Half the Pain is Gone

by Jeanne McPartland

Now that we are approaching the half way point in the professional football season it’s time to assess the damage.

Let’s begin with the surprises. The SI.com top ten quarterbacks were released on, Oct. 27, 2005. They picked Tom Brady quarterback for New England as number one. That’s not too surprising. But they picked Brady Quinn of Notre Dame as number 7! That is surprising since Brady Quinn is still in College. I guess we can assume that all the talent is not in the NFL yet and there are hopes for the drafts of the future.

As a matter of fact, college football deserves some attention too. Let’s start by remembering that the NFL Teams draft eligible college players. High schools produce college players. Pop Warner produces high school players and moms produce baby boys who play. Behind every great football player is a MOM.

The top ten in College Football are USC, Texas, Virginia Tech, Georgia, Alabama, Miami, LSU, UCLA, Notre Dame, and Florida State according to the Associated Press. Note that Notre Dame is number 9. This may be due in large part to the fact that Charlie Weiss of New England Patriot fame took over as head coach this year.

Also contributing to the surprises at the halfway point in the professional year are all the injuries. In week 7 at least five of the starting quarterbacks were out and at least a dozen of the “best” running backs and wide receivers were out as well. How is one to pick a winner with all of these variables?

Condolences to those of you whose teams were taken out of contention early due to these extreme circumstances. After all, does it get any worse than having a hurricane come through your town and destroy you stadium for the whole season?

Clearly, Indianapolis is number one in the rankings overall. They deserve a spot in the playoffs. Payton Manning is an outstanding quarterback and his supporting cast is not bad either. As for the remaining teams, let’s watch the rest of the season and see who hangs on to get to the Super Bowl.

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