are you ready for some football?

ahhh, football. when a young man's fancy turns to face-painting and chest-thumping and disproportionate pride in an organization that doesn't know you exist.

it may not be the norm in the comedy world, but there are two sports nuts in the animal club, those being me and shane "thunderbelly" portman. among the three and a half major sports, football is where we have the most overlap, both enjoying the hell out of espn classic's near constant running of steve sabol's "great moments in the nfl" series, and both being able to enjoy watching a football game, no matter who's playing. the trouble is that shane is from outside cleveland and i'm from pittsburgh. if we didn't have the comedy thing to throw our passion into, it's highly likely that this geographic disparity would have led us to blows by now, and i would have lost. but somehow, we're able to temper the blood feud, and even enjoyed watching the steelers-browns playoff game in 2002 together.

still, it's my duty as a pittsburgher to kick a cleveland fan while they're down, so here's to another pathetic losing season, shane. i wonder if bernie kosar would consider coming back for the year. if not, there's always vinny testaverde, who's qb rating passing to steelers defensive backs is higher than to his own wide outs. and when tim couch parked my car for me when i went out for steak this weekend, i tipped him with one of his rookie cards, which i had been using to make motorcycle noises on my bike.