Q & A with Bucs' and former Saints' center Jeff Faine: "Jeff, have you ever wondered what your awesome tats and piercings will look like when you're an old man? 'Cause it's not likely to be getting better, you know. Just sayin'."

Q & A with Bucs head coach.

The whole game sucked. Didn't feel right from the time I stepped into the Superdome. Lights were too bright. Saints played like crap but Cowgirls probably played very well too. 4th quarter was OK, the rest sucked. Surrounded by obnoxious, very very very loud Cowgirl fans, pretty much ruined the game for me. At the end, I had to tell the skank behind me "You talk a lot of trash for a wild card team." She said "We just beat the best team in the league!!!!" or something, I don't remember. I said "I would say 'See you in the playoffs' but I don't think you're going to make it." She blabbered on and I said something about the Vikings and I don't know what else. I am glad that we got a loss and don't have to think about perfection anymore, that is a LOT of pressure on a team even if they think they are the sh*t. At least they found out they aren't now, and not in the playoffs. No photos, they all sucked too. Saw Heath Evans signing autographs at the Gift Shop, didn't recognize him, cop had to tell me who he was. I said "He looks small. I think I can take him." Cop doubled over in laughter. Didn't think it was that funny. Heath put his Jesus fish in his mouth this week I guess. Letter to the editor in the T-P from someone named Epstein or something who took him to task for blogging about not knowing what to tell his little girl when she asks why people say "Happy Holidays" and not "Merry Christmas". Didn't know it was such a huge problem to educate one's children about atheists, agnostics, jews, muslims, etc. I'm soured. Crappy selection in the gift shop too. I'm telling you, terrible night all around. I think PT killed one of my fantasy teams tonight too. Looking forward to next week. 13-1, baby!

I'm in!

The Cowboys are a borderline playoff team, just like we all expected them to be at the start of the year.

boom

Tweets:
Did Payton mislead media/public about Greer? Asked Wed. (day AFTER surgery) if JG had setback: SP: "No, he’s still been working through it .

SP on Greer (contd.): "... He’s another guy that we’ll just see where he’s at. ... He did not practice today; that’s what we do know."

Personally, I could care less but flat-out lying creates distrust @jread2 As long as SP didn't violate league policy, does it really matter?

Ouch. Guess who doesn't get called on at the next Lee Harvey presser? Maybe ever again. Can Duncan turn those Vlogs into a radio show??

Appears to be a big Mormon-Pacific Islander and Ultimate Fighting fan. Nice combination. Now let's see him hit somebody. BOOM

PFT analysis of Duncan's column, bottom line: No Bush for Saints in 2010.

Best reader comment so far:
# chunky soupy sales says:
Maybe he went out of bounds to keep from getting hit in his vagina. Have some sympathy.

Peter King's column:

Jon Gruden on Bill Belichick's decision to go for it on fourth-and-2 from his own 28 with 2:08 to play and a six-point lead Sunday night at Indianapolis:

"A couple of things. If you give Peyton Manning the ball and let him play with four downs, that's a big difference from giving him three downs. [Meaning because the Colts wouldn't punt, Manning would always have four downs to keep the chains moving.] In Tampa, we had a 35-14 lead on Manning with five minutes left, and he beat us. So two minutes, one timeout, four downs ... that's an eternity for Peyton Manning. I know this: There's not too many guys out there, maybe Sean Payton, who would have made that call.''

So I called Payton. What would Payton have done in this case?

"The question you're asking is something I really can't know without actually being there and knowing all the variables,'' he said. The question can't exist in a vacuum, he said. How's your defense holding up? What kind of confidence do you have in your quarterback? Do you fear the other team's offense? Do injuries from the night play a factor?

"Only Bill can know how the game is unfolding, and it's not something he's going to talk about," Patyon added. "There are some things you don't want to say to your team or to the public. I remember learning from Bill Parcells, who also was around Bill [Belichick] forever, that you've got to pay attention to the game. Bill does that better than anyone in our game today.

"Sometimes the conventional thing is what the defense wants you to do. The Colts wanted Bill to punt. But I'm watching the game at home Sunday night, and about five seconds after they didn't make the third down, I'm looking at their sidelines and I say, 'He's going for it.' ''

I got the strong feeling Payton would have punted, but as he said, he wouldn't know for sure without being on his sideline and considering everything -- whether he felt good about getting the two yards, and how he regarded the matchup between his defense and the opposing quarterback.

There's no question in my mind that having Peyton Manning on the other side of the ball changed everything for Belichick.