I Love Football But...

I love football but...

It doesn't take replacement refs to lose 1 minute, 12 seconds in a game does it? We have incompetent, full-time, regular refs who can do that.

Six weeks ago, the Bears were 4-1 and Packers were 2-3. Now, if the Bears lose at San Francisco tomorrow night (excuse me, when they lose), the Packers will be tied with them for first place in the NFC North. Oh yeah, go Bears! And take your arrogant fans with you.

Baseball pitchers get "dead" arms that sideline them. Looks like NFL quarterbacks get "tired" arms, a la Eli Manning. No, Eli,  it's called hitting your receivers, even against Cincinnati. Especially against Cincinnati, you dork.

Did you know that in bars now outside Chicago, you can play video poker? That ought to generate enough tax revenue to wipe out all state-wide deficits. Uh, not. And the mob has to take its share, don't forget. And that's just the state legislature and Cook County board. After that, the mafia too. States and municipalities that rely on tax revenue generated from people's gambling losses to erase their mountainous deficits are states and municipalities that will always have mountainous deficits.

Jay Cutler can't play this week for the Bears because he hasn't cleared concussion standards, according to the league. Pardon me, but didn't he play concussed against Houston? Green Bay? Detroit? And Carolina for that matter? Amazingly, he embarrasses tackle J'Marcus Webb on national TV with that little nudge of disapproval, and then he gets sacked like a potato against Carolina and concussed against Houston. Hmmm...anyone see a connection? You embarrass your offensive line and your offensive line pays you back. By not protecting you.

I still can't tell the difference between NFL games and the violent video games that advertise during them.

Did a Texas high school really ban Bible banners at its football games? Separation of church and state still exists after all. How about that! Now all we need to do is separate Texas from the rest of the states.

Ryan Lochte says he believes competitive swimming can become as mainstream as football, basketball, baseball and hockey. Well, maybe hockey.

Better late than never: Kudos and thanks to Sports Illustrated for its Sept. 24 football sidebar on Homer Jones, one of the NFL's all-time great and original speedsters. Growing up in NY, we always would repeat on the street what then-Giant quarterback Fran Tarkenton would say about Jones: can't overthrow him.

Or his memory. Thanks, S.I.

I want to retire: No, really, and move to Tempe. Or Knoxville. Sports towns. College towns. Year-round weather. Teach a little, Write a little. Golf a little. Get my body back totally healthy. Can't do it yet though. Not enough of my students can spell/write/punctuate or use grammar adequately enough for me to even think about it.

Come to think of it, some of my colleagues can't either. Think about it, that is.

And I have one more issue of Journal of Sports Media to put out.

Howard Schlossberg is editor of the Journal of Sports Media. He's an associate professor of journalism at Columbia College Chicago, where creativity and learning are embraced hand-in-hand. And he still writes sports for the award-recognized Daily Herald in Chicago's northwest suburbs.