Knockin' Noggins in Nawlins
Who dat? So far, it ain’t been them Saints.
Last season’s NFL feel-good story has seemingly run into a bad batch of jambalaya through the first two weeks of the 2007 campaign. With the nation and the pro football league looking for positives in the wasteland of Katrina’s wake, the Saints certainly obliged. In the return to the patched Superdome, the hometown heroes overwhelmed the Atlanta Falcons, 23-3, as nearly 15 million watched on Monday Night Football. The game’s 14.9 million Nielsen count is ESPN’s second-most-watched telecast ever, trailing only the 16 million that tuned in last Oct. 23’s New York Giants 36-22 win over division rival Dallas Cowboys and former coach (now for both squads) Bill Parcells.
It’s been quite a different story this time around, though, for the team that reached last season’s NFC championship game behind the bull-like runs of Deuce McAlister, a prolific year from QB Drew Brees, who gave hope to 6-footers everywhere, and the occasional shot of electricity from Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush.
This year, the Saints have been merely short-circuited. Routed by the defending champion Indianapolis Colts in NBC’s season opener and throttled by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Saints are 0-2, and desperate for a W versus the 1-1 Tennessee Titans.
At this stage of his career, QB Vince Young –whose Texas squad vanquished Bush’s USC Trojans’ hopes for a three-peat national title with some last-second heroics in arguably the greatest collegiate game ever played, the 2006 Rose Bowl – is still more about his legs than right arm. But Young and coach Jeff Fisher’s tough-minded squad usually keep things close.
While it’s doubtful that Anthony Anderson’s Marlon Boulet and the rest of the cops and crooks on Fox’s K-Ville will steal many Crescent City viewers from the Saints, the rest of the networks’ new fall seasons kick off tonight, including NBC’s Heroes at 9 p.m. (ET).
Given the size of the markets – New Orleans is the 53rd-largest U.S. TV market and the NFL’s second smallest, while Nashville is No. 30 overall and rates 26th by the Roger Goddell standard – the action on the gridiron would have to turn out to be truly heroic in order for the matchup to approach the Saints/Falcons Nielsens of a year ago.
National Mediocrity League
The pro football season has been saved in New York—at least for a few more weeks. Both the Jets and Giants tackled their first triumphs in 2007, the latter in far more dramatic fashion as Big Blue’s much-maligned defense fashioned a goal-line stand against division rivals Washington in the waning seconds. For many New Yorkers, though, football season won’t truly begin until the Bronx Bombers and the Amazins complete their appointed MLB playoff rounds.
Theories about Big Apple sports viewing preferences aside, the victories by Gang Green and G Men were not the only by teams looking to get off the 0-2 schneid. The Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles also sacked their first wins of the season. Conversely, the Houston Texans, Denver Broncos, the Redskins, Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers all fell from the ranks of the unbeaten.
If the Saints win tonight, there will only be four teams – Miami, Buffalo, Atlanta and St. Louis that have yet to register a win. On the other hand, there are only five undefeated squads – Indy, New England, Pittsburgh, Dallas and Green Bay – that Coach Don Shula’s perfect 1972-73 Miami Dolphins team has to worry about just three weeks into the season.
The league’s every-team-has-a chance appeal is why CBS, Fox and DirecTV pay their billions for their respective NFL tickets. As those around the league and Oliver Stone like to say: on any given Sunday.