his protege in Satan’s service, is valuable to me in many, many ways. I suppose the main reason it is my favorite book and the overarching reason I find myself reading it from cover to cover every couple of years is that it reminds me in hard-hitting ways of the cosmic battle between God and evil. I can’t see it. But it’s going on all around me. And I can’t be too aware of it. C. S. Lewis’ book helps to focus my thoughts and my direction on the dramatic difference between appearance and reality, between the temporary and the eternal.

In discussing his patient’s response to the war, Screwtape advises his nephew/apprentice devil to give him a full account “so that we can consider whether you are likely to do more good by making him an extreme patriot or an ardent pacifist. There are all sorts of possibilities.”

The devil is in the extremes. He does his best work in the extremes. Extreme views and extreme beliefs and actions, as they relate to our world and to our fellow man, tend to shut out our neighbors and judge those who don’t share our views. Extremes tend to leave no room for mercy and grace.

Our call to discipleship is an extreme one. Following Jesus requires extreme decisions and extreme changes. As God’s children we should be radically different from the ones around us. And we’re called by the teachings of our Lord to take extreme action to get rid of the sin in our lives.

But let’s treat our extremes with caution. Let’s make certain our friends and neighbors, our brothers and sisters, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger in the gate are not excluded. Let’s never crowd out mercy and grace and love.

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Are you rooting for or against the Patriots to go 16-0? I want to know. And don’t just tell me “for” or “against.” Tell me why.

After last night’s game, the second in a row in which New England’s inferior opponent blew a late lead by collapsing on both sides of the ball, the Patriots were all the talk here at the building early this morning. Some are rooting for the Pats to do it because it’s neat to see that history being made. Some were rooting for the Pats to do it until Tom Brady shot his mouth off a couple of weeks ago about their glee in blowing people out. One of the many Cowboys fans here wants New England to lose just so they won’t have a better record than Dallas.

Where are you on this deal?

I’ve always admired Robert Kraft as an owner. When Terry Glenn was a rookie wide-receiver for the Patriots he received a ticket for speeding. And Kraft, as I’ve heard the story told, called Glenn into his office and told him that his players did not get tickets for anything. He fined him and told him it would be worse if it ever happened again. In a culture in which our professional athletes are celebrated as righteous role models, even when they plead guilty to obstruction of justice and lying to police in a double-murder investigation (see: Ravens MLB & Pro-Bowl, MVP, Madden cover, etc.,), that was refreshing.

But Bill Belichick. There’s something about him I don’t like. There’s something very Bill Parcells-ish and Bobby Knight-ish I don’t like about him.

But isn’t it also our tendency as Americans to root for the underdog? We love to see David take down Goliath. I despise the Ravens because of everything Ray Lewis stands for. But I surely wanted them to win last night.

Where are you on all this? Why?

The Pats may be 15-0, coming off a pasting of the 0-15 Dolphins, when they face the New York Giants in the regular season finale. Saturday night. On the NFL Network. History will be made. Those on both sides of the fence will be stoked. Casual fans and those indifferent to the plight of the Patriots will be interested. They’ll hype it for weeks. In fact, it’s already begun.

And it’ll be on the NFL Network, unavailable to almost 2/3 of our country.

Peace,

Allan

Lessons From Chad Johnson

September 11, 2007 / Allan / 2 Comments

Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson caught a touchdown pass in the first quarter of his team’s win over Baltimore last night and whipped out a replica Pro Football Hall of Fame blazer with the words “Future H.O.F. 20??” on the back. He strutted around the sidelines wearing the coat, much to the delight of photographers and commentators who’d been guessing for weeks how Johnson would celebrate his first TD of the season.

Johnson is dumb. His agent must be dumber. If he really has designs on the Hall of Fame, this was a dumb move.

This was not a spontaneous celebration. This one took plenty of foresight and planning. His agent was in on it. Several of Johnson’s advisors must have known this was coming. And apparantly they all told him it was a good idea. And even if they advised him otherwise, Johnson obviously overruled them.

Forget for a moment any opinions you may or may not have about how those kinds of staged celebrations call attention to the individual and disrespect the other 52 members of the team who helped score the touchdown. Forget the way those kinds of things alienate teammates and lead to disharmony on the bench and in the lockerroom. Let’s think for a minute about how the Hall of Fame Selection Committee views this.

The Hall of Fame Selection Committee, a fairly exclusive group of sportswriters and former players, mainly grizzled old-guard veteran types who see themselves as protectors of the dignity of the game, work unashamedly at keeping guys out of the Hall, not putting them in. It’s a brutal process. They disect every aspect of a man’s career, including off-field issues and whether anybody got along with the guy or not. If a man ever brings disgrace to the game or attempts to set himself up above the game and the teams, that man will have a very difficult time getting in. These guys on the committee hold grudges. They vote with bias and partiality. It’s not easy to get in. And if you violate any of their written or unwritten codes of honor, you have to hold a dozen league records and a couple of Super Bowl rings to even sniff a chance of being voted in.

I promise you, when Chad Johnson becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame, five years after his retirement, whenever that is, the stunt he pulled last night will come up. Some will claim he poked fun at the process, that he made light of the committee’s serious work, and that he desecrated the sacred beige blazer. Right or wrong, it will happen.

And as I thought about that while watching the game last night, I was reminded of a sermon I heard Jeff Walling preach at WinterFest and at Tulsa a couple of years ago. Making decisions based on the dot, not the line.

Walling had a bright red posterboard circle, probably two feet in diameter, and told us it represented “right now.” The dot represents the present. Today. And then he had a volunteer run a string of twine from the podium all the way down the center aisle, out the back of the foyer, and into the parking lot where we couldn’t see the end of it. The line. He called that “eternity.” And for 30 minutes that “dot” was up there on the stage and the “line” hung over our heads.

And he talked to us about making decisions based on eternity, not based on the here and now.

Adam and Eve were thinking only about the present when they messed up in the Garden of Eden. They were not thinking long term. Samson continually made decisions based on right now, not based on the big picture. When David was in the middle of breaking over half the ten commandments with Bathsheba, he was making the call based on the moment, not based on the future. The rich young ruler. Judas. Ananias and Saphira. The list of Bible characters who made decisions based on the dot and not the line is long.

And we would do well to learn from those lessons.

The decisions we make regarding how we spend our time. How we spend our money. What we say. What we do. Are we making those daily, hour-by-hour decisions based on the dot or the line? Do we take into consideration the eternal aspect of everything we do or are we driven only by what seems to be good at the moment? Do we reflect on what our actions mean for us and for others in the long run, in the big picture? What are the Kingdom ramifications? How does this impact God’s eternal will for my life? When we’re making our choices, do we consider these things at all?

What will this action do to my wife? How could this choice eventually impact my family? Could my spiritual well-being be compromised by this decision? Is there a chance, down the road, this could harm the Church?

It’s like the end of Moses’ great sermon in Deuteronomy 30, and the end of Jesus’ great sermon on the mount in Matthew 7. It’s like in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2. And it’s like the prophet’s answer to the king in Jeremiah 21. God always gives us choices. He always lays out the options in front of us. Life and prosperity or death and destruction. We make the call. Every day. Every hour. The choices are there. And they are ours. Choose life. Let us make our decisions based on the line, not the dot.

“We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

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We’ve always celebrated our children’s birthdays with a family dinner at the restaurant of the birthday girl’s choice. And so far, every kid, every year, we’ve avoided Chuck E. Cheese. Until last night. Carley was adamant. We couldn’t talk her into anything else. And so we went.

Carley and Valerie use their tokens on everything. They try it all. They especially enjoy the skeeball (Carley banged in four or five off the top of the game into the little 10,000 point loop) and they took several whirls on the roller coaster simulator.

Whitney, I think, spent every single one of her tokens shooting hoops.

Carley was absolutely thrilled with the Hannah Montana Barbie dolls, one for Hannah and one for Miley. You parents of elementary school girls understand. Everyone else, I don’t have the energy to explain. All I know is that Disney could take cauliflower and broccoli, turn it into a TV movie and a 30-minute show with a catchy tune, and sell millions and millions of pounds of it to pre-adolescent girls and their parents all over the world.

We couldnt’ find any candles in the house before we left so we actually stuck eight matches in the cake and lit them. You can see from the picture (notice the blackened matchsticks on the right of Carrie-Anne’s hand) that it wasn’t very smooth. Carley was blowing them out as we were lighting them.

And then to cap off the evening, Mr. Cheese actually sang Happy Birthday to the Bear.

We cashed in our nearly 300 tokens for three little toys that we could have purchased at Wal-Mart for 35-cents each. And we listened to Hannah Montana all the way home.

Next up, six little second graders for a sleepover / party Friday night. How do I get out of this to attend the Birdville-Richland football game?

Help.

Allan

On Distractions, A Bloody Nose, and Thursday Night Football

September 6, 2007 / Allan / 2 Comments

This will forever be known as the day I became a perimeter player. But first…

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One of my dear friends in Austin — let’s call her Brooke — included in her comments yesterday regarding congregational singing this provocative nugget:

I’m not sure where the idea arose that worship should be “free from distractions.” I haven’t really thought it all the way through, but I think the incarnation implies distractions, even in worship.

I also have not worked all of this out in my own head and heart. But it is something I struggle with mightily. Big time.

As a deacon over worship for two different congregations and a song leader and worship leader for 25 years, I always thought I had a grasp on how worship should be structured and on what’s important and what’s not. And then, a little over two years ago, Thomas G. Long blew the doors off my worship theology at the end of the introduction to his excellent book The Witness of Preaching.

He writes of his childhood church experiences in rural Georgia, particularly of the stray dog that would wander into the sanctuary during hot summer days when the doors and windows to the building had been left open to catch whatever little breeze they could. The dog wasn’t there every Sunday, but almost. Long jokes that the “stray hound of indecipherable lineage” had a better attendance record than some of the church officers.

“The ushers knew better than to try to run him off, the one and only attempt at that having driven him bounding toward the pulpit. So, while we sang hymns, the cur would sniff curiously at the ankles of the worshipers. Deacons would step around him on their way to take up the offering, and during the pastoral prayer the dog would wander aimlessly around the room. He was an endless source of mirth for us children, and he occasionally served as a handy and spontaneous sermon illustration in such references as ‘no more sense of right and wrong than that dog there.’

Looking back on it now, I realize what a trial it must have been for our ministers to attempt to lead worship and to preach on those Sundays when this mongrel was scampering around the building and nuzzling the feet of the congregation. I readily confess that I do not covet similar circumstances for myself, but there was something wonderful about those times as well. Whatever else it may mean, a dog loose in worship unmasks all pretense and undermines false dignity. It was clear to us all that the grace and the joy and the power present in our communion, and these were present in abundance, were not of our own making. We were, after all, people of little worldly standing who could not keep even our most solemn moments free of stray dogs. I want to believe that even our dark-suited, serious-faced ministers were aware of the poetic connection between a congregation of simple farmers and teachers in their Sunday best with a hound absurdly loose in their midst and a gathering of frail human beings astonishingly saved by the grace of God, grace they did not control but could only receive as a gift. If so, then in some deep and silent place within them they were surely taken with rich and cleansing laughter — and if they were, they were better preachers of the Gospel for it.”

I had always held strongly to the belief that worship should come off without a hitch. We should have our very best songleaders leading the songs, our very best readers reading the Scriptures, and the very best speakers and orators praying the prayers. I had always cringed when I had planned a Scripture reading or a song to be read or sung at just exactly the right moment only to have the person responsible for executing my plan mess it up. What will the visitors think? How does this reflect on me? It’s not our best we’re giving to God or each other.

Even though I still struggle and wrestle with this, I see now that kind of thinking is wrong at best and idolatrous at worst.

Long describes the “poetic connection” between simple, frail humans and the astonishing grace of our Lord. Grace that is completely out of our control. It’s a gift that God delights in giving and we gladly and humbly accept.

God views, and we must, too, not the misread passage or the ill-timed song or the confusion that new members sometimes bring to the Lord’s Table, but the people. We should see the people, the church, as an amazing collection of God’s children in all of our weakness and humanness. That speaks more to God’s love and mercy on a Sunday morning than anything we can plan. Instead of looking down when Brother Sam mispronounces “reconciliation,” I should look at the courage God gives him to read the Scriptures in front of the assembly. Instead of rolling my eyes when Brother Neil starts the song on the wrong note, I should roll my attention to the joy of the Lord evident in Neil’s service. And instead of shaking my head when Brother Joe goes down the wrong aisle during communion, I should praise God that Brother Joe is a brother!

It’s not the well-orchestrated, perfectly executed worship service we should strive for. It’s recognizing that God meets us, his Church, his children, in our imperfect songs and in our imperfect prayers and in our imperfect sermons.

There is no perfect sermon or perfect worship service. There is only a perfect God who loves his Church.

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Thursday is my basketball day at Fort Worth Christian with a bunch of other area ministers and coaches. An hour and a half of wide-open full-court hoops that gives me the exercise and the recreation I need to finish out the week strong. Today I was having an unusually good outing. In fact, I ended the first game by driving through the lane, around and through a couple of defenders, and scoring the winning bucket. As the second game was beginning to start, Eric, one of my teammates, and I were talking about driving to the lane and playing inside. Like Darrell Royal’s mantra that three things happen when you pass and two of them are bad, we both acknowledged to each other that good things happen when you drive the lane, and we vowed to do more of that during the second contest.

I was playing help defense early in that second game when one of the few young flat-bellies who plays with us began to drive to the hole. He had the ball down low. I stepped into the lane to take a swipe and he brought the ball up, nailing me right in the face with an 18-pound sledgehammer! I later found out it was just his elbow. But it felt like a Mack truck. I’m sure it wasn’t delivered with the same force as Kermit Washington’s punch to Rudy T. But it’s one of the first things that went through my mind.

That happened at about 12:30 this afternoon. The bleeding didn’t stop until about 1:30.

You know how a tornado can hit the rough part of town and people jokingly say the storm did about 17-million dollars worth of improvements? I’m hoping that, once the swelling goes down in my lip and my nose, I won’t be horribly disfigured but actually better looking. Right now my nose is crooked as a dog’s hind leg and one nostril is considerably bigger than the other one. My lip is busted. And I’m hoping like crazy that I’m not going to get two black eyes. I’d post a picture. But it would be so graphic that the filter on your computer wouldn’t even allow you to get to this site.

Playing down low is overrated.

I’ll be back. But today I have become a perimeter player.

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The Colts and the Saints kick off the NFL season at 7:30 Texas time tonight and I can’t wait. Just a few more hours. I know they’ve been opening the season on Thursdays now for a while. And I know for a couple of years now they’ve been playing on Thursday nights during the end of the season. And I guess this is the second season for Monday night doubleheaders. I always thought one of the main reasons NFL football became the national sport is because all the games were played at the same time on the same day. You gear up for it all week. You talk about it. You read about it. You get ready for it. And then BOOM Sunday comes and it’s crazy! And you spend all the next week analyzing the outcome and reviewing it play by play and then starting the process all over again for the next Sunday set of games.

Is there any chance in the world, as popular and as unstoppable as the NFL appears to be, that the league could ever start to suffer from over exposure? Could NFL games on TV four days a week ever hurt professional football? I realize there are some who will move heaven and earth to be in front of the tube for every NFL game. But most of us (right?) can’t do that. We don’t have time for that every other night. And so we’ll miss a bunch of games and highlights. Will that ever cause us to care less? Will that ever plant in our minds the idea that we can live without it?

Probably not.

Go Saints. Love Drew Brees.

Peace,

Allan

Category: NFL (Page 7 of 7)

The Chart is for Losers

Living Like Jesus

All Sorts of Possibilities

Lessons From Chad Johnson

On Distractions, A Bloody Nose, and Thursday Night Football

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