Football II

Yesterday I watched the worst football game I’ve ever seen. Even the word “inept” is too “ept” for what they were doing. How about “in-cubed-ept?” I’m talking about that fiasco between the New York Jets and the Arizona Cardinals. Man, was it awful. Both teams were awful, the jets just a little less so. The Cardinals defense has done all it could to win the first twelve games, and the offense has done everything it could to lose the last eight. Talk about an offense that’s really offensive, and I mean stinky or stenchy. And poor Larry Fitzgerald, one of the best if not the best wide receiver in the game, deserves better. He caught one pass in the first quarter and that was it. All other passes somewhere in his direction either skipped off the ground or were ten yards over his head. He’s beginning to look like a deer in the headlights whenever the camera picks him up coming off the field after another of the many failed third-down conversions. He deserves to be traded to a team with a quarterback that can throw the ball to him. Almost any other team and any other quarterback would be better than what he has here.

More on what to do to improve NFL and college football and to make the game less dangerous. Have you noticed how long it takes for officials to blow the whistle when the play is obviously over? Instead they allow that pack of defenders and offenders to shove each other around like they do in a rugby scrum . . . with the poor ball carrier somewhere in the middle of the mess, with defenders all ripping at his arms to get the ball loose. So, referees, blow the whistle sooner. My other suggestion is to eliminate tackling. Just play it as a two-handed touch football game—no tackles, no slams to the ground, no grabbing, no late hits—just touches.