PRESS BOX AUDIBLES
It's only the 2nd week of the season and people are already scrambling for running backs. I wonder if this was foreseeable before the start of the season. Let's do the math -- Sixteen teams in the TLC times 3 RBs (required) for each team plus 8 RBs taken as the "offensive utility player" equals 56 RBs. Fifty-Six minus 32 starting RBs in the NFL equals a lot of TLCers thin at the running back position. It'll be interesting at the end of the season to see how the teams who took 4 RBs in the draft fare as compared to the teams who took only three.
Cheer up if you're starting Rams on offense--they're back St. Louis this week. Marshall Faulk, as long as he's healthy, will do well regardless, but Warner, Holt, and Bruce paid the price for starting on natural grass last week. The threesome combined for only 37 fantasy points--a total that each of them can achieve when playing on artificial turf--especially Warner. For those that own Rams, beware that they play only 10 games on turf this year. In fact, all of their division games away from home are on grass. Gone are the days of racking up big point totals at Atlanta and New Orleans. Even worse than that, only one TLC playoff game (week 15) has the Rams on turf--something to keep in mind for the Chambers County Cockblockers (Kurt Warner and Torry Holt) and UN Peacekeepers (Isaac Bruce) should they make it to the playoffs this year.
Here are a few matchups below that you have to like if you have these guys (barring injury of course):
1. Mark Brunell (Biatch Bombers)/Jimmy Smith (Pegleg Monkeys) vs. the Kansas City pass "defense." Though the Chiefs are tough to play at Arrowhead, you've got to wonder how they gave up so many yards in the air to the Browns and their second string QB.
2. Drew Bledsoe (Crotch Crickets)/Eric Moulds (Mudbugs)/Peerless Price (Kelly's Heroes) vs. the "Minnesota" Vikings "secondary." While it's only a matter of time before Red McCombs moves the team to Los Angeles, it'll be only a matter of quarters before Bledsoe rings up 30 plus points against one of the most generous teams in the NFL when it comes to allowing opposing QBs and receivers to run routes just as they do in practice.
3. Brian Griese (Mudbugs)/ Rod Smith (Eric Hipple's Crew)/Ed McCaffrey (Spice Wookies) vs. what passes for a defense for the 49ers. If/when Kerry Collins sobered up on Tuesday and saw himself at the top of the NFL in passing yardage, he must've thought he was still drunk. Brian Griese couldn't face San Francisco at a better time in order to keep a hold on the starting QB position with Steve Beurlein (Apex Predators) breathing down his neck.
4. Thomas Jones (Apex Predators) vs. Seattle's swiss cheese. There are only two weeks that I'd start Jones if I had him, and this would be one of them. It's possible that Charlie Garner (Yo Mama) was fitted with a cloaking device last week as he ran at will against the Seahawks. However, I'm giving the 'Hawks the benefit of the doubt and suggesting that they're merely color blind.
Time for an Al Del Greco update--granted it's 4 months old, but it reaffirms what we TLC have always known--that Al Del Greco is the greatest of all time: http://enquirer.com/editions/2002/05/31/spt_del_greco_leads_nfl.html
Let's get to the mailbag for a question from one of our readers. This week's email is from Norm S. from the Bay Area. He writes the following: "I couldn't find Norman Chad's NFL picks article in my local newspaper this week. Do you know what's up with that?"
Sadly, Norm, Norman Chad stated at the end of last season that he would no longer write his NFL picks column. Unfortunately, "The Man" may have kept to his word and made last year his last year. I was looking forward to another season of sarcasm and bad picks against the spread by him, but it looks as if we're out of luck. I do have a link to an article he wrote while he was a columnist at the Washington Post in 1993 when he reviewed "Rudy" and "The Program." Click here to read and reminisce: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/author-4091/reviews.php?cats=&letter=&sortby=default&page=1&rid=32721
Congratulations to Thomas Loupe's team "Yo Mama" as they won the first TLC weekly payout for the highest point total. That brings the tally to one recipient from the C. Bubba Smith division and NONE from the others divisions.
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Brandon West is TLCsports.com contributing editor and collector of fine wines and cheeses.
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