SUNDAY COULD BRING BLACKOUTS APLENTY, BOISE ROLLS, FOOT FETISH & TATTOO-GATE?

A down economy, 10% unemployment, Christmas weekend & frigid temps have combined for a "Perfect Storm" in the NFL. Six teams are facing blackouts of local television & that includes the Kansas City Chiefs. Tampa, Buffalo, Arizona, Cincinnati & Oakland also face blackouts. The Chiefs have until noon today to sell enough non-premium seats to ensure local fans can see the game on free TV.

Chiefs' linebacker Derrick Johnson was selected as AFC defensive player of the year for his 17-tackle performance Sunday versus the Rams. Fellow LB Tamba Hali won the award earlier in the season. The Chiefs returned to practice Wednesday & with the exception of reserve cornerback Donald Washington, the entire team practiced at full speed. Matt Cassel said he experienced no ill effects from playing just 11-days after his appendectomy, "no soreness, no pain."

The San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl(just rolls off the tongue doesn't it?) is scheduled for Thursday night at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium. Unfortunately, with the torrential rains experienced in SoCal lately, several parking lots as well as the playing field are underwater. The field has a tarp on it, but there's about 6" of water on top. The Navy-San Diego State matchup will go on, groundskeepers say the field will be fine by kickoff. Interesting.

LSU lost their leading rusher, Steven Ridley, for the foreseeable future, he was ruled academically ineligible. He will miss the Cotton Bowl game against Texas A&M January 7th. Ridley ran for 1,042-yards this season & scored 7 touchdowns. The Tigers 2nd leading rusher was QB Jordan Jefferson, ranked third was freshman Michael Ford with 259-yards & he'll be the starter. This is a major setback for an LSU team that has had problems scoring all year.

Boise State looked out of sync for the first quarter & suffered three first half turnovers before they were sparked by RB Doug Martin's 84-yard touchdown run. It was all downhill after that. The Broncos out-gained Utah 543 to 200 in total yardage. The loss ended Utah's consecutive bowl winning streak at nine. Boise State consistently stifled the Utes on 1st down, it seemed as tho they were facing 3rd & 14 every time they had the ball. Utah was just 2 of 13 on third down, lost 3 fumbles & their receivers dropped numerous passes. I questioned just how motivated the Broncos would be after losing out on a BCS bowl bid & falling all the way to the Las Vegas Bowl. After stalling on three possessions & committing two turnovers, Martin's long touchdown run rallied the troops & Boise scored twice more before half. They finish 13-1 but it's a very unsatisfying 13-1 considering where they intended to go. With QB Kellen Moore returning next season, the Broncos should once again, be ranked in the preseason top-10.

Let's say you & your significant other have something that really makes you hot. Let's say you're hooked on feet, you're have a foot fetish. For the sake of conversation, let's say you like photos & videos of feet enough to make your own. But at some point, protecting a public reputation should be important enough the videos of a woman's feet narrated by her husband, shouldn't make it to YouTube. Should it? I have railed on the social media sites as well as YouTube for years, once you put something on the internet, it's there forever. This is the case with four foot fetish style videos uploaded onto YouTube this week. The woman in the video is Michelle Ryan, wife of Jets' coach Rex Ryan, the narration sounds like husband Rex. When asked about the video's today by the Chicago media, Ryan said, "this is a personal matter & I hope you'll respect that."  Yeah, that will squelch any additional talk about these videos. Truly bizarre.

Near the end of the Las Vegas Bowl, TV color commentator Kirk Herbstreidt, mentioned a story he heard earlier in the day from his hometown, Columbus Ohio. WBNS-TV in Columbus & The Columbus Dispatch newspaper were both reporting as many as 10 current Ohio State football players, including QB Terrelle Pryor, have traded autographed pictures & footballs for tattoos. NCAA regulations strictly forbid any trade-off activities like this. Four of the players rumored to be involved, including Pryor, are covered in tats. The other six have one or two tattoos. We'll see where this goes, it's a cinch with the Buckeyes' January 4th Sugar Bowl date with Arkansas just around the corner, Tattoo-gate could heat up very quickly.

I whined some last night about my current aches & pains, how they affect my daily life as well as making us home-bound for the holidays. I mentioned I was barely able to walk on Monday due to knee pain & swelling. Earlier Tuesday evening a local guy here at The Lake sends me an email with an offer to do my grocery shopping or take me anywhere I needed to go. I know he's a regular reader, he's sent emails before Tuesday. But I have never spoken to this guy, never met him yet he offers his help. Talk about your Spirit of Christmas, this guy epitomizes it & I was really flattered by his sincere offer of help. Linda & I got to the store last right after she got home from work & we're now set for whatever Mother Nature deals us over the next 7-days. To Wayne: I say thank you & Merry Christmas.

To the people in my life forced to deal with a cranky, sleep-deprived A-Hole, I can only say please bear with me, I'm not myself(it's the drugs) & hopefully I'll be more tolerable  soon. Jeez, I got into a Facebook squabble with a total stranger tonight over the Mizzou-Illinois game. I desperately need quality sleep. By the way the #10 Tigers beat the #21 ranked Illini 75-64, outscoring them 21-7 in the final 4-minutes.

My Office Pool Picks were disappointing, finishing 10-6 for a season record of 140-84. The Steelers, Buccaneers, Giants & Dolphins, all fighting for a playoff berth, all lost at home. The 1-12 Panthers beat my pick of Arizona, it was a tough week. I hope you'll do better with these:

Carolina  at  Pittsburgh

Dallas 
at  Arizona

New England  at  Buffalo

San Francisco  at  St. Louis

Baltimore  at  Cleveland

Detroit  at Miami(1-6 at home, 6-1 on the road, how do you figure this team?)

NY Jets  at Chicago

Washington  at  Jacskonville

Tennessee  at  Kansas City

Seattle  at  Tampa Bay

Minnesota  at  Philadelphia

Houston  at 
Denver

Indianapolis  at  Oakland

NY Giants  at  Green Bay(loser is out of playoff hunt)

San Diego  at  Cincinnati(I smell an upset here)

New Orleans  at  Atlanta(since Ryan became Falcon QB, he is 20-1 at home)

MNF total points  62
 

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