Now we know who gave it to Paris harder

Wow…just wow. There are no words to explain what just happened on Monday Night Football. Actually, there are thousands. Anyone who has lived in this valley for the last ten years or more shouldn’t have been surprised. Anyone who has been a fan of football shouldn’t have been surprised. In fact anyone who has had a pulse for the last 26 years should not have been surprised. Still, despite its inevitability, it was a disheartening -- if not suicidal -- national window into the worst franchise in all of professional sports.
And the only people I feel sorry for are the people who actually tried. Sunday night, as the Bronco’s lucked their way past the always-beaten Oakland Raiders, I watched LaMont Jordan fumble on a big drive and then literally try to tear his teeth out of his face because he was so upset about giving the game away. I mean, I’ve never seen a football player this genuinely upset. And I have to imagine that there are maybe 3 players on the Cardinals that felt like that after last night. Leinart, Boldin and James. Leinart should be upset, the guy played a perfect game, he was smart, made good decisions, kept his team in the game, never gave up and did everything in his power to allow the Cardinals to win that game. Same goes for Boldin, who played his ass off and stepped up in Larry Fitzgerald’s place and made it happen. James should be upset because i’m betting that he woke up this morning wishing he could take the league minimum to be back with the Colts. Neil Rackers should maybe be upset because the kicker is always the goat but it isn’t even close to his fault. Would they have won if he came through? Yes. Did they lose because he didn’t? No.
I feel bad for those players because they’ve come into an organization and tried to change the culture of it. But losing big games, blowing easy leads and making incredibly stupid decisions are embedded so deep in the culture of that franchise that it’ll take more than those few guys to change it. A win last night would have helped immensely. Instead, I’m going to pick the Raiders to get their first win of the season next week against a trashed Cardinals spirit.
Watching that game last night, when they had to settle for field goals in the first half instead of scoring one, or maybe even two more touchdowns and putting the game really out of reach, I had a feeling that there was no way the Cardinals could hold that lead. I kept saying, “They’re going to blow it. They’re going to find a way to screw this up.” And they did, because that’s what I’ve come to expect. When it was 23-10, I knew that the Bears only needed two touchdowns, and I knew how easy those scores would be to get against that team. And it happened in the most ludicrous and heartbreaking ways possible. Defensive touchdowns and a special teams play. You’re not supposed to lose games like that. If the Bear’s offense comes to life and gets a few scores, then you can say that the Bears were a better team and they rebounded and went and won that football game. But that didn’t happen. They Cardinals gift-wrapped it for them and left it on their doorstep. You can’t give away a game better than that. Marty Schottenheimer is probably jealous, because not even Marty gives a game away like that.
The talking heads are calling the Bears a “team of destiny” because they get paid to spew bullshit and hyperbole of that magnitude. But it’s hard to argue that the Bears weren’t destined to win that game. Their first play from scrimmage was a long bomb to Bernard Berrian that Grossman missed by about 2 steps. If they hit that pass and break the Cardinal’s backs from play #1, then we’re not even having this conversation. The Bears were supposed to win that game and they did. It’s like the Cardinals knew it all along and just couldn’t convince themselves otherwise.
Matt Leinart will be a great NFL quarterback. I just hope the Cardinals don’t let him leave with such a rattle in his skull about losing that he never shakes it. Why is Jake Plummer accident prone? Why is he gun shy? I blame the Cardinals.
Sometimes you can’t get that voice of losing out of your head. I just hope Matty Leinart manages to avoid it.