Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Well my friend Bill beat me to the punch (Ohhhh Yeahhhhhhhhh!) but I was intent on making a post on the Sunday night Bills-Patriots game. So here goes anyways. Now, first and foremost, if you don't already know, I am a Patriots fan, and have been since I started watching football. So keep that in mind. Now I'm not gonna talk much about the game itself, because I was passed out, from paying the Tedy Bruschi drinking game (drink every time they mention Tedy Bruschi), by halftime. Now I don't want to be insensitive or uncaring, because having a stroke of any kind is pretty serious, no matter what Bill and Javen say. If any of my friends were to have a "mild" stroke, well , okay, our lives would be much the same since we're not all that active as is. But here's the thing, was it a coincidence that Bruschi picked a nationally televised game to make his return? I'm thinking not. Now this is a pretty big story sure, but did this game need a big story line to get ratings? Probably not, the Bills and Patriots were battling for first place in the AFC East. Now allow me to elaborate on what really pissed me off about ESPN's coverage:

1) When cutting to commercial they showed a fun little Bruschi montage to the tune of Chad Kroeger's "Hero". Of course the tune I loved (sometimes it's hard to convey sarcasm in writing). Alright, fair enough, but this was done, not just once, but on several occassions. At least use a different song. for crying out loud!

2) The Bruschi story interfered with the actual game coverage. Let me paint you a little picture here.... The Patriots have the ball after a Bills kickoff, cut to Tedy Bruschi's wife in the stands, as they drone on about her helping decide on whether or not it was time to come back or something like that. Now the sideline stories etcetera are great, but I wanted to watch the game. So what happened you ask? Well, when they cut back to the game, the Bills had the ball. Now that is what I would call pretty bad coverage. Now after the Bills ran a couple of plays, they explained what happened and even were so kind as to replay the fumble. Gee. Thanks.

3) Similar situation later in the game, they were interviewing Bob Kraft while the Bills had the ball, and, apparently learning their lesson from earlier, they did a picture-in-picture with Kraft in the corner and the game, not taking up the whole rest of the screen, but a sizable portion. Now, while this was happening the Bills fumbled and the Patriots recovered. At least this one I could see, but was somewhat unsure of what was going on with the smaller picture and no commmentary. And could I just add that I'm thankful for Robert Kraft doing what he has done for the Patriots, but he should never, ever speak. Aside from his slow, annoying way of speaking he called Tedy Bruschi and intelligent individual. A decent linebacker, yes, but intelligent man? C'mon.

Okay, now I'm just want to say how much I het Paul McGuire and that I'm not all that thrilled with Joe Theismann either. At points they were like us being drunk at a bar commenting on a game. Like Theismann saying the play clock should be reduced to 25 seconds in the last two minutes to make the games "that much more exciting". To which Paul McGuire, replied, almost irritatedly yelling at Theismann, "They have 58 minutes to have a chance!" That was even stupider than Joe asking Paul, did they ever try and ice you? Yeah Joe, they tried to ice a punter. Then when Mike Patrick asked who they thought Mike Mularkey, facially, looked like, to which I, in my living room, immediately responded, "Kevin Costner!" He's not identical, but you can see a resemblance. Joe and Paul didn't know and after Mr. Patrick said, "Kevin Costner", Paul McGuire responded with a crass and curt, "No." As if Mike Patrick was the idiot in the booth? Not a courteous, "Nooooo" to at least humor him, but a flat out, you are out of your mind, have another one, "No." Paul McGuire you are a horse's petoot!
Keep on trucking everyone!