Amen, Counselor .

Expanding the playoffs is even dumber than more international games and 18 game seasons...

Goodell is going to end up mongrelizing the NFL to the point where winning the SB is the equivalent of holding any one of a number of heavyweight boxing titles.

Goodell is walking a fine line between owners ($$) and player safety. He is being pulled by both sides. The next few years could get very interesting.

I agree. The consideration of expansion of wild card teams or the season is not at all based on a logical and fair way to determine the ultimate champion, but on generating the most money for the league.

Goodell is not too concerned with player safety. He is more concerned with an arbitrary, machine gun style approach to imposing fines on hard hits in an effort to try to insulate the league from eventual liability for the consequences of head injuries.

Found it a bit tasteless to see the Dallas fella who was driving the car, drunk which resulted in his team-mates death, standing on the sidelines yesterday smiling and shucking it up with pals!!!

Embarrassing day for the Big Blue. And the ONE f'n day in my life that I root for the Steelers . . .

Absolutely. That turned my stomach as much as losing to the Cowboys.

I'm surprised that with the ass kicking you received from Matt Ryan, you were able to sit and watch the 4:30 game.

^^^^
Wasn't easy, Counselor .

I hear ya. I woke up Sunday morning from a dream where the Cowboys had beaten the Steelers on an interceeption by someone named Terrance. i had a bad feeling about it all day.

Steelers will convincingly beat the Bengals and Browns and move onto the playoffs. I sense a littel of thir 2005 season present.

That's the good news. They control their destiny with wins in their final games at home against Cleveland and Cincy, two teams they've handled very well in the past 15 years.

I'm enjoying the problems the Ravens are having. Sure, they're missing some defensive players, but Flacco has been playing like the worst QB in the NFL, who's not named Sanchez.

Just watched my SNF tape this morning.

Wow, what a crazy game, thoroughly entertaining.

I hear that Modell's is expecting quite the rush on Mark Sanchez jerseys this Christmas. I understand they make a fine car wash shammy.

I think Sanchez dropped to a new low. I also think the Rex Ryan Era is coming to a crashing halt. Maybe Andy Reid'll be on the Jets' sideline next year.

Yeah. I'm in the minority, but I think Rex might go. His players love him, but the other teams just get too riled up to play the guy because of his big mouth. And it runs in his family: They're great defensive coordinators, but lousy head coaches.

You know, the Jets debacle with Tebow et al makes me wonder about the expertise that we accrue to NFL coaches. How good was Sanchez; could another team have turned him into a consistently productive QB?

You make a good point, Oli. Because you know as well as I do that once a young quarterback is "ruined," he'll hardly ever redeem himself with a different team. It's the NFL version of shell shock. So when this kid is 50 years old and looking back, he has to ask himself "what if" he had a different head coach out of the gate. He'll also have to ask himself "what if" he listened to Pete Carroll and stayed at USC for his final year .

Because of his contract the Jets can't easily part with Sanchez. I'm not sure the extent, to which Sanchez could have developed, but Rex Ryan hasn't developed him at all. If Sanchez can improve (and I don't think he can descend any more), he needs a different approach, and that's why I suggested Andy Reid, who made his name in Green Bay as the guy that helped to develop Brett Favre.

It could be worse for the Jets fans.

They could be Eagles fans

You know Kly, despite my decades of watching NFL football, the Tebow debacle has really struck a nerve with me. I know that he is criticized because of his mechanics and all, but the waste of whatever talent he had is really a sin. We think that these coaches and GMs are geniuses, but this proves that they are not.

I couldn't agree more, Oli. They traded for Tebow to steal headlines from the Giants who had just won their second Super Bowl in five years, which was a very selfish motive. This kid Tebow may never become a big league quarterback, but he deserves better treatment than he got from the Jets. That's why their organization is as big a joke today as it's been for the past forty years.

I just can't understand why so many teams refuse to follow the success model that has been established by the Steelers, Patriots, and Giants. Those teams would never have done what the Jets did regarding Tebow.

Very true. Many teams try to attain excellence by plucking assistant coaches from successful programs, but they have front offices without vision or a defined plan..The essential elements of building success are stability and consistency.

Mike Greenberg must have heard you say this.

The other morning they were adding up the number of coaches the Jets have had. I don't remember the number, but they seem to change every 2-4 years. While Pittsburgh had 3 coaches since 1970; Noll, Cowher and Tomlin. (Is that right?) Jets-Mets similar; Yanks-Giants, similar.

Noll coached the Steelers from 1969-1991;
Cowher coached from 1992-2006;
and Tomlin is coaching since 2007.

There's a common link in the Rooneys' selection of coaches:

Noll was a disciple of Shula, Cowher was a disciple of Shottenheimer, who was a disciple of Noll, and Tomlin was a disciple of Dungy, who was also a disciple of Noll. All three were in their mid to late 30s when they were hired because the expectation was that they would be around quite a while, and all three were innovative and aggressive coordinators.

And what I appreciate the most is that each has won at least one Super Bowl.

How 'bout them playoff Colts?

True in away..He just better keep away from certain rules he wants 2 change..like no kick offs..This guy is trying to change the constitution for christmass sake..Now most u guys played HS football..kickoffs are little tough full speed sprint into oneanother but tweek it a little. dont change HISTORY..Maybe move the blokers a few yards closer together..Plus the kicker boots it past the endzone anyway most of the time....He did fine with addressing the over the middle hits..Defenseve plyrs are changeing thier tackle angle better a to avoid helmit colisions..Be nice to see more playoffs but i dont see how it is feasalse..Just dont make more regular season games a playoff would b enough..And stay the heck away from London...Waste of Jet Fuel..