In praise of Preston Ridlehuber

TMQ delves back into the annals of history:


The entire country had missed the best part! And the deciding play of the Heidi Game was a wild fumble that was booted, botched and muffed by numerous gentlemen until fallen on in the end zone by the most important player in NFL history, Raiders third-string tailback Preston Ridlehuber.

Preston Ridlehuber has Heidi to thank for his place in NFL history.

Within mere hours of the Heidi Game, all networks had announced that henceforth they would never cut away from pro football for other programming. This established a vital premise: Nothing is more important than football. The president might be giving a news conference to declare plans to invade Canada; the Pope might be reading a homily at which he announces his conversion to Zoroastrianism; Ashlee Simpson might actually be singing instead of lip-syncing; regardless, there is no chance any network would cut away from any NFL game.

Preston Ridlehuber’s heroics paved the way for the modern era of Sunday NFL doubleheaders, Sunday and Monday night games, Saturday games in December, college football on television nearly round-the-clock. As you ease back into your couch with the remote, say a word of thanks to the man who made all this possible.

As we approach Thanksgiving, I will surely include the heroics of Preston Ridlehuber in the long list of many things for which I am grateful to God. I don’t know if God is an NFL fan, but I certainly hope He is.