So we're all supposed to take the spin to heart and believe that Jim Mora Jr. was just kidding for about 20 minutes on the radio this week. He was merely practicing his "Orson Welles-War of the Worlds" shtick, when he said he'd show up at the U of Washington, hat in hand, if the job came open.  Mora is, after all, perfectly happy in the ATL. Happy with an underachieving team, happy with an injury riddled, over-paid defense, happy with a meddling owner who wouldn't know a screen pass from a screen door if he didn't own Home Depot, but has taken it upon himself to sit in on press conferences, and happy playing his second or third best QB while the guy who should be starting bides his time until free agency.  Yeah, the spin doctors have a great argument. Why wouldn't Mora want to stay in Atlanta and wait to get fired while the coach killing, overpaid, under-brained, thug-life, malcontent, project QB singlehandedly destroys the franchise?

Make no mistake about it, Mora is an intelligent guy. He knows better than to do or say anything publicly, without a purpose. I''m sure that all the spin in the world won't remove the memory of that Seattle interview from the minds ot the U of W hierachy. You can't, as they say, un-ring the bell. I'd even make a small wager he was sending a less than subtle message to Arthur Blank as well.

I applaud Mora's candor, even though I find the damage control a bit nauseating. While it is generally pretty uncool to stump for a new job while you coach an NFL team, I'd have let the statement stand on it's own. In light of the fact that his his mutli-millionaire stuperstar QB had wished out loud to have the legendary choker, Dan Reeves back, that is.

You can count the times I've ever agreed with his ####-whiny father, JM Sr. on one hand. But almost I've never agreed more with a talking head than when Pop labeled Vick a coach killer.  Almost, because allegiance to Vick means allegiance to something bigger than coachicide, blowing that much money on the NFL's Forrest Gump is downright franchisicide. Of course when you build a mint like the Home Depot, that kind of acccomplishment typically comes with an ego.  So even if Blank knows he made a crushing mistake, he's going to burn through at least one fall guy before he admits it.

So JM Jr. knows that when the Dirty Birds either back into the playoffs (for a one and done), or don't make the playoffs this this year, there's at least an 85% chance he's a dead man walking. Because, screen pass or screen door notwithstanding, there's one thing guys like Blank do know, ROI. Blank hasn't been burning a fortune to buy mediocrity. Even if that's exactly what his spending spree has earned him.

So I don't blame Mora for hanging out the big, "job wanted" sign, I applaud him for his business sense. By now, he's in the head of every GM or College Athletic Director even thinking about making a move, so he got what he wanted, publicity. Forget about the negative press of auditioning for a job when you already have one, it happens in every other line of work. Who one earth wants to be saddled with the orders to hand a borderline #### the keys to the franchise every Sunday while a real QB rots away on the bench. Mora must be keeping the Rolaids people in business watching that #### get worse at his job every year and knowing he's helpless to start a QB at QB.

Of course there's a legion of lemmings perfectly willing to believe that Mora was just playing a running gag for 20 minutes. They're probably the same folks who haven't yet gotten the joke about Mike Vick being a QB.

At least at U of W, Mora could pick his own poison.