NFL week's highlights and low-lights

The real big news of the NFL week happened early in the week with the whole Bobby Petrino fiasco. I can't help but laugh every time I think or read about this. It's a pretty serious issue especially if you are associated with the Atlanta Falcons in any way, shape or form. But I laugh because I am amazed at how weird and strange people can be. They can also be incredibly selfish, utterly tactless and plain stupid. The guy packed up his bags and just disappeared in the middle of the night mid-season in year 1 of his NFL coaching career. I never thought I'll see something like this especially in this day and age with 24 hour news channels and eyes following every move of every sports figure.

Apparently he told Falcons owner Arthur Blank that his heart is still in college and would like to return to college. Blank probably thought he was just thinking aloud and told him we can turn this thing with the Falcons around and he would not give him permission to look at college jobs. Bobby still went ahead and interviewed and got a job and resigned, all within a matter of hours though I am sure he had already spoken to Arkansas before he broached the subject with Blank. It's all a big scam and Bobby just flat-out quit on his team. He got killed by his players in the media the next day. All they got was a note from him in their lockers and he didn't even talk to anybody personally. Weird dude. You have done something real bad when Joey Harrington is ripping you for not doing your job right!

Sen. George Mitchell saved Bobby's ass because by mid week people forgot Bobby and it was all about Georgie and his roid report. One thing that I don't agree with though is how the media over-dramatizes everything by saying things like "oh, how will parents entrust their 18 year old kids with a man line Petrino?". I am sure this is a valid question and there are enough decent families that look at things like that. But lets keep it real. College recruiting is all about cash and strippers. NCAA recruiting is so corrupt, even a man like Bobby Petrino cannot pull it's collective integrity any lower than the depths it has already reached.

On the field, my dream season ended today. I am talking about the Dolphins winning their game against the Ravens and making sure they won't go 0-16. The good news is, Brian Billick should be done in Baltimore after this year. The Pats won against the Jets, but the 50-0 drubbing everybody was expecting never happened. It was probably the weather, but they just squeaked past the Jets 20-10 with Brady throwing for 0 TDs. There were some wild winter weather across the league as teams won games with scores like 8-0. In San Francisco, some guy named Shaun Hill played real well at QB and might end up replacing Alex Smith. New hope for the wine-sipping Niner fans. While in Dallas, Romo actually played like Alex Smith in his rookie season. Don't know why he got so rattled just because Jessica Simpson was in the stands.

The real highlight of the weekend was Brian Westbrook taking a knee at the goal-line instead of going in for a sure TD. This guy is one of the most under-rated players in the league and today he showed he is also smart and unselfish. He broke through for a long run with the Eagles leading 10-6 and less than 2 minutes to go. Right at the edge of the end-zone, he gave up a TD for himself and just fell down and took a knee. Dallas had no timeouts and this sealed the win for the Eagles. He could have scored a TD and gone up 17-6, but then Dallas gets the ball and theoritically anything can happen. Dallas probably would have still lost because it was a 2-score game, but what Brian did was much smarter and surer deal. I wish more players think like this. The other feel good news is, Buffalo's Kevin Everett is recovering surprisingly well from the spinal injury he suffered earlier this season. Thats awesome.