Randy Moss

The Afternoon After: Just a phase?

Esoteric Leave a Comment

Here are my usual layman’s thoughts on football. As always, I’ll offer the disclaimer that I’m hardly an authority on the sport.

All wet

I went with some friends to a New York City barbecue joint on Sunday to watch the Dolphins-Jets game. When the final seconds ticked off the clock, I high-fived and celebrated with two fellow Dolphins fans, because even though the game was one of the worst in recorded history and our team’s probably not going anywhere, you’d still rather see your team win than lose.

And, frankly, none of us have any love lost for the Jets, though don’t get me wrong, that head coach of theirs is a real peach.

At that moment, some young socialite resplendent in a pink button-down shirt got up with his family to leave the restaurant. As he walked by us, he turned and spat out, “Well, they’re not going to make the playoffs, anyway.” Obviously, he was a scorned Jets fan.

We got a good laugh out of this – I mean, a pink button-down shirt? – but a little later, I started to wonder: When exactly do we lose our ability to forget the big picture and simply love our teams?

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The Afternoon Before: Fantasy, gambling make NFL bulletproof

Esoteric Leave a Comment

I continue to get closer to game time with this. This week, it’s because of a writing assignment for my day job, and taking down my Halloween decorations – which takes longer for me than it probably does for most. Regardless, I’ll try to scale this a little earlier in the week (i.e. not within 12 hours before the games start).

Fantasy/gambling

I work for a website devoted to a sport other than football, and it’s always the same routine when I work on Sunday. Everyone sits around and lobbies for the Colts to throw it to Pierre Garcon, or for the Giants to offer goal-line scraps to Brandon Jacobs, or some such.

Some might have been surprised by last Monday’s ratings, when a horrible Jaguars-Titans blowout beat a good Rangers-Yankees playoff game in the ratings, but it’s really not a shock if you think about it. Fantasy leagues and gambling have become the bedrock that forms the foundation for the entire sport of football.

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The afternoon after: Jets need to overcome history of teases

Esoteric Leave a Comment

Though I know football, it’s not really my thing. But I’ll give it a shot. Here are a few observations I have from watching some games this weekend.

  • This year's Joe Flacco?I think the Jets are for real, but it’s tough to truly commit to them. In the past, every time they won a huge game and it seemed like they were going to take that leap to the upper echelon of the NFL, they lost their next game in crushing fashion and it was back to square one. It’s rare you find a franchise as snakebit as they have been, at least since Namath’s knees went. But the defense truly does look legit, Mark Sanchez looks like the quarterback they’ve been waiting for perhaps since Namath – i.e. a star, albeit one not asked to carry the mail just yet – and you have to be impressed that not only did they say they were going to beat the Patriots, they went out and did it. Challenging the Patriots is like calling out Floyd Mayweather – usually not a good idea. But they pulled it off. Their next three games are home against the Titans, at the Saints and at the Dolphins – two explosive offenses and a divisional rival. If they go 2-1 in those games, things may be different.

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