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These are the days Dream of the past at your peril, for it is time to parityPosted: Monday September 09, 2002 9:34 AM
LANDOVER, Md. -- Thank goodness I haven't heard much lately about how football isn't as good as it used to be. What garbage. I will listen to arguments that during some other era -- when Jim Brown rampaged over the earth, or when the Packers dynastied over the game, or when Fouts, Marino, Montana and Elway were flinging it around in the mid-'80s -- the game was as good. But it never has been better than it is right now. Never. What a weekend this has been. Fourteen games were played between the Thursday night opener and Sunday. Four were decided on the last play. In nine games, a trailing team or one that was tied had the ball and a chance to win or tie in the final two minutes; make that 10 if you count the 49ers' 16-13 win over the Giants. I'm sure we've seen a better weekend of football. I just don't remember it.
Just for laughs, I went back into time last night. I looked up the first weekend of the 1973 season. Thirty years ago, in 1972, we were at the height of the era of dominant teams. This is the time, as the '70s progressed, that I've heard so many people long for. Powerhouses. The Steelers, Dolphins, Cowboys, Redskins, Raiders. This is when the league was so great. What I remember about those days, being a Giants' fans as a kid, is getting my teeth bashed in most weeks. That was a lot of fun. There were no dynasties to root for in my house. "Players don't miss dynasties, and I don't think fans do either -- except if your team's the one that used to be the dynasty," Eagles linebacker Carlos Emmons told me this summer. "There are a lot more players and fans who are better off without dynasties." Anyway, on that first weekend of the 1973 season, the four teams that went to the conference championship games the previous year -- Miami, Pittsburgh, Washington and Dallas -- won their games by an average of 14 points. Atlanta edged the Saints that Sunday 63-7. One of the 13 games played in the league that weekend was decided by seven points or less, the 20-17 Dallas win over Chicago. The following weekend, five of the 13 games were blowouts, decided by 24 points or more. On Sunday, every time I looked up from my seat in the press box, there was Michael Vick single-handedly trying to out-Favre Brett Favre in Green Bay, or the Chiefs coming back from a jillion-point deficit in Cleveland, or Tennessee doing the same against Philly, or Robert Edwards heroically scoring to cap one of the great comebacks of all time, or Marty Booker making another great long catch for the Bears, or Chad Morton running from Buffalo to Niagara Falls. Tremendous action in almost every venue. Pete Rozelle preached parity. Paul Tagliabue, without saying so, has made it his mantra. There's more drama, more hope for the formerly hopeless, today than yesterday. In the first nine seasons with free agency, 29 of 30 teams (excluding 1999 expansion entry Cleveland) made the playoffs; only prehistoric Cincinnati hasn't. Of the 36 spots in the conference championship games over those nine years, 22 different teams filled them. Sixteen different teams filled the same number of slots in the nine years before free agency. The day of the dynasty is over, and, unlike baseball, which has the Yankees to either love or hate, it's highly unlikely any team will be a conference champ four or five years in a row ever again. But who does that hurt? By autumn 2003, 17 of the league's 32 teams will have built new stadiums or radically refurbished their own over the past decade. Ten years after the Patriots had 23,000 season-ticket holders in a Division 1AA-quality stadium, New England will open a new, sold-out 60,000 palace in Foxboro, Mass., this fall -- with 48,000 hopefuls waiting to buy tickets on a paid season-ticket waiting list. It's not all free agency. It's not all the salary cap. But the free market and the cap on spending have combined to produce hope annually. What this free-agency-with-cap system has done in the NFL is sell hope to the good, the mediocre and the bad. On Saturday afternoon, I visited Arizona coach Dave McGinnis at his hotel in the Maryland suburbs. We talked about how the circus was in town with the Steve Spurrier debut, and McGinnis appreciated it. "You know what your team is this week?" I told him. "The Washington Generals." That's how it felt, really. Spurrier coached the Globetrotters, and McGinnis had a team sneaking in for the payday. But you know what? The Cardinals were OK. They were more than OK, in fact. They scratched and clawed and there they were, with the ball in Jake Plummer's hands, down a touchdown and a two-point conversion at the Arizona 19 with just over a minute to go. They were in it. Plummer threw his first pick of the season to end the game, but they were in it. That's the thing about this league. Twenty-eight teams, give or take a couple, are in it every week. That's why this is such a great game right now.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK Atlanta QB Michael Vick. There were better individual numbers on the day than Vick's -- 15 of 23, 209 yards, one touchdown, no picks; nine rushes, 72 yards, one touchdown -- but Vick had an incredible impact in tough surroundings. With the specter of playing at Lambeau, with the Packers' defense being so good and Green Bay a legitimate Super Bowl contender, here's how Vick came roaring out of the box: two-yard touchdown dive in the first quarter, touchdown pass to Alge Crumpler and 10-of-10 passing in the first half. Mike, you can just phase in your greatness. You don't have to do it all at once. DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK (tie) Houston front-seven stalwarts Seth Payne, Gary Walker and Kailee Wong, for their harassment of Dallas quarterback Quincy Carter in the Texans' stunning 19-10 win over the Cowboys. Payne clinched the game on a safety with 2:37 left. Walker and Wong had sacks. The Texans drove Carter nuts, forcing 17 of 30 incompletions in a maddening day for the Cowboys. SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK New York Jets KR Chad Morton. Disaster loomed in the first half for the Jets at Buffalo. The Bills broke out to a 10-0 lead, the Jets offense could get nothing going, and when Buffalo kicked off to New York midway through the second quarter, Morton, the former Saint handed to the Jets last year for next to nothing, zigged and zagged and sprinted through the Bills for a 98-yard touchdown. He ran right on that one. He reprised the play in overtime, only he ran left this time. "I didn't know if I had enough gas to make it to the end zone," he said. He did, and the best return game by a player in years lifted the Jets to a 37-31 win. COACH OF THE WEEK Minnesota defensive coordinator Willie Shaw. All I know is that this was an awful unit at the end of last season, pressureless and generous. And Sunday in Champaign, Ill. -- with both teams playing road games, by the way -- Shaw had the Bears on the ropes, holding them to 13 points in the game's first 50 minutes. At one point in the second quarter, Chicago had two yards rushing. The stifling heat finally got to the Vikings D, apparently, and they gave up two touchdown drives in the final 10 minutes to lose it. But this was the proverbial game to build on -- holding a very good running team to 80 yards on 3.1 yards per rush. GOAT OF THE WEEK Cleveland LB Dwayne Rudd. No football player in America can be so misguided as to think what Rudd thought yesterday. All he and his mates had to do was jump around and celebrate a bit on the field as time expired, wa-hooing a 39-37 win. But Rudd had this brilliant idea: I am going to take my helmet off, while the play is still going on, and throw it 15 yards downfield in celebration. Can't do that in this league. The unsportsmanlike conduct penalty gave the Chiefs one more play (game can't end on a defensive penalty) and the ball on the Cleveland 12, which resulted in the greatest kicker of all time, Morten Andersen, booting a 30-yard chippie to win the game with no time remaining. And then Rudd became the CLUELESS DOLT OF THE WEEK. After the game, he said: "It broke my heart to lose, but I didn't feel like I was letting the guys down. We dressed 40-some guys and not one play lost for us." What are you talking about? What planet do you inhabit? You lost the game, Dwayne Rudd! Lost it big time! It's all on you! 'Fess up! QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"I'm not a TV guy, and I hope I never become
one."
After the Redskins scored their go-ahead touchdown against Arizona in the third quarter at FedEx Field, a group of four black men called the Funky 4 began dancing in the end zone. They were dressed in some yellow-and-crimson garb that was supposed to have them look like Native Americans. Four black men, dressed as Native Americans, dancing to "Play That Funky Music, White Boy." "Only in America," said USA Today's Gary Mihoces, sitting to my right.
Taking the Acela. What a fun deal. Got onboard Friday morning in Newark, after passing the bomb-sniffing dogs and hordes of cops (extra security for the 300-odd politicos traveling north to New York for the 9/11 tribute), and 131 minutes later I'm getting off at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport halfway between Baltimore and Washington. I mean, why fly? Two hours and 11 minutes for a trip, airport to airport, that takes at least that long ... in a seat wider and with more leg room than first class, with the beautiful views of northern Maryland in clear focus. I've been reading about the feds threatening to kill Amtrak. Memo to Washington: WE NEED TRAIN TRAVEL. WE NEED MORE OF IT. WE NEED TO MAKE IT EFFICIENT. I hope those 300 folks who journeyed north last week -- at least a few of the non-believers in train travel -- hopped on the Acela and had as good an experience as I had.
1. I think no amount of money in the world, not three mill or 30 mill a year, is salve enough for Butch Davis this morning. 2. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of the NFL weekend: a. Tremendous, wonderful, colossal. NFL Kickoff Thursday, or whatever they called it, was the best new idea this league has had in years. Great coverage by ESPN. Pretty good game. The league wants to do this every year now, which is a great idea. But don't limit it to the big markets, Paul Tagliabue. Give it to every franchise. It'll be like communities getting the All-Star game in baseball or basketball. Can you imagine how nutso Green Bay would be, or Denver, to get this game? b. You had your chance, Randy Moss, in your interview with Andrea Kremer on ESPN to say you screwed up last year with your I-play-when-I-want-to-play statement. Instead, you said: "It got blown out of context." Oh. You get the richest contract in NFL history for a wide receiver. You take a chunk of plays in every game off. And you can't understand why everyone's so up in arms when you say you play when you damn well feel like it. "When I said that, it might have come out the wrong way," you told Kremer. Might have? Get a clue, fella. c. Nice Sunday ESPN debut for Bill Parcells, I thought. His best comment came on Donovan McNabb and the Eagles. "I don't like any team that is a one-player-reliant team," Parcells said on NFL Countdown. "And right now, Philly is a one-player-reliant team." d. Drew Brees is a man out there. e. Fred Smoot had a much better day in coverage on Sunday than did Champ Bailey. f. There is no better commercial than the Ray Lewis "Do you wanna go?" spot for the Madden video game. Know why? Because that's Ray Lewis. It's real. g. I'm so surprised by the Bengals. h. Yeah. Right. i. I'm a David Boston believer. Big. He is so strong, and so athletic in the air. He can have the pierced eyebrow ring and the purple-blue contacts, and he can be a strange cat. As long he plays like the monster he was in Week 1 (seven catches, 138 yards, one touchdown), he can have whatever color eyes he wants. j. I've seen enough. You can have Thomas Jones. Just another washout Cardinals draft choice. k. Priest Holmes didn't have to do anything for encore, but he sure did. What a player. l. The Lions are six years away. From .500. m. I cannot imagine the sick feeling in Jerry Jones' stomach this morning. n. I kept thinking the Rudd helmet-throwing was the strangest way to end a game I'd ever seen -- until Tom Tupa's sick pass attempt that never made it out of the end zone. What else could Tupa have done to stave off a Bucs loss? Absolutely nothing. 3. I think if I read one more story about the relationship between Terrell Owens and Steve Mariucci I'm going to puke an ocean. Enough already! Do you think this is the first time a star player hasn't liked his coach? As Bill Walsh told me last year in the midst of the Mariucci-Owens spat, "Do you think every player who ever played for me liked me? When you're a coach, you're going to have things like this happen all the time." I agree Mooch did the right thing in trying to mend fences with Owens this offseason, but at some point, Owens has to realize he has an authority figure in his life, and whether he respects the man or not he has to deal with it. 4. I think these are my college football thoughts of the weekend: a. There is something wrong with a football season when Colorado State has three games under its belt before the Broncos play, and Wisconsin plays three games before the Pack takes the field. Why do colleges insist on playing earlier and earlier? There are 13 Saturdays in September, October and November. Those aren't enough for them? I smell the scent of TV money. Big surprise there. b. Smile, Tyrone Willingham. It's fun to be 2-0. c. Mr. Blackwell Alert: Did Beano Cook really wear a black polka-dot tie with a black checked shirt on TV the other night? d. Next NFL expansion team: University of Miami. 5. I think these are my personal thoughts of the week: a. Spent an enjoyable Saturday night at Camden Yards watching the Angels and the moribund O's. What a ballpark. It's all baseball. b. Journalism Note of the Week: The Philadelphia Daily News on Friday had my two favorite football headlines of the weekend. Re the Eagles' failure to produce much offense in a season-opener under coach Andy Reid, the Daily News opined: "IN SYNC ... OR TOILET." And for a feature story on fine left tackle Tra Thomas, the headline read: "TRA BIEN." Bien! c. Coffeenerdness: Do not -- I repeat, do not -- buy a latte at the BWI Airport Starbucks and expect the espresso to be anything but watered down. Yecch. That's some weak java you're serving up down there. d. What is David Wells doing out at a diner at 5:50 a.m.? Forgot. He's David Wells. With some players, I'd think they were eating breakfast. With Wells, I'm figuring it was dinner. e. Montclair (N.J.) High Field Hockey Note of the Week: Two scrimmages, five goals, none allowed. I don't want to get too excited, but I'm getting very optimistic about our season. We'd love to have you join us for the regular-season lid-lifter. It's Saturday, at Hackensack High, at 10 a.m. Look for Mary Beth "Tie Domi" King somewhere out there, banging into somebody. f. Rotisserie Baseball Note of the Week: I would just like to personally thank Bobby Abreu for being a stiff the entire four-and-a-half months I had him, then, the moment I traded him, starting to play like A-Rod. 6. I think Spurrier is on his way to 10-6, even if he starts 1-2. Washington has Philly and San Francisco the next two weeks. 7. I think I'm going to get on my NFL's-refusal-to-vote-into-law-regional-rivalry-games soapbox now. Hey, Houston: Enjoy Cowboys-Texans? After playing at Reliant Stadium Sunday night, the Cowboys do not play the Texans again until 2006, and will not return to Houston until 2010. Dallas at Houston, not until 2010! Unbelievable! Ridiculous! The Rams meet in-state rival Kansas City Dec. 8, and it will likely be the last regular-season visit ever for potential Hall of Famer Kurt Warner to Arrowhead Stadium. He'll be 39 when the Rams make their next trip to Kansas City, in 2010. Miami and Tampa Bay meet once in the next seven years. 8. I think I've never been a player (as you all can tell), but I can't figure out this fascination with guaranteed money. In May, Michael Strahan turned down a contract that would have paid him $26.7 million over the first three years of the deal, including a two-tiered signing bonus of $17 million over two years. Last week, he signed a contract that included $26.2 million over the first three years, with $6.4 million in bonus money. In May, he was insulted by the Giants' offer and said he would not play for the team after this year. Now, he's thrilled he'll be able to finish his career as a Giant. What happened? The Giants agreed to guarantee a combined $9.1 million of his $15.3 million in salaries over the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Guaranteed money ought to be a concern for a 34-year-old fading star trying to ensure he'll make one last big check, not for the best defensive end in the game, in his prime. By not accepting the May offer, Strahan may have cost himself a potential $10 million over the life of the contract, and all for guaranteed money. I guess if I were a player I might think differently, but I doubt it. Guaranteed money is vastly overrated if you're a star. 9. I think this is dedication: I ran into Billy Devaney, the former Chargers exec now consulting with the 49ers, standing near his car, door open, outside FedEx on Sunday morning around 10:30. He was waiting to go into the stadium to scout the game. On his rental car CD player, he was listening to Springsteen's The Rising all the way through. I am a big Springsteen fan. The Rising is in both our cars' CD players. Devaney lives for the man. "Before this came out," he said, "I wondered if it would be like Willie Mays playing out the string with the Mets, or whether it'd be Willie Mays patrolling center field for the Giants in his prime." Devaney's verdict? "No doubt about it," he said. "This is Willie Mays, playing center field in his prime, chasing down the Vic Wertz fly ball." 10. I think if I am Matt Millen this morning, I am thinking: What in the world did I ever get myself into?
Pats. I'm firmly ensconced on the Steelers bandwagon, mind you, but I think Tom Brady plays better than Kordell Stewart at quarterback tonight, and I think New England's special teams make two big plays, minimum. Which, apropos of nothing, reminds me of asking Brady this summer about his biggest offseason kick. "Taking batting practice at Fenway one night with Troy Brown and a few guys. How much fun was that ... I pulled a few around the Pesky Pole in right field." Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Monday Morning Quarterback appears in this space -- no kidding -- on Monday mornings.
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