I find it strange that Brett Favre has come out before the season even starts and hedged expectations. In an interview he has said that he isn’t certain that he is physically up for 16 games this year. Weall know that, of course, and he said the same thing when he initially decided not to come back, but it seems odd for him to acknowledge it now – not exactly a way to inspire confidence with his new team. As much as I hate to give him the attention he craves, it will be fascinating to watch what he can do this year. It will be especially interesting to see what he has in the tank for the remaining games after the team has played Green Bay twice. I’m pessimistic about this experiment, but cautiously so.
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Richard Seymour is supposedly AWOL after having been traded from New England to the Raiders. I can hardly guess why a guy would be unhappy abut that trade after having spent his whole career in New England. He’ll show up eventually because he has no good options otherwise, but it might take him a while to come to terms with the kick in the teeth that that trade was.
I really don’t understand why Jeff Garcia has so much trouble sticking with a team. When he plays he wins – as simple as that. He’ll land somewhere and he’ll do well when there. As ridiculous as it was seeing him get cut I’m sure he couldn’t be anything other than thrilled to get away from the circus in Oakland. Especially if he can land somewhere like New England.
Wow, was Michael Vick ever bad last night. 7 of 11 sounds good until you hear that it was only for 26 yards, and that he threw a pick. The ball was all over the place and he looked like, well, a guy who hasn’t played football in a couple of years. There’s another factor here, too – it’s going to take a while for Vick to get back to where he was, but remember that where he was wasn’t exactly at the top of the pile n terms of accuracy. The guy has never been much of a passer, so expecting miracles is probably a bit silly. My expectations for his week three return are very low – even if it is against the Chiefs so he will have all the time in the world to pass because that team is seemingly allergic to the pass rush.
Interesting developments in the Ricky Rubio story. Apparently he had come to terms on a deal that would have sent him to Minnesota this year, but after the deal was struck he backed out of it and decided he would rather spend two more years developing in the comparative safety of his home country of Spain. I can understand that on some levels, and I can forgive a young kid of a lot, but I can’t help but question his competitive drive just a bit if he backs off of an opportunity to play in unquestionably the best league in the world – especially when he would have been going to a young team with lots of talent that would have been built around him.
I was very, very disappointed to see the Vikings play last night. I’m so sick of Favre and his whole act that I was really hoping he’d continue to struggle. Hopefully that would lead him to going away faster. Unfortunately, he looked perfectly competent last night. In fact, he looked even a little better than than. He was comfortable and confident, and you could already tell that he was enjoying the concept of having an all-World running back for the first time. I don’t feel nearly as assured now of the ultimate failure of this experiment as I did a while ago, and that disappoints me.
– The whole Michael Vick debut last night was much ado about not very much, wasn’t it? He played early as promised, but he threw a total of four passes, barely ran, and otherwise only served as an unconvincing decoy. It was less than I expected to see by a fair bit, but nothing he did was concerning, either. It really shouldn’t be surprising that he was such an afterthought – he can’t play until week seven, so the Eagles have little incentive to spend a lot of time now working on him. All in all, the coverage of the lead up to this game was all smoke and no fire. There was another conclusion to come out of this game as well – the third preseason game is supposed to be the one where the top players are at their best and play the most, but this was a dull, lousy game that was not at all worth watching. If this isn’t an argument for why we don’t need fur preseason games then I don’t know what is.
– Sports betting was dealt a significant blow today. A federal court of appeal was supposed to rule on the sports leagues’ attempts to get an injunction to stop Delaware from starting sports betting on September 1. They decided not to stop there, though – they went all the way and ruled that the whole thing broke the law. Delaware can still appeal to the Supreme Court, or even ask the court of appeals to reconsider, but the chances of success seem bleak. The NFL has admitted that the state is allowed to take multi-game bets – parlays and the like – but they can’t do single game bets. It’s the single game bets that were going to be the most attractive, so the state may not even bother going forward with their plans now. Very disappointing.
Preseason games are ridiculously stupid. I can’t think of a single reason why there needs to be four preseason games. Well, I guess there is one, and it’s the only one that matters – four games means that owners can charge full price for two more home games every season. The league is all about money after all. I don’t endorse or enjoy preseason games, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t obviously some value in paying attention to the games. Here are ten things that have jumped out for me from what has transpired so far:
I went to bed last night in a world that sort of made sense. At least it was one that was, for once, relatively free of all-consuming, ridiculous sports drama. But then I turned on my computer this morning only to discover that a plane with the Vikings logo on the tail had landed in Mississippi and that Brett Favre and his life were listed on the manifest for his return trip. That was soon followed by the news we have probably all heard by now – that Favre is in Minnesota, and he has a deal done for between $10 and $12 million pending a physical today. Head coach Brad Childress has confirmed that the team intends to sign the player. In short, the third retirement is over – almost before it started.
Continue reading “What?!?!?!?!? Favre Makes My Head Hurt. Again.”
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