15 comments MMQB Review: It's Still Happening Edition

Last week Peter King didn't care how the Broncos kept winning games, it didn't matter why it was happening because it is happening. Peter then went on to criticize Mark Sanchez for winning a game with four touchdown passes that apparently weren't emphatic enough for Peter's taste and then criticized the very first throw by Alex Smith. Apparently it mattered how it was happening for them. This week Peter talks about Tim Tebow, Aaron Rodgers and the same things he talks about every week...Patriots statistic of the week included. Fortunately, in response to the masses Peter also gives his take on the Red Sox managerial hire. We can all rest well at night knowing Peter's opinion on Bobby Valentine.

The longest winning streaks in the NFL right now belong to Green Bay at 18, with the unflappable Aaron Rodgers at quarterback; Houston at 6, with third-stringer T.J. Yates calling the signals; and the surprising Denver Broncos with Tim Tebow leading them to five in a row.

Football is a funny game.

But not as funny as "Louie" on FX! That's the funniest television show on television that no one watches on television for people to see on television. Louis C.K. writes, produces, directs, stars, and cleans the bathrooms for the entire show. It's the funniest show on television since...ever.

(That's my audition to write for Grantland)

1. You know I'm not exactly the president of the Donovan McNabb fan club,

Yes, you are the treasurer of his fan club. I hear re-elections are soon, so good luck to you Peter.

but the Bears need to call the unemployed McNabb today. Their quarterback situation is about to ruin a team with a real chance to be a factor in January.

Would a Donovan McNabb-led Bears team be a factor in January? I looked at the statistics and it didn't look like McNabb was as bad this year as I originally thought he was. He could be a good option, but it wasn't like he really showed much (statistics aside) with the Vikings at the beginning of this season. Remember last January when some people were criticizing Jay Cutler for being too much of a wimp in the NFC Championship Game? Remember Hanie's performance and how articles like this one got written? Oh yes, Hanie was the savior for one day. Now, after one start he is being sent back to the bench by Peter, in favor of grabbing Donovan McNabb. The same Donovan McNabb who has seemingly regressed tremendously over the last 20 months.

3. If there's been a story like Tebow's in the 27 years I've covered the NFL, I'm having a hard time recalling it.

Don't do Tebow an injustice by comparing him to other NFL players. That's idol worship. Tebow is the one and only. Comparing him to any others does him a disservice and shows your lack of faith in him.

4. If the playoffs began today, Cincinnati and Chicago would be in. That's why I'm glad the playoffs don't begin today.

We wouldn't want teams who have earned their way into the playoffs at this point to actually make the playoffs. We can't have another 7-9 team in the playoffs, can we? Teams like that don't stand a chance to win a game in the playoffs, especially against a powerful team like the Saints. So in conclusion, thank goodness the playoffs don't start today.

5. The NFL will decide in the next 24 hours what game is played on Sunday night, Dec. 18. Currently, Baltimore at San Diego is scheduled for that night. Little secret for flexing games: The NFL would prefer to sub an AFC TV game for an AFC TV game -- as this one is -- if it flexes out of this Sunday night game. And there's really only one AFC game worth flexing to: New England at Denver. It'll be surprising if Tebowmania doesn't come to Sunday night football in 13 days. Brady-Tebow. Belichick-Tebow. Mega-ratings for NBC.

What happens when the genius of Belichick collides with the Tebow Broncos? Nothing but mayhem when two immovable objects collide.

Apparently the Broncos don't have any other players, nor a coach, and Tebow is the only paid member of the Broncos staff and roster. It's Brady-Tebow. Belichick-Tebow. Welker-Tebow. Mayo-Tebow. Gostkowski-Tebow.

An aside to Bronco Nation: Still furious at the McDaniels Era? He is, after all, the man who drafted the best story in sports. Shoot, and maybe the best story overall.

Broncos Nation, you should be happy Tebow provided the media with a great story to cover. Sure, your team is winning, but the most important thing is there is a great story happening with your team and the media gets to cover it. You should feel blessed Josh McDaniels drafted Tebow and gave the media such a great story. Who cares if your team keeps winning games, it is all about the story.

Denver, three games out of first place when Tebow took the starting job in Week 7, now leads the AFC West with a 7-5 record by virtue of a tiebreaker edge over 7-5 Oakland -- because the Tebow-led Broncos scored the last 24 points in the win at Oakland on Nov. 6.

I've given up saying the Broncos will keep winning until a certain point. I've accepted Tim Tebow will make the Pro Bowl, possibly never lose a football game as a starter and the Denver Broncos are winning the Super Bowl this year and every year after. Difficulty of the throws aside, Tebow made all the throws he had to make on Sunday to beat the Vikings. Is the Vikings secondary bad? Yes, it wasn't tight coverage, but I will give credit to Tebow for the win. I'm not on the Tebow bandwagon, I'm just silent until I figure out what the hell is happening. The Broncos defense didn't play extraordinary, other than a pick-six and the interception in regulation to get the Broncos in good field position, so Tebow had something to do with the Broncos win.

I spoke with Tebow, who is the most polite interview in NFL history

He loves God too! You are contractually obligated to mention this.

"You know, I'm not sure,'' he said. "I know the Lord has blessed me and blessed our team.

So is this while God doesn't give a crap about the Vikings or their team? That's my main issue with the whole "God has blessed us" statements from athletes after a win. It means one sports team didn't get blessed. Does this mean the Lord has cursed the Vikings as he wears his Broncos hat and answers only the prayers of the Broncos team? There's no theological discussion here, it is just logic dictates if the team that won got blessed then the team that lost didn't get blessed or blessed as much. I think I need to see a priest in order to nail the logistics of all this down.

Before I let Tebow go, I asked him if anyone after the game -- coaches, players, execs -- had said anything memorable to him. "Everybody was happy,'' he said, "but I'll tell you one thing that happened during the week that I remember ... ''

Good, I thought. John Fox, maybe, sidling up to him and saying something sportingly profound like, "Son, we're going to ride that left arm and those legs to the Super Bowl.''

" ... I had an opportunity to talk with a kid named Blake Appleton, from Florida, on Thursday. He's a leukemia patient who's just been moved to hospice. And after the game, when I was being interviewed on TV, I got to say his name.

What a guy. It's hard to hate on Tebow for this. Could I? Heck yes, I could.

That's what I'm proud of today. I let him know people cared about him. I let him know God has a plan for him."

So the plan is to have Tim Tebow say his name on national television? That's all I got. I can't hate on Tebow too much. It's clear he hasn't listened to Kurt Warner (seriously, if Warner tells you to tone down the God-talk, that means something) and his advice to Tebow. That's fine. Tebow doesn't have to listen.

And that was the end of the Tebow interview. He had to rush to get on the bus to the airport. Except ...

"Have a good day, Mr. King. And God bless you."

So if Peter King gets a football scoop that Jay Glazer doesn't get, does that mean God has blessed Peter King and not Jay Glazer? I just wonder about these things as personal sports-related achievements get mixed up with religion. I think I'm getting stuck on this issue.

"Well, it's still a good thing,'' Gronkowski told me. "That's the first rush of my life.''

"You mean your first running play in the NFL?'' I said.

"No -- my first rush ever, in high school, college or the pros. I never ran the ball before. And now I got a touchdown on my first run.''

I feel like Peter King sets up all of his conversations to have a "twist" or a surprise in some fashion. Peter does this regularly and he did it above with Tim Tebow when expecting Tebow to say John Fox spoke something inspirational to him, instead of Tebow telling the story about the boy with leukemia.

It goes: Player X gives a quote, Peter thinks the quote refers to one thing and then (SURPRISE!) it refers to something else. It's pretty much Peter's favorite thing.

He'll have nine weeks after the Colts' season ends to work on getting healthy before Colts owner Jim Irsay and braintrust Bill and Chris Polian have to make a decision whether to keep Manning around for 2012.

Aside from the option bonus, the cap cost won't be prohibitive if they keep Manning and draft a quarterback with the first pick in the draft; Indy would have to pay Manning and the rookie QB a cap charge of about $21.2 million, with the rest of the roster earning about $100 million.

I'm not sure the question really is whether the Colts can afford to keep both quarterbacks on the roster. I'm sure they can work around that issue. The question I have, and everyone else should have, is how Andrew Luck is going to like being on the bench for a minimum of a year (without a Manning injury), on what is Manning's team? I realize I keep bringing this up, but I really think this is an important issue to discuss. It has become clearer this year than ever before where Manning's importance is on this Colts team. The Colts are Manning's team and the Colts offense is Manning's offense (Manning even refers to himself as a coach while he is injured) and will Luck want to sit the bench for a year or two to make the team his after Manning retires? Quite possibly, but Luck didn't have upon being eligible to play at Stanford and I just have a feeling he wouldn't like it in the NFL either.

Granted, I don't know Andrew Luck, his neck-beard or his family, but I can't imagine he would be willing to sit behind Peyton Manning and learn from him for one or two seasons. This could be great for his development as a quarterback, but would he be willing to do it? Of course, the whole point is moot if Manning doesn't come back healthy. 10% of me thinks the Colts may be better off drafting Matt Barkley and seeing if they can trade the #1 overall pick to upgrade the rest of the Colts roster...which quite frankly needs upgrades at various spots.

5. New Orleans (9-3). In eight quarters in seven days in the Superdome, the Saints put up 80 points and 1,015 yards on two NFC playoff contenders. They're scary good on offense right now.

And yet beating two playoff contenders in seven days isn't good enough to get the Saints to move up in Peter's power rankings.

7. Houston (9-3). Hard to have any more admiration for a team than I have for Houston.

What if the Texans had Tim Tebow as their quarterback?

8. New York Jets (7-5). Ship's been steadied now with two straight wins. Coming up: Kansas City in New Jersey next Sunday. Should be a gimme, but it's not.

So if the game should be a gimme, but it isn't...then why should the game be a gimme? This comment doesn't make much sense. Peter is assuming Kansas City isn't a good team, then saying they are a good team. So Peter's assumption about reality doesn't meet his own admittance reality. I hate it when that happens.

"Derek Jeter shouldn't be a good baseball player, but he is."

9. Atlanta (7-5). Anyone watching the Falcons has to be asking, "What's wrong with Matt Ryan?''

It would help if Julio Jones could catch a football. The odds of Gregg Easterbrook calling Jones a diva this week and mentioning he is a highly-paid, highly-paid first round glory boy are approximately 110%.

11. Miami (4-8). Last seven games: 4-3 ... Miami 171, Foes 92. Do I think they beat the Giants, Lions and Bears on a neutral field in Wichita tomorrow? Yes.

12. Dallas (7-5).

So not only does Peter put a 4-8 team at #11 in his power rankings, he puts them one spot above a team they lost to just over a week ago. I'm not incredibly concerned with arguing the value of these power rankings, but wouldn't a head-to-head game that took place 11 days ago have some value when comparing two teams?

13. New York Giants (6-6). How nutty is this: The Giants have lost four in a row, and if they win out in the last four weeks, they win the division.

A 7-9 team won their division last year. That's way more nutty than a team 10-6 winning their division.

15. Tennessee (7-5). Chris Johnson put it right when interviewed after the game. He said early in the season the passing game was carrying the offense, and now it's the runners' turn. He's been his old Chris Johnson self the past two weeks: 46 carries, 343 yards.

It's almost like Chris Johnson didn't show up in playing condition and is just now playing himself into shape. We know he would never hold out and then get out of shape, would he?

Pittsburgh PR/WR Antonio Brown. The Bengals were hoping to go into halftime down 21-7 and a chance to regroup. But they had to punt to Brown with 95 seconds left in the half, and he juked toward the middle, then left, then sprinted down the right sideline for a 60-yard touchdown. Ballgame.

I wonder if Peter King wrote "Game over" in his notebook after this play occurred?

"I can take getting beat by a better football team. I wish they were.''

-- Tampa Bay coach Raheem Morris, on the Carolina Panthers.

The Bucs lost at home by 19 points. This is the first part of "Coaches in denial who are quoted showing they are in denial." He sounds pretty bitter here.

"We're in great shape ... one win away from feeling a lot better."

-- Chicago coach Lovie Smith, after the 10-3 home loss to Kansas City,

I think Lovie Smith is a better coach than he seems to get credit for, but his team just lost at home to the Chiefs, while looking bad offensively (or "offensively bad?") and are going on the road to play the hottest team outside of Green Bay (Denver) with a quarterback teams haven't been able to solve yet. They are doing this with Caleb Hanie as their quarterback and Matt Forte now injured. I know a head coach isn't going to publicly freak out, but I think I would refrain from saying my team was in great shape.

Ever notice going to New Orleans is like going to a foreign country?

(whispers) I think Peter is talking about all that there diversity and minorities in New Orleans.

I mean, in a very good way.

Of course, there is no other way to take this comment.

The bars and restaurants in the French Quarter are more Americanized, but it's still one of the most walkable American cities, alive from late morning to early morning. Never fails that when I go to the city I feel as though I'm in a European city as much as an American one. The narrow streets, the city dwellings, the strong local accents.

Has anyone noticed that Peter King tends to make slightly bizarre observations?

a. The Texans' skimpy cheerleader uniforms, with the word "CHEERLEADER'' on the backs of each. What, did some executive think heavily made up, beauty-pageant-type 20-year-olds would be confused as ushers?

Gregg Easterbrook doesn't like your attitude, Peter. When you insult cheerleaders, you insult all of humanity.

5. I think I was stunned to hear the other day that the Army-Navy game had never been played in Washington in 111 meetings, and I don't think I was the only one. "It's shocking the game has never been here before,'' Redskins owner Dan Snyder said at an Army-Navy luncheon the other day.

Dan Snyder then attempted to fire both the coaches for Army and Navy hire Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden to coach each team. When told he can't fire either coach because he has no affiliation with either college, Snyder then threw a five minute temper tantrum and traded three 1st round picks for Carson Palmer.

6. I think I would be surprised if Andy Reid either is fired or chooses to quit. I noted Mike Florio on Pro Football Talk said Sunday that Reid will have to fire or demote defensive coordinator Juan Castillo to save his job.

Eagles fans would rejoice when Reid got fired and then get upset once Jon Gruden gets hired for $8 million per year and brings in Jeff Garcia as the starting quarterback for the Eagles, drafts a quarterback in the 3rd round and then signs three more veteran quarterbacks prior to training camp.

(I don't know if Gruden wants an NFL job again actually. He spent a good portion of last night's MNF game talking about what a great coach Norv Turner is. Gruden also said if he was a football coach he would watching tape of Norv Turner's offense and stealing parts of it. Granted, Turner runs a great offense, but I'm not sure having Norv Turner as your head coaching idol should be a positive thing in terms of getting another head coaching job.)

Then Peter having realized he hasn't used a chart to describe something about the Patriots in in one week, (he put together a chart comparing Tom Brady and Joe Montana last week), puts together a chart detailing how the Patriots' draft picks in the first three rounds of the 2010 draft are performing. The reason Peter did this was because the Pats cut Taylor Price this past week, so it must have given him inspiration. Peter loves to put together a chart involving the Patriots, whether it is a chart showing how many draft picks they have, how Matt Cassel compares to Tom Brady, or pretty much whatever Patriots-related fact Peter is discussing that week. He may as well make this a weekly feature.

9. I think what Aaron Rodgers said on his weekly ESPN radio show in Milwaukee and Madison the other day, about wearing religion on one's sleeve as Tebow does, shows why he's such a compelling figure. He's just smart, and he doesn't have to say, "Hey, I'm smart,'' for you to understand. Not when he says things like this:

I know Bob Costas at one point was critical about a player thanking Jesus Christ after a win, questioning what would happen if that player had lost, or do you really think God cares about winning and losing.

"I feel like my stance and my desire has always been to follow a quote from St. Francis of Assisi, who said, 'Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.' So basically, I'm not an over-the-top, or an in-your-face kind of guy with my faith. I would rather people have questions about why I act the way I act, whether they view it as positive or not, and ask questions, and then given an opportunity at some point, then you can talk about your faith a little bit. I firmly believe, just personally, what works for me, and what I enjoy doing is letting my actions speak about the kind of character that I want to have, and following that quote from St. Francis.''

Even when I try to hate you Aaron, I just can't do it. There's nothing wrong with how Tebow and Rodgers respectively talk about their religion of course. I prefer Rodgers' way though.

f. The longer Seinfeld is in the rear-view mirror, the more I hear it quoted. And the more I like it.

"Seinfield" went off the air 13 years ago. It was a great show. Let it go.

g. Glad I don't have a Heisman vote. If I did, I'd have to watch tons more college football,

Ladies and gentleman, Peter King!

"I'm glad I don't own a European League basketball team. If I did, I'd have to know a little something about Euro-league basketball and probably know a different language in order to run the team."

"I'm glad I don't have to birth a human baby. I don't have a vagina and there is no way that baby could get out of me. I'd have to have a sex change operation in order to have the baby."

and I'd have to make what seems like an impossible choice between all these good quarterbacks and players like Montee Ball, Robert Griffin III, Trent Richardson and Justin Blackmon. Tough, tough year.

It is for the Heisman Trophy, an award given out that means oh so very little in the realm of anything important in the world. There's no need to gnash our teeth over the handing out of this award. Just give it to Andrew Luck and his neck-beard before calling it a day. It isn't like we are negotiating world peace or the disarmament of nuclear weapons.

h. Football fan to me on Second Avenue in New York Saturday night: "Hey Peter! Manning or Luck for the Colts?'' Me to fan: "Both.''

People recognize Peter in the streets of New York. What a place!

j. Beernerdness: Need to catch up on my winter beers. How depressing that I've been working so much I'm falling behind on my consumption.

Said the borderline alcoholic.

k. Jose Reyes to Miami: It had to happen. The Mets weren't going to pay him real money.

So that's why the Mets have struggled so much lately. They keep wanting to pay their players in Monopoly money and promises for $200 every time the player passes home plate.

l. Bobby Valentine to the Red Sox: Seems like the most logical manager for that team at this time.

Peter's back on the bandwagon! I wonder if Peter's brother-in-law paid for his portion of the season tickets? I am betting so.

Glad to hear he's not going to look the other way when players aren't doing what they should be doing.

Hopefully the Red Sox, under the leadership of Bobby Valentine, can avoid a fried chicken and beer collapse down the stretch. God only know what kind of fatty, delicious foods and ice cold beverages the Red Sox players may find, so Valentine better keep a good look out. Baseball seasons can be won or lost, not based on the player's performance on the field, but based on what foods and drinks the starting pitchers are consuming on their day off.

Last week I was told by a business acquaintance that Khan will enter the NFL -- assuming he passes NFL muster and his $760 million bid for the franchise is accepted -- as one of, if not the biggest football fan in the league. Looking forward to meeting him.

I am sure we will get the play-by-play of their conversation in MMQB. I also bet there will be a twist in the answer to one of Peter's questions.

(Peter King) "I hear you are a big football fan. What made you buy the Jaguars team?"

(Khan) "I have always enjoyed watching soccer and felt---"

(Peter King) "The Jaguars are an American football team, not a soccer team. What does soccer have to do with your purchasing the Jaguars?"

(Khan) "I know. I like soccer AND football."

(Peter King) "What a twist in the answer to my question. This is an unparalleled response to one of my queries."