Monday Night Football

I had eagerly awaited tonight's football game, and not because I thought it would be a competitive game. I expected Arizona to defeat the Niners handily. What I was REALLY looking forward to was the next installment of Mike Singletary Theater, and on national television, no less.

This was their first game since Singletary threw his tight end (Vernon Davis) off the field, and also at halftime down 20-3, dropped his pants in the locker room and pointed to his butt to tell his team what he thought of their first-half performance. Mike Singletary is not subtle. Two weeks have passed, Singletary and Davis have made up, and the young player finally has his head on straight.

Tonight's game was a lot closer than expected, and late in the game the Niners had two chances to win. But each time their ineptitude on offense did them in, their last drive dying in the shadow of Arizona's goalposts as time ran out. The Niners are not a good team, or at least they aren't playing like one yet. But the game had its comic moments. There was an animated discussion on the sidelines between Singletary and Mike Martz when it was 4th-and-1. Martz wanted to go for it (surprise, surprise) and Singletary had to yell for the field goal team to go in.

But the most theatrical moment came when (of all people) Vernon Davis made a great catch for a touchdown, and then removed his helmet in celebration, earning a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. You could almost sense an explosion about to go off. Davis went over to Singletary and tried to give him a hug, and Singletary pushed him away. But after a brief expression of tough love, Singletary congratulated him on the touchdown.

This is why I don't need to watch soap operas. The Niners may not be very good, but their subplots sure are entertaining. If they keep this up, I could even drop the NFL Sunday Ticket package next year and just watch the Niners. Actually, with the Giants finally looking like a perennial contender, I think DIRECTV and I will be joined at the hip for years to come.

Before I forget, in financial news it now appears that the "bailout" of Bear Stearns, which we all know was really a bailout of Morgan Chase (since Bear is out of business) had another purpose. Bear was the huge silver short on the COMEX, and had no hope of ever covering that short position. So Morgan Chase assumed it when Bear when out of business. They can't cover the short either, so it's going to explode sooner or later. They managed to keep a lid on it with huge additional short sales this summer, but the price of physical silver has stubbornly retained a large premium over the COMEX price. The pot continues to boil, and soon it will have to vent.