TEN THOUGHTS AFTER CHRISTMAS

I know, I know, what happened to Octavio? I get on a roll and then disappear. Three weeks ago I actually went to “The Linc” in Philadelphia and watched the Giants play live against the Eagles with my dad. We then came back to his place for a nice home cooked roast. Then I went to bed. I got back to New York the next day and had matters from that damn job that pays to attend to. And since I’d been gone for about 36 hours or so, I figured I’d spend some extra time with my four month old son later that night. At that point the timeliness of the game had slipped away anyway. So sorry, but no blog for that game; though I thoroughly enjoyed wearing my Giant blue among one of the more ornery fan bases in the NFL. Love those straight talking “Iggle” fans. Those upper level seats should get an “R” rating for language. Even though I was in hostile territory, I felt at home. God bless Philadelphia, and Dad, thanks for scoring those tickets. I had a blast...

The week after, I just could not stay awake while the game was on. Then again, who could the way the Giants played against the Skins that night? Call me lame, but I simply could not keep awake past the first quarter.

The following week, Octavio was down in the Washington DC area for Christmas. He was at his mother in law’s house last Sunday where football isn’t really acknowledged. Trust me; the temptation to turn on the TV was calling me like a Siren on the rocks, the voices tormenting me in my head: “WATCH THE GAME, WATCH THE GAME, WATCH THE GAME!!!!” But alas, I did the right thing and did Christmas stuff instead. Besides, being that I was in the DC area, I’m not even sure if I’d be able to see the Giants-Bills game anyway. I just had to write that one off.

And so Saturday night I did see the Giants play the New England Patriots. It was nice to be home after a peripatetic Christmas tour involving many friends, relatives and in-laws. It was also great to see the cats again. That’s right, I’m a cat person, so feel free to stop reading at any time. We were gone for a full week, logging nearly 900 miles between New York and the Mid Atlantic states with our four and a half month old son. Man he’s a trooper, and a natural born traveler to boot. It was great to hear some passion at the Meadowlands while the Giants were hanging tough as well. I don’t really want to sound like too tough of a fan since the media has been surprisingly kind to the Giants’ “valiant” loss, but you could feel this one slip away. Giant fans are some of the most intuitive fans in the NFL. I know, that probably sounds like East Coast snobbery coming out, as if to suggest New York fans are on a higher, more perceptive plane than those in, say, Green Bay; but they just know when things are about to go awry. We are not idealistic fans, we hate schmaltzy crap about Brett Favre’s wife, and we still don’t have cheerleaders. I frankly don’t want to get into a recap of this particular game. The Patriots are 16-0 and will likely win the Super Bowl. But here are a variety of thoughts regarding direct and peripheral matters about the NFL, the Giants, and perhaps some other stuff too.

1. What’s clear about the Patriots is this. They are not an impregnable force for four full quarters, they are an impregnable force in the fourth quarter. They can be beaten if any team is willing or able to play a complete game. In many ways, losing to New England is as much about being outplayed as it is psychological implosion. Think of the geeky guy wooing a beautiful woman at a bar. He makes her laugh, he makes her whole, and he makes her feel like…a woman. It’s too good to be true, the geeky guy just can’t believe a guy like him could ever win over such a catch, and thus before things get out of hand, he finds some way to sabotage the situation before he gets beyond his own perceived limitations. How could he ever live up to this elevated potential? It’s simply asking too much of him. Should he be able to pull off the impossible, he’ll never be able to step below this threshold…ever...again. The pressure is insurmountable. Clearly it’s safer for him to let her go, and thus, just when it’s time to ask her out, he finds some way to turn her off…for good. And now, thankfully, as a result of blowing it with this woman, things can now remain predictably status-quo for a long, long while. Time to go play darts with the boys again. To a certain extent, I feel this was the mindset of the Eagles, Ravens and Giants when they could have, but failed to beat the Patriots this season.

2. Even though I couldn’t see any of the afternoon games last Sunday, I was able to see the late game that night between the Vikings and Redskins. The Redskins won, but as it was well publicized, there was one play that basically determined the outcome of the game. The Redskins threw a pass that was ruled a completion for a decent gain. After seeing the instant replay, it was pretty clear that it really wasn’t a complete pass. Realizing this, Washington quickly marched down the field to spike the ball so Minnesota couldn’t challenge what would likely be a reversed call. However, in the process of trying to spike the ball in haste, Washington fumbled the snap and Minnesota recovered. As Minnesota’s offense took to the field, Washington challenged that the Vikings had 12 men on the previous play…hmmmmm. So the officials took a look under the hood and indeed the Redskins were correct, the Vikings did have 12 men on the field. Not only was the call reversed, the Vikings were penalized five yards and Washington resumed the drive with a favorable first and five situation. Al Michaels, who was calling the game with John Madden for NBC, said something like, “whoever decided to make that challenge deserves a raise”. No doubt that was some pretty savvy spotting by Washington, but here’s what I have a problem with.

First of all, Instant Replay is never to be used to reverse judgment calls. If a quarterback gets his head twisted around because a defender grabs his face mask and the refs miss it, so be it, that’s simply the imperfection of human beings officiating football games. Way it goes, move on, hopefully that quarterback still has a head. And while having 12 men on the field is more of a black and white situation, it’s still a judgment call that the officials on the field must make. And if they miss it…well…life stinks. In the case of the game between Minnesota and Washington, I don’t think that play should have been allowed to be challenged. My concern is this is going to set a precedent that could open up a wave of tedious challenges regarding technical judgment calls. You’ll have a game where team A throws a 60 yard touchdown pass, however team B, in hopes of getting a cheap break, will challenge the play because of a purported neutral zone infraction. This is NOT how Instant Replay is supposed to be used. I frankly hate Instant Replay anyway. There’s just something whiney about it, much in the way somebody cries to a motel manager because their Cheetos didn’t completely drop off the vending machine coil. Keep it human, keep it real.

3. I think Adrian Peterson, the Vikings sensational rookie running back for the first three quarters of the season, is going to be a one-hit-wonder. Too many teams have figured out how to shut him down, and since Minnesota is already unable to pass the ball, defenses can, and have, stocked up to stop the run at the point of attack. The truly great running backs can still overcome these smart coaching schemes designed to shut them down. Peterson is not among these backs.

4. Devin Hester isn’t overrated, but his impact is. Again, how long does it take before a kick returner fades into obscurity? Does anyone still remember Dante Hall with Kansas City (now with the Rams) way back from 2004?

5. The Redskins are going to the playoffs. I don’t want to sound heartless, but I do feel that the impact of Sean Taylor’s death has been overly dramatized. I know it’s a touchy subject since he was murdered in mid-season. No doubt it’s a tragedy since Taylor was only 24 when he died, and he seemed to have genuinely changed his life for the better as a result of his daughter being born. Yet, still, I never got a sense that he was that beloved of a player either because of his alleged aloofness, his prior involvement with some unflattering incidents both on and off the field, or the simple fact that he wasn’t far enough into his career to establish much attachment between teammates and fans. However, all that’s happened to Washington since then is that they’ve become the toughest, most determined team in the NFL. And while Todd Collins deserves the 2007 Jim Plunkett Award for career resurrection, one of the most underrated players of the Skins’ resurgence is wide receiver Reche Caldwell. All the guy ever does is come down with incredibly athletic catches two inches before he goes out of bounds. Granted I don’t live in the DC area anymore, but has there even been a whisper this season about the quality of this guy’s play?

6. With the regular season now over, speculation about which NFL coaches will be fired this week will generate plenty of discussion. There are many, many teams in the NFL who could use a new head coach, though I don’t see a rash of firings happening right now despite this. Even though some of these teams are playoff bound, these are the organizations that I believe could justifiably let their current head coaches go.

NY Jets
Pittsburgh
Denver
Kansas City
San Diego
Baltimore Brian Billick fired on 12/31/07
Cincinnati
NY Giants
Philadelphia
Chicago
Detroit
Minnesota
Atlanta
Carolina
St. Louis
San Francisco

I’ve refrained from adding Oakland, Miami and Arizona to the list since their head coaches are only in their first year and need more time before their effectiveness can be assessed. New Orleans is by far the most disappointing team in the NFL this season, but my gut simply chalks this down to being an off year for Sean Payton. I feel somewhat the same way about the Jets as well, but there were some extremely questionable coaching decisions made by Eric Mangini that can’t be overlooked. I don’t think his job is in jeopardy right now, I’m just saying he could be fired, as could a number of his brethren on the list. I realize that perhaps the most surprising team on that list is Pittsburgh, especially since they won their division and Mike Tomlin is a first year head coach. Like much of America, I often find myself rooting for the Steelers in most cases, but I really don’t think they’re that good of a team. The statistics conceal that the Steelers’ “winning” record of 10-6 could have been 12-4 or 13-3 had it not been for Mike Tomlin’s poor preparation in what should have been winnable games. In fact, I think much of the credit for Pittsburgh going as far as they did goes to Ben Roethlisberger’s improvisational skills of turning busted plays into positive gains. That said, I have feeling that Mike Tomlin is a bad seed that could set the Steelers back at least five years if they’re not careful. And with Pittsburgh’s historical stance of showing extreme patience and support for their head coaches (I mean, Mike Tomlin is only the third head coach the Steelers have had in my lifetime), this team could be in a downward spiral while much of their talent gets squandered in the process. Rooney family, you’ve been warned.

The reason why I don’t see much turnover with these head coaching positions is that the usual farming grounds for recruiting NFL head coaches are in the midst of an extreme famine. The most traditional route for finding talent is hiring a hot shot coordinator from another team. However, all the current “hot shot” coordinators seem to be previously failed head coaches like Marty Morhinweg, Mike Martz, Gregg Williams and Al Saunders that are stale and unwanted. In fact, I’m not sure how “hot” these guys really are, but how many other coordinators can anyone really think of? Sure, Dallas’ Jason Garrett is probably the first name that comes to mind, though it’s pretty obvious he’s the heir apparent once Jerry Jones decides to throw Wade Phillips under the bus. On the other side of the spectrum, you have a bunch of young, unknown, up-and-comers that show promise, but lack the experience to carry a team just yet. Oakland’s Lane Kiffin is one of those potential wunderkids that unfortunately might have been picked before he was ripe. So with coordinator bag being so light, the next most obvious place to pluck talent from is the NCAA. But considering the recent fiascos involving Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban and Bobby Petrino, the last thing any NFL GM wants to do is import that kind of cancer from a major college program. So who’s left? Jim Fassel? Marty Schottenheimer? Steve Mariucci? With such slim pickings, one can see how guys like Scott Linehan and Herm Edwards could remain employed for at least another year.

7. Giants back-up tight end, Kevin Boss, has quickly made many forget about Jeremy Shockey.

8. Jacksonville will be the most dreaded AFC team to face in the playoffs besides New England.

9. And as much as I hate to admit it, Washington will be the most dreaded NFC team to face in the playoffs…period. This team, really, really, wants it.

10. On a final non football note, I think the soon-to-be-released film, “The Bucket List”, looks like a God-awful schlockfest that neither, Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman or producer/director Rob Reiner needs a paycheck from. From the trailers, this flick simply appears to be ersatz “Grumpy Old Men” with more stunts. One has to wonder who bit first, Morgan Freeman or Jack Nicholson. My guess is that Morgan Freeman took the bait on this project first since his son, Alfonso Freeman, is also cast in this movie and wanted to help launch his career before…ahem…kicking the bucket himself. As for Jack Nicholson, it looks like he’s yet again playing the curmudgeony misanthrope who likes to run over squirrels while driving. Look, Jack, a little career advice, play something else man. I mean, if Clint Eastwood can show his tender side in “The Bridges of Madison County" then so can you. You’re getting predicable buddy, and the last thing you want to do is finish your career in such ignominious fashion.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE…
OCTAVIO