What Do You Want Me to Do, What Do you Want Me To Do?

Roger Clemens in filing his lawsuit for defamation truly is opening his own Pandora’s Box.

After listening to the lengthy recorded phone call between Clemens and Brian MacNamee, it’s absolutely ludicrous for anyone to believe that Clemens did not know that MacNamee injected Clemens with steroids.

Clemens’s response to the numerous times MacNamee said ‘what do you want me to do?’ was absolutely nothing. On the last few times, Clemens had a slight response i.e. basically that he needs to think about it.

Not once did I ever Clemens say “I want you to tell the truth, I want you to retract your statement.”

When MacNamee told Clemens that he would go to jail for him, Clemens did not respond ‘I just want you tell the truth.’

I don’t know what his lawyers are advising Clemens but the course of action being explored, the interview conducted on 60 Minutes, the recorded telephone call and his forthcoming testimony yet to be heard by Congress all seem to be heading down a road which will arrive at a dead end somewhere in the twilight zone.

The Second Coming

NY Giants fans are beside themselves over yesterday’s performance of Eli Manning. Accolades such as ’he played great,’ ‘he finally turned the corner’ and the sort, were heard throughout homes with large screen HDTV and 26 inch sets alike.

But hold on just one second. Rising from the ashes of mediocrity, as one reporter qualified Eli’s performance, is not the second coming of Joe Montana, Tom Brady or Phil Simms.

Though Eli is still a mediocre quarterback, he did play well and fortunately for his team and his own psyche did not have any turnovers.

Watching the game I still saw throws off his back foot, wobbly thrown balls and passes closer to the turf than to a receiver’s hands.

However, I also saw a playoff performance reminiscent of one from times gone by. Manning’s 20-27 with 185 yards with no interceptions took me back to the days of another Giants quarterback who in 5 playoff games, completed 72 of 115 passes (62.6 percent) for 1034 yards, 7 touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 112.0 passer rating while going 4-1.

Further, with his next team this Giant ‘great’ went 27-39 for 524 yards in 2 games with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions and a 69.2% completion percentage.

So is Eli Manning the second coming of great Giant quarterbacks of the past? Well sort of or maybe. But don’t look back at the names of Tittle, Tarkenton, Simms et al. Look instead to that ‘other’ Giant quarterback who gave the Giants their last Super Bowl. Look to that other quiet, nonplus personality (except for his mustachioed face), who should remind you in some respect to Manning’s performance at Tampa Bay, ironically at the very same field where the Giants blew their last chance at a Super Bowl in 2001. I refer to none other than to the one and only, Jeff Hostetler.

Welcome to the second coming.