Speechless. Uncomprehending. Impossible—but almost expected. CollegeBoy here with the goods.
Last week, Pete and James received tickets from one of their clients for this Monday Night’s game in Arizona, except they couldn’t make it. Not wanting to appear ungrateful or anything like that, they asked me if I wanted to go. I thought, Bears, Cardinals…do I really want to fly across the country just to see the Bears dominate this once upon a time consensus sleeper pick that fell apart?
Thank God I did. Plus, free airfare and tickets to a Monday Night game, does it really matter who’s playing? My girl and I flew out on a Sunday morning, courtesy of Jet Blue, and checked into a comfy-enough Hampton Inn a half hour car ride to everywhere. We ate at a Macaroni Grill, commented on the not so surprising excellent weather, then hit downtown Phoenix to find ourselves a nice sports bar and some entertainment later that night of her choosing.
After all, it was Raiders vs. Broncos. While an unintentional comedy, it’s still not a desirable one. Sort of like an eighth-grade adaptation of a Shakespeare comedy. It’s Shakespeare, but it’s terrible—at least it was when I performed in one.
Anyway, how ridiculous were these games? Starting with the one I called it on the podcast, but then again everyone knew it was coming—Rams and Seahawks. D-Jack hit close enough to 100 and a td like I said, but the game ball belongs to Big Game Torry Holt who did all he could, 154 yards and 3 tds, but still fell to a Seahawks last second field goal kick. Morris hit his 75 yards as I said he would, but Jackson struggled to 60, but with a td. All in all, much like we predicted.
Then there is Owens, who overdosed on three touchdowns on only five catches for 45 yards as the Cowboys steamrolled the Texans. We also got to see Romo in the game, go 2-2 with a td in garbage time, but enough to make for interesting conversation around the water coolers in Dallas.
Roy Williams exploded for 160 yards and a touchdown, Kevin Jones hit a 100 and a touchdown, and Kitna did not make a mistake on his last drive to screw his team—though all he did was feed K. Jones the ball. Good for them, and good for Mr. Tomlinson who returned to top three (and my preseason number one overall) status by running in for 4 td’s and a bunch of yards. How about Michael Turner? After a week of everyone in the world, including me, pushing him—one attempt, zero yards. Go gurus!
And Frank Gore? No fumbles. I eat my words with grace.
My Jets sweated out a late comeback, and a good game by Ronnie Brown, for their third victory. How good is Pennington and Coles? This is not just a fan talking, they really go well together, like Peanut Butter and Jelly—considering Pennington’s shoulder, you can consider him the jelly, but I like what I am seeing from them. After the year we had last year, this is great news for us J-E-T-S fans.
Even greater news for Steelers fans though, after throttling Larry Johnson (still hurt by that vicious and unfair tackle last week, which also cost me a game in my fantasy league when LJ didn’t score) and the Chiefs. Big Ben is back, and let’s see what they can do. They dug themselves a bit of a hole, but at least the sun is still shining.
How about all the crazy games from no-win teams, minus everyone’s favorite Raiders team that continues to suffocate on it’s own terribleness, though Randy Moss appears to actually be trying to motivate his team.
Vince Young and the Titans beat up on the Redskins for their first win, just as Bruce Gradkowski leads the Bucs to a stunner over the Bengals—these rookies got game. Add the aforementioned Lions and you have three teams breaking out in victory, albeit a close victory that could have swung on one play or two, and now the Raiders have the fabled rotten goose egg all to themselves.
Kyle Boller is back. That should only add comedy, but he actually looked good. One word of advice, don’t bother picking him up in fantasy. Trust me.
Jamal Lewis should be traded to the Raiders. That would be perfect.
Vick ran to a 7-3 lead, Dunn ran 90 yards to make it 14 and everyone in the world thought: here we go again. Then the Giants come back and score right back, Shockey grabs two tds, the defense clamps down and Tiki runs wild. Ladies and gentleman, introducing the Giants, one of the weirdest teams in the league.
And the Eagles, poor poor Eagles. Many people had them pegged for suffering a letdown game after the crazy few weeks they have had, from Monday Night to T.O. in Philly day, and it showed. They managed to battle back to a tie, and I thought they may pull it out, but the Saints are playing with a fire that refuses to letdown, and the Eagles just could not match it as the Saints go marching on…march on, boys. You are 5-1 and heading into a bye—just be careful not to let that fire out, people believe in you now.
And now. Monday Night Football. First, I know a lot of people have said it, but the new stadium in Arizona is amazing. Like, wow. Meadowlands this is not, but—that’s the whole gist of it. Meadowlands it is not. Not that Giants Stadium is this great stadium to see a game at, but there is a sense of history there, a history that pales to that of Lambeau and Soldier and so on and so forth, but still a history.
New, state of the art, it is a feat of modern engineering, very comfortable, and very new. It’s not so much like going to a game but going one of those futuristic type entertainment centers, where you’re not sure if there are actual players on the field or if they are just holograms. Sounds crazy, I know, maybe it’s the lack of sleep or the excitement talking, but I see the future in this stadium, and I’m not sure I like it.
Then again, I didn’t do any tailgating and I didn’t have a group of die-hard fans with me, so what do I know? Screw it, the place is great—my girl liked it a lot, so that means we all like it. Right?
Anyway, we missed Leinart’s first touchdown pass but are sitting in time for Boldin’s td and the place is rocking—14-0 up on the Bears. When it’s half time, I’m almost shaking with joy. We flew across the country to be here at this game, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? The Cardinals are up 20-0 at halftime, 20-0! And we are here! Insane—an insane cherry on top of a crazy football Sunday.
The people were out of their minds. I’m not a Cardinals fan, huge fan of Boldin though—but, Jets fan that I am, part of me has a problem with Leinart. We passed him up in the draft, I don’t want to see him give the Bears their first loss. Ah, who am I kidding, let’s go Cardinals. I’m going crazy with everyone else…but deep inside, deep inside that little place inside each and every single one of us…I’m thinking…
What if.
No, no sane person would say that the Bears would come back on two fumble returns and then a punt return. Do you understand how traumatized these fans are tonight? It was breathtaking. Literally. The Bears punched every single one of us in the stomach. To be here live in person, I cannot even fathom how to fit this into real and tangible words. I just saw the Bears come back on three touchdowns, all defense and special teams. This is the Bears bread and butter, and I saw it live.
Strike what I said before. There is a history here in this desert, but it is not a pretty one. They can shine it up all they want, but something is rotten in Arizona.
Speechless. Uncomprehending. Impossible—but almost expected.
