womenwatchingfootball

The drama will not drag out any longer. Lane Kiffin was fired as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders today. Offensive line coach Tom Cable (who?) will take over the team.

Speculation on Kiffin’s status with the Raiders went all the way back to January. He was kept on even though he was critical of team owner, Al Davis. There have been tension between the 2 for some time now.

Throughout it all, Kiffin tried his best to keep coaching the team and deflecting questions from the media. He finished with a 5-15 record over 2 seasons.

I predict Kiffin will land on his feet. He’s a young guy, only 33 years old. He came from the very successful USC program. Who knows, maybe he’ll follow in the footsteps of his former boss, Pete Carroll, and become a college coach once again.

At least he has this weight off his shoulders. He probably feels somewhat relieved tonight.

And once again it was not Lane Kiffin on the hot seat. This time it was Scott Linehan out as head coach of the St. Louis Rams.

The Rams started out 0-4 this season. They have been out scored 147-43 in those four games. None of the games were even close.

Linehan tried to shake things up this week, knowing he was on the block. He benched starting QB Marc Bulger and started Trent Green instead. That benching also created a divide in the locker room.

The last coach to be fired after week 4 happened in 1989. The Raiders did the firing and the coach was Mike Shanahan. I think he has done OK for himself since then.

The Rams head into the bye week this week giving interim head coach, Jim Haslett 2 weeks to get his team ready for the next game. Haslett has head coaching experience with the New Orleans Saints. He took the Saints to the playoffs.

I guess we’ll see what happens in St. Louis in 2 weeks. Hopefully there won’t be any more firings.

There were some strange games today. First, you had the Jets putting up 56 points on the Cardinals but Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner passed for 472 yards in the loss. Not many times you score 35 points and lose. I guess if he’s your fantasy team quarterback you’re happy.

Kansas City gave Denver it’s first loss today. It was a close game until the 4th quarter. Cleveland won the battle of Ohio. Both teams were winless at the start of the day. Tampa Bay surprised Green Bay in the battle of the bays.

The Tennessee Titans improved to 4-0 for the first time in their team’s history. Maybe, finally, they are the real thing. Kerry Collins is starting for the injured Vince Young who might have to battle for his starting position when he’s ready to come back. That could get interesting.

Buffalo had a 4th quarter outburst to put them on top of the AFC East. They have been steadily improving over the last few seasons. Maybe it’s their year in the AFC East. Washington upset Dallas at home in an NFC East showdown.

Well, I’m off to watch more of Philly and the Bears. They are tied 7-7 right now and during the commercials will switch over to the Red Sox/Yankees game. It’s the last regular season game but nothing is on the line except that the Red Sox are trying to stay healthy for the playoffs and the Yankees are going home.

This is the first week that teams have byes so there are 3 less games this week. It makes things a little less interesting, especially if your team has a bye.

For the 1 o’clock games, the game I’m spotlighting is a big surprise to me. If I looked over the schedule before the season, this game would have had little interest. It’s the 2-1 Falcons at the 2-1 Panthers. Matt Ryan is having a pretty good rookie season so far. Jake Delhomme is also having a good year. It could be a good quarterback match up in an NFC game.

The best of the 4 o’clock games should be the Redskins at the Cowboys. It’s always a good match up when these 2 teams meet. It’s an NFC East showdown. The Dallas offense is outstanding so far this season and I don’t see any reason why that can’t continue tomorrow.

The Sunday night game features the Eagles and the Bears. The Bears are a little disappointing so far. The Eagle offense looks strong. Hester is still questionable for the Bears and it really hurts them when he doesn’t play.

The Monday night game is the only AFC game spotlighted this week. The 2-0 Ravens visit the 2-1 Steelers. The Steelers are a little banged up and have some injury questions. The Ravens defense should really be able to punish them, and that’s the last thing the Steelers need.

Enjoy the games tomorrow. It’s actually the first Sunday of the season where I’m not working my real job and it’s supposed to rain here so I should log some good hours in front of the television tomorrow.

I was searching today to see if there was any interesting news item to come out of the NFL today and I found a link to pictures of NFL mascots. I didn’t realize so many teams had mascots. In fact, only 5 teams do NOT have a mascot. Some teams even have more than one.

I’d have to say, the most interesting one is Ragnar of the Vikings. He is one of only 2 human mascots in pro sports (Lucky of the Boston Celtics is the other).

Some mascots are obvious for teams named after animals like Freddie Falcon, Swoop the Eagle, Billy Buffalo and Sir Purr (a Panther).

There are also human caricature figures like Pat Patriot, Sourdough Sam, Captain Fear, Steely McBeam and Boltman. Boltman has a lightning bolt for a head.

In the “what were they thinking of” category is Who Dey the Bengal Tiger, Jaxson DeVille, T-Rac (which is some type of raccoon creature of the Titans), and Blitz who is a large blue bird of the Seahawks.

I mean really, who knew? Now you know.

Several times during each week, every team must submit injury reports. It gives the opposition a better idea who is playing and who isn’t. Some teams are better than others when it comes to manipulating the report.

Take the New England Patriots for example. Every week for the past 6 years, Tom Brady was on the report as “probable”, usually with a lower body injury. No specifics would ever be given such as a knee, ankle, hip, etc. For the first time, in week 1, Brady was not on the injury report, and believed to be healthy. Of course, that week, he was injured.

During the week, injured players must be listed if they participate fully in practice, have limited practice or did not practice at all. For the game, they are listed as probable, questionable, doubtful or out. Sometimes it’s a game time decision. A guy could be suited up and warming up but then end up not playing.

All in all, the injury report can be used as another head game between head coaches. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Yesterday we discussed the possible firing of Lane Kiffin. Today, there was a firing in the NFL, but Kiffin is safe, for now.

The Detroit Lions finally fired Matt Millen. He was the president and CEO of the Lions since 2001. Ironically, or maybe not, the Lions have the worst record in the league since the 2001 season. They were 31-84 while Millen was in control.

Out of the 53 players he drafted, 30 are no longer in the league. There were only 2 players that made the Pro Bowl. Only 18 out the 53 players are still with the Lions. It’s probably a good guess that if you became a free agent, you’d probably want to sign somewhere else.

Before Millen took the job, he was a TV analyst. How much you want to bet he’ll have offers to be back on TV by the end of the week. If he’s smart, he’ll turn them down and at least wait until the heat is off and maybe go back to TV next season.

The Lions have a bye this week and play the Bears in their next game.

Just in case you don’t know, Lane Kiffin is the head coach of the Oakland Raiders. He’s a young guy, 33 years old. It’s his second season as head coach of the Raiders.

They had a horrible season last year and in the off season, there were many rumors that he was going to be fired or that he was going to quit. That didn’t happen, and he has started this season as head coach.

Each week there are more rumors about him getting fired. So far, he has made it through week 3. He came out this week and said that he is not quitting. He will give the team 100% effort until the time comes when they part ways.

It’s also starting to be a distraction to the players. Kiffin is trying to get them to work like nothing’s going on but some players say it’s hard. People are always asking them what the status with Kiffin is.

What would happen if he were to get fired? Would he get another shot in the NFL? Would he have to prove himself at a big time college program? Will he become a coordinator for an NFL team?

I guess only time will tell. I hope it all works out for him in the end.

Every season, the NFL stretches out the 16 week season to 17 weeks. They do this under the disguise of saying each team can get a week off to rest, recuperate and get extra preparation for the next opponent.

What it really is, is a way for the league to generate more revenue. You add an extra week of games without making the teams play more (but that’s in the works too).

For the first week of byes, you’ll be missing the Giants, Dolphins, Seahawks, Patriots, Lions and Colts. I guess the Manning brothers can hang out together during their time off.

I guess the one positive to your team having a bye week is that you can do something special on Sunday without missing your game. If the weather’s good, we might go apple picking this Sunday.

Week 3 is almost in the books. Just 2 games left to be completed.

The Jaguars beat the Colts, who fell to 1-2 with the loss. The Eagles won the battle of Pennsylvania. I thought that game might be a little more high scoring. The Steelers didn’t even score a touchdown.

Three teams that won at home today include the Ravens, the 49ers and the Seahawks. Denver improved to 3-0 with a win today. The Redskins put the Cardinals in the loss column for the first time. The Dolphins did the same to the Patriots.

The Giants squeeked by the Bengals (yes, the Bengals). Tennessee moved to 3-0 as well. Other winners were the Bucs, the Bills, the Falcons, and the Vikings.

OK, off to watch the rest of the Dallas/Green Bay game (and the last game at Yankee Stadium). See you all tomorrow.