FOXBORO, Mass. -- In August 1988, while covering the Giants and the NFL for Newsday, I went to Carlisle, Pa., to write a feature story on Joe Gibbs. Tough duty. Gibbs didn't know me, had no interest in giving much time to some newspaper on Long Island I doubt he'd even heard of, and was less inclined to talk about himself during training camp than he might have during a less-pressured time of the year.

But after spending a couple of days in Carlisle, and after talking to his best friends in the world, I learned a lot about Gibbs. I learned, mostly, that he lives to compete. He's a sicko about competition. That was the theme of my story. I am told Gibbs, at 63, is precisely the same guy I profiled in 1988. If that's so, he will endure some sleepless nights starting right now. Oh, he might say he won't sleep in the office. Poppycock.

"Coaching,'' he said, "is a gut-wrenching, throw-up experience every Sunday.''

That's what life will be like for the Redskins. Here's what else I can tell you about Gibbs:

He's a jock, even now. He plays golf, racquetball and cards, hunts, and jogs. He has parasailed, snow-skied, water-skied, gone skindiving, drag-raced, motocrossed, stock-car raced and built a funny car.

He has passed his love of competition on to his kids.

As he told me in 1988: "My son, Coy, had a great statement one night. I was talking to him in his room, talking about heaven. He was about 8. He said, `Hey, I'm not sure I'm going to like heaven.' I said, `What do you mean, Coy?' He said, 'There's not going to be any thrill.' I asked him what he meant and he said, 'You can't die.' "My answer to this was: 'I guarantee you, Coy, for guys like you and me, there'll be some thrill up there. We'll drive race cars or something. God'll make something for us.'

"What he was saying, really, was he can't die because there's no risk after death. There's no losing, no winning. He'd hate that. I think [risk] is a big factor in our society. There are a lot of guys working in an office who are extremely competitive. [When] I started getting older and people would say, `Are you going to grow up?' I'd say, `No. I'm going to keep playing something.' "

Coy will join his dad on the Redskins' staff.

Gibbs keeps no clocks in the coaches' offices. Moral of the story: You work until you get the job done. "It's like Las Vegas,'' his offensive line coach, Joe Bugel, said. "Time doesn't matter.'' (Not to pick on Steve Spurrier, who is such an easy target these days, but my favorite story of the Spurrier regime is that one of his assistants saw newly signed quarterback Tim Hasselbeck in the office one Tuesday, an off-day, at 4 in the afternoon studying tape. The assistant said: "What are you doing in here? It's your day off! Get out of here.'' Hasselbeck, sadly, obeyed, even though he realized he was going to be playing soon, and he knew next-to-nothing about the offense. Instead of studying six more hours so he would know his stuff when practice began the next day, Hasselbeck left the office. That would've never happened under Gibbs.)

The devout Gibbs won't curse. He will look down on those who do. Dadgum is OK. So is goldang. Someone curses and he'll say something like: "Don't curse. Bad luck to curse.''

Though he often paid scant attention to his own personal life during his first go-round as Redskins coach, Gibbs felt his players' relationships with their families were as important as any X's and O's. "Whatever your business is, we all have a drama going on in our own lives," Gibbs said. "We're all unhappy about something. You have sickness, marital problems, a myriad of things going wrong in everybody's life. You have to deal with those things right away. You have to get their full concentration on football. I'd like to be able to communicate even more with my players when things aren't going bad, but it's just like everything else in life. The problems take over, and you wind up chasing the problems. I'd say handling people is the most important thing you do as a coach. Dealing with people, really, is all football is.''

He has to win. He's a miserable loser. At age 29, when he was an assistant coach at USC, Gibbs took up racquetball. He became obsessed with the game. In 1973, while coaching the St. Louis Cardinals, after night meetings ended, Gibbs sometimes played in the racquetball court inside Busch Stadium until the wee hours. In 1976, at age 35, he won the national 35-and-over U.S. Racquetball Championship. "After I finished with team sports," Gibbs said, "it was almost like I was crazed. I had to have something to do. Racquetball filled a void in my life, a personal competitive thing. I started driving all over the country to tournaments. After the fourth or fifth year, I'm sitting up there at the national tournament in Milwaukee in some hotel room playing cards with 16-year-old kids. I said to myself, `What am I doing?' ''

Back to football. He thinks you quite literally can't win without a good coaching staff. "You're with the guys every day for six months. You're in the same little old room, the same 12-by-12 room, and you're in a pressure cooker. And you depend on them so much to succeed. If you've got someone who's a jerk, a real jerk, you'd be in real trouble."

I have an acquaintance who knows the Redskins and owner Dan Snyder very well. On Friday, my acquaintance and I spoke, and I asked him if he thinks, finally, Snyder has gotten his team right with the hire of Gibbs.

"There is no question in my mind or in anyone's mind that Dan has hit a home run by hiring Joe,'' Deep Redskin told me. "This is the best move he's made since he bought the team.''

But ...

"But there are two questions. First, the honeymoon isn't the time any hard questions can be answered. Wait till the bullets start flying, and wait till Dan gets pissed off at something Joe does, or after some big loss. That's when you'll be able to judge if this relationship's going to work. Second, this hire had better work. This team is the king of the offseason, but then what happens? First it was signing Deion Sanders and Bruce Smith in 2000, then Marty Schottenheimer in 2001, then Steve Spurrier in 2002, then Laveranues Coles and the Jets free agents last year. Now Joe. If this doesn't work, who's Dan going to hire next year? The pope?''

Snyder might have hired him last week.

Offensive Player of the Week

Indianapolis QB Peyton Manning, whose 22-of-30, 304-yard, three-touchdown performance Sunday against Kansas City continued one of the great two-game runs in NFL playoff history. Manning has been a 79-percent passer with eight TDs and no picks thus far this postseason. During the years I've covered pro football, the only team I can recall being as equally unstoppable during the postseason as these Colts was the 1991 Bills, who scored 95 points in two playoff games leading up to Super Bowl XXV. Buffalo QB Jim Kelly was 5-1 in TD-to-pick ratio then, with 639 yards. Manning's 8-0, with 681 yards so far this postseason, and the Colts have scored 79 points. "I'm hot, I guess, right now,'' the polite Manning said after the game. "Excuse me, we're hot.''

Defensive Player of the Week

Philadelphia FS Brian Dawkins, who had eight tackles overall and an interception return in the overtime period, which set up the winning points in the Eagles' scintillating 20-17 win over the Packers. His enforcer mentality was about the only thing that saved a Philly defense that couldn't stop the run all day.

Special Teams Player of the Week

New England K Adam Vinatieri, whose 46-yard field goal in a minus-10-degree wind-chill Saturday night wafted clumsily over the goalpost with 4:06 to play and put the Patriots ahead for good 17-14. Ask any kicker, and he'll tell you that booting a football on a night that cold is like trying to move an oblong brick. "The ball wasn't real soft,'' Vinatieri said later. "But the nice thing about it [was] you really couldn't feel your feet anyway, so it didn't matter.'' Vinatieri's postseason resume now includes a 45-yard field goal during a blizzard in 2002 to send the divisional playoff game against Oakland to overtime, a 48-yarder at the gun to win Super Bowl XXXVI over St. Louis and this one.

Coach of the Week

Indianapolis offensive coordinator Tom Moore, for enabling his 11 to totally confound everyone else's 11 down the stretch this season.

Goat of the Week

(tie) Green Bay QB Brett Favre, for throwing up a silly prayer in overtime. A veteran quarterback as smart as Favre should never have tossed a rainbow like that, particularly with the Packers so close to field goal territory. I'm sure he thought WR Javon Walker wouldn't break off his route like he did, but it seemed like far too big a risk to take, to throw that thing up among two defenders the way Favre did. Dawkins came down with it, and that was the beginning of the end of Green Bay.

Kansas City SS Greg Wesley. As CBS' Dan Dierdorf aptly pointed out on the replay of Indy's first touchdown Sunday, Wesley appeared to be in a deep zone with two Colts receivers running on either side of him. Rather than picking one player to cover, Wesley let both of them run by him! He did nothing! And one of these Colts, Brandon Stokley, pranced by him for an easy TD catch.

Stat of the Week

Eddie George may have played his last game for the Titans Saturday night. His $7 million cap number in 2004 will have to be adjusted significantly downward for Tennessee to keep him. Which brings up this daunting George stat: fifty-eight players in NFL history have rushed for 6,000 yards or more. Among those 58 players, George has the lowest per-carry average, 3.66 yards per rush.

... New Falcons coach Jim Mora Jr. The 42-year-old was surprise pick over a field of more-famous names.

MMQB: A lot of people are asking why Atlanta hired such a young guy when there were more experienced coaches available. What do you say to those folks?

Mora: Age shouldn't be a factor in getting a head-coaching job. Experience should be. I've had 19 years of it. I've worked with some of the best football minds in the business: Don Coryell, Bill Walsh, Jim Finks. Look at the track record of some of younger guys who've been hired in recent years. Jon Gruden's won a Super Bowl. Andy Reid's in the playoffs every year. I've been coaching in this game for half my life.

MMQB: So you won the derby. How excited are you to coach Michael Vick?

Mora: I told my wife, Shannon, yesterday that this guy's got a chance to have the impact on this game that Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali had on theirs. He has a chance to be one of the great ones to ever play. I'm so happy to have [former 49ers offensive coordinator] Greg Knapp to coach him. Walsh thinks Knapp's a brilliant offensive mind. Steve Young's really close to Greg, and he loves him. I think Mike will be really excited about working with him. And this [hybrid West Coast] offense will be perfect for him. Look at what Reid and Gruden have done with it. They've changed some things. It's a fully adaptable offense, and we'll pick out the best things to make sure Mike is successful.

MMQB: As a coach, what are the traits you take from your dad?

Mora: Energy. Enthusiasm. Discipline. Attention to detail. Players used to say my dad was like a Marine. He was tough, a disciplinarian, but I think in a good way. He had some negative experiences where he lost his cool, and I'll try to learn from those.

In 1969 when Rich McKay was 8 years old, he and his brother got a new babysitter. Their dad, John, coached Southern Cal at the time, and he had perfected the practice of taking the newest, youngest guy on his staff and making him the boys' babysitter. Potentate coaches could get away with that. In 1969, the new guy on McKay's staff was an obvious choice to handle the job of babysitter. Didn't smoke. Didn't drink. Which, for a 29-year-old assistant in the Peace, Love and Reefer Era, was pretty surprising. The McKay boys liked the new babysitter. He didn't just stick them in front of the TV. He paid attention to them and played with them. Who was the babysitter?

Joe Gibbs.

Geez, I sound like Paul Harvey. And now you know the rest of the story.

I was in Nashville the other day to do some HBO and Sports Illustrated reporting. While setting up for a TV standup inside the Titans' practice bubble the other day, the producer kept looking over my shoulder, annoyed by the background. Finally, I turned around and saw the annoyance. His name was Gary Anderson. There he was, during lunch hour, fly-fishing rod in hand, practicing his casts.

After practice, I came to find out there is a very good chance that Titans kicker Anderson will retire at the end of the season as the NFL's all-time leading scorer and, in all likelihood, become a professional fly-fisherman.

"I think we are the best team in the NFL. I will not leave this stadium thinking we got beat by a better team. I think [the Patriots are] not a very good team, and it sickens me that we lost to them.''

--Tennessee guard Zach Piller, following New England's 17-14 win Saturday night.

The not-very-good Patriots have won 13 in a row, Z-man.

It sure is interesting how the folks who liked my stance on the Peyton Manning-should-have-won-MVP-alone theory are from Indiana, and those who don't are from Tennessee. A sample follows.

PRO-MCNAIR. From Terence Fails of Nashville, Tenn.: "Steve McNair and Manning as co-MVPs? I'm befuddled, too. McNair has no mass media overexposure, no Gatorade or Xbox deal, no patriarch who was a mediocre QB, no sibling who's a better QB. McNair had 16 writers answer the question, 'With your (life, mortgage, playoff hopes) at stake, who do you want leading a two-minute drill when things are looking very grim?' If he had started Week 17, he might have won the MVP outright."

The post-Thanksgiving portion of the schedule, I take it, is unimportant? That's when Billy Volek and Neil O'Donnell won big games for Tennessee, and when McNair lost to Manning for the second time this year. And you believe, I also take it, that Eli Manning will have at least five 4,000-yard passing seasons by age 27, like his lousy older brother?

PRO-MANNING. From Brian Cochran of Indianapolis: "McNair benefitted from constant hype the entire year. After the Houston comeback two weeks ago, the announcer said, 'That's your MVP, right there.' Manning never received that type of publicity. He just went out and put up better numbers. Everyone says you evaluate the MVP with a simple formula: Take the player away and see how the team does. Well, didn't the Titans win the two games when McNair was out?

Sounds about right to me.

THIS IS NOT REALLY ALL THAT COMPLICATED. From Tim Vannatter of Tecumseh, Mich.: "I can't help but feel that the Lions were railroaded last year when they were fined for not interviewing a minority coaching candidate.Joe Gibbs slides into Washington, Tom Coughlin into New York, and no one says a word. You can't tell me these (and other) teams haven't really done the same thing Detroit did last year.''

Yes, I can. The Giants (Lovie Smith, Romeo Crennel) and Redskins (Dennis Green, Ray Rhodes) interviewed two minority coaches apiece. The Lions interviewed none. Only one of those interviews (Rhodes) was a sham.

A WEEK DOES NOT GO BY WITHOUT A BEARS LETTER TO THIS COLUMN. From Brian Newport of Chapel Hill, N.C.: "A long-suffering Bears fan here. I agree with your comments on Jerry Angelo. Too much blame has been directed at Dick Jauron, clearly a coach who inspires his guys to play hard even in the face of another losing season, and Angelo has not shown enough self-loathing over such debacles as the Kordell Stewart experiment. Now we're saddled with the scary thought of Angelo's buddy Nick Saban jumping LSU's ship for big money in the NFL. He may have just won a (split) national championship, but something about him just doesn't sit right with me.''

Brian, I understand your frustration, but let me tell you this: If Nick Saban coaches your team, I promise you won't be disappointed. He's a great coach. Do I think it will happen? No, because I don't think the Bears will pay big money to lure him from LSU.

LOVE YOU, SORT OF, BUT YOU'RE NAIVE ABOUT CLINT. From Sebastian of Moses Lake, Wash.: "I simply worship your column. However, sometimes you get too full of yourself, and last week was one of those times. 'Clint Eastwood, I did not know you had that much in you.' You did not know he had all that in him? He is only one of the greatest actors of this century. Also, you go all Melvin Udall (the finicky guy from As Good As It Gets) over what is basically a bean. 'He ordered a half-decaf skim no-foam no-whip peppermint mocha in a double cup.' Well, I'll be darned. Stop those presses and alert Rumsfeld.''

What I didn't know was that Eastwood had such a great (and I mean great), gritty urban drama in him as a director, not an actor. As for the coffee stuff, I get a chuckle out of that. Maybe my sense of humor stinks.

ORLANDO BROWN FAN CLUB REPORTING. From Mike Sakala of Boston: "How can you say that Orlando Brown had a 'meltdown' four years ago? Yes, he pushed Jeff Triplette to the turf, but the BB-laden flag that the ref threw into his eye caused him to miss three years. I do not know about you, but if someone unnecessarily injured me, causing me to miss three years in a profession where the average player lasts less than five, I would have been livid. I think Brown's actions were fairly mild, considering.''

A few points: How can you say Brown did NOT have a meltdown? He charged a man four inches shorter and 140 pounds lighter, shoved him to the ground and had to be restrained from doing further damage. In your job, if you got mad at someone, really mad, and attacked him, would that be justified? Under any circumstances? And who knew Brown would be out for three years?

YOU'RE AN IDIOT ABOUT DOG SEDATION, KING. From Scott Gabbert of Bolingbrook, Ill.: "You should've done your homework before you criticized the people on your flight. The American Veterinary Medical Association recommends NOT sedating animals for air travel. Check out this site: http://www.avma.org/careforanimals/animatedjourneys/livingwithpets/sedate.asp"

Interesting. In the case of my flight, however, the owner allowing his dog to bark from Seattle to Newark was cruel and unusual punishment.

1. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of the NFL weekend:

a. I don't sort of like the Jim Mora Jr. hire. I really like it.

b. I have a sneaking suspicion that Buffalo GM Tom Donahoe might hire New England offensive coordinator Charlie Weis to coach the Bills. Weis sure seems confident about something these days. It was interesting to read Ron Borges' Sunday column in the Boston Globe, in which he said Weis would be surprised to learn that Drew Bledsoe still holds a bit of a grudge not only against Bill Belichick but also against Weis for how Bledsoe was treated later in his New England career. I had no idea. I wonder if Donahoe knows that.

c. In his opening press conference, Gibbs led the league in non sequiturs. For instance, who are "Zippy'' and "Fat Back?'' I suppose they must be NASCAR names, but gee whiz, a little explanation would have been nice.

d. Truth be told, the Atlanta Falcons liked Tim Lewis over Lovie Smith.

e. Someone in Baltimore, where the player personnel people are usually so good, needs to explain to me why the Ravens judged Priest Holmes not to be their back of the future three years ago. One of the 10 best players in the game ... I mean, how do you miss on him?

f. The Panthers-Rams game on Saturday was the best one I've seen this year, edging Pack-Seahawks last weekend.

g. Love you, James Brown, but can we get a little truth in advertising here? You said during Sunday's pregame show that "for the first time'' Favre would talk about the death of his father. In Sports Illustrated last week, Favre discussed it extensively. The issue's been on the newsstand for five days, big fella.

h. Greg Robinson is one of the nicest men in the NFL, but there's no way Dick Vermeil can keep him as defensive coordinator after the shameful display the Chiefs' defense put on as Kansas City went 4-4 down the stretch.

i. Has anyone out there settled down from this weekend? I mean, wow. Not a bad game in the lot.

j. I sense from our conversation the other day, Rich McKay, that you think I give Gruden a little too much of the benefit of the doubt in your divorce. Perhaps. But every side has two stories. I bet you lunch at Popeye's in Buckhead that he thinks I'm a little too far up your shorts too.

2. I think the funniest little interview story I've heard in the last few days was this: Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey was in the Bills' offices last Wednesday, interviewing with Donahoe. There was a TV on in the background. Donahoe asked about the coaching staff Mularkey might bring with him if he got the job. Mularkey mentioned Joe Bugel. A minute later, Mularkey looked up at the TV, saw the ESPN crawl on the bottom of the screen that noted the Redskins had hired Joe Gibbs, and he was bringing Bugel with him. Talk about sticking a fork in the old confidence level during a job interview.

3. I think Mike Martz will be scarred by his play selection late in regulation of Saturday's Rams-Panthers game. You probably know the details: Panthers 23, Rams 20, 2:38 left, one Rams timeout remaining. A 20-yard pass to Isaac Bruce left the Rams at the Panthers 38. Two-minute warning. Marc Bulger to Bruce and then Marshall Faulk for a combined total of 19 yards, moving St. Louis to the Panthers 19. Tick, tick, tick. The Rams let the clock run down. Martz chose to play for the field goal and overtime rather than for the win. This, to me, is the ultimate rap on what Martz felt about his quarterback. I wouldn't have trusted Bulger throwing into the end zone either. But what I certainly would have done is given the ball to Faulk for a couple more cracks at a touchdown, or thrown Faulk a pass in the flat, or run a reverse to Bruce or Torry Holt. Why give up a chance, scant thought it might have been, to end the game in regulation at minimal risk and choose to play for overtime? "I felt like if we could get it into overtime, we would win this game,'' Martz said, unconvincingly, after the game. "I was very sure about the decision and I don't regret it.'' He will.

4. I think Hugh Douglas would be your friend for life if you could find some way, any way, to get him out of Jacksonville with his contract intact.

5. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. Coffeenerdness: There's not a better workspace in a U.S. Starbucks than the one just off the Brown campus on Thayer Street in Providence. Great atmosphere. I just felt smarter Saturday morning typing with the Brownies around me.

b. I do not like reality shows.

c. The Angels paid Vladimir Guerrero $70 million, or some such figure, over five years. When will the absurdity end? The guy missed 50 games with a herniated disc and a hyperextended knee last year. I don't get this. Why guarantee a back-risk guy all that money?

d. Perils of Coaching Searches Dept.: I am just recovering from making a fool of myself on national TV, on PTI with Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon Thursday. At 11:30 that morning, Someone Close To The Situation told me the Falcons would try to woo Nick Saban and were in no hurry to name a coach. At 2:50 p.m., I taped the show and said pretty much that on TV. At 6:30ish, my SI.com buddy Don Banks reported that the Falcons were hiring Jim Mora Jr. to be their coach. After picking my face off the floor, I said: That's life in the coaching big city. Win some, totally embarrass yourself some.

6. I think if the Eagles go on to win the Super Bowl, Fourth-and-Twenty-Six will take the place of Chuck Bednarik decking Frank Gifford as the signature play in Eagles lore.

7. I think the most amazing accomplishment in the NFL right now is this: The Eagles have 51 wins so far this century, including the postseason. They're averaging 12 wins a year in this era of football.

8. I think, now that Bill Callahan has landed in Nebraska, I have four comments:

a. All those players -- Charles Woodson and Tim Brown most notably -- who were out front ripping Callahan publicly should sit back and feel so proud. What great men you are. Brown gets some of his playing time taken away and gets out the hacksaw. Is that so hard to figure out? Two guys miss a team function and are, at the very least, 90 minutes late for bedcheck before the last game of the year, get de-activated for the game and the team views it as an act of vengeance by Callahan? What are you guys? Nuts?

b. I'm so glad Al Davis showed such strong support for his coach. This is part of the Raiders problem, folks. Al hires a coach, the coach takes the team to the Super Bowl, and then, at the first and second and third sign of trouble for the coach, Al disappears.

c. This all got out of control, in part, I think, because Bill Romanowski and Rod Woodson weren't around enough to keep this team in line. I firmly believe Romanowski wouldn't have let this circus happen.

d. It'll be better for Callahan at Nebraska. I hear employees and supervisors there actually respect the man put in position to be the coach of the team.

9. I think -- and this is only because I know how brilliant he is, not because I like him a lot -- that someone should step out right now and hire Sam Wyche to coach quarterbacks or coordinate their offense. Wyche has had heart problems, but they have dissipated in the past year. Wyche is a natural teacher, as imaginative a mind as exists in offensive football today, and, though he can go over the top with his passion sometimes, one of the favorite coaches that most of his players have ever had. I've got Wyche's phone number and e-mail address, Jerry Angelo or Tom Donahoe or Tom Coughlin or Al Davis, if you want it. Sam and Al. Now that would be a great combination. I really mean that.

10. I think we all should take a moment and appreciate the consistent greatness of Gary Anderson, who retired yesterday at age 44. One of the most consistent kickers of all time, Anderson holds the NFL record for field goals (521, over Morten Andersen's 502), and he made 80 percent or better in 12 of 22 years. He'll have my Hall of Fame vote.

1. New England (15-2). I don't care how sacriligious it is. Right here, right now, I am comparing Tom Brady to a very young Joe Montana. Saturday night was Brady's 50th NFL start, covering regular- and post-season games. He is 38-12. He is 26-4 in games played after Nov. 1. In nine games in Foxboro this year, the Patriots are 9-0 and Brady has thrown no interceptions in 282 attempts. I am about to gush.

2. Indianapolis (14-4). Eight postseason quarters. No punts.

3. Philadelphia (13-4). Third straight 13-win season.

4. Carolina (13-5). Stephen Davis is 50-50 with his strained groin. I could see DeShaun Foster running for 127 Sunday in the championship game.

5. Tennessee (13-5). How in God's name does Drew Bennett make two impossible catches down the stretch and plum drop one that would have set up the Titans for the field goal that could have sent the game to OT? "Steve [McNair] threw it up there perfectly, and it hit both of my hands,'' standup guy Bennett said after the game. "I had the chance, but I just didn't catch it.''

6. Green Bay (11-7). Defensive coordinator Ed Donatell will have many sleepless nights living with Philly's fourth-and-26 conversion.

7. St. Louis (12-5). What a disappointing legacy this team is leaving. One Super Bowl title, lots of playoff-game upset losses.

8. Kansas City (13-4). Sure looks like the Chiefs took full advantage of having 13 days between games to fix that defense. Maybe they needed 113 to figure out how to cover that renowned Hall of Famer, Brandon Stokley.

9. Seattle (10-7). For as good a coach as defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes supposedly is, he has not been with a playoff-winning team since 1995.

10. Baltimore (10-7). You're on the clock, Steve Bisciotti. Now it's your turn to run a pretty good franchise.

11. Dallas (10-7). I know how much Bill Parcells respects Joe Gibbs, which is to say, like no other. But let me say that I would not be at all surprised if Parcells fears Tom Coughlin more right now.

12. Washington (5-11). They're back in for a very scientific reason: I like Joe Gibbs, in case you couldn't tell.

13. Miami (10-6). My gut feeling is that Ron Wolf didn't take the GM/consultant's job for much of the same reason he didn't take a job with Atlanta two years ago: Just as he didn't want to be the guy imported to fire Dan Reeves, I don't think he wanted to be the guy to can Dave Wannstedt either.

14. Denver (10-7). The stench from last week's Wild Card loss still wafts over Broncos complex.

15. New Orleans (8-8). I wonder what kind of return man Baron Davis would make?

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Monday Morning Quarterback appears in this space every week.