PURDUKE

(Second blog entry of the day...go down and read the first...I actually tried on that one)

--This just in: Charlie Weis is sitting Jimmy Clausen this afternoon in favor of Brianna Scurry. "If we lose with Brianna under center," Weis told me as the Irish got off the team bus, "I can live with that."

--If I were an NFL commentator last weekend, I would have waited until we showed the highlights of Philadelphia's 56-21 victory over Detroit, then said, "I can't help thinking that the Eagles would have put up 70 if only they had a white quarterback."

--An item I forgot to mention from last Friday's pep rally at Notre Dame. When the Notre Dame marching band makes its entrance, they don't wear their band uniforms. Instead, each secction of the bands (e.g., trumpets, percussion, etc.) comes in dressed in its own homemade fashion. Last week, for example, one group came in wearing nothing but blazers (minus shirt sleeves) and boxer shorts. I checked carefully--just once--and there was nothing on under the boxers. Just boxers, in front of 8,000 people. Which could be potentially embarrassing. But, considering what subdivision of the band that it happened to be, I thought it was hilarious. Because it was the woodwinds .

--Everlasting blogstalker G.A. covers South Florida for the St. Petersburg Times, so he must have been at the Bulls' game against West Virginia last night. The biggest game in USF history. Hopefully, he'll send us a first-person account on the blog that is guaranteed to amp up the funny of what you're reading.

--A get-well-soon to Johntourager L.A. , who tore her MCL and meniscus on Thursday. Listen to this. She hurt herself when she was attempting to place a band-aid on her foot, with the foot up on the bathroom counter. The other leg, supporting all her weight, buckled and then came the searing white-hot pain. Just consider the irony: suffering a debilitating injury while trying to put on a band-aid.

--If you get the chance, read Tim Layden's take on Mike Gundy on SI.com. My friend and former colleague makes the brilliant point of wondering why Gundy had to add "...of children" to his "must not be a mother" rant. "A mother...of children?" As opposed to...
Reminds me of the scene in "Airplane!"--yes, the day's second reference to that film, and don't call me Shirley (that's 3)-- in which the mother confides to flight attendant Lorna Patterson (who's unmarried) that she's scared to death of the plane crashing, but "at least I have a husband."

--I'm having a good hair day. Just thought I'd mention it.

--Will Perdue...did not attend Purdue. Which is just too bad. But Drew Brees did, and I note that because Brees, now with the New Orleans Saints, wears the same colors in the NFL that he did in college (black-and-gold). Can you think of another prominent NFL player who does that?

--I sat in the lovely Ross-Ade press box media dining room (again, not being facetious; there's a panoramic view to the north, and it's another lovely midwestern autumn day) at a table with K-9 unit police officers. Great guys. They spent the past four hours sweeping the stadium for potential explosive devices. One of them gave me the following advice as I bid them goodbye: "If you see us running...catch up."

--Watching the Mets lose their fifth in a row last night, I cannot help but go back to their Tuesday night game with the Nationals. Down 10-3 entering the bottom of the 9th, the Mets scored six runs and had the tying run on 2nd base with one out. They lost, with the tying run stranded at 3rd. It didn't seem like such a huge loss at the time, but I believe that if they'd have come back and won that night, they'd have been so loose the rest of the week that the N.L. East would already be theirs by now. As it is, the Mets have to win today and tomorrow and need the Phillies to lose once just to get in. Unreal.

--By the way, my seat in the Purdue press box is higher (by maybe a multiple of two) than my United Airline flight was when we aborted our landing yesterday (see earlier entry). Did I mentioned that I was pissed off about that?