Remember when everyone said that drafting Mario Williams ahead of Reggie Bush was insane? That Bush was going to be one of the best players ever to play the game? Well, tonight, Bush took his biggest step yet to proving those people right.

Bush had two punt returns for touchdowns, another one that he would have scored on but fell down, and provided most of the offense from scrimmage (or so it seemed) for New Orleans in that debacle of a Monday Night Football game. This was the first time Bush the NFL’er looked like Bush the Heisman winner.

You know the guy I’m talking about. The guy at USC who scored on about 90% of his touches in college, and 103% of his punt returns. The most freakish college football player any of us have seen.

He’s had other great games in the NFL, but this seemed like the old Reggie for the first time. By the end of the game, you got the feeling that every time Minnesota had a third down, they were a play away from giving up seven points.

This may have been the worst NFL football game I’ve watched in the last decade, but Bush stepped up and provided enough highlights to drown out the ridiculousness of the first half.

Martin Gramatica, however, still sucks, and the Saints lost the game in spite of Bush. If ever an NFL game was fixed, this one is as good a candidate as any. There is no justifiable way to make the argument that the Minnesota Vikings deserved to win the game. Their biggest plays of the game were blocked FG by awful kicker, fumble recovery after blatant face mask, and a 40-yard pass interference call. What a terribly played football game.

Currently, the Minnesota Vikings have 30 yards of offense, 17 points and the ball against the New Orleans Saints. The reason they have the ball is because of a blatant, vicious facemask, that in turn forced a fumble. No flag was thrown, and the Vikings kept the ball.

Ed Hochuli and his crew have completely f***ed up this NFL season. Hochuli was a great referee and is a very nice guy, but this is getting ridiculous.

I’ve never watched a game that was so one-sided in my life, where the team that is dominating looks like they have zero chance of winning.

This is the first time I’ve ever posted something this early in a game, or even mid-game, but I can’t recall seeing anything like this. New Orleans just had to use a challenge on an obviously incomplete call also. This is really something to behold.

Having said all that, if you live in a location where sports betting is legal, I strongly suggest playing the Saints in the second half. This is like watching an SEC team play a high school team, where the high school referees are doing all they can to keep it close. If the sports gods are watching, they will make sure that the Saints cruise to victory, but Hochuli and friends are fighting back hard.

Oh, this is hard to watch.

UPDATE: OK, at the half, New Orleans has eight penalties to Minnesota’s two. Adrian Peterson had a fumble called a no fumble, because according to Hochuli, he started to fumble, but hadn’t finished fumbling when his knee hit the ground. This is the most one-sided football game, with the most one-sided refereeing at the same time. The referees are winning.

UPDATE II: Now both teams are actively trying to lose. Minnesota has no business leaving town with a ‘W,’ but New Orleans doesn’t seem to care. They have had the desire beaten out of them. I can’t remember watching a game this bad.

UPDATE III: They did it. The most undeserved victory in NFL history. Hail mary by Frerotte. Forty yard pass interference. Missed FG by an awful kicker, no defense, no special teams, and no offense. They had scoring drives of four and five yards. Minnesota getting a win in this game devalues every win in the history of the league.

UPDATE IV: Sorry about that halftime wager I told you to make. If it makes you feel better, you should have won it.

There are bills in both the House of Representatives and the Senate that call for the pardon of former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson.

Johnson was the first black heavyweight champ, and famously beat Jim Jeffries back into retirement in the “Fight of the Century,” nearly 100 years ago. Johnson was a magnet for racial tension, as the Jeffries fight led to riots breaking out around the country, and racism is what eventually landed him in prison.

Johnson apparently had a thing for white women, and that didn’t go over very well in the early 1900’s United States. When the Mann Act was passed in 1910, Johnson was immediately investigated. He was arrested shortly after the Act passed, but that one didn’t stick. He was arrested again in 1913, and convicted of violating the Mann Act, and was sentenced to a year in prison. While awaiting an appeal, Johnson left the country ,and spent the next decade living in Europe, eventually going to Spain and on to Mexico. In 1920, he turned himself over to American authorities to serve his one year sentence.

The Mann Act was never meant to put black men who were dating white women in prison, at least not on the surface. It was meant to stop the trafficking of women for prostitution, slavery and “other immoral purposes.” It was that last phrase that they used to have Johnson convicted.

Ken Burns’ film “Unforgivable Blackness” documented Johnson’s life and career like none other, and Burns has led the way in getting Johnson pardoned.

The story of Jack Johnson is an amazing one. From his career in the ring to his personal life outside of it, Johnson led a fascinating life. Burns’ documentary is a must-see film, whether you are a boxing fan or not. Bud Greenspan’s Kings of the Ring documentary also has great coverage of Johnson. Greenspan’s films often air on Showtime and are second to none when it comes to production and storytelling.

Johnson should never have been targeted, arrested and convicted in the first place, and was only because he was a black celebrity in an era when that itself was practically a crime. Congress is doing the right thing by getting this man who should have been celebrated in his time pardoned.