Has the National Football League front office completely gone out of its mind? How could it possibly fine Roy Williams or better yet how could they fine Jake Plummer.
If you haven't heard, Williams, a safety for the Dallas Cowboys, was fined $7,500 for his hit on a Washington Redskins wide receiver Sept. 27. After further review, it appears it was just a good football hit. No head-to-head contact, just a hard football hit..Paul Taglibue this is football. You are allowed to hit people in this game. It's a full contact sport. Commit that to memory please!
But what is even more ridiculous is the fine levied against Plummer. The Denver quarterback has worn the number 40 on the back of his helmet. It was in honor of former teammate Pat Tillman, who was a strong safety for the Arizona Cardinals, Plummer's former team. Tillman gave up several million dollars and an NFL career to join the military. He was killed in Iraq earlier this year.
All Plummer is doing is wearing the number in honor of his good friend. Now he is supposed to pay a $5,000 fine.
The NFL is apparently allowing the Arizona Cardinals to wear the number on the back of their helmets for the season, but no one else.
Would somebody please call me and tell what did Plummer do that was so catastrophic? Maybe I'm missing something.
But, maybe there are too many rules? Perhaps the NFL has other things more important to worry about? Perhaps some common sense should be considered at some point and time?
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College football also has some ridiculous rules. Saturday, OU fullback J.D. Runnels caught a touchdown pass from Jason White. Runnels celebrated for a short time with the OU fans in the end zone. For those efforts, Oklahoma was assessed a 15-yard penalty for unsportsman like conduct. I can see if the celebration lasted for a long time and delayed play, a delay of game penalty would ensue. But, it didn't appear that way to me.
If Runnels were taunting the Texas Tech players after the play, then I could see assessing the penalty.
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This is the time of year I stop wearing my Texas Rangers cap and start wearing my New York Yankee cap. It's called the playoffs.
I was brought up by my dad to be a Yankee fan. But, after going to some Rangers games and enjoying the success they had in the 1990s plus my dislike for New York owner George Steinbrenner, I change allegiances. I'm kind of surprised that my dad hasn't come out of the grave to kick my you know what. I still like the Yankees, but its not the same when Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Bobby Richardson were there.
I can't pick on the Rangers very much because of their whirlwind turnaround. Who would have thought at the beginning of the year, that the boys in Arlington who were 20 games under .500 in 2003 would win 89 games, 16 games over .500?
Much of the credit has to go to the much maligned Rangers' pitching staff. They were fifth in the league in earned run average.
Still, the Rangers need more pitching, specifically starting pitching. The Rangers used 30 pitchers, 17 of which are starters. They need stability in the staff and an ace pitcher so they can be more efficient in winning low-scoring games when their normally reliable hitting is not there.
The problem is there is not a lot of pitching available.
It will be interesting to see if the Rangers will re-sign free agent second baseman Alfonso Soriano. Soriano is very productive with the bat but is the worst fielding second baseman in baseball.
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I gave myself a decent grade for my pre-season baseball predictions. I picked the Yankees, Twins and Angels to win the division and Boston to be the wild card team. That was 100 percent correct. However, I botched the National League pretty bad.
I had Philadelphia, the Chicago Cubs and for some strange reason the Arizona Diamondbacks to win their divisions. Houston was my pick for the wild card.
My post season predictions has the Angels and the Cardinals meeting the World Series with the St. Louis winning it all.
I hate to go against the Yankees simply because they are the Yankees but I just question their starting pitching.
And in lieu of what happened to the Angels yesterday, that prediction is very shaky.
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