Monday Night Musings
*Some thoughts on the opening weekend of college football:
1. Best result of the weekend? Georgia 48, Boise State 13. Why is that the best result of the weekend? Since Boise was on the wrong end of a tail-kicking, we do not have to listen to three months of whining about how East Coast bias is the only thing holding the Broncos down this year. (You know, the same East Coast bias that has helped vote USC AP National champions two years in a row)(And it was East Coast bias that caused the U. of Washington to lose in the Sweet 16 despite getting a No. 1 seed)(Oh and, the same East Coast bias gives Gonzaga high seeds every year, even though the Zags have gotten past the Sweet 16 precisely once)(And ... well, you get the point). Now, when Boise goes on to beat San Jose State and Idaho and St. Colletta's, we don't have to listen to how a conspiracy is keeping them down.
2. On the other hand, the official Dave's World Western sleeper is Wyoming. Trust me on this.
3. TCU's upset of Oklahoma is both the best and the worst of what college football has to offer. Best, because the only other place in sports in which absolutely riveting upsets like these play out are in the early rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, and they're every bit as dramatic on the gridiron. Bad, because, Oklahoma's season is basically screwed, and before Labor Day, at that. In hoops, if for some reason Clemson knocks off Duke in January, it doesn't kill Duke's national title hopes, or for that matter, that's how it works in any other sport, including Divisions 1-AA, 2, and 3 college football. True, OU can still theoretically rebound, especially given how the messed-up BCS system, but football just needs to get it over with and come up with a real playoff system already.
4. Can you imagine what it must have been like to sit there at Heinz Field as a Pitt fan and watch a Charlie Weis offense run roughshod over a Pittsburgh team, yet again? Probably not a pleasant night out. (Hey C ... that one's tailor made for you, pal. Just highlight it, right click "copy," then paste it into Microsoft Word.)
*So one day after I pick Carolina as Super Bowl champion up on the site, I get my Sports Illustrated in the mail and see they've picked Carolina as well. Uh-oh. Can I have a re-take?
*I'm seeing the Marlins coming out of the regular season as the N.L. wild card. Granted, I'm saying this with Florida coming off a pair of bad losses, but the Marlins are just a game off the pace. They seem to be just lurking in the weeds, the way they did in 2003. Either way, between now and the 18th they play six with the Phils and three with the Astros, so we'll have a pretty clear idea if they're a contender soon.
*Did I really hear that the owner of the Saints is looking at permanently relocating the team? Am I the only person really bothered by this? You're going to strip a city of a team it has pretty faithfully supported for decades because it got hit by a hurricane? I'm trying to remember fifth-grade social studies here -- would this make him a carpetbagger or a scalawag?
*I am not the only person in America who watches Mexican wrestling. There are at least two. An emailer who asked not to be named checked in to point out that the CMLL shows that air on Galavision are five months old, and thus Averno and Mephisto won the tag belts five months ago. Well, it is new to me, and I don't speak the language, so I am going to continue to report on whatever the tee-vee gives me as though it is happening live.
*Linda Cohn is getting all misty-eyed over Open Road. Sorry Linda, no one else is going to miss Open Road.
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