Golf's Hall Setup Is Too Easy

For a game that generally demands the highest standards and decorum, requirements for gaining entrance to the World Golf Hall of Fame have always seemed just a little too vague and a little too low to us in the Grill Room.

On Monday night, Lanny Wadkins, Jose Maria Olazabal and Christy O'Connor Sr. were inducted into golf's shrine to itself in St. Augustine, Fla.

These three gents join the likes of Tony Jacklin, Gene Littler and Larry Nelson -- to randomly pick just a few of the head-scratching members for no good reason at all -- as inductees.

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Favre Returns, Jury Waits

Even though Brett Favre's return to Green Bay Sunday mercifully puts an end to what seems like 107 weeks of uber-hype, aren't you at least a little curious to see how it all plays out?

Don't you wonder how the salt-of-the-earth folks in Wisconsin will treat the man they once crowned their prince and savior? Because for all the good Favre did in Green Bay during his 16-year reign, is it possible he undid all of it, with his embarrassing, stuttering departure two years ago?

Understand that Green Bay was an NFL wasteland after the glory days of Vince Lombardi in the '60s. Between 1969 and 1991 the Packers had exactly five winning seasons, and appeared in the playoffs only twice.

Really, growing up and watching the once-great team's demise was a crime -- even if you weren't an ardent Packer-backer. Green Bay was the iconic team during the NFL's sonic rise in the 1960s.

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Lions-Rams: That '70s Show

When the St. Louis Rams take their sorry, 0-7 act on the road to stumble up against the almost-as-sorry, 1-5 Lions on Sunday, nostalgia will run as thick as the soot in the Motor City air.

St. Louis and Detroit...playing a meaningless mid-season football game...Shout it from the rooftops, friends, the NFL as we used to know it is back! Parity is dead, and a rebirth of the '70s is upon us!

All this harks to a time when our kids weren't too fat and our celebrities too thin; back when we actually believed the sludge which is Coors was a premium brew, if only because their boss told us it had water from the Rockies in it; back when newspapers were king and blogs were...well, they weren't.

Light up a smoke, close your eyes, and try to take a deep breath. Now open 'em. Pro football never looked so good, eh?

Once again we can take great comfort in knowing that when the Rams (of St. Louis Cardinals vintage), and the Lions of dependable Detroit bump up against our squad, a win is in the offing!

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Favre No. 5 ... Are You Kidding?

Remember the Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the other?"

OK, relax a little, eh? Yeah, we are using a Sesame Street song to make a point here. This is sports we're typing about, man, not astrophysics.

Anyway, Harris, the company behind all those polls, just released a list of the "Greatest Sports Stars of All Time."

Frankly, I have no real issues with nine out of the top 11. These things are subjective, but most of the important names are on there starting with Michael Jordan at No. 1.

His Airness is followed by Tiger Woods, Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Brett Favre, Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky, Peyton Manning, Ted Williams, and Hank Aaron and LeBron James, who tied for 10th.

Go ahead read over that again. -- Jordan, Woods, Ruth, Ali...Favre...

I know! Favre?! FAVRE?! Big Bird just passed out.

Again...Jordan, Woods, Ruth, Ali...Favre?! What are you frickin' kidding me?! This would be like rating the greatest presidents Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Jefferson, W. Bush, Adams, Truman...

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Saints and Colts Sipping Success

As we head to the midpoint of the season, only two teams have proven themselves worthy of the Grill Room's best hooch.

But, my, aren't Indianapolis and New Orleans two very different customers!

The Saints? Well, they bust through the double-doors and act like they own the joint. Sure, this gregarious group takes some getting used to, and can get full-blown overbearing at times. Thing is, we notice nobody has the stones to throw down on 'em.

In fact, by night's end, people are actually buying THEM drinks! Did you see how generous those Dolphins were Sunday?!

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What Does Obama's Golf Game Say?

Of all the witty things that have been said and written about golf over the years, there is one that is true above all:

Golf doesn't build character, it reveals it.

A colleague, but a better golfing partner, sent along this clip yesterday. It has to do with President Obama's fondest for the game, and the fact that in the first nine months of his new job, he has already played as many rounds of golf as the latest President Bush did during his first 34 months in office.

As this significant finding seeps across the Internet, expect it to spark the predictable nonsensical furor that has always been associated with presidents and golf. In this case, how could the man be playing this stupid game when the economy is in the toilet, we are fighting two wars, health care is broken beyond recognition, and to this day, there are STILL starving children in China?!

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Saints Don't Get AFC's Memo

The AFC spent most of Sunday sending a powerful statement to the NFC.

By about 5:45 p.m. EST, and well into the day's second offering of games, the AFC had taken all the toss-up tilts between the rival leagues, and turned them into their own.

The Bengals had demolished the Bears, 45-10. Houston had knocked back a suddenly reeling 49ers club. Pittsburgh had played with fire, and then set ablaze Minnesota's undefeated season. Why, Buffalo had even out-mediocre-d the Panthers in Carolina.

And now with its undefeated Saints being battered by middling Miami, 24-3, late in the first half, the NFC was preparing a message of surrender. But just before the white flag went up, Drew Brees' Saints put their league on their backs and picked themselves up off the Miami sod with a resounding leap.

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Waiting on a Beer and an Upset

Is there a better time of year than the fall?

The leaves on the trees outside the Grill Room's swinging, double-doors are turning all shades of red and gold. The endless baseball season is rumored to be close to an end, and, no kidding, we even saw frost on the pumpkin this morning!

Best of all we are stuck right in the middle of another wonderful football season, and don't care if we ever get out. It just smells like football doesn't it?!

So, as we wait for the Pfungstadter Bier truck to deliver their liquid gold, and ready the joint for another busy weekend of America's game here in Germany, we'll throw a couple of appetizers at you to munch on ...

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Jeff Fisher's New Jersey

Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher is a favorite around the Grill Room, but what in the hell was he thinking (or drinking) the other night when he showed up at a fundraiser wearing a Peyton Manning jersey?!

And don't bring that sports-fans-are-maniacal-and-need-to-lighten-up-a-little crap around here, to excuse the coach's bizarre behavior.

Yeah, sports fans are often completely and ridiculously over the top, but whether that's right or wrong has nothing to do with it. They just are and always have been. It's best we accept this as fact and move on.

Without these maniacal fans, sports as we know them, would dry up and go away. It's that simple.

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Raiders Give Voice to Past

We had just lifted our beer glasses to the sky to toast a great day of football, when an old, wonderful voice came booming across the frosty hills of Southwest Germany and through the double doors of the Grill Room.

By now, we were into the wee hours -- and many, many pils -- of this Monday morning.

It was right about the time the Raiders (The Raiders!) were putting the finishing touches on their improbable win over the heavily favored Eagles, when we heard it...

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Yankees Dump Irish Tenor

So this morning as I was shuffling about corralling the coffee pot, a few eggs and some sausage in hopes of putting together some sort of decent breakfast, I was mistreated to a small-minded talker on the radio drone on and on about the wrong that was administered to radio's biggest talker, Rush Limbaugh, and the poor man's failed attempt to gain ownership of the St. Louis Rams.

This little wizard of the airways implied that because there were NFL owners whose views allegedly bent farther to the right than Limbaugh's, what happened to poor Rush was simply some kind of awful double standard. In fairness, in recent days, I've either heard or read this misguided nonsense from other folks beside the little talker.

Ugh.

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Redskins Alums Missing Real Target

There was a time when the Washington Redskins actually went about their business on and off the field in a classy, dignified manner, and expected to compete for championships year in and year out. They were a model organization that did things the right way, even if they represented a city that has so often had it wrong.

I guess, then, it's mighty decent of these current Redskins to lower themselves several notches, so they no longer stand out in Washington's sea of dysfunction.

The new version of the Redskins wouldn't know class if they were handed the book. They are run by a maniacal little creep of an owner, Dan Snyder (pictured), whose wise-guy smirk has become the face of the organization.

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Limbaugh's Loss Is His Gain

Rush Limbaugh won.

And with every word I type, or she types, or you read...his margin of victory increases.

The only person surer than I was that the right-wing, radio talk-show host had no shot at becoming an owner of the St. Louis Rams football team was Limbaugh himself.

And if I knew it, and Rush knew it, rest assured the NFL knew it too.

Commissioner Roger Goodell didn't just tip his hand, he clenched it in a fist when he addressed the Limbaugh issue earlier this week at the NFL owners meetings in Boston.

"I have said many times before that we are all held to a higher standard here," the commissioner said. "I think divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about. I would not want to see those kind of comments from people who are in a responsible position within the NFL. No. Absolutely not."

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Showdown Sunday in New Orleans

The table is set, and for the first time in the Grill Room's short but storied history, the top two teams in our NFL 100-PROOF RANKINGS are bubbling over and ready to uncork what they've been bottling in order to see which team is made of the strongest stuff.

And though it's oh-so tempting to continue pouring out an endless stream of metaphors to set up what's on tap in this 100-proof matchup, we'll just call for the tab, and point out how appropriate it is that the showdown between the No. 1 Giants and No. 2 Saints is in New Orleans.

Let's pop the keg on this baby already! Er, sorry...

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'Bout Time for Olympic Golf

Golf will return as an Olympic sport in 2016, which means the robber barons that head the International Olympic Committee are capable of doing something right when they aren't playing now-you-see-it, now-you-don't with sitting presidents, turning a blind eye to censorship, and holding the Game's hostage for television revenue that would make Donald Trump blush.

Why it has taken so long to re-admit golf as an Olympic sport is beyond me. After all, the game was born in Scotland, grew up in the U.S., and now is a handsome, multilingual, worldwide ambassador growing itself all over the world.

Golf was last an official Olympic event in 1904, but was dropped because at the time only about 871 people played the game on the six or so courses that were available worldwide. It just didn't seem right to give a sport of so few an enormous stage for so many.

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Broncos Won? Must Be a Dream

The last thing I really remember is that a bunch of us were gathered around the big screen in the Grill Room last night to watch the overrated Broncos of Kyle Orton take their licks against the vaunted Patriots of Tom Terrific.

Then, I guess, things got kind of blurry...

OK, I confess, we were pretty generous with the juice last night, but after the last shot was fired, I could have sworn I watched out of the corner of my open eye, as the Broncos kicked their way to an overtime win.

But that can't be right, can it?

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Sports' Babe Ruth of Billionaires

It was reported by Forbes Magazine last week that Tiger Woods is a billionaire.

I'll wait...

Hmmm, nothing.

OK, let me type that again...It was reported by Forbes Magazine last week that Tiger Woods is a billionaire...

Hmmm, still nothing. Guess I didn't think there would be. I'm betting your reaction is somewhere in the ballpark of, 'Yeah, so what, pally?'

Am I right?

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Natural Order Restored in the NFL

Well, after a rowdy Week 3, some normalcy was restored around the Grill Room and the NFL last week.

I guess after righting a few wrongs, God decided to let the natural order of things get back to governing the NFL for a while. Lord knows, He has enough on His plate these days. Glad He checked in, though. He's certainly welcome anytime, and sure can liven things up.

To review:

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Something's Rotten in These Rankings

We try to run a respectable joint around here. Really.

But hold your nose and take a look at all the sorry teams that have stumbled toward the end of the NFL 100-proof rankings, and are already pulling on the rot gut this year.

For cripes sake, we count 11 of 'em!

Good golly, is Jeff Fisher's team really hanging with that gang? Is that John Fox's squad we see down there spilling all over itself? And isn't it a shame the younger Mora is taking after his under-achieving dad?

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Presidents Cup an Easy Ryder

Because you can never have too much of a mediocre thing, the PGA Tour is rolling out the eighth edition of the Presidents Cup beginning Thursday at San Francisco's Harding Park Golf Course.

OK, maybe that teaser's a bit harsh. Anytime you can get Tiger, Phil, Ernie, Vijay and a cast of other sweet-swinging notables on the same course in October, you've pulled off quite a coup. Heck, who knows, a great show might even break out.

Most likely, though, this match-play extravaganza will offer up sweet spoonfuls of aw-shucks camaraderie, expert shot-making and, if we're lucky, maybe even a little suspense on Sunday.

For the average golf fan, this is hardly an event you'd rearrange your plans to watch.

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