Sorry for the lengthy sabbatical. In the words of a great man called Austin Powers, for a little while there, I lost my MoJo. Well baby, its back.

This evening, I will furnish you with a few NFL thoughts.

I've always been extremely hesitant to criticize Peyton Manning for being the choke artist that many people believe he is, mostly because I think that he generally has had a very tough playoff landscape on an annual basis. Basically, when he had teams in front of him he could beat (Titans and Jets), he was too green to get it done. And once he matured, he was saddled with Belichick's Patriots. But after watching his act this past Sunday, I have serious doubts over whether he and his coach Tony Dungy have championship potential.
There was a scene at the end of the 3rd quarter of Sunday's playoff loss to the Steelers that you would NEVER see on a team with a championship quarterback and a championship coach. The Colts had a 4th and 2 at midfield losing 21-3. Dungy began to send his punting unit on the field and Manning started waving the punt team off like he was calling a fake audible. And incredibly, Dungy listens and pulls his punt team off the field. This is disturbing on so many levels. Firstly, although Manning has full audible authority, it is not within the realm of his responsibility to overrule the coach on the field during a game. If you think about any of the great Super Bowl winning quarterbacks of our time, did any of them overrule their coaches. Did Aikman do it to Jimmy Johnson? Heck, Aikman didn't even overrule that illiterate Barry Switzer? Does Brady do it to Belichick? Did Elway do it to Shanahan? Did Montana or Young do it to Walsh? Simms tried to do it to Parcells, but was told to shut his trap and play. A very simple philosophy from Coach Parcells, you play, I coach.
Which brings us to Coach Dungy. It seems like bad kharma to be critical of a man who just recently experienced such a horrific personal tragedy, so I hope you all understand that what I'm about to say relates solely to his ability as a football coach. As an NFL coach, your job success is directly related to your ability to get grown men to essentially run through brick walls for at your command. When you do things like tell the media you're not going to allow your players the opportunity to make history as a team, or allow your quarterback to overrule you on a decision that clearly falls under your domain, you allow the guys who you are trying to lead, to question your leadership. Dungy is a highly respected coach in league circles and his players profess to love him. but its starting to appear that he is not commanding respect at the most crucial times. Keep in mind, that the Colts are not the first Dungy led organization that has had difficulty advancing in the playoffs with superior talent. The Bucs of the early 2000s were always getting knocked out in games they shouldn't have been losing. It took Jon Gruden's arrival to get them a Super Bowl. Food for thought.
Great hire by the Jets today. I believe that Eric Mangini is the right coach at the right time. He will learn from Jet GM Terry Bradway, but more importantly, Bradway will learn from Mangini. He has been around some of the best to ever pace the sidelines. He understands protocol instilled by championship organizations. He will do things in practice, most other coaches don't because of who he's learned from. And ultimately, I believe that Mangini will have the Jets looking at a different kind of player when it comes to free agency and the draft. Sure, he's young, but the Jets have to gut this whole thing anyway. The mistakes Mangini's youth will cause will not be hampering a playoff team. By the time the Jets get good again, Mangini will be very good.
When it comes to personnel evaluation, I think that I'm the greatest, especially in basketball and football. So, it qualifies as a big thing when I admit I'm wrong on a player. I'm often wrong on a game or a team, but rarely wrong on a player. Coming out of last season, I thought Ben Roethlisberger was a bit of a fraud. Now, I'm the one who feels like a fraud. This guy is one heck of a winning football player. Impossible to sack with a quick release and a powerful arm are all very nice qualilties, but more than any other player in the league at his position, he does the absolute best job at playing within his own ability. He will rarely try to put a ball where it doesn't belong. He seems to always tuck it in for a sack at the right time. He will ALWAYS throw it away in the red zone before he takes a stupid chance. And for that reason, with a gun to my head right now, I would pick the Pittsburgh Steelers to win the Super Bowl.

And by the way, I will not mention the New Jersey Nets for the rest of this season. I denounced them in my last entry, and they proceeded to win 9 in a row.