Lots of surprises so far this year, as the Rams are 0-4, the Chargers 4-0 and players week after week fail to realize you can't take your helmet off onfield nor can you touch the officials. For those of you whose team may be down, remember it's early in the season...anything can happen in the next 13 weeks. Not that long ago I was golfing with NY Giants head coach Jim Fassel, who told me his take on looking at a season. Coach Fassel said he looks at each 4 games as 1 quarter, and with 4 quarters in a season there is always opportunity to turn things around. If in your first quarter you go 0-4, don't despair as the next quarter you may go 3 of 4 or 4 of 4 and be back into the swing of the season. I though it was am interesting way to look at a season and try to keep things positive.

Now going to things that are not so positive...

This whole Randy Moss thing has me perplexed. I hate to beat a dead horse, but will this guy ever get it? Is this guy not the Mike Tyson of the NFL? What type of person would drive around with a metermaid on their hood? Not me, and doubt any of you out there reading this column. If you are Red McCombs or Mike Tice, or any of the Vikings players, is this the guy you want to be a leader of your team? Moss is not an athlete. He has amazing individual talent, but an athlete is a player who can make his team better. Moss does not do that. Look at the Sunday night game against Seattle. When Moss dropped a TD pass he showed Culpepper up by complaining the pass was too far behind him. Of course the next 3 times Culpepper fed Randy the ball (well thrown each time) Moss couldn't come down with any of them. Credit of course to the Seattle defenders, but Moss should have caught at least one of those passes. Obviously a disruption off field as well as on field, team owner Red McCombs needs to ask if he wants his legacy tainted by someone like Moss. In my opinion, the best thing for the Vikings and Moss is for him to be traded. Unfortunately, no good team would probably want such a disruptive force and a bad team wouldn't be able to feed him the ball as much as he'd like. Perhaps the Vikings should even consider working out a severance package and releasing him. The monetary hit would be great, but what are the Vikings paying for now? With him they are 0-4 and headed down a slippery slope.

On to what's good in sports...

I though the Ryder Cup was phenomenal this year. In no sporting event is home field advantage more important than in the Ryder Cup...to hear the massive crowd roar for your opponent must have gotten into the Americans' heads.. I've brought this up before, but I think golfers are the most disciplined athletes in any professional sport today. The need for mental and phyiscal clarity is so great they cannot be indulging in drugs and alcohol during their off time. John Daly tried it for a while but he found that playing hungover just doesn't work. Golf has no room for error, and those who abuse drugs and alcohol cannot muster the kind of focus and mind/ body control needed to perform at the professional level. Sports like basketball, baseball and football are mainly reactionary and players have more room for error. These players, while still great athletes, don't rely on same level of mental and physical focus as pro golfers. I also think this discipline carries over into players personal lives as well. Rarely do you hear about a golfer beating their wives or kids, possessing drugs, running over metermaids...

I was thinking about picking games this NFL season, that is until I helped a friend last week choose, and I think I got one right out of the 12 or so games played. I'll spare you guys the losses and myself the embarrassment and keep my prognosticating to the playoffs.

That's all for this week. And again, this is my favorite time of the year so you'll be seeing more of my columns in the coming months!

October 5, 2002

edmarinaro@sportshollywood.com

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Ed Marinaro

In his three seasons as Cornell's tailback, Ed Marinaro was the all-time leading rusher in Ivy League history. He established eight NCAA career records and was the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. After turning pro he became a running back for the New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks. Then he turned to acting and played everyone from Joe Coffey on the classic TV show "Hill Street Blues" to Joey Buttafuoco in "Long Island Lolita." In his off-time he enjoys ranting in his column for SportsHollywood.

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