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.

Childress fired

Brad Childress is gone. Vikings fans are probably rejoicing right about now at the news that Brad Childress has been fired as the Head Coach of the Minnesota Vikings. In the meantime Defensive Coordinator Leslie Frazier has been named interim Head Coach. As far as I'm aware, Jay Glazer of FOX sports was the first to break the news. So, what can Vikings fans expect now? Who knows. Hopefully two things will happen to make an immediate shake up; 1) Favre will be dumped and 2) Tavaris Jackson will be given a shot as the starting QB for the rest of the season, allowing the Vikings to assess whether they really want to stick with Jackson who has failed to cement himself as a consistent, quality quarterback. Something had to be done though. The Vikings have been horrible at times. They'll be hoping the winds of change can fix blow away some of the negativity in the locker room and help to unify the team. Now is Frazier the long term answer? I'm not sure. Don't forget that the Vikings defense hasn't exactly played it's part this season. Either way this will be a good audition for Frazier, who many believed was in the running to get a permanent HC shot somewhere else if the Vikings stuck with 'Chilly'. So, there we are. I'll be back either later today, maybe tomorrow to round up the weekends action. Till then, Have a great day everyone. (Just quickly, a little song in honor of Brad "Chilly" Childress)