Watchdog

If ESPN thinks it's got it bad Monday with the 4-7 Jaguars against the 4-7 Texans . . . it could have been worse.

Like last time "MNF" visited Houston.

I was there. It was Nov. 21, 1994.

The Oilers - playing their first game under interim coach Jeff Fisher - were 1-9. The Giants were 3-7, with a seven-game losing streak.

Lawrence Taylor gave the Giants a pep talk before the game. They won, 13-10, on a field goal with two seconds left. Kent Graham took over at quarterback after Dave Brown left with a concussion.

That was the game story I wrote on a TRS-80.

After that game the Giants' bus caravan was stuck in traffic en route to the airport. At one point coach Dan Reeves and security man Mike Murphy left their bus to try to get something to eat. Just then, traffic broke up and it drove on without them.

Reeves spent 40 minutes or so telling the story in his news conference at Giants Stadium the next day. The guy was a world-class storyteller. But I digress.