The Walking Wounded

By October 20th, the New England Patriots had their starting quarterback, starting running back and starting safety all injured and out for the rest of the season. Today it is being reported that starting LB and all around ass kicker Adelius Thomas has a broken forearm and will join Brady, Maroney and Harrison on the IR. And this is in addition to Sammy Morris and Lamont Jordon missing significant time. Maybe I don't follow every team's injuries as closely as I do New England's, but it seems EVERY damn year that multiple key players miss huge chunks of the season. I know football is a grueling sport but yikes. Thanks to the emergence of "The Lawfirm" BenJarvus Jeremy Green-Ellis, the Pats still somehow have a semblance of a running game. Cassel is settling in nicely and they are tied for the division lead with a 6-3 record.

New England has a HUUUUGE game this Thursday against the Jets at Gillette. And just for S's and G's, New York has just signed old friend Ty Law and will trot him against his former team. This division is damn close but I think in a different way than people expected when Brady went down. I personally thought it was going to be a battle of mediocrity but all four teams are still very much in the running with every team have an above .500 record (see James' AFC post). One thing is for sure (besides my undying hatred for Brett Favre and the fact that Jerricho Cotchery caught 1 friggin pass in a game where his team scored 47 points), the Patriots cannot afford anymore huge injuries if they want to make the playoffs. Belichick is good, but he can only do so much with backups and backups to backups.

In an unrelated note, I wanted to quickly touch on the likely trade of Matt Holliday to the Oakland A's. He'll only be there for possibly less than one year but his huge OBP will fit right in with Billy Beane's team concept. Leaving Colorado will negatively impact his offensive stats, but not by leaps and bounds. Oakland's offense has really been terrible these past couple of seasons so it will be nice for their fans to have a legit star on the team. This is the first big move of the offseason and will only get baseball fans salivating for more deals and more signings. And does this move put more pressure on the Angels to lock up Teixeira?

Hello, January! AFC Version

This isn't really something a lot of teams can be thinking right now. Even Tennessee, enjoying its undefeated status, knows that historic collapses can and do happen. There is no such thing as a sure thing in the NFL, especially this year. Let's take a look at the playoff race right now and see who's got a shot, who's on the outside looking in, and who's spending more time scouting prospective draft picks than next week's opponent.

AFC
Right now, two teams have what you can consider a commanding lead on their division. The first being Tennessee, of course, who are up 4 games on Indianapolis. No one expects the Titans to go 16-0, but their schedule from here on out almost guarantees a playoff spot. Say Tennessee plays poorly and loses to the Bears, Jags, Jets, Steelers, and Colts. Even with bad games, they should beat the Texans, Lions, and Browns. That puts them at 11-5, which means we'll be seeing them in early 2009. Yes, I said there's no guarantee in the NFL, but this is as good of a sure thing as you'll get.

Pittsburgh and their 6-2 record is the other team. At 5-3, Baltimore's right on their ass, but with the way the Steelers have played lately, I would be very hard pressed to see anyone but them winning the division. Cleveland has underperformed all season, and the Bengals just got their first win, so it really comes down to these two teams. Even if Roethlisberger can't stay healthy, I'll still take him over Joe Flacco over the long run. We're only halfway through, but I very much expect the North to be taken by Pittsburgh.

The rest is a toss-up. No one else should feel comfortable, and most should still have postseason hope even if they haven't played up to their abilities.

Three teams are tied for the AFC East lead at 5-3: Buffalo, New York and New England. Buffalo dropped 3 of their last 4 games and can't seem to get in a rhythm. The Jets play well depending on what side of the bed they wake up on, and while their offense and defense can both play very well, they don't seem to play well at the same time. Matt Saracen, err, Cassel, has struggled, but you can't help but be impressed with his composure this season. If the Patriots are going to take the division, Cassel's going to have to grow up very, very quickly and rally the Pats past the Jets and Bills, who happen to be their next two games.

After this Sunday, the lead in the East will be narrowed down to at the most, 2 teams. The Jets will have to beat the Rams to stay on top with the winner of the Bills/Pats. These next two weeks are crucial for the shape of the East, but right now it's anybody's game. Oh, I haven't even mentioned that these three teams are only a game ahead of Miami. A big win from the Fins over Seattle on Sunday and another win against the Raiders next week means we're talking about them as a legitimate January team.

The West has Denver on top, but they're struggling. At 4-4, they keep letting San Diego stay in the division race. If you let a team like the Bolts hang around, you're bound to regret it later. Jay Cutler quickly let the early touts of how great he was get to him, and I don't have to tell you about their defense. If the Chargers can beat the Chiefs this week (which is no guarantee, considering Kansas City won their first matchup), and Cleveland can take out the Broncs, both teams will be tied at 4-5 for first place. With any sort of momentum in their favor, San Diego can turn their season around in a heartbeat and win that division. If I had to put money on it, I'd take the Chargers to grab that automatic playoff spot. With all that, Oakland isn't dead in the water yet. The poor performances of their division means that there is still an actual chance. Not a great chance considering the fact that the Raiders are terrible, but still a chance.

Then there's our two wild card spots. Four teams at 5-3, three teams at 4-4, and four teams at 3-5 means that there are 11 teams who aren't the Steelers or Titans that can very well see the playoffs.

5-3
I've already mentioned these four. New York, New England, Buffalo, and Baltimore all have the same record, but do they all have the stuff to get to January? If I had to take two of them to make it right now, I'd go with Baltimore's defense to pull them through, and New England's coaching, tradition, and inability to give up to give them a spot.

4-4
Miami, Denver, and my boys from Indianapolis are sitting at .500. I don't think anyone would have pegged the Dolphins or Colts as a .500 team, but for very different reasons. Inconsistent play has plagued Denver and Indy, and Miami's just finding ways to win. Out of the three, the biased fan in me will take the Colts any day of the week, but Denver's weak division and easy schedule gives them a good shot.

3-5
Cleveland, Jacksonville, Houston, and San Diego are 3-5, but there's no counting a single one of them out. They've got their strengths, they've got their weaknesses, but most importantly, they've got seven teams ahead of them who could within the span of two weeks, have the same or a worse record than them. I think we should see at least one or two of these guys in the playoffs.

Just wondering how crazy this is? Take a look at how much space there was between the good and the bad at this time in 2007.

9-0
New England (made playoffs)

7-1
Indianapolis (made playoffs)

6-2
Tennessee (made playoffs), Pittsburgh (made playoffs)

5-3
Cleveland (didn't make playoffs), Jacksonville (made playoffs),

4-4
Baltimore (didn't make playoffs), Buffalo (didn't make playoffs), San Diego (made playoffs)

Under .500 (4-5 or 3-5)
Houston (didn't make playoffs), Denver (didn't make playoffs)

Only one team at .500 at this point in 2007 made the playoffs, and that was the Chargers. Right now there are 7 times fighting for their division or the wild card, and in all likelihood, we will see these guys fight it out to the end. Remember how last season you had to start guys like Todd Collins or T.J. Duckett in your fantasy championship because most teams were resting their starters for the playoffs or not bothering to get them injured going into the postseason? Ok, well I started Collins and Duckett (and won), but your stars will be there playing Week 17, because we ought to have plenty of games the last week of the season with playoff implications.

I love football.

Everyone just stay calm. We gotta KEEP our COMPOSURE!!

I understand that there are only 16 regular season games in the NFL and every game gets put under a microscope. And heading into Week Four (when there are already bye weeks) there are indeed a few teams that everyone can safely say their future's bright or they look worse than George Brett's pants after some bad crab legs. But overall, let's just slow things down a bit, take a step back and objectively look at the state of the league.

Okay, so there are four teams that have no business even taking the field for the rest of the year. Kansas City, St. Louis, Detroit and Cleveland (wtf Braylon Edwards! catch a friggin pass)are seriously just embarrassing themselves and while the Bengals are also 0-3, Cincy at least showed some heart yesterday against the Giants.

Looking at most teams, it appears that there's going to be a lot of 7-9 and 8-8 teams. We can't have teams finishing 15-1 and 14-2 every year. Injuries have already ravaged a number of rosters. It kinda takes the wind of out the "excitement sails." (I don't really know what that means.) For instance, that Philly/Pittsburgh game yesterday? How insanely boring was that? Westbrook, McNabb and Roethlisberger were all knocked out of the game with only McNabb coming back. 15-6 was the final score. Was it great defense or just poor execution offensively? I don't know about you folks, but watching Byron Leftwich, Correll Buckhalter and (gasp!) Matt Cassel doesn't exactly find my lost remote. Also, back up quarterback play leads to lack of production from wide receivers. Tomlinson, Colston, the list goes on. Yeah, I realize that it's the nature of the beast in the NFL that key players get hurt every year and some miss significant time. But three games into the year? The Brady injury might have been a bit of foreshadowing in relation to the entire season.

Getting back to individual teams, Dallas has looked pretty damn good. But some of the other undefeateds haven't won me over by any means. The defending champs barely beat Washington and Cincinnati and beat up on the Rams. Wow. Denver? They put up an ass ton (actual measurement) of points but were a blown call away from being 2-1. Tennessee's competition so far has been laughable. Buffalo...hmmmm. They have proved they can win close ones and Lynch hasn't even rushed for over 100 yards in a game yet. Their defense and special teams are pretty impressive. Definitely a team to keep an eye on but I wouldn't exactly put a lot of money down on them each week. If I had any.

Yes, I'm getting to the RB23 show. What else can you say really? With Brady out, the New England defense needed to put the rest of the team on their back and power through the regular season in the hopes that Cassel would improve and give the Pats a decent shot in the playoffs. Yesterday, Bill Belichick's team flat out stunk. In every way. One would think that Brady's injury would inspire them to step up and be even more motivated than a team that barely missed out on a 19-0 season. If that's even possible. But nope, they were beaten down essentially by one dude. Granted, he looked great doing it but after the first time he lines up for a direct snap, couldn't you, I don't know, adjust. Isn't that what Belichick specializes in? Being down 21-6 at half time ain't the worst situtation to be in at your home stadium.

But again. IT'S JUST ONE GAME. The Patriots are still 2-1 and the Dolphins are still 1-2. So much can happen between now and the end of the year. More stars can and probably will miss multiple games due to injury. J.T. O'Sullivan will remember that he's J.T. O'Sullivan. The Titans will play someone with a pulse. Come talk to me after Week 8 and maybe I'll listen to some of these proclamations.

Oh and then there's the "balance of power switching" argument. I can't stand to hear this in any sport, the NFL in particular. In the finals of all the major sports, it's still one team from the East/AFC, etc. versus one team from the West/NFC, etc. And in football, they only play one game for the trophy! Any Given Sunday right? So what if the NFC East might have three (four?) teams with double digit wins. How many of them are getting to the Super Bowl? It gives the countless drones on all the tv shows to run their yap about but at the end of the day, it's meaningless. Besides, who really pays attention to football until after the World Series anyway...

The Sky is Falling! The SKY is Falling!!!

Another one bites the dust. As you've probably heard, Kevin Faulk plead no-contest to misdemeanor marijuana possession on Wednesday. This comes just a week after the Patriots parted ways with special teamer Willie Andrews after he pointed his (illegal) gun in his girlfriend's face. That's the third Patriots player brought up on charges since The Game That Shall Not Be Mentioned, and everybody is saying one of two things, "Those Patriots sure are depressed about that loss! Look how much crime they're committing!", or "The Patriots are turning into a bunch of thugs because they got too cocky and started taking bad character guys"

Now I admit the timing of these incidents is suspicious, and my initial reaction was that it might be from some type of hangover from one of the most hyped NFL seasons ever. Let's look into the matter a bit closer shall we? Here are the incidents that have happened since the Super Bowl on February 3rd:

-Willie Andrews – February 5^th, 2008
Arrested for marijuana possession, ½ pound in his car.

-Kevin Faulk – February 26^th, 2008
Cited for misdemeanor marijuana possession, 4 joints in pocket at Lil Wayne concert.

-Nick Kaczur – June 4^th, 2008
Arrested for illegal possession of OxyContin pills, then helped in sting operation on dealer.

-Willie Andrews – June 30^th, 2008
Felony charges for illegal possession of a large capacity firearm and assault with a
dangerous weapon.

Let's address the Willie Andrews situation first. Andrews was a player who fell to the 7th Round of the 2006 draft despite being considered a speedy (4.38 40-yard dash) kick return specialist and DB, mostly because of character concerns. In '02 Andrews was sentenced to 30 days in jail for misdemeanor gun charges, which came just months after he was put on probation for "misdemeanor criminal mischief".... whatever the hell that is.* "Oh ho!" you might say, "I told you they were taking guys with character issues!" Yeah, except Willie kept his nose clean during 4 years of college in Texas(!!) and the Patriots only took a flyer on him in the 7th round, paying him a relatively measly $400k a year. He also stayed out of trouble for 2 full seasons before acting like an idiot twice in a 5 months span. The Patriots didn't make excuses for him though, they promptly cut him. He blew his chance and he's gone. Doesn't seem so bad to me.

Next comes Faulk. Back in February he was doing what any good Louisiana native does in the off-season... heading down to the Cajundome to see a Lil Wheezy concert. Security stopped him on the way to his suite for a "random search" and found 4 joints on his person. Now, I've never been to one, but I'm pretty sure they hand out 4 joints to anyone attending a Lil Wayne concert as they walk in the door. Either way, he passed a drug test so he won't have to go into the NFL's substance abuse program. His penalty? 40 hours of community service and a $300 fine plus court fees. At a Wheezy concert, it could have been much worse. At least he didn't make it rain.

The only story here that actually worries me is Nick Kaczur. Weed is one thing, but Oxy's no joke, and according to the Boston.com report, "Kaczur has told authorities that he had been buying oxycodone ... every few days in batches of a hundred since November 2007." Now, we can assume Big Nick wasn't taking 100 Oxy's every few days, because he's not dead... so that means he was either A) lying, or B) distributing. Considering all the pressure on the team this year, it's not out of the realm of possibility that players started taking intense pain medication to dull any pain that would keep them off the field. I hope this isn't true, and I hope the SB XLII collapse wasn't a result of built up fatigue from ignoring all the pain, but it's certainly a possibility. Let's hope that, either way, this arrest will keep anything like that from happening in the future.

Here's my real issue with all of the coverage of this situation. The Patriots are now part of the NFL stereotype as a trouble-making, image problem-having organization. Off-season arrests for misdemeanor charges for drug possession and DUI's pour in, and people roll their eyes and say "there goes another NFL thug." While I can't deny these crimes are occurring, and I can't defend their actions, I don't really feel the reputation is well deserved. To see why, let's look at the number of active roster spots in each of the four major sports (yes, I'm including the NHL):

Active Roster Spots by League:
NFL: 1696
MLB: 750
NHL: 690
NBA: 360

That's 1696 active NFL players to 1800 active MLB, NHL, and NBA players COMBINED. If it seems like more NFL players are getting arrested, maybe that's because there are so many more guys representing the league! I have a feeling if you took a sampling of seventeen-hundred employees from any field... be it engineers, lawyers, journalists, etc... odds are there's going to be enough morons in a group that large to make the group as a whole look bad. That's just the way the odds work out in our society.

One more reason I can see for seemingly high NFL arrests? The down-time. Not only do NFL players have the most time between games, they also have one of the longest off-seasons. In other leagues, you don't have as much time to go home and goof off, plain and simple. Any time you combine the amount of money these guys make with the amount of free time they have to go spend it... bad things are going to happen. Just look at what actors do when they're not making movies. Again, I'm not defending the crimes, just trying to explain why they seem to happen so often.

So there you have it. The NFL does not have a crime problem. The NFL has a population problem. In a group that large, there are going to be people who screw up and make everyone else look bad. The important thing is that you react accordingly and don't allow people like that to represent you as a whole, and the NFL is doing a better and better job of it.** Now please everybody shut up about it.


* Via Wikipedia: "Mischief, in criminal law, is an offense against property that does not involve conversion. It typically involves any damage, defacement, alteration, or destruction of property." My best guess? The old flaming bag of poo on the doorstep trick.

** Cowboys not included