Return From The Abyss …

I want to explain my unannounced absence over the past several weeks.  I have been in the midst of a health challenge that has included the following events:

• A visit to an urgent care center where I arrived in a wheelchair
• A visit from 9-1-1 after I fell at home and could not get up
• Two in-person visits with my primary care physician
• Two tele-health consultations with my primary care physician – — AND – –
• A two-and-a-half day stay in the hospital.

Among the many symptoms of my condition, intense fatigue kept me from the keyboard.  At the nadir of the last several weeks, there was a 28-hour timespan where I slept for 23 of those 28 hours.  I could not stay awake enough to read up on sports happenings; I could not stay awake through an entire football game.

I seem to be on the mend and even though I am not current on happenings in the sports world, I do have a few “ranting points” that will work for today.

So, I am sure that more than a few people are wondering who will be the first NFL head coach to be fired in 2026.  I don’t have an answer, but I do have some comments on potential candidates:

• I imagine that there are a significant number of fans in Philly who would be happy if that “honor” went to Nick Siriani.  I don’t think that will be the case because of the injury factor for the Eagles in 2026 and also because none of the coordinators on the team have ever sniffed a head coaching job in the NFL.
• When the Jets lost to the Dolphins, that did not help Aaron Glenn in making his case to stay on as the head coach in NYC.
• The Colts’ owner has fired the GM and has signed off on trading away the team’s best offensive lineman and its best defensive lineman.  Clearly they are going into a rebuild mode and the question is simply whether the owner thinks Shane Steichen is the coach to oversee the rebuild.
• The Chargers are a mess; the record is 0-7-0 and the Chargers are the only team in the NFL not to have scored a total of 100 points in this regular season.  Jim Harbaugh might be the one held accountable for that disaster, no?

And speaking of the LA Chargers, here is a potential scenario that would test the limits of irony:

• As of this morning the Chargers have the worst record in the league and that means they would have the overall #1 pick in the Draft next April.  Imagine for a moment that situation continues to obtain through January and the end of the regular season.
• Now imagine that the team decides to tear everything down and start a new chapter in the team history and the Chargers announce that they will use that overall #1 pick on Arch Manning – – QB Texas.
• Now imagine further that Grandpop Archie and QB Arch hit the replay button from the 2004 draft where Uncle Eli was drafted overall #1 by the Chargers but refused to play there forcing the Chargers to trade Eli to the Giants.
• The Giants don’t need another young QB now; they already have two in Jaxson Dart and JJ McCarthy – – but there are other “QB needy teams” in the NFL…
• Probability of this happening is very small – – but it would be fun times if it did.

Finally, I will paraphrase Tony Kornheiser’s signoff line for PTI and close today with the promise that I will try and do better the next time.

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………