He used to refer to the National Football League as the MFL. Everybody on Madden was a "Ma' Fuck" in those days (we were too lazy to even finish our curses), so we re-named the NFL accordingly.
I'm going to steal that title for my super important, smart-assed take on things happening around the MFL.
Sort of like Jim Rome, but good and in English.
Before I start let me just say that, without question, tomorrow is one of the best days of the year. Willie D started referring to opening Sunday as "Christmas" a years back and I had to smile yesterday when I read Fred Taylor say the same thing.
Without further ado-
1. Why is Titans coach Jeff Fisher considered, unquestioningly, by reporters and ESPN types to be a "GREAT" coach?
As I keep doing this I hope certain themes start to emerge and coalesce and one of those will be my attempt to discern why and how certain trains of thought- ie."Jeff Fisher is a genius and one of the GREAT coaches in the league today"-solidify into so-called "conventional wisdom" and thus never again examined or challenged. I've been wondering this about Jeff Fisher and his porn star moustache for years, but this past week Skip Bayless pushed me over the edge. Bayless was 'debating' Newsday's Bob Glauber on ESPN's First Take (yes, I actually watch that crap) and he picked the Titans to go to the Super Bowl, saying "Jeff Fisher, and I think you'll agree with me, is still one of the 2 or 3 best coaches in the league, is he not?" And Glauber, to his eternal credit, looked stunned and incredulous before replying "No, I don't agree with that at all," an exasperated crack in his voice. Glauber is one of the lone voices in the wilderness on this issue, strangely immune to the shopworn 'Fisher is a GREAT coach' narrative. When New England pummeled Tennessee last year in the snow 59-0 and whispers started to surface regarding Fisher's job security, Mike Golic and others tripped over themselves to see who could sing his praises the loudest and scream about what a huge mistake it would be for the Titans to make such a move. In that specific game, the Titans were so unprepared, so outcoached, and outclassed it was as embarrassing a loss as I've ever seen. It looked somebody told them they didn't really have to run their normal offense or actually make tackles in the snow. Yet the pundits reacted, instinctively, like any questions about his job were ludicrous and out of bounds. What has this guy done that's so magical and spectacular? Never has a coach gotten so much mileage out of a decade old Super Bowl LOSS.
Another Fisher dissenter is, strangely enough, ESPN's hapless Sal Paolantonio, who put Fisher in the "Overrated" section of his book The Paolantonio Report, which, by the way, is complete and utter shite (yes I payed real American currency for it, unfortunately). Paolantonio actually looked at Fisher's won-loss record (now at 136 wins to 110 losses for a killer .553 winning%, and 5 wins to 6 losses in the playoffs) and found that it was stunningly mediocre, compared to his reputation, outright poor in the playoffs and, most tellingly, nearly identical to Dennis Green's (113 wins to 94 losses). Yet despite having pretty much the same type of record and winning percentage, Dennis Green never managed to parlay that record into automatic, unquestioned status as a GREAT coach for some reason, and, of course, is no longer even in the league after his epic meltdown.
So again I ask why Fisher? What has this guy achieved as a coach besides managing not to produce any overt beer commercial fodder and having an overly patient, slightly senile owner behind him
The Titans went 13-3 two seasons ago, earned homefield advantage throughout the playoffs and choked, miserably. You could see, hear and feel it coming from miles away. The Ravens went in to Tennessee and kicked their asses with relative ease. Ray Lewis was knocking people's helmets off, while every time you looked up Albert Haynesworth was laying on, or getting helped from, the field. It was the only time his name was ever called that day. Incidentally, that's when I knew for sure somebody would make a huge, huge mistake giving that turd big money. It's so sweet that it turned out to be the Redskins. Good work, as always, Mr. Snyder! Still, this abject playoff failure came and went with nary a word regarding the fact that the Ravens came into Tennessee with a rookie head-coach and quarterback and beat the tar out of the GREAT Jeff Fisher's squad.
The next season they started 0-6, bottoming out with the aforementioned debacle in New England.
This year people like Bayless and others are actually expecting things from the Titans, so maybe, finally, when they fail to live up to them people will start to question the validity of the "Fisher is GREAT" narrative. Maybe.
2. Ray Lewis is exactly right and pretty awesome, at least until October 3rd
Ray Lewis fuckin' had enough of the Jets' bullshit and damn did he let them have it in awesome rant that was part promo (I was waiting for the camera to pull wide and reveal "Mean" Gene holding the mic), part Public Service Announcement on behalf all the non-Jet players in the league and the millions of fans not in New York/New Jersey that are sick to death of hearing a 9-7 squad talking shit and guaranteeing Super Bowls victories. I never, ever thought I'd write this, but: "Thank You." You said what needed to be said and people will listen because you're a Hall of Famer with an actual championship ring Never has a team that has accomplished so little, talked so damn much...it's to the point where you can't even ignore it anymore. Tom Brady said he "hated" the Jets a few weeks ago, but he stopped short of threatening dudes the way Lewis did. So until the Ravens and Steelers tee it up on October 3rd, I'm on your side, Big Man and I hope you tear it up, Monday night.
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