Newz Forum: OTHER: The Sports Curmudgeon on The Redskins, Drew Henson, Brandon Lloyd plus more...

The Chicago Bears have signed Jeff George to play QB for them the rest of this year after Craig Krenzel suffered an injury. That cannot be a good sign for Jonathon Quinn, who must have already contacted a real estate agent in Chicago to list his house.

Jeff George has been out of football for the last three years after he was cut in mid-season by Marty Schottenheimer in their Redskins incarnation. This signing can only mean one thing. Ryan Leaf could not come to Chicago because he is too busy preparing for his final exams. Right!

Here is the most delicious scenario. Jeff George goes to the Bears and wins a game or two and puts up some really eye-popping stats for the rest of this season. The Bears don't resign him and George becomes a free agent and Danny Boy Snyder goes on his typical March shopping spree for free agents and signs him to come back to Washington to lay waste to the Redskins' locker room yet again.

Speaking of the Washington Redskins, can this organization find its ass with either hand? The Mark Brunell experiment was almost as successful as Dr. Frankenstein's research; Clinton Portis has two rushing TDs this year and was benched yesterday for most of the game in favor of Ladell Betts. Portis came to the Redskins in exchange for Champ Bailey and a second round pick and then the Redskins gave Portis a $50+M contract and a signing bonus in the$15-17M range. He has complained about practice regimens and play-calling and offensive schemes since he got here; and in the last two games, he has just plain stunk on wheat toast. Now he is being replaced by Ladell Betts who is a nice running back but one who will likely not make much more than $15M over his entire career. At the moment, there are eight - count 'em eight - teams in the NFL who have scored less than 200 points for the season. But there is only one team that has not scored more than 160 points. No, that exercise in offensive futility is not the Miami Dolphins' Miami has scored 164 points this year. The Washington Redskins have scored a total of 138 points in eleven games or 12.5 points per game.

Let me tell you why Drew Henson SHOULD NOT be the starting QB for the Dallas Cowboys right now. The Cowboys are one game away from being in the playoffs as a wild card team in the NFC even though the Cowboys are only 4-7. They don't have much of a chance but the do have a mathematical chance and Vinny Testaverde has not been the reason that Dallas lost those 7 games. So, since the season is not completely in the ashcan yet, Henson should sit.

Now let me tell you why Drew Henson SHOULD be the starting QB for the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys are not going to do anything in the playoffs with their defense playing the way it is. In reality, the season is over now even though it is not mathematically over. Vinny Testaverde is not the long-term answer to the Cowboys' QB situation - unless Parcells hires him to be the QB coach in Dallas. So, the team needs to know if Henson can actually - you know - play QB in the NFL because if not they really do need to get one in the draft or sign one in free agency or something like that.

If I were the coach in Dallas, I'd play Henson. But, maybe that's why I'm not the coach in Dallas...

Here's a factoid not worth remembering. I heard on one of the myriad NFL magazine radio shows that the AFC South is the only division where all the starting QBs were former first round picks of the team for whom they are now starting. However, think of all the first round QB picks who have contributed exactly nothing to the teams that picked them such as David Klingler, Andre Ware, Rick MIrer, Ryan Leaf, Akili Smith, Tim Couch, Cade McNown ...and the redoubtable Jeff George.

Brandon Lloyd plays WR for the 49ers. I mention that because you might confuse this guy with Lloyd Brandon who according to a Google search is an animator and storyboard artist who was looking for work in that field as of May 2000; I know I get these two confused all the time. Earlier in the season, the 49ers' WR suggested that the 49ers might be a better football team without Terrell Owens than they were with him last year. Well, the 49ers are now 1-9 and lost to the Dolphins yesterday.

Memo to Brandon Lloyd: The 49ers are not a better team without Terrell Owens and it is likely that part of the reason for their ineptitude is that you have not picked up enough of the slack left behind by Owens' departure.

I know that the weather conditions in New England yesterday were pretty miserable, but the Baltimore Ravens offensive football team was just abysmal. For the game, the Ravens managed to generate a total net offense of 124 yards whilst the team amassed a total of 106 yards in penalties. That is even worse than the Redskins' offensive out put for the day of 156 net yards of offense and a mere 68 yards in penalties. The Redskins also scored a TD yesterday - which the Ravens did not - even though it should bring only the smallest measure of solace to them. The Redskins had the ball first and goal at the 1 yard line thanks to a pass interference call that could just as easily have been a "good no call". Then on 4th and goal at the 3-yard line, they went for it and hit the tight end in the end zone.

Sports Illustrated named the Boston Red Sox as the Sportsmen of the Year. I had the US Men's Olympic Basketball Team getting this honor in my office pool...

Finally, after Ron Artest promised that when he gets back to the NBA he was going to "prevent things like that from happening again," Dwight Perry had this observation in the Seattle Times:

"And in the meantime, O.J. Simpson is going to help him look for the real Pacer who ran up into the stands."

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...

Copyright The Sports Curmudgeon 2004

"And in the meantime, O.J. Simpson is going to help him look for the real Pacer who ran up into the stands."