We’re Getting Back to Pro Football! (Not Happily!)

After an extraordinary long Spring and Summer, we have been waiting anxiously for the start of the Pro Football season. We have been told how we made the very best pick for #3 and selected Vince Young, University of Texas. We have been assured that although he came out his Junior year, he would quickly mature and accomplish miraculous things because he had all the physical talent in the world! Well, maybe he will, but experience probably won’t make up for intelligence and we’ve always had some doubt about his mental agility when he achieved (!) a 6 on his Wunderlich.

The real reason this nice young man was drafted by the Titans is that he was from Houston and Bud Adams wanted to get what he determined was the highest rated quarterback in the draft over his sworn enemies in Houston and “The Texans!” With John McClain’s proselytizing about Young’s super human qualities and the boss wanting him, Floyd Reese didn’t have the cojones to stand up and choose either Leinart or, more preferably, Jay Cutler.

It was with some great pleasure to see how Jay Cutler lit up the scoreboard when the Titans played the Bronco’s last week. We know it’s just pre-season, but things do not bode well for the Titans this year. The only way anything can be improved over the last two years is IF Billy Volek can perform, but that will be impossible if the front line doesn’t protect him. The Titans are very thin in so many positions; it looks like another season down the drain. When I was watching the Denver/Titan game, I got that same sick feeling I had last year as everything spiraled down in flames. NOT GOOD!

Then, to top it off this morning, we were greeted with a newscast that said Pacman Jones had been arrested again! This is his third or fourth police run-in about being where he shouldn’t have been and his second arrest in less than one year! I wonder what Jeff Fisher’s “zero tolerance” threat will really mean. One thing we don’t have to worry about in pro sports is someone having the INTEGRITY to do what is right in spite of how important the player may be to the team. As much as I dislike the University of Tennessee’s football program, at least Fulmer is finally getting it right and dismissing any player violating the rules. It’s taken him a long time to understand this or maybe the administration telling him that HIS job is on line if he continues to sugar coat and give felons another chance on the team. I daresay, most college coaches wouldn’t allow the second chances that Fisher is giving Pacman. Surely, three strikes and you’re out is two strikes too many for a pro football player!

So, my friends please know my long waited start of the season has already been torpedoed so either I change loyalties or pray I can live long enough to see a re-birth of that tough, talented team who played with grit and passion. We all had a lot of fun then... even when we lost!

I really miss that feeling!