Quote of the Week I

"I've told Pacman [Jones] and any player, 'You have to earn your way back into the National Football League, and you have to earn it through your conduct.' It's not about what you tell the commissioner, or what you tell anyone. It's your conduct and your activities. I was disappointed with some of the activities that Pacman got involved in this spring, after we met and had a lot of discussions.''

-- Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Remember this quote whenever the league issues its discipline against Vick. He'll have to show some significant remorse, and be serious about it (or at least act serious and do all the right things) before he'll be allowed to play in the NFL again.

Quote of the Week II

"At the end of the day, you know what? I could have a desk job. I'm lucky -- we're all lucky -- to be playing a game for a living.''

-- Atlanta quarterback Joey Harrington, on Friday night, when I reminded him how rough a time he's had in his first five NFL seasons.

Quote of the Week III

"And the Yankees lost last night, so that makes the lead five and a half, right?''

-- Buffalo coach and rabid Red Sox fan Dick Jauron, while walking down the tunnel to the field at Ralph Wilson Stadium an hour before the Bills-Falcons game on Friday night.

Jauron was trying to figure Boston's lead over New York after being told the Red Sox had beaten the Angels in the first game of a day-night doubleheader, proving that even a man in the middle of the training-camp grind can have his priorities straight. As of this morning, coach, it's four games.

Quote of the Week IV

"Let's be thankful it wasn't us. But let's react like it was.''

-- Goodell to his officiating department on the heels of the NBA referee fiasco.

Quote of the Week V

"Well, that kind of puts a damper on this Yankee win.''

-- Hall of Fame shortstop and former Yankee announcer Phil Rizzuto -- who died last week at 90 -- after the station telecasting Yankee games, WPIX, broke into the postgame show to announce the death of Pope Paul VI in 1978.

Quote of the Week VI

"I gotta tell you what I did. You won't believe it, Bill White, but it's something I've wanted to do my whole life and finally today I got nerve enough to do it. I had a facial. No wonder women go. It took two-and-a-half hours. Oh, they massage your face with oil, and then cream and they rub your eyeballs.''

-- Rizzuto, alongside partner White, in one of his typical in-game, having-nothing-to-do-with-anything stories that made him such a maddening and beloved announcer.

Quote of the Week VII

"I've visited the Patriots, Ravens, Colts, Giants, Redskins, Eagles and Bears thus far this summer. Baltimore is the most complete and best team I've seen to this point.''

-- Rick Gosselin, the highly respected Dallas Morning News pro-football writer. He got my attention, for sure. With New England, Indy and Chicago in the group, he picks the Ravens as the best team he's seen.

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me

At the start of Jets practice at their Long Island complex, Mozart concertos play from six speakers around the practice fields.

"There's a lot of debate about whether classical music, and Mozart in particular, stimulates brain waves and learning,'' Mangini told me the other day. "So I figured, 'Why not? Let's do it.'''

Sure sounds strange while standing out there, that's all I can say.

"Not a lot of the guys are very big fans of it,'' safety Kerry Rhodes said.

Mangini Factoid of the Week That May Interest A Lot of Portly Americans

So, the question goes to Manginius: How'd you drop all that weight?

When you see him on TV in September, you'll see he's down about 35 pounds from last January.

The key, he said, was getting a TV screen that showed digital practice and game video he could analyze and critique while attached to a treadmill in the Jets' training complex. "I've got one of those handheld digital voice recorders, and I just get on the treadmill and make notes into the recorder while I work out,'' he said. That, of course, plus eating smarter. That's the only way in a fairly sedentary job you really can lose weight -- a decent diet and working out four or five times a week.

I said to him: "The real challenge is going to be some Monday game-planning night this fall, when it's 11 o'clock and you're starving and you say: 'Gimme that bag of M&Ms.'" I could tell him that from experience.

"We'll see if I go for the celery sticks then,'' he said.

Aggravating/Enjoyable Travel Note of the Week

Men's room, Buffalo airport, Saturday morning:

Loud guy: "Hey, what do you think of the Stillers this year?''

Me (knowing Loud Guy meant the "Steelers'' in his South Side-ish accent): "Pretty good. I like [Coach Mike] Tomlin. I think he'll do a good job.''

Loud Guy: "How 'bout Big Ben? He gonna come back and be good?''

Me: "I think so. Got a lot to prove, but he's got too good an arm and too good a head to play as inconsistently as he did last year.''

By now, we're at the sink, and he's not letting me go. A few people are looking on.

Loud Guy: "You like Hines?''

Me: "Love him. How can you like football and not like Hines Ward?''

Loud Guy: "Can we do it again? Win it all?''

Me: "Well, you might be a year away. You got a shot, but that's a tough conference this year, about as tough as I've seen in a while.

Loud Guy: "They're no year away. This is their year. I don't know why you guys in the media don't like the Stillers.''

With that, he was gone. No goodbye, no have a nice day, not nothing. I wasn't picking the Stillers, so that was all he needed to know about me.

Stat of the Week I

We in the corporate offices of Monday Morning Quarterback would never encourage people to draw any conclusions from preseason football. But Norm Chow, the offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans, must not have gotten much sleep over the weekend, based on three numbers: 29.4, 4 and 30. As in Vince Young's completion percentage, sacks taken and minutes played. Young's stat line in the Titans' 27-24 win at New England on Friday night:

Stat of the Week II

So, you want to know why these rookie contracts take so long to get done? Byzantine guarantees, option clauses and buyback clauses turn the contracts from 10- or 12-page short stories to 50-page novellas. Cases in point: The Jets' contract with cornerback Darrelle Revis is 47 pages. Atlanta's contract with defensive end Jamaal Anderson is 53. And Tampa Bay's deal with Gaines Adams: a measly 32 pages.

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