O.K. I'm back from supper (that's right, I said supper), what did I miss? I should have eaten a little earlier but when I was ready, good and hungry and all done with work I looked and the first thing I saw was a turkey pot pie. Yes! that's what I wanted. Cook time, one hour. Don't want to wait that long. What else is there. Nothing! Nothing that good anyway. All right, get it in there. Will be ready at 4:46 (Central). Nibbled on about five or 6 melon chunks to hold me. The pot pie was wonderful when it was ready, not one of those .$79 ones either (I guess those are probably a buck and a half now, actually) but a Boston Market special. Yum.

All right, to business. Several important, even crucial division games this week-end. First off,

Falcons at Panthers. Panthers have a one game lead and are at home. Falcons won last week after a two game home losing streak and are coming off a mini bye week. Falcons have one last five in series (is that right?) When playing the Falcons, the first order of business is Mike Vick. As in, stop him/contain him/don't let him beat you (choose one). Apparently they haven't come up with the way yet. Supposedly the way was shown to us by the Buccaneers in 2002. Force him to the right thereby limiting his options, bottle him up, make him beat you throwing the ball etc... I think they got in Vick's head a little bit and now he sometimes tries to beat people with his arm and not his feet but against the Panthers he just plays his game and it has been working. Today too. Falcons 31 - Panthers 23. There's also,

The Bengals at Pittsburgh. Everybody seems to like the Steelers. They're at home, they "own" the Bengals, they already won in Cincinnati and did it convincingly, and this game is for the inside track on the division with the loser not looking especially strong for a wild card spot, especially if it's Pittsburgh (so they really need this one). The Steelers are the tough guys, they won last time by running the ball and they will this time too if they can. Unless... Carson Palmer... can make this his game. He's the best the Bengals have had since Boomer Esiason's heyday, he might even be better than Boomer, if not yet then soon, and if he can win the game for the Bengals then there it is. I do think the Steelers will be able to run the ball some. We'll see if Roethlisberger can make them pay when they start committing more guys to the run defense; if he can, the Steelers win. If Palmer has the big day and Roethlisberger is ineffective then I guess the Bengals win. The prediction: Steelers 24-20. A little later in the day we have,

The Broncos at the Chiefs. I feel like the Broncos are a little better right now (at least), the Chiefs have very impressive numbers on their side, at home in December, at home in this series etc... I don't have a strong feeling about this one... Broncos by a point, like 24-23, something like that. Back in the NFC there is,

Cowboys at Giants. The Cowboys have won this year by stopping the run. I think their defense is better than the Giants' right now. The QBs I rate as even. I'm very impressed with Eli Manning's development thus far. The QB could be the deciding factor in this game, otherwise I like the Cowboys on the strength of their defense. How about 21-18? That brings me to the Game Of The Day,

The Packers at Chicago. Has the potential to be an exiting game even for non-Packer/Bear fans. Favre has better numbers in his career vs. the Bears (especially in Chicago) than many, many QBs have for their whole careers. And of course, the Bears are on a roll and are the (much) better team this year. The Packers have twice played four quarters of solid, mistake-free football this year and if they do it again at noon they could make this game very interesting, but, what I see happening is the Packers being totally unable to run the ball and hard-pressed to keep the Bears front four off Favre. Three sacks and at least that many picks; Bears win 20-7, with their defense scoring a TD and setting up everything else. God I hope I'm wrong but that's the way I see it. We shall see.

While I am very much looking forward to the Rose Bowl/BCS National Championship Game, I am dreading all the self-congratulation that we are in for, compliments of the supporters of the present champion determining system.

See, they'll say, the system works. This is the game that everybody wants.

Wrong on all counts save one (it is the game everybody wants). It's the system that we don't want. Instead of one great game we could be getting seven (based on eight team play-off).

Take next week off; everybody gets a bye (not just top seeds). The weekend of the 17th play four first round (quarter final) games. Home sites I think to higher seeds. Kick-offs at 11:00a.m., 2:30p.m., 6:00 p.m. and, out west, at USC this year, 9:30 (all times Central).

Week-end of the 24th, semi-finals. Work around Christmas and the NFL whichever way works best (hey, it's two games).

Then, New Years weekend, the Championship Game. To determine a true National Champion. For the first time ever. First, New Years Day bowl games, like always. Teams 9 through 16 would be enough for four games, if you want more there are plenty of teams yet. Then, like Tuesday night this year, maybe even Wednesday, the BIG GAME!

Think about it. Get back to me.

I was reading a little from the BBC News web page tonight and the lead story was about some new announcement from the vatican reaffirming that homosexuals cannot be priests. No big shock there. It was also mentioned that the church's official position is that homosexual acts are sinful yada yada yada, again, no news here. When I read the line, though, where it said that the official position is that homosexuals should in no way be discriminated against I had to laugh. I guess they mean except by the church itself. I wonder if they even think of that "position" as confused; I'm sure the word hypocritical wouldn't even enter their thoughts.

All three "experts" on ESPN's pregame show just picked the Buccaneers to beat the Bears today and I agree that TB should win but I just don't know. I'll tell you this much. the Bears aren't going to let Cadillac Williams beat them; if the Bucs win it'll have to be because of Chris Simms. Good chance for him to show the world what he can do (or not). We shall see. Bears by 3.

Reggie Bush. I finally saw him in some game action that I watched for a while as opposed to a Sports Center highlight or something. Yikes! Two plays stand out (I was watching an ESPN instant classic replay of last Saturday night's game against Fresno State). On the first he takes the ball going right on a running play, bounces outside, has a guy coming over to head him off, turns on enough speed so the guy is running full out in the hopes of getting to a point on which they are converging in time to make a tackle, so Bush, now that he's got the guy committed to that line just cuts it back left and accelerates and the poor dude just collapses. He puts another similar move on the next guy which takes him back outside (by now he's inside the 20) scoots past him, then drops his center and powers into the safety or whoever that's finally in front of him, drives him forward into another guy and finally they all go down as Bush reaches the ball forward to the goal line. No touchdown. The other one I had seen on Sports Center Saturday night but didn't realize that he was untouched on the play. He raced everybody to a spot on the left sideline, 25 or so yards down the field; then, with everybody just haulin' ass trying to get there and head him off, he just stopped.And was immediately going again diagonally to the right and just beat everybody to the right pylon, was probably another 35 or 40 yards downfield. Can you say Red Grange?

Terrell Owens. The arbitrator finally ruled today and it was 100% not in T.O.'s favor. Good. I think the Eagles did exactly what they should have done and yes they are well within their rights to not release him until they decide they're tired of paying him to stay away. After this Sunday's game against the Packers they have to start paying him again, some ungodly amount, as much for every game that he won't be playing in as any ten high school teachers make in a year and of course he won't be happy. Well too bad! I can't help thinking about him as a Packer next year; Brett Favre has never had a target like that in his life. I'm reminded of the movie "Good Will Hunting", T.O being Will and the Robin Williams character still out there somewhere. The dumbass no doubt has had some bad stuff in his life and has unresolved issues and all; he's got so much talent that it seems a shame to not allow it to be used and all so how about just like in the movie, he gets another chance but he has to see someone twice a week or whatever and work through some of it. Redemption could be just around the corner. It just means swallowing his pride a little, or maybe a lot, and start going with the flow instead of against it at every opportunity.