Random thoughts while wondering what ever happened to Will Furrer:

The Bears meet the Rams on Monday night in St. Louis.  The Bears are 1-10 in their last 11 Monday night games in December, but none of that should matter if Lovie Smith takes charge of Rex Grossman and doesn't allow him to struggle.  The Bears have to stop relying on their defense so much to score points, especially with Mike Brown and Tommie Harris out for the season.  Still, Bears 24, Rams 17 seems life a reasonable score to what should be a fairly mundane contest.

While Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) may be well-intentioned, his head may be giving himself an enema.  Specter is authoring legislation in the Senate to force the NFL to put their NFL network games on cable.  But, obviously, Specter has not checked the facts.

The fact is the NFL, which is in bed with the Dish Network, has offered their games to cable.  BUT, the NFL has asked for a king's ransom in return and the promise that the NFL network be a basic, not a premium tier item.

There is no way a responsible cable operator is going to do that for these reasons: 

1)  The games being offered by the NFL Network are not that compelling

2)  Football is not popular with everyone, so why jack up basic cable prices over something that everyone doesn't want.

3) If the local team are involved, the game is being shown on free TV, so people get to see them.  The rest of us will just have to weep openly because we miss the Steelers and the Bengals.

4) How much Rich Eisen can anyone stand?

This is not a compelling, must have purchase for cable companies.  The NFL will eventually change their tune if they want to maximize on ad revenue.  If not, they'll stay hunkered down and hope everyone unhooks their cable in favor of a satellite. 

As for Specter who represents the football crazed state of Pennsylvania, this is nothing more than a grandstand attempt to show the folks back home he's in touch with them.  The fact is, congress has no business telling the NFL where and when it can air their games.  The market will make that correction on its own.

West Virginia should be applauded if it allows Rich Rodriguez to jump ship and head to Alabama. A state with a not so robust economy, it is difficult for them to justify paying someone, even as talented as Rodriguez, a reported $2 million a year to coach football. From the time that Alabama showed interest, state and university officials have said that they will not get in a bidding war over a football coach.

So here's Rodriquez, a native of the state, an alum of the university who came to Morgantown specifically to improve the football program looking at leaving for Alabama.  And, what will he find there? The grass may not be as green as he thinks.  For one, he's got to beat Auburn immediately.  For another, he has little talent at quarterback.  And third,  he's not one of "Bear's Boys" or even someone who shook hands with Bear, so his window to develop a winner is even shorter.

Dennis Franchone was vilified by both the media and the fans when he bolted Alabama. Mike Shula, one of the first quarterbacks of the post Bear Bryant era was tossed out on his ear and he's an alum.  Rich Rodriguez better think good and hard about more than the paycheck, because I can tell you from experience, sometimes smaller is better.   

This just in: Kenny Williams has traded John Garland and Mark Burhle for a hand full of magic beans.  By the way, Rick Morrissey, you hit a home run this morning.

Why is it the city owns the sidewalk in front of your house, but you get to shovel it?  And, why is it, when the city owns the parkway in front of your house and they plant a tree, you not only get the privilege of taking care of it, you get to pay for it as well?  And, there is no discussion about this, as in "Dear Resident, would you be interested in a tree?"  It's just plain bend over and grease up, pardner, because that tree may burn a little.

And, in Oklahoma, a Wal-Mart shopper found a bag of cocaine in the toy section of his local store. Regular drug dealers in Oklahoma have shut down business as they cannot compete with Wal-Mart's buying power and lower prices.