News & Notes

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For everyone that has suffered through the long, long offseason we have some good news: It looks like they are going to extend the NFL season to 18 games in the near future, possibly as early as 2012. Of course, this all depends on the players and the owners negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement, which isn't a sure bet by any means. There does appear to be some posturing by the player reps - talk of an increased injury risk - but every player that we have talked with says basically the same thing, "Tee it up and we'll play the game."

Congrats to the 2010 class of Hall of Fame inductees. We had the 1st ballot no-brainers, Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith. We had Russ Grimm, the old guard that we all knew would get in one day. There was Dick Lebeau, whose coaching accomplishments added to his resume'. John Randle recorded 137 sacks, that's way too much for a tackle. And we had a couple of surprises in Floyd Little and Rickey Jackson. We can attest to Floyd's greatness. He wasn't as fast as Walter Payton but his improvisational style preceded Walter's. As for Rickey Jackson, we'd bet that a lot of fans weren't aware that he ranks second all-time in fumble recoveries - just one behind Jim Marshall. Given the fact that Marshall returned one of his recoveries the wrong way, we think maybe Jackson should be ranked first.

GRIDLINE staffers had some fun down here in the Big Easy at "Madden Gras", where they unveiled the new edition of the popular Madden Football video game. Mulling it over while downing a few beers, it dawned on us that the literal translation of Madden Gras is Fat Madden.

Dez Bryant may go down as the Rosa Parks of NFL rookie hazing. The egocentric 1st round pick stood up for his rights and refused to carry Roy Williams' pads. Considering that Roy has been somewhat of a disappointment in his career, we wonder if he will be able carry Bryant's jockstrap after all is said and done.

GRIDLINE's 2010 All-Dead Team is taking shape. Sadly, DE Gaines Adams was an active player when he became the first player added to the team. Gaines still holds down one DE position, alongside HOF DT Merlin Olsen. It's a good defense that features old-timer Les Richter at middle LB and former TV analyst Tom Brookshier at CB. The offense has a strong O-line anchored by HOFr Stan Jones and we have an excellent TE in Milt Morin, and we've got great running backs in Altie Taylor and HOFr Bill Dudley. We could use upgrades at WR and QB, where Dick Flowers only played in one NFL game, and we really need a FG kicker. "Gabbo" Gavrić only went 3 of 11 in his brief career. We have gotten much better at identifying recently deceased players - this year's team is already larger than last year's - so we're pretty confident we'll improve the roster.

We are now taking orders for 2010 season subscriptions. We're calling it our Preseason Pre-Order Special, and you can save over 35% off our regular price. Go HERE for details. That special includes our popular 2010 Schedule slider, an amazing lo-tech, wallet-size instrument that puts those high-tech gadgets to shame. There's nothing like it in the whole USA! Scroll down to the bottom of our ad if you just want the slider.

Gotta give Brad Childress credit for sending his hit crew down to Mississippi to retrieve Brett Favre. Their orders were to bring him back or wish him the best. Ol' Brett wasn't quite ready to come back, but he sure as hell didn't want anybody wishing him a warm retirement. Favre was on the jet as quickly as he could dump his Catfish into that carry-on bucket.

As it is with every year, fans are behooved to keep up with NFL rule changes. The biggie is that new OT rule, what we like to call the "You're kidding me, the Saints won the Super Bowl?" rule, which only comes into effect in the playoffs. There was a time when we would have called it a step in the right direction, considering that we endorsed a "Loser Shoots Last" OT system a few years back. Now, we favor simply awarding the ball to the team that tied the game up. You can see our new position in our "Ten Rule Changes We'd Like to See" featured article.

It's not technically a rule change but the NFL has repositioned the umpire from behind the linebackers to behind the offensive backfield, out of harms way. We certainly agree with the move, even though a part of us wants to see officials get creamed, but it will have a major impact on the play calling. Every team has the "use the ump for interference" play. Some teams have several. It's been that way ever since Jerry Rice adjusted his crossing routes to implicate the umpire and create separation from the defender back in 1986. Now if teams try it they may see their receiver's block get knocked off. Quick note: The umpire will move back during the last two minutes of each half.

We have added a new feature to the site, "Search GRIDLINE". We have ten years of picks, editorials and articles scattered all over our filesystem so this is the only way we could organize the info. Just type in your favorite team and see how we have talked about them over the years. Don't worry, we never say anything bad about a team - we may be the only service out there that is a fan of every team. Coaches are a different story, search those names at your own risk.

We can verify that Faith Hill will return with a new version of "I've Been Waitin' All Day for Sunday Night" this season. If things hold to form, our first look at it may be the "I've Been Waitin' All Year for Opening Night" version, on Thursday, September 9th. In any case, it'll be hard to top that undulating minidress number from last year. Her most provocative video was her first, in 2007. Try as we may, we haven't been able to locate that one on the internet. Maybe it was a little too provocative.

Our first FREE public play of the season will be posted overnite Wednesday before the Thursday opener. The 2010 sason doesn't start without GRIDLINE. No Way!

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!