To Love And Feel No Love (To Be A Fan).

It’s a funny thing being a sports fan. 

Every time I try to quantify it or measure why it matters or why I care, I really have a hard time putting it into words.

What does your local team winning a championship mean really, at the end of the day?

When I was a kid I thought that it always meant that the team that won was the best city in the country somehow. That in some way, when the Blue Jays won the World Series back to back when I was young, Toronto was actually a better city than anywhere in America. 

From the outside, I had a lot of envy for the successful cities. 

I hated Dallas. I hated the Cowboys because of how great they were, but more-so because of how arrogant they seemed (and their fans seemed). 

Dallas winning Superbowl after Superbowl only served to further the notion that where I was living was one of the worst places in the country. The Patriots were horrible at best, the Red Sox were one year of futility after another, the Bruins were always good but could never get it done and the Celtics just always seemed like a team that’s glory days were over when I was just a baby. 

“You should have seen them when Larry was playing.” my Dad would always say. 

To put it into perspective, the day Larry Bird announced his retirement, my family was on vacation at a log cabin in New Hampshire. I had wandered into the woods and my Mom was ready to kill me when I came back an hour or so later. Because I was like 7 or 8. When I came back inside, my Dad was listening to the radio. He told me Larry Bird was retired. I had no idea what that really meant. 

I know it might seem like an odd time to reflect on this. The Boston Red Sox are in the ALCS. The Patriots rebounded big against the 49ers. The Bruins might even be strong this season. And the Celtics are coming off their first Championship in two decades.

For me, this is like living a dream.

But a lot of things happen when your city starts winning championships.

It is way harder to get tickets, for starters.

Even if you can still get tickets, the prices go way up. 

Everyone in all of those other cities starts hating your teams. Some of them (the ones who still haven’t figured out as I did as a kid, that winning a championship does not make your city more important or better somehow) hate your city.

But the worst, by far, is that something that was once so personally your own becomes a commodity for everyone.

It is sort of like when your favorite band that you have been following and listening to for 5 years all of the sudden has a crossover hit on the radio. They aren’t yours anymore. They aren’t some secret that only you know about.

Secrets aside, something you spent so much time invested in and so much time thinking about and talking about (and writing about) is instantly accessible by everyone. They don’t have to work to find the band. They don’t get to see them grow gradually. They weren’t there when they were playing to 15 people at TT The Bears or The Met Cafe. 

But now, because they are so clearly not your own anymore, you can’t even see them without going to some arena (where you pay 18 times as much to see something that was yours before that hit single).

Some people get bitter.

I’ve cared about sports my whole life.

Even when I was 16-18 and thought I wasn’t allowed to care about sports and music at the same time (for some reason…) I couldn’t resist watching the Red Sox or Patriots or Celtics. I actively tried not to care that much. But I couldn’t just stop being myself. 

The question is, why do we care?

In Boston right now, there’s nothing unique about being a sports fan. Everyone is a Boston sports fan. Even people who wouldn’t have been caught dead watching a Red Sox game 6 years ago. But I don’t watch sports to be unique.

Being a sports fan is expensive. You are constantly spending money to go to games, for cable (I really probably would not have cable if not for the Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots, Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, HGTV, Food Network, Bruins and ESPN [in that order]) to buy merchandise…etc. 

Buying tickets is never a problem to me. I go to games with my girlfriend or sister or best friends. Really, it isn’t that much more expensive than going to a movie or going out to dinner ($10 Celtics tickets are cheaper in both cases, and also way more fun). 

Cable is nice.

And the merchandise trap is something I generally avoid. Or anyway did a great job avoiding until the 2007-2008 Celtics season.

There was something about that team that changed me as a fan. It wasn’t that they were winning. I’ve experienced a lot of winning teams over the last 8 years. It was something else. 

Maybe it was redemption. Maybe it was that (unlike the Red Sox) I could remember the exact day everything changed for the Celtics. I could remember where I was and what I was doing and all of the nightmares that followed (Reggie Lewis’ death, years of futility, Rick Pitino, Antoine Walker). 

Something about seeing my team. A team that I was raised on. A team I was brought up to love, finally get better or at least have a serious chance, made me feel different.

When I bought a Rondo shirt at the first game I went to in 2007, I felt great about it. I would wear it on game days and it made me feel happy. Just wearing a stupid shirt. I bought more Celtics shirts as I went to more games and I always wore one on a game day all season long. I’m not exaggerating. Just wearing the Celtics colors made me happier. Listening to “Roc Boys” or “Ayo Technology” (two songs the Celtics played during warm-ups at the Garden all season) in the gym gave me more energy and made me run faster and work harder. Knowing I had the pleasure to watch them (on TV or in person) helped me get through even the toughest winter days. 

I tried to explain it in my season ending column after the parade in June. I don’t know if I did.

I love the Celtics. I love this core of players. I love the way they play. I love the way they act together. I love that I am living through some new “good old days” because there was a while, most of my life, that I never thought I would. 

But for all of the love I have for the Boston Celtics, they don’t even know I exist. I don’t say that to be dramatic. It is just a simple fact. I am just a credit card number on some gate receipts to them. 

That is all that fans are to their teams really.

We watch, we buy, we digest, we discuss and we get nothing tangible in return.

It is the most beautiful and horrible unrequited love there is.

How can you love something that doesn’t love you back?

Maybe this is a question better suited for a priest, a rabbi and a philosophy professor but I think I get it now.

Maybe they don’t know who I am, but when I think about them, it can make me feel happier. I can think about some great moments and smile. If I’m having a terrible day at work, I can look at the calendar and say ‘at least the Celtics are on tonight’. They are always there. They were a part of my Grandfather’s life and are a part of my Father’s life and will be a part of my kid’s lives one day as well. They inform the way we meet and interact with the people around us. They link us to complete strangers. They give us something to talk about when there is nothing to talk about.

Being a fan means that you believe in something. Something that can lift you up and something that can crush you. But just like anything else, there is always another chance, another opportunity in the future.

The simplest way to explain why I love sports is that it always gives me something to look forward to.

Like most people, I think I want to believe in something. And believing in the Celtics means a lot. 

Tonight was their first pre-season game. Towards the end of the first half rookie Bill Walker got an alley oop dunk that was outstanding. two possessions later, he followed it by dunking in traffic. On the bench, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo and everyone else went crazy as if it were a playoff game.

It gives me hope. Some people get to do what they love for a living and sometimes we’re lucky enough to watch them or see them or listen to them or hear about them.

Maybe you think I’m just a crazy obsessive fan or that I’m oversimplifying something that is very complex or that I’m making something that is very simple out to be this big important thing…the thing about believing and loving anything is that it is personal. No matter who else loves it or who else has loved it, the way you feel about it and the way it affects and informs you is uniquely your own. 

One of my co-workers told me she was moving to the North End a couple months back and I told her “I wish I lived in the North End. I’d be closer to the Celtics there.” This was probably in August, so she gave me a puzzled look and laughed a little.

For whatever reason it makes me happier that this team exists. They won’t be this great forever but that is like everything else in life. I will enjoy this and never take it for granted for a second. 

It doesn’t matter that they don’t know me or that we don’t have a direct relationship or communication.

I believe in them. I appreciate everything they do. And as a result, even when they lose and I’m disappointed, it is a passing feeling. Because there is always another opportunity in the future. And sometimes just knowing that is enough to carry you through the hard times.

Joan Holloway, Travis Henry, Al Davis, Vince Young. Tampering. Drugs. Sex. Robots. 1960.

Sorry I didn’t get around to writing about the Twins/White Sox game or how insane Al Davis is.

One thing we can all agree on is that this blog (and all blogs) needs more pictures of Joan Holloway.

So there. That is squared away…

Thanks Enigma…for starting a fine tradition.

The ESPN headline read “Henry arrested after alleged coke deal” The only Henry I could think of was Chris Henry. It truly would have been one of the greatest things to ever happen to the Bengals.

Alas, it was Travis “I have 9 kids from 9 different ladies” Henry. Member of the Shawn Kemp Hall Of Fame. Travis Henry loves bangin’, but he hates contraceptives.

You might remember Henry from his poor showing in Denver in 2007 (after a lot of hype) and multiple instances of being in trouble with Roger Goodell.

Henry wasn’t playing anywhere this season. Something tells me we might not be seeing him on the field for a while…

Vince Young might want to play again. Now that Kerry Collins has led the Titans to a 4-0 record they need someone who is a complete liability to come in and screw things up.

Vince Young kind of sucks. No wait, he kind of really sucks. And from all the reports, it sounds like he isn’t much of a leader or a gamer. The way his teammates talk about ti, they make it sound like they have to console him after every INT.

I don’t like it one bit.

That old piece of shit skeleton moron Al Davis made himself look like what he is: an idiot. That guy is an embarrassment to the NFL.

He also accused the Patriots of tampering to get Randy Moss.

Uhh…Here’s a question, if the Patriots were tampering to get him, why wouldn’t the Raiders just file a report with the NFL and NOT trade him to the Patriots?

It wasn’t like Moss was going to be a free agent and the Patriots had a chance to sign him away and they twisted his arm into leaving.

 Nope.

The Raiders TRADED Moss to the Patriots and clearly Al Davis just has sour grapes that his team is the laughing stock of the NFL and that they paid Moss a ton of money and he did nothing with Oakland but then looked like Jerry Rice in New England Last season.

Troy Brown Retires.

Troy Brown announced his retirement today.

He spent his entire career with the Patriots and was a true fan favorite. There was just something about Troy Brown that people loved.

I think a lot of it was that he was an everyman. Or as close to an ‘everyman’ as a professional athlete can be. Troy Brown always seemed to be playing as hard as he could on the field. He was always reliable to come up in big situations.

But he wasn’t built for football.

At 5′ 10″, 190 lbs., Brown was about the same size as any wide receiver on your high school’s varsity team. He wasn’t an imposing guy. He wasn’t a an amazing physical specimen. He was just a guy like any other average guy off the street who worked hard at what he did to improve himself. 

In his line of work, had to work twice as hard his whole life to even get noticed.

Say what you will about Boston sports fans, but I think that we truly identify with guys like that.

The reason why everyone has always loved Troy Brown is the same reason why everyone loves Wes Welker and Dustin Pedroia.

These guys are proof that you can get what what you put in. Something I realized when I was a kid and loved Troy Brown.

Brown was drafted by the Patriots in 1993. He was an 8th round pick from Marshall.

Let me restate that: Brown was selected in a round of the NFL draft that doesn’t exist anymore, from a college that was Division 1AA at the time.

Over the course of his career he caught 557 passes (a Patriots record) for 6,366 yards (2nd in franchise history). He had 31 TDs. He also had some huge catches that lead the Patriots to 3 Superbowls.

But these are far from Hall Of Fame statistics.

Brown never won  MVP. He only made the Pro Bowl once. He wasn’t the best receiver in the NFL ever in his career (the only time he was even close to the top 10 was 2001, his Pro Bowl season).

But #80 should be retired at Gillette Stadium.

When a player unselfishly gives his entire career to an organization, is a leader on the field and in the locker room, is willing to play anywhere the team needs him to play (he spent a lot of time playing Cornerback and working on special teams at the end of his career) and helps take the team to the Superbowl 5 times in his career, how could you not retire his number?

There are some teams that retire too many numbers (Celtics), while others retire too few (Red Sox). I understand the reasoning behind both.

Retiring a  number at a team’s stadium is a great honor for a player, second only to being in the Hall Of Fame. 

But I sort of feel like being retired at the stadium is an honor that should be reserved for guys who gave everything they had to a specific team for their entire career.

Troy Brown isn’t going to Canton.

But how could the Patriots organization ignore a guy with his heart?

If anything, I feel like being retired in your home stadium should be an honor given only to those who wouldn’t be remembered anywhere else.

When Tom Brady retires, he’ll go to Canton. Everyone will know his name in 50 years. He doesn’t need to be remembered in the Patriots Stadium to be remembered in general. Kids who are going to be born in New England in 2015 will grow up hearing stories about Tom Brady and the glory days of the Patriots.

Troy Brown is retired and 50 years from now, only those of us who had the privilige of watching him play will remember everything he did for the Patriots.

How could you not retire #80? 

Some things go deeper than stats.

Thanks for all the memories Troy.

Marc Bulger Benched For Trent Green.

I honestly can’t think of another 2 quarterbacks whose careers hit the respective shitters faster than Trent Green and Marc Bulger.

It seems almost fitting that Green will be starting over Bulger in week 4.

Marc Bulger, as recently as 2006, was one of the brightest stars at QB in the NFL. When healthy he has been one of the most consistent quarterbacks around through his 7 year career. Bulger has gone to two Pro Bowls. He is a plus 32 TD to INT ratio in his career (remember, Jon Kitna was a +1?). The guy thre for 3,700+ yards 3 times in his career.

Bulger is hardly yesterday’s news.

Trent Green? Even more storied statistics than Bulger. Green threw for 4,000+ yards 3 years straight (2003-2005), has a +54 TD to INT ratio in his career and seemed to be the type of quarterback every shitty team would love to have, every OK team would take over their quarterback and every good team would specifically not want to go up against.

The fact that they are both on the Rams this season came as a surprise to me. I thought Trent Green made the right choice and decided to retire after 2007. I guess I was wrong.

You see, in spite of all of the success both guys have had (and they both HAVE had success, even if not always on great teams), they have also both been victims of horrific offensive lines and brutal injury plagued careers.

Trent Green was KO’ed with a concussion in 2006, week 1 (I had him in my Fantasy League that year…it sucked) and KO’ed again in 2007 in week 5 (I drafted him as a backup, again, expecting to get the old pre-concussion Trent Green out of him and never expecting the same injury two years in a row).

In all honesty, Trent Green probably should have retired after two horrific concussions.

And to make matters worse, he will be playing on Sunday, yet again, with a team with a horrible offensive line that has already allowed Marc Bulger to be sacked 11 times in 2008.

If we want to discuss why the Rams offense blows this season (and last), I can point to 5 key reasons.

The Rams probably have one of the oldest, worn out and beaten offensive front 5 in the NFL. This is a team that went from having a great crew of guys to being horrible overnight (2206 to 2007). Look at how it has affected Steven Jackson’s numbers. You have to believe that Jackson is still a premier running back (he can run, break tackles and catch!) suffering through things with no blocking.

And in football, unlike baseball or basketball, injuries have direct correlations (or can).

Last year’s Rams offensive line was missing 2 starters most of the season. Bulger took a beating, got sacked 37 times and was hurt all year with various ailments. Steven Jackson was also hurt all year on and off.

Don’t expect much of a change in 2008.

It isn’t like Marc Bulger is just throwing every pass into 4 man coverage this season. He’s thrown 2 TDs and 2 INTs, passed for 519 yards and generally made the most of his shitty situation.

I don’t think Trent Green is going to magically make the offensive line better at stopping the pass rush.

Unfortunately, I would kill to have either Trent Green or Marc Bulger Patriots this season. And all though they wouldn’t make the O-line in New England better either, with all of the weapons available in New England, I’m pretty sure they’d manage to hit the open man, not waste timeouts and not force Josh McDaniels to call horrible plays, rush on every first and second down and look like a high school football team.

Either way, they still have more hope than the Lions.

The Patriots Eat A Pile Of Steaming Dogshit.

Remember the Superbowl, when the Patriots offensive line was severly outmatched against a team with a great pass rush?

Surely the Patriots made fixing their old, shitty offensive line a priority in the off season. Right?

Oh wait.

Not at all.

Yesterday Matt Cassel looked like the horse’s ass we all knew he could look like, the offensive line looked older and weaker than ever before and allowed Cassel to get sacked 4 times and made such big holes that the Patriots had all of 79 rushing yards.

It is abundantly clear that Randy Moss hates Matt Cassel. He hates the Matt Cassel era. He hates being not thrown to when he is open. He hates losing games. Several times yesterday Cassel did not throw to an open Moss. Other times he over or under threw him. And generally it looked like Randy Moss was unhappy to be playing with Matt Cassel.

Cassel is not a leader. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, the guy might play well enough to not lose games for the Patriots (as he did Week 1 and Week 2), but he will never play well enough to win games for them.

If the Patriots want to do better than 7-9 and a pathetically rhythm-less not fun to watch offense, they really should go get Daunte Culpepper or Jeff Garcia or ANYONE with veteran experience.

Or start Kevin O’Connell.

Did anyone else notice that O’Connell seemed to have more composure and confidence at the end of that game that Cassel did?

Kevin O’Connell is a gamer. The guy plays hard. He acutally has EXPERIENCE (he started games in college!).

When Matt Cassel is playing, he just seems uncomfortable and like he has no idea what he is doing. Starting Cassel at quarterback all season would be like Doc Rivers deciding to start Brian Scalabrine at Center all season when he has a healthy Big Baby Davis on the bench.

Scalabrine and Matt Cassel seem like equals to me. Both of them seem like nice guys. They both seem like they would be fun to hang out with. But they both also look like they have no idea what is going on the second they step on the field/court.

I can’t go on like this.

I would gladly accept a 6-10 record if the Patriots at least were fun to watch. Like the Saints for example. They are fun to watch. They aren’t going to win 13 games, but they are fun to watch. Same thing for the Bengals. Or Raiders. Or 49ers. Or Falcons. All teams that are at least fun to watch. Or have the potential to be fun.

And what the hell happened to the Patriots defense? Ronnie Brown is great, don’t get me wrong, but I really don’t think he is Barry Sanders.

And Chad Pennington, yeah he’s good, but I don’t remember him becoming Steve Young.

What the hell happened?

Bench Matt Cassel. Bring in a free agent. Anyone with game experience who will hit an open receiver and won’t waste timeouts all the time.

Marx’s Thoughts On The Brady-Less Patriots.

My friend Casey had some interesting thoughts on the horror show that was the Patriots yesterday:

I sat down to eat my breakfast this morning and had to turn off ESPN because I didn’t want to hear anyone else comment on our loss to the Dolphins. I was pissed off because it seems like the rest of the league is sitting around waiting for their turns to take a shot at the Brady-less Pats so they can feel better about the last 8 seasons. I imagine there are plenty of guys like Joey Porter out there, searching for a regular season win to take the sting out of the multiple playoff losses he incurred at the hands of Tom Brady.

After searching through the channels with no luck, I turned my efforts towards the “On Demand” menu only to find that the NFL Network’s “America’s Game” episode for the 89 Forty Niners team was on demand. I watched the program while I ate my scrambled eggs and I was struck by some of the comments made by George Seifert, the head coach who replaced Bill Walsh for the 89 season.

At the end of the program Seifert was discussing his greatest challenges in being their head coach. The thing he struggled with the most was not trying to fill Bill Walsh’s shoes, or to live up to the Superbowl expectations that were put on his team. The hardest challenge for him was facing the long term changes that would happen to his roster. He said that he had always known that at some point he might be responsible for letting go of the great players on that team because undoubtedly many of them would come to the end of their career during his tenure if he kept his job long enough. Indeed he was right because he was there when Montana moved to KC, Ronnie Lott moved to the Jets and Tom Rathman moved to the Raiders.

Seeing these players move to other teams opened my eyes to the privilege that we have this season. If there is any silver lining to be found in Tom Brady’s injury it is that we are getting a glimpse of what the post Brady era might be like. We are seeing the struggles that the vast majority of fans face every time they watch their team play. We are seeing that the grass isn’t greener on the other side of the fence. If we are lucky enough to get Brady back at full strength in the seasons to follow, we should all have a much greater appreciation for his performance. It’s very rare for a player to be as good as he is, or for a team to have as much success as the Pats have had. We should all cherish these next few years while guys like Bruschi, Vrabel, and Faulk are still around because one day they’ll all just be a highlight reel for us.

I think tom Brady is the best athlete to play in Boston during our lifetime, and he more than anyone else will be our Ted Williams when we’re older. Let’s be thankful that this hopefully isn’t the end just yet, and that we’ll get one more go with him before all is said and done.

Go Pats.

Shawne Merriman Out For The Season. Makes The Right Decision. Will Undergo Surgery.

In the “obviously it wasn’t going to work out” department, Shawne Merriman has changed his mind about his torn knee ligaments.

It was previously reported that Merriman would forgo surgery because he felt that it was something he didn’t want to do.

I like to think that he read my extended plea for him to not play and that is why he chose to get the surgery before causing permanant damage to his knee.

This Chargers team looked lost against the Panthers. And that is one team you don’t want to look lost against.

Obviously Tomlinson didn’t have his best game and clearly the Chargers will pick it up as the season progresses.

But you have to wonder how this might change the landscape of the AFC.

The way the Colts looked the other night mixed with the Patriots with Brady and Chargers without Shawne Merriman makes me firmly believe that the Steelers really might be the team to beat in the AFC this season.

In related news, Kobe doesn’t need a pinky.

Tom Brady Has A Torn ACL. Out For The Season. Bring In Daunte Culpepper. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD BRING IN DAUNTE CULPEPPER!!

Tom Brady is rumored to have a torn ACL. Unless by some miracle it is just a broken leg or something (a broken leg would be a miracle in this case) Tom Brady will miss the entire 2008 season.

The Patriots didn’t look all that promising prior to Brady’s injury and they certainly did not look fantastic afterwards. 

Now I know what it must feel like to have a teenage son or daughter. One disappointment after another. 

At least I have the Celtics…

…Well…

Here is the silver lining:

• If it is a torn ACL, Brady will have a calendar year to recover. This is longer than Carson Palmer had. Palmer is still effective (not today, but in general…)
• The Patriots arrogance is gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.
• Younger players will NEED to step up and play to the absolute best of their ability in order to even help this team make the playoffs.
• Maybe Matt Cassel will be the next Tom Brady? (doubtful).
• Maybe if Matt Cassel does start and start to suck hard, maybe Kevin O’Connell will be the starter? (doubtful).
• Maybe the Patriots can pull Daunte Culpepper out of retirement. Here is how the meeting would go “Listen Daunte, we know you’re retired, we know you didn’t get a fair shake anywhere. We know you had a serious knee injury in Miami, we know you were on the Raiders and that fuckfest wasn’t your fault (look, we even signed Lamont Jordan!). But you know what Daunte? The best years of your life happened in Minnesota. Who was your favorite target? Was it Cris Carter? No? It was Randy Moss. Hey wait a second…RANDY MOSS IS ON OUR TEAM! Listen Daunte, you want to play in the NFL, you can start in New England, you have a killer offense here a solid defense, you want to prove you can start in the NFL, do it for a team that has EVERYTHING to prove. WE WANT YOU CULPEPPER!!!”

Matt Cassel was a decent game manager today. He wasn’t going to lose the game playing the way he did. But he also wasn’t going to win any games for the team like that. Not against decent opponents anyway.

Maybe Cassel can get better.

Sammy Morris looked great today…

CULPEPPER FOR PATRIOTS QB 2008!

I don’t think Culpepper would lead them to the Superbowl or be good enough to make them even necessarily the AFC East winners…

But Culpepper would definitely make it a fun season to watch (as would Kevin O’Connell).

I have already accepted that my team is fucked for 2008.

Please do not make me sit through 15 games of boring, uninspired, tempo-less offensive drives. 

Please Daunte. Please come to the Patriots.

Sammy Morris Has A Blog. Enjoys Photography.

Sammy Morris has always run hard.

The guy is a monster on the field. He’s been in the NFL for 8 seasons and has racked up 1,853 yards, 118 Receptions and 18 total TDs.

Pretty damn good for a guy who has split time and been a backup his whole career.

Last season, Morris looked like he was going to carry the Patriots running game for the first 6 weeks.

Unfortunately an injury cut his first season in New England short (and it was really unfortunate because having Morris banging through guys was a great compliment to Maroney’s more finesse-based style of running and almost certainly would have come in very handy in the Playoffs).

This year Morris is back. The Patriots also added Lamont Jordan (a guy who I have always loved as a grinder) and the Boston Globe ran a nice article about Morris today.

The 6-foot, 220-pound Morris is considered a physical, grind-it-out runner with an efficient style, not exactly the stereotype one might associate with artistry.

But an experience in training camp contributed to his feelings about being more open regarding his off-field interests. It involved coach Bill Belichick.

“It was one of his speeches where he was getting the guys going, about taking the right approach, and I think he was talking to some of the older guys who are closer to the end of their careers,” Morris recalled.

“He said, ‘Like you guys, I’m closer to the end of my coaching career than I am to the beginning of it.’ To me, the words were profound and hit home.”

The message gave Morris a spark of urgency on the field, while also making him think a bit more about being well-rounded and setting up a plan for his post-playing career.

The article is mainly about his photography. In the actual paper (who reads an actual newspaper anymore?) there were some photographs he has taken. Online the photos were absent (unfortunately).

However, Morris also has a blog, which seems to be about everything OTHER THAN sports  and he has some really nice pieces in there.

I hope Morris has another great season. The Pats need him to.

Rudi Johnson Signs With The Lions. Tatum Bell Is Unemployed. The Bengals Will win 3 games.

Rudi Johnson was released by the Bengals over the weekend.

I would have wrote about how strange a decision that was had I not spent the entire weekend sleeping on the beach, drinking frozen lemonade and watching No Reservationson the Travel Channel (while at home). I love that Anthony Bourdain.

Instead I talked to several friends about how weird it all seemed.

Wouldn’t some team give the Bengals like a 6th or 7th round pick for Rudi Johnson, at the very least?

Wouldn’t it be worth it for the Bengals to try to get something in return for him?

Take a look at Johnson’s career statistics. The guy was basically a machine in 2004-2006. Each year he had 1300-1460 yards rushing and 12 rushing TDs. 15 to 23 catches. 340ish carries.

Last year Johnson was hurt and not so great. But let’s put something into perspective, the Bengals weren’t exactly providing ANYONE with a world class offensive line or blocking last season. Johnson also only had 170 carries last season. That is half as many carries as his previous seasons. Had he had 340ish carries last season, even in spite of a down year, he still would have broken 1,000 yards rushing and had at least 6 TDs.

And this is someone you just throw away?

Oh…right. The Chris Perry era has begun. That guy has proven himself. Yeah.

Rudi Johnson is now on the Lions where Kevin Smith will probably be the starter. The thing is, Johnson should sure as hell have a chip on his shoulder. And I would not be surprised at all if he ends up carrying the Lions running game.

The Bengals are the laughing stock of the NFL. They have let almost their entire team walk away. The Patriots just snagged Deltha O’Neal to replace Fernando Bryant (who just simply didn’t work out).

Wait until Chad Ocho Cinco (legally), Carson Palmer and TJ Houshmanzadeh walk. Just wait.

Horrible management meets low expectations.

There is no way the Bengals win more than 3 games. Shit, I wouldn’t blame Palmer or Housh for faking serious injuries and just not playing.

People of Cincinnati, rejoice in the knowledge that at least you have the Reds…oh wait…uhh…You have good chili?