After a long while away, hi.

How are you feeling about the Super Bowl? The pursuit of perfection against one of the biggest underdogs in the history of what started out as the cumbersome AFL-NFL Championship Game.

I haven't decided which way to lean yet--that will come later in the week. But I do have some observations.

I've been reading "The Education of a Coach" by David Halberstam. It's a great read about what turned Bill Belichick into uber-coach. But, as someone else pointed out, the dfference between the Belichick who was fired by Cleveland and the 3-Super Bowl Belichick is Tom Brady.

The core of Belichick's defensive philosophy is to take away the opposition's best weapon. So one would figure that the Patriots will try to put the clamps on Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw and make Eli Manning win the game with his arm. The Giants do have a good set of receivers, but can the New England pass rush take them away, too?

On the flip side, how do you stop Tom Brady? If I'm Steve Spagnuolo, the Giants defensive coordinator, I've got to find a way to get Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck, and Osi Umenyiora into Brady's face as often as possible. As heavily taped as Brady's ankle looked today, what mobility he did have is going to be lessened, so the Giants have got to get to him often while not allowing Laurence Maroney to become St. Louis' first Super Bowl MVP.

Then there's the previous meeting factor. How much can the Giants gain from having already played the Patriots? I think it did give them the confidence to get where they are now, to win three playoff games on the road, to be the best of the NFC. But the Patriots saw that movie, too. And I believe they won that game.

Like I said, I'll put some numbers to my thoughts later in the week.

Other random thoughts:

Media Day at the Super Bowl is the most interesting, most chaotic mass gathering of people this side of Soulard Mardi Gras. Thousands of people armed with a credential, all trying to get a scoop. The best bits to come out of Media Day now is when reporters turn their mics over to the more inventive players and let them go. But even that is turning into a tired act anymore.

Tom Brady is the epitome of cool. It's snowing in Foxborough Sunday, and he's at the Patriots' rally in a jacket and open-collared shirt. Of course, that jacket probably cost more than my entire yearly clothing budget. And did you notice that the snowflakes weren't melting on Ol' Tom? Now that's cool.

Is there really a need for the repeated standing ovations at the State of the Union address? For the most part it's just partisan grandstanding. I am a patriotic American and I'm all for getting behind the President, but really, 50 or 60 standing ovations? Overkill. I think the members of the Supreme Court have it right---stay seated until the end.

How many of you are ready for the Writers' strike to be over? I'm ready for some original episodes. Get it settled.

I was sad to hear that Larry Smith passed away. As much as Gary Pinkel has done for the Missouri football program, Larry Smith got the ball rolling. I remember when the Tigers became bowl eligible in 1997, after more than a decade of football abyss. It was like Larry was Moses and he had just led Tiger fans to the Promised Land. In many ways the feeling was just as good as much of what we felt this past season.

I'm glad the whole Rick Majerus-Archbishop Burke to-do has quieted down.

Tiger Woods is scary. He makes his tour debut and wins by eight shots. EIGHT! Bob Costas has made the reference to Secretariat in the 1973 Belmont, that whoever was second was actually closer to third than first. And it's that way on the PGA Tour, now more than ever. Let's face it: Tiger rarely loses any tournament he sets his sights on. A true Grand Slam is well within his reach. And how's this? CBS's David Feherty asked him if winning a record 12 consecutive tournaments was a possibility, and his answer was simple, blunt, and to the point--"Yes." ¶ 4:51 PM 1 comments

It's a great time for football. The best weekend of the NFL season. Four games, with the potential payoff of Brady vs. Manning and Favre vs. Romo.

This used to be the time of year that we used to talk about the Rams. Remember those days?
That 1999-2004 run was fun, even though it meant lots of extra work for us in the sports department. That first year was unexpectedly magical, and Mike Martz kept the next few years interesting--you never knew what the man would say, but it was always interesting. "Shoot, we'll fix that," "Yeah but..." (or is that "yabbit" ). And look where we are now.

As someone who works in the media, I'm pretty sure I don't like the way the Rams have handled their offseason. Come to think of it, as a fan I know I don't like the way they've handled things.

They sure seem to be taking for granted that fans will remain loyal. But remember that the origin of the word fan is "fanatic". How is this franchise cultivating fanaticism? Let's take stock of what's happened since time ran out in Arizona on December 30th:

1. Head coach Scott Linehan did his end of the year wrap-up with the media by phone. That's fine if you work for a newspaper or a radio station, but in TV we like to see faces. That's one reason you didn't see us air any clips from that teleconference.

2. It's been reported that Linehan will be back for a third season, and that he's due to have a meeting with the front office brass (out in L.A., mind you) about how they're going to attack the 2008 season. But that meeting keeps getting pushed back. And pushed back. Well, I certainly hope that plans for 2008 aren't hinging on this summit meeting.

3. P.R. boss Rick Smith did confirm the report about the firing of offensive line coach Paul Boudreau and the "reassignment" of offensive coordinator Greg Olson, but there hasn't been any official word from management.

It would seem to me that after posting the worst record in St. Louis football history, that more visible steps would be taken to show that this franchise is interested in keeping its fans. But I'm not quite sure if we're just supposed to take the word of this management team (with their stellar record of six non-losing seasons the thirteen years they've been here.) that they're going to pull this team out of the mud. I know that the fans here want to see something substantive. That it looks like the Rams are trying and not just taking the hard-earned fan dollars of St. Louis fans for granted.

It has happened before. Coming off a 4-12 season, the Rams made some changes to Dick Vermeil's coaching staff, made a splash in the free agent pool, made some savvy draft picks and pulled off the best trade in franchise history. It all added up to a Super Bowl win and the beginning of a fun, wild ride. But it was definitely a series of proactive moves.

So what's the plan this time? ¶ 5:49 PM 0 comments