Momo's Munchies

Some thoughts from this past college and pro football weekend:
1. Paging Ochocino, paging Ochocinco. Does anyone know where Chad (Johnson) Ochocino is? With the Patriots he has gone into a witness protection program. You would think he would flourish with Brady as the quarterback but that is not the case. Chad only has nine catches in six games. Not good enough for the former All-Pro.

2. Also, Albert Haynesworth has not made an impact at all with the Pats. If Big Albert is hurt then that's understandable but I don't think that's the case. Wonder if the Patriot potion is not working when it comes to Haynesworth or Chad. They both are underachieving.

3.Really don't understand why teams don't use this formula against Tom Brady. Rush him up the middle and make him leave the pocket. The Pats do a good job of taking care of his blind side and front side but up the middle is where you make Tom uncomfortable. Just ask the Giants, Packers, Ravens, Jets and Steelers. They consistently come up the middle and the Patriots can't handle it.

4.Prior to this year did anyone know that Darren McFadden (Pictured on the left) was still in the NFL? McFadden is now leading the league in rushing and showing all the ability that he showed at Arkansas. Coincidence you say?Nope. Its his contract year. Money is making him find the holes and hit them hard.

5.Carson Palmer to the Raiders is a good move for both. First the Bengals will get pretty good picks from the deal and with Dalton and A.J. Green in their future it will provide stability for a franchise that always has underachieved. From the Raiders standpoint, they get a quarterback that should make the receivers better. Palmer wanted out and wanted to go to the Bay Area and he should be happier there.

6. The NFL trade deadline is the earliest and sometimes the most boring. You know its a slow day when the headline is Rams trade for Brandon Llyod. Brandon who?

7. I know Michigan St. and Michigan are rivals but the Spartans linebacker William Gholston went a little far in his disgust for the Maize and Blue. The Spartans need to suspend him for the to punching incidents. No need for this in the game. Read and see it here: Michigan State Spartans Review Players Conduct

8. Really hope that LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma and Oklahoma St. all stay undefeated until they play each other.

9. Still don't understand why the University of Missouri wants to go to the SEC. They are going to be above Vandy, Kentucky, Miss St. and Ole Miss but have fun on those trips to Baton Rouge, Bama and Florida. They will be routinely slaughtered.

10. In watching the Sunday night game I think we saw the end of Donovan McNabb in Minnesota. Barring injury, its Christian Ponder the rest of the way.

11.Finally here is an excerpt from MMQB by SI's Peter King. We can learn a lot from Steve Young and Aaron Rodgers on how to handle everyday situations in our life. It also shows why I have so much respect for Young and will always say he is underrated in people's eyes:
From Peter King's MMQB column at SI: Peter King
Give Steve Young an assist for how Aaron Rodgers handles the "F" word.

But I'm not sure he needs much help. You haven't heard all that much about the relationship between Steve Young and Aaron Rodgers, and both men probably like it that way. They are not everyday texting or calling friends, and I believe Rodgers would have handled the last six years of his landmine-turned-golden life pretty well without Young's occasional advice, because Rodgers was raised by parents with excellent perspective.

But Rodgers and Young do have one very important thing in common: They took over for all-time great quarterbacks, and the succession in both cases was not smooth. But Young learned enough in the awkward years aside Joe Montana, and then replacing him, to be a good sounding board for Rodgers, particularly in the rough times when a) it seemed like he'd never have a chance to play and b) mayhem swirled around the 2008 Brett Favre retirement/unretirement and distracted Rodgers and the Packers daily.

And when Rodgers would seek Young out, the advice would be the kind of sound stuff that hit a home run with Rodgers. Paraphrasing, this was the kind of counsel Young gave Rodgers over the years: Never, even to your mother, say something that makes you a victim. Human nature being what it is, you'll want people to know your side of the story, and you'll want them to know how hard it all is for you. But if you complain publicly even one time, you'll be a crybaby. That's how people will see you. And they'll remember.

Instead, if you just hold it in, and you just focus on football, it may take a few years, but respect will come back to you a hundred-fold. And when you begin to have success, people will look at you with tremendous respect because you didn't fall into the trap of complaining about your circumstances.

Is that exactly what happened or what? I mean, what tremendous advice. I was reminded of this last week when I had Rodgers on my SI podcast (a 34-minute talk you can hear on iTunes: or SI.com and, in prepping for the conversation, knew how fruitless it would be to talk about Brett Favre.

Rodgers doesn't take questions about his relationship with the man he took over for in 2008, because they basically have no relationship. I figured, why throw ice cubes on the conversation? If it came up in the conversation, so be it. And it did, sort of. I asked him what he thought he'd learned from Favre in his three years as his backup. There was a pause, and I thought he would say some version of no comment, but he said something educational. "I think his eye control,'' Rodgers said. "He was great with his eyes, moving defenders and throwing look-off passes all the time. If you watch film on other quarterbacks, there's not a lot of guys in the league who are consistently using their eyes to move players. I think it's a learned trait. It's something you have to work on. The top guys in the league are doing it just about every play. But that was something I watched, I saw, and I really tried to incorporate into my own game."

Interesting. But back to Young. I gained a lot of respect for him after the Super Bowl 17 seasons ago, when he threw six touchdown passes to crush the Chargers. In his suite a couple of hours after the game, one of his relatives or friends in the back of the room, with some giddiness, called out, "Joe Who?'' And Young, who could have said something to stick a dagger into Montana, instead said, "No, don't do that. Don't worry about that. That's the past. Let's talk about the future.''

Sounds like something his protégé would say.