Week 3. Gambling

Having a gambler for a roommate Today, a day of injuries and upsets, a day when the Bills beat the Patriots, the Giants won at Philly and the Oakland Raiders were emerging as the Pick-of-the-Day against the two time AFC conference contending New York Jets, created a maniacal ambiance within my apartment and existence. I rode shotgun with Keitel in Bad Lieutenant. I did not want to be Keitel's car stereo in Bad Lieutenant.

I watch the gamblers gamble like a game sprinkled on a game. It is so sweet and dangerous, a distraction from the meaninglessness of watching sports, an investment in their own fandom, a possible eviction, a possible conviction, a possible steak, tonight! Gambling on football is a hot shower on a cold day with your girlfriend ... when she is mad at you. You might get a hand job and work things out, but you probably wont. I still want to get in that shower. I'm single, man.

It is a wonder these players don't get hurt more, speaking of gambling. These players put money down on their bodies and talents and let it ride. Seeing Mike Vick there on the sidelines two weeks in a row during contentious 4th Quarters, when his team needs him most, when he wants to be out there most, is painful as a fan. It must be more painful for the gambling fan and most painful for Vick. Maybe the off-season of CT scan debates prepared me to look for the injury instead of away, or maybe as I get older and they get younger, I empathize more honestly with the pain.

Maybe that is part of the draw to gambling. Maybe putting their own health and security on the line, with the guys they bet on, implicates them in a way that satisfies their desires to be players themselves. When Vick got hurt and the Eagles lost today, my roommate got hurt and lost today. I think I like that to a degree, yet I don't gamble. Sports writers I admire and friends I respect, they gamble. Hemingway gambled. Men gamble. Mike Vick should be my guy. I trust he will come back next week with a broken right hand and give it to the Niners like they are some Brits. We could both come back from damaging defeats to claim victory and eat steak next week. We could and we should! I should gamble, but I won't. Because Mike Vick has a $100 million contract and I'm not a terrible fucking idiot.

Week 2. Eagles at Atlanta

Michael Vick throws a football like one of those things a geriatric uses to throw a tennis ball for a cooped-up, hyperactive dog - a ChuckIt!. I don’t even need to make a joke here about how Michael Vick has never used one of those for you to understand... that Michael Vick killed numerous dogs as a former iteration of himself. Returning to a part of that former self, Vick returned to Atlanta, his first team, to offer his unique and gorgeous array of talent to an accepting Atlanta defense. He picked apart zone blitzes and cover two’s like they were blintzes and chocolate covered almonds. Get it? Anyway he had three turnovers, two very much not his fault, a couple of touchdowns and lovely sack-avoiding-maneuvering before getting knocked out of the game in the second half. No worries, because his replacement is Franz Kafka. I mean Mike Kafka. Kafka is great too, not Mike, Franz. Mike is unproven, but played well actually and looked to be leading his Eagles to a scoring drive when Jeremy Maclin dropped a good pass on 4th down. So Matt Ryan took over with Vick gone and the Falcons won. Excellent game to watch and the Falcons, after lollypopping through a static 3rd Quarter, made a great run in the 4th to eventually jump ahead 35-31.

A thing I really like: LeSean McCoy’s incorruptible perseverance on every run. He refuses to accept a simple running call, for better or worse, by taking steps sideways and even backwards from the line of scrimmage. McCoy was last night, as watchable as he was effective. He rushed for 95 yards on 18 carries, and even with Vick in the game, was the offensive leader. McCoy (and the Eagles generally) play football like fans want it to be played, as though the offensive players are avatars motivated by entertaining as much as winning. McCoy runs self-consciously eccentric. He looks back over his shoulder after a fancy run at the linebacker who tackled him and smiles, as if he did the defender a favor in letting himself be tackled... this time. McCoy is a control freak, utilizing his offensive line as though they work for him, not with him. He is also, somehow either not written about much or extraordinarily underrated. Either way he’s eluded conversation by the announcers and by my friends (dad), until yesterday. I doubt if Vick stays out for another week he will go unnoticed. His game should not be effected negatively by the defensive attention though. Vick and DeSean Jackson are as noticeable as ice cream rubbed all over your own forehead and that doesn’t stop them from excelling game in and game out, in the same, be it extraordinary fashions. If McCoy turns out to be consistently outrageous (I do realize he had a statistically special season a year ago, but leave it, because I didn’t watch any games), this threesome of exploding diamonds might be mans’ best friend. And I mean that in the gayest way possible.

Vic Chestnutt: See You Around (Cowboy Junkies Cover)

Week 1. Saints at Packers

Last night’s opening game, the Saints at Packers, was a fine one that took until the final play to be decided. Even that was not enough. A pass interference call in the end zone on the final play of regulation kept the Saints last drive, and their nearly perfect and perpetual comeback, alive. Drew Brees would get one last attempt, unfettered by a clock winding down, from the one-yard line, to put his team in a position to win. His number wasn’t called though, the Saints decided to run, handing the fate of week one over to their running back and offensive line. It may have been a bad call, but as any Pop Warner coach will testify, if the team can’t gain a yard on a rush, the team has more problems than just that play.

Because I cannot and will not summarize a game, for two reasons (one: an NFL games takes literally forever light years and two: this is cable friends, when I see is what I get), and I do want to talk about football briefly each week, I will pick whatever I think is interesting about a game and tell you why. If you like it, then you’ll read again, if you don’t, then I’ll be working hard for your acceptance until you do.

Here is an interesting thing: At the 9:30 mark of the 2nd Quarter, the Packers offense came out on 1st down at their own 20 (after a touchback). They were up 21-10 after a Saints field goal capped a smart drive. The Green Bay home crowd had settled after the riot of 1st quarter offense. An eleven point difference between these two (offense heavy) teams is at most marginal, at least insignificant. 1st down, Rogers finds Driver coming over the middle at 15 yards where Driver nearly pulls it down, but is popped a half a second too soon by a Saints safety, incomplete. It is the first good hit of the game, the first of a much anticipated season. The Packer crowd cools down, the Packer offense huddles, the Saints Defense rev up. Now 2nd down and 10, at their own 20, Rodgers playing like a three-winged swan but the Saints are bubbling… And the Packers run an inside draw to the fullback, gain of one-half yard. Now the Saints see red, and the odds of Rodgers completing a first down are quite low. Most likely he won’t convert, the Packers will punt (their first three-and-out of the game) and the Saints will bring back in a poised Brees with good field position and plenty of momentum. What happened was actually worse. Rodgers did not complete his 3rd down attempt, and the punting unit did come in, but Brees never saw the ball that possession. The punt was returned for a touchdown by a very short and very fast, tree-trunk legged man named Sproles. 21-17, new game.

What I find fascinating, as much as boring, is that 2nd down call for an inside handoff to the fullback. The best thing that can come of that play is a touchdown of a very long, slow and lucky variety. Most likely though, that plays goes for 2 yards and sets up a 3rd and eight. At worst, what happened, happens, a nothing gain for a nothing play, effectively a loss of down. I saw these calls happen with the 49ers a few years ago (the last time I watched regular season football until last night). Watching them (the Niners), I would see Alex Smith throw a short incomplete pass on 1st down, followed by a handoff for a short gain, followed by another incomplete short pass from Smith on 3rd down. Then a punt. I was a shocked. I grew up playing football (and virtual football in Madden) and would never fathom calling such an uninspired series of plays. I turned off the NFL for a while, moved to New York and thought I’d give it a shot again now that I am surrounded by people who have teams to get behind (sorry Bills), you know, some enthusiasm! And then last night, from the defending league champions with the current best quarterback, one of those odd series just happens at a seemingly important part of the game.

NFL rosters are large and coaching staffs are extensive. Why are plays like that 2nd down still being called by very good teams when any 8 year old with a Russell Athletic sweatshirt knows better? Why compromise a game, or even a series, when it is easy enough not to? I think there could be a few reasons: the head coach thinks that type of play will work (statistically naïve); the offensive coordinator was not ready to make a risky call on their own 20 still early in the game and with a lead (too conservative and inconsiderate of the opponent); Rodgers checked off and called the play at the line himself (acceptable, but then that should never once be repeated this season, which it will be); football is still very traditional in its play calling. It could be that 2nd down call was a combination of a few of those things, or none at all.

My point is, these types of plays are what are going to make football interesting for me again. The moments when good teams play with elegance and poise are numerous; the times when they lapse can negate it all. After an opening night of beautiful performances, I am glad to be watching football again, this time with an eye on failure and optimism because of it.