TomFlannery.com

It’s almost October. I go outside in a t-shirt and still sweat. This is not right. The longest summer of my life refuses to go gently into that good night. About the only thing that feels like fall is Notre Dame losing 3 of their first 4 games. So much for the Coach Kelly era. He may be gone before I ever figure out why his team is wearing red caps on the sidelines.

I’m pulling for Boise State. Rooting for Alabama or Ohio State is like rooting for Wall Street. My prediction is that both teams lose a game at least. No way Bama makes it through the SEC unscathed. They should have lost to Arkansas on Saturday but the Hogs appeared to have one of those “we’re winning but we’re not good enough to beat Alabama” moments in the 3rd quarter and started to shit all over themselves. And Ohio State has some brutal conference games upcoming. Boise just has to stay sober to make it to the BCS title game. My gut is telling me it’s gonna be Boise St and Nebraska at the end, with TCU being the inevitable non BCS team un-defeated but locked out.

Notre Dame, on the other hand, will be lucky to win 4 games.  Aside from having no defense, no running game, and a none too bright quarterback who spends much of his time running for his life, they appear razor-sharp. They also have a decent punter who gets tons of game time. Brian Kelly is making Charlie Weis look like Vince Lombardi. Here’s the thing. If your dream is to coach at Notre Dame, take a handful of sleeping pills and go back to bed.

On the pro side, my Steelers are proving you can win in the NFL with Betty White as your quarterback if you can run the ball and have a perpetually pissed-off defense (A freak like Troy Polamalu doesn’t hurt either. He’s like having a plumber living in your basement). Ben Roethlisberger is due back in two weeks if he can lay off the co-eds. It’ll be interesting to see what type of reception he gets. Personally, I think NFL fans would accept Bernie Madoff as their team’s quarterback if he could avoid red-zone interceptions. If Roethlisberger wins, the fact that he’s a probable rapist won’t matter. If the Steelers start to lose, everybody’s gonna suddenly find their inner moral indignation.

Thank the flying spaghetti monster for football. It’s one of the few things that always chases away the blues (as long as you’re smart enough to not be a NY Giants fan). As I type this the Bears and the Packers are locked in a 17-17 tie late in the 4th quarter, which is exactly how a Bears/Packers game is supposed to play itself out. A great end to a great weekend of football.

And the baseball playoffs commence in 2 weeks, which is the only time of the year I can watch baseball. So the hours logged on the couch should rise exponentially over the next month.

Now, in between snaps I have a record to record.

In a bit…

–tf