I've been avoiding the blog, and my computer in general, for the holiday weekend. Kids home for a few days, family over for T-Day, and a deadly combination of a new plasma tube and lots of HD football to watch. And the football was remarkable today, the Browns notwithstanding.
The Giants-Seahawks game just concluded was riveting, and it wasn't just the novelty of Fox's stunning HD picture. New York and Eli Manning were valiant in overtime defeat, in what had to be the best NFL game I've seen all year.
But the guy who may have written the next Rudy script today was Ryan Fitzpatrick, a rookie quarterback for the St. Louis Rams. Fitzpatrick, who had never taken a snap in an NFL game, a kid from Harvard no less, led the Rams from 21 points down at halftime, to a 33-27 overtime victory over Houston. He'll probably be talking all about it on Letterman or the Today show this week, and the 19 of 30, 310 yards, and 3 TD's he put up in his professional debut are amazing numbers by themselves, made more impressive by also winning the game.
It's an item that would be a hot human interest story even without the Harvard angle, but that should put it over the top media frenzy-wise. He may be spared some of the attention he would get if he played on the east coast, but Ryan Fitzpatick's days of NFL obscurity are over. It was Clint Longleyesque. Hope his career works out better than that one did.