Hardball Heaven

About an hour away from Pats-Steelers. The weather dudes are calling for a "wintry mix" to hit Boston and surrounding suburbia later this evening. It shouldn't have too much of an effect on the game. My biggest concern is that we need to hear a LOUD Gillette Stadium tonight. Lots of talk in the papers lately about Gillette being a somewhat quiet stadium compared to some other places. That needs to change today, and I'm thinking the quality of the opponent - and of course, the pursuit of perfection - will raise the decibels. We need a home-field advantage today.

Nothing very exciting as far as the 1:00 games go. Dallas (11-1) is currently losing to Detroit, but elsewhere it's been mostly as expected. Chargers-Titans has playoff implications, but it's been a pretty boring game so far with the Titans clinging to a 10-3 lead. It's funny - when I was a little tyke and the 49ers were the team to beat in the NFL with Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and Roger Craig, I can remember thinking how the Niners were playing at a completely different level, and that dichotomy came through loud and clear whenever I had to watch the pathetic Patriots. My, how the tables have turned. The quarterback play around the NFL - save for Brady, Manning, Romo and Favre - is putrid. It's arguably the most important position in sports, and it's positively glaring how many bad ones there are out there.