Monday Morning Football Recap

The Steelers are on tonight so I alternated between watching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers try to live up to their coach's bragging and the Miami Dolphins not help my Steelers any against the Ravens.

• This whole Donovan McNabb benching was big on all the pre-game shows.  It was interesting to watch the announcers take on it.  You had the quarterback announcers who sided with McNabb.  Terry Bradshaw even talked directly to McNabb (via the camera) telling him not to put up with this kind of shit and stand up to his coach.  You had the coaches who played it safe and said things like Bill Cowher that Shanahan didn't owe anyone in the media or in the fan base an explanation, referring to Shanahan's different comments about why he benched McNabb.  You had the coaches who clearly thought Shanahan had gone off the deep end, and then you had Shannon Sharpe defending his old coach and trying to tell McNabb to fight back by being a better player.  I sided with most of Fox's analysts, although James Brown summoned it all up the best.  It is clear to me that Shanahan Sr. and Shanahan Jr. didn't want McNabb as their quarterback, for whatever reason.  The owners obviously did want him and ignored the coaches.  Right there lies the problem, and poor Donovan McNabb is caught in the middle.  I agreed wholeheartedly with Dan Marino who said if you don't want him, cut him loose, because tomorrow he will be an Arizona Cardinal.  McNabb, whom I've always liked despite his playing for the Eagles, is one class act of a guy.  He refuses to bad mouth his coach or his teammates.  He just goes about leading his team as best as he can.  He is too good of a player and leader to have this kind of nonsense happening to him.  He certainly doesn't deserve it.
• Last week everything played out smoothly in terms of the new suspension rule set by the NFL powers that be and now comes the hit on Indianapolis Colts wide receiver, Austin Collie.  I watched the game and saw the hit live and several times in repeats both my own and CBS.  Collie caught the ball, lowered his head in a defensive position.  Eagles safety Quintin Mikell grabbed him from behind to tackle him, pushing him into the other Eagles safety Kurt Coleman who was running toward them, head down.  It became a helmet to helmet hit, but in my opinion not on purpose.  It will be interesting to see what the NFL does with this play and the players.  They could be setting themselves up for some big trouble.  
• I was pleasantly surprised when the Browns beat the Patriots, and then I remembered Eric Mangini was the Browns coach so it all made sense.  Just glad to hear that Bill Belichick shook his former employee's hand this time.  Obviously he needs to keep watching his back whenever he plays Manigini.  Wonder if he wishes he had played things differently that first time they met?
• Oh, how sweet it is to watch the Dallas Cowboys lose!
• Some good games played yesterday that went down to the wire and into overtime.  Just wish the Colts, the Bucs, and the Chiefs had come out winners.