The Post Mortem: Archie must be proud

Eli Messiah has always followed in his brother�s shadow. Although the gigantism of Eli�s helmet makes him cast the biggest shadow in the NFL. But let�s take a tale of the tape.

Gomer was the first overall selection in the NFL Draft. Eli did him one better by not only being the top selection in the draft, but crying until the Chargers traded him to the Giants.

Gomer took the backdoor to a Super Bowl title, and won an undeserving MVP award that was only given to him by the Manning-loving media. Eli not only matched him with his own Super Bowl win, but he won an even more egregious MVP award after David Tyree made a circus catch to win the game. Asante Samuel could have sealed that game by holding on to Eli�s errant pass in the closing minutes of the Super Bowl. But no, he dropped it. Even if the Patriots had won that game, Eli would have been only the second member of a Super Bowl losing team to win the MVP award.

But Sunday night was the big finale. The final straw that showed that Eli always manages to not only excel in Gomer�s shadow, but exceed it.

Gomer put the Colts on his shoulders again, but threw away a chance to beat the Patriots on the road by throwing an interception to lose the game. The Colts were in field-goal range to win. Gomer was not satisfied with that. He didn�t want to chance Adam Vinatieri blowing the game. Gomer wanted to blow the game and he certainly did.

Eli was even more spectacular in derailing the Giants. Not satisfied with just throwing one interception, he threw two interceptions in the final four minutes. And he made a nice scramble to pick up a first down, then tripped over his own face and fumbled to give the Eagles the game. You would almost believe that Eli was trying to throw the game, but he just does not look smart enough to pull that off.

Seriously, Eli. It might be time to ditch the beanie. You do not look like a smart man.

That was a pretty satisfying conclusion to a pretty good day.

THE RAIDERS came back to Earth. Which was nice. The thought of the Raiders being a decent team again was too much to think of. Of course, the Raiders themselves thought it was too ridiculous, too, as they went out and had that performance against the Steelers.

Although, the Richard Seymour punch to Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger was a nice touch. You know there was a college coed in Georgia cheering that move.

STRANGE DAYS on Saturday. In the middle of the college football season, we had the UNLV hoops win over the Badgers, and the Kings win over the Bruins on the big screen at our local watering hole. Of course, when your other option was USC getting smoked again in Corvalis, then that explains a lot.

BTW, didn�t Oregon State get crushed by Washington State? Nice hire, USC.

AND FINALLY �

Penny Hardaway is thinking of making a comeback. Let�s hope that Lil� Penny will not be far behind.