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Being like Mike Comparisons to his Airness aside, Vick eyes the thronePosted: Monday December 09, 2002 10:32 AM
ATLANTA, Friday, 2 p.m. -- One of the Falcons' crack publicists, Frank Kleha, approached Michael Vick after practice. "You got a phone call today that I think you'll be interested in," Kleha said.
"From who?" Vick asked. "The Hall of Fame," Kleha said. "The hall?" Vick asked. "That's right. They want your shoes from last Sunday." "Wow," Vick said. So Kleha got the shoes, turf shoes without cleats. Basketball shoes, basically. With a piece of green gum ground into the sole of the right one. Shoes that Vick used for his NFL-record 173 rushing yards at Minnesota five days earlier, including the relatively spellbinding 46-yard touchdown run on the second play of overtime that Vick used to personally beat the Vikings 30-24. Kleha is holding the shoes now, showing me. I look at them, and I think: This will not be the last piece of Vick memorabilia the Pro Football Hall of Fame asks for. The shoes? Air Jordans.
ORLANDO, Friday, 8 p.m. -- The man/the myth/the legend, Air Jordan himself, had a sliver of an opening from 18 feet away in the second quarter; Washington 27, Orlando 29. Miss. Three possessions later, Michael Jordan threw a bad pass. Turnover. The next time down the floor, penned in by two Magicians (isn't that the plural of one Magic player?), he threw a bad pass for Kwame Brown; it's intercepted, and Ryan Humphrey drove the length of the court for a layup. Two possessions later, Jordan rimmed another 18-footer. This was one quarter in one game, but Michael Jordan looks old. In this five-minute span of badness, the Wizards went from being up 27-29 to down 27-39. They never got closer than five the rest of the way. Orlando won, 88-78. Not exactly breaking news, this stuff about Jordan being past any semblance of his prime. But now, maybe, team sports have a guy with charisma who can do his magic. Hop on I-4, drive 75 miles west, and you'll see him. Maybe.
TAMPA, Sunday, 1 p.m. -- I'm here doing a story for HBO's Inside the NFL, which will air Thursday night (shameless plug) on Vick. In part on this big game, and in part on the tug of war going on in his head: He knows he's gaining all sorts of fame and helping his team win by running with abandon, but he also knows if he runs as frequently as he has at times this year, he'll get the snot knocked out of him and may not have the kind of fulfilling career he envisions for himself. He's sort of tormented by it. On Friday, Vick had given me the granddaddy of all painfully waffling quotes: "I don't want to use my legs all the time because I don't want to take the hits. But at the same time I realize God has blessed with unbelievable running ability and speed, and I have to take advantage of that. At the same time, part of me is telling me, 'Sit back there and let things happen and use your arm and use your brain.'" The football world will grow to like Vick. He loves the game. He respects it. It's really important for him to try to be good. He's not much of a "me" guy. He calls his mother in Virginia on the way to the stadium every Sunday and on the way home after a game. (Yesterday, she told him she hoped he had some Band-Aids in case the Bucs "scraped him up, as she put it.") We're going to use sound from Vick in the story, I believe, that has him talking about how much he loves getting up on Sunday and going out to the field (when it's played on real turf) and smelling the grass. "I'm cherishing every moment and every snap," he said. "I love this game. I love being in it." Quietly, he's a cornball. And he may be football's Jordan someday, but this past Sunday wasn't the day. On Friday, he'd told me this game "would define my greatness," a pretty bold statement for a 22-year-old kid who should be preparing for his senior-year bowl game at Virginia Tech right now. But the greatness on this day would be defined by Tampa Bay. The Bucs didn't let him breathe all day. Tampa Bay routed the Falcons 34-10, because Vick could not do magic. He could barely do competent. Vick has made his living getting around the end and making plays happen with his great speed. Not in this game. On play after play, the ultra-disciplined Bucs (who don't look disciplined because they always seem to be running around in a chaotic way) prevented Vick from getting outside. Once, linebacker Derrick Brooks caught the fastest offensive player in football from three steps behind him. "He looked at me like, 'Weren't you just over there?'" Brooks told me later. After a couple dozen frustrating plays, Vick slapped Warren Sapp on the helmet and said to him: "I've never seen a defense as fast as y'all's defense." Said Sapp: "This is gonna go on the next six or seven years." For the day, Vick was 12-of-25 for 125 yards, with one touchdown and one pick. (A tipped interception, by the way.) And he ran five times for 15 yards. Last week, he ran for an NFL-record 173. Vick was stunned and respectful afterward. He told me: "I never ran up against a team like that. The best team won, bottom line. They won the war. But I'll tell you this: This is my rival now. I have to beat these guys. I have to find a way." That's the great thing about rivalries in the NFL. They regenerate. Sapp lost Brett Favre as a rival when Green Bay went to the NFC North while the Bucs migrated to the NFC South in the offseason. But Sapp gained someone he'll have around much longer, and with at least as much excitement. Too bad they couldn't play three times a year.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK Tampa Bay QB Brad Johnson, who must have felt like The Other Quarterback entering Sunday's vital NFC South clash with Atlanta. At the end, he was the winner over Vick, in so many ways. Johnson played darn near a perfect game, a skillfully crafted passer's dream in which he consistently found the right receiver under pressure and made absolutely terrific throws. You can't play a better game than Johnson played (23-of-31, 276 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, 140.6 passer rating), against one of the hottest teams in football. The Bucs are lucky he hung in there this spring (and summer and fall), beat back the challenge of Rob Johnson and took his place again among the quarterbacking elite, which is where the top-rated quarterback now starting in the NFC should reside. DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK Houston CB Aaron Glenn. With apologies to the Tampa Bay defense, which held the shooting-star Vick and his offense to 181 total yards, the nod has to go to the man who returned interceptions of 70 and 65 yards for touchdowns to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. This had to be one of the weirdest games in recent NFL history. Houston won by 18, despite being held to 47 yards on offense and only three first downs, thanks in large part to the fact they turned three Steelers turnovers into touchdown returns. Glenn, the former Jet, was Aaron-on-the-spot twice, slashing in from off receivers targeted by the formerly very efficient Tommy Maddox. Originally, you recall, the Texans took Glenn as part of a package deal to get tackle Ryan Young from the Jets. And Glenn has responded with one of the best years of his career, with this game being the exclamation point. SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK Kansas City PR/KR Dante Hall. In training camp, I recall Dick Vermeil pointing to the practice field one day in River Falls, Wis., where a small kid was catching high balls from the JUGS machine. "You watch that kid," Vermeil said, pointing to little Dante Hall. "He could be a great player for us. He could be the athlete for us that Az Hakim was in St. Louis." In the first half against St. Louis, Hall paid the biggest dividends of the season by a Chiefs' special-teamer. He darted left and sped down the sideline for an 89-yard kickoff return, then, a few minutes later, took a Rams punt at his 14 and zig-zagged 86 yards for another touchdown. Quick, fast, ultra-confident. What a performance. And now the Chiefs have scored 49 two weeks in a row. I doubt that has ever happened in NFL history. COACH OF THE WEEK Philadelphia head coach Andy Reid. One of my stark memories of this season is calling Reid 36 hours after Donovan McNabb went down -- perhaps for the year and perhaps taking Philly's playoff hopes down the toilet with him -- with the broken bone in his ankle, and hearing Reid saying in the calmest voice of the season: "We'll be fine. That's why we have a backup quarterback." He lost the backup that week, and I'm quite sure if I called him 36 hours after the loss of efficient maverick Koy Detmer he would have said: "We'll be fine. That's why we have a third-string quarterback." Since losing McNabb, the Eagles are 3-0. They've traveled to the West Coast and beaten San Francisco by 21, stayed home with A.J. Feeley and beaten the Rams 10-7, then traveled to the West Coast again and knocked off Seattle 27-20. I don't think I'm going overboard when I say Andy Reid can coach. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"I concern myself with pretty much nothing. It makes for a much easier life."
Bruce Springsteen has turned down the chance to be the lead guy on the Super Bowl halftime show in San Diego next month. I hear he figured he'd never be able to equal U2's show at last year's 9/11-themed halftime show, but that doesn't ring true to me. He's not that egotistical. Anyway, it looks as though the pregame and halftime entertainment could be female solo artists and female bands -- Sheryl Crow, Jewel and the like. Private memo to Bruce, from a real Brucenik: We don't care if you top Bono or if you don't. We just want to hear you sing. If you reconsider, I think the NFL might find a spot for you.
Interesting week. Far-afield week. And by the way, I'll take the advice of several e-mailers, who say about field hockey: If you hate it, scroll past it. I'M DOWN WITH MY LACKEYS. From Chuck Kendrew, of Pollock, La.: "I just finished reading your story on Steve Spurrier in Sports Illustrated. I'm neutral on Spurrier as a fan, but after two-thirds of a season you have decided he doesn't know what he's doing. Why is it when sportswriters get some pub and think they've made it, they turn into arrogant asses whose favorite pastime is to act as judge and jury about everyone? Well, St. Peter, you don't have that right. The sad thing is, if you read this you'll either dismiss it or share it with some of your lackeys who'll laugh it off and make you feel better." I don't dismiss it at all. But the point I made in the story is very simple: Spurrier has a pretty good running back, a two-time Pro Bowl one, and he doesn't have a very good passing game. At all. And against weak run-defense teams, for two weeks in a row, he preferred to pass for the vast majority of the game rather than run. I just don't think that's very smart. Now, I am positive Steve Spurrier does know what he's doing, and I'm fairly sure he'll win big in Washington. That doesn't mean I have to think he's doing the right thing here. YOU MAKE A GOOD POINT. From Eric LaBatte, of Baltimore: "I respect your comment about David Akers being the kicker you would want on your team right now, but I don't agree with it. What about Adam Vinatieri? All he has done in the past year is kick the two most memorable field goals in recent NFL history (Raiders playoff game from last year and the Super Bowl winner)." There is no better clutch kicker in the game today -- maybe ever -- than Vinatieri, and you shouldn't think because I'd take Akers I don't value Vinatieri. I love the guy. This is like choosing between Bonds and Sosa in home-run derby. But for everything -- including the deep kickoff -- I take Akers. I WAS WAITING FOR THIS ONE. From Amedeo Feroce, of Peoria, Ariz.: "I just wanted to thank you for ruining my fantasy football season with that Randy Moss 40-percent ratio you wrote about last August. I drafted him with my first pick in 2001 after I'd sworn I'd never pick him again. Well, you sold me on your mind-boggling stats that the 40-percent ratio would produce. Can I send you a bill for the refund of my entry fee?" My sweet Lord. I've been waiting for someone to call me on this, and for my other great preseason prediction -- about going for your backs and receivers in rounds one through three, then picking Danny Wuerffel in round four. Ooops. Very big ooops. REMEMBER OTTO. From Mark Purdy , San Jose Mercury-News columnist (and my old boss at the Cincinnati Enquirer): "I want to make sure you and others know one fact before canonizing Michael Vick: As a fan of the old Cleveland Browns, I always knew Otto Graham was pretty good, even though I never saw him play. And as someone who got to stand at Bengals' practices and hear Paul Brown speak of Otto Graham in reverential terms, I knew then that the guy must be special. But when I was doing a column after Unitas' death this year, and trying to figure out for myself if he was the greatest quarterback ever, I dipped into the record book and went over Otto's record again. As Graham was leading the Browns to all those league title games -- in 10 years as Cleveland's starting quarterback, four in the AAFC and six in the NFL, Otto reached the championship game every year -- he was not just the team's leading passer every year. In five of the six NFL seasons he played, Graham also either led the team, or was tied for the team lead, in RUSHING touchdowns. And Graham's runs weren't all sneaks. He had runs of 36 yards, 21 yards, 20 yards, 21 yards ... well, you get the picture. This, while also passing for more than 2,000 yards and 14 to 20 touchdowns per 12-game season." Excellent points. In a rare moment of self-canonization, let me say that I rated Graham the best quarterback of all time in the pro football history book I wrote for SI in the '90s. And say hi to Barb for me. WOW. THIS GUY'S EVEN DOWN ON WOODY, AND WOODY'S DEAD. From Robert Woods, of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.: "You just don't get it, do you? Drop the coffee and field hockey garbage and stick to the NFL. And why is it that the dead dog is still being mentioned in your pathetic column? You must have some ego." Robert, some King Family Trivia for you: Woody's ashes are in our dining room.
Overheard on a Delta flight Friday morning leaving Newark for Atlanta, apparently a message left for a business associate by a cell-phone-wielding passenger across the aisle: "Hello, Jim? Bad news for you on this end. Really sorry to tell you this, but I never met up with Roseanne last night to make the final arrangements on that deal. Told her I'd meet her at this hotel in Newark at 6:30. The weather was bad, but she said she'd meet me. So I waited and waited and finally called her on her cell and said: 'Where are you? Snow holding you up?' She said, "Where are you? I'm in the lobby of the hotel waiting for you.' I said, 'That's impossible. I'm in the lobby and I don't see you.' So we start trying to find each other and I realize she's not in this hotel. She's in a hotel in Newark, Delaware! Is that amazing? She got the wrong Newark! Anyway, I'm sorry about it. We're going to hook up today by phone. I'll be in touch with you after we talk. See you."
1. I think we need to put the Texans in some historical perspective. Let's look at the first-year records of each expansion team since 1960 (chart, right). At 4-9, Houston's on track to be better than any expansion team over the past 42 years, other than Carolina, which was stocked with pretty good free agents before teams got wise about keeping their own. The way this team plays is very interesting -- opportunistic, pretty good on defense, and trying to keep the offensive mistakes down. That was a fluky win in Pittsburgh, but the Texans did hold a playoff team to six points at home. That's big. 2. I think these are my quick-hit football thoughts of the weekend: a. The best news for the Bucs is that it looks like as if they won't be headed to Philly on wild-card weekend. Isn't that where the annual Tampa Bay fatality occurs? b. The Panthers putting up 52 on any NFL team is like me running a four-minute mile. Oh, it was the Bengals? Now we understand. c. It would be impossible, by the way, to watch the NFL Films footage of miked Cincinnati linebacker Takeo Spikes and not say: "I wish that guy could play for a winner. What guts. What gumption." d. I can't say for sure because I only saw highlights and not the game, but I would not be surprised if that sound you heard coming out of St. Louis -- assuming it's not Brenda Warner calling another talk show -- is the sound of tents folding. e. "How you doin'?" I asked Bill Parcells Sunday night over the phone. And he replied: "Better than Tom Coughlin, I bet." f. CBS' Randy Cross, during Sunday's broadcast, on Rich Gannon feeling underappreciated: "He's got a chip on his shoulder the size of Costa Rica. You can't ignore Rich Gannon anymore, folks." Amen, Brother Randy. g. Try as he might, Drew Bledsoe can't climb Mount Belichick. Seven points in Game 1 in Buffalo. Four picks in Game 2, yesterday, in Foxboro. h. I have not seen a better kickoff return for a touchdown all season -- in many seasons, in fact -- than Woodrow Dantzler's high-wire 84-yarder in the Niners-Cowboys game. i. Pittsburgh 422 yards, Houston 47. Houston wins by 18. That's an all-timer right there. 3. I think the most amazing highlight of them all yesterday is one I wouldn't be surprised if no one aired. Second half, Raiders-Chargers, Gannon goes back to pass. Jerry Rice runs a post pattern from the right side, covered like a glove by rookie Quentin Jammer, the fifth pick in last year's draft. Rice is 40, Jammer 23. Jammer looks like he might break up the pass, which comes to Rice about 13 yards past the line of scrimmage. Jammer lunges and misses. Rice catches it. Rice turns upfield. AND HE GAINS 42 YARDS AFTER THE CATCH! AMAZING! JERRY RICE IS OUTRUNNING KIDS 17 YEARS HIS JUNIOR! A 56-yard gain for Rice. 4. I think you might all be sitting there wondering: Why would Marvin Lewis be seriously thinking about taking the Michigan State coaching job? Well, put yourself in his shoes. Lewis wants to be a head coach. He's having a bad year. Rather, his defense is having a bad year. He either stays in Washington, where he's a bit of a foreigner given all the Spurrier disciples on the coaching staff, or he goes somewhere else, trying to get closer to being a head coach. Or he splits now and takes the MSU job. It's the old bird-in-the-hand-versus-two-in-the-bush deal. If he gets this offer, and if he goes, he figures: Well, who knows about the vagaries of the coaching business? If I wait another year, maybe I'm colder still and then I can't even get a really good Division I head job, like the Michigan State gig. That's how I see it. Big blow for the NFL, though, if he goes. There goes a very good candidate from the already shallow pool of minority candidates. 5. I think these are my personal thoughts of the week: a. I really thought you were better than that, New York Times. Every day you're thrown on the end of my driveway and I go out there thinking I'm going to get all the news that's fit to print, and now I find out I'm getting all the news that's fit to print unless it's from a columnist with an opinion some editor doesn't like. Shame on you. b. Other than the fact I needed three Aleve for my back at the end of it, the act of shoveling snow for five hours after our seven-inch New Jersey storm on Thursday was surprisingly satisfying. Brought back memories of the almost weekly shoveling we did as a northern Connecticut family 30 years ago. c. Coffeenerdness: Don't tell anyone, but I hit the drive-thru Starbucks on Westshore, a few long spirals from Raymond James Stadium, four times in 43 hours in Tampa over the weekend. I might be overdoing it. d. Journalism of the Week: I have to hand it to the New York Post. There was this batch of cleverness in the past week alone: Headline of the Week: Atop a story about a pending lawsuit by Zsa Zsa Gabor against her hairdresser for injuring her in a car crash: "Zsa Zsa to zsue crash haircutter for $100M." Football Paragraph of the Week: From Hondo's Bettor's Guide on pro football games of the weekend: "Bengals over Panthers. Two wretched franchises that weekly bring great embarrassment to their fans and annually accomplish absolutely nothing square off for 60 miserable minutes of incompetence, apathy and disgrace." Celebrity Quote of the Week: From Sandra Bullock to Liz Smith: "Liz, I have 12 lovers and I'm working all of them at the same time. The more lovers, the more presents. I'm not pregnant and not planning on it. Although, of course, that could change overnight." (Editorial Comment 1: Those guys must feel so special! Take a number, make an appointment, and limit the foreplay, please! Sandra's very busy with the other 11, you know!) (Editorial Comment 2: I received six e-mails last week that urged me to write about football and football alone in this column. How can you possibly ask that, knowing you might never have known about the Speed girl's dirty dozen?) Story of the Week: A Texas man was sentenced to life in prison for shooting to death his longtime friend, Willie Lawson, after the two men argued over a beer. Testified Steve Brasher: "There was only two beers left, so I took one, and I told Willie not to take my last beer." Willie began drinking it. Steve shot him in the head. Dead. An accident, Steve said. Life, the jury said. e. Honorable mention to the New York Daily News, too, for Bill Hutchinson's lead on the story about Mariah Carey saying she really wasn't suicidal when she appeared to flip her lid earlier this year: "Singer Mariah Carey may get the blues now and then, but she insists she never wanted to be a dead diva." e. Montclair (N.J.) High Field Hockey Note of the Week: I have to admit I sat up in my chair at the field hockey banquet last Tuesday when the coach, Mary Pat Mercuro, took the microphone for her last duty of the three-hour-plus evening in front of 191 parents, kids and Mounties fans -- the naming of the 2003 captains. The varsity team votes for the captains, and the coaches can throw in their two cents, and I'm sure they often do, but on this occasion, coach Mercuro said they went strictly by the player vote. "Two girls got the most votes, and then four others had almost the same number of votes after that," she said, and I looked over at the players' table. Mary Beth King looked straight at her coach, apparently not nervous about it. I immediately thought of my daughter Laura, who, after her sophomore year banquet four years ago, came home and said: "I will be a captain next year if it kills me." She was one of the three named the next year. Now, Mary Beth never said a word about it except when we asked if she really wanted to be captain a week or so ago. "Uhhh, YEAH!" she said in that Clueless Alicia Silverstone voice she gets when her parents ask something really stupid. The thing I knew about this year is that whereas Laura would have been truly upset had she not been named captain, Mary Beth would be disappointed but legitimately happy for whoever was named. "The captains for the 2003 Mounties," Mercuro said, pausing for effect, "are Chelsea Mullarney and Mary Beth King." Exhale. She and Chelsea, the rock-ribbed center defender, looked happy. Coach Mercuro handed them both notebooks with the word "FINISH" on the cover, diaries the girls will have to fill about offseason preparation. As in: Finish the job we didn't finish this year, even though we went 18-2-0. The coaches will do their part; they said they'd try to schedule a tougher out-of-conference slate for us next year, to up our readiness for the state tournament, after our early exit this fall. Now the girls will have to be diligent in the offseason, get a good crop to attend their team camp (the top-notch University of Connecticut Elite Field Hockey Camp next July) and return ready to be great next season. The season can't come too quickly for me. f. Well, that's the end the season for The Sopranos. What a strenuous year. What was it, 13 episodes? Fourteen? I wouldn't want to see those actors get overworked. And now we'll see them back, I guess, in about 2007. g. The Boston Herald says Manny Ramirez wants to be traded. Assuming that's true, and assuming some team will take on his entire salary (both dubious assumptions), I have one comment: Yahoooo! 6. I think the Bucs-Falcons rivalry is going to be must-see TV for a very long time. 7. I think the more I watch this game, the more I realize there are very few players who make the big plays so consistently that it becomes second nature to them. Brett Favre's sick touchdown throw in one direction as he rolled the other way last night, for instance. And the Terrell Owens one-handed catch for a touchdown to ignite the 49ers' comeback in a game they absolutely had to have to remain in the chase for home-field advantage. ... I mean, Owens is a lot of things, but the most important thing he is in a sporting sense is such a dangerous receiver. 8. I think you have to give Oakland's Bill Callahan serious consideration for Coach of the Year honors, and here's why: A year ago, the Raiders and their wunderkind coach, Jon Gruden, had the league's fourth-highest-scoring offense with a dangerous quarterback (Gannon) dishing to great wideouts Tim Brown and Rice, a running game with an inside-outside presence in Tyrone Wheatley and Charlie Garner, and a bashing fullback in Jon Ritchie. When Gruden was traded to Tampa Bay after the season, the new coach didn't think No. 4 was good enough. "Over time," Callahan said, "defenses catch up to you, and that's what was happening to us. We decided to get more aggressive in our play-calling." Callahan made two major adjustments. He has inserted 6-foot-2, 225-pound speedy wideout Jerry Porter into the lineup on the majority of offensive downs in place of Ritchie. And he has cut down on the number of rushes, from 28 per game last year to 23 this fall. The result: The Raiders, through 12 weeks, are second in the league in scoring (29.7 points per game), up five from last year. Porter has been the deep threat Callahan knew he'd be; his eight touchdown catches are one shy of what Rice and Brown, combined, have caught. And the Raiders, running less often, are running better. Their running game averaged 3.7 yards per carry a year ago; they're rushing for 4.4 yards a carry in 2002. "We really know who we are now," Callahan says. "We've taken this offense to a completely different level. We've stretched the offense. We pass the ball to set up the run. It's not the other way around." The beneficiary is Gannon, who is threatening to surpass Dan Marino's all-time record for passing yards (5,084, set in 1984) in a season. Gannon appreciates the insertion of Porter in the lineup. "We're a faster team with him," said Gannon. "You try to get your best 11 on the field, and he's definitely one of our best 11 on offense. Now, our options are ... I don't want to say endless, but I can do quite a bit on offense." That's obvious. Give Callahan credit for taking what wasn't broke -- and making it better. 9. I think these are my thoughts about college football this week: a. Miami 41, Ohio State 16. There's my guess. b. I think the one thing about coaches, particularly college coaches, that will always tick me off is their ability to just pack up and leave a valid contract and do it with such irresponsibility. Dennis Franchione had five years left on his Alabama contract at $1.1 million per year, but that didn't stop him from defecting to Texas A&M for 10 years and $15 million. Why do colleges call them "contracts?" The contract Franchione signed at Texas A&M -- and the one he signed at Alabama -- are about as valuable as the Starbucks napkin I used post-latte this morning. And the man doesn't have the stones to stand up in front of his players at Alabama and say: "I love you, but this is something I have to do?" He tells them nothing? And then walks down a red carpet, quite literally, in College Station to a new job. What a disgrace. c. And to listen to analysts who say Franchione owes Alabama nothing makes me sick. Owes Alabama nothing? Not even a word with the players who went 10-3 for him this year and gave up chances to transfer from a program on probation, personally handing him millions and millions of dollars at a new job? d. I think, upon further review, my Heisman ballot (if I had one, which I don't, and shouldn't have, because I'm not a college football devotee) would probably not be for Larry Johnson, as I indicated a couple of weeks ago. I think it'd be Iowa quarterback Brad Banks, Miami running back Willis McGahee and USC quarterback Carson Palmer, in that order. 10. I think if the Bucs win home field, they'll play in the Super Bowl. That's a good home-field edge at RayJay. But there is this slight wrinkle: The season-finale is a Sunday night game, on Dec. 29, in Champaign, Ill. My guess is that it'll be 4 degrees. That's what the King Doppler projects. Now, the Bucs stink in the cold. We all know that. In 2000, Tampa Bay lost three games after Nov. 1 -- at Chicago, at Green Bay and at Philadelphia. In 2001, after Dec. 1 the Bucs lost at Chicago and at Philadelphia. So if the weather outside is frightful, I don't like the Bucs' chances to be at home throughout January.
The other day, during the taping of Inside the NFL, Cris Carter made this interesting point about footballs: "They're so slippery because you can't rub them down anymore, and when it's cold nobody can grip them." So forget Fiedler's lousy throws in Buffalo last week. Tonight a healthier Fiedler plays in temperate South Florida. He'll grip it and rip it. I like Miami, 21-10. Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Monday Morning Quarterback appears in this space -- no kidding -- on Monday mornings. Click here to send him a comment.
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