So I wanted to make some comments about random football happenings over the past week and hadn't gotten around to it so you're going to get them in jambalaya format, inspired by the LSU Tigers two-loss national championship season. Way to go, Tigers. Yipee.
Jim Tressel was very excited just to be near the trophy last night, as you can see from this picture, which continues to be one of our favorites.
Anyway, on to my thoughts...
LSU Convinces Nobody -- College Football Limps Home
Okay, so LSU pounded on OSU last night. Did that prove anything? No, it didn't. And Georgia and USC look like scary-ass college football teams that, when healthy, could certainly hang with LSU, if not beat them. It would also be neat to make some of these SEC teams travel once in a while. They never seem to leave the southeastern part of the country. Granted, biscuits and gravy and grits aren't served everywhere in the country so I don't know what they'd eat, but they should have to travel, too.
The thing is, college football is so great and then we have this lame-ass ending every year. We've all stopped caring about it and even when Georgia and USC win their BCS games in blowouts, it means absolutely nothing. NOTHING! NCAA, we don't care that you adorn their bowl games with BCS lettering -- it means nothing to the fans. It only means money. And quite honestly, most of us have spent enough money on our colleges and universities. Come up with a better way to end the season or people will continue to care less and less until it starts to affect the regular season. And then you're screwed.
Way To Go, Hawaii! Boise State Hates You Even More Now
Hey, remember how Boise State got the WAC some respect last year by beating Oklahoma in one of the best college football games we've seen in quite some time? And remember how people were trying to make a case that Hawaii belonged with the big boys because of their supposedly prolific offense and Colt Brennan? Well, you know what we remembered here at Boiled Sports? We remembered that last season, Purdue traveled out to Hawaii and almost took down the Rainbow Warriors in their home stadium. And if Purdue can almost take down Hawaii and Hawaii needs overtime to beat Louisiana Tech and San Jose State... well, it isn't too hard to figure that Georgia might be able to not only hang with the Hawaii offense, but maybe even stop it! So basically, arrogant Hawaii got smoked by a team they didn't even belong on the same field with. The Rainbow Warriors should be out of the Top 25.
Chargers Squeak By A Bad Team -- Prepare To Be Curb-Stomped By Colts
On to the pros, now. The San Diego Chargers stormed out to an 0-6 hole at halftime of their HOME playoff game against the Tennessee Titans over the weekend... the Titans led by a guy who can't really throw and whose legs were hurting. Speaking of Vince Young, am I the only one who thinks his career arc is a lot more likely to mirror Kordell Stewart than Randall Cunningham? Remember how Kordell went the playoffs several times with the Steelers but really was the weak link? Running QBs who can't throw accurately don't last in this league... and sometimes they go to jail for killing doggies.
I just found it very telling when the Chargers eeked out a home win against a not-very-good team and then they showed Norv Turner dancing on the freaking sidelines with his players. Can you imagine Bill Belichick doing this? Oh, hell, Tom Coughlin? Or Tony Dungy? No matter a coach's success history, I can't imagine any of them literally dancing and celebrating a win that looked shaky, especially with the defending champion Colts coming up. And further evidence of the Bolts having no idea what they're in for was Phil Rivers in his postgame press conference saying they did a lot of things right and it got them ready to play the Colts. Uh, no sir, no it did not. You're going on the road to play in the dome against a FAR better team than the Titans. I think it's gonna be real ugly. Get ready for the many faces of Norv.
Hey, remember how when the Redskins beat the Cowboys by 21 to get into the playoffs and all those clowns started barking about how "it's no surprise that we won by 21," attempting to overforce more emotion relating to Sean Taylor (Taylor wore number 21)? While it was a tragedy that Taylor was cut down so early in life, they 'skins (and the league) paid him a very nice series of tributes back when it happened, so it's time to stop trying to connect everything. Because if Sean Taylor is up there making sure you make the playoffs and just for kicks arranging it so you win your playoff-deciding game by 21, what was he doing this weekend? Deciding his boys have had enough fun and causing Todd Collins to throw two interceptions and turn back into a nice mixer (oh, wait, that's Tom Collins)? And just to put the icing on it, did Taylor cause the Skins to lose by 21 this week? Man, who knew Sean Taylor had such a sick sense of humor? Oh, or maybe it has more to do with the fact that 21 is one of the most common numbers associated with football since it's, you know, divisible by seven.
Joe Gibbs has also seen enough and is retiring.... again. Gibbs was hailed as a savior in Washington and he really coached like the gap between 1992 and now was instantaneous... like he skipped over those minutes to instantly arrive at this moment in time. It was definitely time for Joe to dodder back into retirement before he pooped himself on the sideline or something.
Giants Shut People Up -- For Now