Sportsmeat

Playoff races, Garden Brawls and I had an entire Sunday with nothing to do so I could watch six hours of football—uninterrupted. Excellent weekend all the way around.

Thoughts and questions on the weekend passed:

-) I haven’t had as much fun watching football in a long time as I did watching the first half of the Jets-Vikings game (I’m sure Budds feels the same about the fourth quarter of the Eagles-Giants game). Aside from the opening two minutes, the Jets executed perfectly, Mike Nugent was hitting 50-yard-plus field goals (he should be in the Pro Bowl, by the way, as should Laveranues Coles and safety Kerry Rhodes) and the defense wasn’t allowing anything. Awesome to watch, especially for a team I had pegged to go 4-12.

Now comes the AFC wild-card run. The Jets hold zero tiebreakers so they basically need to win out to finish at 10-6, and hope two of the three following scenarios happen—the Bengals lost two of three, the Broncos lost one of two, and/or the Jags lose one of two. Could all happen, particularly since the Bengals and Broncos play next week. Of course, this is all predicated on the Jets winning in Miami this weekend.

-) I haven’t done a lot of rooting for the Eagles over the years, but I found myself rooting for Jeff Garcia on Sunday. He seems like a really good dude who got a raw deal in San Fran, Cleveland and Detroit, and he played like a Top 10 QB against the Giants. I’m not among the people who think Donovan McNabb is overrated, so I’m really impressed with what the Eagles are doing right now. The biggest reason why is that Garcia hasn’t been much of a drop-off.

And now the Eagles have set up the best game of next weekend, against the Cowboys with the division title on the line. The 7-7 Giants, meanwhile, are still in position to make the playoffs if they win out.

-) Speaking of Cowboys, Terrell Owns made another statement for least likable athlete ever when he spit in DeAngelo Hall’s face Saturday night, then didn’t even apologize for it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Hall is pretty obnoxious and in some ways this is akin to dumping water on Tim McCarver, but spitting on someone is just pathetic. Not that sucker punching him would have been any better (in fact, it’s worse if you pull a Carmelo Anthony, sucker punch someone and then go running for your bench), but it’s still pathetic.

This got me thinking about who is the less likable professional athlete, Owens or Barry Bonds? I think you can make a strong case for either. My figuring is that Owens is actually less professional and a bigger cancer in the clubhouse. But at least he’s not a cheat. Owens is in incredible physical condition (I chalk it up to sit-ups in his driveway) and has played through some nasty injuries. Bonds took steroids and all sorts of other crap so he could break a home run record set by another cheat, Mark McGwire. Just sad.

-) Speaking of people who suck, back to Anthony. Like Stephen Jackson in the Artest brawl (say what you will about the tenets of national socialism, at least Artest had a reason to go into the stands), Anthony was the most obvious offender in this one. 1) He threw a sucker punch, which is always cowardly; 2) he then backpedaled as fast as he could to his own bench, which is even more cowardly; and 3) the whole fight was under control before he went after Mardy Collins. I understand small suspensions (less than five games) for J.R. Smith, Nate Robinson and Collins, but I’d give Anthony 20 games. 15 games minimum.

By the way, best part of that fight was Jared Jeffries grabbing on to Eduardo Najera’s shorts while going after Anthony. What the hell was he trying to do there? High comedy.