What about Bob?

As noted blog guru Mark La Monica opined a few minutes ago in a motivational speech aimed at keeping up the solid monthly numbers, blogs are essentially a compilation of lists. Or something like that.

So here we go. Here are the 25 (plus two seniors previously nominated) just-announced semifinalists for enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The inductees will be announced the day before the Jets-Giants Super Bowl in Tampa.

Although there is no set number for any class of enshrinees, the Pro Football Hall of Fame's current ground rules do stipulate that between four and seven new members will be selected each year. No more than five modern-era nominees can be elected in a given year and a class of seven enshrinees can only be achieved if both senior nominees are elected.

If you have any opinions, comment away. Don't forget to push the "control" button before you hit the "post" button. It seems to work better, although we were slapped with a "comment submission error" a couple times. Keep trying!

The complete list of 25 modern-era semifinalists is as follows:

Cris Carter, WR - 1987-89 Philadelphia Eagles, 1990-2001 Minnesota Vikings, 2002 Miami Dolphins

Roger Craig, RB - 1983-1990 San Francisco 49ers, 1991 Los Angeles Raiders, 1992-93 Minnesota Vikings,

Terrell Davis, RB - 1995-2001 Denver Broncos

Dermontti Dawson, C - 1988-2000 Pittsburgh Steelers

Richard Dent, DE - 1983-1993, 1995 Chicago Bears, 1994 San Francisco 49ers, 1996 Indianapolis Colts, 1997 Philadelphia Eagles

Chris Doleman, DE/LB - 1985-1993, 1999 Minnesota Vikings, 1994-95 Atlanta Falcons, 1996-98 San Francisco 49ers

Kevin Greene, LB/DE - 1985-1992 Los Angeles Rams, 1993-95 Pittsburgh Steelers, 1996, 1998-99 Carolina Panthers, 1997 San Francisco 49ers

Russ Grimm, G - 1981-1991 Washington Redskins

Ray Guy, P - 1973-1986 Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders

Charles Haley, DE/LB - 1986-1991, 1999 San Francisco 49ers, 1992-96 Dallas Cowboys

Lester Hayes, CB - 1977-1986 Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders

Continue reading "Let's play Hall of Fame voter" »

A release from the NFL:

Monday night's 51-29 win by New Orleans over Green Bay boosted the NFL to the first 800-point weekend in its history. A total of 837 points were scored in the league's 16 Week 12 games, the most ever in a single NFL weekend. The 16 games played in Week 12 averaged 52.3 points per game.

The previous record was 788 points, set three times (Week 1, 2002; Week 13, 2004; and Week 17, 2007).

Games this season are averaging 45.0 points. If that average holds, it would top last season's average of 43.4 and the record average since the 16-game schedule was instituted in 1978 of 43.7 points per game in 1983.

Now that the Giants' running back triumvirate of Brandon Jacobs, Derrick Ward and Ahmad Bradshaw has been given the clever nickname of "Earth, Wind and Fire," I was thinking about a nickname for your Newsday NFL team of reporters: Tom Rock, Bob Glauber and Erik Boland.

How about "Girth, Wind and Fire."

Rock has allowed me to refer to him as "Girth," actually a cool nickname dating back to his days as a hulking schoolboy center at Levittown Division back in the day.

Glauber would be "Wind," as in a windbag who can't stop talking. Even when the game is on the line. (At a game in Baltimore last year, as Kellen Clemens was attempting to lead the Jets in a late fourth-quarter comeback, I turned to "Girth" and said out of nowhere, "I saw a dead guy today," referencing a motorcyle accident I'd seen on the way to the game.)

And Boland is "Fire," as in Bubbling Cauldron of Intensity fire.

(Look, it's a blog. It's meant for goofing off. I have turned into Eddie Haskell because of this thing, so please indulge.)

If you want something serious, here's my column from yesterday's newspaper about "Earth, Wind and Fire," which did a number on the Ravens on Sunday.

(Yes, this is all so silly. Then again, Best is posting pictures of toilets on his blog, so what the heck.)

This is a release just sent to us from the NFL explaining the bizarre ending to the Stillers-Chargers game:

On the final play of Sunday’s game between the Chargers and Steelers, Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu returned a loose ball 12 yards for a defensive touchdown.

The final score will remain Steelers 11, Chargers 10.
(Ok, class, that covers it. Quiz tomorrow at 10 a.m.)

In response to the growing economic gloom throughout the country - and the world, for that matter - the NFL is expected to lower ticket prices for playoffs by roughly 10 percent, according to Mike Florio of Profootballtalk.com.

Solid move here, no question.

And it wouldn't surprise us in the least if it's a harbinger of reduced ticket prices for next season.

Take it a step further, and the impact of the slowing economy will no doubt have an effect on labor negotiations. If there are any negotiations. The league's current deal runs through the 2010 season with the NFL Players Association. And with the state of the current economy, which doesn't look to improve any time soon, it's probably a safe bet that the players will be less inclined to agree to an extension that means potentially lower salaries due to the economic gloom.

The NFL commissioner Roger Goodell hosted a "live chat" yesterday and addressed a number of issues from fans. I see that New York Times sports media writer Richard Sandomir also slipped a question in there.

Best has taken a few days off from blogging, but I'm sure his head will explode once he finds out that his competitor was nuzzling on-line with the commish.

Speaking of "live chats," we'll have our own tomorrow at 1 p.m. eastern. Please feel free to ask any questions about the Jets, Giants, NFL, Kim Kardashian, or whatever other topic interests you. We'll try another blog simulcast on Boland's and Rock's blogs, which seemed to work out well the last time we tried it. At the very least, Jets fans can express their feelings about our column a couple days ago suggesting Chad Pennington could have had the Jets at 5-3 just as easily as Brett Favre.

We couldn't help but notice the ... uh ... curious order of Power Rankings by blogger Bob Mantz, whose Bob Mantz Blitz is exploding across this great Internet world of ours. We even suggested that there might be some hallucinogenic effect of some sort at work.

Well, perhaps Mantz isn't as off his rocker as we'd suggested. He decided to apply the complicated and ultimately unexplainable theories involved in selecting his rankings and made picks from Week 9.
I haven't checked the carnage from my own picks, but I'm quite certain he kicked the cr*p out of me. (I realize it might be unusual to hear that I don't know how I did in my picks. But once you know you s*cked, it's like checking your 401k after a global financial meltdown. You don't.)

Well done, Mr. Mantz.

Got an interesting e-mail from a young man named John Spinda from Kent State University.

He's doing his dissertation on sports fans (specifically, NFL fans) and their perceptions of each other. He'll also get into winning and losing and how it affects fan behavior.

"As a part of this, I have decided that I could get much better feedback from NFL fans online than I could ever get from a room full of college students rushing through a survey for class points," John writes. "Therefore, I would like to ask you to assist me by providing a hyperlink to my online study and simply mentioning my study on your blog. Please understand this is non-profit, academic research that will be used for my dissertation, and then potentially journal articles, book chapters, and conference presentations. Please feel free to browse (or even take) the questionnaire yourself. I would genuinely appreciate your support and want to thank you for your time.

Here's the link:

Memo to John: You will no doubt be receiving a response from our own Islander505, who I'm sure will have a unique take on NFL fan-dom. You might even get responses from BBiB!, Black N Gold, NKR, Hookslide, Bob Mantz, Craig, LTmeansLawrenceTaylor, Charlie Chilkoot and a whole host of other Glauber Nation readers. Good luck with it.

I did my dissertation on William Faulkner. It was quite enjoyable. It was a long time ago. There were barber shops back then. There were no blogs. There was no Internet. It would still be many years before I'd meet Neil Best. Or my wife, for that matter.

Halfway home in an NFL season filled with plenty of intrigue, surprises and drama, we bring you our mid-season award winners ...

Most Valuable Player: Drew Brees, QB, Saints. Has 2,563 passing yards and has singlehandedly kept the Saints clinging to playoff hope.

Least Valuable Player: David Garrard, QB, Jaguars. The Jags had an unexpected run to the playoffs last year thanks in large part to Garrard and his efficient play. But with only six TDs and four INTs so far, he hasn’t been the same guy.

Breakout player: Clinton Portis, RB, Redskins. With 944 rushing yards, this guy is en fuego. He's also an MVP candidate.

Rookie of the Year: Matt Ryan, QB, Falcons. It was up in the air whether the Falcons would win four games all season, no less by the halfway mark. It’s all thanks to Ryan. (Close second to Titans RB Chris Johnson, who leads the Titans with 626 rushing yards.)

Best free agent pickup: Michael Turner, RB, Falcons. LaDainian Tomlinson’s former understudy leads the Falcons with 655 yards.

Worst free agent pickup. Bernard Berrian, WR, Vikings. He was supposed to be the homerun hitter that would open up the offense, but Berrian has only three TDs.

Most improved: Jason Campbell, QB, Redskins. He has finally settled down and shown the Redskins why they invested a first-round pick in him. He still needs to throw a few more touchdowns (only has 8), but zero interceptions is huge.

Still something left: Joey Porter, LB, Dolphins. He’s doing more than just flapping his gums. Porter leads the resurgent Dolphins with 10 ½ sacks, matching his career high.

Rising star: Michael Griffin, S, Titans. A big hitter with a nose for the ball (four ints), Griffin is one of the many reasons the Titans are still unbeaten.

Falling star: Brett Favre, QB, Jets. With seven interceptions in his last three games, will need to recapture his form to help the Jets into the playoffs.

Golden Oldie: John Carney, K, Giants. At 44, has made 18-of-19 field goals in place of the injured Lawrence Tynes.

Comeback player of the year, Part 1: Jake Delhomme, QB, Panthers. Awesome return from Tommy John surgery. Has the Panthers in the mix for the NFC South title.

Comeback player of the year, Part 2: Kerry Collins, QB, Titans. Took over for the struggling Vince Young and has the Titans flying high at 7-0. Not bad for a former Giants quarterback who looked like his best days were behind him.

Best game: Giants-Steelers. Old-time football. Smashmouth at its best.

Worst game: Lions-Vikings. Would you expect anything else?

Best trade: Kris Jenkins to the Jets. He has been a force all season. A great locker room leader, too.

Worst trade: Jeremy Shockey to the Saints. He hasn't been much different in N'Awlins than he was with the Giants: Oft-injured and oft-complaining.

Biggest dunderhead: Pacman Jones, CB, Cowboys. No one will miss this guy if he never plays again.

I have some grown-up things to attend to for a few hours and won't be able to play on the blog, but I'd like to ask for your input on something that I'll post later today. I'm thinking egg-white omlette at Denny's, followed by a post about the mid-season award winners.

And there's where I can use your input. Looking for who you think are this season's best - and worst - performers so far.

A few categories to consider:

Most Valuable Player.
Least Valuable Player (always love this category).
Best free agent pickup.
Worst free agent pickup.
Best game.
Worst game.
Rising star.
Falling star.
Best trade.
Worst trade.
Comeback player of the year.

That's enough to chew on, although if you have any other ideas, let us know.

Maybe Bob Mantz can come up with some more hallucinogenic or otherwise unusual categories to drum up some interest. Like his unique Power Rankings, maybe he can pull something else out of a hat.

And if Best stops by, I'm sure he'll share his man crush on Kerry Collins by nominating him for a category like: "Best former Giants' quarterback whose hou