Last night’s New England Patriots / New York Jets showdown was one of those
rare games that not only lived up to its own considerable hype but actually
managed to exceeded it.  That’s Brett Favre’s fault of course, both
the hype and the game.  For years Favre has been a media
caricatured schoolboy who plays football because he loves playing football.
 In doing so he’s exposed John Madden - the one-time greatest
football analyst ever, and the man who made it okay for nerds like Jaws to
break down film – as a fanboy, turned Rachel Nichols into a punchline
and done as much to ruin Peter King’s reputation as an impartial analyst
as a pro football-playing Mary Beth would have.

As such, Brett Favre has become a full-fledged parody of himself -
the all-time INT leader with the happy grin, the cannon of an arm, and the free
pass. If you say the phrase, “he’s just having fun out there” after
an interception you don’t explain who or what you’re referencing.  

All that is fair, the Favre worship has long been out of control, but
at the same time somewhat damning for the cynical sports fan.  If the only
lens you can see the not-now-but-forever Packers’ QB1 through is the cynic’s,
its easy to miss it when he does the things that got him that reputation in the
first place. And last night he was doing those things.

Coming off a short week the 39-year-old who has never missed a start was
sharp all night, he ended 26-of-33 for 258-yards, two touches, and an
uncharacteristic no picks.  More importantly, he completed a 16 yard pass
in overtime (to a rookie) on a 3^rd and 15 on what would be the
winning drive.  Here is what he said after the game:

“After those first two plays in overtime, I was like, ‘Oh, boy, here we
go.’ I was nervous as heck. I’m human. Everyone coming up saying, ‘This is when
you do your thing.’ And I was thinking, ‘My God, can’t we make this easier?’
There was no one more nervous in this building than me.”

Look, I know the knocks on the three-time MVP: he is the career leader in
INTs, he only won the chip once, he’s made a career out of putting together
three awful quarters and one great one and the phrase “no lead is safe in
his hands” cuts both way for him, but wow – he really does enjoy
just being out there when the lights are on.

“It’s only the first quarter of an NBA game, so I knew we’d come from behind somehow.” – Derrick Rose

Three lines on their world:

1. The Jets took over first place in the AFC East

2. Cliff Lee won the AL Cy Young in a Walk

3. and MLB announced it’s Silver Sluggers
   

Three lines on ours:

1. The Flyers fell to the Pens in OT

2. Chase Utley picked up some hardware
3. and the 76ers are back to action tonight
   

Phillies, Birds, Sixers, Flyers and what everybody is talking about, after the jump

EAGLES

Hey now, John Gonzalez says, in no uncertain terms, that Andy Reid’s time in this city is up. He also gets some shaky clarification on the whole ‘Eagles are communists’ deal. READ

Rich Hofmann admits he’s killing time until the playoffs. Hey, at least he’s honest. SKIP

Bob Ford goes to war for the Yellow Line, but on the Red one. He must be killing time too. SKIP

SPOILER: Les Bowen picks the Eagles. SKIP

Paul Domowitch breaks the teams down position by position and offers up a ballsy pick. READ

Paul Domowitch does some reporting, comes up with nothing, and runs an article anyway.  It’s on how the economy could effect the Birds. SKIP

Ed Barkowitz spends five minutes with Jason Avant and uncovers his love for Ccrabble and his newest hobby, piano. READ

Bob Brookover’s notes dive into the Asante Samuel / Chad Johnson history, and more. READ

Frank Fitzpatrick reports that, with their backs against the walls, the Birds are at least saying the right things. SKIP

Les Bowen says that the humiliated Birds defense is out to redeem itself. SKIP

Les Bowen expects to see more of Lito this week. SKIP

John Gonzalez asks who has been good, Bob Ford replies with who he thinks has been the least bad, and Phil Sheridan think McNabb has been playing some football this season. SKIP

Reuben Frank puts the season on the defense. SKIP

Alright, Paul Domowitch and I have a problem.  Here is what he wrote:

Thumbs down * To the irresponsible, throw-crap-against-the-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks Internet rumormongers like profootballtalk.com who were suggesting earlier this week that Bucs coach Jon Gruden was interested in the vacant University of Tennessee head-coaching job because he happens to own 3 pieces of property in the county adjacent to where UT is located. Uh, hello? His wife, Cindy, grew up in Tennessee and was a UT cheerleader. Chucky’s first coaching job was as a grad assistant at UT. The Tennessee Smokey Mountains are one of the most beautiful places on Earth. If I had the money, I’d buy property there. And like Gruden, I’m not interested in the UT coaching job either.

I don’t know if he was being sarcastic or if he was being a moron, but the reason people think that Jon Gruden might have some interest in the UT job isn’t because he owns land in Tennessee, it’s because His wife, Cindy, grew up in Tennessee and was a UT cheerleader. It’s because Chucky’s first coaching job was as a grad assistant at UT, and because the
Tennessee Smokey Mountains are one of the most beautiful places on
Earth.  What Domowitch argued was basically the equivalent of asking, incredulously: “if people wearing shorts correlate with people buying ice cream, does that mean that shorts make people buy ice cream?”

No, of course it doesn’t, but you better beleive people wear shorts and buy ice cream more during the summer.  So no, Gruden isn’t going to take the UT job because he owns lands there, but he might take for all of the reasons that convinced him to buy land there in the first place. Ugh. SKIP

PHILLIES

Paul Hagen looks at which players are drawing the Phillies’ interest. SKIP

Todd Zolecki reports that some ticket prices are going to rise, the Phils hired Sam Perlozzo and more. SKIP

Sam Donnellon keeps the anecdotes coming.  The one about Shane is a keeper. READ

David Murphy reports on Perlozzo, a pitcher the Phils may be interested in, and more. SKIP

SIXERS

Phil Jasner looks at upcoming battle of the Rush brothers. For years I’ve been obsessed with the eldest of the three – former UCLA project JaRon.  If anyone can find his jersey ‘4′ on the Bruins, I’ll be forever in your debt. READ

Paul Vigna reports that no one is coming to the games. READ

Kate Fagan says that the Sixers were having fun on the court in Toronto. SKIP

Tom Moore says the Elton Brand and Sixers feel relieved to get on track. SKIP

FLYERS

Sam Carchidi reports that the hurting Flyers played a player they cut earlier in the day.  Looks like Shanahan is going to happen. READ

TODAY and MORE

Kevin Tatum continues the Inqy’s series on Big 5 basketball by breaking down Penn’s chances.  Tt
continues to be fun to check it out.

As for today, the Sixers are back in action in Indiana, and thanks to
an oddly efficient Thursday we’ve got a Phillies rumor and a look at Villanova
all set up this morning, which should let me put the finishing touches on a set
of NFL picks that should include both my heart and my soul – and far cry from the mailed-in versions you’ve been seeing the last couple of weeks. 

As always, feel free to email with any questions,
suggestions, comments or complaints.  

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 8:55 am and is filed under Morning Rounds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.