Using a weekend to get drunk, party a bit, watch some sports, and then have a roast dinner is what a large population of the world love to do. The obligatory Friday drinking session is perfect preparation for the sport that will dominate your schedule for the weekend – fact! Sport’s laundry was given quite the airing last week though, and there were several organizations that saw fit to try and better what had gone on at Manchester United for the majority of the last week or so.
The saga about where Wayne Rooney would be bedding prostitutes for the next few years dominated the headlines of the week but come the weekend there are plenty of people who saw fit to try to better this.
So when most people, especially this side of the Atlantic, were well into their fourth pitcher of beer, one of America’s greatest sporting institutions were being knocked well and truly off their perch. If being owned by former-Liverpool owner, and person to use the word swine the most in one interview, Tom Hicks, wasn’t enough to deal with, then to be facing the favourites for the World Series, the New York Yankees, made your plate full. This was until Friday night happened.
The Texas Rangers made sure the series wasn’t going back to New York by beating the Yankees convincingly on home turf to advance to a first ever World Series. Most Brits may only associate them the fact that George W. Bush once had a minority stake in the club. Liverpool fans will sit up and take notice though. Baseball is becoming that best friend Reds’ fans never had.
Saturday comes round and after an Alka Seltzer or 12 the hangover is seen off and the malingering Rooney story is starting to appear on the news wires again – as if a repeating nightmare for people who aren’t boring. So if you thought the PSV 10-0 victory over Feyenoord was quite a result then let me direct your attention to events in the NFL on Sunday – namely the AFC West.
For a few weeks now it has looked as though each team in this division has been trying to out-do each other in the “absolutely fucking ridiculous” stakes. Up until this week, it had been the San Diego Chargers and their battle for the “worst turnover differential ever” title. If not this, it’s as if the Chargers and Denver Broncos have decided the other two sides in the division deserve a fair stab at the playoffs.
The Kansas City Chiefs are top of the division, a position they haven’t occupied since the days of Trent Green, Priest Holmes, Larry Johnson, and Tony Gonzalez. The other team in the division are the Oakland Raiders who’ve both benefitted from the previous big guns deciding they’d like to see how many turnovers they could commit. Last week was the Chargers turn who surrendered two blocked punts in the first five minutes of the game but only lost narrowly to the black and silver. Last night was a different story.
Mile High Stadium has seen its fair share of controversy over the years – last night wasn’t one of them. Sunday 24th October will go down as one of the most embarrassing days in the history of the franchise. If losing at home to the Raiders wasn’t bad enough, it was the manner of the defeat that hurt. 59-14 doesn’t even look at funny, or good. Maybe if they’d lost to 69 it might have looked better, or at least a bit more amusing. Probably not, but who’s quibbling over 10 points.
Before this performance on Sunday, we’d seen ex-Bears QB Jay Cutler throw four interceptions to one man – DeAngelo Hall of the Washington Redskins, tying an NFL single game record for most INTs.
So this is how the sporting world attempted to out-do the little fat man from Liverpool. It didn’t work over here in the UK but if you ask any North American about it “Rooney who?” may well be your answer.
