Like most college kids, my Sunday night consists of a pretty steady diet of TV.
I'm a FOX guy unless there is a really good game on. So when I looked at this past Sunday's TV schedule and saw the San Francisco 49ers against the Arizona Cardinals, I thought it was no-brainer. Right? Well actually it turned out to be one of the more entertaining games of the season, but for none of the reasons you are thinking.
The reason that the NFL scheduled a game between the lowly 49ers and Cardinals on Sunday night was because of the location. The matchup will forever have the distinction of being the first regular season NFL game to be played outside the U.S. The game was held in Mexico City, in front of a crowd of over 100,000 fans.
Now I know what Paul Tagliabue and the NFL were thinking when they scheduled this game. They wanted to drum up support for the Cardinals because, let's face it: the words "Arizona Cardinals fan" and "die-hard" don't exactly go hand-in-hand. Arizona sold only 51 percent of its home tickets last year, which put the Cardinals dead last by a mile (the second-worst team was at 80 percent).
While the Cardinals did win convincingly, 31-14, that was about the only thing that went as planned. First of all, the Mexicans attending the game apparently didn't get the memo telling them they were supposed to be Cardinals fans. There were more Cowboys jerseys than Cardinals and 49ers combined.
Secondly, the level of play was so bad you just had to laugh. There were a total of seven turnovers by both teams, four for the 49ers and three for the Cardinals. When was the last time you heard of a team that turned the ball over three times and won... by 17?
The first play of the game was a sign of things to come, as Arizona quarterback Josh McCown promptly fumbled the ball over to a 49ers defender in his own end zone. Just like that it was 7-0 and somewhere Paul Tagliabue was pouring a tall glass of scotch. By the end of the first quarter, the 49ers led 14-0, thanks to another fumble returned for a touchdown. The San Francisco defense had out-gained its offense 78-14 and Tagliabue was checking to see if the good people of Guatemala had any interest in the NFL.
Then things magically took a positive turn for both the Cardinals and the NFL. McCown realized that the 49ers' secondary was more depleted than German Tower Records after a David Hasselhoff CD release. McCown ended up going 32 for 46 for 385 yards and leading his team to two touchdowns and six field goals.
Coach Dennis Green has been trying get rid of McCown for over a year now and when you look at his stats, you wonder why. After he led the Cardinals to that improbable victory over the Vikings in the last week of 2003, bursting Minnesota's playoff bubble, McCown was the starter going into 2004. In his first nine games he led the Cards to a 4-5 record. Not great, but pretty solid considering the Seahawks won that division with at 9-7.
But Green was not satisfied, and benched McCown for Shaun King, a guy who got run out of Tampa Bay. Then, when the Cardinals fall flat on their faces, Green refused to go back to McCown with his tail between his legs.
Instead, he gave the ball to rookie John Navarre, who promptly rewarded him with a 25 passer rating. McCown finally got the nod again, and went 2-2 in his last four games. It's nothing flashy, but it's respectable.
And if you're the Cardinals, respectable is a pretty lofty goal. But then in the off-season Green was back at it again, signing the great immovable object known as Kurt Warner.
So why is Green so hesitant about McCown? I wasn't sure until last night, when ESPN pulled a genius move and "mic'd up" McCown. Now I realize that the reason he doesn't start is because Green and the rest of the team can't stand him.
He's like that guy on your baseball team who used to chatter constantly in the field, "Here now, kid. No batta, no batta. Give 'em the juice, Davey. Give 'em the heater. No batta, no batta, swing batta!" when you were down 15-2 in the seventh inning.
There's only so much "rah rah" attitude you can take, especially in a professional sport. After his second touchdown put the Cardinals up 14 in the fourth quarter, McCown stamped up and down the sidelines screaming to his teammates, "Step on their throats! Don't give in!"
Later McCown went up to Kurt Warner, who was in his usual clipboard toting form, telling him that he just wanted to go out there and make him proud because he knew that if "he (Warner) was in there, he would do good." Now I know Warner is a god-fearing man who has the patience of a saint, but anyone who has had that many injury problems probably doesn't want to be reminded that he's on the sidelines, again. Warner didn't even glance at him, and looked like he was one more word away from grabbing McCown's neck and yelling, "I don't need this. I was a two-time MVP damnit. Two times! You ever hear of the greatest show on Turf? That was me!"
Well I'm one person who hopes Warner stays on the sidelines. For the first time ever I actually want to tune in every week to see those fightin' Cards. All I need is McCown and a microphone and you've got yourself a budding Cardinals fan right here in the U.S.A., Mr. Tagliabue.
