Rex Grossman is out for the season...

...and honestly think the Bears would be as good as the Packers are now if Chicago had traded for Randy Moss. Instead, Lovie Smith let his best runner get traded away to the Mangenius, who, in turn, blew his season early by letting Pete Kendall get so fed up with his terrible contract. In the Jets defense, no one forced Pete Kendall to sign the terrible contract in the first place. From Kendalls point of view, no one saw Guards as big money players until the Vikings bent the rules and stole Steve Hutchinson from the defending NFC champion Seattle Seahawks. When Shawn Alexander went from Superman to Clark Kent overnight and the Vikings run offense was turbo-charged at Hutchinson's arrival, Guards like Kendall were doubling and tripling their salaries in free agency.

Kendall eventually whined his way to Washington, effectively killing any Jets running game, especially when coupled with Chad Pennington's noodle arm. Ironically, Kendall moved to one of the few teams that has suffered more than the Jets. The Redskins underperformed even before the strange and horrific murder of their best player who was only twenty-four years old and the beginning of a Hall of Fame career.

Contrasted against the above mentioned teams that lost Pro Bowl players are the Patriots. The Patriots released former All-Pro Corey Dillon and added Randy Moss 3.0 (with new options such as "God Mode"), Adalius Thomas the fast linebacker (who will be filling in ably for the injured Rosey Colvin), Wes Welker who plays like a young and even quicker version of Troy Brown, Dante Stallworth who impersonates Reggie Bush/Dante Hall after he catches the ball, and they even managed to retain the services of Asante Samuel for one more season. Another key acquisition for the Pats was picking up San Francisco's first round draft pick.

We are now officially the most spoiled fan base in the world.

Tom Brady is the only starting QB in the AFC East.

Jets:
Chad Pennington is going to be replaced this week, and it's because he can't throw the ball anymore. It doesn't really matter who his back-up is, although the Jets claimed to be excited about the back-ups arm. I seriously think the Jets would be excited about my arm about now, as my thirty five yard cannon would back the safeties off a bit.

Dolphins:
Cleo Lemon is Trent (next concussion could mean adult diapers) Green's back-up, even though the quarterback they want to take over long term is the kid on the sidelines, Beck. That's a whole lot of disappointment trying to find someone to force the ball in to Ginn Jr.

Bills:
The QB situation in the franchise has been settled few times in my life. Jim Kelly was a fixture. Then Flutie and Rob Johnson battled for starting position. A short old man versus a vastly over rated prospect. After shuffling the deck for a while, they bought Bledsoe from within the division. I think Bledsoe was far better for the Bills than Neil O'Donnell was for Jets. It was clear pretty early on that Bledsoe was not the long term solution, so he went to be reclaimed by The Big Tuna in Dallas (where he has been replaced by celebrity QB Tony Romo).
During Bledsoe's tenure, they drafted JP Losman as the QB of the future. The future appears just about over as JP Losman battles Trent Edwards (who?) for the starting nod.

Seriously, we can beat the Jets and the Dolphins in weeks 15 and 16 with a back-up. Week 17 is the Giants. I don't see it happening.

Remember this as you think about 16-0. We will have a bye week in record time. We aren't risking Brady's health, so it will be our back-up against guys who may not actually be that much better.

A world without commentary.

Two weeks ago, the San Diego Super Chargers' game was broadcast for the first several minutes with no accompanying commentary. The crowd noise was there, the crack of shoulder pads and the wheezing of Philip Rivers as he ran a bootleg into the end zone was loud and clear. The national television audience was treated to pure football without pretense.

It was like being at the game, but close enough to the field to hear what the players were saying. No forced witticisms, not over analyzing the plight of Norv Turner, just the sound of football. Of course, nothing perfect stays perfect that way, and the technical "error" was "corrected," and on came the blathering idiots.

I was watching the series, and Joe Buck pissed me off so much I muted him. I would normally turn on the radio, but our little bedside radio doesn't get any Sox stations, so I watched in silence.

First, I have to admit the game was far more compelling. Joe Buck makes me irrationally irritated and I'm okay with admitting that. He knows he's paid by the word to fill in the back stories and try to explain why things are interesting and he makes a huge amount of money for it. I don't begrudge Joe Buck for irritating me, and I respect his success, but I would rather not hear the crowd reaction than listen to Joe Buck and hear everything. Does that make me a bad fan?

Here was my plan, hit the mute button every time the pitcher went into his wind-up. Hit it again after the ball is declared dead. For instance, ball hits catchers mitt, mute Joe Buck. Pitcher goes into wind-up unmute game because Joe isn't allowed to tell lame stories when the ball is live.

Outside of missing the Manny chant, the plan was working great. I was doing the Manny chant anyway, and I just tried to synch up with the crowd's lips.

Suddenly, the camera switched away from the field to a guy wearing a suit and being interviewed. I watched the first twenty seconds of the interview with the sound muted. Then I got curious. How important must this guy be for the focus to be taken from the field and put on him. I assumed he was a foreign dignitary who had some great story. It was...

a taco salesman. I hit the mute button and went back to pretending it was a foreign dignitary.

I have this crazy desire to see the transformers movie. I didn't want to see it in the theater, but after watching a few baseball games, this incontrollable urge has almost broken me... must see Transformers. Maybe I'll buy the movie when I get my free taco.

Brady's records

http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/nfl/features/briefingroom?playerId=2330
The above link shows all of Brady's injury reports for the last two years. He has shown up at practice in a knee brace and been listed as "probable: right shoulder."
The bottom of the list shows that the injury was reported for most of the last three seasons. Either he is destroying the NFL with a chronic shoulder condition, or Coach Bill hates the NFL's injury reporting system.

I think the Pats realize Romo runs out of the pocket.

I think they have something planned him involving intense outside pressure. Colvin, Vrable, Harrison, Merriweather, Wilson... bad things.

Romeo Crennell's Halftime Speach

O.K. Clearly we are in a hole.
Anderson, suck it up, there's no way I'm sending Quinn out to face that defense. I don't if care your shoulder gets dislocated, you'll have to flip the ball underhand.
Braylon, Kellen, don't get hurt. That goes double for you Fraley. Rookies, get loose. I can't afford another injury here when we have a chance against most other teams.

"Man, let me tell you, man..." about the '07 Sox.

After his gladiatorial walk off blast. Where he not merely admired his shot, but signaled that he was who he thought he was he gave a rousing speech.
It not quite "Cowboy Up," but the new slogan of the 07 Redsox is clear. The first words from a Boston legend to an awaiting Redsox Nation rung out, "Man, let me tell you, man..." David Ortiz would repeat these words of wisdom immediately after the first game of the ALCS. I'm sure t-shirts will be sold all over Fenway for games two and three.
And, Man, let me tell you, man, it might just edge out ubuntu (sp?) as the rally cry of a region.