Life is meaningless and full of pain.

Cardinals, Ravens, Eagles… these playoffs are for the birds.

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New York Giants 37 Arizona Cardinals 29

New York Jets 34 Tennessee Titans 13

What can I possibly add? Life is magical and full of joy.

The Jets win a huge one, upsetting the previously unbeaten Tennessee team that stole their original name (guess this was a true ‘clash of the titans’). Not only did they win, but they dominated throughout.

And the Giants went down to Arizona and defeated a game and explosive Cardinals team that had not lost a home game all season. That one had me on the edge of my seat all the way. With that receiving corps, the Cards are never out of it till the last tick of the clock.

Two great wins.

I know, I know, the odds are against it… but for the first time since 1986, it now appears that there exists a slim chance that we could actually get a Subway Superbowl. And wouldn’t that be something? Of course, since I love both teams, there is the danger that my head would explode.

Don’t want to get ahead of myself, however. There’s a lot more football to play.

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Music: Are You Ready for Some Football?
The NFL is back… and the Giants kicked off the season with a convincing win over the Washington Redskins. Eli and the offense sputtered a bit after a strong start, settling for field goals three times, but other than that it was a good performance on both sides of the ball. Plaxico Burress and Brandon Jacobs looked like beasts. I did think the playcalling got a little too conservative in the second half, but a win is a win, especially against a division foe.

Based on what I saw last night, it’s going to be a long season for fans of the Potomac Drainage Basin Indiginous Persons.

Now let’s see how Brett and the new Jets do against Chad and the Fins on Sunday.

(I really really wish Chad hadn’t ended up on the Fins.)

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The Giants are going to the Superbowl!

The Giants are going to the Superbowl!!

The Giants are going to the Superbowl!!!

I feel bad for Brett Favre, who I’ve always liked, but…

THE GIANTS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!

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Well, the NFL season got off to a rocky start for me with today’s Jets – Patriots game.

Poor Chad. I really feel for the guy.

Another victory for Evil Little Bill, I fear. The Patriots offensive line played an awesome game. The Jets pass rush never got close enough to Tom Brady to muss his hair.

And Thomas Jones, the Jets’ big off-season acquisition, showed nothing. I hope this is not an omen of things to come. If so, it could be a long season. Chad is most effective when he’s faking handoffs in play-action, and you can’t play-action without a running attack.

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Back during the heydey of Bill Parcells’ first great New York Giants teams, roughly 1985 through 1990, our greatest rivals were the San Francisco 49ers of Bill Walsh. As a Giants fan, my fondest memories of are the times we beat the Niners — the drubbing we gave them in the playoffs on the way to our first SuperBowl, the 15-13 squeaker we won in San Francisco on the way to the second SuperBowl, when we frustrated the Niners’ dreams of Threepeat, and (especially) that incredible regular season game where Mark Bavaro carried Ronnie Lott and ten other 49ers halfway down the field on his back. I’m sure there were some equally exciting games where the Niners prevailed, though of course I don’t remember THOSE as fondly. Still, those were great games between two great teams.

Despite the rivalry, I could never hate the Niners the way I hate the Cowboys (as a Giants fan) or the Patriots and Dolphins (as a Jets fan). Bill Walsh was just too classy, and so were his teams. Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Dwight Clark, Ronnie Lott, so many more. They weren’t my guys, but they were great players, and easy to root for. And I did root for them, whenever my own guys weren’t in it. I was cheering as hard as anyone when Montana threw and Dwight Clark made the Catch, to knock the hated Cowboys out of the playoffs. And that drive against the Bengals in the SuperBowl was pretty special too.

Bill Walsh was the most innovative football coach of our time. He redefined the game, especially on offense. He always seemed to be a great guy too. His players loved him, and with good reason. I remember the first Niner SuperBowl against the Bengals, where he got to the hotel ahead of the team, dressed up as a bellhop, and unloaded their luggage for them.

You’ll never see Evil Little Bill do that.

Rest In Peace, Bill. You did good work and left your mark, and that’s all that any man can hope for.

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Well, the first day of the NFL draft is finally over. It was the longest first round in history, the longest first day in history. I’m exhausted just from watching it.

It’s impossible to evaluate a draft until three years after it’s finished, but that doesn’t stop anyone from trying. Including me.

My two teams took completely different approaches this year.

The Jets were very aggressive. They traded up in the first round to get the top corner in the draft, giving up one of their two second round picks to move up eleven slots or so. Then they traded up again in the second round, this time surrendering their third rounder to snag a highly-rated linebacker who’d slid down significantly. That left them without a third rounder. Today’s swaps and some previous moves also left them without a fourth or a fifth, so the Jets won’t be drafting again until round six, and maybe not until round seven. They are going to end up with a very small draft class, probably no more than four players. On the other hand, the two guys they got today are prime, and both of them should make an immediate impact on the team.

The Giants, on the other hand, were totally passive. With trades flying around like bullets and teams moving up and down and sideways and hopping over one another, the G-Men just sat there and picked when their turns came. One, two, three. Tomorrow, I expect, they will go four, five, six, and seven. The first two of the three players they got today were solid, I think. The first round cornerback will be of help to our aging secondary, and the second round wide receiver (Steve Smith — I was actually hoping the Carolina Panthers would draft him a couple pick earlier, so they could start Steve Smith and Steve Smith as their wideouts) looks be pretty decent as well (however, if Amani Toomer comes back and Sinorice Moss finally plays some, the Giants won’t really need another wide receiver). The third round pick seemed like a real reach — all the draft magazines had him rated as a sixth or seventh rounder. The biggest problem is, the Giants did nothing to address their most pressing need — a left tackle to replace Luke Pettigout and fortify the offensive line. Last season, when Eli faded down the stretch, I was screaming for the Hefty Lefty. Well, I have a feeling that I may get to see him this year. Unless the Giants do something to fix that line, Eli is going to bloody well get killed back there.

All in all, I thought the Jets had a much better day than the Giants did.

Of course, when watching the draft, a true fan not only wants his own teams to do well, he wants their archrivals to do poorly. That worked out better for me, I think. The Eagles traded away their first round pick, and then took a quarterback with their first pick of the day, in the early second round. That won’t please Donovan McNabb at all, and certainly did nothing to strengthen the team. He wasn’t even an especially great prospect, according to most of the commentators. I think Andy Reid shot himself in the foot.

Even at that, he did better than the Miami Dolphins, who shot themselves in the head. When Detroit, Cleveland, and then Minnesota passed on Brady Quinn, I was screaming and cursing, because that meant he would fall into the lap of the Dolphins, and finally solve their long-standing quarterback problem. I visualized myself cursing his name for the next fifteen years, as he led the Dolphins to victories over the Jets just like Danny Marino just to do. But then the Dolphins punted their brains, and passed on Quinn to pick a speedy wideout / kick returner coming off an injured foot. No one in Radio City Music Hall could believe it, and neither could I. I think the Miami fans will remember this day with as much fondness as Jets fans remember the day we passed on Marino to select Ken O’Brien… the day we passed on Emmitt Smith to take Blair Thomas… the day we passed on Warren Sapp to pick Kyle Brady…

And it’s great that it someone else’s turn to be really, really stupid.

As for the other great rival of the Jets, the Pats of New England… well, there I am less sanguine. The Patriots wheeled and dealed and traded down and down again, and wound up with only one pick today… but they have stockppiled something like forty-seven for tomorrow, and Scott Pioli and The Vile Belichick have a satanic skill at the finding gems in the later rounds. The Patriots draft doesn’t look like much right now, but I have the feeling that by the end of training camp, they’ll have the usual hatful of talented young players.

And Dallas, well… to tell the truth, they moved around so much I don’t have any sense of what the hell they were doing. They traded up, they traded down, they did this and that, and who the hell knows? The big thing is actually next year. The Cleveland Browns gave up their first round pick in next year’s draft so they could go up and pick Brady Quinn… which means I have to root for the Browns to do well next year, since I don’t want the despised Cowboys to get a primo choice. Go, Brownies, go!

Brady Quinn’s fall was the big story of the day. From where I sit, it wasn’t warranted. I think Al Davis made a mistake. In the long run, Brady Quinn will have a better pro career than Jamarcus Russell. Yes, yes, Russell has a “cannon for an arm,” as I heard fifty times today. I’ve seen a lot of cannon-armed quarterbacks come and go in the years that I’ve been watching football. Bert Jones had a cannon for an arm. Richard Todd. Roman Gabriel. Jeff George. Kerry Collins. I’d rather have a Joe Montana or a Phil Simms. The fact that Russell can fling the ball eighty years off his back foot is only likely to be relevant if the Raiders sign Quicksilver and The Flash as wideouts.

We’ll know for sure in ten years or so, I guess. And have a clue in three.

That’s why they play the games.

Meanwhile, there’s another day of draft tomorrow.

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Great win for the Jets today in the mud and rain of Foxboro. The Kid Coach defeats his cold-hearted former mentor, the vile and dishonorable Darth Belicek, in only his second try.

J – E – T – S. JETS JETS JETS!!!

(The Pats will still win the division, most likely, but the Jets are a lot better than anyone had a right to expect when the season opened, and Mangini definitely has the team moving in the right direction.)

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