Speaking of Sports.....

I have to say that the football season thus far, both NFL and NCAA, has been nothing short of terrific.  (Caveat: this excludes the prime time games that the NFL has been feeding us on Thursdays, Sundays, and Mondays.  By and large, THOSE games have been clunkers.)  So much so, that I am going to start this little treatise by going back a week to the Sunday morning game in London between Green Bay and the New York Giants.

The Giants cemented their title as "Surprise Team of the First One-Third of the Season" by handing it to Aaron Rodgers and the Pack that morning (and what exactly is wrong with an NFL game to watch at 9:30 on a Sunday morning??), and they doubled down on it by beating the Ravens this past weekend after Lamar Jackson spit the bit not once, but twice, in the fourth quarter.  The Giants now sit at 5-1, and who saw THAT coming?   

The rise of the Giants also ties in with another unexpected rise, that of their Meadowlands co-tenants, the Jets, who now sit at 4-2 after beating those same Packers at Lambeau Field this past Sunday.  

Come to think of it, perhaps it's the Packers who are the "Surprise Team of the First One-Third of the Season", although not in a good way.

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The best game of this past weekend was the marquis game between the KayCee Chiefs and the Buff Bills headlined by the QB match-up of Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.  The Bills won this one 24-20 when Allen hit  tight end Dawson Knox for a touchdown with 1:04 remaining in the game.  This TD pass was preceded by a drive-preserving run for a first down by Allen that included this jaw-dropping move:

Yep, Allen did his best Edwin Moses impression by fully in stride hurdling the Chiefs safety.  Like I said, it was jaw-dropping, and Allen has clearly established himself as perhaps the leading MVP candidate in the League at this point.  The Bills and the Chiefs are also clearly the two best teams, certainly in the AFC, at this point, and we can all only hope that they meet once agin in the Playoffs come January.

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This brings us to the local gridders, the Steelers.  After being handed a 38-3 loss to Allen and the Bills in Week 5, the Steelers had dropped to 1-4, and the season appeared to be headed to the dumper.  Especially with a Week 6 matchup against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers in Week 6.  The game appeared to be a hopeless cause for the Steelers in light of the fact that both TJ Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick and their top three cornerbacks were out for the game as well.  Surely Brady would carve them up like a Thanksgiving turkey, right?

Steelers 20 - Buccaneers 18.

This is why you play the games, and games like this are why you follow sports.

The improbable hero was much maligned QB Mitch Trubisky who came into the game for an injured Kenny Pickett, and led the team on a touchdown drive that culminated in a TD by the other offensive hero of the day, Chase Claypool, and another drive that ran out the clock to preserve a two point lead, a drive that featured two no-chance-in-Hell third and long conversions by Trubisky that maintained possession and allowed him to take a knee to end the game.

This still most likely will be a rebuilding year for the Steelers as Pickett, who will probably sit out this week's game against Miami in concussion protocol, develops into the quarterback the Steelers and their fans hope that he will become.  However, they are now 2-4, tied with the Browns and one game behind the 3-3 Bengals and Ravens in the AFC North, and this is the NFL, so you never know, do you?

Anyway, some scenes from a joyous Accrisure Stadium this past Sunday.

The heroes....

And some Heroes with the G.O.A.T.....

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Okay, I've gone on too long to go into the college football scene, but the two games of most interest this past weekend were:

Tennessee 52 - Alabama 49

Michigan 41 - Penn State 17 (and the game wasn't even that close)

Both stunners.

Maybe next week will be the time for The Grandstander to delve into the NCAA doings.

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One final sort-of-football note.

Billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft ("billionaire" being perhaps the key word here) married Dr. Dana Blumberg this past weekend.  Dr. Blumberg, you can see, is an attractive blonde and is 34 years younger than Kraft.  Blumberg is a doctor, so presumably she has a great degree of intelligence so maybe this isn't the embodiment of the cliche of Rich Old Goat Marries Hot Much Younger Woman Looking For A Sugar Daddy.

No word in any of the news stories as to whether or not attendants from the Orchids of Asia Health Spa served as bridesmaids.