I’m still catching up from a weekend trip to Chicago (where I was greeted with 2 degree weather and a -18 degree wind chill), so you’ll have to forgive the stream-of-consciousness style of this post. I’m still thawing - much like Tom Coughlin’s cheeks. Seriously, dude. It was -4 degrees last night in Green Bay. It’s a miracle you don’t have frostbite over 70% of your face.

… and speaking of faces, some Patriots fans with recently purchased tickets on the New England Bandwagon love to giggle and point out the “Manning face“. Thanks to the younger, less experienced Manning last night, we now have the Favre face:

“Waaaaah, I can’t start collecting social security for another 4 years.”

Fun with numbers, hyperbole

I caught the intro to the NFC Championship game on Westwood One radio about 10 minutes from my front door. The color guy mentioned that “90% of America wants to see Brett Favre play the Patriots in the Super Bowl.” Well, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the resident population of the United States, projected to 01/21/08 at 18:20 GMT (EST+5) is 303,279,395.

Perhaps there really are 272,951,456 Packer Backers out there… but please: can we stop painting with our hyperbole brushes? Case in point: please stop referring to the Patriots as a “Dynasty”. The Zhou were a Dynasty. The Ming were a dynasty. The Patriots are a football team. When they can win 276 championships in a row like the Ming will they be worthy of such a title.

Welcome to Baltimore, John Harbaugh

Murphy’s Law dictated that I wouldn’t be around any technology for the hiring/announcement of the Ravens coach, so I wasn’t able to catch up on media coverage until late last night. Damn you, Murphy. Damn you.

First, I’d like to say that I’m really excited about what John Harbaugh brings to the team. He sounds like the kind of coach that’s going to really work every ounce of talent out of the active roster and demand 110% on every snap in practice and during games. By all accounts - and I’m sure you’ve read them by now - Harbaugh is a sharp guy and hard-worker. The days of Mike Preston calling training camp ‘Camp Cream Puff’ are over (even though Mike McCarthy and other coaches around the league regularly rest veterans).

Now Harbaugh is scrambling to pick his coaches. While technically not “fired”, all of the coordinators and position coaches were “released,” which essentially means that they can be retained if Harbaugh likes ‘em. Rumors are floating around that if Rex Ryan doesn’t get the head coaching job in Atlanta that Bisciotti will give him a raise to keep him on the staff.

Problem solved.

On the other side of the ball, it’s really Harbaugh’s call. The Sun thinks that he’ll pick Eagles QB coach Pat Shurmur. I’m not sold on Shurmur, but if he helps transition Harbaugh from position coach to head coach with an already established working relationship, I’m all for it. As Billick proved last season, you can always fire friends who happen to be OCs.

What do you think? Who should Harbaugh target for his coordinators?

Art imitates life

I was on YouTube this morning and found a Coming to America clip where Eddie Murphy’s character, Prince Akeem, talks about how the Giants of New York defeated the Packers of Green Bay by kicking an oblong ball through a big H. Strange: