A CAREER DREW-ING TO AN END

When Bill Parcells gives up on a veteran quarterback, then it's usually a pretty good sign everyone else has.

It's next to impossible to miss the message in Parcells yanking Drew Bledsoe at halftime last night in the Dallas Cowboys' 36-22 loss to the New York Giants (it was more like a four-touchdown game than two).

Bledsoe isn't through as a NFL quarterback, certainly not in a year when a team actually brought Jeff George to training camp. However, his chances of becoming a relevant, vital QB again is about as viable as a Mark Foley political comeback.

One take you'll likely hear that Bill "I'm Trying To Get This Team Ready To Play Tennessee" Parcells took advantage of a chance to humiliate a quarterback who, in his mind, had humiliated him a few times, particularly by apparently being less than willing to tutor Cowboys QB-in-waiting Tony Romo. So Parcells yanked Bledsoe on Monday Night Football, with Dallas fortunate to be down just 12-7 against the rival Giants, and put in Romo, the White Steamin' Willie Beamen.

Like Beamen, the Miami Sharks quarterback Jamie Foxx played in Any Given Sunday, Romo pretty much seemed to be winging it. His first pass was intercepted to set up a Giants touchdown. He threw three touchdown passes -- two to his own guys and one to New York's Kevin Dockery, who returned the interception 96 yards for a game-clinching touchdown.

It's not on a scale with Steve Young suffering a career-ending concussion or Dan Marino going out with a 62-7 loss in a playoff game. Bledsoe isn't on that level as a quarterback, but fans do get used to certain players and personalities, so seeing him get that kind of treatment is jarring, even if he brought some of it on himself. Living in the eastern half of North America, where Bledsoe played in New England and in Buffalo (some of my best friends are Bills fans), it's been hard to avoid not following his career.

Speaking of guys who bring stuff on himself... anyone notice a wide-open T-Emo dropping a fourth-down pass when Dallas was still plausibly in the game?

OTHER BUSINESS

• If you're wondering why there's so few men applying to teachers' college, read this chilling tale my friend Greg Hughes wrote for last weekend's Globe & Mail. (And visit Greg's blog while you're at it.)
• Jay Pinkerton is probably the funniest person who ever passed through the halls of Ernestown Secondary School in Odessa, Ont.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.