Sam Spence Does Not Get Enough Credit

"These are two good football teams with Super Bowl aspirations." I didn't write it. Scouts Inc on ESPN did. What's more, my iPod is on shuffle right now, and this song just came on out of nowhere. Sam Spence, Everybody!

If shit like this doesn't get you fired up, just go ahead and leave your jersey on my desk, take a few days off, and don't come back because we don't need dead weight like you dragging us down anymore. Thanks.

In terms of being a season ticket holder, the three games this month are the emotional peak. The NFL did us a favor spreading them out over 5 weeks because I don't think many folks could handle the intensity back to back to back. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Monday evening, the Steel City vs. the Capital of the Free World. Obviously, this isn't quite at the level of a division match-up, but I think I'll take the best team in the AFC under the lights in front of 90,000.

The downside is that both teams are a little banged up. The Steelers just can't catch a break really. Ben Roethlisomething is a shell of a man, Willie Parker is coming off a long spell of wearing sweatpants on the sidelines, and I'm guessing a bunch of other dudes are on their injury list too. Portis and Moss both have been held out of practice. Lets be honest, this is going to be a hard hitting affair in Landover. The more rest the better in my opinion.

Depending on where you're lookin', the B&G are favored by a point or two heading into what's likely to be a bonecrushing matchup. Here's the thing. We're not blowing out teams, we know this. We covered in one of our last three (Detroit, -7.5), mostly because our gameplan relies on CP, ball control, ya know. Looks like all we need to do here to cover is to win. Put your chips on the table boys.

From an unbiased standpoint, it will be interesting to see if this Redskins team can do enough to win against the #1 defense in the league by relying on a gameplan that has such a small margin for error.

Boring.

What's great about this game is two teams that want to control the line of scrimmage and think they'll win because they'll have more in the tank in the 4th quarter. Count of big hits. Count on a some wild plays, sacks, turnovers. #1 defense vs. #6 defense. This is beef on beef football. Gonna be great to watch.

Here's the difference. Offense. Portis, best rb in the league. Moss. Did you see him blow up last week?? Hey I'm pumped they have guys like Ward that do the little things. Great. But where are the guys that are going to do the big things? Who's gonna break off 20 yard runs? A banged up Parker? Hardly. We have the big-play makers. They don't. In a game that's probably going to be decided by who can make that big play, you gotta feel like the odds are in our favor there. Gonna be a great game. FedEx will be electric. I just think the clock has struck midnight already for this Steelers team. They're gonna spend all season trying to get healthy. Our best days are ahead of us, and I'm guessing we're gonna have one of our best days on Monday Night.

So yea. I'm fired up. Are you?

I Need a Vacation

As mentioned on washingtonpost.com, John Madden will be taking a day off this week. That marks 476 straight days at the office for the immortal NFL Hall of Fame announcer. (Does this mean Frank TV will be taking a day off too? I hope so.) Given his well known fear of flying, I am actually surprised it hasn't happened sooner.

Generally, on hungover Sunday afternoons when we're laying around watching football, inevitably someone is bound to mention that "John Madden has the best job ever!" After thinking about this for a couple days, I'm not so sure.

Sure he goes to a NFL game a week, talks football all week, meets some very famous athletes, and gets paid tons of money to do it. But due to his own fears, he's stuck on a bus, sometimes with a full bus of folks sometimes with just his agent and an assistant, laying around I guess, on his way to next week's game. How miserable would it have been if he had been at the San Diego game, driven to way to Tampa this week, and then went all the way to San Fran for week 8? He's clearly getting to do some great stuff, but that has to take its toll. I still want to know when he found time to do Outback commercials during the season. Good for him.

Granted, I wouldn't hesitate to leave my current job to do what he's doing. Are you kidding me? But for John Madden, there have to be other options out there. Why not do something regional with Fox or CBS doing stuff only on the West Coast (he lives in Oakland)?

Personally, I'm glad he does it. I'm a John Madden fan. Despite the occasional incoherent babble or statement that just doesn't make any sense, he really brings a lot to the table. Not just football knowledge, but general entertainment. Even if its unintentional, it brings something different to the football game other than the general standard commentary. How often when you've got Joe Buck and Troy Aikman working a game can you find anything mildy humorous?

So here's to you John Madden. You're easily the most widely impersonated living sports figure, which makes your unintentional comedy a gift that keeps on giving. Enjoy that day off.