World War IV; The New York Football Giants

Unrepentant Individual reviews Norman Podhoretz's September Commentary piece on World War IV. I read the article back then, and did not blog on it, because of the supposedly-important goings on during the election. It received less attention than it should have at the time, in part, because of the election, and because the Podhoretz article is so long. The Podhoretz article will have long legs, and people will get around to writing about it, and thinking about it, for some time to come.

I have been on vacation, so I have not been blogging. I was going to start blogging on the health site Time After Surgery, but I find myself in the Weight Watchers chat rooms instead. I am sure I will be back writing, on both sites, after the New Year.

On a subject I never write about: Football. Your New York Jets will be the five seed in the playoffs, which is more than anyone could reasonably expect. We will then find out if Pennington has a greater ceiling than he has shown the second half of the year. In football, you can only play the games they ask you to play. Chad Pennington is no Joe Montana, sure, but no one blamed Montana for the annual schedule of patsies (the Aints, Falcons and Rams) that gave San Fran a 6-0 cushion before the start of every regular season.

My New York Giants play in a division, along with the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins, that fell for a media myth: A great coach can make lemonade out of lemons. Great coaches can not make lemonade out of lemons, but they can make bad teams better, and by that standard, Tom Coughlin is a great coach.

The Giants should be blown out of every game. They have no defensive line. They have no offensive line. They have to play a rookie quarterback because their starting quarterback is too slow to play behind such a bad line and live to tell about it. For all of that, instead of being blown out of every game, they are playing competitive, heart-breaking football. That is playing way beyond their talent level, and Tom Coughlin should get some of the credit for that.

Apparently, Wellington Mara wants some of the players to look into the mirror. They have. They see what they are. Old and slow. That's why they get called for so many false starts. A little less reality. A little more of Tom Coughlin demanding things that the players can not possibly produce is the best that can be expected.

Oh, by the way, Mr. Mara, while you are endorsing the coach and burning the players, why don't you saunter over to the general manager's office and ask for an accounting?