Nobody expected your Green Bay Packers to be 9-1 – no, not even you or Favre or the ghost of Vince Lombardi – but here they are.
Now, by the time that second piece of pumpkin pie turns your belt into a tourniquet, the Pack should have the division title wrapped up. A week later in Dallas, Brett’s boys can all but guarantee the road to Super Bowl XLII goes through (cue Chris Berman) the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field.
Meanwhile, Rex Grossman is back to waging psychological warfare on Bears fans, the Vikings are so bad at QB that Grossman would be an upgrade, and the Lions have suddenly remembered they’re the Lions.
In other words, it’s a very good time to wear cheese on your head.
I’m not the only one who thinks so. Over at cnnsi.com, the inimitable Dr. Z has Green Bay as the league’s third-best team, behind only the New England Juggernauts and Dallas. Meanwhile, Peter King thinks Favre would be the league’s MVP if not for Tom “Captain America” Brady. And FOX NFL talking head Brian Baldinger had nothing but praise for the Pack on Monday morning’s Tony Bruno Show.
“Green Bay has the best pass-rushing front four in all of football,” Baldinger said. “That’s why I think Green Bay is the best team in the NFC right now.”
Baldinger even went as far as saying that Green Bay has a better offense than the Cowboys.
Dallas police promptly named Baldinger in an arrest warrant.
He’s the King
Not to overdose on the Packers and Peter King here, but I couldn’t let his reporting of this great little story go without sharing it. Mining these nuggets is why King is the NFL’s version of Peter Gammons.
From last week’s Peter King Challenge: “I’ll tell you what I appreciate,” Mike McCarthy says of Brett Favre. “We’ve got this rookie kicker [Mason Crosby], and I find out he came in here really in awe of Favre. And so he makes a field goal to beat Philadelphia in our opener, and Brett picks him and puts him on his shoulders and starts running around with him. And Mason says to his friends, ‘I can’t believe this guy even talks to me! And he carries me around the field!'”
The sound of a billion screams
Eight games into the season, the Bucks look smarter than these kids for drafting Yi Jianlian. Yi’s played so well that some experts, like ESPN’s David Thorpe, even have Yi ahead of wunderkind Kevin Durant for early NBA Rookie of the Year consideration.
So imagine the horror when all those new Bucks fans in China found out that Yi is not on the NBA’s official All-Star ballot.
The NBA had no choice, really. Putting Yi on the ballot was the equivalent of putting him in the starting lineup, so great would be the deluge of Chinese votes. And before that could happen, the league had to make sure he was closer to Yao Ming than Wang ZhiZhi.
Next year, that won’t be an issue, so the Bucks may as well start selling his All-Star jerseys in July.
Frank talk about Francisco
Here’s something for Brewers fans to ponder while they get over the excitement of acquiring Randy Choate.
Mariano Rivera’s return to the Yankees is very good news for Milwaukee.
Word out of New York is that Francisco Cordero was New York’s backup plan had Rivera rejected the Yankees. And since the Yankees print money the way Milwaukee makes beer, there’s no way the Brewers could’ve competed against New York for Cordero.
Even without the Yankees in the mix, Cordero is still one of the hot stove’s hottest commodities, which makes the NL Cy Young voting all the more perplexing. San Diego’s Jake Peavy deserved his unanimous victory, but Cordero didn’t even receive a single, solitary third-place vote. Heck, Colorado’s Jeff Francis – with a 4.22 ERA – got one vote, but Cordero’s 44 saves and 2.98 ERA can’t get a sniff?
Normally, you’d blame this on the national media just overlooking Milwaukee. But remember, even Ned Yost picked up a couple of third-place votes in the NL Manager of the Year race, a development the Journal Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt attributed to the votes of Milwaukee-area writers. Why those voters would extend sympathy to Yost and deny it to Cordero is a mystery.
And finally…
My e-mail has been inundated with area athletic groups getting in on the holiday spirit and helping those less fortunate
The Milwaukee Admirals delivered Thanksgiving meals on Monday and played floor hockey at a local Boys and Girls Club. Brewers personnel, including Craig Counsell, also distributed Thanksgiving baskets on Monday. Bucks star Michael Redd funded his own Thanksgiving giveaway on Friday. And sports radio station 1250 WSSP-AM is teaming up with Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin on a holiday toy drive.
Just a reminder that it’s not all about turkeys on Thursday.
Or even the Packers.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
