More Drama

Brady outdueled Manning. Vick outdueled Eli. Vince Young threw his shoulder pads into the crowd. Richard Seymour punched Ben Ruthlessraper in the face.

Not to be outdone, the Vikings fired their head coach today, stealing the headlines yet again.

Minnesota said bye-bye to Brad Childress in the middle of his fifth season as head coach. Childress had some early success (36-28 in his first four years) but this season has been riddled with mistakes and headaches. First the Favre fiasco. Childress courted Favre like a lovestruck teenager, just to watch Favre play like a 65 year old man. Then, the Moss mishap. Then the vociferous arguments with Percy Harvin which led to "anonymous" attacks directed at the coach.

But the final straw for Dr. Robotnik (seriously, look how much Childress resembles the Sonic the Hedgehog villian, it's uncanny) was yet another crushing loss to divisional rival Green Bay, sending the Vikes to a dismal 3-7 record and crushing their playoff hopes.

With Adrian Peterson, Steve Hutchinson, Kevin Williams, and Jared Allen, the Vikings have four of the 10 best players in the NFC. (The other 6 - Brees, Patrick Willis, DeMarcus Ware, Clay Matthews, Jahri Evans, Larry Fitzgerald). How can a team with that much talent, and a Hall of Fame quarterback, be 3-7? This firing was completely fair, and timed appropriately. So I applaud the owner for that.

But now that the Vikings are without their contenious coach, without their diva receiver, and without a playoff chance, how will they maintain their monopoly on the media? Two words:
Brett. Favre.

We're talking a double dose of sex scandal, a will-he-play-won't-he-play debate before each game for the next two months, and a super-triple-dose of oh-my-god-will-he-retire over the month of December. We'll watch his last game (at Detroit!) like a farewell concert to a legendary rock god. But the only difference is - no one will cheer for an encore.

Picks
Got beat up pretty bad this week.

The Browns should have won but blew a 4th quarter lead for the FIFTH TIME this season. Cleveland could perceivably be 7-3 instead of 3-7. Weird, but true. I've got to stop picking them.

The Lions inability to keep their heads on straight (10 penalties for the 2nd straight week) cost them the game and cost me the pick. Granted, 2 or 3 of the calls were terrible calls, especially the horse-collar on Suh when he tackled Barber by the hair. But teams that are well-coached (New England, for example) don't have double digit penalties. In fact, the Pats were penalized just once yesterday. I am quickly getting tired of Jim Schwartz.

I missed the Thursday pick badly because I underestimated the impact of losing Jake Long.

I missed the Bills-Bengals pick because I misjudged the horrendousness of Cincinnati's entire team. Marvin Lewis should be fired after that pathetic performance, no questions asked.

I missed the Titans pick because I didn't expect Rusty Smith (who??????) to play the second half for Tennessee and have a QB rating of 19.

The rest of the games I nailed pretty well. I missed a couple coinflip games (Saints covered against the Seahawks, Steelers covered against the Raydahs), but overall I went 8-7 this week with a Monday nighter to go.

In other news, my fantasy basketball team just rocked the #1 ranked team, 10-2. (Meaning I won 10 categories and lost 2) I got a big week from Blake Griffin who had 44 pts and 17 rbs on Thursday, and of course Kevin Love who continues to dominate the glass. He has surpassed David Lee, by the way, as the best American-born white guy in the NBA.

In other other news, I need Knowshon Moreno and Malcolm Floyd to outscore Brandon Lloyd by 17 tonight in order to essentially clinch the playoffs in the A League. Not feeling good about my chances. I would be a lot happier if my opponent (the infamous Jason Bartman) didn't have Jennings and Bowe combine for 350 yards and 5 TDs.

But at least I got a stunning contribution from Randy Moss.