Week 3

I played in a basketball tournament this week-end. We played four games in one day, against some very good competition. We beat a junior college team in the first round and then lost by four to a team out of Memphis. We won our next game and then played a very good team later that night that beat us by ten. I was completely exhausted, my body ached and this morning when I woke up, I hurt even worse. But today, I couldn't wait to wake up because it was Sunday. I wish I could say that I couldn't wait to go to church, but that wouldn't be the complete truth. I was excited because the Packers played the Lions and usually a quick remedy for a slow start is a trip to Detroit. Well, the Packers didn't disappoint. On the first drive, the Pack went three and out on two dropped passes by their best receiver. On the second drive, though, Greg Jennings made a 15 yard out route a little something more and turned it into a 75 yard touchdown pass...and not just any td pass...number 400 in the career of Brett Favre. He joined Marino as the only other player in NFL history to reach 400 td passes. He's now only 18 behind Dan for the all-time record.

The Lions kept the game close and even had a chance to tie it on their final drive after Ahman Green fumbled while trying to run out the clock. Favre threw three more td passes today and no interceptions. Granted, the Detroit defense is nothing close to good, but it was still good to see Brett have a great day. I came home after the game and watched our old coach, Mike Holmgren completely dismantle the Giants as the commentators mentioned Favre's milestone on every NFL related channel. This is when football is fun. And every now and then, you get a little hope.

Week 2

I am convinced that football may be the creation of Satan. At least, I think that's case over the last year and two weeks. It seems that football (more than any other sport) has the ability to reach into your body, drag your soul out kicking and screaming, throw it to the floor, kick it, spit on it, put it back in your body and say, "See you next week for more of the same". Or maybe that's what it's like to be Packers fan and a UT Vols fan on the week-end of the Florida game. Anyway, I have to say that this week-end had super potential. Potential like Tony Mandarich had in the early 90's. And basically it played out the same way that did.

I had one of those Saturdays this week-end. You know, those Saturdays when you don't put a shirt on until 8:00 pm because, well, you have no reason to. Yeah, that's how it was this week-end. I watched the LSU-Auburn game along with the trouncing of Notre Dame. Took a break after that and read the Green Bay Press Gazette online to get ready for Sunday's game. Then it was time for the Tennessee-Florida game. I don't want to get into it too much because I'm just not ready yet, but to make things short and sweet I only need to tell you one thing: -11 yards rushing for the Vols at home against the number seven ranked team in the country. 21-20, Florida. Heartbreaker.

I was feeling good by morning, though, and had a GREAT feeling about the Packers.. Another reason football may be the spawn of Satan is because it is the great deceiver. The memory of the ass kicking we took at the hands of the Bears just seven days ago, seemed like last year and we had the Saints coming in who we beat 52-3 last year. It all seemed to be so good.

I went to Sunday School this morning, skipped out on service, came home and put on my Sterling Sharpe jersey from 1994. It seems my Brett Favre jersey is hexed. I can't get a win when I wear it. I headed to Mulligan's in time for the kickoff and I'll be damned if we didn't force a turnover on the Saints' first possesion. Green Bay ball in New Orleans' territory. Brett Favre td pass to Greg Jennings, first score of the year, first Favre td of the year...23 behind Marino. Next Saints' possesion, forced fumble, our ball in the red zone...field goal. 10-0. Next posession, another Saints' turnover. We drive down and kick a field goal...13-0 in the first quarter. Needless to say, it did not last. We started dropping balls, couldn't block at all, our defense blew assignments and next thing we know we're down 20-13 in the third quarter. But we have Favre and he didn't disappoint (except for the first and goal pick he threw). We tie the game at 20-20 on his second td pass of the day. The Saints get it and score when our safety Nick Collins falls down on a pass play. Our ball...Ahman Green fumbles. New Orleans recovers and scores on its first play from scrimmage. 34-20, Saints. Packers ball and Favre leads them down again. TD pass to Noah Herron. Favre's third of the game...34-27 Saints. Packers hold and they get it with one more chance to go down the field. Three minutes left and no timeouts. Favre gets them into Saints territory and then runs out of bullets. There's only so much he can do. New Orleans wins 34-27. Packers are 0-2. I'm having flashbacks to last year.

After watching this game, this is what I believe: put Brett Favre with a talented team and he wins you at least 10 games...probably 12. Donald Driver is one of the best playmakers in the league, people just don't know it. In the end, it's another loss, but Favre played well and maybe proved some people wrong. The emotion is already wearing off and next week in Detroit is looking pretty good.

Five Years

I guess every generation has that moment. You know, that cliched moment where "you never forget where you were when such and such event happened". My parents had JFK and the Challenger (though I vaguely remember that) and I have 9/11. Emotion is such a huge component in memory...the most important, actually. And the heavier the event, the heavier the emotion and the more likely the memory is to sear itself in your brain. Well, that's what 9/11 was or is...seared to my brain.

It was my first day of my first real job out of school. I was in orientation at the Jackson Madison County General Hospital. I had been hired by Pathways Behavioral Health Services to be an (let me see if I can get this right)...an "intensive family preservation specialist". So, we had two days of orientation: Monday, September 10 and Tuesday, September 11. I can remember sitting next to Ashleigh James who was a college classmate of mine and who was also in orientation that day. She told me the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane. My first thought was that it had to have been an accident. I asked, "What kind of moron accidentally hits a building?" About thirty minutes later, our speaker was interrupted by someone who whispered something in his hear. The speaker then told us that the second tower had been hit and it looked like we were under attack. He dismissed us for a few minutes while the hospital tried to figure out what steps they should take, if any, to secure the building. Ashleigh and I walked outside. It was one of those days right on the edge of summer and fall. The air was clear, but the sun was still a little warm. A nice breeze was blowing. We didn't really talk about it much...the magnitude of it wasn't on top of us, yet. I called my dad who then told me the Pentagon had been hit. During my lunch break, I went up to my church and checked on one of our friends who's husband was in PA on business. They had three children all under the age of six. He was fine, she said, but didn't know when he would get home. The weight of it started to set in. I got home that afternoon to find my wife watching one of the twenty channels that were that had been overridden by the news stations. We went to Rafferty's that night with my parents and I went to bed thinking about what would be next. Would I be drafted? Would there be more attacks? Will it ever be the same?

Five years after, it seems the same to me. Probably because I wasn't affected directly by that event. So many mistakes have been made since that day by our administration, but I can't help but wonder if it would've been different with anyone else. 9/11 changed our country and forced our hand on some awful decisions. September 11, 2006 was a day that affected me far more than it's five year old predecessor. On 9/11/06, my wife and I met at the Women's Clinic in Jackson, just three hundred yards from the hospital I was at five years earlier. We walked back into a dark room and let a lady wipe some slime on my wife's stomach and probe around the top of it with a strange looking wand. We got to see our baby's brain and kidney's. It looked at us with it's skeleton face and hollow eyes. We saw it stretch its arms and legs. And we saw that we were having a little a girl. Emotion helps sear memories to our brain...9/11 will always be a contradiction in my head.

Week 1

Since this very well could (and, based to today's performance, should) be Brett Favre's last season, I am going to blog about each week. This is probably more for personal, therapeutic purposes than entertainment purposes...And since apparently no one reads my blog, this shouldn't bore too many people.

Since I live in Jackson, TN and nowhere near Green Bay and since Green Bay went 4-12 last year I really don't have any chance at watching them on TV unless I go to the local T.J. Mulligan's sports bar...Which I have done religiously for the past two seasons. Today was the first game of the season and a lot of expectation is attached to it. The plan was to go to early church and then Sunday school, be out by 10:45, come home, change clothes and head to Mulligan's for some pre-game action and then watch the Titans' game while waiting for the Packers game which started at 3:15.

The Pack opened against the rival Bears who have one of the best defenses in the league. They completely dismantled the Packers last year and in one game hit Favre so hard, so many times that I literally winced at least five times during that game. It was hard to watch. I sit in the same seat every Sunday in the same, smoke filled back room with the same three people...All of which are at least in their late 60's or early 70's. They are all from Green Bay and one of them used to work for the Packers in the 80's and 90's. I have no idea what their names are or what they do (I assume they're retired). We really don't talk about anything but sports and they talk about their kids sometimes, who are all older than me. Last year, about all we did was complain about Mike Sherman.

Today the Packers sucked. They didn't stink, they sucked! That's the only word that can describe it. Their new coach seems to be inept at best and at worst incapable of coaching a pop Warner team. The Packers needed a quick start and to play with a lead to have a chance at winning this game. It is nearly impossible to beat a team like the Bears playing from behind...Especially when your team starts two rookies at guard. Well, right off the bat Chicago scores on six plays, capped off by a 42 yard pass from a quarterback who was playing his second game in about a year. The Packers came out and played fast which was Coach McCarthy wanted...Oh, wait that's not right. Their first possession was a three and out on three straight running plays. Surely they would open it up a little...But, no. Brett Favre's stats at the end of the half...5-5 for 70 yards. One of the best quarterbacks of all time attempting five passes in a half...Good football. At the end of the first half, 16-0, Chicago.

It only got worse in the second half. Green Bay couldn't move the ball, Favre got impatient and threw two balls right to the defense. Final Score: Chicago 26- Green Bay 0. First time the Packers have been shut out since 1991. I left Mulligan's feeling like I did a lot last year: let down.