Full Speed Ahead- Last Wednesday was the official opening of the NFL regular season. But yesterday marked the effective beginning of the best time of year in American sports. The NFL is up and running, baseball is heading into overdrive, and if you’re so inclined, you can spend Saturdays watching unpaid minor league football players inflict injurious harm upon one another while big shot university administrators and NCAA execs sip champagne and count their money up in the luxury boxes.
Either way, from now through Halloween it’s a smörgåsbord of sports, with the NBA and the NHL (barring another lockout or strike) soon to join the mix. So strap on your feed bag and dig in.
Things got going in fine fashion on Sunday. On the baseball front, the Bronx Bombers mananged to salvage the last game of the series down here in Baltimore, like some aging, punch-drunk pugilist who takes two to land one in hopes of just grinding down in his opponent through all fifteen rounds.
For those of you too young to remember, championship boxing matches used to go fifteen rounds. Contenders fought twelve, and bouts further down the card were ten. That’s back when men were men.
On the gridiron, we saw the debut of some highly touted rookies. I had the DC-N’Awlins game down here and got to watch RGIII bring it to the Saints. Griffin looked good throwing for over over 300 yards as Shanahan’s bunch staged the upset of the day. Though perhaps real story is that the Saints defense stunk up the joint while their vaunted offense appeared to be out of sync. Maybe just an early season hiccup, or maybe it’s fallout from BountyGate. I suspect it’s the former, but until they turn it around, Saints apologists and Roger Goodell haters alike will blame the latter. Time will tell.
Either way, I got bounced from my King of the Hill pool week 1. Yikes.
Meanwhile, Mark Sanchez tried to nip any talk of Tim Tebow in the bud by throwing three TDs as the Jets trounced the Bills. And dig this: I looked really sexy walking around in my 1970s gym class short-shorts yesterday.
Let’s just assume everything returns to normal next week.
And finally, my beloved Steelers have proven that they just don’t have what it takes to ride that Bronco in Denver. Sigh.
Ride West Coast Craig later today. He bucks with the best of them.