The Post Mortem

The only drawback to being at an NFL game is that you miss all of the day's contests. (Then you read about most of the snooze fests like the Broncos/Cardinals and are actually happy about it.) The only taste of the NFL weekend comes from the select highlights they show on the scoreboard. And what do you figure was the select highlight at Jack Murphy Stadium on Sunday?

Eli Messiah tossing a game-crippling interception that was returned for a touchdown.

That highlight easily received one of the biggest ovations of the night. The interception came in an otherwise decent statistical night for Messiah. Outside of those two interceptions. It was the kind of game where America�s Soccer Mom, Archie Manning, was likely consoling his boy, telling his boy that it wasn�t his fault.

Yeah, if Plaxico Burress had only tackled Trent Cole before he got into the end zone. Blame Burress, because you can�t blame the Messiah.

Philip Rivers has the Chargers closing in on the No. 1 seed in the AFC. The Jints? Are they even going to make the playoffs? Even the Packers are breathing down their necks. But you want to know who is closing in on the playoffs?

FLY LIKE AN EAGLE

The Eagles are now in a position to win the NFC East. They win out (which would include a victory over Dallas next week) and they are the division champs. The odds would be stacked against them if Donovan McNabb was still the starting quarterback. But with Jeff Garcia, it looks like a distinct probability.

The Eagles could be faced with a pretty interesting dilemma next season if Garcia leads the team to the playoffs. Hahaha, just kidding. Garcia could win the Super Bowl and the Eagles would still bench him in 2007. McNabb has somehow duped the Eagles coaching staff and front office into believing that he is a winning quarterback.

MOVE OVER HORNUNG

Let's now put those Drew Brees for MVP notions to rest, finally. It would be a little reactionary to do it after one poor performance and Brees does deserve a mulligan for yesterday. But LaDainian Tomlinson is having one of the best seasons as a running back, ever, as he broke Paul Hornung�s single season points record. The 46-year old record lasted longer than Babe Ruth�s homerun record. The list of accolades are staggering when talking about LTD.

• Maybe Conard Bain is right, though. The Chargers do seem to be getting every call going their way. But it was cool for David Binn, the long snapper to make the recovery on the play. Binn is now the longest-tenured player in club history. Forget about teaching your kid to pitch left handed, teach them how to be a long snapper.

• Nice job by the San Diego Union Tribune to have only one lousy photo of the Chargers Girls in Santa uniforms. And that photo still got triple the views of any other photograph.

• Can anybody imagine a scenario where Kyle Boller leads Raven to the Super Bowl? Don�t feel bad, nobody can. You know, the surprising thing about Raven�s victory wasn�t that Boller came off the bench to lead the team. But that it has taken McNair this long to get seriously hurt again. Boller played significant minutes for Raven in Week 6 against�

• (Expletive) the Panthers. You have to fire John Fox now, right? How many years are they going to let him squander away the best talent in the NFC?

AND FINALLY
A ridiculous new basketball and now a huge brawl at Madison Square Garden. You have to hand it to David Stern, he really is a marketing genius. Imagine how much publicity he could garner if the NBA was actually watchable.