Sharks in the water

Sparano is safe. For now at least it seems the Dolphins have decided to stick with Tony for another year. That leaves the door open for the 49ers to pounce uncontested on Jim Harbaugh. That is of course if they can convince Harbaugh to leave Stanford, which is something that his QB Andrew Luck is not quite ready to do just yet, returning for another year with the Cardinal (must... resist... temptation... to pluralise....). With Sparano returning, we've also now learned that Dan Henning, the offensive coordinator, won't. Henning oversaw a sketchy offense in Miami this year. Chad Henne seemed to regress as the season went along and there was almost no talk of running backs Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams who faded into the dust it would seem. The Cowboys meanwhile have now officially promoted Jason Garrett to the position of permanent Head Coach (God help him), having conducted all the necessary token interviews of black coaches. The Vikings Head Coach for 2011, Leslie Frazier, is also quite busy. Reports from the press indicate that the Vikings have interviews lined up with former 49ers Head Coach Mike Singletary, possibly just to come in as a linebackers coach, along with an interview for former Broncos top man Josh McDaniels to be the offensive coordinator. Two hires that sound surprisingly wise for the Vikings. Wise is not the choice of words I would use though for the latest outburst from Chad Ochocinco. According to ProFootballTalk.com, Ochocinco went for the publicity jugular by saying that race is the determining reason why a guy like Favre would be paid $4 million to come back for another season, but why nobody would give Owens or Ochocinco $4 million. At first I was like "no way, no way did he say something that stupid!!". Then I watched the video..... What the hell Chad? The only thing I can think of was that he was going for the shock factor. In fact, this next video might suggest that's precisely what Ochocinco was going for. At least, I hope it was. On a side note, NFL.com really needs to get one of its web designer/engineer type people to check out Versus.com's site, with particular attention to the video. Look!! The videos load at a normal rate without constant lag! I can click anywhere along the time bar and the video instantly jumps to, and plays from, that point without having to reload the entire damn video! There are less adverts, and God knows the Versus network must need the revenue money more than the NFL. And I can embed the videos! That means I can show people their content which is more likely to drive pageviews back to their site! It's a miracle isn't it NFL.com? To provide a decent (and profitable) service for your fans/customers/potential customers without being assholes. You should try it sometime.

The news in brief

Just quickly before I slink off to work, I wanna draw your attention to a segment from the NFL networks "Playbook" show, posted on NFL.com. In this segment the analysts (Sterling Sharpe, Mike Mayock and Solomon Wilcots) are drawing attention to the Saints use of the blitz particularly on third down. Personally I would echo and amplify some of the statements regarding the Steelers line blocking and communication. Because it looks hideous at times. But I'd also like to throw a bit of the blame on QB Ben Roethlisberger. Seeing some of the looks the Saints gave, a lot of time all the pressure was coming off the edge and to call the room up the middle a hole doesn't even do it justice. These are the kind of situations where I would be looking to my left and going "Holy sh!t, I forgot I had Rashard Mendenhall in the backfield. Dude, here's the ball." Now maybe there is a reason why he didn't check off. Maybe he doesn't have the freedom to do so, though I highly doubt that. Whatever that reason is I'd love to here it, because to me that read looks plain as day. --- In other news this week:

>>> Mike Shanahan has crticised Donovan McNabb for his lack of cardio conditioning, giving this as the explanation as to why he pulled McNabb in favour of Rex Grossman, along with a terminology aspect. Is anyone buying this? Let me know. One person who presumably is, is Terrell Owens, who took a chance on his TV show to have a swipe at McNabb and his fitness levels. So no change there then either. This is all going to end in tears. >>> Randy Moss has hit the waiver wire again. As Bill Belichick kicks back in his chair and laughs into his brandy at another great trade he just pulled off, questions are now flying over the future of Brad Childress and what actually caused the release of Moss. The fact that Moss complained about food at a restaurant doesn't seem a worthy offense, so I guess we'll have to wait and see for details about what is going on inside the Vikings organisation. I have visions of people throwing darts and not a lot else.

Have a great day everyone