While I Certainly Tip My Hat To Green By for It's Football Team...Here's Why It Is Not Title Town At This Time.....

The Green Bay Packers are at BEST an average football team in the post Favre world....With Favre in his MVP prime they managed a single Super Bowl win.....from 1967 to today the Pack have won one Superbowl....Yes you have won 12 "championships" but the first three 1929, 30 and 31 were awarded based upon regular season end of season standings....The NFL did not start playing playoffs until 1936 and yes from that point until the idea of a "Super Bowl" was started for the 1966 season the Packers were clearly a top team in the 1930's and a Power House in the early to mid 1960's.....ok....so let's ask the really pressing question....WHAT HAVE YOU DONE LATELY....after Lombardi left,  the Packers went into a three decade swoon....from 1967 to 1995 the Packers had two seasons where they posted 10 or more wins (1972 and 1989), in that span the team had 15 losing seasons! When Holmgren and Favre arrived the team became a contender but still managed only to win the big game once and then they really sort of choked in the second appearance in a stunner of a loss to Denver....

I point this out because some giant of a mind has informed me in response to an earlier posting that Green Bay is "Title Town" until someone takes that away....in 41 years YOU HAVE ONE TITLE in a one sport town....that takes away any ability to claim Title Town....using your logic the following Cities have a much stronger claim to the moniker....here goes my list for cities with a substantially stronger claim to title town than you Cheeseheads....

1.  Boston-15 Titles since 1967 ....(Celtics 8, Bruins 2, Red Sox 2, Patriots 3) and since the start of the century no city has been close.....

2.  New York 11 Titles since '67...Yankees 6 WS wins since '67, the Giants 3 Superbowls, the Jets 1 Superbowl, and the Rangers 1 Stanley Cup win

3..  Los Angeles- 11 Titles with 9 NBA Titles for the Lakers and 2 World Series Wins for the half watched Dodgers LA. I do not count the Angels win because they did not identify themselves as the LA Angels.....

4.  Detroit 9 titles  (Red Wings 4 titles; Pistons 3 Titles; Tigers 2 WS Titles)

5.  Pittsburg, 9 titles( Steelers 5, Pirates 2, Penguins 2)

6.  Chicago 8 titles  (Bulls 6, White Sox 1, Bears 1)

Honorable mentions include San Francisco, Dallas, Denver, San Antonio (a one horse town) Baltimore, Philadelphia, Toronto, Minnie, St. Louis, Montreal,  Miami, Oakland, all of whom have won the golden ring MORE than you blockheads in Green Bay....

Of course were we to do what you have done...count the records since the dawn of time...then the Yankees, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Celtics and Lakers alone would smoke you guys by HUGE margins....

So my dear little cheddar heads....Green Bay is not and cannot claim title to anything beyond being a really cold and very average footbal town....I would urge you to resubmit your application in a few years...in order to make the top 6 the Pack will have to win 7 more tiles and with 1 in 40 years that should happen sometime in the year 2288...give or take a few decades....Green Bay Title Town ....that's a hoot...but thanks for playing and try again in about 280 years......

Here's our question for the day:  Will Green Bay win more than 6 games in '08?  I say yes, they win 7....I mean it's very hard in that division not to win 7....Detroit, Minnie and Chicago are all horrible so they should come out of that with a minimum of 4 wins....they also get Atlanta, Carolina, Seattle, Houston and Tampa Bay....You will know what kind of season you'll have right out of the box in Green Bay....Minnie at home and the on to Detroit....if the Pack loses both then they tumble into the abyss...if they split...then they have a shot at 7-9 or 8-8 which might give them 1st place in this crappiest of all NFL Divisions.....This squad gets croaked by Dallas, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Indy and New Orleans....Who will lead this team that you could count on to do anything significant...Aaron Rodgers?  Listen closely....Senor Rodgers has thrown for a total of 111 yards over his three years in the league....clearly not his fault given that he was playing behiind the great one....but...that does not mean that he should be given any credit as a proven replacement because he has not established that he can play in this league.....Additionally, who in the name of all that is cheesey are the back ups?  Add to that the fact that Rodgers entire body of post high school work has consisted of playing in 25 college games and you have what?  In his life after high school this guy has played in 30 games....if you're counting on much here you may end up with a bad taste in your mouth when he's staring down the throat of that Jacksonville Defense or when Dallas comes to town.....he may well turn out to be a great player like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady or, but history tells us that he'll  more likley be another David Carr or Byron Leftwich...plus the guy needs a haircut...Green Bay is in for a long cold winter...unless BF comes out of retirement....

Get past the QB mess and this team clearly has talent with little depth....If Ryan Grant stays healthy and can repeat his '07 performance they will still need a lot more help for the long haired freaky dude calling signals....he could have T.O., Marvin Harrison and Chad Johnson and this team might still stink if Rodgers plays as soft as I suspect he will....

Early season favs include the obvious picks....Indy, NE, Dallas, Jacksonville and then it's a bunch of unknowns....will Tennessee continue to improve....has the Jets spending spree landed them a team (still need the QB me thinks)....bet on this Atlanta will slowly start to improve, Baltimore will be horrible, along with AZ, San Fran, Cleveland and I would not bet the farm that Oakland, Miami, Tampa Bay or the Niners have figured anyting out.....

Divisionally the NFC East and AFC South are the two to beat, Pats should clinch a playoff berth by about the middle of September and Indy and Jacksonville should be the best divisional games this year....I think Dallas is right there talent wise, I am no fan of Tony Romo because despite all of the hype that has surrounded this guy he has shown a disturbing trend as not being clutch in playoff games....I have a lot of doubt that he is the answer....but the NFC should fold up nicely foor Dallas to breeze....in the AFC it once again comes down to New England, Indy and Jacksonville....this year I think it's a jump ball in light of all of the secondary turnover the Patriots have had.....

Hey Nobody's perfect...I figured San Diego had some heart....

Hey your old Prof has a radical suggestion for everyone to mull over....ready...here goes...in addition to NFL Europe we create a new conference called NFL LITE, we make the fields a bit wider, we designate teams from the current NFL to play there and we all agree that I be the Czar and make all determinations as to who comes into the League....here's my NFL Lite Conference:

West

Arizona

Denver (added only for THIS Year)

Oakland

 San Francisco

These teams are selected because they have a demonstrated committment to losing, they pocket revenue sharing money, they hire horrible GM's who then hire their friends as coaches and year after year they are out of contention about the time that the leaves started to turn in Vermont, like mid September. Teams on the "Please Let Us In" Bubble are St. Louis, Kansas City and Houston.

In the East we have some real powerhouses....

New York Jets

Miami Dolphins

Washington Redskins

Cincinnatti Bengals

Philadelphia Eagles

Clearly these teams are almost all better than NFL Lite-West but I would bet that Miami could find a way to lose to Miami of Ohio so I think there is some hope for parity...The selections here include once proud franchises who apparently have lost their way.  Take a look at the Jets, they have wasted the better part of 6 years waitiing on a rag armed QB to live up to some potential they feel he is possessed of.  Pssssstttttt....hey Jets front office....Chad is less than zero when it comes to leading a team, he has a weak arm that he uses to expertly support his bad decision making under stress.  I mean the guy had what Jets fans were hoping was the first o####reat many good years last year, they made the playoffs and then the entire country watched as the Patriots demolished the guy. Please go and get a QB as soon as possible and then a new coach and GM might make a wonderful Christmas gift for your fans.

Hey Philly faithful....start booing McNabb every time he puts a helmet on, you SHOULD have beaten NE in the Superbowl before McNabb choked on a 2lb furball.  You have an excellent coach, you've had world class defenses, T.O. and the one constant is Donovan who puts up very good numbers and yet you stink again.  The guy is another one who manages great numbers until the game means something.  You can count on one hand the big games he's won....Manning has won more big games in two years than McNabb has in a career.  

TRADE HIM TO OAKLAND BEFORE AL DIES AND THEY HIRE AN INTELLIGENT PERSON TO RUN THAT TEAM...

The odds on favorite to lead NFL Lite-East are the Miami Dolphins...they have done as much as any team in the history of the game to prove that they are seriosu about losing....let it be known that you cannot become this bad by accident....

Let's do the Miami Mantra and chant "Ricky...Ricky....Dante.....Dante....Trent.....Tre
nt......Cameron......Cameron......Chambers.......C
hambers......Wannstedt.....Saban Saban Saban........."

I mean would somebody please call Mr. Mueller and remind hiim that the object of the game is to WIN football games....I lived in Miami in the mid 70's and saw first hand the pride that the Dolfans had in that team...it really is a shame that they cannot find a way to hire a GM who knows what a good player looks like....FELLAS you brought in 2, not one but 2 has been QB's and in BOTH cases you failed....are you out of your minds?  You idiots should be refunding money to your season ticket holders.

Atlanta at Carolina....In this season of mediocrity this game should be a Carolina win but...let's face it kids David Carr is an "almost was" in a league where even has beens get dismantled.  This game will be close for a bit, Warrick Dunn will make it a game but he's not enough...Panthers cover late.

Minnie at Lambeau...finally a game.  As much as I expect to see the cracks in the Packers game every week they have held it together and have quietly assembled a nice little offense.  On the other side Adrian Peterson is looking  all-worlld.  I just don't think Minnesota has enough to stop an obviously rejuvenated Favre.  Packers in a close game.

 Denver at KC...I wonder if Denver can asked to be moved to the PAC 10 for the remainder of this year...no wait....they couldn't beat Oregon, AZ State or Cal either.  Take KC all the way...Denver is real real bad and their "genius" coach never was and now that he's been exposed he'll be gone soon (my guess is he ends up at SD where he'll win);

Bills at Fish....Bills are mad at Shula for pissing off New England, the Bills may kill Cleo.  Buffalo in a late win.

Rams at Saints....the Saints seem to have figured things out, go with the 'Aints.  This might be a really exciting game.

Browns at Steelers...I hope it is -12 degrees at game time....this is going to be a battle with Cleveland showing some spunk but Steelers pulling away in the second half....it will be a real physical ####ing old school kind of game though.

Jacksonville at Tennessee....Titans in another fantastic match up....should be a real battle, Jags D will keep it close but Titans are tough to score on...BOTH teams desperately need a QB and Jacksonville needs a new coach....Take the Titans.

Philly at Washington....Skins in a real snorefest.  Who cares already, both teams need coaches, Quarterbacks and better behaved fans. 

Cincy at Ravens....This game features two of the most overated coaches in the league, Bengals have an offense and their overrated coach is better that Billick.  Brian Billick needs to get an Oscar for his job of portraying a coach...when Ray Lewis finally dies or retires what will BB do then?  I mean talk about not having a clue...YOU LOST TO THE BILLS LESS THAN A YEAR AFTER WINNING 13 GAMES>>>>take the Bengals and since the Ravens "D" sucks too go with the over....

Lions CRUSH Cards

Boys at G-Men...another great game which the Giants have a real shot of winning....provided that their coach can manage the game plan without that stupid look on his face....God I hate that guy....I'm going with the Giants in a mild upset.

Bears at Raiders.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...bad teams, real bad teams....bad....Bears in a real "who cares moment".

Indy BIG over Chargers....dear Norvell...please retire so that Mike Shanahan can ride into town and return the team that AJ built back to its rightful place atop that lame assed division.  Indy may score 100 if Marvin plays...Peyton don't like getting embarassed.

Niners at Seahawks....one of these weeks that "genius" of a coach in Seattle is going to shock the world and win when he's supposed to....hey tubby...just don't do anything until Frisco screws up...trust me you're going to win...Hey how did this game get on Monday Night Football?

 Well...that's it....This is a much better slate of gammes than we've had so have some fun.

APPARENTLY BILL BELICHECK HAS OFFENDED THOSE REFS YESTERDAY OR THE LEAGUE HAS DECIDED THAT IT NEEDS TO HAVE A HAND IN THE OUTCOME OF THE GAMES BETWEEN NEW ENGLAND AND INDY.

Let me begin with this disclaimer:  I love great football and this year the Patriots are a better team.  Are the Colts closer than I thought, absoluetly they are.  I did not think the Colts would keep it close and I readily admit that I was wrong.   I know this will offend Indy fans but if there is ever again a word heard that the Colts are not the darlings of the league I offer the following irrefutable evidence:

In a game with very few holding calls, New England 10 penalties for 145 yards-Colts 4 for 25

For more concrete evidence of a clear bias look here....

Colts receiver clearly out of bounds, the side judge signals that he is out of bounds, Referee overrules the guy and we go to the booth and it wasn't close.  Why would someone away from the play make a call where another official was ruling that he was out of bounds?  Why no conference if there was a difference of opinion amoung the officials? Was that a close call?  Yes, but no amount of evidence refutes the fact that the official on the play ruled it an incompletion.

Moss in the end zone gets called for a phantom Offensive Pass iinterference.  He had his back to the defender, he did not push off and he did not extend his arms....

Ellis Hobbs on another phantom defensive pass interference where both network announcers declared that they did not see the contact and where the replay did not support the call.

After last year's AFC Championship game the NFL apologized to the Patriots for the phantom pass interference call on Hobbs  that got the Colts back into that game. 

The League has to address this, one team cannot have that kind of disparity in a game.

Despite the horrible officiating it was a good game (not great)) by two of the best teams to play in recent memory.  The Colts proved that they are every bit as good as NE and that they may be a better defensive team.  The Patriots proved that they do, indeed, have the more clutch of the two best Q's in the game. 

Despite all of the hype, the only thing of import to come from this game is that Indy will likely have to play New England in Foxboro in the AFC Championship game.  Three years ago the edge would go to New England but the way that the Colts "D" can play I think that is the Game to watch....it almost doesn't matter who the NFC sends to the big game...the two best teams on the planet played yesterday in Indianapolis.

Here we are in week 9 and the unfortunate aspect of a Colts/Patriots presuperbowl superbowl is that nobody seems to be paying attention to the rest of the league...so here goes....

Frisco at Atlanta....in this epic struggle you have stay with the home dawg despite the spread.

Cincy at Bills...the Bills keep improving and win the game and cover.

Redskins at Jets....the Skins are really bad as the Pats showed last week...but the Jets are worse....take the Skins giving three...

Packers at KC....the Pack should whup up in this one, take the Packers.

Redbirds at Bucs...I mean please stop, can you schedule a more boring, meaningless game?  Dog gone it these teams are robbing me of good life time....who cares, don't touch it, the Arizona bus is liable to breakdown.

Panthers at Tennessee...a good game, Titans too much Defense although that stiff at QB might find a way to give it away....Titans cover.

Jags at Saints....even with DelRio coaching the Jags should find a way to win this game as New Orleans realizes exactly why San Diego let the great Drew Brees walk away...pppppssssssssstttttt shhhh he's not very good.....especially in big games.

Broncos at Lions....To quote Chevy Chase, um Denver, you um, you are um  you're not  um good.  As a matter of fact, as we approach the end of the Mike Shanahan show let's all take a knee and pray that John Elway will come back to the team to lead those long suffering Mile High Fans back to the promised land ...Hey I agree that Mikey should be considered a hall of fame coach, he took a rag tag team all the way...hey wait, that was Bill Parcels...well he took a rookie Quarterback to the Superbowl....hey wait...that was Bill Belichek....well at least he took a dominant defense with no quarterback to the big game....no wait...that was Brian Billick and John Gruden....so wait what did Mike Shanahan do, oh yeah he won two rings with John Elway at Q at the prime of his career and he taught a lot of guys how to chop block and ruined lots of careers....hip hip horray for Mike!  Is this #### gone yet?  Lions beat em bad, I hope.

Bolts at Vikes....Bolts big, even Norvie couldn't screw this one up.

Seattle at Browns....  Seattle is an ok team team and right now they are just a better team than the Browns...take the Seahawks in a real squeeker.

Texans at Raiders....if this were the only game on I would schedule a prostate exam or a colonoscopy before I'd watch this one....BOTH teams should be sent to the CFL in exchange for some maple syrup....and not the good grade A amber stuff...I mean the cheap stuff they put into the Mrs. Butterworth's bottle.  Texans should win but since nobody will watch it who cares....

Cowboys at Eagles...a great game, Dallas is the better team and will cover.

Ravens at Steelers...this should not be a game for long, Pittsburgh is too good for the Ravens.  Ravens fade to black continues, injuries may be a factor in this rivalry game though, keep an eye on Big Ben.

Pats at Colts....the BIG game won't be as exciting as the hype, they almost never are, Patriots will cover and will blow this open if Sanders decides to play in the box.....Look for Wes Welker to have a monster day, Indy can pick their own poison in this one, cover Welker and TE Brady or Watson and Moss and Stallworth will kill you, figure out a way to play a dime all day and they'll run it down your throat.  Patriots have too much and unless the 1975 Steelers take the field they walk away with this one.