Odds and Sods

Roger, can you please just be honest with us for once.  If you are going to retire, retire.  Announce it a press conference.  Be on your merry way.  Introduce yourself to your family.  Take a cruise on a private yacht.  Unpack the boxes in your lavish mansion.  Do whatever it is you and Andy Pettite do when you are alone together.

Do you miss baseball?  Hang around the Astros and throw BP.  Keep your consulting job.  Show up in the booth with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver (the only way it could get worse).  Come back in five years.  Maybe cause a controversy about what cap you are going to go in under.  Bring us all to tears with your Hall of Fame speech.  Fine.  Just announce it.  Retire.  Leave.

Don Shula and the rest of the ‘72 Dolphins are scared, scared that this will finally be the season they need to keep the champagne on ice.

With the Patriots 9-0 and having no bogey game in site, the Dolphins’ 14-0 record looks to be under threat.

Shula has already moved quickly to diminish the Patriots accomplishment.  “The Spygate thing has diminished what they’ve accomplished,” Shula said.  “I guess you got the same thing as putting an asterisk by Barry Bonds’ home run record.”

That would have been an apt analogy, had someone caught Barry Bonds with the syringe in his hands before he could inject steroids for the first time.  The Patriots never used that videotape.  The camera and tape were confiscated before half-time.  The possibility, unproven, that they were videotaping defensive signals in years past may taint their past legacy.  But, they haven’t been taping anyone this season, so this season should be considered above repute.

The Patriots were already punished, losing money and a first round draft pick.  The league and everyone else got over this a while ago.  Even ESPN had more or less dropped the subject.

Don Shula bringing this up again only benefits one select group of people, the ‘72 Dolphins.  The amazing mythical team that managed to beat two teams with a winning record during a 14 game regular season.  The team that slogged through that grueling schedule of teams that combined for a 51-86-3.  Give me a break.

The ‘72 Dolphins were a very good team that won the Super Bowl and skated through an easy schedule.  Were it not for the ‘85 Bears, they would be the most overrated team in NFL history.

If the Patriots were to go 19-0, it would dwarf the Dolphins accomplishment.  They have a much tougher schedule and have had to do it in the salary cap era.

The ‘72 Dolphins are a bunch of pathetic old men maintaining their vitality on schadenfreude and big fat appearance fee checks.  The attempt by Shula to discredit the Patriots was both shameless and stupid.  The extra bulletin board material will probably ensure that the old men will be crying in their empty champagne glasses come February.

To quote the Globe: “Asterisk Smasterisk.”

Being an alumnus of the University of Michigan has its advantages, if you consider everyone telling you what a great school you went to and not being prepared for the real world advantages.

However, there is still the football.  And every year that they don’t lose to a 1-AA team at home, you can smugly rub everyone elses noses in it.
This weekend was a stellar one for Michigan alumni in the NFL, and here is how they performed.

Tom Brady wasn’t his bad Tom Brady self on Sunday, but it was still enough to beat the Colts 24-20 in the most important football game ever played in recorded history.  He went 21-32 for 3TD with 2 INT.  His QB rating plummeted to an abysmal 95.2, falling below 1oo for the first time this season.

Rookie Linebacker David Harris filled more holes than Ron Jeremy on Sunday, recording an astounding 24 tackles in the Jets’ 23-20 loss.

Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson intercepted a pass and took it 46 yds to the house for Green Bay in their 33-22 win over Kansas City.

Todd Collins is still in the league, who knew?