The 2017 NFL season begins tonight, and every argument about why Colin Kaepernick remains out of the NFL has been debunked — except one.
“He is bad — he went 1-10!”
Nonsense.
Yes, Kaepernick was 1-10 last season for the 2-14 49ers, but history tells us that a crappy record in merely one season is not enough to land a quarterback on the NFL’s unemployment list.
It’s just that some cats swing like that, I guess.
Originally completed July 3, 2010
Yeah, but what would YOU have done? (photo: AP/Ivan Sekretarev)
I am officially enjoying the 2010 World Cup more than the 2009 NFL season. This comes as a startling shock to me. It was not long ago that I reprimanded my brother for abandoning his American roots by daring to term the Chicago Bears’ sport “American football.”
As readers of this column know from my use of the term “soccer/football,” I still can’t go all the way. Comparing the experience of following a once-every-four-years tournament for one month against an annual sporting season for five is not equitable… we shall see if my enjoyment of soccer/football carries beyond July 11th and into the Premier League or MLS… Continue reading “On the John: It’s just that some cats swing like that, I guess.”
On the John
The ‘I’ in ‘Team’ never saw it coming
Originally completed September 12, 2009
Any way you cut it, the Patriots became the new America's Team on this night in New Orleans.
Back in 2001, the St. Louis Rams were it. The team to beat. The team to fear. They had the talent and they had the stars. They were the show and we were in awe. Warner flinging bombs to Holt and Bruce, Proehl underneath, Hakim running kicks. And Faulk, always Faulk, Marshall!-Marshall!-Marshall! catching and carrying and scoring and combining the three better than any man has. Continue reading “On the John: The ‘I’ in ‘Team’ never saw it coming”
There’s a lot to celebrate when you are a celebrated member of the Chicago Bears.
Lance Briggs is set to earn 7.2 million dollars this coming 2007 season. He will do this by playing really, really good football as the starting weakside linebacker for the Chicago Bears, who, like Briggs, are also really good at football. They are particularly good at defense, where Briggs, good ol’ number 55 himself, will be lining up next to six other defensive Pro Bowlers. Briggs’ Bears have compiled a 24-8 record since 2005; they even played in this huge deal called the Super Bowl this past February. With 21 starters set to return in 2007, Briggs will have a chance to play yet another season of professional football for one of the NFL’s premier teams.
Today is Sunday, September 4th, 2005: The final non-NFL Sunday of the year. For me, this week will be the official end of the summer, although as far as I’m concerned the NFL’s season should begin today, and thus summer should be over. For some reason that I’ve yet to figure out, the NFL has decided to push its season back a week, meaning that instead of having the season start during the first week of September and end during the final week of December, it now begins during the second week of September and ends during the first week of January. Continue reading “Bear Down and Get Some Runs, best-of: the official end of a summer”
It just never worked out for ol’ Steve Hutchinson, but oh how we loved him on December 5, 2004.
August 27, 2005
September is less than a week away, which means summer is nearly over, which means I am closer and closer to the point at which I can legitimately give up on the Cubs and move all my energy and attention to the Bears. I’m pretty much done with baseball, as this past week has been a complete disaster. Including today’s loss to the Marlins, a game that dropped us seven under .500, the Cubs have now lost six of seven, all six losses coming by two runs or less. It appears that this team has taken all of the negative elements of the 2004 team—sloppy play, injuries, poor base running, an imbalanced lineup, a lousy bullpen—along with a talent downgrade in the outfield, and ended up with a less than mediocre fourth place squad. If only Jim Mora were here right now. “Playoffs? Playoffs?” To think that this Cub team has a first baseman who is leading the league in batting and flirting with a Triple Crown, an all-star third baseman, a good hitting catcher, a solid middle infield…whatever. It’s all a waste. The good news is that D. Lee, Aramis, Barrett, Zambrano, Prior, and Wood will all be back, and they’ll blow the rest of the team up and start putting it back together with over 70 million dollars in salary room. Jim Hendry has clearly had his worst full year ever as GM, and so he’ll get to redeem himself this offseason and turn it around. But really, my interest is gone, and that’s fine… Continue reading “Bear Down and Get Some Runs, best-of: Kyle Orton vs. Chad Hutchinson”
Johnny U, seen here leading his troops into enemy territory with an aerial assault of deadly accuracy.
As we approach the NFL’s regular season, I find myself reexamining my favorite sport: football. Ah, football. America’s sport. Not America’s pastime, mind you. That spot is taken, and well-deserved. No, football is America’s sport, the one game played here and nowhere else. While the rest of the world can square off in soccer, basketball, baseball, tennis, swimming, track and field, and even hockey, only football—the game of the gridiron—can be held as ours and ours alone. Continue reading “From August 16, 2006: Football as society”
The only time teams really get bothered with T.O. is when they're losing.
As we float around the halfway mark of the NFL season, the general sentiment of fans and analysts is that this is a pretty boring year. On the field, the Colts are the only sure-fire Super Bowl contender, as injuries have taken the bite out of New England, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. Meanwhile, off the field stories have dominated, the most damaging of which involved the Minnesota Vikings and their “Love Boat” orgy party during their bye week.
It’s Sunday night, and that means dinner. Every Sunday night my family gets together with my grandmother, with us either having her over for dinner or the five of us going out to eat. Tonight we’re bringing food in, getting Carson’s ribs for the four of us, as my brother is in Kansas at school. Growing up, my parents would not let us watch TV while eating dinner, though we were allowed to make exceptions for certain special events, namely sports games. Tonight is one of those nights, as today is the day of the Conference Championships in the NFL. Continue reading “Bear Down and Get Some Runs, best-of: January 23, 2005”
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