Monday, November 3, 2008

Max Kellerman's Monday Musings - Vol XXX - Is Max Becoming a JETS Fan?

Today's Max Kellerman show was football focused, which is not surprising as Max does not care for hockey and the New York Knicks may finish with a worse record than the year before. [I can't even speculate as to Max's feelings about the Nets, because other then the proposed move to Brooklyn, the team does not exist to Max]. However, while Max is a diehard Giants fan, a casual listener to today's show might have believed that Max was becoming a Jets fan.

Some quick thoughts from Max which could be construed as indicia of his changing of allegiances including:

This season has taught us that any given Sunday any professional team could beat another NFL team (examples being the Bengals winning this Sunday and the Jets beating the Bills). Max followed this up with a statement that you can't circle games on the schedule in advance anymore. [If true, this would doom Michael Kay's famous "win,loss,win,loss,win" game].

Max also observed that Jets fans are "furious" that they won the game (a not too subtle shot at Louie the Call Screener). He said later that Jets fans are "polarizing" him into liking Brett Favre.

Max analyzed the Jets chances of making it to and advancing in the playoffs, stating that 8-8 teams are on the bubble and with a little luck an 8-8 team could be 10-6 and make a playoff run or with a little bad luck the team could go 6-10. This rant got the attention of the ad people at 1050 as I already heard a replay of the spiel as a Max Kellerman show promo later in the day.

Max also had specific praise for certain members of the Jets including D. Revis as "the best corner in the NFL", Kerry Rhodes "may be the best safety" and Kris Jenkins is "the best nose tackle in football." In fairness, Max did say later that Justin Tuck may be the best defensive player in football, but this was in response to a caller and not a spontaneous Max statement.

Of course, Max may also be trying to give the Jets an ayin hara, since every team that he has boasted about during the season has tanked (see 2008 Yankees, 2007-2008 Knicks and possibly the 2008-2009 Knicks). Indeed, the one constant of last year's Giants run was Max's playing down of the team and its chances to succeed. There was never a proclamation that the Giants defensive line or running back core was the "greatest of all time." Contrast that with recent statements about the Yankees bullpen or Eddy Curry, Zack Randolph, Randolph Morris or any other Knick.

Max's statement about playoff bubble teams and the ability to get on a run and succeed or run into bad luck and fail finds its roots in Torah thought. The Talmud is replete with references to a person's mazal (luck) and its ability to influence results. The Talmud even warns against antagonizing or confronting a rosha when it is obvious that his mazal is causing him to succeed. So yes Max is correct, sometimes the difference between 8-8 and 10-6 or 6-10 is that little bit of mazal.

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