NFL Week 4 Predictions

My record for the season is currently 30-16. Again, there were some tough picks for this weekend. New Orleans is playing really well, and Carolina is not, but I had to go with the Panthers at home.

Miami at Houston is another battle of the bad, but David Carr is playing extremely well despite the Texans getting stomped week in and week out. I'm going with Houston at home.

New England at Cincinnati should be a good game. I like Brady and the Pats, but I don't think they've got what it takes to beat Cincinnati at home.

The toughest game for me to pick was Seattle at Chicago. Seattle totally thumped the Gnats, but with Alexander out for 2-4 weeks and Da Bears defense playing strong I'm picking Chicago.

The team in bold is the predicted winner.

My 30-16 record matches that of the best of the "NFL Expert Picks" from the guys at ESPN. Merrill Hoge and Mark Schlereth both lead the ESPN group with 30-16 records. Chris Mortensen and Joe Theismann are the cellar dwellers with 26-20 and 26-17 records respectively. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/features/talent

Terrell Owens' Greatest Moment

In and NFC playoff game in 1998, Terrell Owens caught one of the most spectacular catches to ever win a football game. The 49ers were playing the Packers, and Owens had been dropping passes and fumbling the entire game. With 8 seconds left in the game, the 49ers had one last shot at the end-zone to win the game. Quarterback Steve Young hit Owens at the goal line, and Owens was violently sandwiched by two Packer defenders. Owens held on to the pass, the 49ers won the game, and Terrell Owens became TO.

The play was later called "The Catch 2" in reference to the TD pass caught by Dwight Clark in the 1982 NFC Championship game in which the 49ers beat Dallas to make it to the Super Bowl. The Catch 2 is actually more spectacular in my opinion for reasons I won't get into now.

It's a good one. As TO would say, "Get your popcorn ready."

Terrell Owens Bull $#!%

Around 8:15 AM today, I started writing a post for my other blog, A Word with Culinary Herb. The piece was about how the media overreacted, in my opinion, to the news of the discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker in 2004, a bird that had been thought to be extinct for sixty years. I worked on the post off and on between other projects and was about half way finished by the time I had to attend a quality meeting at 10 AM. Immediately before I left for the meeting, I got a message that Terrell Owens tried to committ suicide. I frantically Googled for the first story I could find and printed it out to inconspicuously read while I sat through the weekly snorefest.

The article painted a dark image of Terrell taking thirty-five pain killers in an attempt to snuff out his own life. The article rattled me, but the whole situation didn't make any sense either. I had doubts about the validity of what happened. All of the articles were based on a police report that was half blacked out and didn't contain any names.

When I got back to my desk, ESPN.com had a big picture of Terrell on the top of their homepage and "Owens Attempted Suicide" in a font size larger than I have ever seen on a professional website. The ESPN story was the same exact story I read from a newpaper website I printed before my meeting. ESPN had not done their own research.

Bill Parcells made his typical, "I don't know anything", press conference around 1:30 PM. No news there. Unbeknownst to many journalist, Terrell was outside catching passes from quarterbacks Drew Bledsoe and Tony Romo. Huh? The guy tried to kill himself just last night, and he is out catching passes trying to prepare for Sunday's game?

Terrell held his own press conference at 2:30 PM and denied any allegations that he had tried to kill himself or that he had his stomach pumped. His explanation made sense and he didn't look like a guy that was lying. He was the same person he always is. I believed him, and I still do. Trying to committ suicide is no longer a crime in the state of Texas, but there is still a mandatory 72 hour psychological evaluation required after any suicide attempt. Terrell was released in less than 12 hours. Anyone that thinks Texas authorities would wave this mandate for a professional athlete is nothing less than an ignorant ass. Also, I have read that no matter how much charcoal a person gets pumped into their stomach, a person does not recover very quickly from a pain killer overdose. If Terrell had taken the alleged thirty-five pills, there is no way he could have been as coherent and energetic as he was during the press conference, much less catching passes on the practice field.

As I finished my piece about the woodpeckers not long ago, I realized that the message I was conveying in that post sort of fits with what happened today. A bunch of journalists grabbed a story without any factual evidence and started posting articles on the internet as fast as their servers would upload. If Terrell really had attempted suicide, where was the compassion? Is using a huge picture of the guy looking despondent after breaking his hand and the word "suicide" in 72 pt. font compassionate? No, it isn't. It is tacky and horrible journalism though.

Brett Favre used to eat Vicodin remnants out of his own puke when the fifth of Jack Daniels wouldn't stay down. The wonderful espn.com didn't use large font for that story. I guess ESPN didn't want a bunch of farmers hopped up on Old Milwaukee flooding them with emails. The idiots at ESPN didn't even realize that Wisconsin doesn't have the internet yet.

F-YOU ESPN.COM.

Glenn Cuts Hand but Appears to be OK

Terry Glenn cut his hand while taping up for practice yesterday, but he returned to practice today, and it appears he will play Sunday. The Cowboys cannot afford to lose Glenn, especially before Owens returns. Owens was reported to have caught some passes in practice today, and coach Bill Parcells said that Owens may play against Tennessee on Sunday if he can withstand the pain of catching the ball.

I'm Getting Fired Up for Philly

It is two weeks before the Cowboys face the Eagles in Philthadelphia, but I'm already busting at the seems. I'm not discounting the Tennessee Titans game or expecting that the Cowboys will walk all over them, but I just don't hate the Titans. I hate the Eagles, and I cannot emphasize the word "hate" enough.

Over the next two weeks, I will be posting little nuggets from the past showing Dallas triumphs over the scumbag team from Eastern Pennsylvania. This clip is from Bill Parcell's first year as the Dallas head coach in 2003. In 2001, Philthy had kicked an onside kick on the opening kickoff against the Cowboys and recovered the ball. Parcell's had a gut feeling that Eagle's coach and classless asshole, Andy Reid, might try the same play again. Parcell's told his players to be on the lookout. The result was the fastest touchdown ever scored in NFL history when Randall Williams caught the onside kick in mid air and took it to the house in only 3 seconds.

The crowd busted into a roar when they realized Williams had the ball. Parcells even smiled for about ten seconds. Asshole Reid just looked stunned, because he knew he had been outsmarted and revealed as a complete dumb ass on national television.