The NFL as viewed by Mike Tanier of the New York Times.

I'm not a fan of (American-style) football by any stretch. In my sports-watching world, it's all about the baseball post-season and the NBA pre-season at this time.

However, I've been keeping up with the NFL solely by reading Mike Tanier's weekly N.F.L. Matchups blog in the New York Times, and to me, it's some of the funniest commentary going. Why waste time watching games when ten minutes of Sunday reading keeps me so well informed?

As an example, consider today's assessment of Raiders vs. Giants (scroll down).

JaMarcus Russell, football’s answer to Augustus Gloop, has completed only 39.8 percent of his passes this year. Of those completions, 10.2 percent were dropped by the rookie receivers Darrius Heyward-Bey and Louis Murphy, with 5 percent more sailing over their heads as they slip while running routes. The other 45 percent are so wobbly and random that they could have been launched by homemade trebuchets in a Pumpkin Chunkin’ contest. Eli Manning, with an injured foot, is questionable for Sunday, but a Giants victory isn’t.

By the way, condolences to supporters of baseball's St. Louis Cardinals, who yesterday became the first team to be jettisoned from the playoffs. Red Sox fans needn't gloat; as much as it annoys me to see the Angels win a series, they will.