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Marino goes out in a weird way,
Posted: Tuesday January 04, 2000 01:52 PM
Week 17 Awards | The Top 10 Teams | Click here to send a question to Peter King's NFL Mailbag. LANDOVER, Md. -- What a meaningless dud of a game this was. If it were Dan Marino's last regular-season game, I feel sorry for him, to have a memory like this to take into his football afterlife. Washington 21, Miami 10 wasn't even as compelling as a preseason game. By kickoff, it meant nothing, and it got slowly more insignificant as the afternoon went on. Three things bugged me about this day. One, Marino walked across the mostly empty field at 12:54 p.m. ET. He was soaking in the sights on what might have been his last appearance on a football field. Some TV schmoe asked him for his autograph on the 45. He obliged. He walked a few more yards, then turned around, only to have to sign more autographs near the Dolphins bench. Can't this man have a little peace? Two, the game meant nothing, so unfitting such a great player's regular-season finale, if that's what this turns out to be. Three, the post-game locker room, a ridiculous shoebox of the place, was filled with all the idiots that infect this sport, hangers-on -- one with a No. 13 Dolphins jersey who somehow got a media credential and tried to get Marino's autograph -- that make it next-to-impossible to get anything less than the homogenized crap that comes out of locker-room press conferences. I asked Marino if it crossed his mind on such an emotional day -- his family was flown in by Wayne Huizenga, and his dad watched stoically from the Miami sideline -- that this might have been his last as a player. "You know, I've been answering this question and I'm tired of answering it,'' he said, missing my point entirely. "Who knows what the future will hold?'' I do think Miami's wild-card game at Seattle will be Marino's last with the Dolphins, if not last ever. I can't believe Miami can beat anyone right now (but more about that later). Writing this early Monday morning, I heard Ray Rhodes and his staff were fired in Green Bay. I called seven good citizens of Green Bay, most of them Packers employees, to confirm the story. The fact that none of three I spoke with denied it spoke volumes. Now, I was a big advocate of Rhodes getting hired in the first place. I thought his toughness would be what the Pack needed. But as the year went on, I heard things like this out of the players' mouths: "Ray treats us like men. He doesn't try to beat us up in practice like Mike Holmgren did last year.'' It sounded more and more as if Rhodes abdicated his role as the hard guy this team needed. It worried me, too, that last week a front-office guy with the team told me Rhodes had said he was going to be tougher next year. Not good. Not good when the man who's supposed to be the disciplinarian says he's not been enough of a disciplinarian, and that next year he'll be tougher. Anyway, you'll hear more about Rhodes Monday afternoon. For now, here's how I see the playoff race shaping up: LEADERS IN THE CLUBHOUSE NFC: St. Louis. AFC: Indianapolis, Tennessee, Jacksonville. I can't see the Rams losing before Atlanta. I can see any of three teams winning the AFC, but Tennessee will have it very, very hard. To make it to the Super Bowl, the Titans will likely have to win at Indianapolis and Jacksonville within a span of eight days. Tough duty. LEGITIMATE SHOTS NFC: Tampa Bay, Minnesota. AFC: Buffalo. I eliminate the Bills because they'd have to win three in a row to get to the Super Bowl. The Bucs have a cakewalk to the title game -- a week off, then likely home against the Redskins, who have the worst defense in this year's postseason tournament. Minnesota should beat Dallas at home before trying to slay the dragon that is the Rams. I CAN'T SEE IT. NOT AT ALL. NFC: Washington, Detroit, Dallas. AFC: Seattle, Miami. Miami and Seattle are each 1-5 down the season's homestretch. "Don't kick a sleeping dog,'' Jimmy Johnson warned me leaving FedEx Field Sunday night. I can't figure out which one of these five teams he was referring to with that remark. Washington has allowed 41 more points than any other playoff team. Detroit, 2-6 on the road and losers of four straight overall, is a playoff mirage. And Dallas, 1-7 on the road this year, would have to win three road games in 15 days to get to the Big One. Yeah, right. OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: St. Louis RB Marshall Faulk. His pedestrian final game -- nine touches, 106 yards -- gave him the alltime single-season total-yardage record (rushing and receiving yards) with 2,429, and left an incredible imprint on the 1999 season. Every time Faulk touched the ball, he averaged a 7.4-yard gain. Imagine you're an offensive coordinator, and you've got a guy who you can count on for three-quarters of a first down every time you give him the rock. Wow. DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Philadelphia DE Mike Mamula, who has had a disappointingly anonymous NFL career was erased but stepped into the spotlight for one valuable minute Sunday. He single-handedly intercepted a Kurt Warner pass (using his left, even though he's right-handed) and ran 41 yards for a decisive touchdown in the Eagles' seven-point upset of the Rams. Great, great catch. SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Carolina RB Michael Bates, whose field-reversing kickoff return for a 95-yard touchdown was the most electric play of the day. What a run. COACH OF THE WEEK: Oakland coach Jon Gruden, who survived the toughest schedule in the NFL, eight losses --every one -- by a touchdown or less, and The Glare of Al to end the season winning a heroic game in overtime and knocking the Chiefs out of the playoffs. Now for my MMQB end-of-the-regular-season top 10 (which I can do right now because I have a feeling neither Atlanta nor San Francisco will dent this list after their eminently forgettable Monday night game): 1. St. Louis (13-3). Yesterday doesn't count. 2. Indianapolis (13-3). Ditto. 3. Tennessee (13-3). Ditto. 4. Jacksonville (14-2). Mark Brunell, you are saved. Three weeks is plenty of time for the knee to heal. Bad news, though: You'll likely have Jevon Kearse or Bruce Smith chasing you in 13 days. 5. Tampa Bay (11-5). No question in my mind the Bucs pose the biggest threat to St. Louis because of their defense. 6. Minnesota (10-6). Was that actually a little defense the Vikings played on Sunday? 7. Oakland (8-8). The Raiders finish first in the Peter King AFC West standings. And really, that's all that counts. 8. New York Jets (8-8). Ought to be the AFC's third seed. 9. Buffalo (11-5). Way to create a quarterback controversy before the playoffs, Bills. 10. Carolina (8-8). Answer me this, and answer honestly: With Stephen Davis ouchy and the Redskins D a sieve, do you really think Washington, the third-seeded NFC team, could beat the Panthers today? I don't. The 10 Things I Think I Think This Week 1. I think that Kurt Warner's year is the most shocking season in NFL history. Literally. What this kid has done is go out, out of nowhere, and have one of the top five seasons a quarterback has ever had. 2. I think, in the wake of the standings being finalized on Sunday, that here are the sexiest non-division games of 2000: a. Atlanta at Denver. Dan Reeves returns to the scene of his prime. b. Indianapolis at Green Bay. The first-ever duel between Peyton Manning and Brett Favre. c. Jacksonville at Indianapolis. First Jags-Colts game since 1995 matches the two best young teams in the game. d. St. Louis at Kansas City. Never before have these two Missouri cities met when both were contenders. e. Oakland at San Francisco. Wine-and-cheesers be nice to the bikers. 3. I think that I like this human touch: Daniel Snyder is spending $8 million to install four escalators to take FedEx Field patrons directly to the upper deck. I really doubt Snyder will spend many Sundays in the upper deck. 4. I think that the shadow over Andy Reid must feel odd sometimes, especially when the Eagles play St. Louis. Dick Vermeil hasn't coached in Philadelphia in almost two decades. And yet, as I rode Amtrak through town the other day, there was a huge billboard in center city with Vermeil's smiling puss. He still does endorsements for a health-insurance company in Pennsylvania, 20 years after taking the Eagles to a Super Bowl. I asked Vermeil about it Saturday night. "Yeah, it's pretty amazing,'' he said. "But I've had a great relationship with them [Blue Cross] for years, and I come in and do a few things for them each offseason.'' 5a. I think, speaking of my New Year's Day Amtraking down the East Coast, that there is no better way to travel than in a train, and no better place to get a good nap. 5b. I think that's the kind of hard-hitting football analysis you can only get right here, in MMQB. 5c. I think, speaking of this trip, that you pass by one of the nicest minor-league ballparks in America; Frawley Field in Wilmington, Del. And you can see right into it. Been there, and it's a great, wonderfully manicured place to watch a game. Home of the the Wilmington Blue Rocks, Single A Farm team of the Royals. 6. I think, speaking of my intimate knowledge of everything pro football, that I have one question after spending 75 or so nights every year for 20 years in hotels: Why do the housekeepers leave the shower drain plugged after cleaning the tub? Do they think we're a nation of bath-takers? Rise up, fellow travelers! Liberate the bathtubs of America! Keeps the tubs unplugged! 7. I think that when Rodney Peete drove the Redskins' backups 67 yards in 54 seconds to start the third quarter on Sunday, I lost all faith in the Dolphins to do anything but stink it up in the playoffs. 8. I think -- well, I know -- that this is how several NFL players responded when asked by SI to play commissioner for a day: 9. I think, and I don't say this without a lot of consideration and a lot of thought about "Leave It To Beaver" and "Mister Ed," that "The Sopranos" is the best TV show of all time. 10. I think that the Saints grousing about the Panthers running up the score is absolutely ridiculous. Carolina needed the points for a wisp of playoff hope. Question for the Men of Mike Ditka: If you guys needed to win the game by 18 points more than the Packers won theirs to have a chance to make the playoffs, are you telling me you wouldn't have tried to do that? Put a sock in it. Click here to send a question to Peter King's NFL Mailbag.
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