January 2009 Archives

TAMPA – The Steelers held their Saturday walkthrough today and head coach Mike Tomlin opened it up about 250 friends and family, according to a pool report submitted by Mike Reiss of The Boston Globe. Tomlin invited Reverend Jesse Jackson as well.

This is Reiss' report

"Pittsburgh Steelers held a 38-minute walkthrough at the University of South Florida on Saturday morning, their final on-field practice before Super Bowl XLIII.

The Steelers did not have family members and friends at their final walkthrough practice prior to Super Bowl XL, under former coach Bill Cowher.

“We had some people who have been special to us come to practice today – family members and high school coaches,” Tomlin said.  “It’s not a big deal to us, but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them. We wanted to show our appreciation for what they’ve done for us by allowing them to be a part of it.”

 

TAMPA - Despite Deion Sanders' insistence earlier this week that he knows - KNOWS - Donovan McNabb wants to leave the Eagles, McNabb told Philly reporters that wasn't the case.

"Deion is a great guy, but Deion is not speaking for me," McNabb said. "I want to retire as an Eagle. I remember my rookie year or my second year, and I was talking to Mayor Street, and I said that I wanted to bring a Super Bowl back to Philadelphia. I want to go down Broad Street with the parade. The Phillies did it first, and I'm happy that they did. But for myself and Brian Dawkins, it's something we have talked about for years, and it's something we look forward to bringing it back next year."

- Tom E. Curran

When vaunted strength and conditioning coach John Lott arrived in Arizona two years ago, the team’s weight room was pre-historic. Five of the machines were from 1978 and their workout program had weak participation. Something needed to be done, and Lott does not seem like a man of half measures. 

 

“I got rid of everything in there,” Lott said.   

 

The Cardinals were known around the league for their out-dated ways.  Players knew it; reporters knew it.  In a league where the difference between winning and losing is so thin, this was a major competitive disadvantage.  After all, what’s more important than keeping your players healthy and on the field?  With Ken Whisenhunt fully on board and allowing plenty of freedom, Lott set out to change everything in the weight room.  

 

“I told Kenny don’t worry about the horses.  Just rob the bank,” the always-colorful Lott told me this week.

 

The results have been immediate.  Only four Cardinals are on injured reserve and all 53 men on the roster are expected to be available for Super Bowl Sunday.    The Cardinals franchise has drastically modernized since opening their new stadium and adding Whisenhunt.  Lott’s work with the strength and conditioning program was another building block for their success this year.

 

Lott, who played with the ’87 Steelers, is most famous nationally for his work at the NFL Scouting Combine.  When the NFL Network began to televise the event, Lott became something of a cult hero for all the dorks and fans like me who eat up the league’s coverage of the event.  Lott’s awesome weight exhortations of players, nicknames, and catch phrases add color to otherwise drab proceedings.  Most players seem to love it.

 

I asked Lott about why he thinks about become a favorite of the draftniks.

 

“I would call it being more of a representative of a normal person.  Professional sports has detached itself so far from the normal man.  I’m sure you’re not making $7 million this year. I know I’m not.  That is the detachment.  … What I try to do is draw that bridge back to us.  I try to bring these combine guys back to reality.  Back to where we are.  This isn’t a Wonderlic test.  Everyone has a plan until they get hit in the mouth.  You’re about to get hit in the mouth.  And every position coach is going to see how you respond.”

TAMPA - Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin tried this morning to dump water on the notion Ben Roethlisberger  had an MRI on his ribs on Wednesday.

"Like a lot of the situations that go on with Ben's medical status, I don't know where that report came from," said Tomlin. "Ben is fine. He is going to play."

The report came from profootballtalk.com initially and has since been confirmed by other outlets. The Steelers, meanwhile, are casting aspersions but not saying, "Ben didn't have an MRI and he has no pain at all in his torso."

Roethlisberger refused comment on the report when asked by rotoworld and nbcsports.com's Gregg Rosenthal. Tomlin and Steelers PR man both said they weren't aware of any x-ray.

Given that all indications are he did indeed have an MRI, at least they're not going the bald-faced lie route. But more germane to the situation now is how Big Ben will be impacted on Sunday. Will this limit his mobility and agility? And have the Steelers had to tweak their game plan? With Roethlisberger feeling something and Hines Ward not at full speed either, those are two issues to consider before making any Namathian guarantees on the outcome.

- Tom E. Curran

I just got back from Roger Goodell’s state of the league address.  This may sound like a Carson Daly moment, but I could listen to Goodell answer questions all day.  He’s a great public speaker and lets you know exactly where the league stands on a matter, even if you have to translate the legalese.  Some highlights from the proceedings

• Goodell had some very interesting things to say about overtime.  While only 30% of overtime games historically have ended on a first drive field goal, he says that number has risen to 47% recently.  He says the competition committee needs to look at that whether that is dangerous, especially considering how improved kickers are.
• Goodell discussed possibilities like moving the kickoff forward or just starting with the ball on the 20-yard line so that teams have to earn their way down the field.  He says the league will discuss it all this off-season and he expects a recommendation from the committee by the end of March. 
• The league will not revisit the blackout policy, no matter how poor Detroit plays.  Owners may bring up the possibility of taking away the Detroit Thanksgiving game, but he didn’t really comment on that.   Plaxico Burress wasn’t suspended already because he’s not a repeat offender.
• There were a lot of questions about the economy and the CBA, as expected.  Goodell believes that a “flight to quality” in hard economic times will be an assist to the league because it’s such a good product.

Goodell would not directly address why the teams won’t completely open their books to the players.  He said they know the NFL revenues plenty as their partners.  A recently commissioned piece by the NFLPA that claimed teams averaged just under $24 million in profit was “completely inaccurate.” 

Turning to more important subjects than x-rays, I talked to Edgerrin James about his beautiful white Lamborghini purchase.  First of all, James seems like the most relaxed dude on the planet.  Even his saunter to his presser podium was relaxed, taking five minutes to go 100 feet.  Long speed was always an issue with him.

Edge was happy to answer any question, but half of his answers started with, “It’s just football.”  He said he won’t be remotely nervous for the game, and I believe him. 

The only negative thing he had to say all day was that the “sweet” Bucs facility need more pictures of Tony Dungy, because, “that’s my guy.”

I brought up the Lamborghini purchase, and Edge perked up.  I love so many things about the move – getting it parked outside the team hotel for his arrival is a classic memory for the team.  And when I park at the team hotel, James’ car is just hanging out like my rented Pontiac, for everyone to see. 

James has tested out the car some this week, and seems impressed.  I asked if he’ll let any of his friends drive it too.

“My inner circle, we’ll make it work.” 

When asked why he bought this particular car, James says it's partically because he doesn’t like to drive much.

“Lamborghini is a special car, it’s rare. It’s a car that nobody has.  It’s one of those cars you don’t drive all the time.  I don’t like to really drive that much, so it’s perfect for somebody like me.  You don’t have to drive it all the time.”  Then came the line that cracked me up, “Less is more, you know?”

Yes, less is more when you buy your first Lambo.  I finished by asking if he would have bought the car if he didn’t make the Super Bowl.
 
“Why are all y’all here?  It’s the Super Bowl!  It makes sense to get it here.  It’s a fun week.  Why not?”

- Gregg 

Biggest siblings of January:

--Is it the Griffin brothers of Oklahoma, Blake and Taylor, who have led the Sooners to an 8-0 record this month?

--The Jonas Brothers, Kevin, Joe and Nick, who played Scavenger Hunt at the White House on the night of the presidential inauguration? Think about it: Historians, decades and centuries hence, who wish to chronicle the first African-American presidency in detail will need to include the tunes "Burnin' Up" and "Pushin' Me Away" and grapple with the question of what ever became of the "g" endin'? I'd like to be the modern-day version of the 5th Beatle with this band...you could call me the--wait for it-- "Bonus Jonas".

 

--Or is it the Verduccis, Frank and Tom, who, like the Jonas brothers, originally hail from northern New Jersey? Earlier this month, Frank Verducci was hired by Charlie Weis to become the new offensive line coach at Notre Dame. And a little more than a week ago, Tom Verducci, a senior writer at Sports Illustrated (and in my lowly opinion, the most consistently excellent scribe on the staff), made huge headlines with the quasi-release of "The Yankee Years".

 

Full disclosure: I grew up loving the Yankees--although they've still not learned the lesson of Brosius, Martinez and O'Neill: chemistry trumps star power. I can't remember a moment in Joe Torre's 12 seasons as Yankee manager when he did not act with class, with discretion and with dignity. And in my time at SI I wrote Tom Verducci at least twice to tell him how much I loved a story he'd written (His 1996 World Series wrap-up began, "Destiny ends in NY"). Verducci is smart, he's insightful, he's fair and he's a great-looking guy to boot. The MLB Network has signed him and, like fellow SI'er Josh Elliott, the sky's the limit for him in television.

 

All of which does not discount the fact that Torre and Verducci, in the name of selling books, seem to have compromised their dignity. First, as Tony Kornheiser said on PTI on Monday, "This is about selling books." After all, the title will not be released until Tuesday, (right after I buy my Springsteen tour tix on Monday, right after the Super Bowl on Sunday...mmm, I love being spoon-fed) and yet look at all the free pub they've received.

 

Seems a bit disingenuous of Tom V. to grant an interview to SI.com, a site for which he writes, after the initial hysteria of the book, explaining what the New York Post and others don't understand. First, it's just more hype for the book. Second, why all of a sudden do you get to control the message? Do you think you're the first person in the press to have a quote or a photo or a deed taken out of context? You might want to log onto deadspin.com some day.

And as for Torre, obviously there are far, far, far, far, far (times 20) more salacious stories that he could share after 12 seasons with the Yankees. But in a forum where the manager posts the sign, "WHAT YOU SEE HERE, WHAT YOU HEAR HERE, WHAT YOU SAY HERE, LET IT STAY HERE", how hypocritical is it for him to violate that rule?

For what? Money?

Joe Torre is 68 years old. The times I've dealt with him, including a goose-bumpy evening (for me) when I got to go James Lipton for 90 minutes here in front of a packed theater in New York, he has been absolute class. He is 68 years old. He is worth easily eight figures, probably high eight figures. And he was a shoo-in to have his number "6" retired by the Yankees (the only single digit numbers still out there for the Yanks are "6" and "2", the latter worn by Jeter; in other words, there are no single digit jersey numbers left in this franchise).

 

Is this book, at this time in Torre's life and with no need for the money, worth it? Is he truly that bitter? If Derek Jeter had come out with a similar book after he left the Yankees, would Torre have felt betrayed? Now that it's done, does Torre regret his decision? He'll never say that he does when he hits the talk shows next week, but I'd have to wonder why he does not. Because there's no way to spin this without Torre recognizing the fact that he is a hypocrite.

Ben Roethlisberger and Mike Tomlin spent part of their day issuing non-denial denials to Mike Florio's report that Big Ben underwent an x-ray on his sore ribs Wednesday.  This morning, ESPN's bottom line going across their Austrailian Open coverage and Mike and Mike confirmed the report. 

In typical ESPN style, they didn't credit Mike Florio or mention who from ESPN has confirmed the report. "Ben Roethlisberger underwent a second x-ray Wednesday on the rib injury he suffered in the AFC championship game," simply ran across the bottom line. 

Again, Roethlisberger is clearly well enough to play and probably play well.  But Pittsburgh's odd refusal to recognize this story makes it appear they don't want it to become a bigger story. 

Back in college, our spring trip for four straight years was a trip to Florida for two weeks to play baseball (except for that one week freshman year when we ended up in Pennsylvania, and had to run punishment laps around a Holiday Inn for some water-in-the-hotel related incidents). And every year we spent a couple days in Tampa - playing at the Yankees minor league complex and trying to get into bars in Ybor City with fake ID's.

So our trip to Ybor the other night brought back some good times. None as good as the time Matty had at Coyote Ugly - our experiences usually revolved around drinking ourselves into packages and subsequently getting rejected by chicks after telling them we liked their pants. Should've gone ugly, early. Anyway, enjoy ...

Profootballtalk.com editor Mike Florio reported early Thursday that Ben Roethlisberger underwent an X-ray on his rib Wednesday. I got a chance to ask Roethlisberger about it less than an hour later.

Gregg: There was a report on profootballtalk.com earlier today that you underwent an x-ray yesterday. Do you care to comment on the report?

Ben: Nope

Gregg: Is there any truth to the report? 

Ben: I don't know, didn't you just ask me if I was going to comment on that?

At this point Roethlisberger uncomfortably laughed a few times. 

Gregg: How is your back and ribs feeling  after the Baltimore game?

Ben: Fine.

Gregg: Have you had any complications from the injuries?

Ben: Not that I know of.

Roethlisberger clearly wasn't happy to be answering these questions, but he didn't seem surprised by them.  I didn't expect him to confirm the story, but it was telling he chose not to deny getting the x-ray.  He also showed up ten minutes late, which is very rare for these things in my experience.  A conspiracy theorist might think that  he was being prepped to answer the questions.

In the end, it could be usual procedure to get the x-ray or it could be something more.  The only guarantee we have is that the Steelers won't say another word about it.  The players are done with their media responsibilities.  Mike Tomlin will speak one more time Friday.

- Gregg

2:33 PM UPDATE : The incredibly efficient NFL public relations staff distributes daily transcripts of each press conference at the Media center.  My questions to Roethlisberger were omitted from his quote sheet Thursday.

A reporter can only be in so many places, so these sheets are invaluable for all the media in Tampa. Occasionally, some questions are left off by mistake or the sound quality is too poor, but that wasn't the case here.  The questions before and after my inquiries are included in the transcript.  Roethlisberger spoke clearly into microphone when he talked. 

Again, we don't know anything other than what Mike Florio reported.  But it's clear someone is interested in making sure the story doesn't grow any bigger. 

Here's a video we cut during Super Bowl week here in Tampa: Matty Blake running around at media day doing his best James Lipton. He says it all in the open, but to all you peeps back up north, it's 80 and sunny down here. You like that???

James Harrison, who I have tried to stay away from all week because he frightens me, was not an admirer of any particular football player growing up.  In fact, he doesn't really like sports.

"I really didn't watch sports.  I still don't watch sports.  I go home and I watch cartoons 24/7.  I couldn't tell you what's on ESPN or NFL Network or whatever it may be.  Like this right here? I won't see this.  I don't have a favorite cartoon but I have a group of cartoons that I like to watch like Adult Swim, Family Guy, American Dad and stuff like that.  Or I can go old-school with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and a little bit of Pink Panther."  (You don't want too much Pink Panther.)

For some reason, this makes Harrison more terrifying to me.

While we're on the subject of Harrison, I got one oddly revealing tidbit from Steelers LB Lamarr Woodley.  He said he expected Harrison to have a lot of coverage responsibilties in this game, while Woodley rushed the passer more.  The news just sorta slipped out in the middle of a rant, so I don't think he's planting intentionally wrong seeds.   

- Gregg

TAMPA - Tuesday afternoon, while reporters and camera people jockeyed for space near John Madden, Al Michael, Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick, Fred Gaudelli sat staring at a printout of numbers.

Gaudelli, the producer for Sunday's Super Bowl XLIII on NBC, was asked what he was staring at so intently. The answer? Breaks. Which ones needed to be a hair longer than normal, which ones were dropped in to spots you normally wouldn't find them.

"We have to make sure the officials know when these breaks are and that we communicate with them so they don't come back too early," explained Gaudelli.

This is Gaudelli's third Super Bowl and first for NBC. He, along with director Drew Esocoff, will be pulling the visual levers on Steelers-Cardinals.

"The biggest challenge of doing a Super Bowl is all the things you do that don’t have anything to do with the game itself. It takes a lot of choreography, a lot of preparation and it can become taxing if you allow it to," says Gaudelli. "Between 6 and 6:30 (right before kickoff) there’s a lot of pomp taking place. You have the teams taking the field, you have America the Beautiful, you have the Naitonal Anthem, you have the Walter Payton Award winner, you have the coin toss with many dignitaries. A lot of money, time and production has gone into all that from the NFL’s end and you have to cover it in a very, very special way.

"But at the same time America’s ready to watch a game," he says. " So you want to keep things moving but you want a tight, crisp production. These people that (do the pregame festivities) do it all the time but they don’t do it with teams all the time. We do and we know the traps to doing that so it’s a collaboration."

Once the game begins, the broadcast team - including those who never appear on-camera - needs to walk the tightrope of engaging the once-a-year fan while not irking the diehards.

"You’re on to the trick," said play-by-play legend Al Michaels. "There aare a lot of people who know next to noighting about it and they will sit down and watch one game a year and this is that year. On the other hand, every football fan in Amercia knows a lot about the game and will watch it. But you can’t do Kurt Warner's life story in the middle of the game. You just can’t. Even though it might be interesting to someone watching their first Super Bowl game and they'd say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that,’ it's impossible. So what we try to do is find little sidebars to the main story that advance what the basis is but avoids pissing off the fan that watches all the time. You have to be so careful about what stories during the week have been told ad nauseum. There will be some stories that will be played out by Saturday. People will say, 'Enough.' We have to be aware of what those stories are."

Nobody's louder post-Super Bowl than the armchair media critics that lambaste the product. In some cases, they have a gripe. Michaels, Gaudelli and Esocoff want to avoid giving them one.  

"You should be prepared to tell the seminal stories of the game but there’s a good chance the game won’t lead you to all of your stories and you don’t want to force them," said Gaudelli. "If all of a sudden, you’re doing your own show, you’re pissing off most of America. There’s really nothing better than a crisp football game. Just make sure you have it covered and people will be enthused about it as opposed to doing your own thing."

Michaels says this is just the third Cardinals game he's broadcast in 23 years. Because of that, he's spending his time brushing up on the Cards at "60-40" rate.

"We’ll go into the game ready to do anything and everything," says Michaels. "You go in completely prepared but you have to let the game come to you. John Madden says, 'You have all of this info and then a game breaks out.'"
 
In addition to Madden and Michaels in the booth are Andrea Kremer and Alex Flanagan on the sidelines.

-- Tom

Because I'm a dink (Great Curran-ism), I couldn't figure out how to get our video embed code to work in this blog admin ... until now!  To put a nice little bow on our media coverage, here's a look at the biggest eaters on both teams.  Sadly, the cheesburger under the arm story did not make the cut.  We were robbed.  Also included after the jump: the players talk about who the best Ladies man on each team is, complete with visual proof that Cardinals MLB Gerald Hayes digs my sunglasses.  Success! 
 

Wake up call is bright and early for the reporters covering the Cardinals.  (I call us "B team.")   On Wednesday and Thursday, we scurry over to their team hotel before 8AM to hear Ken Whisenhunt and a star player (Kurt Warner today) talk alone for 15 minutes each.  They get off easy: the rest of the players are stuck with us for 45 minutes after that, seated at folding tables spread out underneath an outdoor tent.  Six players get a podium during that time.  I'll be using some of the material later for a longer story, but here are some general impressions from the morning.

• The politics of who gets a podium is fascinating.  They try to spread out the podium love during the week, but superstars like Warner and Larry Fitzgerald need the protection.  Anquan Boldin hasn't had a podium in two days, including yesterday when over ten players did!  It's not a big deal, but it's weird for a two-time Pro Bowler.  If the Cardinals were at all worried about Boldin's story turning negative this week, they know now that it won't.  He has been the picture of team-first talk and genuinely doesn't seem annoyed with his contract situation or the team.  His tolerance for repeating inane questions is rather high.
• Antrel Rolle is not a morning person, yawning repeatedly before I sidled up to talk to him.  He had an interesting comment about the change in leadership by Adrian Wilson's this year, saying Wilson was unapproachable in the past.  "He wasn't too player-friendly before," Rolle said.

That may be the first time in history a player was called out for not being 'player friendly."

• I talked to Wilson again today and can see how he would give off that vibe.  He has a laser-like intensity that could rub people the wrong way, but his love for football shines through if you listen.  When the other guys showed up in suits Monday, Wilson had on a hoodie.  He doesn't care much for appearances and said he turned off his phone the night Arizona won the NFC Championship so he could focus on the Super Bowl.  That's how we want our athletes to be. 

 One local TV guy, completely disregarding everyone at the table this morning, shoved a "boom mike" in Wilson's face and asked him to speak up.  Wilson said "this is how I talk.  And I was talking to this dude," gesturing to me.

I loved it; the other writers loved it.  (The local TV species that assumes they can just cut off any reporter if they have a camera so they can ask 'How crazy is all this attention' is the most vile I've met down here.)  

• Wilson says he "idolizes" Troy Polamalu and is his ability to cover ground in the secondary.  Both Wilson and Polamalu say they watch tape of each other during the off-season to improve.
• I'm doing a piece on Larry Fitzgerald and everyone seems to agree his practice habits have improved quite a bit over the last two years.  Fitzgerald and Ken Whisenhunt think he's better after the catch because his routes are more precise, giving him more separation and room to run when he makes a catch.  Fitz also keeps mentioning how much faster he is after losing 15 pounds.

- Gregg

TAMPA - Mike Tomlin was asked this morning about the status of Hines Ward's right knee during the media access session at the University of South Florida.

"It's awesome!" Tomlin said, a trace of a smile wafting across his face at the overstatement.

Ward has a sprained MCL. It's the same kind of injury that kept Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson out of last year's AFC Championship game because it's virtually impossible to cut sharply without pain.

"(Whatever happens Sunday), it won't be an excuse for the condition of the knee," said Tomlin.

Larry Fitzgerald addressed reports Wednesday morning that he would be willing to restructure his contract to help keep Anquan Boldin. 

 

"I don't know where that came from,” Fitzgerald started, but then didn’t exactly shoot down the reports. 

 

"Someone asked me if I'd be willing to do something to help the team and I said absolutely. ... This is an amazing feeling and I'll do anything I have to do to get back to this point."

 

Fitzgerald is a very honest and open interview subject.  He answered a question about helping the team; of course he wants to.   Whether that’s feasible or necessary is another question.

 

Fitzgerald’s agent Eugene Parker, probably isn’t in love with the topic being out in the ether so publicly.  Ultimately, Parker will have the biggest say here and would probably prefer that these conversations not go on during Super Bowl week.

 

It’s also worth pointing out that Arizona has a lot of cap room.  They have every reason to want to keep Boldin happy, and NFL.com’s Adam Schefter cites league sources that believe Boldin will be happy to stay if the Cardinals give him a sufficient offer.  

And why shouldn’t they?  Boldin is a highly productive player in his prime, who is far more of a team leader than his recent reputation would suggest.  We’ll hear plenty of Boldin rumors early in the off-season, but the most likely endgame is that he’ll return to the Cardinals.     

- Gregg

The Steelers defense knows that it will be a tall task to stop Larry Fitzgerald on Super Bowl Sunday, and have a few different ideas on how to do it.

 

Safety Anthony Smith and others said the best way to slow Fitz down was to hit him - often. "As a safety, I’m going to hit him any time that I can.  Try to tire him out.  Because if he’s fresh, he’s going to be a problem."

 

Surging outside linebacker Lamarr Woodley thinks you have to stop Fitzgerald by concentrating elsewhere.

 

"To slow Larry down, you gotta go back there and hit the quarterback.  You gotta hit the guy that is most dangerous.  And the most dangerous is the guy with the ball."

 

As I mentioned below, Fitzgerald's teammates are his biggest fans. Video evidence right here:

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

 

- Gregg

I focused most of my media day energy on some goofy videos that we'll get up on the site over the next few days.  That didn't leave a lot of time for "football" questions, but that's what the rest of the week is for.  I found last year that the sessions with the players from Wednesday-to-Friday were a lot more useful for getting good info.  With that said, here are a few stray thoughts from the proceedings.

• Both teams were very loose, unlike the Patriots last season. Media Day is inherently trivial and silly, but most of the players, especially the lesser ones, seem to enjoy the moment.
• More than any player, Larry Fitzgerald inspires awe from his teammates.  Everyone had a crazy Fitzgerald practice catch story to tell, and we'll get those up on the site shortly.  Apparently he pulled off a one-handed cross-hand grab with his fingertips that is hard to imagine. 
• Ryan Clark and Adrian Wilson got the nods for the players who can lay the most wood on the field.  Early Doucet said he's cautious around Wilson even in practice, when he knows they can't hit at full speed. 
• I hesitate to draw any conclusions from these gab-fests, but nothing about the Steelers smack of overconfidence.  They are ready to play, but their healthy respect for the Arizona offense seems genuine.  They also have enough new or young players who have talked about getting their ring.  It's a good mix of youth, talent, and experience.
• Surprise funniest player: Steelers C Justin Hartwig.  He'll be a star of the videos.
• I've come to the conclusion that tight ends are the scariest looking dudes on a football team.  Heath Miller comes to mind.  The offensive linemen are bigger, but they are the best talkers and not in conventionally great shape.  My favorite story about some of the ridiculous eating that linemen undertake was about Max Starks.  It seems he's developed a way to sneak cheeseburgers into meetings by pressing them under his arms.  Then when the coach isn't looking, he takes a bite and puts it back.  Yummy.          
• There were a lot of comments from the male population at the stadium about the impressive female talent this year.  I concur.  Maria Menuonous was a personal favorite.  I give a lot of credit to the beat writer who essentially was hitting on her after it was over.
• Cardinals MLB Gerald Hayes complimented me on my sunglasses and said I had style, which is is first time anyone has ever said that in my life.  My wife, as usual, is to thank.   
• More than once, I saw a young defensive back tell Deion Sanders that he was their idol and ask for a picture.  It's fun to see the pros acting like nervous kids. 
• The NFL Players have spoken: Madden '09 was a step backward. 

I'm working on a column now that will try to be a little more coherent than this mess.  Thanks for stopping by.

-Gregg  

Most players are shy about saying too much on Media Day.  Cardinals rookie running back Tim Hightower is not one of those players. 

"I'm not going to be shy about (saying I'm going to score.)  It's going to happen.  It's going to happen twice. ... It's going to be a lot of fun and I'm going to enjoy it." 

Hightower will probably be in at the goal line over Edgerrin James.  The Cardinals have improved their short-yardage offense in recent weeks, but running on Casey Hampton and the Steelers is another matter.

Maybe Hightower got his candor from his mentor James, who was soaking in the moment on Media Day, loose as ever.  Like many of the Cardinals, James feels he has something to prove. 

"I'm an African American.  I'm always the underdog."

-- Gregg

TAMPA - Deion Sanders said this morning that he "knows" Donovan McNabb wants to part ways with the Eagles.

Sanders, on duty flapping gums for the NFL Network this week, was asked by Philadelphia Inquirer writer Bob Brookover why he hates Philadelphia.

"I never said I didn’t like Philly," said Sanders. "It’s a beautiful city. What I said about Philly was, 'Donovan McNabb wants to leave.'"

Brookover followed up by asking why McNabb wants to leave.

"Maybe because they booed him on draft day, maybe because they continually doubted him when he took them to four championship hgames. Maybe because no matter what he does its never enough."

Brookover then pointed out that McNabb has said he wants to remain with the Eagles.  

"Donovan’s a well-spoken, articulate guy," said Sanders. "He does a great job of presenting himself professionally in front of the media. I’m telling you what I KNOW. Not what I heard. I’m telling you what I KNOW not what I heard."

I then asked Sanders how we could "know" if McNabb didn't personally tell Sanders he wanted to leave.  

Deion got irked.

"I’m part of the media too," he said. "You can’t put stuff on me and in my mouth. This is what I do too. You come at me like that. If I was going to say he told me, I’d say he told me. Did I say that?"

So, apparently, McNabb either came to Deion in a dream and told him his wants and needs or Sanders divined this information through telepathy.

Or, McNabb told Sanders and Sanders didn't like being called on how he came into possession of such knowledge.

Either way, if McNabb does indeed want out of Philadelphia, he should probably stop agitating for a contract extension as he's already done. It kinda muddies the waters.

- Tom E. Curran

Heading out for Media Day shortly.  I'll be collecting quotes and some video clips throughout the day at the stadium, so it will oddly be a quiet early part of the day on the blog.  We'll be back here to report on the shenanigans in the middle of the afternoon.   If you have any questions you want asked today or for the rest of the week, leave them in the comments and we'll see what we can do.  Remember: the less famous the player, the easier it is to talk to them!

- gregg

Six Cardinals got in a 15-minute practice today for answering dumb questions.  This will make tomorrow's hour-long Media Day less of a shock. 

One thing you quickly notice at the Super Bowl is that the media festivities are not for the big-time football media.  They stand on the sidelines, knowing they won't get much of value from the big setting. 

My least favorite kind of question is the indirect slam.  It usually starts with, "A lot of people are talking that you guys aren't very good at blank.  (Let's say defense.)

Or:  "The perception by many people is Blank.  How does that make you feel?"

Or my favorite:  "What do you say to all the haters?"

This is annoying on so many levels.  First, no one cares.  Second, the reporter is the one bringing up the issue - no one else.  Stop passing off the buck to "The perception" or "A lot of people" or "America". 

A perfect example from today was a guy who asked this question to multiple Cardinals: "The problem a lot of people have with your defense is that you gave up more points than anybody else that has ever reached the Super Bowl.  How many times do you expect to be asked about this?"

I am naturally a calm, tiny man, but this is so moronic I want to punch something.  He went for the double-indirect slam!  Just say you have the problem.  You are asking the question.  Okay ... breathe.  Standout safety Adrian Wilson is cooler than I am and answered it well. 

"I don't (expect to be asked).  We were better than every opponent in the playoffs.  That's all that matters."

Defensive end Bertrand Berry answered it how I was hoping. 

"I'll just say this.  It doesn't really matter how many times I'm asked it because I still gotta talk about it.  If you want to waste your ink and paper on it, be my guest."

- Gregg

One unsurprising theme I took from the Cardinals first media availability Monday, especially from their forgotten defense: They are going to play the Us Against the World angle.  Hard.  This can be tiring, but it works.  They believe in it.  And judging by some of the borderline insulting questions they received Monday, there is plenty of truth in the angle.

"The fact of the matter is that perception can't help us on Sunday. ... We don't care what people thing about us.  People have said they don't like the fact that the Cardinals are in the Super Bowl.  Too bad.  We're here.  You don't wanna watch us, watch something else.  I'm sure there's programming on other channels.  Good luck with that. ... We deserve to be here, we've earned the right to be here and we're not making any apologies. ... Change usually comes with a lot of resistance."

Well said.  I also appreciated Berry's professionalism in wearing a sweater vest despite answering questions in a humid tent.  Between Berry and Fitzgerald, the Cardinals have the most sweater vests on a single team since my high school tennis squad.  And we won the state title!  Omen?

- Gregg 

I'm running out the door to get on a bus for the Cardinals presser, but wanted to pass along a quick tidbit from Warrick Dunn.  The classy Buc was talking about a worthy program for high scool kids called Financial Football.  Afterwards we talked briefly about the change in Tampa this off-season.  He made it clear he wasn't going to go Garcia by trashing the outgoing Jon Gruden coaching staff.  No surprise there. 

Dunn said he hasn't spoken to the new Bucs coach and GM (Raheem Morris and Mark Domenik) yet, but he knows them of course since they have been with the organization. 

Gruden really revived Dunn's career last season.  Dunn should be back with the team, but one wonders if he'll fit the new offense as perfectly as he did the last one.  

- Gregg

TAMPA - Just back from a quick lunch at Champions in the Marriott next to the convention center. Solid quesadilla (also pronounced CASE -uh-Dill-uh).

I dined with ESPN's Michael Smith, a friend I competed with on the Patriots beat when he was at the Boston Globe and I was at the Providence Journal.

We spent much of the time discussing whether or not Tom Brady will be full-go for the start of the 2009 regular season.

After a while of batting that hypothetical back and forth, Smith's ESPN colleague Tom Jackson sat down with us. Explaining that he was in Pittsburgh last week working on interviews that will run on the station, Jackson couldn't get over how commanding and impressive Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was.

I had the same take on Tomlin in the days leading into the AFC Championship game. When he speaks, there's never an "uh" or an "ummm" or a search for the right word. It's all right there, stream-of-consciousness, run through a wall stuff that Tomlin delivers in such a brutally honest but matter-of-fact way.

Said Jackson, "We finished talking and I said, 'How old are you again?' I'm 57. And he was just so impressive."

-- Tom E. Curran

As Tom mentioned earlier, radio row has a toned-down feel to it this year.  That is partly because it's Monday, the quietest day of the Super Bowl week.  But it's also a smaller area because fewer stations are sending crews.  The few that are left were fighting over the right to talk to Michael Irvin when I walked through.

The main hall of the media center is an odd-looking mix of sloppy-looking writers like myself walking past red and cream-colored leather couches.  A pool table is set up, along with video game systems on monstrous HDTVs.  I have not been able to confirm that any writer knows how to play

The whole shebang is set up right on the water; NFL Network put their main set out there.  Since I feel naked without actually mentioning, you know, football, here is point I've been meaning to make that the Cardinals and Steelers highlight: running the football is overrated.   

Also I can confirm based on NFL Network's breathless reporting: The Steelers have landed! We'll be talking to the teams at their hotels later this afternoon. 

-- Gregg

The Screen Actors Guild awards, the second leg in Hollywood's hibernal triple crown of onanistic satisfaction, took place last night in the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Because if wealthy, beautiful people aren't more in need of public adulation than the rest of America, well then, I don't know up from down. Of course we were watching. Twenty observations:

1) The first man we see onscreen (seated behind his wife, Eva Longoria Parker) is San Antonio Spur point guard Tony Parker. Nice timing how that worked out, as the Spurs played the Lakers earlier in the day at Staples Center. L.A. blasted S.A., 99-85 (it wasn't that close), but don't blame Tony, who scored a team-high 19 points. By the way, would it have killed the SAG people to pair Eva Longoria with A.L. Rookie of the Year Evan Longoria to present an award?

2) I'm putting a hit on the next off-camera voice that tells me that "'Ugly Betty's' America Ferreira  isn't ugly at all--she's beautiful." It's total Hollywood that they wouldn't even bow to get an ugly person--there are plenty of us and we're easy to find; just visit a mall-- to play a character named Ugly Betty.

3) I'm biased, but I loved Tom Cavanagh's "I'm an actor" vignette. Clever and sentimental, which is totally Tom. Will Arnett ("I'm Will Arnett and I'm an alcoholic--actor!") and Steve Carell also shined. How cool if a companion awards show were taking place simultaneously on the other side of the Hollywood Hills, in the San Fernando Valley, honoring those who toil in the adult film industry (The SHAG awards?). Wouldn't you want to hear their vignettes ("So then I was addicted to coke, up to my ass in debt, and my manager noted that at least I still had a rockin' bod") followed by, "I'm Nikki Sands, and I'm a porn star"? 

 4) So it was li'l Alice (Tina Fey's wee toddler daughter) who coined the phrase "I want to go to there." Did she receive a writing credit for that episode?

5) I don't know exactly why SAG bothers with its "Trailblazers" montage when they could have just posted the word "LIBERAL" in 20-foot tall letters on the screen. Did you notice that right after a shot of Dustin Hoffman as cross-dressing "Tootsie" (which was less about gender rights than it was the lengths to which an actor will go to land a gig) they show Roddy McDowell as "damn, dirty ape" Cornelius? I missed the connection there.

6) Nice to see that the incandescent Robin Wright-not-Penn appears to be Robin Wright-Penn again. And if you remember the Golden Globes, David Duchovny went out of his way to mention that he and Tea Leoni are still together. Sean, David, America's males have a word for your: "Sha'".  

7) Jane Krakowski compares her current ensemble on "30 Rock" to her former ensemble on "Ally McBeal" as being "a thousand times...heavier." Ooh snap! I believe that was aimed at you, Calista. Really hoping that the next time "30 Rock" wins an award that they'll let Dotcom or Grizz do the talking.

8) I've got three words for Kate Winslet and two of them are "Va".

9) The dude who played "Frost" needs glasses to read the tele-prompter. He just referred to Richard Nixon as "the disgraced 39th President of the United States." Either that or he has some serious issues with how Jimmy Carter handled the SALT talks.

10) Hugh Laurie should give charm seminars in the week preceding the SAG awards. Always pitch-perfect in recognizing the bombastic, unrealistic aspect of this night and also always just the right amount of self-deprecating ("doing a series of movies was no way to break into television"). And Cuddy looked luminous, yet again.

11) Is there some awards show by-law mandating that whenever Kate Winslet is giving an acceptance speech they must flash to a shot of Meryl Streep? We get it.

12) Inspired presenter pairing would have been "Fast Times..." alums Sean Penn and Forrest Whitaker. They'd show up onstage and somewhere in Rancho Cucamonga the dude who played Damone would rise from his drunken stupor and bark, "I know those guys!" 

• There is some thought that perhaps Edgerrin James won't get cut after all.  He's been a nice story and all this post-season, but he's still a below average starting running back.  Barring a 200-yard game in the Super Bowl, I don't think there is much chance he's back in 2009 at $5 million. A ring would bolster his Hall of Fame credentials, though
• Ken Whisenhunt learned something about having a consistent message from Dick Lebeau.   Expect me to talk about Dick Lebeau way too much this week as I join the Steelers players in trying to get this man into the Hall of Fame discussion next year. 
• Cardinals curfew starts on Wednesday.  If the players are going to have fun in Tampa, it will be the next two nights before the families arrive en masse later in the week.  I'll never forget Laurence Maroney intentionally losing at 10PM at the Madden Bowl last year because otherwise "Belichick will be looking for me."
• Worth hitting this link just for the picture of Dan Rooney and Barack Obama.  It's been quite a year for Rooney considering the impending sale of the team.  I wrote about the Rooneys and Bidwells as the ninth storyline we won't get sick of this week. 
• The Chiefs shouldn't assume much about Tyler Thigpen.  He could be the answer, but you can't count on it. Something tells me Scott Pioli won't be counting on it. 
• Kerry Collins already has a promise to start for the Titans next season.  Where does that leave Vince Young? Will anyone possibly want to trade for him?  I doubt Collins gets a similar promise elsewhere, so he should be back in Tennessee.  
• The Spanos' are unsurprisingly not happy about the LaDainian Tomlinson/A.J. Smith feud.  I've already seen the San Diego media contingent this morning, so I'll ask them for the skinny on the matter once they get over the jet lag.   
• The Eagles are sticking with Marty Morningweigh as offensive coordinator.

- Gregg 

It doesn’t take long to remember exactly why you arrived in Tampa this week.  The minute I stepped off the plane last night, the Super Bowl welcome committee greeted me warmly, with brochures in hand.  Super Bowl XLIII decals are on every elevator and hallway I’ve seen in the city.  Bud Bowl and NFLPA ads are on the rest.

Spotting NFL Network's Rod Woodson at baggage claim seemed to be a good omen for the week.  He looked conflicted wearing a Steelers shirt and a Falcons cap pulled low over his eyes, but couldn’t be nicer to the guy who asked for him to sign a “Football for Dummies” book.

Unfortunately, my bag never did arrive.  It’s supposed to come this morning, which robs the rest of Tampa from seeing me in the same navy hoodie all week.

The media center is located right next to my hotel, so I'll be over there shortly to get the lay of the land.  Be back in a few minutes first with some links from the morning.

- Gregg

TAMPA - We. Is. Here.

Southwest delivered me last night to Tampa, Florida, site of Super Bowl 43 and a place with a lot more degrees than the place in the Northeast from which I flew (Providence). It's about 55 here and I haven't seen 55 degrees since back in 2008.

I got in at 11:30 p.m. and, after first going to the wrong Embassy Suites (I just punched the first one that came up on the Neverlost in my snappy wine-colored Impala), I redirected myself to the correct one which is on the water and connected to the convention center.

The Embassy Suites and Marriott are the two main hotels for this Super Bowl so I got myself at ground zero for the preamble.

This is my sixth Super Bowl since 2001 and it's always a little surreal on Sunday night when you get to town and it's basically nothing but bunting, banners and silence. Calm before the storm. By Wednesday the downtown will be quite stacked and by Friday, when the fans arrive, it'll be shoulder-to-shoulder.

That's another interesting dynamic. The people working the Super Bowl have long since gotten used to their grind when the fans arrive full of piss and vinegar (and beer and stuff). I often tell my friends (ok, friend) that this is one of the more amusing parts of working a big event...you're on the phone with your desk talking about a story and carrying a laptop while some 334-pound guy in a Casey Hampton jersey is sweating like a fountain and singing Christmas carols right next to you.

In anticipation of the weekend crush, I got myself off the 17th floor where I was right next to the elevator. A parade of drunks (good name for a band) at 3:30 a.m. disembarking outside my door on Friday and Saturday night I can do without. I'm going to a lower floor. Plus I'm scared of heights.

So far today, I got myself credentialed up at the media center and swung through to see who was in there. At 9 a.m., there weren't many. Rick Gosselin, a friend from the Dallas Morning News, told me that there will be 20 fewer radio stations on "radio row" this week than in the past. Many papers pulled the plugs on their coverage.

Gary Shelton, a talented Tampa columnist, was the last guy I saw in the media center this morning.

I asked him how it's going so far (writers for papers in the host city have a special little hell to deal with), "We're two steps into the desert. I'm fine so far."

- Tom E. Curran

I'm the one.

The one not on Facebook. I feel as if I'm one of those Japanese soldiers that used to be discovered on remote Pacific islands as late as the 1970s who still believed World War II was being waged. I'm the last holdout. And I plan to remain that way, or in Facebookese, to not change my status.

I don't begrudge you your Facebooking. I'm just a little tired of hearing about it. This past week was the tipping point, as Malcolm Gladwell (who's probably on Facebook), would say. I've been out twice this week and Facebook was the dominant topic of conversation. The second-most talked about subject: I've been out twice this week. Look at you go, J-Dub!

Anyway, I really cannot scold. Seems to me that Facebook indulges our narcissistic side, allowing each of us to be a minor celebrity (after all, don't you manage the message on your page? You may reveal holiday photos, great news about a promotion, but do you also share when you got a DUI or accidentally fall off a ski-lift and are hanging upside down with your pants at your ankles?). And what is this blog but my own personal Facebook (Relationship Status: You Don't Have The Time)?

(Addendum to the above screed: As I wrote about, I don't begrudge you Facebooking. It's just not for me. From the tales I've heard, about 30% of Facebook is an on-line reenactment of that awkard scene from Fargo in which the Asian dude meets Marge for dinner and confides to her just how lonely he is. Geez, dudes, high school was over a decade ago. There's a reason you lost touch.

Also, I did ask someone why she was on Facebook so much and she had the temerity to candidly answer, "Procrastination."

The only thing I heard nearly as much about this week as Facebook was the Twilight series. Now that I might get into.)

Senior Bowl

If you anagram the first word, you can turn the Senior Bowl into the I Snore Bowl. As in, what a snooze. I missed Saturday night's Senior Bowl because, like you, I don't get NFL Network. And this time I would really like to have seen it. First, the move to prime-time is a good one. Second, it was our last chance to see all three USC linebackers -- Marina Del Rey Maualuga, Brian Cushing and Clay Mathews--on the field simultaneously. And I don't think any NFL team will ever regret drafting any one of those three studs (four of the South's starting front seven on defense were Trojans, the last one being DT Fili Moala).

Weird: Former Sooner QB Rhett Bomar (once the nation's highest-rated prep QB) tossing throws to Sooner wideout Juaquin Iglesias. Bomar finished a respectable 6-11 for 41 yards.

Trying to to ferret out information on this Friday night about Mike Shanahan. Is he truly a candidate for the Chiefs head coach job as ESPN reports? Or is he more likely to be named head of Housing and Urban Development than Chiefs chief as Adam Schefter of NFL.com and NFL Network insists?

While I ferret, I wonder for both sides...why would anyone consider this?

More so do I wonder about  the Chiefs. Hiring coaches for a career victory lap does...not...work. Unless said coach's name is Parcells. And even then it only works to a point.

Besides the fact recycling legendary coaches is a losing proposition in virtually every instance its been employed, more confounding is why Scott Pioli would EVER want to bring Shanahan aboard.

Pioli just stepped away from the kind and permissive hand he labored under (Bill Belichick's...the two men were buds). He's going to now hire someone with whom he has no direct working relationship (Shanahan). A man who is accustomed to having his way in Denver. Seems pretty far-fetched.

So too for Shanahan. Wouldn't he rather take a week or 52 off and let Pat Bowlen pay him for his relaxation? That'd give the 56-year-old a chance to catch up with his kids, one of whom recently graduated college, the other (Kyle) is the Texans offensive coordinator. And why would he want to launch himself onto the sidelines for a third AFC West franchise (Raiders, Broncos and - supposedly - Chiefs), especially one that may or may not be good in a four-year span and one that doesn't spend with the drunken sailor proficiency that Shanahan would demand.

Dubious. .

That's how long until I touch down in Tampa for Super Bowl XLIII, not a forgotten Nick Nolte sequel.  I'm pretty fired up to be sharing this blog with the award-winning Mr. Curran.  We'll bring you all the scuttlebutt, interviews, news, and links from football's biggest week. 

In the meantime, here are a few of the links catching my eye on this Friday afternoon. 

• Could this be Steelers defensive coordinator Dick Lebeau's last game?
• On tape, Ben Roethlisberger and Kurt Warner can't get any different. 
• Reason No. 4,081 Mike Tomlin is awesome.  Here's what he said about Limas Sweed's big drop in the AFC Championship:

"I wasn't mad because he dropped the ball.  That kind of mistake can happen to anyone. I was pissed that he'd lay on the ground, fake an injury and cost us our last timeout. My point was, Be a man! Grow up!"

Sweed bounced back to make some plays, including a devastating block, but the Steelers need Hines Ward healthy so Sweed's involvement is limited.  I'd wager that the rookie leads the league in drops/target. 

• An extended interview with Al Michaels a week before calling the Super Bowl. 

Two days and counting until I head down to Tampa for "the big game" ... my pal Gregg Rosenthal and I will be updating you on everything we hear behind the scenes, so check back often.

- Tom

Great day and a great weekend for the USA. Historic. Transcendent. And ultimately, blogworthy. Herewith, reflections from the reflecting pool of the Lincoln Memorial (okay, I wasn't there, but my good friend Erin Kramer--who never played quarterback for the Detroit Lions--was and she sent along some photos that we'll upload soon). Anyway, I am wearing Isabel Toledo as I write this...justkidding it's a Toledo Mud Hens jersey, justkidding it's Bob Toledo's headset justkidding it's not a headset it's a chess set from Chess King justkiddingjustkiddingjustkidding...Anyway...

 

--Loved seeing Tom Hanks speak at Saturday's inauguration concert. It wasa little over the top, however, when Robin Wright-not-Penn started walking across the frozen surface of the reflecting pool bellowing, "For-rrrest! For-rest, is that you!?!" (Truly, though, it would have been funny had they killed Hanks' mic for part of the speech).

 

--If you tuned in to HBO on Saturday (update: Sunday; now that college football season is over, I have no idea what day it is; I'm off every day by one day in this blog post and the previous one; I'm just gonna go ahead and fix the rest, 'k?) evening you had the opportunity to see the always captivating Samuel L. Jackson (who has usurped the place of Morgan Freeman, who usurped it from James Earl Jones, as richest voice in America) give a stirring speech regarding Rosa Parks and her role in America's civil rights story. If you tuned in to the same network on Saturday evening you had the opportunity to see Jackson, in the role of Neville Flynn, bark, "I have had it with these (bleeper-bleeping) snakes on this (bleeper-bleepin') plane!"

 

--Speaking of wildlife and planes and how the two don't mix, there was everyone's favorite pilot, Sully ("I have had it with these bleeper-bleepin' geese in our bleeper-bleepin' engines!"), at Monday's inauguration. And I'd just like to take this moment to make the connection that Sully pulled off his flawless water landing in the same week that Ricardo Montalban passed away. Montalban was best known as Mr. Rourke on "Fantasy Island", a show that each week began with a plane landing safely on the water...and its passengers then heading straight to an island. Hmmm.

--My good buddy Randy is the most devoted Springsteen fan I know--and I know many--and here was his reaction to Bruce's performance on Sunday: "I'm just happy he didn't go with the 14-minute version of 'Mary's Place'." Yeah, me too.

The score at halftime was 64-34.

The Phoenix Suns, who in the previous four seasons never were ranked lower than second in the NBA in scoring offense, totaled 34 first-half points on Monday night vs. the champion Boston Celtics. The Suns, who had lost one game by more than 30 points since the beginning of the 2004-05 season (110-72, at New Jersey, March 27, 2006), trailed by 32 late in the second quarter at TD Banknorth Garden.

"We weren't in our frontal lobe," said Sun point guard Steve Nash.

The heart of the Suns, Nash admitted afterward that he was humiliated and angry. What he did not add is that, for much of the past few months, Nash has been lost.

The Suns, under former head coach Mike D'Antoni, won 62, 54, 61 and 55 games the past four seasons. Currently they are 23-16, having lost three of their past four, and have the distinct look of a 45-win team that will be politely squired out of the postseason in the first round this spring.

That will happen ... provided the Suns advance to the playoffs, which is no longer a given.

The Suns embarked on a season-long six-game road trip to the East Coast on Sunday -- ironically, on the same day that the Arizona Cardinals, long the nadir of the Valley of the Sun's pro sports scene, were advancing to their first Super Bowl. The stops on this tour surely will prove haunting to inveterate Suns such as Nash and "Seven Seconds or Less" era teammates Leandro Barbosa and Amare Stoudemire.

First stop, Toronto, (1/18): The Raptors general manager is former Suns wunderkind GM Bryan Colangelo, who helped assemble the NBA's most entertaining offensive cast of the past half decade. Under Colangelo's guidance, the Suns drafted Stoudemire and Shawn Marion, who between them have seven All-Star appearances, traded for  Nash, who would win two NBA Most Valuable Player awards, and acquired Boris Diaw, who would win the NBA's Most Improved Player award in 2006.

Next stop, Boston (1/19): Not much here in terms of recent nostalgia, although Celtic president and GM Danny AInge is a former Sun player and head coach. And of course, Boston is the site of the most memorable game in Suns history, the triple-overtime loss in Game 5 of the 1976 NBA Finals.

 

Starting Tuesday, January 20th, we'll be hosting a live call-in Super Bowl Trivia show called Big Game Trivia Blitz. Answer 4 questions correctly, and you're the winner for the day and earn an NBC Sports Prize Pack. Call up and show what you've got. The game will last about an hour a day for four days this week.

PHONE NUMBER: 888-237-5269

Schedule:
Wednesday: 12 pm et
Thursday: 12 pm et
Friday: 12 pm et

(One day later update: I apologize to you, readers, because I did not know this information before--perhaps I should have. You can read the following item, which explains why I believe that there is very little chance that Jon Gruden is about to become the next head football coach any time soon; an assertion that football media relations director Brian Hardin labeled as "ridiculous" earlier today.

You can do that. Or you can do this simple math. Jon Gruden's agent is a Reno-based attorney named Bob LaMonte. Charlie Weis' agent is a man by the name of...Bob LaMonte. Charlie ain't goin' nowhere.)

 

You know this man.

Ever since Notre Dame fied Bob Davie following the 2001 season, his name has always been near the top of the wish-list amongst potential Fighting Irish head coaches, along with Rick Neuheisel, Urban Meyer (post 2004), and whoever happened to be coaching Boise State at the time.

Well, as of Saturday he suddenly is unemployed (and, by the way, you have to admire the crease in those khakis, no?). The question becomes, Will Jon Gruden's sudden change in job status have any reverberations in South Bend, Indiana?

Quickly, the background: Gruden, who like Charlie Weis has a Super Bowl ring (the difference being that he was the head coach at the time), attended Clay High School in South Bend, Ind. Gruden's father, Jim, was an assistant coach at Notre Dame under Dan Devine.

Would Notre Dame, now with a viable and available head coaching candidate, buy out Weis and hire Gruden? The former Tampa Bay Buc coach, like Meyer, resides in Florida and has three children, but it seems unlikely that he'd be as unwilling to relocate.

Rich Cimini, a reporter for the New York Daily News, writes the following in his New York Jets blog, cleverly entitled "Jet Stream":

By the way, one of my Bucs peeps tells me that the word around the Bucs is that Gruden could be going to Notre Dame to replace Charlie Weis. Sounds a little farfetched, but as the theory goes: The school will buy out Weis as soon as he signs his recruiting class, in two or three weeks, and hire Gruden. Heard from someone close to the Notre Dame program that there's a weird vibe around the football offices. Hmmm.

My reaction when I read this:

1) Rich, there is always a weird vibe around the football offices. It's called Lockdown Charlie.

2) It's not about to happen. Just because Marisa Tomei suddenly expresses an interest in you does not mean that you meet her for clandestine dates in the hopes of dumping your fiancee (life, as always, can be explained by a Seinfeld reference) and trading up. Now, sure, if Susan licks too many toxic stamps and expires, then you phone Marisa and pronto.

Whether replacing Weis with Gruden, 45, is actually trading up, in terms of coaching acumen, is a matter of speculation. This season Gruden proved that he is just as deft as Weis is at coaching a team that goes in the tank over the final month of the regular season.

3) The real cost to Notre Dame would be to its reputation, which is still attempting to recover, in terms of perception, from the firing of Ty Willingham -- although the aftermath has demonstrated that, in terms of the program's welfare, that was the proper move.

Weis has recruited well. Athletic director Jack Swarbrick made a pledge to Weis and the direction in which he is going less than a week after the USC debacle. Gruden has never been a head coach at the collegiate level. Simply put, it's just not worth it.

The only way this happens is if Weis needs to resign due to health issues. But, as damaged as his knees are, there's nothing imminent in that respect.

4) Did you turn away from the Roast Beast on Christmas eve long enough to watch the Hawaii Bowl? Irish observers are counting on that 49-21 explosion to be a harbinger for the '09 season. And, after two seasons of changing this team's diaper and teaching them how to walk, the feeling here is that Weis certainly deserves to coach this team now that it's hit puberty. Certainly, he could have done a better job in '07 and '08, but let's allow him to reap the fruits of this arduous maturing process.

5) Gruden may just be going to Dallas, anyway.

6) What would be intriguing would be if Weis could lure Gruden into taking over the role vacated by the departure of Mike Haywood, a quasi-offensive coordinator. Besides, Gruden would be a charismatic recruiter. Then again, if you're Weis, do you want such an attractive alternative that close to you? And if you're Gruden you probably don't take a step backward at this mid-point stage of your career.

It was just announced that Ravens running back Willis McGahee has movement in his arms and legs but is complaining of severe neck pain.

McGahee was decleated on a ferocious shot by Steelers safety Ryan Clark and was prone on the field for close to 10 minutes before being carted off with his head immobilized.

The Steelers are durn near impregnable today. And if it weren't for a pass interference call (a poor one) in the first half that set up the first Ravens touchdown and the latest PI (a good one) setting up the second Baltimore score, the Ravens might not be in this game at all.

It's 16-14, Pittsburgh which has to be slightly discouraging to the Steelers since they've outplayed Baltimore so drastically.

It would seem the Steelers got jobbed at the end of the half with Big Ben spiking the ball to stop the clock a split second before the game clock went to zero. That waylaid a chance to attempt a chip-shot field goal and add to a 13-7 lead.

But the Steelers were only in position to get those points because of a heinous 15-yard roughing the kicker call that extended the Steelers drive and got them down there for the chance to think about attempting the field goal.

The Ravens have no more challenges. Head coach John Harbaugh used the first brilliantly, getting a Santonio Holmes diving catch on the goal line wiped out because Holmes didn't control the ball all the way through the end of the catch.

That challenge saved points. The next one though, was a challenge of an 8-yard Nate Washington catch on third-and-6 from the Steelers 15. The catch wasn't really in doubt and given the Steelers were still 77 yards from paydirt if Harbaugh just let it go, it would have been the wise choice.

Instead, Harbaugh challenged, lost and now Baltimore has to hope there's no dicey plays between now and the end of this game.

Casey Hampton and Troy Polamalu just turned away Joe Flacco on a fourth-and-inches sneak from the Steelers 34.

You have to question the Ravens first handing the ball to Willis McGahee on third and less than 1 and then using Flacco on the next play when huge LeRon McClain - all 260 pounds of him - is ready, willing and able to be used.

The Ravens have gotten exactly zero first downs so far. They came into possession of the football after Ray Lewis forced a Willie Parker fumble.

Flacco started the game 1 for 7 for 2 yards. There have been at least two drops, however.

Ravens defensive lineman Trevor Pryce and Steelers receiver Hines Ward both went down on a third-and-10 completion to Ward that gained 12.

Ward made an immediate beeline to the sideline, skipping to keep pressure off his right foot. He's trying to move around on it now but it appears he's having issues.

 

All right, the bit of business over in the NFC got settled on time so we're good to go with the normal kickoff time here in Pittsburgh.

Before we move onto this game, it's worth pointing out that the Eagles have never won a playoff game with Donovan McNabb at quarterback when the opposition scored more than 20 points.

He's 0-5 including today's 32-25 loss.

The others? A 20-10 loss to the Giants in the 2000 playoffs, a 29-24 loss to St. Louis in the 2001 Conference Championship, a 27-10 loss to Tampa in the 2002 Conference Championship and a 24-21 loss to the Patriots in the 2004 Super Bowl.

 

With four minutes remaining in the third quarter of the NFC Championship and the scheduled, 6:40 kickoff for the AFC Championship 70 minutes away, it seems likely the first game will push into the second.

NFL executive vice president of communications Joe Browne just told me that the kickoff here in Pittsburgh will be held "for a few minutes" if that comes to pass.

Browne said that's done "routinely." He also told me to stop getting agita about it when the kickoff was so far off.

Fine. But with two pass-oriented teams whipping it all over the joint, it's getting more likely by the minute.

Yesterday College Football News ran a list of the "100 Best Returning Players of 2009" and guess what? Not one of those hundred gridders attends Notre Dame. Not even this dude made the list. That list ought to be up in The Gug all winter long.

 

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Is it just me, or do you wonder just how long until the telegenic Lorraine Sullenberger is hosting her own talk show? At the very least some deli here in New York City needs to name a sandwich after her husband. Perhaps a, um, burger? Because you couldn't make it a sub.

Chesley Sullenberger: the "Fight or Float" reflex at work.

 

***************

An hour or so after the successful splashdown in the Hudson, MSNBC's Lester Holt wondered aloud if there'd ever been such a safe water landing in aviation history. I'm not sure if this counts, but I do know that this craft was equipped to do so.

 

******************

I'm going to begin referring to the Notre Dame basketball team simply as "MacAngody", which is a morphing of Kyle MacAlarney (as deft a 3-point shooter as you'll see) and Luke Harangody, who basically averages 24 and 12 per game. Unfortunately, those two haven't been receiving much help of late. The Irish lost by 19 at Syracuse today--although they were within 5 points with about six minutes to play.

 

*******************

As I type this The Obama is in the midst of his whistle-stop train ride from Philly to Washington, D.C., which retraces the path and method by which Abe Lincoln took to reach the White House. I mention this only because when Abe made that trip, they actually snuck him through Baltimore, where there had been more than a few threats made on his life. I doubt they'll reenact that part of the journey.

 

 

 

The first "Seriously?!" firing of this offseason was Denver's Mike Shanahan. The second came today when the Buccaneers whipped Jon Gruden overboard.

Like Shanahan, Gruden had it coming to him. A Super Bowl win (or, in Shanahan's case, two) only buys you so much time.

And the Bucs disintegration down the stretch was monumental. They were 9-3 when December began.

They proceeded to lose at Carolina and Atlanta (hey, it happens) to fall to 9-5. Then they got lobotomized by the Chargers and Raiders in Tampa in the final two weekends. This el foldo didn't get the pub it deserved. Two teams traveling cross-county to play in Florida around the holidays. Tampa loses the first to a decent San Diego team. Then, with everything on the line against an Oakland team that - to be kind - wasn't awesome this season, they laid down.

The Bucs disintegration was even more heinous than Denver's. Losing the final three cost Shanahan his job but at least they didn't lose to Oakland in the final week (they got it out of the way in November).

Unlike Shanahan, Gruden really didn't deserve the long leash he's been working with. He won a Super Bowl in 2002 - terrific - but it was a ready-made team he took over. When it came to either A) maintaining that level or B) returning the Bucs to the elites, he failed.

Tampa's won 7, 5, 11, 4, 9 and 9 since winning the Super Bowl. They haven't won a playoff game. Gruden's burned through (or ruined) a fair number of quarterbacks and the cult of personality surrounding Chuckie (hey, didja know he wakes up every day at 4:17 a.m. and that he has an unnecessarily complex playbook?) seemed designed to be more style than substance.

He's not a boob. He probably just needs to get back to basics. Now will he be able to do that? And if so, where?

If he wants to salve his injured ego, the easiest and most likely landing spot for him would be the Jets job. His presence could well sway Brett Favre to stay off his tractor and come back (remember they were making goo-goo eyes at each other last summer) and Woody Johnson would have the requisite sexy hire that would help sell PSLs. How threatened would GM Mike Tannenbaum be by the presence of Gruden? Probably a lot. Tannenbaum's carved out a nice little niche for himself in New York and has already canned his buddy Eric Mangini to save his own posterior for another year. (Aside: Mangini and the Jets authored the other great faceplant in 2008, going from 8-3 to 9-7. Thanks, Brett). Tannenbaum will undoubtedly claim the Jets have vetted worthy candidates like Steve Spagnuolo, Brian Schottenheimer and Rex Ryan and state that it's too late to take a just-fired guy on the rebound like Gruden to coach. But there are other things at play in New York aside from the worthiness of the coach to continue (PSLs, again). And Gruden would possibly satisfy those "other things."

 

It's less than a two-minute walk from my apartment building to the Hudson River and I've often wondered just how quickly I could make it to LaGuardia Airport as the crow flies. Well, now I know. About three minutes.

Unbelievable.

Yesterday afternoon I was at home, typing some screed or other, when Rothstein texted me. "You seeing this?" he asked.

Uh-oh, I thought. I've received those "Are you watching TV?" (of course I am!) texts/emails/calls before: On 9/11, or when JFK Jr.'s plane went down, or when Princess Diana's car crashed, or when Helen Mirren was voted to be among the "Best Beach Bodies". So, to steal a term from yesterday, I braced for impact.

So, like you, I was shocked to turn on the TV and see a plane floating in the Hudson River, with dozens of humans standing on each wing as if they were bustled together on the 72nd & Broadway subway platform. Miraculous.

It was bitter cold here in New York City yesterday. It had snowed in the morning and the high was 18 degrees. Local weathermen advised that last night would be the city's coldest in two years. So it couldn't have been all that comfortable standing ankle-deep in the Hudson River. But it was better than the alternative.

Of the many fascinating items this story has given us (e.g., People name their children "Chesley"???), my favorite is our ability to speak to "the dead". Sure, people have survived plane crashes before, but how many commercial airliners go down just a $5 cab ride from the media epicenter of the planet and you have so many witnesses available?

Because I've always wondered exactly what people think and say when a plane's going down -- I'll admit, it's my second-greatest fear (after marriage ... oh, c'mon, lighten up). And that's the weirdest thing about a plane crash: an instant before impact, you're not sick; you're not in any physical pain; you're of sound mind and body ... yet your mind is telling you that it's all about to end. It's like watching a bullet fly at very low speed but being unable to do a thing to avoid its path ... unless you're Keanu Reeves or Angelina Jolie.

So what goes through your brain in those final seconds? Sure, you're praying. And maybe you're thinking about all that you're going to miss. Me, for example, I would have been thinking, "I cannot believe that I'm going to miss Season 3 of Friday Night Lights!"

You don't get many happy ending crash landings ... in January, in water. One of my favorite lines from this incident, and I cannot recall where I heard it. "How did that plane float in the Hudson?" "You don't wanna know."

Reporter: "Sam, what do you like most about being a college football player?"

Sam Bradford: "Everything."

Midway through his press conference earlier tonight in Norman, Oklahoma, Sooner quarterback Sam Bradford was finally asked a "soup question". That is, a reporter asked him a question the object of which is to obtain information that matters to us. "How excruciating was this decision?" is not a soup question. That's a question that begs a sarcastic Bob Knight-type response in which the respondent opens his arms wide as if he's describing the size of a fish he caught. How do you answer "How excruciating...?" in a manner that could ever possibly provide pertinent information?

Not a soup question.

What do you like best about being a college football player? Now that's a soup question. And that Bradford replied as if he were Russell in Almost Famous ("So Russell, what do you love about music?" Russell adjusts his chair, leans in to the tape recorder and replies: "To begin with--everything."), well, how satisfying was that to hear?

 Sam Bradford is returning to Oklahoma for his redshirt-junior season and the smile on his face is only equaled (or at least nearly so) by the smiles on the mugs of all of us who love college football. Bradford's return means that for the first time ever a college football season will begin with not one but two Heisman Trophy winners active (Bradford and Tim Tebow). It means that the three highest-profile players in college football, the trio who finished 1-2-3 for the Heisman, will all be returning (imagine how much more intriguing college basketball would be this winter if Derrick Rose, Michael Beasley, Kevin Love and O.J. Mayo had returned for as much as a sophomore season).

In the little town that I call home, New York City, there is an excess (and an abcess) of heavily-accented sports radio hosts who attended schools such as Fordham and Hofstra, etc., who in the next 24 hours will most likely lambast Bradford for the choice he has made. For turning his back on millions.

They just don't get it. Many of them have never been any closer to Norman or Baton Rouge or Gainesville or Austin or Athens or Ann Arbor--you get the point--on a fall Saturday than their plasma screens will take them. What awaits Bradford (and McCoy and Tebow and others who will return when they could have signed with an agent) is the type of unforgettable year in their lives that they will never be able to have when they're 25...or 30, etc.

This isn't college football-related, but read the following blog entry from Notre Dame basketball forward Zach Hillesland that recently ran on The Quad, The New York Times College Sports Blog. It captures the essence between the pure fun of being a college athlete and the life of a professional. Of course, there's more to life than having one more year of behaving like Otter and Bluto (though, to be honest, not much more). But if you saw Bradford's press conference, if you saw the smile on his face when he leaked that tight end Jermaine Gresham and O-lineman Trent Williams will also return (followed by a, "Sorry, coach"), then maybe you acknowledge that there are some things more valuable then wealth.

There are certain positions in college football (running back, foremost) that have a finite time-frame of true value. And there are many college athletes whose families are in far more dire financial straits than Bradford's or Tebow's or McCoys. LeSean McCoy, the Pitt running back who was basically the entire Panther offense (often taking direct snaps out of the Wildcat formation), declared himself eligible for the NFL draft today. Good for him. McCoy takes too many hits (only three backs--Javon Ringer, Donald Brown and MiQuale Lewis--had more carries this season than McCoy's 308), and has already missed a season of his career due to an ankle injury. Running backs and wide receivers, players whose speed is a fundamental part of their value, live on borrowed time.

Quarterbacks can afford to wait. While there is a rookie QB playing (Joe Flacco, who could have been LeSean McCoy's Pitt teammate last season, but that's another story) in this weekend's NFL conference championship games, there are two others who are 32 (Donovan McNabb) and 37 (Kurt Warner) years old.

Bradford followed his heart. And at the same time he showed wisdom. Money makes life a lot easier, and if your family is destitute, who can fault you for signing with an agent and driving off campus? However, far too many of Bradford's peers have been raised to think, or brain-washed into believing, that with wealth comes respect...and self-esteem. In short, happiness. And it just doesn't (you saw Dreamgirls, didn't you?).

Looking at Bradford's face tonight, I'd say he already has happiness. And he knows right where to find it. He may be one state south of Kansas, but for that Okie native, there's no place like home.

As to the mundane matter of how Bradford's decision impacts college football? Well, with Gresham, considered the best tight end in college football, returning, along with Williams, the Sooners may just average 50 points again next season. Redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Gerald McCoy, whom some say would be the best defensive player in college football in 2009 if he were to return, is reportedly coming back as well.

The Sooners have an interesting September coming up, with games at Miami (surely they'll relish revisiting Dolphin Stadium), against BYU in Dallas, and versus Tulsa. However, with this cast returning, Bob Stoops' team will enter 2009 ranked no lower than 3rd.

Outside of Norman, no player was probably more affected by Bradford's announcement than USC quarterback Mark Sanchez. Word is that Sanchez will announce on Thursday that he is turning pro. Pete Carroll is flying back from Hawaii for the announcement. That Sanchez has waited until the deadline day to make his announcement points to Sanchez truly being undecided (reports are that his family has discouraged him from going pro). But absent Bradford in this year's draft, Sanchez becomes the 1st or 2nd quarterback on the charts, alongside Matthew Stafford of Georgia.

 

Why should Sanchez go? Because if he waits until next year he will be in contention with Bradford and McCoy on the draft boards--and that could cost him dearly. Because there are three teammates behind him on the Trojan depth chart, all of them five-star preps, itching for him to leave.

Why should Sanchez stay? Because it doesn't get much better than being the starting quarterback for USC. Because the Trojan O-line returns intact, because skill position studs such as C.J. Gable and Joe McKnight and Stanley Havili and Damian Williams and David Ausberry and Marc Tyler...they'll all be back. Because how many NFL games will Sanchez play in that have the electric atmosphere of next year's games at Ohio State, at Notre Dame, at Oregon and at Cal? Because the BCS Championship game, should Troy survive that odyssey, will be played in USC's backyard. Because it'll be unforgettable.

And one year later, Mark Sanchez will still be rich.

I'll be reading Sanchez's face on Thursday afternoon. Looking to see if his smile is as ear-to-ear wide as Bradford's was on Wednesday. If he's leaving because he feels he is supposed to, or because he truly wants to. If he's happy.

Either way, I hope he is. But if Sanchez leaves, he'll be missing out on one special season in college football. If he stays, he'll be an intregal component in the most accomplished crop of returning QBs in recent memory.

So you've probaby heard or read about Michael Irvin's stop-light confrontation with potential carjackers north of Dalls on Monday night. As it turns our, the Dallas Cowboys' Hall of Famer was unable to secure a name or a license plate number from the weapon-toting fans. It's almost as if Irvin has taken the term "fantasy football" to another level.

 

However, my intrepid sources in and around the Metroplex have done some digging and are fairly certain that this is the hombre who pulled a weapon on Irvin (psst: not a word of this to Ed Werder, 'kay?).

 

By the way, Bob Knight is already calling this "the greatest blog entry of all time".

 

Thank you.

The Gators return nearly their entire defense (you have to expect Brandon Spikes will declare for the "League"), Tim Tebow, and their running backs. They're a comfortable preseason No. 1 pick for '09, but I'm going with Texas for the hunger factor. The Longhorns will come into '09 far more motivated than the Gators -- not that the Gators won't be, but picking them No. 1 is just too banal. My preseason Top 10, as of Jan. 10:

1) Texas....Is it finally Colt's time?

2) Florida...If Charlie Strong stays in Gainesville as defensive coordinator, watch out.

3) Alabama...Nick Saban's recruiting the past two years is too good to ignore. 

4) Mississippi...Houston Nutt has done wonders in just one year.

5) USC....Is Sanchez returning? Lots of talent on defense, but most of it is inexperienced.

6) Oklahoma State...This season's version of '08 Mizzou, but maybe will show up better in big games than the Tigers did.

7) Oklahoma...Sam B. will miss that offensive line. 

8) Virginia Tech....Tyrod Taylor leads a maturing team.

9) Utah...Lots of defensive talent returning.

10) LSU...Did you see what they did to Georgia Tech? Jordan Jefferson looks like the answer under center.

There were some people out there who thought that the Giants fans would give the team a mulligan this year. They could go 0-16 and no one would care. Prior to the Eagles game, my buddy Will (an Eagles guy) called Giants fans "milk toast."

Right.

And you wonder why Jersey gets a bad name...

Really not into teams wearing patches or bands or any of that nonsense. The exceptions are the black bands to mourn the deceased, and those lightning bolts that the Knights wore in The Natural. So you could probably guess my feelings on the Mets sporting this on their sleeve this upcoming season:

 

Strong. No mention of the team or the stadium on there. Inaugural season for what? For whom? Must be worried that the Citi sponsorship is in jeopardy. Still, that's the best the marketing department could come up with? I have two sisters who are art majors who would gladly (and easily) design something way more creative. Plus, it'd give them a shot to meet David Wright.

Have any ideas? Send them along...

 

And now for something entirely different!

One day tape-delay blogging of the Golden Globes, which I viewed live from a hotel bar at the Miami International Airport (shortly before spending the night on the floor there. Airports, one question: Could you at least dim the lights a little between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.? Anyone got a problem with that?  Those of us stranded wouldn't have to sleep, or try to sleep, with coats over our heads, and hey, it's the GREEN thing to do).

So here we go -  now that I've had a chance to digest everyone else's blogs and "Best & Worst" of the Golden Globes pieces:

1) Kate Winslet wins for a transcendant performance in a movie whose title is kryptonite to 99% of the USA. The Reader? Grrrreat. There should be some coronation ceremony in which Meryl Streep taps Kate on the shoulders and passes the torch. My favorite Kate film, by the way, is her first: Heavenly Creatures. Though she was pretty good in that Bend It Like Beckham flick. Wait. Huh? 

2) I'm dubbing Sting's brunette 'do the Sting Winterfest. He spends his entire career driving every woman I know crazy with the Sting Classic  and then suddenly he's taking tonsorial tips from Charissa Thompson? Sting looks like a cross between Robin Williams and Bono 

3) Bruce Springsteen ventures out of his comfort zone and pens a tune about a Jersey loser with broken dreams and redemptive qualities. Next you'e going to tell me that Clint Eastwood has a role in which the character is a laconic, trigger-happy loner. What?!? When?  

4) I knew that Neil Patrick Harris hadn't won "Best Supporting Actor" in a comedy series when the presenters didn't say, "And the winner is--wait for it!---Neil Patrick Harris."

5) Sookie Stackhouse! Yes, Anna Paquin wins for "True Blood", the show I've had a crush on for months now. Ever since she went blonde, she's become Reese Witherspoon-lite.And there ain't nothing wrong with that. Blonde is better. Are you listening, Sting?

In advance of Sunday's AFC Divisional Playoff game between the Steelers and Chargers, I wrote "San Diego's going to get to 21 points. Will the Steelers? I don't think so."

That is tantamount to predicting a Chargers win.

However, according to multiple reports,the Steelers did, in fact, reach 21 points in today's AFC Divisional Playoff game. Some outlets are reporting that they actually reached 35.

And while the Chargers not only met but exceeded the point total I forecasted, their 24 points (again, according to multiple print, TV and web reports) was not enough to garner them a victory.

Steelers fan Dave (Stubaby) Stulak inquired last week if I would make a correction if the Steelers did score fewer than 21 points.

This is not a correction. It is, however, a clarification of what actually transpired.

I must give a nod to the Pittsburgh coaching staff. They were able to instruct their punt coverage team to block Eric Weddle into the oncoming punt just so it bounced off Weddle's helmet, resulting in a time-consuming Steelers possession. In addition, tremendous work to the Steelers defensive staff allowing Philip Rivers to throw for 308 yards on 21 of 35 passing. Set 'em up for a fall.

Hmmmph.

Either way, the good news for me is that the Steelers win means I am coming to the 'Burgh next week, my favorite NFL city. And on that, I am not kidding in the least.

Enjoy yourselves, Pittsburgh.

With another brutal Jets season in the rearview, I couldn't vent alone. Decided to trade some emails with my buddy David Tramonte (fellow Jets fan) to wonder what the hell happened and what lies ahead. Call it a sort of theraputic interaction...

***

MC: So another Jets season in the can, and another colossal disappointment. Every season rooting for this team leaves you depressed, but the stench after this one was worse than what the stall probably smells like after Kris Jenkins does some damage. I'm always cautiously optimistic about this team for some reason, but this season they sucked me in to the point I was dreaming of a Jets/Springsteen Super Bowl combo and passed out about 10 times at the sheer possibility.

Naturally, they go on to lose four of five, Favre falls apart, Shaun Ellis is lobbing a boulder of snow into the stands in Seattle (amazing by the way), I find myself rooting for the Dolphins in week 17 just so the Pats would miss the playoffs, Woody Johnson gets bombed in the owners suite with his other rich buddies and decides to fire Mangini on the spot, we're looking at a real possibility of either Kellen Clemens or Brett Ratliff as the 2009 starting QB, and now I'm hearing that, even with the likes of Mike Shanahan and Brian Billick available, the seed of Marty Schottenheimer is the leading candidate to be the new head coach.

A couple questions for you ... Where does 2008 rank on your all-time Jets disappointing seasons list? Realistically, who do you want as coach and quarterback next year? As a Sopranos fanatic, how embarrassing does the Mangenius cameo look in hindsight? Why do we keep rooting for this team?

***

DT: I can tell you right off the bat that rooting for the Jets has taught me how to accept failure in my own life. Luckily my Yankees fandom evens things out. How you and the majority of New Yorkers can live your life rooting for the Mets and Jets at the same time, two snake-bitten franchises, is beyond me. Speaking of snake-bitten: could there be a worse marriage than Marty Schottenheimer and the Jets? It would be like thinking Pac-Man Jones and Brittany Spears would make a good couple because they are both so volatile. In what alternate universe would we be living in where Marty Schottenheimer becomes the coach to bring the Jets playoff success?

So why in the name of physics would the New York Giants run 6-4, 225-pound Eli Manning into an Eagles defense on fourth-and-inches when you have Brandon Jacobs with a head of steam and 39 more pounds at his disposal ready to slam for the first down?

Worst. Call. Of. The. Weekend.

 

The Eagles just completed their first legit touchdown drive of the day (the first was a 2-yard job off a pick) and it's now 20-11, Eagles.

The Giants rushed the ball five times in the third quarter for gains of 11, 5, 3, 2 and 1. They appear to be committing to getting something going on the ground here at the start of the fourth quarter but, needing multiple scoring drives, New York is suddenly up against the clock.

...McNabb's paa-aasss-inng. The Giants ravenous defense has gone quiet up front and, with that, Donovan McNabb is getting hot. And with that, the Eagles offense bogs down as the pressure ratchets up and Philly settles for a field goal to make it 13-11.

 

 

After the Giants knocked a field goal through following a Fred Robbins interception to start the half, Philly faced a third-and-20. McNabb, escaping pressure, found Jason Avant to pick up the first down. On the next play, McNabb surveyed the field and found a streaking Kevin Curtis along on the left sideline. McNabb hit him in stride and Curtis dropped it.

With the score 11-10, Giants, the Eagles drive continues.

On a third down from the Giants 41, Donovan McNabb saw a corner blitz coming from Terrell Thomas, panicked and underthrew DeSean Jackson on the right sideline. The ball was picked and by Kevin Dockery and even a whisper of having a chance to score or pin the Giants deep with a Sav Rocca punt was peed away.

McNabb also took a safety that made it 7-5 when he threw to a completely vacant area in the right flat while again panicking. The intentional grounding in the end zone will no doubt hurt.

These are plays which directly impact the scoreboard and in the hundredth of a second when McNabb has to decide whether to play safe or making something happen, he's deciding (as he often does) to roll the dice.

Which is what I was talking about earlier this week.

The Eagles are up but here's a stat to bear in mind as this unfolds. They've run the ball six times and been tackled for a loss on three of them. Westbrook's carried 4 times for -4 yards. Meanwhile, McNabb's 2 for 4 for 7 yards and hasn't yet appeared calm cool or collected in the pocket.

Fortunately for Philly, the Giants seem to be just a tiny bit off. Eli Manning just fired long over Steve Smith on a deep route on third-and-7 and the Giants are 1 for 5 on third down so far.

11 months after dropping an pass thrown by Eli Manning that would have cemented the New England Patriots as the greatest professional football team in the history of civilization, Asante Samuel held on to one.

Hauling in a poorly thrown Manning throw outside the right numbers, Samuel - the Eagles big money free agent signing from the offseason - returned the pass to the Giants 5. Donovan McNabb ultimately punched it in on a quarterback sneak.

My man Peter Schrager from Foxsports.com pointed out the symbolism first. But I definitely would have thought of it. Definiely.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - It looked like the Giants were going to squander a 65-yard Ahmad Bradshaw kickoff return to open the game but got a fourth-and-2 conversion from Brandon Jacobs and a 13-yard completion to tight end Darcy Johnson to set up a 22-yard John Carney field goal to make it 3-0.

One play that went begging for the Giants was their first play from scrimmage when the Eagles left Steve Smith open around the 5 but a poor pass (wind affected?) ended up behind and short of Smith, possibly costing four points.

Thoughts and stuff from the BCS Championship Game, afterglow, etc.:

-- After that hit that Major Wright put on Manuel Johnson on the game's third play, I would have given him a battlefield promotion to Lieutenant Colonel Wright. From where we were seated, you could see that play unfolding for a little more than a second or two. It was like watching a surface-to-air missile take down a drone. I may have even covered my eyes upon impact.

--The most stunning defensive back play I've ever seen in a national championship game (or, perhaps, in any game) was George Teague's strip of Lamar Thomas in the 1993 Sugar Bowl. First of all, that was about to be a 90-yard pitch-and-catch (and perhaps everyone would treat Gino Torretta more kindly had that gone for six), and second, Thomas had a near five-yard lead on the Alabama safety after he made the reception. That was the moment when every Miami fan sort of conceded, okay, it's not our day.

    But, if we had to award a silver medal in this event, I'd give it to Ahmad Black for his interception in the fourth quarter the other night. Our press box seats were in the corner of the stadium, behind the play, so we had a good perspective for what Sam B. was seeing, which was man coverage. The moment Juaquin Iglesias broke on that post route, Bradford lofted up the prettiest, softest aerial you've ever seen and Iglesisas never had to break stride to catch it. Which he did. A split-second later, Black just ripped it from Iglesias' hands.

     If Iglesias makes that grab, OU has a first down on the Gator 23 with ten minutes to play and trailing only by 3. Huge play, a game-changer.

-- I came away from the contest with a renewed appreciation of Sam Bradford's talent, even if OU was held to two touchdowns. You talk to coaches who cultivate passers, and they tell you that the two most important factors are 1) accuracy and 2) decision-making. Some of Bradford's passes had no right finding the little sliver of space that they did for the completion. He is uncannily accurate and he never forces a pass that isn't there. At one point in the game he was 16 of 21 and this against one of the better secondaries in the nation.

   And as much as I love the Tebow, I also came away seeing Mel Kiper, Jr.'s point. Tebow doesn't love being a pocket QB. He loves to make plays on the run as well as to run the ball. He's certainly a big, strong guy, but I don't know how long he'd last in the NFL taking it up the middle against the likes of James Harrison or Lofa Tatupu.

Nor is he as accurate as Bradford. Tebow's first pick was just a pass thrown to the incorrect spot; his second pick resulted from having his vision shielded by his own linemen. Both of Bradford's picks actually touched Sooner receivers first. You can't really pin those on him.

--In Friday's USA Today, Mike Lopresti had a terrific column that I hope President-elect Obama and all other playoff advocates read. Entitled "Guidelines for BCS bashing", it sets out ten ground rules for playoff fans if in fact they get their way. A few of the rules: Accept that the major bowls die (which is true). You can't expect fans of one team to make two or even three trips to playoff games played in a bowl setting during the holidays. Another: Coaches with .645. winning percentages cannot complain when they get canned. As it stands now, you go 7-5 or 8-4 and well, that's a bowl-game record, and the heat isn't so bad. In a playoff system, 8-4 means stay home and suddenly there's a lot more pressure. If you don't believe that, then tell me why Jim Boeheim wants to see 128 teams in March Madness.

Another point I'd love a playoff advocate to explain to me: Why, if it is unfair that 13-0 Utah or even 12-1 USC does not "have a shot" at the national championship (and I'm not saying that it is fair), do I not hear a similar uproar about the New England Patriots? The Pats finished 11-5 this season, giving them a better record than four of the twelve NFL teams that made the playoffs.

The Pats have a better record than one-third of the teams in the NFL postseason, and they're not invited? That's fair? I understand that they didn't win their division, but isn't a division an artifiical construct meant to make it easier for fans to develop rivalries, etc.? Does anyone really believe the Pats, who beat the Arizona Cardinals 47-7 in their 15th game, are a worse team than the Cards, who are playing in a divisional playoff game this evening?

I understand how the NFL works and I'm not saying they need to alter their system. What I don't understand is how those who gripe for a playoff in college football can be perfectly fine with the Pats not being in the playoffs. Because it seems to me that their argument, that Barack's argument, is that the best teams are not settling it on the field. Well, then how do they explain 8-8 Arizona in the postseason and 11-5 Arizona not in the postseason?

The fertile minds over at Deadspin have come up with a "Sportscaster Thought Bingo" card for tonight's contest. Genius.

While I lack their reckless imagination, comic sensibilities and, well, the technical ability to create a bingo card image on this blog, I will supply topics I'd like to see Thom Brenneman and Charles Davis discuss. Not that I expect them to, but here goes (and, yes, this is an idea I should have thought up about 2 hours ago):

 

1) Where's Rhett Bomar?

2) 60 Minutes did not one but two features on college football coaches this season, and neither one was on Urban or Stoops.

3) Ryan Reynolds is not that Ryan Reynolds,

4) Pac-Man Jones' immortal quote, already the Quote of 2009, uttered yesterday: "I gotta love me some me." (I know it has nothing to do with this contest, but what a wonderfully diva thing to say.

5)  Baby Mangino 

6) Famous Iglesiases: Enrique, Julio, Joaquin.

7) Brett Venables' hair. It has always intrigued me.

8) Ron Zook, former UF coach, was the position coach of Charles Davis at Tennessee. Gotta have some nutty stories.

9) Gaza.

10) If only we were ESPN and not Fox, we could show a photo of Erin Andrews from her Dazzler days.

11) Does Florida have a hook-and-ladder play and a Statue of Liberty if things get desperate?

12) Better O-line name: Pouncey or Loadholt?

 

Okay, things are getting interesting here and I've got to head down to the field soon. Thanks for reading tonight, and all season. I'm sure I'll have something tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Walters' First Rule of Football Coaching is...NEVER EVER EVER EVEr EVER NEVER burn a timeout in the 3rd quarter. Not ever. I would add that you especially should not call timeout in a game that is tied. And even more emphatically I would say not to waste one in the 3rd quarter of a tie game for the national championship.

 

Oklahoma and Florida just burned one apiece in the 3rd quarter. On the same play. A punt. I've never seen that. After all that stategery, we all just wanted something dramatic to occur on that punt. And it did. The Gators roughed the punter. But, four plays later and with far less drama, OU punted again.

 

By the way, I'm still waiting upon a Walters' Second Rule of Football Coaching....

 

I'm watching Bob Stoops and he's agitated. Again. He's been agitatin' all evening.

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Tim Tebow tossed two interceptions in 13 games this season, in 268 pass attempts. Tim Tebow tossed two interceptions in the first half this evening, in 17 attempts.

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The Gators became the first Sooner foe to score first this year. Then again, the team scoring first has lost the last four BCS title games.

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Someone somewhere is wondering why Louis Murphy was flagged 15 yards for unsportsmanlike (and, hey, can we get a shorter word for that term, please?) conduct when, after catching a pass for a first down in the opening half he imitated a referee's first down signal, yet when Tebow just ran for a first, got up, punched a fist and exhorted the crowd, there was no flag. Someone somewhere is wondering about that. Maybe someone very close to this 'puter.

 

 

Halftime points that Eddie George, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer may be making from a continent away:

 

--Bob Stoops gambled twice and lost from inside the 8-yard line, taking at least 6 points off the board by eschewing easy field goals. Fortunately, those types of decisions never come back to haunt you and, hey, it isn't as if this is a big game.

--Florida may be the fastest team in America (as they bill themselves), but if there are no holes through which to run, what does it matter? Take away Percy Harvin's 46-yard gallop--and yes, that was a big play--and the Gators have just 23 yards on 15 carries.

--Even though it's 7-7, there have only been three punts, and none were returned. Two were touchbacks. So much for that factor, at least in the first half.

--The Gators' four leading tacklers after one half are their four defensive backs. If that trend continues in the second half, the Gators will lose. They need to put more pressure on Bradford, who has just been every bit worthy of his Heisman thus far.

--OU has 7 first half points. Here's how many points the Sooners scored in the first halves of their previous games this season:

 

Chattanooga..........50

Cincinnati..............21

Washington...........34

TCU......................28 (nation's No. 2 scoring defense)

Baylor...................35

Texas....................21

Kansas.................24

K-State.................55

Nebraska..............49

Texas A&M...........38

Texas Tech...........42

Okla. State............21

Missouri................38

--A halftime marching band (belonging to neither university) is playing along with Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine's "Do the Conga". Why??? Why??? Shouldn't there be a statute of limitations on that tune? 
Why not just ask Crockett and Tubbs to be the sideline reporters? 

 

Tim Tebow, two picks already in the first half. Luckily for him, the Gator defense has bailed him out twice--this last time with two stops from the 1-yard line.

 

I was about to say that the MVP of the game thus far has been the Oklahoma defensive front four--Jeremy Beal, Gerald McCoy, Adrian Taylor and Frank Alexander--but as I was typing this Percy Harvin just ripped off a 46-yard run directly up the gut.

Before that, however, Florida had just 24 yards on 12 rushes. The Gators' inability to run has created numerous 3rd downs and passing situations. UF was cheating the odds on 3rd down until it finally caught up to them with Tebow's pick, thrown dead into the belly of Sooner defensive tackle Gerald McCoy.

 

--Bradford is definitely outplaying Tebow thus far. TT hasn't been awful, but I'm still waiting to see Bradford throw a bad pass. And what an effortless throwing motion. It's pretty to watch. He's 16 for 21 thus far.

 

--The Sooner Schooner is located on the Florida bench side and has been all half. For what it's worth.

 

Sorry it took so long for this next blog to arrive. I was about to post it, but then the blog replay booth buzzed in and said they wanted to review the "premature ejetuation" line.

First-quarter impressions:

--Sam Bradford is an uncannily accurate passer. He's completed passes so far, including his first throw of the game, where there was just a sliver of space to thread that needle. No wonder the NFL loves him.

--Stat of the game thus far: 0-0, the score, between two of the country's three highest-scoring offenses.

--Stat of the game thus far, Part II: Gators are 4 of 4 on 3rd down conversions. In their loss to Ole Miss, UF was 1-11 on 3rd down.

--OU left guard Duke Robinson committed two penalties for 25 yards in the Sooners' second possession. In Duke's defense, the personal foul penalty was ticky-tack.

--Too many stoppages of play thus far, in terms of review. The refs blew one OU play dead just as they were snapping the ball for no reason I was able to discern and Stoops was stoopendously angry. I think they stopped the game to honor Billy Sims again, but I'm not certain.

--The Gators seem to have stolen Notre Dame's between-the-tackles rushing offense. I'm just sayin'...

--Florida just scored on a 20-yard pass play on...what else?--3rd down.

--The Gators' three longest plays--19, 21 and 20 yards--have come on 3rd down. 

 

******************

Update: OU tailback Chris Brown gained 10 yards on four carries in the first quarter. In OU's first drive of the second quarter, Brown gained 45 yards on three carries. You have to wonder how the sponsors of this contest  (FedEx) would feel about a dude named Brown winning the game MVP award.

Notes from the pregame sideline....

 

--During the Star-Spangled Banner, the Florida Gator mascot stands at attention. The driver and passenger riding shotgun in Oklahoma's Sooner Schooner, however, remain seated. (That's where the term "shotgun", in terms of riding, originated by the way. With covered wagons. I know. You don't care.)

--There are ten Heisman Trophy winners here--a dozen, if you add the two who are playing--and all ten were honored at midfield during a pregame ceremony. When former Sooner Billy Sims was announced, he went all Mary Catherine Gallagher again and attempted to launch his own cheerfest. I'm wondering if the other Heisman Trophy winners are going to start discussing kicking him out of the club.

--The military flyover occurred about 20 seconds into the national anthem. Prematue ejetuation.

--One of the writers wondered why the BCS game could not follow in the Rose Bowl's footsteps and have Cloris Leachman do the coin toss. "At least you'd think they'd be able to find some 80 year-old down here," one wag mused.

--The Gators are well-represented down here in the press box, and by people who used to work/perform at the games. Andy Staples of SI.com was a walk-on offensive lineman. Jesse Palmer, as you know, was a quarterback. Erin Andrews was a member of the Dazzlers, the dance team. And ESPN mag writer Alyssa Roenigk, she of the superfluous "g", was a Gator cheerleader. I promised Alyssa that I'd mention her website here to drive traffic its way.

"You'll get at least seventeen new readers to your site thanks to my blog," I told her.

"Only sixteen," said G.A., another Gator who is here. "I'm working tonight so I can't read the blog."

 

--Standing on the sideline an hour before the game, I spotted Drew Rosenhaus, Clarissa Thompson (going blonde), Barry Alvarez (going orange) and Brian Bosworth, who I realized has a very similar profile to Patrick Swayze. "Is that The Boz?" I asked my buddy J.B. Morris, somewhat rhetorically. His answer: "Brian Bosworth, every day, overhears someone asking 'Is that The Boz'?"

Very true. 

 

 

It's 5:30 p.m. and we're live here at Dolphin Stadium. Before I go any further, this cryptic email from Notre Dame Director of Football Media Relations Brian Hardin just arrived:

"Defensive line coach Jappy Oliver has resigned from his position at the University of Notre Dame to pursue other opportunities."

 Hmm. It's one thing to interview with the New York Jets, but in these economic times to simply resign in order to "pursue other opportunities" as rather enigmatic. We'll look into this more after tonight. Oliver is 53 years old and a graduate of Purdue.

 

***********************

Some thoughts on this evening's game. I believe it will be close because (or, maybe I should say, "if") of Oklahoma's offensive line, which is the nation's best. The Gators have the irresistable, intangible force in Tim Tebow, who, judged purely in terms of talent and competitiveness, is one of the few athletes in any sport who approaches the lofty plateau of Michael Jordan.

All of us media types love Tebow, but then, why shouldn't we? He is immensely gifted and he's got less quit in him than Monty Python's Black Knight (from Monty Python and the Holy Grail). And you may or may not concur with his faith and spirituality, but it obviously motivates him to greatness on and off the field.

I've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating. Last season at LSU, despite Tebow's best efforts, the Gators lost. Tebow was actually crying a little as he walked off the field. Then, as he approached the tunnel, which was fringed with Gator fans cheering him on, Tebow regathered himself, stuch a fist skyward in salute to them and marched out of the stadium. It's refreshing to see someone who cares this much, and it's our good fortune that he happens to be one of the best players in the nation as well.

 

The Gators have Tebow. And an advantage in team speed. And relative good health. And a marked advantage in special teams play. And a better defense. The Sooners have Sam Bradford, and they have an offensive line that should be able to protect him. If tailbacks Chris Brown and Mossis Madu can do a respectable DeMarco Murray impersonation, I believe that it can at least be close.

 

A few notes.... 

 

 

A bountiful night out here in Fort Lauderdale on the eve of the BCS Championship Game last night. First, the coolest sportswriter in the game, Austin Murphy, allowed me to tag along with the SI.com crew (Stewart Mandel, Andy Staples, who is a former Gator walk-on offensive lineman and actually has, and earned, a national championship ring, Jacob Luft, Ryan Hunt) for dinner.

There were about eight of us, and we happened to be seated just two tables away from the ESPN.com crew: the wonderful Pat Forde, Bruce Feldman, Mark Schlabath, etc. And I don't think there was anyone at either table who wasn't having an Anchorman flashback at the moment of Ron Burgundy's news team confronting Wes Mantooth's news team.

I think that would make me Tim Robbins.

Anyway, about halfway through the meal I made the following suggestion to Austin: Pick up your phone, act surprised, say something such as "And he's in jail now?!?", then you and the SI.com gang bonzo outta here. I'll stay back and register the worried looks on the ESPN'ers faces.

 

Austin smiled, but that's as far as it went.

 

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Later on we moved to a pair of Lauderdale nightspots (YOLO, which is an acronym of You Only Live Once, followed by a spot called "Dicey Riley's") and it was as if someone moved the pressbox to the bar--so you know the ladies were swarming (!).

Anyway, a great group of people: Besides the aforementioned folk, we had The Fabulous Teddy G. (Greenstein) of the Chicago Tribune, Kelly Whiteside of USA Today (who informed me that Tim Tebow's favorite song is "Send In The Clowns", and how can you not love that nugget?), Pete Thamel of the New York Times, my great old friend J.B. Morris, now the college football editor at ESPN: The Magazine, and ESPN info-meisters Josh Krulewitz and Mike Humes.

And I'm not mentioning all those folk to name-drop. Seriously. I'm mentioning all those names because I know it will drive Rothstein bonkers.

***********************

I'm looking at the home page of this site and there's a video in which our President-elect says, "Sports fans agree with me" regarding a college football playoff. I'm a fan of the Obama, but if he had been out with us last night, he might be surprised how many of the names I've mentioned above do NOT want a playoff. And of course you know where I stand on this.

By the way, if there were a plus-one or a four-team playoff this season, can you tell me which of these teams you would have left out: Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, USC, Utah. Somebody wouldn't have been invited and any one of those five would have bellowed, "Unfair!" and how could you have blamed them?

Oklahoma? Nation's most prolific offense.

USC? Nation's most outstanding defense, by far.

Texas? 12-1, beat Oklahoma.

Florida? 12-1, beat a No. 1 in Alabama, and considered by most to be the nation's best team.

Utah? 13-0, and the only undefeated team in FBS.

So who stays home?

Which is just my way of saying that, Okay, I understand why you may be a playoff advocate, but if you believe it will at all end the controversy that arises this time of year, I don't agree.

***************

On ESPN's fan vote as to who will win between Florida and Oklahoma, only four states chose the Sooners. Not surprisingly they are Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri.

 

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Two Tale of the Tape tidbits you might not see anywhere else.

 

1) Sideline Hottie Alums

   Gators: Erin Andrews

   Sooners: Stacey Dales-not-Schuman (currently on career sabbatical, but we hope she returns soon) 

   Edge: Even

 

2) Eponymous State Title Song

    Oklahoma: "Oklahoma!" from the musical of that name

    Florida: "Florida" by Modest Mouse

    Edge: "California", by Phantom Planet. Sorry.

 

Tonight, by the way, is the first time that Florida and Oklahoma have met in football. Bizarre, eh? 

The year 2009 is only one week old--not even, yet--and we already have my favorite unscripted television moment of the season. It happened during the HBO Real Sports year-end retrospective, in which the show's five correspondents (Jon Frankl, Mary Carillo [the best!], Bernard Goldberg, Andrea Kremer and Frank Deford) take their places on the set under the magisterial gaze of Mr. Bryant Gumbel.

So, the setup here is a bit long, but (no pun intended) bear with me. The sextet is discussing memorable pieces from '08 and they come to Gumbel's piece on Barack Obama, in which the Real Sports cameras followed the then presidential candidate during a pickup game. After they show a clip from the piece, Andrea says to Bryant, "What I want to know is, 'Did you stay in touch with (President-elect Obama)?"

We segue from there into the dangers of participating in a story yourself (Jon F. asked Bryant how come he didn't lace up and play in the game), which led to Frank Deford recalling a hoary tale about a time when he wrestled a bear (lower case...not Butkus) on whom he was doing a story and how that was an unwise decision.

There's a momentary beat, and then a voice off-camera (Was it Mary? Bernard?) asks with total seriousness, "Did you stay in touch with the bear?"

Maybe you had to be watching, but it was a hoot.

(By the way, Bill Simmons' latest mailbag had a hilarious tangent as to how the one school from which he has never met an alum that he liked--"I'm 0 for 79," The Sports Guy riffed--is Princeton. Well, Bill, then you haven't met Frank Deford. He's impossible not to like, and he's a Princetonian, or as they like to say, from Old Nassau...however, if I do know a Princeton alum or ten who could definitely help you get to "1 for 100" mode.)

 

********************* 

The GMAC Bowl is less than two hours away. It's Tulsa versus Ball State.

 

Last year David Letterman's favorite team played in the International Bowl and lost by 22 points. Last year the Golden Hurricane played in this very bowl and set an NCAA record for margin of victory in a bowl game, beating Bowling Green 63-7.

And I like Ball State to win tonight. I don't know why, but I do. But maybe part of the reason why is that Cardinal running back MiQuale Lewis is a mighty mite of a back and no fun at all to tackle.

 

Ball State 31, Tulsa 28

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When it comes to dancing with sideline hotties, Notre Dame people and USC people have quite different styles. Mind you, both of them are creepy, but one is a little less surreptitious. Here's Marina Del Rey Maualuga and Erin Andrews in a clip you've probably already seen (our own Matt Casey posted it yesterday) before the Rose Bowl.

And here's former Irish hoops coach/unofficial Notre Dame ambassador Digger Phelps bustin' a move with a Kansas cheerleader (So that's how you dance to Bon Jovi?).  

I thought it was impossible to feel bad for Ohio State unless you were from Ohio, but right now I do.

The Buckeyes, handicapped by a limited offense and then by the absence all second half of Beanie Wells, still led 21-17 with less than two minutes to play.

Then their linebacker, Rose, whiffed on an interception opportunity. Not easy, but doable.

Then the Buckeyes came within an inch or less of stopping Texas on a 4th down.

And then, finally, a Buckeye safety took an all-or-nothing shot at tackling Quan Cosby on a slant-in route and he, too, whiffed.

Hook 'em, Horns. But I ache for the Buckeyes. They played their innards out, and after all the misery they've endured in January the past two years, deserved better.

It's extra-bitter cold on High Street this evening.

***************
And, hey, I harbor no ill will toward Matt Vasgersian, but isn't he the MLB Network dude? And even if he weren't, is he really the best Fox could do? When Texas fielded a punt with :38 remaining in the first half on their own 9, he kept telling us how many timeouts the Longhorns had remaining. With that little time remaining, and with the ball where it was, it was far more relevant how many timeouts the Buckeyes had remaining, no?

*******************

But my biggest problem with Fox? They just don't take college football seriously enough. They take us back to the studio in L.A. and they actually say, "That was a great college football game." Like, well, it wasn't the NFL, but it still was okay. From there it devolves into Eddie George (Buckeye) being sad and Jimmy Johnson (Texan) being happy and then on to Colt McCoy's NFL potential.

ESPN has its foibles, but at least when you tune in to Rece, Mark and Lou, you know it's all about college football and that their passion for it is as fervent as yours. That's all we ask. Hey, guys, you're the ones lucky enough to be paid for talking about this game on TV. Act like it's the privilege that it is.

Boeckman to Pryor for a TD? Seriously!?! That's even better than I conjured. I just thought Boeckman should throw the game-winning or game-tying TD pass. But to toss a TD pass to Pryor (his first TD catch as a Buckeye)? Too Hollywood.

************

Pryor just short-armed the 2-point conversion, though. That's about his fifth pass that has fallen short tonight. The Fox commentators are being kind and discussing how the Buckeye coaches will work on improving Pryor's footwork in the offseason.

Honestly, gentleman, allow me to save you a little time: "Terrelle, listen up. Grow a sack and step into your throw. Plant your back foot and stride forward as you throw the ball. Someone may hit you. And it may even hurt a little. Tough. That's why you're not paying tuition, son."

Cplt McCoy scores one play after getting his second roughing-the-passer call of the night. I've watched a lot of bowlage the past fortnight (What is this? WImbledon?), as have you, and my "Most Disturbing Trend" (outside of Flomax ads) is the swiftness with which refs have been flagging rushers for Roughing the Passer. They may as well call the penalty Touching the Passer.

How many flags have we seen in which the pass rusher had already taken his final step as the QB released the ball, hit him below the helmet, and still got flagged? It's outta control. And this latest penalty on Thaddeus Gibson was just the wrong call. Just a bad call.

*********************

If Ohio State wins, does Chris Myers approach Colt McCoy, jump the gun, and say, "I guess your girlfriend's gonna dump you now"?

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Our first new great sports term of 2009: Crab Dribble. Directly, it's LeBron James' description of his "move" that was called a travel (and rightly so) in the closing seconds of Cleveland's loss at Washington yesterday afternoon. Indirectly, it should come to refer to any circumstance in which someone of privilege believes that he should get his way, no matter the transgression, simply because he is who he is.

"Bruce Willis is dating Brooke Burns?" 

"Crab dribble."

"Oh."

Read that piece I linked. My favorite "Amen!" moment is when Caron Butler says, "And I was like, 'Oh, man, there is a God!"

Amen.

*****************
Ohio State was just called for roughing the passer again. Which is odd, because Texas ran the ball.

*************
Oh, and by the way, Intentional Grounding? Let's stop all of this "Was he inside or outside the tackle box?" junk. Intentional grounding should be left to the official's discretion. For example, when Terrelle Pryor tossed a missile into the dirt five yards ahead of himself in the 2nd quarter, that would be intentional grounding in my world.

**************

Season premiere of Scrubs tomorrow night. On another network. Still, it's Scrubs.  

*****************

"Bernie Madoff is under house arrest in an $11 million house?!?"

"Crab dribble."

**************

Colt McCoy's girlfriend just told Laura Okmin that she has designated Will Muschamp as "Boyfriend-in-waiting." I mean, which is...wow.

**************

I just have to say it: "SANZENBACHER!!!"

****************
Is that Tim Roth show, Lie To Me (Fox) going to premiere on the same evening at that Tom Cavanagh/Eric McCormack show, Trust Me (TNT)? I hope so.

**************
If Jim Tressel has ever seen one sports film in his whole long life, then he realizes that Todd Boeckman has to be his quarterback for the rest of this game. I mean, if he has even the slightest appreciation of pathos.

************

Colt McCoy just fumbled the ball...which bounced interminably and ultimately harmlessly out of bounds before any Buckeye could retrieve it. If Mack Brown's son-in-law coached for Ohio State, that never would have happened. 

At the half, it's Buckeyes 6-3. Ohio State finds itself in exactly the type of game it hoped to be in, while the Longhorns are wondering how they got lasso'ed into playing a Big Ten game circa 1955...

 

Chris Myers. Laura Okmin. One of you, please, head up to the McCoys' seating area and find out if Colt McCoy still has a girlfriend. If he plans on pulling an Ian Johnson tonight, he can't keep throwing passes such as the one that ended the half.

Wait. Is that Matt Saracen I see warming up for Texas to start the 3rd quarter?

 You're asking the same thing I am: How is that the most highly prized recruit in the nation a year ago shot-puts his screen passes?

 

I have no dog in this fight, but if there is a God, then Todd Boeckman will throw the game-winning pass in the final moments and then, when Laura Okmin grabs him for the postgame huggy-feelie, say, "I'd just like to thank Coach Tressel for benching me the final nine games of the season to prepare me for tonight. Yeah, thanks, Coach."

And then, for effect, he'll go C. Thomas Howell in "Red Dawn" and bellow, "Wolverines!"

 

On to the second half, kids...

Good news...(good news??? Great news!): Beginning this evening, January 5th, our favorite sitcom will be airing each weeknight at 7 p.m on...wait for it....Lifetime: Television for Women. That's correct: How I Melt Your Mother, weeknights at 7 p.m. (two episodes each night...now that void between Mad Money and prime time has finally been filled.)

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Funny story from the Rose Bowl. At the Rose Bowl gala or party or dinner or whatever on the eve of the game (which would be New Year's Eve, correct?), it was decided at the ABC table that someone needed to muster the courage to ask Cloris Leachman (you know her as Dancing With the Stars' ousted octagenarian, but she'll always be Nurse Diesel to me) to dance. Well, wouldn't you know it: Brent Musberger rose, approached Ms. Leachman--what was she doing there? I dunno (Update: My sis just told me that Cloris was the Grand Marshall of the Rose Parade and did the pre-game coin toss; My bad, but in my defense I was on a flight during the game)--and did the honors.

And wouldn't you know it? Brent and Cloris, who both were huge in the '70s, by the way (and now one is months away from his seventies, the other beyond hers), coupled up for three songs in a row. I love it: Brent, you rule. 

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Tonight's Fiesta Bowl. Hmmm. My head says Texas, but then I read Longhorn head coach Mack Brown's comments in today's paper: "If the teams are fairly even, the team that wants to be there the most and has the edge and is more motivated usually wins."

And if you don't believe him, go back and watch the first fifteen minutes of last Friday's night's Sugar Bowl. Kudos to Kyle Whittingham, the Utah head coach, for having the Utes as ready to play as any bowl team I've seen since Boise State stormed into the Fiesta Bowl two years ago. It was 21-0 before anyone could even get the smelling salts to the Tide sideline.

The Sugar Bowl was, as well, as hard-hitting a game as I've seen all bowl season. I was astounded--and horrified, and not in a Keith Morrison way-- at how many hits Tide running back Glen Coffee absorbed, and it seemed he never went down on the first hit. There were at least two 3rd-down conversions he made on sheer willpower. Then, late in the game, he stayed in to block a Ute linebacker and just got crushed. When you see a player lying on his stomach on the sideline, and writhing in agony, that's some serious pain.

Anyway, it was apparent from the first three minutes on how much more inspired the Utes were than the Tide. So how do we apply that to this evening's Fiesta Bowl? Is the Longhorns' motivation to show that they belong in Miami instead of Oklahoma greater than Ohio State's seniors' desire to finally win a game versus a top ten opponent? As well as to exorcise the demons of the last two BCS bowls? Not to mention that the demise began in this very stadium, nearly two years to the night ago in a loss to Florida?

Tough call. I wonder if Ohio State is still a divided locker room, if the seniors still resent the manner in which Jim Tressel discarded Todd Boeckman after the 38-3 disaster at USC. Boeckman is no superstar, but then again he was without Beanie Wells that evening in L.A. And facing the most formidable defense, in my opinion, of the decade.

How much has Terrelle Pryor evolved since the season-ending win, on Nov. 22, versus Michigan? How determined are players such as James Laurinaitis, Malcolm Jenkins and Alex Boone to go out on a positive note? How effective can the Ohio State rushing attack be?

The Longhorns are 8-point favorites. I say Ohio State covers. I'd like to think that, along with all that talent, the Buckeyes have too much heart to be humiliated in a third straight BCS bowl. I hope for their sake I'm correct.

 

But I don't care who wins. All I care about is that someone at the Fiesta Bowl (Junker????) wises up and demands that they open up the roof at University of Phoenix Stadium. Let's not be wusses, please.

The last time I attended the Fiesta Bowl, they kept the roof open for the pre-game military flyover, then closed it for the game. That's just wrong. As Bob Young of the Arizona Republic asks, "Why buy a convertible if you're going to keep the top up all the time?"

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Speaking of covers, USC was a 9.5 point fave over Penn State. When a Trojan punt snap sailed high over the head of USC punter Greg Woidneck in the waning moments, resulting in a 37-yard loss that gave the Nittany Lions first down on the Trojan 14, Vegas got nervous. USC led 38-24 at the time, and our favorite dance enthusiast, Brent Musberger, cryptically intoned, "A lot of people in Nevada just stood up."

See, broadcasters are never allowed to explicitly mention the spread, so they make comments such as that to inform the audience that they're clued in.

***************

Least sportsmanlike thing I've spotted this bowl season: Nevada QB Colin Kaepernick, who was already playing with a badly sprained ankle, takes a sack in the 4th quarter of the Inhumanitarian Bowl. A Maryland defender--I'm not sure whom (and someone from ESPN should have demanded they replay this and comment on it)-- reached down a paw to help up Kaepernick. Then, when young Colin reached out, the Terp Twerp pulled his arm away. I'd thought guys stopped doing that in Pop Warner. 

Saturday’s U.S. Army All-American Bowl was, as it is annually, the most sure-fire forum of teens destined to be millionaires you’ll find anywhere in the United States. And that includes Harvard, Princeton and Yale freshmen orientations.

Most striking? The speed and size of these 17- and 18-year olds is equal to that of NFL players from just a decade ago. Granted, these are 100 or so of the premier prep players nationally. But consider this: In the 1986 NFL draft, there were a total of two 300-pounders selected. Saturday’s game at the Alamodome featured nine 300-pounders.

The Hogs, the famed Washington Redskins offensive line that literally led that franchise to three Super Bowl victories between 1983 and 1992, averaged 280 pounds. The O-line for the West side this past weekend averaged 314 pounds, and the shortest of those five stood 6-4.

Just be glad you never had any of them in your gym class.

A few observations from the weekend:

— Willie Downs, a 6-3 safety from Tallahassee, Fla., had a pick-six (or, as Bill Simmons calls it, a TAINT) in the first quarter that featured a runback as eye-popping as anything you’ll see from the Baltimore Ravens’ Ed Reed. Downs made a leaping grab of an overthrown pass from West quarterback A.J. McCarron, ran up the left sideline briefly, then reversed field and headed into the end zone untouched.

 

Then the Florida State-bound DB tossed the ball into the stands, drawing a 15-yard penalty. Terrell Buckley, Deion Sanders, here is the newest member of your fraternity.

— Of all the endomorphs on display, nobody drew more stares than Alabama-bound lineman D.J. Fluker, who goes 6-7, 335 pounds. Scouts described him as the player in San Antonio most prepared to step immediately into an NFL camp — and he’d be stepping in wearing size 22 shoes.

Fluker has attended three different high schools in the past three years, but it has nothing to do with his being an academic liability or a problem child. Fluker’s home in New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and since then he, his mother and siblings have lived somewhat of an itinerant life.

What do the initials D.J. stand for? Danny Jesus. Seriously. Someone at the game joked that his dad was named Danny, and at his birth his mother took one look at him, then exclaimed to the father, “Danny! Jesus!”

— Fluker will be slated as Andre Smith’s replacement at left tackle, perhaps destined to block for the aforementioned McCarron, who should continue the Tide’s tradition of tousle-haired passers who could stand to be slightly more athletic (see: John Parker Wilson, Brodie Croyle, Jay Barker) but will be beatified by Tide fans nevertheless.

— Other tailbacks, such as Bryce Brown and Christine Michael (yes, Christine…he pronounces it “Kristen”, which is still a feminine name, but you best not say that with a smirk if you know what’s good for you) were more highly touted, but I was most impressed with Texas-bound tailback Chris Whaley. He’s 6-3, 225 pounds of pure downhill bowling ball. As Pat Haden remarked, “Most of the running backs here are trying to juke defenders and avoid contact. Whaley runs as if he’s looking for people to hit.”

Well, not only is MVP Peyton Manning out of the playoffs but so are the men who finished in a second-place tie behind Manning - my choice Chad Pennington (see previous entry) and Atlanta's Michael Turner.

Two things.

1) This doesn't bode well for fourth-place finisher Adrian Peterson (3 votes) who plays against Philly this evening.

2) How often does the league's MVP win the Super Bowl. Not that much. The last three MVPs that won the Super Bowl were Kurt Warner in 1999, Terrell Davis in 1998 and Brett Favre in 1996.

The guys since 1999 that got their widdle hearts bwoken?

2000: Marshall Faulk

2001: Kurt Warner

2002: Rich Gannon
2003: Peyton Manning & Steve McNair

2004: Peyton Manning
2005: Shaun Alexander

2006: LaDainian Tomlinson
2007: Tom Brady

2008: Peyton Manning

 

Fleeting thoughts while watching the Dolphins last gasp at a stirring upset against the Ravens (apparently) go South.

* The name is Henning, Dan. He's the Dolphins offensive coordinator who just dialed up a reverse to Ted Ginn on second-and-8 from the Baltimore 25 with his team trailing 20-9 and a little more than seven minutes left in their Wild Card game today. Ginn mishandled the handoff and the result wound up being a 20-yard loss. Fwump, fwump, fwaaaaaahhhhh. I am piling on Henning a little bit here. The Dolphins are not going to win a football game with their offensive talent playing straight up against the Ravens defense. You need to use some skullduggery. Hell, the Dolphins 2009 offensive success has been predicated on skullduggery. But given that play likely ended Miami's hopes, it's ironical.

* I was one of the four media members that voted for Chad Pennington as the NFL's MVP this year. Peyton Manning won it, getting 32 of the votes. Michael Turner also had four. Pacman Jones didn't have any. Why Pennington? Because his value is measurable. Last year, Miami went 1-15. This year they went 11-5. He threw 17 touchdowns and only seven picks (although he's got four so far today). Without him, the Dolphins weren't going to be 11-5. They were likely a 6-10 team. Now, if you want to say the Colts would be that much worse without Manning, I ask, "How do you know?" The Patriots were supposed to be cooked with Matt Cassel at quarterback. They were not. They went 11-5. Who's to say Jim Sorgi couldn't do that? Especially when he would have been throwing to Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark and the WR Formerly Known As Marvin Harrison. That's the other aspect of Pennington's candidacy that made his more valuable to his team than Manning. Pennington was throwing to Ted Ginn, Anthony Fasano and Davone Bess. To me, it was actually an easy call.

* CBS just followed Nick Griesen for 45 seconds stalking John Harbaugh for a Gatorade-dousing. Seen one, seen 'em all, sure. But just as the bucket was about to get dumped, the producer cut to the play at-hand. A kneeldown. I've seen more of those than I need to as well.

The biggest - or most critical play - of overtime was Tim Jennings' defensive holding call on third-and-8.

Given the intensity with which Colts president Bill Polian lobbied the NFL to more strictly enforce illegal contact after the Colts lost to the Patriots in the 2003 playoffs, the call drips irony.

But was it the right call?

Unfortunately for Indy, it was. The play began at the 41 (although the official play-by-play says 40). Jennings was still locked up with Chris Chambers at the 35. Jennings did have the presence of mind to release Chambers and one wonders how many times the 5 yards turns into "5 yards or so" in the minds of officials, but it was the right call by the letter of the law.

Colts head coach Tony Dungy said only, "Defensive holding is not something we get called a lot on."

On the ensuing play, linebacker Clint Sessions made a more egregious blunder, gripping the face mask of Darren Sproles and getting called for a 15-yard penalty. Those two plays will haunt Colts fans.

Meanwhile, while Colts coach Tony Dungy said his decision on whether or not to return will come in a week, he did speak with the collective "we" when talking about the Colts coming back strong in 2009.

 

The Chargers take the ball, march down the field courtesy of three Indianapolis penalties and San Diego wins it on a 22-yard Darren Sproles touchdown scamper, 23-17.

And here's the question: if you were the Titans or Steelers, would you be all that eager to play the Chargers now?

 

A 26-yard Nate Kaeding field goal ties it at 17. Thirty-one seconds left.

When the two teams played here in November, the Chargers tied it with 1:30 to go. That was too much time for Peyton Manning. Adam Vinatieri kicked the winning field goal in that game as time expired.

Not this time. Overtime.

And the Chargers win the toss.

Big play of the game so far: Darren Sproles' fumble at the Indy 2, recovered in the end zone by the Colts.

The Chargers appeared poised to go back in front after the other big play candidate, the one that put the Colts in front, 17-14 -- the play that was a thing of beauty, the 72-yard Peyton Manning to Reggie Wayne touchdown pass on third and 5 from the Indianapolis 28.

On the play, the Colts caught the Chargers, and cornerback Antonio Cromartie, totally flat-footed -- Cromartie literally looking to the sidelines as the Colts went no-huddle on third down, getting the play off quickly after an incomplete second-down pass. The Chargers had been trying to substitute. The Colts quick-snapped. TD.

Cromartie -- who got three picks last year of Manning in one game.

Ron Rivera, the Charger defensive coordinator who was Chicago's DC in the Colts' 29-17 Super Bowl victory two years ago over the Bears, will be seeing that play in his nightmares for a long time to come.

Injury note: LT has not been in the game in the third quarter -- in fact, since about 10 minutes remained in the first half. Sproles, through three: 14 carries for 66 yards.

 

 

But for the outrageous punting of San Diego's Mike Scifres, the story of this game might be very different indeed.

A Scifres punt put the Colts at the 2. A Scifres punt punt the Colts at the 7. Both times the Charger defense held and on a short field the San Diego offense found just enough for scores.

How is it again that Scifres isn't in the Pro Bowl? Mystery.

Darren Sproles, who wriggled through for San Diego's second touchdown from the 9 with 42 seconds remaining in the half, appears to have taken over at running back for LT. That had to be expected.

Chad Simpson's fumble on the kickoff after the Sproles TD -- oops, a non-fumble, Simpson ruled down when the ball came loose. A big break for Indianapolis with 33 seconds to go, the ball at their 20. Another break, on the very next play: Eric Weddle coulda, shoulda had an interception on Manning's first-down throw.

A the half: Manning 14 for 21 for 143 yards, Rivers 8 of 12 for 86. Tomlinson has five carries for 25, Sproles seven for 38. On the Indy side, Anthony Gonzalez already has 6 catches for 97 yards; San Diego's Gates 5 for 57.

Curious announcement on the east scoreboard after the Charger score that made it 7-7 earlier in the second quarter: "To my TBell...Happy Anniversary! Neverland awaits! Love forever .. PPan." At an NFL playoff football game? Really?

Charger MVP: punter Mike Scifres, with three long punts, the final play of the quarter pinning the Colts against their goal line.

When your punter has three punts in a quarter, however, that's not a good sign.

And it's not for San Diego. Particularly when Peyton Manning goes 6-for-6 on Indy's second drive and leads the Colts to a 7-0 lead.

After one quarter, the Indy defensive line has the better of the San Diego offensive line.

The Chargers' first series: perhaps so telling, both for San Diego and for Indianapolis.

First play: LT around the right side, gain of 14.

Second play: LT, another run.

Third play: Philip Rivers to Gates.

Got it? No doubt the two Charger offensive standouts are going to play.

Third down: Rivers is sacked by Robert Mathis. Mathis didn't play in last year's playoff game. Neither did two other Indy defensive linemen, Dwight Freeney and Raheem Brock. All three linemen are on the field in this game.

 

The key storyline before the Chargers and Colts get it on here in the AFC wild-card game in San Diego: the health of two of San Diego's stars, running back LaDainian Tomlinson and tight end Antonio Gates.

Both appeared on the field in their Charger powder-blues. LT didn't cut much but did run. Gates looked as he always looks, just fine.

San Diego coach Norv Turner said both will play.

That's not the question, however.

It's how effectively can they play? And how long? Into the fourth quarter? It's playoff time.

The key is not so much LT as it is Gates. Darren Sproles can spell LT. The Chargers need Gates, however, particularly with the size and height match-up problems he presents for Indy safety Bob Sanders.

 

Hey, where's the fire? What's the rush?

For nine years, Scott Pioli's been in the Patriots front office.

On Wednesday, he found his clip-on tie and went to his first job interview since he got to New England.

He visited the Cleveland Browns. They wanted to talk to him about becoming their general manager. Pioli wanted to listen.

Now, while Pioli's been linked to many GM opportunities during his time in New England, he was only approached twice before the Browns came calling. He was offered the Seahawks job in 2005 without even going on an interview. He turned down their five-year, $15 million offer. After the 2006 season, he declined an opportunity to speak to the Giants about their GM job that went to Jerry Reese.

That's important backstory to understand as the speculation about Pioli jumping from the Patriots reaches a fever pitch. The 43-year-old is a measured decision maker who doesn't wander around the pub batting eyelashes at every patron.

He's going to listen, process, weigh and decide. Which is why, despite the Browns reported interest in getting Pioli to decide quickly, its now been reported that there is no deadline for Pioli to make a decision.

Meanwhile, Pioli also will interview for the Chiefs GM job next week.

Some - including Mike Florio at profootballtalk - believe Pioli might be trying to drive up the Browns financial offer by dragging his feet on a decision and entertaining a Chiefs offer. Florio wonders if Pioli - the son-in-law of noted eye-batter Bill Parcells - might be leveraging the two teams against each other.

Again, it's worth noting, he's been in New England for nine years. He's never been on an interview until this past Wednesday. He's going to weigh their situation (there may not even be a financial offer on the table yet), listen to the Chiefs consider his situation in New England (it's been a pretty good job so far) and make a decision.

In short, he's going to operate the way he always has. Slowly and carefully.

I love the Cotton Bowl. Old men like myself harken back (never harkening forward) to a time when the Cotton Bowl meant the first bowl of the New Year (the Jan. 1 lineup was always Cotton-Rose-Orange) and the inimitable voice of Lindsay Nelson (I don't think Frank Caliendo ever even imitable'd him).

 

If it were up to me (and someday it may...just...be...my own audacity of hope), the Cotton would be the fifth BCS bowl, as opposed to playing two bowls at the same site, as we do now. And Lindsay Nelson would still be with us, but that surely isn't up to me, nor could it ever be.

Anyway, you should tune in to today's Cotton Bowl (2 p.m. Eastern) that pits Ole Miss versus Texas Tech for a few reasons:

1) This is one of the top five most compelling matchups of the bowl season. Texas Tech finished 11-1, after all, while Ole Miss, you may remember, beat last year's national champion (LSU) and quite possibly this year's (Florida). And both on their own home fields, which is extremely difficult to do in the SEC.

2) Jevan Snead. Ole Miss' QB lost a battle for the starting job to Colt McCoy at Texas, and then transferred to Oxford. He's legit.

3) Could be your last chance to see Michael Crabtree play college ball.

4) Definitely your last chance to see the Cotton Bowl played in...The Cotton Bowl. Which is sad. Like the Orange Bowl, the Cotton is a college football cathedral. And I know I sound like an old fart here, but the Orange and Cotton just have transcendent atmosphere. As does the Rose Bowl. Let's hope they're never too progressive to put that landmark out to pasture as well. 

5) I'm way late to the party (as usual), but am currently reading "The Blind Side" by Michael Lewis. Have always been a huge fan of his dating back to "Liar's Poker", but this book centers around the story of current Ole Miss left tackle Michael Oher. If you haven't read it or don't know his story, I'm sure the CBS announcers will enlighten you later today (Oher is a cross between Alabama OT Andre Smith and the Michael Clarke Duncan character in The Green Mile). But it's truly fascinating. And, as with everything Lewis writes, it's a compelling and entertaining story. If someone got you the Barnes & Noble gift card for Christmas, this is as good a book as any to burn some of it on.  

So, as long as I'm out here in the Valley of the Sun while Charles Barkley is being arrested for a DUI, here are a few notes:

1) Steve Urkel--yes, Urkel--was reportedly the passenger in the car with Barkley when he was pulled over.

2) Barkley racked up an $1,800 bar tab at the Dirty Pretty in the Old Town area of Scottsdale. He left a $369 tip on top of that.

3) You draw a circle with a 1/2 mile radius around this bar and you'll find where eleven out of ten NBA players who'll be in Phoenix for All-Star weekend will be hanging out those nights. By the way, the bar in which the alleged and infamous "You're with me, Leather" incident once transpired is just a few steps away from Dirty Pretty.

4) How long will the woman in question that Barkley was willing to run a Stop sign for remain anonymous? Not long, I bet.

5) Was Ernie Johnson simply being prescient with the "I am a dumbass" tele-prompter prank?

6) According to the police report, Sir Charles was driving an SUV...but clearly he was attempting to upgrade to a Hummer.