December
14, 2005: NFL Commentary, Week 14
By White Russian
Sunday Night Favre
For
the last several years, while the football world waits for the mighty Brett
Favre (pronounced "fawv-ruh") to retire, a prime time game involving
the Green Bay Packers means another Favre love-fest. In the past he has been
given legendary status for heroically playing shortly after his father died.
He was given elevated importance when, during the aftermath of Katrina, we
all got to follow along as he tried to make contact with his family, as if
his were the only family affected in the vast area of devastation. Obviously
he is a gifted player and will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame, but the BMTG
has a feeling that outside of Wisconsin, most football fans are tired of hearing
about Mr. Favre.
A few weeks ago, when the New Orleans Saints were on the schedule, the Sunday Night crew made the most of the opportunity to endlessly remind us of that hurricane ravaged city and their beaten down team. This Sunday, with a thrilling match up between two very bad teams in Detroit and Green Bay, was their opportunity to celebrate the legend of Favre.
The Favre inundation went as follows:
Green
Bay’s 1st possession: Graphic highlighting Favre’s 218 consecutive
start record is shown, accompanied with praise from the commentators. On
the second play he fumbles before he is even touched by a defender.
Green
Bay’s 5th possession: While most of the talk centers on Samkon Gado,
there is some talk about Favre. The Gado features increased as his play
outshined Favre’s lackluster performance. It is emphasized here and
throughout the broadcast that one of Gado’s primary concerns is providing
protection for the mighty Favre. 
Rare
Political Commentary from Albuquerque Tom
Regarding the recently executed Stanley “Tookie” Williams, Albuquerque
Tom writes:
“I wonder why the people who didn't want Tookie held responsible for
his ruthless executions want to hold the State of California responsible for
their much more civilized and justified execution. The State of California
should publish some children's books denouncing executions while denying that
they did anything wrong and then all of the protestors could go home. Tookie
got to live over 20 years longer than anyone he killed, that seems like more
than a fair deal for him. I think we should put all of the prisons in a giant
rocket and shoot it into space and let things sort themselves out. I bet you
guys have watched a movie with that exact plot already.”
Don’t Blame Mooch
On Sunday night Joe Theismann made former Lions head coach Steve Mariucci
a fall guy when he implied that it was a mistake to hire him. He said that
General Manager Matt Millen will spend more time this time around to find
a head coach, instead of like last time when he just went out and hired Mariucci.
This makes it sound like Mariucci is the reason for the Lion’s pathetic
showing the last several years. Mariucci was not the problem. The Lions were
bad when Millen became the G.M. and they are still a team in disarray. Joey
Harrington is Millen’s disaster, not Mariucci’s.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
Why don’t we see the option play in professional
football like we see it in the college game? It seems like it would be the
perfect type of play for Michael Vick and other quarterbacks who have decent
mobility.
It’s great that the officials try to get calls right and the use of replay has helped increase their chances of calling a good game. So how do they so royally screw up on the obvious safety that they ruled to be an incomplete pass by running back Samkon Gado in Sunday night’s game? Even if Gado’s toss of the ball while being tackled had been ruled a fumble, the holding penalty in the end zone should have made Gado’s actions a moot point. The officials ruled that the holding penalty was out of the end zone, even though the guilty player started the play lined up on the goal line and was pushed back into the end zone before committing the hold.
Fantasy Notes
Carson
Palmer and Chad Johnson picked a bad week to stink it up. That, combined with
Indianapolis and Seattle continuing to thump opponents, allowed Sandman to
cut into White Russian’s lead by 621 smallworld points. With one week
left in the main portion of the competition, only 511.8 points separate first
and second.
Sandman was able to gain ground even though he did not bother to submit a roster and went with the same players from week 13. His lack of choosing a Last Man Standing team does result in another Egregious Error, bringing his total to 3.5 errors this season. Tin Man followed the lead of his mentor and also did not submit a roster or an LMS team. Tin Man's Egregious Error total now stands at 4.5 errors.
The 511.8 points that Sandman is behind brings to mind week four - the week when Sandman was found guilty of a major Egregious Error when he dropped Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, and Randy Moss in favor of Jake Delhomme, Darrell Jackson, and Terry Glenn. The replacement trio managed 577 points, while the original trio exploded for 1,106 points. The difference of 529 points would have been just enough to put Sandman into first place (by 17.2 points) heading into the final week.
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