Philly can Taste a title, Football tidbits & Some College Coach outbursts

• The Phillies are now 8 wins away (JUST 8) from ending the most painful championship drought in sports. I know Cubs fans believe their 100 year drought in baseball is worse, but I disagree for a few reasons. First, none of them were alive for all 100 years, and if they were, they have been blessed in other ways. Second, Cubs fans probably also like other Chicago teams like the Bears, who won the Super Bowl in the 1985 season, and the Bulls, who won 6 times behind the guy who may or may not have welched on gambling debts which may or may not have led to a league suspension and other bad, bad things. As for Philly, we have our own 100 season streak. It has been 25 years in all 4 sports since the Sixers brought us a title back in 1983. That is a long time. We have played for 7 titles since then (Eagles in 1004, Phillies in 1983 & 1993, Flyers in 1985, 1987, and 1997, and the Sixers in 2001) but have come up painfully short in every instance. We have had superstars die (Pelle Lindbergh, Jerome Brown) in the prime of their career and lives. We watched Joe Carter hit a walk off home run against Mitch Williams. We watched Donovan McNabb throw up. We need this title in Philly. We need it bad, and we need it now. I know baseball and the media really want a Boston vs. Manny (and Lowe and Nomar) series, but we will not be denied. 2008 is Philadelphia’s time. We need it, and as Mick Jagger once said “You can’t always get what you want, but you can get what you need!”
• The NFL is more popular than Major League Baseball. By a lot. This fact was never up for debate, but never evidenced so loudly as on Sunday. The Eagles played the Redskins at the exact same time as the Phillies played their clinching playoff game against Milwaukee. It turns out that almost twice as many people watched the Birds SUCK than watched the Phillies close out the Brew Crew. The Eagles had something like a 23 share versus the Phillies with a 13 share. It will really be embarrassing if the Phillies game 3 against the Dodgers gets beat in Philadelphia by the Patriots/Chargers game Sunday night.
• Speaking of the Birds, they stink. They are the team in the NFL that is getting the least from the most talent. Their play calling is horrendous. Andy Reid’s time to leave is upon us. And his press conferences are so canned I could stand in for him at this point. As my cousin said at lunch today, his ability as a parent has now been eclipsed by his performance as a head coach.
• There are more really bad teams in the NFL than at any point in recent memory. Cincinnati, St. Louis and Detroit are three just putrid teams. I don’t count Houston with these three teams as, although they are winless, they are not nearly in the same league with those other squads. Throw in Kansas City, Oakland, Cleveland, and Seattle, and it is amazing that 85% of the entrants are out of the Win or Die survivor pool after only 5 weeks.
• And now that Matt Millen has been relieved of his duties in Detroit, I guess that the “Most Likely to Have Compromising Pictures of His Boss” goes to Marvin Lewis of the Bengals. I mean, this guy, has not only gotten less from more consistently during his tenure as head coach, but off the field his players can’t stay out of trouble. And, wasn’t he a defensive guru as a coordinator in this league? How does his defense continue to have more holes than swiss cheese…still! How does this guy still collect a paycheck????
• As bad as Matt Millen, Andy Reid and Marvin Lewis all are, I think my performance as a Fantasy Football GM is worse than all of them. Not only do I make the wrong choices at running back and defense every single week (as Howard Cosell would say, “my propensity for error is embarrassing”), but it gets worse. I traded away DeAngelo Williams and Andre Johnson this offseason, and met up with that team this week. Well, they scored 65 points between them as I lost my game 81-80. Just awful….
• Speaking of awful, I guess Duke football remembered this week it was, well, Duke. We lost 27-0 to Georgia Tech. However, I believe it was 0-0 at halftime, and I still think Coach Cut will get this team winning, it just may take a couple years to get his own recruits in and playing well…
• We have an amazing week of college football coming up on Saturday. Texas/Oklahoma meeting at the Cotton Bowl in their annual Red River Shootout will highlight a great slate of games including Florida/LSU, Penn St/Wisconsin, and Oklahoma St/Missouri (Mike Gundy’s tirade from last season is still the best coaches outburst since John Chaney threatened to kill John Calipari; if you missed it last year, click here; and click here for Chaney)