NFL: Owens, Raiders, Bengals, News
National Football League is becoming stranger from week to week
This NFL campaign is one of the strangest to come along in some time. From Terrell Owens' antics to the shocking, exciting play of Charlie Frye, this season surprises.
With Terrell Owens making more headlines than the war in Iraq, and injuries plaguing the NFL at the pace of an influenza epidemic, I find myself thinking about professional football and its oddities even more than usual. So, here are a few thoughts about the 2006 NFL campaign.
Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens has truly become life imitating art. Bad art. An ESPN writer recently labeled the bizarre Owens as a caricature of himself; I couldn’t have said it any better.
In his most recent episode, Owens inadvertently mixed health supplements with painkillers, inducing a malaise that prompted his publicist to call 911. Soon after, it was reported that Owens attempted suicide – probably because his publicist, Kim Etheredge, claimed to have removed many pills from his mouth; she later recanted.
So, soap opera, As TO Turns, continues to bring far more headlines than any exciting TO performances on the gridiron.
The Oakland Raiders, only a few years removed from a Super Bowl appearance, have become the laughingstock of the NFL. Star receiver, Randy Moss (I use this label in its most colloquial sense) has turned into the NFL’s version of Eminem – lots of hype but not much substance. Of course, the fact that the Raiders have the equivalent of a high school quarterback and an offensive line bereft of its best players has aided in their abysmal start.
None of this can take away from the fact that this once-proud franchise has gone from NFL power to one of the league’s worst teams.
The Cincinnati Bengals are the antithesis of the Raiders. Forever a perennial NFL doormat, the Bengals have emerged as a Super Bowl contender with more offensive firepower than the old Marshall Faulk-led Rams. With Carson Palmer turning into arguably the league’s best passer and a receiving corp that easily turns defensive backfields to wandering blind men, Cincy is not just a good football team; it is by far one of the NFL’s most entertaining products.
Finally, there’s Cleveland Browns quarterback Charlie Frye. Now, being from Cleveland, I may be a bit prejudiced, but Frye is definitely one of the most exciting young players to come along in some time. Sadly, he’s far more likely to wind up in a hospital bed than to lead the Browns to many victories.
Hamstrung with one of pro football’s worst offensive lines and virtually no rushing attack, apart from what he generates with his own slippery feet, Frye has taken more hits than a club fighter on a Friday night. If he can remain healthy, though, Charlie Frye is destined for greatness.
These are just a few of the strange things going on in the 2006 NFL campaign. They may be strange, but they keep us watching.
