This is that scrum from the last night’s game that started after Atlanta tried for an onside kick for a chance to score a TD with the 2-point conversion and tie the game. And it’s just a terrific mass of humanity with a camera shot that makes you forget how annoying it is to watch that camera slide along on cables above the field. Remember two years ago when that camera actually fell onto the field? That’s the only thing that would have made this any better. Read the rest of this entry »

If you stuck it out for the duration of the Saints’ win over the Falcons last night, you were probably unsure whether you were watching the NFL or the NCAA Final Four. The last two minutes of that game seemingly took forever, littered by turnovers, a handful of booth reviews, and referee conferences where six seconds were taken off the clock, only to be put back on the clock after the following play.

I couldn’t help but think that MLB commissioner Bud Selig caught win of the multiple delays and thought to himself, This is exactly what we don’t want in baseball. And to be fair, baseball does seem to have more emphasis on flow than its staccatoed gridiron counterpart. Interruptions–and creating a specific avenue for them to happen more frequently–are a bit of a killjoy in baseball, unless there’s a cat on the field or a fight in the stands behind the home team’s dugout. Missed calls here or there, even as they’re magnified during the playoffs, aren’t the end of the world.

Anyone watching football last night realizes that the 15 minutes or so that it took to play out the end of that Monday Night game realizes that the NFL has no such margin for forgiveness. And whether they laid the eleven and a half with the Saints or were just hoping to boost Atlanta’s potential tiebreaker stats for playoff consideration, neither do its fans. And while it was irritating to sit between plays and wonder Dear God, when will this game ever end? at least the effort to get every call right was there. That’s more than we can say about baseball right now.

If you’ve given even a cursory glance at the Saints’ remaining schedule, you’d see that aside from tonight’s game with the Falcons (as 11.5-point favorites) and another Monday night tilt against the New England Patriots in four weeks, there’s really no game on their schedule that they can’t win. The New Orleans Saints could be our second team to finish the regular season undefeated in three years.

Let’s gander at the rest of the schedule after today: only one cold-weather game, and only three other games against teams with winning records–New England in four weeks, and then Atlanta again two weeks after that, and then a Dallas team that seems to have finally found its rhythm. The rest of the campaign is against sub-.500 teams, either in domes or in warm-weather citites. That’s terrific news for Drew Brees and a defense that’s allowed only 92 yards per game, on average.

Brees and the Saints have been the best team to watch; nearly all of their games have been high-scoring affairs. Brees is having a good-but-not-really-elite season, and he’s distributing the ball to everyone. The Saints have six players averaging at least 10 yards per catch.

And I guess Atlanta’s pretty good, too. But they’re 27th in pass D and plus they play their home games in Georgia, where people try to tell you that they don’t watch the NFL because the players make too much money. Look, Billy Joe, when you find me a schoolteacher or a firefighter that can throw 35 touchdowns in a season, we’ll talk. Otherwise, enjoy the game. It should be a good one.

Over the last few seasons, we’ve enjoyed healthy debate over which of the league’s 32 signal-callers was the best quarterback in the NFL. Today, the debate is over: Drew Brees stands alone on the mountain top, yelling random combinations of colors and numbers before taking the snap and decimating his opponents. Last week, it was a shootout with the Lions. Yesterday, it was an asswhipping of the McNabb-less Philadelphia Eagles.

As Eagles defensive back Joselio Hanson put it, “Drew Brees is an animal.”

And now Brees has plenty of help, with running backs Mike Bell and Reggie Bush, wide receiver Marques Colston, tight end Jeremy Shockey and a solid offensive line. This won’t be the last time these guys drop 40 points on somebody. via.

Tom Brady lost against the Jets and Pey-Pey waddles into Miami tonight. But Brees, in this fantasy-obsessed football universe, is making all the idiots that drafted him in the first round look like geniuses. Oh, and I guess the Saints look pretty good as well at 2-0. Too bad they couldn’t have done this right after Katrina hit. Because what those people really needed was some good football…

Jeremy Shockey and Houston Texans defender DeMeco Ryans got into a bit of a tussle during a recent Saints-Texans scrimmage. And I think this clearly demonstrates the Frank Dreben Rule of Boxing–never bet on the white guy. Shockey gets face-masked by Ryans and thrown to the turf, and then everybody runs in to break it up. Aw, come on guys, it was just getting started.

After watching the replay, it looks like DeMeco gets a handful of jersey on Shockey there in the hook zone as Shockey fails to come up with the catch. Why? If it’s not for a score or notable game, Shockey’s dropping that ball anyway.

So THAT’S how you ride a pro athlete’s jock…

The With Leather flag will be flown at half-mast today as Saints running back Reggie Bush and that one chick with the big ass have finally called it off. Don’t get me wrong, junk in the trunk is great. My gripe is more with the 180-pound guy trying to play running back in the NFL.

‘They never get to see each other, ever.’ a source is quoted as telling People.
‘They still love each other and are part of their lives, but Reggie spends six months out of the year in New Orleans, so it’s tough.’[...]

The couple recently returned from a trip to South Africa on behalf of the Russell Simmons Diamond Empowerment Fund. via.

No official reason has been reported, but speculation has it that Bush allegedly gave Kardashian an STD. I never really thought of professional athletes as promiscuous before. I don’t know if that rumor’s gonna get any legs at all. But yeah, now we’ll have nothing to talk about when there’s nothing to talk about, except for the CFL. We’ll always have you, Canada. As long as you don’t find out that we’re cheating behind your back with Guam.