Some Football Thoughts

With the first week of the 2019 NFL season now part of the league's 100 year history a lot of football has been on my mind. Here are some of those football thoughts.

1. Football is back!

2. I am so tired of Antonio Brown. Even the start of the football season can't keep his idiocy off the headlines. He's so fun to watch play football but I'm just so tired of him that I'm starting to prefer never seeing him play football again.

3. "We've got some nightmares out there."
-Vikings safety Harrison Smith on the defensive line in front of him.

4. Vikings safety Anthony Harris was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his 2 interceptions, 1 fumble recovery, 5 tackles, and all-around fine play against the Falcons in Week 1.The Vikings have been looking for a versatile, playmaking safety to play opposite Harrison Smith since 2012. It's one game but Harris has shown the sort of playmaking potential that he showed against the Falcons in situational appearances and spot starts over the past four years. His goal line fumble recovery against the Rams in 2017 might've been the biggest play of a season that was filled with big plays. His performance on Sunday was a surprise to no one in the Vikings organization. Congratulations Anthony Harris!

5. Did Odell Beckham have somewhere else he had to be during the football game? Why else would he wear a watch during a game? As with everything that he does, it was for the attention. So it was something of a surprise when he belly-ached about the attention. Beckham spouted that it wouldn't be a big deal if Tom Brady pulled the clown stunt of wearing a several-hundred thousand dollar watch during a game. As is often the case, there are some flaws in Beckham's logic. It wouldn't be a big deal because Tom Brady wouldn't wear a watch, of any value, during a game. I bet that the thought of wearing a watch, of any value, during a game had never even occurred to Brady.

6. I like watching Dalvin Cook play football.

7. I can think of only one home game that wasn't played at 12:30 on Saturday during my days as a Cal student. That one game was a 33-7 thrashing by Washington State. It was a rainy night game. The game started with a meager 30,135 in the stands. By the fourth quarter, about 135 remained. And the most of those that remained were band members. Cal Band Great!!! The game was dismal for many reasons. The most significant being the start time. It hacked up the whole glorious experience of game day for a college student. A 12:30 Saturday start for college football is perfect. It's nothing like that now. TV determines the college schedule and they often don't determine the time of the game until the week before. Now, it's rare for a Cal home game to kickoff at 12:30. I've often thought about this change. It would be so different to be a student and a football fan at Cal now. The team wins more. That's nice. This year's team has already matched the season win total of the team that I watched got thrashed by Washington in the night rain. I was thinking again about these scheduling changes when Cal's night game against Washington last Saturday was delayed over two hours by weather. The game didn't reach it's thrilling conclusion (for Cal) until 1:20 Sunday morning. There's no predicting the weather but no Saturday game in the United States should be finish after four in the morning on Sunday somewhere in the United States. This game started at 7:30 on the west coast. A 10:30 start on the east coast is a lot to ask. I sure do miss those 12:30 starts. Go Bears!

8. More Cal. The Golden Bears defense is so much fun to watch. The offense hasn't been so much fun to watch the past couple seasons. There was a flicker of offensive hope in the second half against Washington. Quarterback Chase Garbers was clutch on the final drive to a game-clinching field goal. A modest Cal offense to pair with that terrific defense would be so wonderful. There are a bunch of games to play before it's really time to think about it but Stanford has had the Axe for far too long.

9. The media's fascination with Kirk Cousins throwing only 10 passes in the Vikings' 28-12 thumping of the Falcons is getting tiresome. I can understand questions about the low totals during the postgame press conference. Maybe even a couple follow up questions in Mike Zimmer's day-after press conference but the media is still fixated on it. Zimmer, Cousins, offensive coordinator Kevin Stafanski, receiver Stefon Diggs, and everyone else even remotely involved with the offense have been hammered with questions all week about throwing only 10 passes. Why is it so hard for the media to grasp that this game was outside the norm? Would there be such attention if the Vikings had run the ball only 10 times? Not in today's pass-happy NFL. The game was essentially decided in the first half. The Vikings defense kept the Falcons offense down throughout the game. There was rarely a need to throw the ball in the second half. At some point, the media has to turn the page to the next game. And the next game for the Vikings happens to be the Green Bay Packers. That alone should be reason enough to forget about those 10 passes by Tuesday.

10. I've heard a few talking heads express surprise at the strong support of Oakland Raiders fans for a team that's leaving town after this season. I guess these talking heads have forgotten that these fans have been through this before. When Al Davis took the Raiders to Los Angeles, these fans stayed with their team. Los Angeles/Las Vegas, neither is that far from Oakland. Many made weekend trips to Los Angeles for more than a decade. They'll make weekend trips to Las Vegas. In fact, many Raiders fans are looking forward to weekend trips to Las Vegas. This move might not be convenient for Raiders fans but it'll be fun. And Raiders fans like fun.

11. I like watching Danielle Hunter play football.

12. Football's back! Skol Vikings!