- There are certain guys in the world that all women want to be with and guys want to be. New York Jets coach Rex Ryan may not be one of those guys with his portly physique, but he’s clearly someone that a lot of players around the NFL like and want to play for. His confident, bombastic ways has propelled the Jets to the AFC championship game for the second straight season and his efforts this season have inspired a player from New York’s other NFL team to profess his admiration. Appearing on a Miami radio station Monday, New York Giants defensive back Antrel Rolle observed that when he watches the New York Jets, he sees a team "going to war" for its head coach and he admitted to wondering how good the Giants would be if their coach, Tom Coughlin, was more like Ryan. He professed appreciation for his own head coach, but said that he would like to see him loosen up. "On a personal level, honestly, [Coughlin is] one of the best guys to be around," Rolle stated. "Very caring. Honest guy. Very straightforward." That’s fine, but what about him as a coach? "Honestly, that's where the problem comes in with me, as a coach," Rolle said. "Since I've been playing the game since the age of six, to me it's never been about the money, it's never been about anything more than winning and having fun." Perhaps the most damning of Rolle’s comments came when asked if he was having fun playing for Coughlin. Rolle answered, "Honestly, I'm not having the fun." These are far from the first controversial remarks Rolle has made since arriving in New York and playing his one and only season as a Giant thus far. He questioned the leadership on the team and whether the atmosphere was too controlled after the Giants were routed by the Colts in Week 2 but later backed off his remarks after speaking with Coughlin and defensive captain Justin Tuck. The Giants responded by winning five in a row and eventually put themselves in great position to win the NFC East and make the playoffs heading into Week 16. That’s when they and their 9-4 record raced out to a 31-10 lead against the Philadelphia Eagles before surrendering four touchdowns in the last half of the fourth quarter to finish of an all-time collapse that they chased with a 45-17, beatdown loss to Green Bay the next week. The Eagles and Packers both made the playoffs thanks in large part to those wins over the Giants, prompting rampant speculation about Coughlin potentially being fired at the end of the season. In the end, ownership decided to bring Coughlin back and based on these comments, it might be time for he and Rolle to sit down and have another heart to heart. "As a person I don't have any problem with coach Coughlin," Rolle said. "We have a great relationship. When you're talking about the coaching side of things, do I feel like things are a little too uptight? Yeah, I do. I feel like if he just loosened up just a little bit, still run the ship the way you want to run it, still run the program the way you want to run it but let us have a little fun ... because at the end of the day that's what it's all about. And people like to talk about Rex Ryan and this that and the other. That team is going to war for him.” His sentiments were somewhat backed up by teammate and fellow safety Kenny Phillips, who was with Rolle during the interview. Are their comments something that needs to cause a rift in the locker room or a feud between the two of them and Coughlin? No, but it probably won't improve those relationships either………
- So CNN put all of its promotional muscle behind the talk show debut of Piers Morgan as he took up Larry King’s time slot on the cable news network and……this is the best he could do? Even opening with an interview with Oprah Winfrey wasn’t enough for Morgan to best airhead Sarah Palin on rival Fox News. According to CNN, 2.099 million people watched "Piers Morgan Tonight" on Monday. That represents a 219 percent increase on the average audience for King's previous show in that spot, but Fox News show "Hannity", which featured an interview with Palin, drew 2.3 million viewers, according to ratings data. I just don’t understand, not with Morgan’s oh, so fresh promos about how he makes people squirm in his interviews, he wants the news to be captivating and exciting and how he once made Simon Cowell cry. Maybe it’s the lingering resentment of people like me over Morgan’s history as a reality TV judge or perhaps most Americans have no interest in watching an acerbic Brit they don’t know interview people, but something about Morgan’s show hasn’t resonated thus far. It’s not like CNN didn’t promote the living sh*t out of the transition from King to Morgan since the change was announced last year. Part of the blame could undoubtedly go on CNN’s shoulders, as it has lost audiences in recent years to its more partisan left and right-wing rivals at MSNBC and Fox News. A network perceived as not pandering to one extreme or the other just won't find enough followers even though more and more Americans are labeling themselves moderates or independents these days. Fact is, the extremist kooks are the ones who are tuning in the watch cable news networks. Critics gave a lukewarm evaluation to Morgan’s first show, with many lambasting his kid-gloves approach to Winfrey. Others praise his humor and intelligence, but a much bigger sampling is needed to determine whether the Piers Morgan experiment will succeed or if CNN needs to start looking for a replacement for its replacement host……….
- Woo hoo, another reason to hate smoking! According to research published in the must-read scientific journal Chemical Research in Toxicology (subscribe now), smoking not only ruins your body in the long term by upping your chances for lung cancer, emphysema, various pulmonary ailments, greenish, leathery skin, your face looking like a catcher’s mitt stapled to your neck and a gnarly, raspy voice, it also does significant damage to your body in the short term. A small-scale study found that damage begins just moments after the first cigarette is smoked. Researchers examined the level of chemicals linked with cancer, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), in 12 patients after smoking. PAH was added to the subject's cigarettes, which was then modified by the body and turned into another chemical which damages DNA and has been linked with cancer. Most jarring was the fact that this process took place between 15 and 30 minutes after a person smoked their first cigarette. "This study is unique, it is the first to investigate human metabolism of a PAH specifically delivered by inhalation in cigarette smoke, without interference by other sources of exposure such as air pollution or the diet,” said researcher Stephen Hecht, from the University of Minnesota. "The results reported here should serve as a stark warning to those who are considering starting to smoke cigarettes." Hecht and his fellow researchers called the study a stark warning to people considering smoking. Don’t allow the fact that the research was funded by the US National Cancer Institute to deter you on this one because adding another negative effect to the litany of hazards posed by smoking is a bit like adding another bad thing to the list of potential negatives that can come if you walk through a pit full of hungry bears at the zoo with your body covered head-to-toe in raw meat. In other words, just another reason not to do something moronic……….
- There is no easy answer to this one, no matter which side of the issue you are on. Juan Quintero is serving a life sentence for the murder of a Houston police officer. There is no doubt about his guilt, as the facts of his case established well that he was the one who shot Officer Rodney Johnson seven times during a traffic stop in 2006. Quintero was spared the death penalty and will spend the remainder of his natural life behind bars, with no chance for parole. But while he is there, what does he have the right to do? For example, if he creates a design and that design becomes a t-shirt that a nonprofit group chooses to sell to raise funds, is that wrong? The nonprofit in question is the Gulf Region Advocacy Center, also known as GRACE. It is the same nonprofit group that helped Quintero with his legal defense. At the time of the incident, Quintero was in the United States illegally, having been deported in 1999 after being convicted of indecency with a child. At the time of the shooting, he was driving a truck for the company that employed him, Camp Landscaping. The company's owner, Robert Lane Camp, pleaded guilty to knowingly harboring an illegal immigrant. Camp had also employed Quintero before he was deported. Without GRACE, Quintero would almost certainly have been represented by an overworked public defender who would not have been able to provide as a good a defense, which everyone - EVERYONE - is entitled to in the American legal system. It makes sense on some level that GRACE would still have a connection to Quintero, but there are plenty of people on the other side of the issue who have a huge problem with the group selling a shirt designed by a cop killer. "(Johnson's widow) has been through enough already," said crime victim advocate Andy Kahan. "Now here he is, actually sitting behind bars, and people could be wearing shirts that he designed. It's absolutely gut-wrenching." In the end, it’s not a right or wrong, black or white issue. Whichever side of the debate you come down on, odds are you feel strongly about your position and no one is convincing you otherwise………
- Lots of success with that, Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo. Lugo and his administration are locked in a fierce battle with a leftist guerrilla group that claimed responsibility for three bombs in the last week and like any political leader facing a tough, not-bound-by-the-law opponent, Lugo wants the Paraguayan People's Army stopped - NOW. To that end, Lugo has ordered Paraguayan police to "exterminate" the activities of the PPA. His directives to law enforcement are to redouble efforts to arrest and shut down the guerrilla group. In a speech delivered Tuesday, the president said that there are no more than 40 core members of the organization, and that "since they have chosen violence, the government must respond with force." His orders have been passed down the chain of command to Interior Minister Rafael Filizzola, who in turn passed them along to local political leaders. Officials in northern Paraguay will undoubtedly be happy to hear these remarks because they have repeatedly and vociferously complained that an intensive campaign to defeat the group last year ended prematurely. The government seems to have come around to that line of thinking after five people were injured by a bomb Sunday night, and the group vowed to keep up the attacks. However…….crushing an amoeba-like guerrilla group that isn’t bound by the same rules or laws of engagement as the government and can run, hide and live in the shadows is a tough enemy to tackle. A small group like the PPA is even more difficult to attack and odds are that even with a heightened focus on shutting them down once and for all, the Paraguayan government, law enforcement and the country’s military have a difficult and lengthy battle ahead of them…………
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