....was spent recovering from the oral surgery I had on Wednesday. All my wisdom teeth were yanked out. Everyone, please try to not envy me and the wonderful weekend I had (ha ha). Actually, the oral surgeon was very good and there was little pain during and after the procedure. That 800 mg Ibuprofen really does the trick. I felt much worse pain last season during that Saints game when a 4th quarter fumble against the Bucs cost us a win.

Well, into the 4th quarter anyway. My wife kept saying why? Why do I want to SEE that? I just wanted to see where things went bad, I couldn’t remember. First 2 quarters were rough, hard getting going. But the defense was awesome, holding them to field goals (but they weren’t throwing much at poor Fred Thomas yet). Reggie’s huge play was, again, astounding. I urge you all to see it again. He is SO quick. Fumble, safety in the end zone, Fred, Fred, .... Saints were in it until later in the 4th quarter. Mark Campbell even caught a pass and did not limp off the field. Disappointing, sure. But I think they’ve got the hang of it and they are going to beat the Bears at Soldier Field THIS year. Quick, who’s the Bears’ QB? Yeah, THEY don’t know either!!

I need to use that handy “preview” tool and read before I post. I meant “intentional grounding penalty in the endzone resulting in a safety”, which Brian “Yeah I’m A Badass” Urlacher so helpfully pointed out to the officials before the ball hit the ground. Can’t stand that guy. I want to see Karney go helmet to helmet with him again, we’ll see who is the badass.

The Dallas game was incredible. Was that 3 Karney TD’s that night? Ouch. I got to go down and see it (my first game in Texas Stadium, hopefully my last) and I have it on tape. When Julius Jones broke that long run right off the bat I thought “This is going to be a really long game….” There were a lot of Saints fans there, including 3 or 4 preppie guys behind me in gold sports coats, demanding high 5’s, embarrassing their dates, and tormenting the little 10 year old in the Roy Williams jersey sitting in their row. He was almost in tears. “How does it feel to see your team suck this bad? They may never win another game…” Obnoxious, but it was funny. How often do Saints fans get to gloat?? Somebody hung a Saints blanket over the rail on the top deck, we were all going nuts. Yes, and the Cowboys were on a roll having won several in a row, and at home…. Parcells’ face said it all. Dallas talk radio after the game was about how the ‘boys just let the Saints win, and how the Saints cheated, etc. Thought I was in heaven!

We stayed in our section in the stadium long after the end of the game, reveling with all the visiting Saints fans. Then started the long walk out of the stadium grounds, through all the parking lots to the dirt field where they made us park. On the way, my wife and I got mixed in with a large crowd of predominently African-American Cowboy fans. We tried to blend in our lily white selves in our Saints garb as best as we could, and shut up. As we walked, we could overhear two men discussing the game, one a Saints sympathizer, the other a Cowboy fan. Saints fan was trying to console the Cowboy fan, who was nearly despondent and was giving up hope on the season (that’s how devastating that loss was to them). Here is the end of their conversation, verbatim: Saint: “Hey, man… It’s not all bad. You still got Tony Romo”
Cowboy: “Tony Romo? Straight up homo.
Saint: “OK, but what about Parcells? You still got Bill Parcells.”
Cowboy: “Parcells? He a homo too. They BOTH homos. They BOYFRIENDS!”
Everybody laughed, and I laughed the loudest. My wife is giving me the elbow, knock it off, let’s just get to the car. Now whenever the Cowboys are on TV, I go through the homo routine endlessly and everybody is sick of hearing it. But I love it, it makes me smile and remember that night. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I’m sure their fans were pretty down that night. I remember seeing on TV that there were lots of Saints fans in attendance. The funniest thing was when Deuce ran the ball you could hear that chorus of “DOOOOOCE!” coming from one end of the stadium. That’s got to irritate fans of any home team, especially when they’re getting their asses handed to them for three straight quarters. The Cowboys clearly weren’t ready for the Saints that night. The bad thing was the week after when the Saints clearly weren’t ready for Redskins and got their asses handed to them in the Dome. They were still riding the high of the Cowboys rout and looked horrible that week. It just goes to show that pregame mental preparation is everything when it comes to winning in the NFL.