St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner had the pins removed from his broken pinky finger on his right hand Monday, which means he’s getting ready to face the Bears on Monday night, Nov. 18.
Rams coach Mike Martz said Warner will start throwing this Thursday and start practicing next Wednesday. Backup Marc Bulger, on a three-game winning streak, will play against San Diego this week. But when Warner is ready, Bulger will sit.
“The thing you have to be cautious of, it’s still going to take some time with his arm to get back into throwing shape and to get his grip back,” Martz said of Warner. “There are still some strength issues with his hand. We’ll just see where he is and go from there.
“There’s a possibility he could be ready for Monday night.”
Martz has no desire to press his luck with Bulger, a third-stringer filling in for Warner and backup Jamie Martin, who injured his knee.
“Kurt is our quarterback, guys, that’s not a question,” Martz said. “That’s not for discussion. He’s our quarterback. God bless Marc for the job he’s done, he’s going to have a brilliant career of his own, but Kurt is our quarterback.”
Open season: The harvest season has started. It’s November, when NFL teams traditionally separate the wheat from the chaff.
While no Super Bowl team ever has lost four games in a row in any stretch–bad news for the Rams and New England Patriots–it is also true that Super Bowl teams get hot when the weather starts to turn cold.
The Rams and Patriots, last year’s Super Bowl opponents, each were 8-1 once November arrived. The 2000 Baltimore Ravens were 7-0 and the New York Giants 6-2. The 1999 Rams and Tennessee Titans each were 7-2. The 1998 Denver Broncos were 7-2 and the Atlanta Falcons 9-0. The last Super Bowl champion to lose more than two games after November was the 1997 Broncos, who went 5-3 down the stretch. The Green Bay Packers were 7-1 that year.
So the weekend’s losing teams already have cut into a thin margin for error. Especially hurting are the Oakland Raiders, who fell to 4-4 after starting as the last unbeaten team.
Stretch of schedules: Of the top teams, the New Orleans Saints have the so-called “easiest” remaining schedule. They play only two teams with winning records the rest of the way–Tampa Bay and Atlanta–both in their NFC South Division. Four of their final six games are in the Superdome. The Saints’ final eight opponents are a combined 25-35. Their final four are 8-21.
The AFC team with the easiest remaining schedule is Pittsburgh. The Steelers’ opponents are 28-37, including only two winning teams–also Tampa Bay and Atlanta.
Anybody predict a New Orleans-Pittsburgh Super Bowl?
“I don’t think you can look at the schedule and predict success,” New Orleans coach Jim Haslett said. “You have to look at whether teams are hot or not when you play them.”
Douglas hot: Eagles defensive end Hugh Douglas isn’t too happy about never seeing offensive players fined for initiating helmet-to-helmet hits. Philadelphia coach Andy Reid said Monday that Douglas got riled by Bears rookie offensive tackle Marc Colombo.
“The kid that was playing him, he’s really a Jon Runyan-type of player,” Reid said, referring to his own right tackle. “He’s going to block you all over the field and jump on you and do all that stuff. That’s part of his game, and he did that once and then Hugh [Douglas] got a couple of sacks.”
Nabbing McNabb: Two days before the Bears’ game, and about a month after he signed a new $30 million contract, Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was elected as a member of the Syracuse University Board of Trustees at the board’s annual meeting.
McNabb, 25, who graduated in 1999, is one of the youngest ever to be named to the university’s board of trustees.
“Donovan brings a unique combination of leadership and civic and philanthropic interest to the board of trustees,” said Chairman Joe Lampe.
McNabb donated $100,000 to the university in 2000 earmarked for a new football locker room.
“I want to bring ideas from an academic and athletic perspective for all student-athletes,” McNabb said. “This is an honor for me. It is a special feeling to be appointed as a member of the board of trustees because there are not a lot of people my age who are considered.”
Here’s an idea: Amid charges that the inmates already are running the NFL asylum comes this idea from radical thinker David Meggyesy, Western director of the NFL Players Association.
Writing in Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal, Meggyesy believes NFL players should hire the coaches. Meggyesy, a former player and author of “Out of Their League,” thinks such a system would solve the problem of racial discrimination, for one thing.
“I envision a process for hiring an NFL team’s head coach that would involve the team players’ input,” Meggyesy wrote. “The players as a group or a player committee selected by the team members could interview the candidates for head coach and select the coach, either in consultation with the team owner or not.
“Further, at the end of each season, players would evaluate their various position coaches.”
To address the issue of discipline, Meggyesy writes: “After the coaches are hired, democracy stops. Coaches coach and players play. Players do not vote on what play to run or on the game plan.”
Asked who hires and fires the players, Meggyesy conceded that question might provide fodder for a future essay.
Another slow learner: Carolina Panthers defensive tackle Brentson Buckner was suspended for four games Monday for violating the NFL’s steroid policy. Buckner’s agent, George Mavrikes, said Buckner took a diet pill before training camp with an ingredient that’s on the league’s list of banned substances.
“It was all-organic, all-natural, and that’s where you get into trouble,” Mavrikes said. “He didn’t really think that by taking a diet pill it would be banned, because it was not a performance-enhancer. He just wanted to lose a little weight before camp, but unfortunately, the NFL treats diet pills the same as steroids.”
Around the league: The NFL ended the suspension of Saints cornerback Dale Carter, who had been prohibited from playing for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. . . . Colts running back Edgerrin James and backup Ricky Williams are doubtful for Sunday’s game against Philadelphia with hamstring injuries. . . . Jaguars offensive tackle Zach Wiegert will have arthroscopic surgery on his left knee this week, sidelining him indefinitely. . . . Vikings wide receiver Derrick Alexander has a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, and his status is uncertain for the rest of the season. . . . Houston guard Ryan Schau will miss the rest of the season because of foot injuries.
