A Few NFL Quickies

-Can we stop obsessing about Tom Brady's hair? Watching the Sunday night game there must have been 10 comments about how long it has gotten. Look, I agree the "Prince Valiant" is not a very good look. However, it's been like that for several months now. The joke supply has been exhausted. Also, the attention on Tom Brady's hair is all the more laughable when you looked around at the rest of the field during that Patriots/Steelers game. Numerous players had dreadlocks that were so long they covered their names and Troy Polomalu actually has insurance on his hair because of an endorsement deal with Head & Shoulders. Yet no one says anything about them. I think it's because people expect quarterbacks to look a certain way, but it really is a stupid double standard. All that being said, when you throw like that you can wear your hair any damn way you want. Hell, you win the Super Bowl and you can come to the victory parade in pigtails for all I care.

-Speaking of double standards, I hope the media makes the same fuss over Chiefs coach Todd Haley refusing to shake Josh McDaniels' hand following their game as they did when Belichick gave Eric Mangini the cold fish grip a couple seasons ago. Haley's display was actually worse, because not only did the Broncos not do anything particularly out of line to warrant snubbing their head coach, but Haley stuck a finger in McDaniels' face, said something I assume was not polite and then stomped off like a child. If the talking heads on ESPN crucified Belichick for an entire week for a lesser infraction than Haley better have to answer the same repetitive questions and be dragged over the fire about destroying sportsmanship all week. I know Belichick has a larger resume than Haley, but that shouldn't enter into it. If you're going to make a big deal of one guy's infraction than for the sake of fairness you should do it to everyone.

-Has there ever been a contract that looked like a bad decision quicker than Donovan McNabb's? Donovan signed a 5-year, $78 million extension yesterday afternoon and played an absolute clunker of a game not four hours later. I don't think it's the money that gets me, because football contracts are essentially jokes - McNabb won't make half that money. It's the years that get me. Donovan is going to be 34 in about a week and he looks old now. I can't imagine him making it through this entire deal.

-You know how when people say things like, "I'm not trying to be mean" it is code for, "I'm about to say something really mean"? Well, the athlete version of that is saying, "I don't want to make an excuse" and really meaning, "I'm about to start making excuses." Yesterday Steelers' kicker Jeff Reed said that he didn't want to make an excuse for missing a very short field goal, but the turf at Heinz Field is some of the worst in the NFL. Also, the fans in Pittsburgh expect perfection and those expectations are too high. Now, normally this would be where I would make the joke, "...and in future news, Jeff Reed has been cut by the Steelers." However, I didn't even have time to type that, because Reed was cut the very next morning.

-This one is only slightly NFL-related, but go with me on it: this year NASCAR's Championship is super close. Three guys are within 50 points of one another and the last race is essentially winner-takes-all. It is just the kind of finish that NASCAR needed to get the slumping ratings going again. There is just one problem. The last race is Sunday at 1 PM. Really, NASCAR? You're putting your final race up against the NFL? No one is going to watch this thing, even in passing. Thanks to Red Zone there aren't even commercial breaks for me to take a second and check on how the race is going. I'll be hearing about it strictly by the highlights and I doubt I'm alone in this. You had all year to plan this through: why not stick the final race on a Saturday night? Going up against the NFL guarantees low ratings. And you wonder why NASCAR is no longer the fastest growing sport in America.