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Level -> RE: NFL Sob (or Brag) Thread (10/2/2007 3:57:10 PM)
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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Matt Leinart sat at a crowded table in a trendy steakhouse late Sunday night, sipping a glass of sauvignon blanc with a faraway look in his eyes. The young passer was frazzled and forlorn, and not just because of the atrocious synthesized music blaring in the background. As a scrawny Owen Wilson lookalike warbled through a cover of Sugar Ray’s "Fly" a few feet away while Scottsdale's beautiful people mingled around him, the Arizona Cardinals' starting quarterback in name only struggled to relish one of the franchise's more uplifting victories in recent memory. Having given way to backup Kurt Warner for much of the Cards' 21-14 upset of the previously undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers, Leinart's day had been filled with bitterness, frustration and prideful defiance. Now, as he finished his meal at City Hall steakhouse, there was only detached bewilderment. "I just want them to ride or die with me," Leinart said softly of 2-2 Arizona. "If I'm the franchise quarterback, play me and let me stumble, because I'll fight through it, and that will help me and our team in the long run. I know coaches want to win now, and I guess they have their reasons. But I don't understand it, and this switching back and forth is almost worse than getting benched." In the next breath, Leinart went out of his way to praise Warner, his unlikely friend, hotel roommate and computer-Scrabble rival, and expressed his support for first-year Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt, the man responsible for this counterintuitive tag-team of an arrangement. "The bottom line is doing whatever it takes to help this team," Leinart said, "and we won a very big game today, so I can't be mad." http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AiV3jsvezO1qGsscOYREEdlDubYF?slug=ms-morningrush100107&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
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