America's Game

Baseball is America's Pastime. Football is America's Game. Let us keep it that way. If two Rugby teams came over from England to play a game on American soil, I couldn't be any less interested and don't think most Americans would either. I'll be honest, I don't know jack squat about rugby because I've never cared to learn. What makes Roger Goodell think playing all these games in London would be good for the NFL?

When asked about playing a Super Bowl in London, the commissioner said not until there's an NFL team there. This is a bad idea on so many levels.

First of all, the league is good right now. We've got eight divisions with four teams each to total 32 teams (yeah, check out that math). That's a good number of teams, don't screw that up. If you add any teams, divisions will be all out of whack and, well, let's just sayit's not going to be pretty.

If you move a team there, it'd be even more messed up. Take for example the Jacksonville Jaguars (just using them as an example). If the Jags moved to London, you'd have the London Brits (just a name I came up on the top of my head, just go with it) in the same division as the Colts, Titans and Texans. The travel schedule would be completely screwed up for both London's home and away games. They'd come here one week to play the Texans before turning around the next to week to host the Colts.

Honestly, it's bad enough to think of this great game being in Mexico or Canada, but when you have a huge body of water between here and there and factor in jet leg and the time difference, currency and culture change, well you gotta be out of your mind to think this will work. When would you play the games, and how much time would you give off to the players? Let US keep it simple. Let's just keep America's game in America.

You know you're not going to have a good fan base. How many die heard NFL fans are you really going to find in England? It's just a stupid idea.

Isn't it a bit unpatriotic? Speaking of unpatriotic, the New England Patriots are playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in London Sunday. Let's not confuse the old England with the new one. Let's remember our freedom and where our independence came from without making a whole ordeal out of it. Let's remember where we came from but enjoy where we are. Let US enjoy our freedom, and enjoy our football. Let US keep America's Game in America.

What if...

Do you ever wonder what life would be like if even one little decision was made differently? What would life be like right now if_______? (Fill in the blank)

Yeah, I do that all the time. Sometimes I sit in lie in bed at night wondering how many Super Bowl rings the Cowboys would have if Jerry Jones hadn't fired Jimmy Johnson. What if Jackie Smith had of held on to the ball.

It's not all bad though. I'm very thankful for the fact the Cowboys traded Herschel Walker to Minnesota. Man, Walker deserves a ring for that. Talk about taking one for the team.

Anyway, about what life could have been, think about what would have happened had the Portland Trail Blazers not passed on Michael Jordan.

So how does that change the present? Easy, the Cowboys could have more than five rings (or only two minus the Walker trade), you could take all six rings away from the Bulls and nobody would recognize the name Scottie Pippen.

Put it this way: What if Eli Manning never refused to play for the Chargers? Philip Rivers would still be a Giant, and who knows, he might even have a ring. When the Chargers drafted Manning first overall, they already had Drew Brees on the roster. So who knows, maybe Brees would have stayed sending Manning to the Big Easy, following in his dad's footsteps to play for the Saints.

What if the Babe had of stayed in Boston? What if Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa didn't have the home run race in '98? Would baseball have been revived? Would the steroid issued be such a big issue?

It's easy to think of more and more of these scenarios like, what if Joe Montana went to the Steelers instead of the Chiefs? If that was the case, Larry Brown wouldn't have been MVP of Super Bowl XXX.

Yeah, maybe wondering all this doesn't matter but it is fun to think about it from time to time. Hopefully soon I'll be able to roll back over and go back to sleep without cursing Jerry Jones and dreaming about having a couple more rings.