NEW YORK, NY – The NBA season tipped off last night with the new-look Knicks jumping right in with both feet against the defending champ Celtics up in Beantown, but I’m gonna leave that slaughter for Buddy Diaz to cover tomorrow. That’s just the kind of guy I am, magnanimous to a fault, some say. There’s also a World Series matchup starting this weekend that’s giving Rob Manfred and all the MLB money-grubbers painful erections, but Whitney previewed it yesterday and others will surely be reporting on it when the games start. So what does that leave me with, football? Why the hell not.
The Last Great Running Back. I’ve been watching NFL football for a long time and Derrick Henry of the Ravens may be the best running back I’ve ever seen. To clarify, I was too young to watch Jim Brown do his thing, but I did get to see lots of all-time greats like Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, and Emmitt Smith, to name just a few. For me, those guys and others were amazing players, but Henry is like this other-worldly back. He might not be a prolific pass-catcher or have the spins and moves others have had, but I can’t ever recall seeing anything like his combo of size and speed. At age 30, after years of playing on some offensively-challenged teams, I feel like we’re finally getting to see what this guy can do, and it’s pretty damn incredible. I feel like I’m watching a player who was created out of someone’s imagination—a remorseless running machine—and I also feel like we won’t see anything like this again. If we do, it will be because of Derrick Henry, the avenger of marginalized running backs. Watch him play while you can.
Wide Receivers Dropping Like Flies. I was watching the Chiefs-49ers game this past Sunday, and it quickly became apparent that both teams were missing more than half their offensive skill players. Forget that both star running backs (McCaffrey and Pacheco) are out indefinitely, both these teams wide receiver rooms must seem like a horror movie where someone goes to check on someone else who’s missing and then they too don’t come back. It keeps up like this and Jerry Rice and Stephone Paige are gonna find themselves back in uniform. And it’s not just these teams, the Buccaneers lost both Mike Evans (so underrated) and Chris Godwin Monday night, the Rams have been without Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua for almost the entire season, and we haven’t even started Week 8. Yessir, the NFL is a meat grinder and this season’s special is Wide Receiver Burgers. The NFL trade deadline is November 5th and if you’re a great or even good receiver on a crappy team, you could be going places. Keep those phones close by, guys.
The Jets are a Joke. Okay, I know this is old news, but the New York Jets are more comically-bad now than when they were botching every NFL Draft known to man. Just when you think they are out of Stupid Jets Tricks™, they turn over the keys to the jet (I guess?) to Aaron-Frickin-Rodgers. It doesn’t get more desperately dumb than this. Does anyone, and I mean ANYONE, think Aaron Rodgers honestly wants to be spending his fall in New Jersey? This is a guy who chose the Middle East over mini camp. He’s also the guy that made the Jets hire all of his buddies and then kinda shrugs his shoulders and smirks when it doesn’t exactly work out. I don’t make a point of commenting on marriages, but I do LOVE this one. The Jets and Rodgers are made for each other. Oh, and throw that moron Fireman Ed in there as well. He’s been complaining that the Jets aren’t showing him enough on their video boards and someone is out to get him. The perfect fan for this team, really. Bravo!
That’s all for today. Swing on back tomorrow for the smooth jazz stylings of Buddy Diaz.
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