NFL Boneheads of the Week: Cardinals' Derek Anderson, Titans' Cortland Finnegan

The Boneheads of the Week should be fairly obvious.

First, you can’t lose it at a press conference when you are asked legitimate questions.

Second, when you go for the throat and bring someone’s mama into a fight, you get the whoopin' of your life if you can‘t back it up.

Let’s start with Monday Night Football headliner, Derek Anderson. Watching the shellacking that happened on the field that was MNF, you almost had to laugh. Really, if you were like me, you were somewhat giggling as you said, “The Cardinals are just so bad.”

When you’re the Cardinals' Derek Anderson, you can’t blame Kent Somers, a reporter for the Arizona Republic, for asking the question, “Why was he laughing on the sideline right after he just threw an interception?”

He should have asked it. It’s his job.

But a reality hit Anderson while he was being confronted with the questions, and you could see it in his face, right there on his forehead: BUSTED.

Who would have thought the camera would pan to the quarterback who was so bad that he should have had his head in his hands or his tail between his legs? Anderson should have. Doesn’t he know he is on Monday Night Football, a time when everyone is watching?

His performance was just so bad that what he should have shown to the entire country was that what he was going through wasn’t fun at all.

The fact is that when you’re as bad as the Arizona Cardinals are this season, you just have no business smiling when you’re not winning.

I mean, does Anderson know just how bad he is? I think he does. I think it was Anderson not having his head in the game and then coming off the field to have a laugh at himself.

“What Deuce and I talk about is nobody else's business,” Yes, you are right. However, there is a time and place for certain talk.

Example: and not to be rash, but if you are standing in church on a Sunday morning waiting for it to start, you don’t talk to your friend or buddy about the “relations” you had with your wife or girlfriend the night before. But if you are on the ninth hole on a golf course, waiting because of slow play, and you bust out on how you gave it to your wife or girlfriend last night, then that is acceptable. (Depending on what kind of friend you are with. You get the picture.)

Remember, time and place.

Ohhh, but like the child who got busted, he was almost telling Somers, “Nut uhh, I wasn‘t laughing!”

“Well, the cameras showed you laughing, Derek”

"Nut UHHH! I wasn’t laughing.”

He acted like a little boy who knows that he is doing wrong, but thinks that if he gets loud, all is going to be okay, or what they say about it won’t matter. Well, it does matter. Just like a little kid. And here is the thing: He did it on NATIONAL TELEVISION!

It also reminds me of the deer in the headlights. Realizing he was busted, he must have seen the light coming from far away. And he just couldn’t move. And the light was coming real slow. But so was his explanation. He couldn’t explain it. Like the words were right in front of him, but he just couldn’t grasp them, then, BLAM!

Yes, Derek, when you’re not that good, you can’t smile and laugh on the sidelines. People question your dedication on the field.

You BONEHEAD!

Cortland Finnegan, on the other hand, Bonehead No. 2, unlike Anderson, is just a punk. I watched the film in slow motion several times. I think he was going for the throat. I think he was intentionally trying to hurt Andre Johnson.

Look at it this way: the Titans were getting their behinds handed to them in the same division. How do you stop another team from beating you down? You take out the star. Finnegan is all too proud to say, “Sure, I’ll do it.”

And he did.

And maybe it takes Johnson out for more than just the game he was in. Maybe it costs him one or two games because of injury or suspension. That was the intention of the fight penned, “You Start It, I’ll Finish It.”

Finnegan started it, and Johnson finished it.

Now, there is something that may not have been taught to Finnegan before he strapped on his boots for the fight he was getting into. In the world of men's sports, and while in the heat of the battle, there is one thing, well, two things, you just can’t do.

First off, in baseball, you can not call an umpire a certain word. I will not elaborate on that here. But we all know what the name you can’t call him.

Second, in any sport you, under no circumstances, bring anyone’s mama in while trash talking. Men all of a sudden get the rush of testosterone that would cause them to test positive for performance enhancing drugs if they were tested right after the fight.

When trash talking if, and I say IF, you are going to bring someone’s mama into it, you'd better be prepared to back it up.

Finnegan didn’t realize or didn’t think Johnson could beat him. Maybe Johnson couldn’t, under normal circumstances. I think Finnegan brought his mama in the middle of it. And he got what he deserved: a true butt kicking any mama would be proud of.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

You BONEHEAD!