FOOTBALL WAGER

Football wager fans take notice this is the first in what could be a long line of Poolside Rants. You want the lowdown on players coaches, trends and happenings around the NFL and I have an NFL football rant on every one of them but specifically a few issues I have heard discussed or mentioned to this point in the season.

I am going to start with coaching. A couple weeks ago I was blown off my chair at the suggestion that Bill Belichick was the reason for Bill Parcells success based on his limited success in Dallas and Belichick’s coordinator positions with NYG and NE. Without cursing and leaping around wildly, my initial reaction is impossible to re-create for you here. Is that for real? Does anyone actually think that? I am a Cowboys fan, therefore have a healthy disdain for all other NFC East teams but even as clouded as my judgment is, I knew when Jerry Jones signed Parcells, the road back to success was a guarantee for the Cowboys. Everything this guy touches leaves a golden luster when the NFL is concerned.

Some announcer has the audacity to suggest that Belichick is the real reason for Parcells success? Ok so BB was Parcells defensive coordinator in New York with the Giants and in New England with the Patriots but to even suggest that Parcells rode the success of the defensive coordinator is insane. Does anyone remember those NE teams Parcells was winning with? A defensive juggernaut they were not, relying heavily on a young Bledsoe and a younger Curtis Martin for offensive explosiveness to win any game. Didn’t the same Bill take an awful Jets team back to the playoffs and build a team and leave another former coordinator that has kept them in the playoff chase, well up until this year anyway? I am not suggesting Belichick is not an outstanding coach, borderline genius in fact, but to suggest he is the reason for Parcells success is asinine. It still to me seems that Parcells protégé’s are successful no matter their last name and I would venture an educated guess that Parcells is every bit the genius coach everyone thought he was when he left the Jets. He is the personnel evaluator extraordinaire, has a talent for getting the most out of his players and drafting wisely.

Those are 3 key ingredients for success in any business and the NFL is no different. Winners are born and Parcells was born to win as much as being born a winner.

Graduating to the second most important aspect and position on a football team brings me to a logical quandary. I have heard so much hoopla about Chicago rookie throwing 5 INT’s against the Bengals a couple weeks ago. Now questions about his performance stem specifically from that one game and those 5 INT’s. How short is everyone’s memory in this league? Didn’t the second QB taken in many Fantasy drafts and certainly a top ten NFL quarterback, Daunte Culpepper throw an identical 5 INT whiff up against the same defense the week before? Who expected a rookie QB with limited offensive stars surrounding him to do any better? Granted 5 picks is not a great way to go into a bye week but Bears fans please don’t listen to the detractors. Orton has the skills, uncanny poise and will help your team compete for a division title this year. Yes you read correctly, this year. The NFC North is not a strong division and 7-9 may win that division this year but with their stellar defense the Bears look to be a contender and Orton has the tools to make them a legitimate threat.

Orton is not the only QB I want to address today. Eli Manning has impressed me early in this young season with his poise and arm strength. The Giants played a dangerous game in last season’s draft trading away a number of picks for their “potential franchise” QB, who seemed to me to be a spoiled punk, when he refused to play for San Diego. I have been waiting for signs and inclinations that was the case, so I could mock my hated, but respected, NFC East rivals. Kudos for Eli coming up big so far and proving the Giants staff were right to gamble and get a player that looks to make a difference for years to come.

I never had much faith in Plaxico Burress as a receiver making a huge impact for the G-men but last weeks game with 10-204 and 2 TD’s made me a believer at least for poor defenses to be concerned. I love watching Eli find often over-looked Amani Toomer and often injured Jeremy Shockey because these two players were stars before and Eli is figuring out they are pretty darn good football players. I like the G-men’s moves this year and that is saying a lot from a fanatical die-hard Cowboys fan. I say this with confidence only because in this years draft I think my ‘Boyz picked up their “Eli protection” plan in Demarcus Ware who has gotten off to a slow start but still looks to be a disruptive force in the making.

I will speak further about the dominance of the NFC East in a future article and how the Cowboys stack up in the surprisingly strong division where the defending NFC champion Eagles are in a 3-way tie for first place after four weeks. I will also address the undefeated and undecided among the NFL clubs before Week six and sort out the pretenders and the players in the NFL playoff race this year which looks to be very competitive in both AFC and NFC battles. So long until next week or my ranting gets too menacing to control, back in the Pool and I am out.


Stay Tuned for next weeks article and get out there and Football Wager on this weeks games......Mike P.