Monday Morning Hangover - Week 17

In honor of the Patriots going 16-0, I’m going to talk about Randy Moss. I read a couple weeks ago that if he has a few more good years in New England, he’ll be a lock for the Hall of Fame. My question is, he really needs a few more years? The man was part of the two most explosive offenses in history in two different places. Does he have some issues? Of course. But I tried to think of which player in my lifetime had more talent than him, and I can’t even come up with a name besides Barry Sanders. If I had to pick my 10 favorite highlights of the past 15 years, I think Randy Moss would have at least 3, maybe even 5. One play stuck out to me Saturday night. Moss and Ben Watson were on the left side, Moss goes on a skinny post, and Watson cuts his route short and heads to the sidelines. The Giant covering Watson leaves his man to double Moss, leaving Watson wide open for a 20-25 yard gain. How many other players are teams willing to give 20 yards so that they don’t touch the ball. Devin Hester, Moss, possibly TO. That’s the list.
My favorite Randy Moss moment was watching him in Minnesota on HBO’s Inside the NFL. Moss is going on a fly pattern and the corner is still giving him a 4 yard cushion. Even with this 4 yard cushion, Moss knows this isn’t enough and throws his hand up telling Cullpepper to throw him the ball while his man is 3-4 yards ahead of him. Of course Moss caught it and took it to the house. Just the most incredible play I might have ever seen and I don’t think this view was ever put on a normal highlight reel.

Saturday night was vintage Moss. Brady throwing the deep ball to him short, then following it immediately up by another bomb was all you need to know about Moss. You can know it’s coming, but that won’t help you stop it. Moss’s post game interview cracked me up. "I don't really think that me breaking Jerry Rice's record was special," Moss said. "I think shutting you guys up was really what made it special. All the negativity and all my critics, I think this really is a good feeling to be able to come in and have a good season like this, to have confidence in myself that I can still get it done. And still I really wasn't coming into the season not thinking that I was going to have a good season. My mindset was to come out here and have a helluva of a season. Just wanted to come up here and play some good football this year, knowing that it was my 10th year in the league." Now picture him wearing a suit and tie, the tie half off, and him wearing sunglasses, while not shaving the past week. Just a tremendous 30 second clip.

I was also intrigued by how the entire Patriots team acted like this was unexpected. They kept talking about how the media had doubted them and were almost defiant in their moment of triumph. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more focused team in my life. Also, Belichick’s press conferences are a thing of beauty. He says absolutely nothing of consequence, yet I’m entertained by these. Probably because he does it with such a smug attitude.

Anyway, on to other stuff for this week.

Tankapalooza 2007 Final Update
When Tankapalooza 2007 started, I told you I already knew the Jets would fuck this up. So what do they do? Fuck it up of course. It started by them winning against Pittsburgh. Then they had to go out and beat Kansas City. If they had lost yesterday, they would have been picking no worse than 3rd. Now, they’re picking 6th because they ended up losing all the tie breakers. Ahead of them are Miami, St Louis, Atlanta, Oakland and Kansas City. You’re telling me none of those teams need a running back? You even played yourselves out of Glenn Dorsey territory. Though the Jets are probably in prime position to get another offensive fucking lineman. Tankapalooza 2007 has been a failure.

I get a text message at 11:15 last night asking if Kerry Collins is drunk. I think that’s a valid question at anytime. Kerry is one rung below me on the alky scale.

I’d like to thank the Redskins for getting their collective acts together in December, when my fantasy season was already a waste. Good to see Clinton Portis start putting up 100 yard games during the last week of the regular season. You’re lucky you’re Clinton Portis and wear a red scarf and fedora while doing your postgame interviews. I can’t stay mad at you. And Chris Cooley earned a Pro Bowl berth. So I feel somewhat validated on that pick.

Hopefully, I’ll get around to a playoff preview sometime this week.

Finally, if anyone has any ideas on what I did between 1:30 and 3:15 am on Friday night, I’d be happy to hear them. I was apparently dropped off at the subway at 1:30, someone saw me walking to the subway, and the next thing anyone knows it was 3:15 and I was in a parking garage. My co-workers who have nothing else to do today are concocting stories on my lost hour and 45 minutes. Feel free to make up your own stories.