My Fly is Down at Work But I Ain't Zipping It!

Week 12 Tuesday Rewind

And I’m back baby. Sort of. 11-5 this week, brings the total to 38-22. Although, I think Nums over there picked the same games as me. So that would keep his lead at 2. Plenty of football left to be picking though. But, since he didn’t use his precious system, it seems he had to steal a little bit of mine, which is good anytime anywhere. In fact, I’m willing to go as far as to force him into early retirement or fine him like the Patriots for cheating. But I won’t, because I’m above that.

Other orders of business:

First, on an extremely sad note, Sean Taylor, strong safety for the Washington Redskins was shot during a robbery last night at his home. He was 24. Expect an extensive Guts Profile this week; he was one of the hardest hitting, gutsiest players ever to come from the U. CBS puts it best… His death was nothing short of “sad and unnecessary”

Moving on…
Sorry for not getting a guts profile up. With the holiday and a lot of stuff at work, it was tough, but I promise I’ll throw two at you sometime this week.

Week 13 is shaping up to really make our break some playoff pushes. Also, the Cowboys and Packers play in what should be the NFC game of the year for now (these teams will probably meet again)

That said, let’s get on to the gutsiest awards this side of the VMAs. The Tuesday Awards! Officially: The Gutsies! This week I’m giving out Just 6. The 7th is retired this week in honor of Sean Taylor

Participants in the slate of Thursday games are included.


Because I Just Love to Break Your Heart Award:

Winner: Jeff Reed

Starting off with the most recent award, Jeff Reed wins his first Gutsy for his game-winning field goal against the Dolphins. Not only was he the only one to score points on Monday night in awful weather (terrible, there was a bolt of lightning that must have hit right outside my window) he did it in dramatic fashion, handing the Fins their 11th loss of the season and spoiling the return of Ricky. (God hates Ricky Williams) It was sloppy, it was ugly. It was the lowest scoring game since 1993. Thankfully it’s over. But even with all the rain and sludge and slop, there was one moment of brightness that shone in the night sky, and that was Jeff.

Honorable mention: Ben Roethlisberger for his 18-21 performance through the air. Only 3 incompletions is impressive.

We Ended A lot of Embarrassing Streaks Today Award:

Winner(s): The Oakland Raiders

Great job team! You did it. I’ve been screaming about your potential for 22 years and this is how you thank me. By winning when I needed you to lose. But that’s good. Good for you, you did it. You beat Kansas City. Guts, tell them what they’ve won. Well Oakland you snapped 3 records of note. 1) and most embarrassing: You hadn’t (before sun.) beaten a division opponent AN AFC WEST TEAM!!! In 17 games! 17 games against division opponents and you hadn’t won any. Now you did. 2) You beat Kansas City (perennial mediocre team) for the first time in 9 games. 3) You had your first 100 yard rusher in Kansas City in 29 years! Justin Fargas, you have done something that Napoleon Kauffman and the other great Raider running backs of the last 29 years could not, run at arrowhead. Great Job raiders, there’s something to build on. Now put in JaMarcus.

The Chris Farley Memorial “Almost Heroes” Award:

Winner: A.J. Feeley and The Philadelphia Eagles

IMPRESSIVE. One of the best losses I have seen this year, and against the best team in the league at that. No one, not even the Colts impressed me as much as the Eagles did against the Pats. And let’s not stop there, A.J. Feeley, Kudos to you brother. You haven’t started a game since ’04 and you were 1-0 against the dynastic Pats coming in to this game. You were sharp, and you performed well. You let it slip away a little at the end, but you’re supposed to, you’re AJ Feeley. The Patriots didn’t really make many mistakes or turnovers, you just stopped them Philly, and you scared them good. Unfortunately, despite the Guts with which you all played, New England is still 11-0 and you are still at the bottom of the NFC East. Have no fear though, the Giants will see you soon.

Where in the World is Jeff Hostetler When you need him? Award:

Winner: Tom Coughlin and the New York “Football” Giants

I’m going to keep this description short and sweet. The Giants are a bad second half team, in fact, like the Madden Curse (you just don’t want to believe it exists) the Giants collapse in the second half every season (Thank you Jim Fassel, we’d like our clipboard back) like clockwork. They’re doing it again, just watch. While I usually don’t like to give out awards for this sort of thing, the Giants’ late season collapse in progress bears noting.

Honorable Mention: Jeff Hostetler

We Don’t Look Ahead, We Know The Other One’s Coming Award:

Winners: Brett Favre and Tony Romo

Reports say that Tony Romo was a sweet Mexi-talian from Wisconsi-Texaco who loved his Mama’s cooking and picking up spike (the neighbor’s dog) for swimming lessons. But there was something else Tony Romo was, he was a little Guata-rican-ese boy who wanted to be just like Brett Favre. Well, come Thursday, Nov. 29, Tony Romo will have the chance to be better than Brett (at least for a moment) on the field. The 10-1 pack play the 10-1 boys, both teams are doing better than they were expected to and everyone will be watching this game. So where does the award come in for week 12? Neither of these quarterbacks showed any signs in their games against the Jets and Lions that they were looking ahead. They didn’t experience a letdown despite the importance of the week after, they played that game like it was the most important when in actuality the next one was much more meaningful. That takes guts. Also for those of you keeping score, that’s Brett’s second Gutsy in 2007


How you gonna forget about me? Ain’t no other like me. I’m the best Award:

Winner: Chad Johnson

Smile for the camera Chad! Oh wait, we’ll smile for yours. Good work on Sunday. While the Titans were busy playing themselves out of contention in a tough AFC South/AFC you decided to bust out and do what you’ve been “trying” to do all season. I’m not going to put any blame on you for your lack of production. With a weak defense and the profile you have, you were the subject of a lot of bunch coverages and double coverages. You were quiet, well, quiet for you, lying in wait, planning your next touchdown celebration. This week you got the chance and you jumped on it. You had a career high 12 catches, in the process you broke the Bengals reception record, and you had 3 touchdowns. Big day! You got to celebrate, and with flair. Congrats Chad on your first Gutsy!


Thank you all for reading. Coming up soon will be my Thursday pick and the Guts Profiles of the weak.

Once again, let’s remember Sean Taylor for the player he was. I know I always drafted him 1st on my defense in Sega 2K5.

Be good to each other.