Anyone see the Colts-Titans game last night? Atrocious game, infuriatingly boring to watch, except for one moment, when a Colts special teams player delivered an absolutely devastating hit on the Titans kick returner. Al Michaels and I both had the exact same reaction to the blow: a prolonged, incredulous "OHHHHHHH!!!" John Madden said it was one of the most vicious hits he'd ever seen in his life, and I have it on good information that he's seen a lot of football in his day. I was more surprised that the guy even got up after that. I would have died instantly.
As a striking screenwriter, I'm pretty in tune to what's being offered up to us Americans on the airwaves. That one play last night made me realize that the strike won't go on much longer past the Super Bowl. I think it's been tolerated by television viewers thus far because we have football to watch, which is really the ultimate reality TV. What other program offers up the type of fare like that hit, where one second I'm watching a routine kick return, the next I'm wondering if I just saw a man's life end? I mean, I TiVo'd that one play at least five times, played it back in slow motion, paused it at the moment of impact, then was lucky enough to have NBC's cracker jack broadcast team replay it another dozen times for me. No other reality show inspires me to do that. I've never once replayed New York giving a chain to some thug in slo-mo. Yup, unless contestants have to start dodging cabs speeding at them on "Survivor: Manhattan," once football is gone, people are going to start freaking out because there's no good TV, the studios will cave, and the strike will end.
By the way, Jim Sorgi, you're an absolute disgrace. Your entire career is spent watching and learning from one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. You know you'll get to play your token half game a year, and you come in and play like that? I mean, are you really that bad? I know you're playing with all backups, but you weren't thrown in there unexpectedly like some other sucky backups (cough-Kerry Collins-cough). I assume you practiced throwing passes to some of these guys the past week. You looked like a hungover Alex Smith with no wrists. You better hope you get to stay on the bench there in Indy and collect a paycheck for the next ten years, because you will never start for another NFL team.
Oh by the way, I forgot to wear my sweater yesterday. I know, I know. I'm a bad fan. The Niner game wasn't on in LA and I went to a movie, and the sweater isn't really appropriate for the theater. So we lost. Sorry everybody. My bad. I will spend the next eight months preparing it for next year.
