Watchdog

It's a good thing WatchDog rules strictly prohibit whining about fantasy league misfortunes.

Otherwise, I'd be tempted to mention which team in my family league has Tom Brady as its starting quarterback.

Sigh.

Joseph Abboud has a new deal to clothe 31 of the 32 NFL coaches, off the field, anyway. (Not Joe himself. Actually, JA Apparel, which owns the brand now.)

You get one guess about the lone exception. Hint: The Abboud line does not include torn hoodies.

(Full disclosure: I own one sports jacket. It's a Joseph Abboud. But I do not have an endorsement deal.)

RIP, Gene Upshaw.

Not to be disrespectful by mentioning something trivial compared to the news of Upshaw's death itself, but this is a sports media blog, so . . .

A story such as this is exactly why ESPN instituted the 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. live SportsCenter block, which now will be covering it thoroughly, of course.

And by the way, if Upshaw was such a lapdog for the owners, as many of his critics asserted, why are the owners desperate to get out of the current CBA, believing it is too generous to the players?

OK, I'll leave all this stuff to Glauber now.

Sirius Satellite Radio announced today that Marty Schottenheimer will join the service Monday, co-hosting "Movin' the Chains" from 3 to 7 p.m. Thereafter he will host "The Sirius Blitz" Mondays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and "The Red Zone" Thursdays from 1 to 3 p.m.

I received this information via e-mail from the Sirius public relations department. So the reason Sirius has not returned my calls or e-mails for six weeks must not be a glitch in their computer system.

So what could it be? Hmm.

It's bad enough I have to follow distribution battles involving channels that people around here care about.

I have been intentionally ignoring the saga of the Big Ten Network trying to get on Comcast, even though it's a huge deal to people who do this job in the Midwest.

Like my Tribune teammate (for now) Teddy Greenstein.

Read his stuff if you're interested. Leave me out of it. I'm a New Yorker and don't fully get the college football thing.

Plus, I'm still working on getting the NFL Network on Cablevision, so I'm very busy.

Bridget Moynahan seems to have bounced back nicely from the unpleasantness of breaking up with her boyfriend around the time she became pregnant and around the time he started dating a Brazilian supermodel who once shared a Giants Stadium elevator with me.

Or so she tells our friends at Harper's Bazaar.

I wonder which team Ms. Moynahan was rooting for in Super Bowl XLII?

On one hand, she grew up in Longmeadow, Mass.

On the other hand . . .

Holy Woodstein!

It's painful for a journalist to read this apology from the fellow at the Boston Herald who made a big boo-boo on Super Bowl weekend.

On the other hand, it's good to see such contrition from a guy who (unlike Belichick) did not intend to break any rules and (unlike Belichick) seems genuinely remorseful and (unlike Arlen Specter, R-Comcast) is not wasting taxpayer money.

Plus, I have a pretty good idea of who the dude's source was, and it was understandable for him to believe what he or she said.

Sigh. Weird business.

Holy Petrocelli! Either the Boston sports media world is way more interesting than New York's, or the journalists who follow it closely do a much better job there than here, or both.

Check out the latest Scott's Shots on the never-ending Spygate saga and the unfortunate role in it played by the Boston Herald.

OK, I'm out.

Enjoy "Ugly Betty." See you Friday.

Meanwhile, read our other fine blogs, especially Rieber's so he leaves me alone.

I talked to Terrell Owens today.

Yes, I know I should have asked him about Tony Romo's singing.

Alas, I did not.

Am I linking to this story about the Cowboys appearing on HBO's "Hard Knocks" because it is interesting information or as an excuse to share more exploitive pictures of scantily clad, very young females with body types not commonly found in nature?

I just don't know anymore.

Check out the results of the fan voting for the football flick that will be shown Saturday night at the Tribeca Film Festival.

There is something very, very fishy here. Someone associated with "We Are Marshall" must have voted early and often. Blowout victories over all comers, including "Remember the Titans?"

It couldn't have been Kate Mara. I'm guessing it was Matthew McConaughey.

I mentioned in my Friday newspaper column that Sirius Satellite Radio offers a three-day free trial via the Internet, and that this weekend would be an excellent time to check it out, given the over-the-top lunacy, er, dedication of their draft gurus.

Here is the link for that.

It turns out ESPN and the NFL Network also will cover the draft, and if you don't have the NFL Network you can watch its coverage on NFL.com.

Click below for their raw, unedited news releases on that subject (as well as Sirius') assuming there is room enough for it all in cyberspace.

(By the way . . . Newsday is covering the draft as well.)

I could easily break the all-time WatchDog posting record today if I were willing to get excited about the various networks' announcements regarding their 2008 NFL schedules.

But I'm not going there, because I don't feel like it. Click below for all the details.

I'm still focused on more immediate matters, like trying to figure out which President might challenge Barack Obama's claim of being the best hoopster in the White House should he be fortunate enough to win in November.

I was thinking William Howard Taft for his ability to post up without a three-second lane.

NBC p.r. stalwart Brian Walker suggested Abraham Lincoln for his height. He imagined an all-elbows-and-shoulders Phil Jackson type.

I informed Walker that basketball was invented 26 years after Lincoln died, but I still like the Jackson visual.

Click below for that NFL schedule stuff, scroll down to find your favorite network.

For much of the time I was ignoring Saturday's Yankees-Red Sox game (see post below) I was finally getting around to watching "The Game Plan" with my daughter.

It's that Disney football movie from last year starring Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, with cameos by a half-dozen of my old football writer friends.

I thought it was a well-executed, family-friendly flick, despite the unavoidable sappiness and predictability.

Last week I watched "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961) with Mrs. Watchdog and have decided to move Audrey Hepburn into third place on the list of most attractive female acting appearances in movie history, after Grace Kelly ("Rear Window," 1954) and Jennifer Connolly ("A Beautiful Mind," 2001).

Posthumous congrats!

I am a proud, long-time, former member of the Professional Football Writers of America, who fight for the rights of journalists (and by extension readers/fans), annually hand out coveted awards and hold a meeting the Friday before the Super Bowl during which writers complain about stuff in an entertaining fashion.

With that disclaimer out of the way . . . Check out this amusing list of finalists for the PFWA's Halas Award, which honors an individual who "overcame the most adversity to succeed last season."

It includes the Redskins (for rallying in the wake of Sean Taylor's death; fair enough), Plaxico Burress (for playing through a severe ankle injury and scoring the winning TD in the Super Bowl; fair enough) and Greg Ellis (for coming back strong from a torn Achilles tendon; fair enough).

The other two finalists are . . .

Kevin Everett, for making a triumphant return to Ralph Wilson Stadium Dec. 23, three months after sustaining a dislocation of his cervical spine that doctors said was life-threatening and likely to leave him with permanent neurological impairment.

And Eli Manning, for "playing under intense scrutiny in the largest media market."

Translation: Yo, Kevin, you think you had it tough? Imagine being critiqued week after week by Glauber!

The naming rights to the Cowboys' new stadium could surpass the record $20 million a year secured by Our Mets and Our Nets. (Uh, oh. I think this Dallas Morning News link requires a sign-up. Sorry. Up to you whether you want to bother.)

Fear not, though, New York metro area!

The Jets/Giants Stadium rights will reclaim the mark soon enough.

This is kind of interesting.

Turns out the NFL opener and the climax of the Republican Convention might be in conflict.

Some of the solutions offered on the link above are ludicrous. But can something be done?

"We are aware of it and will be discussing it with NBC," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello (who grew up in Syosset) wrote in an e-mail.

I don't care about "Dancing with the Stars" or about Jason Taylor.

But linking to this article by my old Big East beat pal Linda Robertson of the Miami Herald gives me an excuse to post the picture at right of Taylor and his partner.

It is interesting how athletes keep winning on the show. But Taylor is the first active team athlete to give it a try.

Bill Parcells allegedly is OK with this. I'll believe it when he shows up to cheer Taylor on.

I suppose I should write a story about Brett Favre's prospects as a TV announcer now that he is retired for good . . . we think.

But I don't feel like it. Those types of stories are all pretty much the same.

Plus USA Today took care of it for me. Thank you.

My daughter has outgrown her preschooler-sized Favre jersey, literally and figuratively.

Still, it's nice to know she is a part of jersey-buying history.

Here is John Madden's take on Brett Favre.

In case you were wondering.

The retirement of Brett Favre will be a devastating blow to the TV announcers of America, whose collective man-crush on Favre long has been one of the most amusing, annoying realities of NFL coverage.

Sigh.

And to think, it was Our Giants who drove him to this! (I assume.)

Anyway, ESPN should be able to cover the subject adequately for you with a special SportsCenter at 1 p.m.

A TWO-HOUR special SportsCenter.

Enjoy.

This amusing story from my old football beat pal Tom Silverstein about Brett Favre not retiring (yet) reminds me of the time Newsday.com mistakenly posted this headline:

'Yanks trade Jeter to Mets for Kaz Matsui'

Here is my Sunday newspaper column about the Arena Football League in general and Jon Bon Jovi in particular.

Sunday is Mr. Bon Jovi's 46th birthday. He looks better than I did when I was 46. He has better hair, anyway.

Did I mention I once discussed shofar blowing with him?

For those of you who don't remember that story, read here.

OK, I've got Will Ferrell out of my system now. Thanks for your patience.

I just talked to Jon Bon Jovi.

Uh, oh. Check back Sunday.

(But I can't post his picture. Sorry)

Here is a story in USA Today in which AFL commish David Baker openly pines for Our Dragons to become a major factor on the field.

Baker, a great guy and the largest human I know on a first-name basis, said similar things to me on the phone Thursday.

I will write about that in the Sunday newspaper. He also had a lot to say about the other guy in this picture. More about that Sunday, too.

A rare Happy Birthday to Amityville's own John Niland and other sports stars celebrating their big days this Feb. 29. Anthony Rieber honors them in this article.

Niland used to deliver Newsday, by the way, the latest in a long, growing line of luminaries with that great achievement on their resumes.

RIP, Myron Cope. (He invented the Terrible Towel and is a Pittsburgh sportscasting icon.)

(UPDATE: Here's an obit written by the Post-Gazette's Gene Collier.)

I am hearing from my extensive network of AFL sources - no, not Bon Jovi, but he and I had a nice chat before last season - that the Dragons are headed to ESPN 1050 this season, with Peter Schwartz still at the play-by-play mike.

That's good for the team, as it will assist in its radio visibility.

I'm hearing nine games will be on 1050 - mostly after the Knicks and Rangers are through - and the rest on 107.1 FM, the station that simulcasts 1050's programming.

I went to a Dragons game last season with my family. Many points were scored. More defense would make it a better game. But that's just me.

There's a Radio Row now at the NFL scouting combine?!

Holy cow.

When I covered it for the first and (I hope) last time in 1997, it involved hanging around a hotel lobby for many hours a day, hoping to snap executives and players as they walked past en route to somewhere else.

It was the worst assignment in my 10 years on the football beat. It didn't help that I got sick and was busy vomiting in my hotel room when Orlando Pace was speaking to reporters.

But that's another story.

Whoa!

It appears I am not the only voice in the blogosphere wilderness with some concerns over how Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Comcast) has been handling the Spygate situation - with my tax dollars.

Here is another.

Arlen Specter (R-Comcast) got his crack at Roger Goodell today.

I hope he feels better now.

(UPDATE: Apparent not.)

Here is an interesting interview with Jim Fassel conducted by WFAN's Mike Francesa and Chris Russo Monday afternoon.

I know I'm biased because the guy was very good to me over his seven years as the Giants' head coach, but I do feel bad for him about being passed over for the Redskins job.

Speaking of Jim Zorn, I remember how every time we visited my Uncle Bernie in Plainview in the late 1960s and and early '70s, he served us Zorn's chicken, which was so good it might have played a role in my mother finally deciding to take the plunge herself and move us from Hillside, N.J., to East Northport in 1972.

Or maybe not. I don't know. But there is no question the stuff was better than Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Loyal reader Charlie Chilkoot has been crusading for a recount of the record-tying 30-post day of Jan. 30. His RSS feed shows there were 31.

I have identified the source of the confusion: One post (about the death of Bob Ryan's son) was created Jan. 29 but not posted until the next day, when I had a link to a Globe article about the unfortunate news.

Speaking of Anchorage . . . The news Super Bowl XLII was second only in viewership to the Feb. 28, 1983, finale of MASH reminded me I was living in Anchorage for that big event.

That was around the time Alaska first started getting prime time programming the same day as the Lower 48 via satellite, rather than having it shipped north in a can to be seen two weeks later.

As I recall, the local CBS affiliate did arrange to show MASH on the same day as the rest of the world saw it, lest we all have to limit contact with friends and family back home until the episode aired.

The 60.2 rating MASH recorded likely never will be bettered in this fractured media world. But the show's viewership total of 106 million surely will be surpassed by a Super Bowl in the next three or four years as the population contiues to grow.

When Stan Isaacs debuted Newsday's TV Sports column 30 years ago tomorrow, there were about 73 million TV households in the nation. Today there are about 114 million.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Comcast, er, Pa.) was on ESPN's "Outside the Lines'' this morning threatening to haul everyone from Tom Brady to Tony Eason to Steve Grogan before Congress.

I don't understand this. And I want a partial refund on my federal tax dollars.

I met a friend Saturday night in the lobby of the Hyatt, which is the headquarters hotel for the NFL and the media. It was shockingly, bizarrely, eerily empty. Usually the lobby of the headquarters hotel is so thick with celebrities, hustlers, fans and people-watchers it is difficult to walk from one end to the other.

This year, nada. I’ve been to only 11 Super Bowls. Reporters who have been to 30 or even 40 were as shocked as I was. I’m not sure what the reason is, but this Super Bowl is unusually spread out. Plus, there is not that much to do in downtown Phoenix for visitors.

I assume many fans from New York and Boston have been in the touristy areas of Scottsdale. But still . . . weird.

I watched the first half of Super Bowl VII on the NFL Network Saturday, for the first time since enduring it live 35 years ago as a young, impressionable, passionate Redskins fan.

The quality of the picture was remarkable, as was the plodding efficiency of the Dolphins.

The most exciting play was the 28-yard TD pass from Bob Griese to Howard Twilley on which Twilley faked Pat Fischer out of his cleats.

I had to leave before the second half, which mirrored my experience in 1973, when the game became so boring and hopeless for the Redskins that I turned the channel.

(Yes, I saw Garo Yepremian’s TD pass to Mike Bass, but that was the ONLY thing that happened in the second half.)

If Big Blue wins, I will be happy for my friends in the Giants organization and my friends outside the team who are fans. But I also wouldn’t mind seeing the Patriots take the ’72 ‘Phins down a peg after what they did to my ‘Skins in '73.