Now that I'm no longer employed by The Echo, and work Wednesday-Sunday at my new job, I actually have the opportunity to watch Monday Night Football for the first time in four years.

And while I haven't watched an entire Monday night football game yet. Last night I watched pretty much the whole thing.

I was intrigued by the matchup. I'm a Chicago guy. I've been a huge Bulls fans since the glory days in the 90s and because of that I tend to have a rooting interest for other Chicago teams, even though I could really care less about them.

So, the undefeated Bears have my attention. Also, Matt Leinart's second start grabbed my attention.

I believe I was at work when he went 6-for-6 on the opening drive of his first start against the Chiefs, so I missed it. But it made me look forward to getting a chance to see this kid play and here it was Monday night.

Basically there are just a couple of things I learned from Monday night's game.

1. Matt Leinart is pretty damn good.

This kid doesn't look like an NFL rookie. He made a mistake or two, but what quarterback hasn't. And his offensive line is terrible, so that didn't help any.

To draw a comparison to UCA, I guess he's kind of like Nathan Brown last season. The young redshirt freshman stepped in and led the Bears to the Division II quarterfinals.

The only difference for the Cardinals being that Leinart is surrounded by guys that forgot how to win. Brown actually had some good talent around him.

2. The Cardinals are pretty damn bad.

They were up 20-0 at halftime. How do you let a lead like that just disappear?

Granted, they were playing the Bears, who everyone already has penciled into the Super Bowl, but c'mon it was 20-0 and the Bears looked horrible offensively.

The defense got it turned around at some point in the first half, holding the Cardinals to a couple field goals after some Chicago turnovers deep in their own territory.

Then came the second half, where the Cards went ahead and gave the game away.

And how 'bout your Pro Bowl kicker missing the game winner? That's just the icing on the cake.

As much as I would like to see the Bears have a decent run this season, after the first few minutes of last nights game I found myself wanting Arizona to win.

I guess that shows how much I care for the NFL, I've been trying for years to find a team to really root for, and haven't found it yet. Which becomes problematic every year when I go to start my Madden franchise. I never know who to pick.

Oh well, thanks to my free Monday nights, maybe I'll have a favorite NFL team by the end of the season and maybe we'll get more classics like last night so we can get more classic coaching tirades at press conferences like Denny Green's.

And for the record, I'm not crowning anyone.