Super Sunday Smorgasbord 2-3

• Listening to the Worldwide Leader in Schlock Radio yesterday, the Worldwide Leader in Schlock's John Clayton, who is on the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee, said before the announcement of the 2008 Pro Football Hall of Fame Induction Class that he hoped Art Monk made it in because "he was tired of being called an idiot." Well, Clayton, you and your colleagues are still idiots even though Art Monk and Darrell Green were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame yesterday. There's no good excuse for Monk having to wait 8 years and go in after a guy like Michael Irvin and I wasn't surprised to hear your colleague (who's name I can't remember) on the Worldwide Leader in Schlock expressing his outrage that Monk made it into the Hall of Fame at the "expense" of Chris Carter. If Monk was forced to wait 8 years, Carter should be forced to wait at least 4. Sorry if your feelings have been hurt Mr. Clayton, but we don't throw insults around willy nilly just for fun and to try to get people riled up. We only call a spade a spade and the arguments against Monk were idiotic and the Committee were being idiots for taking so long to recognize Monk. It isn't as if us Redskins fans are trying to get Mark Rypien into the Hall of Fame.
• The interesting thing that I found about new class is that Darrell Green made it in his first year of eligibility. Mr. Guru, Peter King, doesn't believe that anybody (who didn't play for the Jints mind you) should be inducted in their first year of eligibility. But Green, like Monk, was another surefire Hall-of-Famer. It was only a question of when, not if. However, I have to think that the selection of Green into the Hall lead to the selection of Monk into the Hall. It was not a pretty sight when Lynn Swann used his induction speech to berate the selection committee for excluding John Stallworth (who was selected the next year) and I have little doubt that Green would have used his speech in the same manner for Art Monk had Monk been snubbed again. The other obvious solution would have been to snub Green. But how long could the Hall have avoided that ugliness by snubbing Green? At some point, the selection committee would have found themselves under even greater fire for keeping Green out than they had for keeping Monk out.
• Is Tom Brady the Quarterback Who Ever Played? Uh, no. First of all, Sammy Baugh played five positions (QB, cornerback, punter, kicker, and kick returner) and the led NFL in all of the categories at some point during his career. Imagine the numbers Baugh would have put up if he not only played just the QB position, but also trained year around like football players do today. Furthermore guys like Baugh, Joe Montana, Roger Staubach, Johnny Unitas, and Sonny Jurgenson also played the game when contact by defenders with receivers who were more than five yards beyond the line of scrimmage was allowed. It's very easy to complete passes when defenders can't touch your receivers until the ball gets there, you know that the pass rush has to pull up when you release the ball, and nobody can lay a hand on your head. Simply because the game is now designed for the quarterback to dominate, I don't think any quarterback that plays today can be properly compared to the men who played the position when it was vastly different.
• We've seen this song and dance out of the Terp men before. They dig themselves a hole early in the season only to put on a late charge with some timely upsets to bolster their NCAA resume only to come up a game or two short and land in the NIT. Maryland got a good solid win at Georgia Tech yesterday but what will hurt them come Selection Sunday (other than the losses at home to Ohio and American) is that they didn't put the game away. The Terps have been allowing teams to stick around and instead of making a strong case for themselves with convincing wins, they add more questions about the overall strength of the ACC. If the ACC is seen as just North Carolina, Dook, a bunch of also-rans, and Virginia; the ACC may get only 3 maybe 4 slots in the NCAA Tournament. UNC and Dook are two surefire selections, so who among the 9 teams packed in the middle (UVA has only 1 conference win) deserves the one or two other available slots?
• A funny thing happened on the way to an undefeated season for the Patriots... I have to say, it was a surprising performance from Eli Manning that got the job done with under 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter when the Patriots retook the lead. I also have to say, it would have been a very exciting game to watch if there was a team I was rooting for playing in the game. Otherwise, it was rather unmemorable for me though the Patriots will be the most famous losers of a Super Bowl ever because they blew a chance at a perfect season. Though Bill Belichick showed the whole world what a classless punk he is (as if anybody needed anymore evidence) when he ran off the field and headed into the locker room before the game was officially over. But we shouldn't be too surprised that Belichick pulled another Bush League maneuver. Finally I feel obligated to point out that after the Jints won their two previous Super Bowl Titles; the Washington Redskins went on to win the Super Bowl the next season. (Just throwing that fact out there folks...)
• This week, the Caps play three games in four nights when they start off in Columbus on Super Tuesday to face the Blue Jackets. They then head to Philadelphia to close out the season series against the Flyers on Wednesday and then are home on Friday to face the Carolina Hurricanes. All three of those games start at 7 pm. Next Sunday the Caps host the New York Rangers in a 1 pm game that was originally scheduled to be on NBC but has been dropped by NBC and as of right now will not be televised locally. The Terp Men visit Boston College on Wednesday night at 7 pm on ESPN U (Available only in sportsbars around the country) before hosting N.C. State at home on Saturday night at 8 pm. The Terp Women are at Virginia Tech tomorrow night and then host Virginia on Friday night with both games starting at 7 pm.
• As always, please send all comments, criticisms, questions, corrections, suggestions, and Mardi Gras Party invitations to "capsnut" over at gmail.com.