Week 1 — 8 September, 2005

From: Jeff
To: mnf@doobie.com
Subject: It's Thursday...

...Are you ready?

Yes ladies and gentlemen. The day you've been waiting for is finally here. Right now, there are 32 undefeated teams in the NFL. Before you go to bed tonight, there will be only 31. Hooray!

The league was fairly quiet this week, despite every team making its final cuts, bringing rosters down to 53 players per team. Maurice Clarett and Peerless Price were both cut. Jerry Rice retired (though he wasn't going to be cut, he wasn't going to see much playing time either). Over the next week or so, some of the cut players will find new homes on the practice squads or benches of other teams, others will go back to selling hot tubs.

Many cameras have been pointed at what's left of the Superdome in New Orleans. Chances are, it's going to be torn down. So what happens to the Saints?

This Sunday, they're on the road, opening their season in Charlotte against the Panthers. They were scheduled to play the Giants next Sunday (the 18th) in the Superdome. That game has been moved to New York.

But wait... the Jets and Giants share a stadium (which is in use every week except one), and it's going to be in use that Sunday when the Jets host the Dolphins. So instead of Sunday, the Saints/Giants game will be the first part of a doubleheader next Monday night. Kickoff of that game will be at 4:30 PDT, the first half will be broadcast by ABC. We'll be subjected to a hurricane relief halftime show, and at 6:00 PDT, the Redskins/Cowboys game will start (bumping the second half of the NY/NO game to ESPN). You might want to start preparing your boss now for next week's early kickoff.

Longer term, a number of options are on the table for the Saints. Outwardly, their preferred option is to spend their season in Baton Rouge, LA on the facilities of NCAA powerhouse LSU. But it seems more likely that they'll be playing most of their "home" games in the Alamodome in San Antonio. Early in the week, there were rumors that Saints owner Tom Benson was at least considering moving the team permanently to San Antonio.

Would you move the Saints out of a town with so many Voodoo priests? They'd never win another game.

But tonight... we have a game, once we sit through the musical extravaganza headlined by the Rolling Stones.

Tonight, as the stones play in Los Angeles, the 0-0 Oakland Raiders travel to Foxboro, Mass to take on the Super Bowl champion, but still 0-0 New England Patriots on the natural, closely shaved grass of Gillette Stadium (which was known as CMGI field when it was being built, but the dot-com implosion happened and the name was changed before the first game was played).

You'll remember in 2001, a game at the old Foxboro Stadium was canceled because the artificial turf was so bad that the visiting team refused to play on it. When building the new stadium the next year, the Patriots management decided that the embarrassing astroturf had to go. Instead, they spent millions for 29 miles of underfield tubes that gently warm the roots so the grass can withstand even the worst of Boston winters. This did not prevent the field from deteriorating to the point where the NFL had to order the Patriots to resod it before the playoffs.

Whomever supplied the Patriots with the sod is too embarrassed by it to admit it is theirs. It's probably a blue grass hybrid from Tennessee or Kentucky that becomes a high-tech mess in December.

The Game: Oakland Raiders at New England Patriots
Gillette Stadium
1 Patriot Place
Foxboro, MA

The Line:

The Patriots are favored by 7.5.
The over/under is 50.

The Smart Money takes a look at the Patriots injured defense and takes the over. It's seriously considering the Raiders to beat the spread.

The Bar:

Greens Sports Bar
2239 Polk St. (b/w Vallejo and Green)
steps from the 19 Polk.
one block from the 49,47,76 Van Ness.
a block and a half from the 41/45 Union.

Reminder to the rest of the potty-mouths out there: Last time we were there, it cost a quarter to use the F word within earshot of the bartender.

Kickoff is at 6:00. See you there?

Link:
http://www.instacam.com/showcam.asp?id=FXBRG&size=L

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