I came back for this?????

Really! Just got off the plane late last night from a holiday trip to Florida - visiting family, my dad in particular. Great weather, 81-83 and sunny. But that's almost to be expected - certainly not the 60-degrees I was greeted with jumping off JetBlue's Flight 1120. What a pleasant surprise!

Was it a sign? A premonition of things to come? Could the Bills do the unthinkable - almost like 60+ weather after last week's blizzard - sink the Patriots for the first time since, well, since Lawyer Milloy played his first game as the Bills' starting safety?

Well, of course not! PUh-leeze. The Patriots strode into Orchard Park and do what always do whether the game's in OP, Foxborough, Toronto or Timbuktu. They toyed with the Bills. The final was 13-0, but I suspect the howling 50-plus mph gusts had far more to do with the Pats' low score than anything the Bills did on defense, which didn't play that poorly all things considered.

New England was its usual model of consistency - no make that professionalism. They did EXACTLY what was needed to win. Matt Cassell was just 6-for-8 for 78 yards, but made key plays on the Pats' 43 yard TD drive with a 4th and 5 pass to Wes Welker on the Bills' 14 and on two third down conversions on an 80-yard drive which led to Steve Goskowski's 23-yard field goal.

And Bill Belichik just must chuckle that evil Darth Vader-Dick Cheney-esque chuckle every time he matches up against Dick Jauron. Time-outs in the first quarter with the wind at your back? Brilliant. Cassell's quick kick in the third quarter? Uber-brilliant! Belichik matching sidelines with Jauron is harder to watch than a game of one-on-one between Barack Obama and John McCain.

The Bills spent their final pregame week lauding Jauron - Trent Edwards told the media how much he "loved" his coach. Well they sure have a funny way of showing it. The offense looked like it has much of the season, like a fire drill gone horribly wrong. They did nothing with what few opportunities they had.

With 22 seconds left in the first half, Jauron's offensive coaches inexplicably called for a run, which ran the clock down to 12 seconds. But Duke Preston and Derek Schoulman suffered co-brain cramps and traded shoves with Patriot defenders - like undisciplined players would - while the rest of the offense ran off and tried to get the field goal unit on.

Forget it. No field goal. No field goal attempt. Just Jauron and his players left with beleaguered looks on their faces. Time after time - as they have so many times this season - the Bills couldn't get the right plays in from the sideline in time.

If this is how they play when they love the guy, imagine if they hated his ass ...

I think they do love the Jauron. He runs a light camp. His practices are easy. He doesn't throw anyone - coaches or players - under the media bus. He doesn't build any animosity. Why should he?

He reminds me of the teacher who wants to be the students' pal, or the parent who tries to be his kids' best friend. There's no pressure. He doesn't motivate. He doesn't become the burr under the saddle. He makes them comfortable, and the results show it - three straight years of 7-9.

But every pupil needs to be pushed, to be motivated, to be kicked in the pants when necessary - and here's a "secret" - they crave it. Is it any wonder Jauron's players only get motivated when they're two scores down, or when they're out of the playoff race. In that regard, Jauron is a dismal failure.

There's a lot of coaches with better records who will be out of work in a few weeks. Jerry Jones has said his coaching staff is "in play", yet Ralph Wilson won't commit to Jauron's future. Ralph - for better or worse - isn't Jerry. Too bad, since Bills fans deserve that same commitment to a winning team. Jauron is 55-75 as a head coach, 21-27 with the Bills. The time has come for Jauron's tenure as coach to become "in play." He simply cannot coach the Buffalo Bills.

Sid & the Pens I

It must be the weather. Really. I haven't seen the HSBC Arena this dead since the days of Dixon Ward and 1-0 Dominik Hasek shutouts.

You can hear a pin drop in this place, or at least the sound of Lindy Ruff simmering on the Sabres bench over both of Teppo Numminen's big fat giveaways - one to Matt Cooke leading to a direct scoring chance on Ryan Miller, the other to Evgeni Malkin while on the power play. It didn't lead to a shot, but sheesh! It's Evgeni Malkin!

Sidney Crosby hasn't scored a goal since Nov. 29, and so far, Sid the Kid hasn't done all that much with his ice time. Crosby hasn't scored in ten games over which the Penguins have gone 4-5-1, sliding to seventh in the Eastern Conference ...

Identity crisis ...

As a few of you have already noticed, the name's changed. "foxonsportsn'otherstuff" is the new title from "ballsn'pucksn' otherstuff" because, well, someone objected to "balls" in the title.

Yep, swear to God. In 2008.

And yes, there's a funny story behind it, but not now. I'm beat, as I'm sure alot of you are, from removing all that snow.

Anyway, thanks for finding us. We'll be back Monday night from the HSBC when Sid the Kid and the Penguins come to town ...

Sorry about the confusion, folks. Just changing a few things around ...

Numbed from the cold

Think it's too early in the winter (hell, it's not even REAL winter yet) to be suffering from the blahs?

UB and UNC Asheville hooked up at Alumni Arena Saturday afternoon in what could charitably be called a "snoozer." The two teams combined to shoot 14-for-47 (that's about 40 percent - decent high school teams shoot better) and fifteen turnovers in the first half alone. The gym was about half filled with most of the students off on break. The crowd that did show was offered lukewarm support - and the refs sleepwalked through most of the game as well (well, why should that be any different?).

I realize it's hard for schools like UB's to draw over the break. But if you're going to play it, at least provide a better draw. UNC Asheville, with perhaps the youngest starting five in the nation, is a program still in its developing stages and has been mostly nothing more than a punching bag for established ACC programs (note Wednesday's 43-point loss at Duke - Duke for God's sake!) for most of the early season.

Meanwhile across town, Navy provided Canisius with a 68-63 nail biter, which was tied at 27 at halftime before the Golden Griffins eventually prevailed.

Back at the Alumni Snooz-a-torium, Buffalo's talent advantage (such that it is) eventually prevailed. About the only highlights were schtick provided by the Toronto Raptors mascot - including the bit where the Raptor gobbled up one of the UB cheerleaders.

Provide your own punchline ... here.

Flaky ideas

Damn, it's cold ...

Luckily my nice, efficient one-year-old furnace hums along, heating the house, letting me watch the first big snowfall of the year while in relative comfort while sipping a Tim Horton's and watching NHL On The Fly -and listening to TSN's Gary Green butcher the English language.

Look at it snow! I really ought to build a rink in the back yard this year and invite my friends over for a skate.

Bad idea. You know one of them's gonna bring over a stick and a puck, then two, then before you know it they're playing their own version of the Winter Classic. Then one rising shot shatters the sliding plate glass windows in the back of the house. So long $1500 bucks.

At least the Bills are practicing outside this week. Good idea. They play in Denver where it's going to be cold. The Bills normally practice inside the Ralph Wilson Fieldhouse, which is really really big. Big enough to hold a blimp, or the $50 gazzilion bucks Bernie Madoff "made-off" with, or maybe even big enough to hold Sarah Palin's wardrobe.

And Trent Edwards is starting. Trent's a California guy - Stanford, etc ... (why the team in one of the two coldest climes in the NFL keeps acquiring QBs from California - Edwards, J.P. Losman, Rob Johnson - I have no idea, but I digress). Anyway, if he's going to play in Buffalo, his skin's gotta thicken when the thermometer dips below 30.

Trent doesn't do very well in the cold - see the Cleveland debacle for details - last year's Cleveland debacle, I mean - as opposed to THIS year's Cleveland debacle, which was the stupid coaches' fault.

It's snowing harder now and the Yankees are doing what they do every winter - spend unspeakable gobs of money on human beings with the extraordinary ability to play the game of baseball. This time it's pitchers C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett.

Good and bad idea. Good because as every geek and seamhead know (get ready to barf on cue; three, two, one ... and ...) good pitching beats good hitting - and both Sabathia and Burnett are good pitchers. But bad because Burnett always seemed to spend half his time in Toronto on the DL.

And C.C. ? well, C.C.'s fat. Period. C.C. may as well stand for "Chowing Cheeseburgers." Can't wait to see how he holds up in the Bronx during August's Dog Days. Or how he manages returning to the American League after going 11-2 for the Brewers in the National League - you know, the league with one less really, really good hitter in the lineup. Or when there's a hundred-or-so media members waiting for him by his locker. Or after he goes 2-0 for the first time Opening Day.

It's really coming down now. Hope the Sabres can get their replacements up from Portland in time for tonight's game. Bad idea, but one they had no choice in. Rochester's ownership was (is) a joke but on days like this it makes you long for when a call-up was a Thruway drive away, assuming the Thruway is open in the first place. I'll be interested in seeing how promising defenseman Chris Butler fares on the NHL level.

That is, assuming the satellite dish doesn't go out ... oh no ...

Time to get a push broom and climb on the roof. I hate snow.

Knowing the Score ...

Turner Gill is staying at the University at Buffalo. That's a good thing, I guess - for UB, for its students and alumni, for the Buffalo Bulls, for Western New York.

I wasn't one of those who necessarily thought Gill would be out of here as soon as the final gun goes off at the conclusion of next month's International Bowl in Toronto. An 8-5 record in the Mid-American Conference doesn't necessarily guarantee a coach the "next big gig" at Syracuse or in the SEC, and names like Randy Edsal, Mike Schiano and now Gill always seem to get mentioned for the NBG and then they always seem to stay put.

Oh, they interview. Last year Gill lost out on the Nebraska head coaching job to Bo Pellini and this year interviewed to replace Tommy Tuberville at Auburn University.

But there's always more to the game than what's on the field.

Gill did more than just win a title. He turned around a program. At the time Gill walked onto the Amherst campus, UB was college football's roadkill. After his initial 2-10 season his Bulls either tied for or won outright the MAC's East Division title and this season upset undefeated No. 12 ranked Ball State to capture the MAC title in just his third season. He shouldn't just have a shot at coaching a big time program, hell he oughta get a shot at solving the nation's financial crisis as well!

But unlike Edsal and Schiano, Gill is black, just one of four African-American head coaches in Division I-A. Four out of 119 schools.

He also just happens to be married to a woman who is white.

Over the last two seasons, Gill has a 13-12 record with two division titles and a league championship to his credit. He lost out the vacancy at Auburn to Gene Chizik, who went 5-19 those same two years as head coach at Iowa State. The excuse given was that Chizik was, "a better fit" for the Tigers' program.

A better fit? How? With Auburn's boosters? Alumni? The state of Alabama? And race wasn't a factor?

Next to Bo Jackson, Auburn's most well know athletic alumnus, former NBA great Charles Barkley, cried foul almost immediately, and a disturbing report ran on ESPN's Outside the Lines sourced two SEC coaches saying African-American head coaching candidates like Gill and Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong had no shot at landing jobs in the league because they were married to white women.

Gill hasn't cried foul or blamed Auburn's administration. He won't. He's too decent a man to do so even though like any good coach, he knows the score.

I keep thinking to Election night. I was in UB's press box, up against deadline since the Bulls had just defeated Miami of Ohio for the first time in the program's history - a landmark in its own right.

Around 11 pm, one of the major networks projected Barack Obama's victory and I noticed one of the student press box aides - an African-American girl no more than 20 - in the reflection of the darkened glass. I could still make out her eyes as they grew and the announcement came over the air - America had just elected its first black president.

"He DID it ... He DID IT!!" she exclaimed.

I thought, "How could you know? You're twenty! How could you know all the racial divides that have been overcome? How could you know the struggles of Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, MLK? This is 2008, how could you be aware of segregation? Separate but Equal? That your own school once refused a bowl bid because two of that UB team's members weren't going to be allowed to play in Orlando because they were black."

And ... in that exact same instant, and I watched her eyes grow wider, I knew, embarrassingly yes, I knew, that that girl knew how important it was in ways I could never, ever know.

We stand on the verge of inaugurating an African-American president, but we still have so far to go as a people, as a nation.

College football should be embarrassed for the lack of black head coaches - four out of 119 - when almost 54 percent of its players are African-American. When the sport itself is mainly driven by its overwhelming popularity in the southeastern United States, and the SEC is the biggest conference in the sport. You'd think the powers-that-be would want to distance themselves from any sort of controversy that smacks of the plantation mentality.

About the only real winner in all this is UB. They extended Gill through 2013. He'll be back next year. But the rest of college football? They're the loser. Big time.

"Hi Ken, Love the show. First time, long time ... I'll hang up and listen ..."

I've never been "Fire the Coach" guy.

Anyone who's ever had the misfortune of driving shotgun with their best buddy - the guy with the radio melded to the local sports-talk station - knows who that guy is.

If the home team goes down - be it by last-minute miracle or total debacle - it's the coach who should be shown the door and given directions to the nearest unemployment office - if not an outright tar-and-feathering.

But in team sports, when something goes wrong it's usually an organizational breakdown. Coaches put players in positions to succeed or fail. Players succeed or fail in the arena. GMs put the pieces in place and ownership writes the check at the end of the month.

Sunday at The Meadowlands the Buffalo Bills, for the ump-teenth time under the watch of head coach Dick Jauron, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. It was much more painful to watch than last year's Monday night loss to the Cowboys, much more excruciating than when Rian Lindell pushed a last-second 47-yarder wide right (there's those words again) against the Cleveland Browns.

Jauron put backup quarterback J.P. Losman in a position to fail - in the final minutes and in turn cost his Bills a well-deserved win over the Jets. The Bills played inspired. Marshawn Lynch lived up to his "Beast-Mode" nickname and then some. They may - MAY - have found another receiving option in Steve Johnson, once injured second-round stiff James Hardy was carted off the Meadowlands carpet.

They overcame a holding penalty which nullified a 100-yard kickoff return by Leodis McKelvin and a first quarter 14-3 Jets lead, which last week against the Dolphins at the Rogers Centre would have qualified the Bills for "Do Not Resuscitate" status.

But with a shade more than two-minutes left and the Jets unable to handle Lynch, Jauron called for Losman for a roll-out pass to the right.

I forget who said that, "Only three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad," well, two of them happened. New York's Abram Elam sacked Losman, stripping the ball. Shaun Ellis scooped it up at the Bills 11, rumbling all of his 285 lbs. into the end zone for the winning points.

We all know J.P. isn't worth the first-round pick the Bills spent on him five years ago, the way he lost his job to Trent Edwards only underscores that. We know he has trouble protecting the ball, you'd think Jauron would know that.

But Jauron committed the No. 1 sin any coach can commit, he put his player - and by admission his team - in a position to fail. He did so by taking the blame for calling the ill-fated Losman roll out pass in the postgamer.

Russ Brandon was visibly seething in a post-game television interview. Ralph Wilson was overheard saying, when asked about Jaurion's contract that he, "should have stayed in the insurance business."

The Bills have not made the playoffs since 1999. They were officially eliminated after Sunday's loss, after starting the season 5-1. This clearly is an organizational failure, but the organization has only one choice to clear up its mistake.

It must fire Dick Jauron.