Hot Boudin, Cold Cous-Cous...

I've Got a Ben Roethlisberger Fever: Another Excuse:

Blogs that keep apologizing for themselves never seem to last long. Really, I wanted to either write an article on the Saints/Monday night's game or a in-praise-of-the-LSU-defense/media recap. But, no, apparently the air quality here is much better than that of New Orleans, and I've come down with a terrabull cold. Also, it could've had something to do with not remembering anything on Thursday night and being in Ms. Mae's for any extended amount of time.

There's a reason NOPD is right across Magazine

Roethlisberger fever, weakness, sore throat, nose, everything. So consider this a holdover before I go T.O. the shit out of this illness.

• The whole 'Who's starting at quarterback for Arizona this week?' is really irritating. Not only does it directly affect my fantasy team, it's another opportunity for ESPN to cover up their often amateur journalism. I never thought I'd say this about Chris Mortensen, but he completely and erroneously jumped the gun on this story, making the leap from "Dennis Green isn't saying who's starting this week" to "Leinart is starting this week." I actually saw it first on NFL Primetime before the Saint game. And now ESPN is running stories like, Shit, we fucked up on this one. ESPN, the time of internet users relying on any exclusive breaking news from you has come and gone. Case in point:

• Woke up this morning and checked deadspin before ESPN, which is now the routine. And, sure enough, the T.O. suicide story was up at 8:35 AM; ESPN still had the allergy reaction story up till about 9:15. Now, it turns out, Kim Etheredge played an intricate practical joke on the football world, but there's a definite delay to breaking information making its way to the espn.com frontpage. Then again, they're not nearly as bad as Yahoo, who will be reporting that T.O. has been benched by the Eagles about a week from now.

• Not only was the Saint game on Monday night the most meaningful game ever played in the city (besides January 4, 2004 of course), it was the most well-executed Saint game I've ever seen. Now, I'm only 22 years old and admit to not watching every game religiously, but I can't remember Saints corners tackling so well, linebackers plugging holes so competently (Vick involved no less), special teams dominating so completely, and a quarterback holding things together so practically. Also, we destroyed them with playcalling in every aspect-- call me crazy, but Jim Mora Jr. isn't a very good coach. And their special teams coordinator probably wished it was August 30, 2005 in the dome.

• "We just got to get our chili hot real early."

- Ali Highsmith, on the 11:30 AM start Saturday

That's it... I cannot love this team any more.

Just chili-doggin' it. Ali, where did you get the green and orange markers from?

Hopefully back to normal tomorrow.

- P.T.