The Morning Tailgate

The list of eligible participants for this morning’s ceremonial tailgate bratwurst is long and distinguished.  It was quite a weekend of the football field.  Larry Fitzgerald and Kurt Warner delivered the Arizona Cardinals their first NFC Championship game ever.  Ben Roethlisberger and Ray Lewis led their respective teams back to the  AFC Championship stage, and Donovan McNabb helped Philly take down the reigning Super Bowl champs in New York.

Mr. McNabb also ruffled some feathers when he picked up the Giants sideline phone late in the 4th quarter, in what was (apparently) some odd, improv taunting.

We’re going to give the first wiener of the day to the Giants’ secondary coach/cornerbacks coach, Peter Guinta, who displayed a healthy portion of restraint towards the Eagles quarterback during his performance.

January 12

1960 - Dominique Wilkins is born seconds after his mother backflips into a double reverse on the delivery room hospital bed.

1983 - Following in the footsteps of radio pioneers Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern 32 and 29 years prior, the world welcomes future radio thoroughbred Patrick Imig into society. The Sklar brothers were also born on this day in 1972, but we’re conveniently forgetting that.

1984 - Goose Gossage signs a four year deal with the Padres and helps the team reach their first World Series. He cussed a lot too, we’re guessing.

1998 - The Outsiders, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, defeat the Steiner Brothers for the WCW Tag Team Championship after Hall’s chest hair puts Rick Steiner in the sleeper hold.###MORE###

The day after a notable loss by a New York team is always fun when it comes to headlines.  As we’ve noted numerous times, no one brings the heat with purposely ridiculous headlines quite like the Big Apple papers.  Let’s take a quick spin around the NY market after the Giants fell at home to the Eagles last night…

NY Post

As usual, the New York Post doesn’t exactly sugar coat how they think things went.

New York Daily News

The Daily News dedicated a whole segment of their coverage to the snappy name they slapped on Sunday’s loss…

Newsday

If there is one common thread amongst the three, its that Eli Manning’s bewildered face makes for an easy target…

You should (buy some ham), because  (Kurt Herbstreit) said so.  Weird.  Just weird.

The Divisional Round culminates with a look at Death and Resurrection. Bow your heads and say a prayer, for one of the NFL’s most coveted, lovable figures is no longer in championship service.

The return of the video version of the JoeSportsFan Show takes a look at what happens when studio announcers get a little too close.