Hollywood Donahoe

Better teams lose to worse teams all the time. But bringing it up seconds after a loss seems rather small and petty to me. Leinart's statement wasn't about having confidence in his team, it was about devaluing Texas's accomplishment. It's poor character.

So? The display of disrespect by Leinart that I saw came just after the game, in the ABC postgame. I don't care if he and Reggie Bush later went to the Texas locker room and gave all the players BJs - Leinart's initial postgame comment shows a serious lack of respect for his opponent, and could possibly point to deeper character issues. Have some semblance of an idea of what you're talking about before you post again, how about that?

Young jumped ahead of Leinart on my board based on character alone. As mentioned, Young scored the winning TD and remained calm and collected, without drawing attention to himself in any disrespectful way - guys way older than him have trouble acting half as classy. Then after the game, Leinart pulls the "we're the better team, they just made more plays today" routine. WEAK. As for Young's onfield display... .

Vermeil became the Chiefs coach before the 2001 season, which was a full season before Gruden even went to the Bucs.

Didn't the Bucs win the NFC title game in Philly that season? Must've been below 40 degrees then, and Brad Johnson was the QB.

Oh yeah, he was instrumental.

It should at least be interesting to see a few of the guys everyone will be gushing over in April.

Didn't the NFL recently disallow compensation for hiring away coaches under contract? After Gruden went to Tampa, I think. Maybe I'm mistaken, though.

I'm not sure of specific criteria, but I imagine individual performance is focused on more than team performance.

Nah, it's Brady. It will never be entirely useless, for I will always find it somewhat humorous.

I'm usually bored of Berman when he's halfway through his first sentence. Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say.

Nah, it looks like the players lost were better than the players signed. Another thing to keep in mind is that Holcomb started half the season and put up solid numbers, which could swing things. In any case, it should be interesting to see how things shake out.

Comp picks aren't awarded for individual player losses. That said, the Bills should get decent compensatory selections, given that they lost two starters along the lines in Williams and Jennings. I'm not too familiar with the players they added through free agency, though, so that could affect the compensation.

Again, formulas. 2003 was the last time the entire AFC East had to play the entire AFC South. In that season, the Patriots travelled to Indianapolis. In 2006, the entire AFC East plays the entire AFC South again; and this time, the Colts will travel to Foxboro. The two regular season match-ups in between were both in Foxboro because the AFC South champ was slated to visit the AFC East champ in both of those seasons ('04 and '05).

It was change before the 2002 season, mainly (I imagine) as a result of the Texans-induced realignment. Now, only 2 of 16 games on a team's schedule are affected by the previous season's standings.

That's a good question. I hadn't even though of that. The answer appears to be yes. All AFC east team this past year hosted an AFC South team and visited an AFC North team, so that must be the format. (EDIT: Same way next year too - all AFC east teams host their respective AFC West teams and visit their respective AFC North teams)

That's already decided as well. In 2006, the '05 AFC East Champion hosts the '05 AFC West Champion (Denver) and visits the '05 AFC North Champion (Cincinnati).

The 2006 schedule (as well as all schedules through 2009) is determined by a formula that was put into place before the 2002 season. The "schedule makers" only determine when the games are played. Which team plays which and where are determined years in advance. I was under the impression that anyone who follows the NFL would know this.

Bingo. Seattle tried to do just that last year, but Pioli turned it down.

Thanks!

He's married to Parcells' daughter.

Tragedies are hard enough as it is...to lose a loved one near the holidays is potentially even more painful. My condolences to Dungy and family.

BF wants the last hour of his life back.

Even if Bush gets injured, Donahoe could take a chance on him, then trade McGahee for a 3rd rounder. Don't forget that he'll-a tell us what.

Even without the Jingle Bells, the Fox coverage overall was horrid. The one announcer (not Moose) was constantly getting info wrong. It's like he wasn't even watching the game.