“•In 1999, fans jeered Dallas Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin as he lay on the field for 20 minutes, suffering from a neck injury that ended his career.
•That same year, fans threw D batteries at St. Louis Cardinals outfielder J.D. Drew, who held out for a year after the Phillies drafted him and eventually signed with the Cards instead.
•Matthew Scott, the only person in the United States to have received a hand transplant, was asked by the Phillies to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the team’s home opener in 1999. The pitch, from his transplanted hand, dribbled over the plate. The fans booed.
•Eagles fans famously blasted Santa Claus with a shower of snowballs at halftime of a game as St. Nick circled helplessly around the field before stadium officials rescued him.”

So they jeer a guy with a serious injury, assault a player on the field, boo a handicapped person, and pelted Santa.  Oh, and he forgot to mention the time they slashed a woman’s face for wearing a Cowboys jersey and that they continually murder each other.   Then they brag about these things, like it’s a point of civic pride.  So someone has to ask: Why?  Why do you do these things Philly?  Why are you so angry and violent?  Why can’t you control yourselves in public spaces?  Why is your entire city’s fan-base one giant unruly mob?  Please, someone speak up and try to explain why you can’t behave yourselves like decent human beings?

Sports galvanizes people.  It brings us together.  It gives us hope.  It is a welcome distraction.  It brings us heroes.  It gives you something you can believe in.  And in no instance was this more true than in the case of the post-Katrina Saints.  In the wake of that disaster, the city turned to what was for a long time the only team in town.  A team that, like them, had been through hard times.  A team that they had stood by when times were tough.  And a team that they now needed to stand by them in their time of need.  That city needed something to be proud of.  Something to root for.  Something that it could celebrate.  People that it could look up to.  It needed underdogs-turned-heroes like Drew Brees, an injured castoff of a QB who signed with them for less money than other teams had offered because he felt that he could help the team and the city.  He has done both.  They needed people like Louisiana native Tracy Porter, who had a picture of the Louisiana Superdome shaved into his head the day before his game-clinching interception for a TD.  That was a symbol of New Orleans in its darkest days, a refugee shelter for its own fans, now being used as motivation for brighter days.  For healing.  For closure to a painful past.  For catharsis.

People can downplay the fact that a victory for a sports franchise can do much to heal a ravaged city.  But those people don’t understand what that team means to that town.  Or their stadium to the people who slept in it and now cheer in it.  Or those players to the people who they donate their time and money to.  Doubters don’t understand the need to believe in something bigger than yourself, or the need to be proud of where your from and how far you’ve come.  They don’t understand that when you have so little to feel good about, you cling to what little good you have left.  The Saints were that common good for New Orleans.  They were the one thing that survivors of that tragedy could put their hopes and dreams into, could look at with pride, could feel uplifted by, and finally feel good about themselves because the hope that they had clung to while their city was adrift has now come through for them when they needed it.  Celebrate, New Orleans, like only you know how.  You deserve it.  I have a feeling that this Mardi Gras is going to be the best yet.

The following pictures were taken by me 7 months after Katrina struck New Orleans.

This is a video of Bourbon Street after the Saints won the title:

Favre, after another interception, is seen here contemplating just how much he wants to jerk around his team and the media before the start of next season.

Vikings quarterback Brett Favre called a press conference today to announce his (third) retirement from football.  Favre cried a lot and said that finishing his career on a game in which his 2 interceptions and 1 fumble ended his team’s chance at a title was a fitting way to call it quits.  Immediately after his press conference, Favre called another press conference to cry and un-retire (again), followed by an exclusive interview with Fox News saying, while crying, that the Vikings were at fault for the way things had ended and then threatened to leave the team for the rival Packers if things didn’t immediately get resolved on his terms.  Favre then called another press conference in which he did nothing but sob uncontrollably while making no attempt at saying anything at all.

Cardinals/Saints

Here’s all you need to know about this game:

Not the QB shootout I was hoping for.  The Cardinals couldn’t protect Warner, which kept him from getting the ball in the hands of his talented receivers. Meanwhile, Drew Brees and Reggie Bush put on a pretty good show.

Colts/Ravens

I’m pretty sure the Ravens thought they were playing Hot Potato and not football.  They threw 2 picks, fumbled twice… even Ed Reed fumbled.  “But wait,” you say, “Ed Reed is a safety, how did he fumble?”  Well, Ed Reed picked off Peyton Manning, returned it 38 yards, and then got stripped.  Thus is the creative variety of the Ravens’ turnovers on Saturday.  It’s never fun watching a game in which one of the teams keeps shooting themselves in the foot.

Vikings/Cowboys

The Cowboys have sore vaginas.  They claim that the Vikings were running up the score on them.  The Vikings won 34-3 after a late touchdown.  The previous two weeks, the Cowboys beat the Eagles 24-0 and 34-14 (after the Eagles scored a late touchdown to make the score look less pathetic).  Keith Brooking charged the sidelines at the end of the game and shouted at Vikings’ coach Brad Childress. “I thought it was classless,” Brooking said. “I thought it was B.S. Granted, we get paid to stop them, but…“  Well, there you have it.  You blow out a team twice in a row, including in the playoffs, then get blown out and cry about it.  Then you admit that you didn’t do your job in stopping them and that’s why they beat the shit out of you.  Then you say “but” acknowledging that you’re being a hypocrite and a crybaby while simultaneously trying to justify it.  No, Keith Brooking, they aren’t classless.  They were competing with integrity.  They were playing hard til the end.  That’s what you’re taught to do in every game of every sport since you were in elementary school.  I’ll let the Vikings’ Visanthe Shiancoe, who scored the late TD, have the last word.  “Ok, we apologize.  I’m sorry.  Better?”

Jets/Chargers

This was the only good game of the bunch, though I’m sure several thousand idiots out there are complaining about the low score.  It featured a scoreless tie at the end of the 1st quarter, with both defenses dominating early (though the Jets’ uncreative offensive play-calling is probably to blame for their lack of a first down through their first 3 or 4 possessions).  Then the Chargers took control for most of the game, until the Jets fortunes were turned around starting with two interceptions, including this impossible grab by Darrelle Revis:

After that, the Jets scored two TDs in the 4th on a bootleg pass from Mark “Dirty” Sanchez and a breakaway 53 yard run by Shonn Greene.  The only downside to this game was the three missed field goals by Chargers’ kicker Nate Kaeding, which would have given them at least a tie and at most a win.  But despite that, this was a hard-fought close game from start to finish.  That’s about the least these teams could give us after watching the three previous ass beatings.

29-33, 379 yards, 5 TDs, 0 INT

He had more TDs than incompletions.    One of his incompletions was due to Charles Woodson, possibly the defensive MVP, just barely tipping the ball off course.  His 5 TDs, which tied an NFL playoff record, went to 3 different receivers.  He was so on that, on a play in which he was trying to throw the ball out of the back of the end zone, he got hit while throwing and the resulting weaker pass was under-thrown enough that it was caught by a diving Larry Fitzgerald for a score.  On one play, Warner threaded the needle on a pass to Steve Breaston in which his receiver had about one foot of distance on the defender, and the cornerback still almost knocked the ball away, and yet it landed perfectly in Breston’s hands.  That play, and his entire game, just illustrated why, when Kurt Warner is feeling it, he’s as good as any QB in the history of the game.  I hope next week’s games are half as entertaining as this shootout.

"Vince am hungry. Must feed!"

In assessing the first round NFL playoff matchups, ESPN’s Mark Schlereth named fat man Vince Wilfork the key to the Patriots victory, and presumably the one to blame if they lose.  The Patriots hopes to advance to the next round now lie on his broad, fat shoulders.  He must use his tremendous girth to lift his team up, stopping periodically to rest the weight of their expectations on his epic gut whenever he gets out of breath.  Wilfork has missed the last three games due to his foot breaking beneath his gargantuan heft, but will play in the playoffs now that he is “healthy” (i.e. still life-threateningly fat, but able to play).  “Vince is a great “athlete,” and really does a wonderful job at nose tackle,” said coach Bill Bellichick while making quote signs with his fingers at the mention of the word athlete.  “That job, of course, is to be heavy and wide.”

UPDATE: Pat White is awake and doing fine.

I was rooting for his team to make history. Now I will actively root against his bad example to sportsmanship.

Everyone knows what went down on Sunday.  The Colts had a legitimate chance to go 15-0 heading into the last week of the season and make a run at an undefeated season, and their coach went and pulled his starters in the 3rd quarter, thus forfeiting the game to the Jets.  Everything about that is just wrong.  Not “wrong” as in a poor coaching decision, but wrong as in morally corrupt.

First, giving a game to the Jets has serious playoff implications.  Since a loss would have knocked them out of the playoff picture, their win drastically changed the playoff picture and will likely allow them to play in the post season as opposed to a superior team like the Broncos or Steelers.  If I were one of those teams, I would sue Jim Caldwell for the loss in revenue over the (at least one) game that they are missing out on.  Throwing a game that shifts the balance of the playoffs is an affront to the spirit of competition, plain and simple.

Secondly, he says that he pulled them to preserve their health; that keeping them fresh for the playoffs is his main concern.  I would like to remind him, and anyone else who doesn’t remember, that the only time the Colts have won the Super Bowl this decade despite their amazing record ever year is the one season when they didn’t rest their players.  In 2006 they had to fight for home field advantage until the end, the result being that their players were focused and on point as opposed to being rusty from being benched for the last few weeks of the season before their playoff bye.  In fact, their are numerous examples of that happening throughout NFL history (the ‘97 and ‘98 Broncos, etc.).  So Jim, going by history what you just did hurt your chances to win in the playoffs.

He also hinted at wanting to keep his players from the distracting questions that go along with maintaining an undefeated season.  Now, THAT, my friends, is the work of a giant wuss.  He’s more worried about coddling his players (who are adults and professionals) than he was excited at the prospect of making history.  He folded from the pressure BEFORE the pressure could even be applied.  He crumpled under the weight of lofty expectations before the burden had even been hoisted onto his team’s shoulders.  Also, it shows that he has little faith in his players’ mental fortitude and ability to block out distractions.  If I were a Colts player, and I’m sure many are thinking this, I would have lost all respect for him right then and there.  I wouldn’t want to play for someone who is governed by his fears, who plays the game scared.

Maybe they’ll win the Super Bowl, and much of the criticism will die down, but not from me.  For me, Jim Caldwell will always be a coward.

There is no more fitting image for Lovie Smith. Here he is, unsuccessfully challenging a play in the Superbowl, which we lost.

I try not to focus too much of this site on my Chicago teams, and for the most I’ve been really good about it.  But I have to post about this.  The Bears are terrible.  I haven’t written anything about them since our week one disaster, and things haven’t changed at all.  Our “franchise” QB still leads the NFL in interceptions, the team looks disoriented on nearly every play, and we can’t even keep games close against halfway decent teams.  We need to clean house.  Our GM hasn’t made a successful 1st round pick in his entire career.  Our coach seems out-smarted nearly every week.  And we have the same uncreative offensive coordinator now, Ron Turner, as we did in our last era of extended mediocrity (the Wannstedt).  It’s time for us to come together for the common good.  Bears Fans United have started a campaign to buy a billboard space and a full page ad in the Sun Times for next week’s Monday Night Football match-up against the Vikings.  Log on and donate a couple bucks for a good cause in the name of saving our floundering franchise.