Thursday, August 15, 2002
Beasts of the East
By by Tom Friend
Check the preseason standings. Check them now and tell me which is the best division in football.
Yes, you can come home again -- the NFC East.
After a decade of being crucified, it's payback time. Last year's Dallas-Washington 0-5 Bowl (on Monday night, no less) was the low moment, but the NFC East -- the division that gave us Parcells, Gibbs, Landry and Vermeil -- is about to re-emerge. From top to bottom, only the AFC East is comparable, and that's only if Drew Bledsoe can take a hit.
The fact is, no division had a better off-season than the NFC East. Washington got Steve Spurrier, Jeremiah Trotter and Jessie Armstead; Dallas got Kevin Hardy, La'Roi Glover and HBO; the Giants got Jeremy Shockey and salary cap space; Philadelphia got Super Bowl fever; and Arizona got the hell out, once and for all.
When the dust settles, there could be three playoff teams in there (in order of finish: Philly, Washington and Dallas), and there's a simple reason for all of this:
Have you seen everybody else?
The NFC North is a mess. The Lions look to be in the LeBron James sweepstakes (you catch my drift), and the Bears are playing 16 road games, and the Packers need a healthy Terry Glenn, and the Vikings think Randy Moss can replace Cris Carter as a team leader. Good luck.
The NFC South is horrible. If Tampa Bay doesn't win this division by four games, they ought to forfeit their playoff spot. The Saints fans will be wearing paper bags by November, the Falcons are two years away, and the Panthers are 10. No chance.
The NFC West is unsettled. The Rams are going to get Kurt Warner killed one of these days, the 49ers may have chemistry problems, the Seahawks have already lost their quarterback, and Cardinals players are fleeing to join the army. Mediocre.
The AFC North is too young. The Browns and Bengals are on the verge, but only on paper. Pittsburgh will win 10 games by default, and Baltimore will win five by accident. Check back in '04.
The AFC South is iffy. I like their quarterbacks (Manning, McNair, Brunell and Carr), but I don't like their O-linemen. I bet not all four guys will finish the season. Check back in December.
The AFC West is panicking. The Raiders have a window of about five months to get this done -- because Gannon, Rice and Brown will keel over soon. The Broncos have too many injuries, the Chargers have only two players who were No. 1 picks (and one's unsigned), and the Chiefs are running an artificial turf offense on natural grass. They don't have a snowball's chance (and the Raiders hate snow).
The AFC East is worthy. Ricky Williams will put the Dolphins over the top or over the ledge -- one or the other. The Jets need a quarterback, Bledsoe's Bills need a defense, and the world champion Patriots need last year's luck. It ain't bad.
McNabb might finally find himself playing in late January.
But, all in all, I still like the NFC East, the division that made Madden and Summerall famous. Not that the teams don't have flaws. The Eagles have this year's league MVP -- their quarterback -- and that'll make up for their ordinary receivers. The Redskins may not have big arms at quarterback, but their coaching staff (Spurrier on offense, Marvin Lewis on defense) is the best in the league. And they'll field the best nine players on any defense in the league (Bailey, Smoot, Armstead, Trotter, Arrington, Smith, Wynn, Gardener, Wilkinson). The Cowboys are getting a lot of hype, but they'll be relying on the old legs of Emmitt Smith, and a novice quarterback, Quincy Carter. HBO's Hard Knocks has confirmed what we always thought -- that coach Dave Campo has no charisma -- but their defense will still carry them a ways. The Giants bring up the rear, although Jim Fassel coaches better as an underdog.
Face it, this is the division that won Super Bowls in '71, '77, '82, '86, '87, '90, '91, '92, '93 and '95. No other division has more titles (the AFC West and NFC West are in second place with six), and no other division is more of a spectacle.
It's the division that's given you the league's greatest rivalry (Cowboys-Redskins), the league's most knuckleheaded fumble (New York's Joe Pisarcik against the Eagles); the league's most ornery hit (Philly's Chuck Bednarik on New York's Frank Gifford) and the league's most brutal run-up-of-the-score (a Charlie Gogolak field goal with 7 seconds left makes it Redskins 72, Giants 41 in 1966).
