Please fire Linehan ...

I understand few of my few regular readers will appreciate this particular post, but this is a matter of grave import: I really need the owners of the St. Louis Rams football team to fire their head coach.

The guy totally ruined my day, which is an impressive feat given how much I was looking forward to it. Today, after all, was the opening game in the touch football league I help organize, as well as the first Sunday of the NFL season.

Things started out encouragingly as thirteen New Yorkers played a great game of touch football in beautiful sunny and warm weather. We didn't have any injuries or any significant arguments, both of which are major accomplishments for our league. And as a bonus, I played pretty well and our team won.

Unfortunately, it went downhill from there as my hometown NFL team got totally smoked by the Philadelphia Eagles. The worst part of the whole performance was how lifeless the team looked from the very get-go. It's quite clear the coaching staff is in way over their heads, and I think a change could actually help salvage the season if it's done early enough. The sad performance of the other NFC West teams shows that 8-8 will probably be good enough to win the division and get into the playoffs.

The head coach, a clueless but nice enough gent by the name of Scott Linehan, has had plenty of chances to succeed, and was graciously given another year after a dismal 3-13 season. His teams have been consistently unprepared and outcoached, and it's clear the players do not have any faith in his leadership.

To me, the last straw was when after 10 straight punts to open the game, Linehan was shown on the sideline clapping enthusiastically when we finally scored a field goal to pull within a mere 35 points. It looked so sad and desperate.

If they do fire him, perhaps I can hire him to run my fantasy team, which also sucked an egg today. But I'm not about to get into that sad story.