Its been over 18 months since I've last done this, but I figured that there was no better time to get this going again than on the eve of the NFL playoffs. So here are some random thoughts in no particular sequence.

If Chad Pennington had given the Jets the same year that Brett Favre just gave them, I'm kinda thinking Eric Mangini would still be employed.

Think the Niners aren't a little bummed they didn't wait a few days to give Mike Singletary a 4 year deal. If they had waited, Mike Shanahan could have come home to a hero's welcome.

Speaking of Shanahan, someone is going to hire a very good football coach in him. But they better make sure that someone else is shopping for the groceries.

If Jerry Jones doesn't get serious about running an organization, as opposed to a fantasy football team, the Cowboys are well on their way to becoming a very expensive laughing stock. But these are things that happen when owners make football decisions designed to sell PSLs instead of winning football games.

Do you think Woody Johnson read that last line? Not likely.

How did Jack Del Rio survive Shack Harris in Jacksonville? Wasn't Garrard Del Rio's guy? Seems to me that if Jacksonville doesn't make the playoffs next year, both Garrard and Del Rio will be looking for work. Del Rio's in trouble. You can't win with Garrard.

The Raiders are much closer to being good than their record would indicate. They can run the football and they play good pass defense. One more big defensive tackle and just a bit of improvement from the quarterback and they're a playoff team next year. But Al Davis definitely isn't reading this, so he'll probably take a player they clearly don't need.

Is it just me, or do the Giants kind of look like every other playoff team now that they don't have Plaxico Burress?? Earlier in the year, they looked good to repeat. Burress may have shot more than himself in the foot.

Sorry. I couldn't resist.

Excluding the league MVP, Philip Rivers was the best quarterback in football for the month of December. And a great job by Norv Turner in changing the identity of that offense to adjust for the fact that LeDainian Tomlinson is shot.

I really like Herm Edwards. He is very well respected and very well liked in the football community. But he's 6-28 in the last two seasons. Just the mere fact that Chiefs owner Clark Hunt is considering keeping him employed is enough to make Chiefs fans believe that the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.

It hasn't exactly been a stellar end of the season for the Belichick coaching tree. Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini get the axe and Charlie Weis is stuck at Notre Dame if he wants to collect his money.

The big buzz with the NFL playoffs is the three first year coaches, Tony(The Dyxlexic Don) Sparano, Mike Smith, and John Harbaugh. So with so many jobs open, teams are going looking more at assistants who've never coached before as oppossed to "recycled" coaches. Yet. when you look back at the last two seasons, the Super Bowl winning coach each year (Tony Dungy and Tom Coughlin), were on their 2nd job. Now please explain to me while teams aren't lining up to interview Brian Billick and Mike Shanahan.

And while I'm on it, is someone going to be smart enough to hire Marty Schottenheimer. Last regular season he coached, he went 14-2. He has been the victim of some incredibly bad luck in the playoffs. With the right team at the right time, Marty definitely could be the right guy.

You'd think I was endorsing him for office......

There's a significant chance, Terrell Owens will not be in the league next year. Would you take him? And I will organize a national boycott of the network that chooses to hire him as an analyst.

And if its ESPN, shouldn't they make him apologize to Ed Werder?

And speaking of ESPN, isn't it hysterical when John Clayton reports a scoop and Chris Mortensen's scoop refutes Clayton's scoop 10 minutes later. ESPN treats these guys like the Menendez brothers got treated by their parents.

But I digress....

Also, I think I'm in the minority in not being 100% convinced that Bill Cowher will be as good a coach outside that Pitttsburgh cocoon. With all due respect to the tremendous job that Mike Tomlin does, that orgainizational system plays an enormous role in their consistent success.

Chad Johnson better pray that the Bengals don't decide to cut bait this off season. Between the butcher job that TO did in Dallas, and the constant whining of Jeremy Shockey in New Orleans, the market for divas who catch the football is starting to run thin.

Speaking of Shockey, can we now say that its no coincidence that Eli Manning grew up as a quarterback as soon as he didn't have Shockey screaming in his ear for the ball.

I'll be back early in the week with some more NFL stuff and a little hoops and hot stove baseball. Enjoy the weekend.. Y'all be cool.