Everyone and their mother has an opinion on this embarrassing Terrell Owens fiasco. but very frankkly, I'm sick and tired of hearing and reading about it, so I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and write about it.
I must confess that Monday Night Football has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. There's something about the music, Al Michaels, the last game of the week feeling, and the Cosell aura that reels me in. A few years back, ESPN took it to a new level with an MNF pregame show called Monday Night Countdown. The show starts at 7:30, and although I tried to tune in and watch it, it never held me becauae 90 minutes is just too goddamned long a pregame show for one regular season game. I no longer beleive that. And I don't watch Monday Night Countdown anymore. I hustle to get the kids to sleep to watch a 2 hour show on the NFL network called NFL Total Access.
When Stu Scott began doing Sportscenters at ESPN, his frequent partner was Rich Eisen. I always found them both entertaining and somewhat funny. Scott was the style. Eisen was the substance. So its somewhat ironic that they both host Monday night pregame shows on competing networks. As time has gone on, Scott's act has gone stale. The last time I heard him shout Boo-Yah, I almost threw an Amstel Light bottle through my television. ( I didn't want to waste the beer.) And the first time I heard him say, "cooler than the other side of the pillow", I thought it was hysterical. The 46, 879th time I heard him say it, I wished I was watching the Gong Show, so Charles Nelson Reilly could get rid of him. Then, when you add in the babbling, ranting fool known as Michael Irvin and master of the obvious Tom Jackson, you get truly unwatchable television, even for an NFL dork such as myself. The only redeeming factors are Ron Jaworski and Chris Mortensen. Jaws is the best x's and o's guy in the business. He's forgotten more about football than the rest of these blohards know. Its too bad he resembles Shrek when he smiles. Mort is always well informed, but I feel like we get very similar insight from Total Access' Adam Shefter.
The two analysts that make Total Access tick are Terrell Davis and Emmitt Smith. Granted, Davis is not the most dynamic studio guy, but he always brings an intelligent player perspective and he serves as a constant reminder of the pride that classy, great players bring to the profession. ( Barry Sanders and Curtis Martin serve as two other examples.) And Emmitt should have his own talk show. He understands the game, the locker room, and the business and the way the three overlap. I've heard him take dead accurate viewpoints this year on how Brett Favre was out of line commenting on Javon Walker's holdout and about what morons Jeremiah Trotter and Kevin Mathis were for throwing punches at each other with helmets on before the first Monday night game this year. He's not afraid to offend anyone, but all of his criticism is purposeful. You may not agree with everything he says, but when Emmitt says it, we know he means it. And that is much more entertaining than his old Cowboy teammate. The Playmaker has his nose so far up TO's ass, that part of Irvin's moustache is hair from TO's rectum.
Total Access also gives you guys like Sterling Sharpe, Butch Davis, and Jim Mora. Sharpe takes a lot of criticsm, but no one on TV gives you more insight into what it takes to play receiver in the NFL. Butch Davis sounds like Champ Kind, the sportscaster in Anchorman, but he's not afraid to let you know when he thinks a guy is dogging it. And if you saw Davis' last two Browns' teams, you know he's an expert on guys dogging it. As a head coach in the league, Jim Mora authored some of the all time great press conferences, like his "Playoffs" rant from 5 years ago. He's not always politically correct and earlier this week, I heard him say to Rich Eisen that he would disown his son if he ever endorsed bringing TO to Atlanta. The best I'm getting on Countdown is Irvin and Jackson screaming "Jacked-Up" at one another while Stu Scott winks at them with his good eye.
There have been a lot of rampant rumors in NFL circles that Dick Vermeil is planning to retire from the Kansas City Chiefs at the end of this season. The hot name attached to this potential opening is current New York Jets head coach Herman Edwards. I guess if Kansas City GM Carl Peterson is looking for a coach who will butcher the clock and blame his assistants for his own failings, he found his guy. But I digress.
Edwards vehemently denied the rumors as we would all expect him to do. But the message he was sending told a different story. Edwards was asked why with 7 minutes left in this past week's blowout loss to the Carolina Panthers, he had his quarterback handing the ball off and running down the clock. Keep in mind, the score at the time was 23-3. Herm's answer was that his players looked shellsocked and their body language showed him like that had enough. So, in other words, his players quit and Edwards let them.
Back when PJ Carlesimo was coaching the Portland Trailblazers, I remember watching him coach a regular season game when he kept his players trapping and fouling right until the buzzer, even though they were down 8 points with 10 seconds left. After the game a reporter asked him why he kept fouling when the game was out of reach. He answered that if he kept them focused to the buzzer in games that were out of reach, it taught them to stay focused to the buzzer on games that were in reach. This past Sunday, Herm stopped teaching the Jets. He let them quit, because at the end of the season he's going to. Stick a fork in him. He's done.
Living in the New York Metropolitan area, I've come to develop an appreciation of the passion of the world famous New York media. Yet, as time goes on, the passion towards negative reporting has become overwhelming. This fall, recently suffering New York Ranger and Knick fans are both enjoying renaissances. The Rangers are in first place in their division with the best player in the sport in Jaromir Jagr. Yet, when you read the local papers, it seems like no one cares. When the Rangers stunk, local reporters had a blast beating up Glen Sather, Eric Lindros, Alexei Kovalev, and every coach the Rangers have had since Mike Keenan. Now that they're good, the tone of the writing wreaks of indifference. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate non-biased journalism more than most. But if you bash aggressively, you need to dole out credit with the same enthusiasm to maintain journalistic credibility.
The Knick renaissance is more like a light at the end of the tunnel. The presence of Larry Brown brings hope for the future. But the current fortunes of the Knicks rest squarely on the ability of Stephon Marbury and Brown to coexist productively. Most Knick followers expect this player coach/relationship to fail miserably. Nonetheless, it qualified as big news when Marbury had trouble in the first 5 games of the year grasping Brown's style of play as the Knicks limped to an 0-5 start. However, in the last two, the Knicks have won in back to back nights on the West Coast, and Marbury has played more the way Larry wants him to. The tone that comes from the beat writers is almost one of disappointment. Now, I really don't think the Brown/Marbury relationship is going to work either. But as a Knick fan, I'm hoping it is. I also think that I'm a little different than most New Yorkers in that I don't mind being wrong. Our local experts all predicted misery for the Rangers and the Knicks. And if there's one thing New Yorkers hate, its being wrong.