Mmmm, Football
It feels like the last week has been a feast of football. When not watching college football, I was up pacing the floor as the Steelers dragged me through another potential heart attack as they beat the Ratbirds again.
And if I wasn’t watching live football, I was watching fictional football. My family knows that I usually watch old “Friday Night Lights” episodes during the winter break. However, this year for Christmas, I got the nine season box set of the old show “Coach” which meant trading Coach Eric Taylor for Coach Hayden Fox. And when I wasn’t doing that, I was watching the Manning sitcom, “Chad Powers”. “Coach” surprisingly holds up for the most part, if you can ignore the occasional sexism and homophobia, both of which feel more clumsy than threatening.
As for “Chad Powers”, it has just enough inside football jokes to make the Hollywood concessions to plot lines and realism (TV football practice apparently consists only of team scrimmages where no one sweats) ignorable. I guess you could say it is more Eli than Peyton – somewhat inconsistent, but it definitely has its moments.
Last Weeks Picks
In what was actually an improvement for me, I went 500 in my picks. Some random thoughts:
- Miami surprised me with how well their defense played. It may have been ironic to only me, but Ohio State was my “virtual lock” of the weekend. The win did vindicate the committee picking the Hurricanes over the Fighting Irish. A Notre Dame pick might have been right, but they were definitely not wrong in going with Miami.
- Indiana’s dismantling of Alabama made all the old school purists waxing about Alabama / SEC’s pedigree look foolish. It was hard to distinguish Bama’s performance from that of JMU and Tulane.
- Ole Miss vs Georgia was the best game of the weekend. The QB play from both sides was very entertaining. I don’t know what was more impressive: the toughness of Georgia’s Gunner Stockton as he got repeatedly bounced off the Sugar Bowl turf or the improvisation of Ole Miss’s Trinidad Chambliss as he channelled his inner Johnny Manziel.
- As I watched Oregon stonewall the Texas Tech offense, I felt bad for the Red Raider defense. The only athletic performance more wasted this year was Paul Skenes pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
This Week (so you know who not to pick)
- I am going to keep riding Indiana. Cignetti smiled for all of thirty seconds in the Hoosiers beat down of the Crimson Tide. I don’t discount the Ducks, but I googled Curt and all he does is win.
- Miami is probably the pick I am wrong about. Admittedly, since I am somewhat of an ACC guy, I can’t help but pull for the Hurricanes. That type of sloppy and sentimental pick is what has plagued me all year. Why change at this point?
That’s all I got. Enjoy a glorious five day run of football playoffs from College to the Pro’s.
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