Bits & Pieces

By Kim J. Harmon

That time around 11:30 am on a Sunday is just about the best time of the week (other than the time between 9 and 11 pm when the kids are asleep and I’m still up) – right when the FOX and ESPN National Football League pre-game shows lumber into action. Right then, I can almost smell kickoff coming.

But it was a bit sobering this past Sunday. Here I was waiting for kickoff and President George Bush is telling me that the war – Enduring Freedom – had officially begun. It was a little bit scary, a little bit sad that it had to come to this, but when President Bush said, “We will not fail,” I believed him and felt some vindication, some sense of pride, and it has lasted so far.

I’ll tell you this, my clicker finger was working overtime – from the Giants game to the Dolphins game and to MSNBC in between, I was working on a surefire case of carpal tunnel syndrome. Wonder if my insurance company would cover that?

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Speaking of the NFL,  if there was ever a better example of why football is more of a national spectacle than baseball, it was the Tampa Bay – Green Bay game at 4 pm on Sunday. You did not have to be a fan of either team to enjoy that game. The sheer effort and will displayed by players like Warren Sapp and Brett Favre (who hugged and butted helmets when Favre’s last-ditch pass fell incomplete as time expired) was what this whole thing is all about. Watching the players slumped on the field in utter exhaustion brings to mind that great, great San Diego – Miami playoff game from the 1980s that I – a Giants fan – will remember forever.

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While Tampa Bay – Green Bay was a heck of a game to watch, I feel real sorry for the people who are going to have to watch Washington and Dallas go at it this weekend. That used to be such a great rivalry with Billy Kilmer, John Riggins, the Hogs, Roger Staubach, Drew Pearson, Tony Dorsett and all those guys and now it’s simply pathetic. The Cowboys may be the worst team in football – bar none – and the Redskins are right there vying for that title. It can’t get worse than that.

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Watching the end of the San Diego – Cleveland game was near magic, too. Here is Doug Flutie, who years ago won that miracle game for Boston College with a last-second bomb against Miami, all set to do it again against one of the former coaches of that Miami team, Butch Davis. With the Chargers down and near midfield, Flutie tossed a bomb with less than 10 seconds to go that SHOULD have been caught for a miracle touchdown. Davis, the head coach of the Browns now, NEVER would have lived it down.

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Now that the National Basketball Association is ready to start its 2001-02 season, I am wondering about something. Since Street & Smith has announced that Michael Jordan’s return could boost the value of the Washington Wizards by some $30 million, I’m wondering if his Airness – a part owner of the Wizards – didn’t have an ulterior motive about all this.

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Speaking of Jordan, I don’t doubt that the man will still be good. But he won’t be a match for Kobe Bryant or Tracy McGrady or Vince Jordan. He especially won’t be any match for Allen Iverson, who is absolutely the best player in the sport right now.

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As a fan of the New York Yankees, I am terrified of the Oakland Athletics. That is one great baseball team in an all-time groove. The A’s started the season terribly, but since the All Star break have won something like 58 of 77 games. Jeez. And even if the Yankees get by the A’s, they still have to get by the Seattle Mariners. Wicked.