NFL Sunday Preview: Eric Decker's Dirty Secret Weapon—and All the Big Games

Find out what went down on the gridiron this weekend

By Matt White Oct 28, 2012 1:00 PMTags
Jessie James, Eric DeckerAl Pereira/Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Who's got it better than Eric Decker?

In less than three years in the NFL, the Denver Broncos' wide receiver has caught touchdowns from Tim Tebow at the height of Tebowmania, become Peyton Manning's favorite target this season and, if a recent twitter flare-up involving his fiancé is any indication, caught just as much good luck off the field, too. 

The 25-year-old, 6-foot-3 Minnesotan, who routinely pops up on lists of the NFL's best looking players, is engaged to country music singer Jessie James, who Maxim magazine once called the "smokingest thing to happen to country music since Willie Nelson rolled his first joint."

She is also made clear online that she is a woman who takes seriously the country music commandment to stand by her man.

In the Broncos' last game against San Diego, Decker took a bizarre, embarrassing tumble. After catching a Manning pass at midfield, the sure-footed receiver literally had nothing but open field between him and the endzone. With a sure touchdown just seconds away, Decker somehow tripped on his own feet and fell over.

And it wasn't like no one was watching. The game was on Monday Night Football, the most-watched NFL broadcast of the week.

After the Broncos came back to win, Decker laughed off the play, telling reporters that a "turf monster" had got him and tweeting that "If yall didn't see, they had trip wire out there tonight. I reported it to the NFL so an investigation is pending." He even retweeted (with a ‘hahaha') one fan's good-natured picture of himself falling in his kitchen with "a clear path to the fridge" due to a "tile monster."

But this being Twitter, others chimed in with (what else?) outrage and insults.

Decker stayed mum, but James was having none of it. When one fan suggested that James was responsible for Decker having "weak legs," she took to her own (occasionally-NSFW) twitter feed and fired back

"What do u expect? He has 3 of them"

And that just about put an end to Eric Decker-bashing for that night.

After an off-week, Decker and the Broncos are back in action today for the first time since James' full-throated response, taking on the New Orleans Saints in the Sunday primetime match-up. 

Watch For It: Now, if James' tweet was a bit dirty, the rest of this week's NFL schedule is littered with trash talk.

• The New York Jets and Miami Dolphins play today after lobbing trashtalk for the last month. In their September meeting, Jets coach Rex Ryan said his team would pour "hot sauce" on Bush, the Dolphins most consistent offensive player this year. Bush left that game with a knee injury in the second-half after a hit from LaRon Landry, who said this week, "Every time he sees me, he will remember that hit." In the same game, the Jets lost All-Pro corner Darrelle Revis to a season-ending knee injury, about which Bush said, "they talked all week about putting hot sauce and this and that, and they ended up losing their best player." Ryan has said Bush should apologize for that comment and Jets' linebacker Aaron Maybin appeared to brush up against the bounty-line this week, saying "We want to knock (Bush) out, but we're out to do it legally."

• The New York Giants have been looking forward to today's trip to play the Dallas Cowboys since at least July, when Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told fans at training camp: "Y'all should come to Cowboys Stadium and watch us beat the Giants' asses." While the Giants are now 5-2 and two wins ahead of the ‘Boys and the rest of the NFC East, a loss would put the Cowboys in tenuous position for a wildcard playoff spot. "Yeah, I remember that very well," said Giants receiver Victor Cruz, whose 7 touchdown catches from Eli Manning lead the league. "We'll be there." 

Check back later for our recap of the good stuff.