Let's Go Someone Other Than The Giants

TigerBlog is loving his new bike.

It's tremendous. Either that, or his old bike was such a piece of, um, low-end that anything would seem like an amazing improvement.

TigerBlog's original bike cost $80 at Target. It has a lot of miles on it, that's for sure.

His new one cost $700. He did some research and found the right brand, and then he bought one a few levels up from their intro model.

He is, of course, left to wonder what the $2,000 models are like to ride.

TigerBlog's car recently decided that at 115,000 miles, the transmission had gone far enough, leaving TB with the choice to either dump $4,000 into fixing the old one or getting out from under it and buying a new one. Or, in the case of what he eventually did, a pre-owned one.

As he rides his new bike, it dawns on him that to buy the car, he went to one dealer and drove two cars, choosing one. When it came to buying the bike, he went to three places, rode five bicycles and bought one.

While TigerBlog was churning out miles on his new bike this weekend, his colleague Warren Croxton was in Canton, Ohio, for the Hall of Fame induction of Brian Dawkins, the longtime Philadelphia Eagles great.

BDawk. #PFHOF18 pic.twitter.com/DkJp2FB2yu

— Warren Croxton (@WarrenCroxton) August 4, 2018

Now you have to be a serious fan to do that.

TigerBlog didn't pay that close attention to the ceremony at all. He knows that Ray Lewis was inducted. He's always felt like Ray Lewis - the on-field Ray Lewis - was similar to Ronnie Lott, the former San Francisco 49ers safety, in that TB thought they were both vastly overrated.

It's not that they were bad players or anything. It's just that it seems like every highlight of them is a late hit or cheap shot and that they were both overinflated by the media.

Then there is the opinion of Ross Tucker, at one time a Princeton defensive lineman who became an offensive lineman who became a longtime NFL offensive lineman and is now one of the best in football media.

Hey, he must be doing something right. He has 182,000 Twitter followers.

Ross, who is a very loyal former Tiger, Tweeted this about Lewis:

Not many players more synonymous with a city than Baltimore & Ray Lewis.

He's the best defensive player I ever played against. So prepared calling out our plays and impeccable technique. Unblockable.  At least for me. 😀

— Ross Tucker (@RossTuckerNFL) August 5, 2018

So, yeah, that means something.

The NFL preseason began with the Hall of Fame game last week. TigerBlog didn't watch any of it.

He did finish Season 6 of "Orange Is The New Black," which he will sum up this way: The first 10 minutes of the first episode were borderline unwatchable, there were too many new characters who added nothing and the last three or four episodes weren't bad.

TigerBlog needs a new series to watch. He's started "Billions," which is off to a good start.

He also needs a new NFL team to root for, he thinks.

TigerBlog has only ever rooted for one NFL team, the New York Giants. He started out as a fan when they were awful in the 1970s, and he's stayed a fan through four Super Bowl wins, three of which came when the team was a dramatic, unthinkable underdog.

TigerBlog's two favorite NFL players have been Giants' quarterbacks, Phil Simms and Eli Manning. The only jersey he ever bought was back in the early 1980s, when he owned a Lawrence Taylor jersey.

Now, though, he's done with the Giants. His only allegiance left to the team is Manning, and he only has a few more years left.

So why the animus?

It has nothing to do with how bad the team was last year. It has nothing to do with how insufferable Odell Beckham Jr. is. It has nothing to do with any of the other nonsense the team has.

It has to do with loyalty.

Given the opportunity to hire Princeton alum Marc Ross as its GM, the Giants instead let him go. That's unforgivable to TigerBlog.

No Marc Ross. No TigerBlog.

Marc Ross was a great wide receiver at Princeton, and he still holds a few school records, most notably yards per reception in a season (20.2 in 1993). He also answered the phones at basketball games. TB has stayed in touch with Ross through the years and rooted hard for him. He's smart. He's experienced. He's helped build two Super Bowl champions.

Anyway, TigerBlog is done with the Giants because of how they treated Ross. It's that simple.

In fact, he won't wear his Giants' sweatshirt anymore. Or his Giants' longsleeve T.

The NFL now goes down the path of its four weeks of preseason games, followed by the start of the 2018 season. The Philadelphia Eagles, for the first time since 1961, enter the season as the defending NFL champ.

TigerBlog doesn't mind the Eagles, but he can't exactly jump on the Super Bowl bandwagon, can he?

No, he's pretty sure his new team will be the Washington Redskins.

That was MotherBlog's team. She was more into the Redskins than TB was ever into the Giants. She loved John Riggins almost as much as she loved Steve McQueen.

Yeah. The Redskins it is.

Or whatever team is smart enough to hire Marc Ross.