"Can't Do It"

Two days after I said there was a lack of ranting in the NFL this year, Mike Singletary, the interim head coach of the San Francisco 49ers stepped up and saved the day.


Mike Singletary's week 8 post game press conference. The entire clip is good but it starts to get juicy at the the 1:40 mark.

In case you missed it, the player Singletary was referring to was tight end Vernon Davis. Davis slapped Seahawks safety Brian Russell, in the face mask after making a catch in the third quarter. He was assessed a 15 yard unnecessary roughness penalty, which prompted Singletary to send him to the showers.

Drop the interim, if I'm 49ers owner Denise DeBartolo York, Singletary is my head coach.

Singletary, interim coaches face long odds to stick around
Bob Velin, USA Today, 10/21/08

Davis: 'I don't think I did anything wrong'
Tom FitzGerald, SF Gate, 10/26/08

Shaking his head in the locker room, the 49ers tight end said, "Not in my head. I don't think I did anything wrong. But when the coach thinks I did something wrong, I gotta listen to him. He's the boss."

That's not the best way to get out of the doghouse Vernon.

NFL Europa

Things couldn't have worked out better for the NFL in London. I'm not sure how successful the NFL will ever be at attracting Britains to American Football and in turn selling more t-shirts and pay per view games, especially since the London Monarchs and Scottish Claymores folded even before NFL Europa closed it's doors in 2007, but the 32-37 shootout that featured plenty of spectacular catches and vicious hits was a better showcase than last year's 13 to 10 snooze fest. Last year the 0-8 Dolphins, who were on their way to trying to complete a winless season were led by Cleo Lemon on a day when Eli Manning threw for only 59 yards. I'm sure that this year's choice of two high powered offenses was not by mistake.

It's an old story line but I love that Drew Bree's was going against the team that let him leave in free agency following the 2005 season in favor of Phillip Rivers. Brees won the battle but the stat lines were pretty close.

PLAYER, CP/AT, YDS, TD, INT
D. Brees, 30/41, 339, 3, 0
P. Rivers, 25/40, 341, 3, 1

I'm sure the incessant timeouts and the safety in the fourth quarter confused a few Europeans that are new to the game.

After the safety, I wouldn't have kicked anywhere near San Diego's dynamic return man Darren Sproles.

Maybe it was only funny to me but I cracked up at announcer Jim Nantz' line in the fourth quarter. After Fox flashed the final score of the Liverpool Chelsea soccer match he said, "We welcome those of you joining us from the Liverpool Chelsea game."

Liverpool won 1-0. It was Chelsea's first home loss since 2004.

Liverpool Ends Chelsea's 86-Game Home League Run; Spurs Victory
James Cone, Bloomberg, 10/26/08

History Lesson



I had forgotten the different scoring rules that NFL Europa had. Field goals of more than 50 yards were awarded 4 points, as opposed to the NFL where every field goal regardless of length is awarded 3 points. I kind of like that, I wouldn't want it in the NFL but I like it.

Unlike the sudden death overtimes in the NFL, in Europa overtimes each team was given at least one possession. I don't care for the rule since I think sudden death means a team must have a good defense and offense since possession is determined by a coin toss.

Unfortunately, like their parent league, Europa games could end in a tie. I've never liked that a regular season NFL game can end in a tie if neither team scores during the over time period. The game should be played until there's a winner. I've always thought penalty kicks are a horrible way to loose a soccer game but maybe they should have tried them in NFL Europe.

Around the League



Dick Stockton and Troy Aikman were calling the Cowboys Tampa Bay snooze fest(Tampa 9 Dallas 13).

My friend that I was watching the game with said, "Does anyone nickname their son Dick anymore?" I know very Beavis & Butt-Head, but it made me laugh and I don't know too many Dick's under the age of fifty.

Watching Pittsburg Steelers long snapper Greg Warren's knee buckle as he tried to walk off the field was gruesome. I'm amazed the training staff let him try to walk off the field after they examined him. As violently as his knee buckled there had to be at least some instability that they could detect.

"Shake it off Greg"

"Rub some dirt on it."

Staph


Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria

I found the above photo on a Fine Art Prints web page. Why in the hell would someone want to hang a photo of this nasty little bastard?

Kellen Winslow's one game suspension without pay for conduct detrimental to the club is an absolute joke. He spoke up out of concern for he and his teammates' health about an issue the Browns obviously aren't taking seriously enough. His comments were detrimental to the organization and rightly so but not to his teammates.

At the time the of Winslow's hospitalization two weeks ago the Browns organization said the nature of his condition was being withheld at Winslow's request. In light of Winslow's statement to the press I don't buy it.

Shame on the Browns and general manager Phil Savage who said in a statement:

"Kellen has expressed his desire to be a productive member of the Cleveland Browns. His comments and behavior on Sunday evening, however, were unwarranted, inappropriate, and unnecessarily disparaging to our organization.

"His statements brought unjustified negative attention to our organization, and violated the team-first concept of our football squad. Therefore, disciplinary action will be taken in the form of a one-game suspension without pay for conduct detrimental to the club.

Via the Freak

A Slew of Staph Infections Tackles the NFL
By Sean Gregory, Time, 10/25/08

The NFL is learning the hard way that a microscopic foe can be much more imposing than a 300-pound lineman, as a sudden slew of staph infections has sacked several players in the game.

Early this week, Cleveland Browns tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. revealed that staph (short for Staphylococcus) infection had sent him to the Cleveland Clinic for three days, and he accused the Browns of asking him to cover it up. Pro football teams are notoriously reluctant to reveal any information on player injuries, but since six different Browns have caught the bug since 2005 — Winslow has had it twice — the team's medical management looked suspect to some observers. "There's obviously a problem [with staph] and we have to fix it," Winslow told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "Just look at the history around here. It's unfortunate, because it happens time and time again." The Browns, who denied that they had kept the news of his infection from his teammates, suspended Winslow one game for his rant, which included his claim that he felt like he had been treated like "a piece of meat."

But the Winslow medical controversy wasn't even the worst of it for the league. In the past week, it has become clear that two of its most marketable stars, marquee quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, had gotten infections. The New England Patriots' Brady has had at least two additional infection-related procedures since his initial season-ending knee surgery in September. It's now possible that his knee will have to undergo another operation, which could delay his return until 2010. Staph seems to be the likely culprit, but neither Brady nor the Patriots will confirm that. During training camp staph infected a bursa sac, which acts as a cushion between bones, in Manning's left knee. The infection required surgery and forced him to miss most of the preseason. Though the Colts released a statement on Friday insisting Manning didn't contract a more perilous staph, the anti-biotic resistant strain known as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), the incidents should alarm the NFL. "The NFL, and all the leagues, should be diligent, and not let their guards down," says Dr. Robert Gotlin, director of Orthopedic and Sports Rehabilitation at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. "They've got to do better. It's got to be one of the top five priorities."

Many athletes shave their ankles, legs, and arms because they don't want athletic tape ripping hair off their bodies, but experts say they should lose the razor. "No matter how careful the shaving is, you can have nicks and microscopic cuts in the skin," says Dr. Daniel Sexton, an infectious disease specialist at the Duke University Medical Center, who consults for an NFL team and several college programs. "Any time you break that barrier, it becomes a portal through which bacteria can gain access." Staph prevention is pretty low-tech. "You know, this is pretty simple," Sexton says. "Hand washing remains the primary defense against the transmissions of most organisms, including staph. Most people don't think of a locker room as a place where hand hygiene is important, but locker rooms are also mini-emergency rooms."

In 2003, a team of researchers tracked the St. Louis Rams and found five players who caught eight MRSA infections. "We observed a lack of regular access to hand hygiene (i.e., soap and water or alcohol-based hand gels) for trainers who provided wound care," they wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine. Other offenses included "skipping of showers by players before the use of communal whirlpools; and sharing or towels — all factors that might facilitate the transmission of infection in this setting."

I'm concerned about Tom Brady's health. I could care less about his playing carreer. Take care of the infection and then we'll talk football.

While I've repeatedly tried to ring the MRSA/staph alarm bell and I don't think it's a laughing matter at all. A friend did have a great one liner regarding Peyton's announcement of his infection last week.

"He was jealous of Tom Brady."

The World Series

During the game 4 of the World Series there was a Lincoln MKS commercial that featured a Cat Power cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity. Really David, a Lincoln? You let them use the song for a Lincoln commercial?


The original Space Oddity video.