Snyder and I last spoke when the Norv Turner -is-a-goner watch was in full swing last season. He had called me to take issue with something I'd written about the tenuousness of Turner's lot in life. "Norv is going to be coaching here a long time," Snyder told me. "I plan on Norv winning multiple Super Bowls with us." Thirteen games into the year, Turner was lying by the side of the road. Justifiably, probably, but canned unceremoniously all the same. I wrote then at length about the incredibly bizarre scenario of Snyder, the night of the Turner firing, trying unsuccessfully to talk defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes into taking the job, and then, for a while, appointing Pepper Rodgers as the head coach. Rodgers hadn't coached since the Stone Age. He was about 106 years old. And then, coming to his senses, Snyder gave the job, grudgingly, to offensive coordinator Terry Robiskie. I had fun with that one, breaking it in this column almost exactly a year ago.

So I was grateful that one of Snyder's p.r. people got us together last week. If he's going to be in the league for a long time, he's going to be a guy I need to deal with.

The interesting thing was, we spent 90 minutes together and the subject of why he was peeved with me never came up. I assume it would have been awkward for us both. We talked about his team, mostly. He was quite matter-of-fact about the weirdest night of his stewardship, the night a year ago when he almost put Rodgers up in front of the world as the coach of his team.

"People have this great misconception that we knew what we were going to do when we fired Norv," he said. "The Washington Post acted as if it were some great conspiracy. Well, we came in here that night not knowing. We wanted Ray Rhodes to take the job, but he wouldn't do it." Then the comedy act began. Snyder asked Robiskie to call the offensive plays under Rodgers, and Robiskie refused. Then he tried to get Robiskie to work under Rodgers for three weeks for big money, and Robiskie refused. Then he gave Robiskie the job.

Snyder is happy with Marty Schottenheimer as his coach, which he darned well should be. "We're still coming together," he said. "I really respect Marty's work ethic, how there are no shortcuts. I've learned a lot from him." But I can see him doing something in the front office, maybe adding Ron Wolf to the mix if he could ever work out a compensation deal for the best personnel man in the business, now in semi-retirement in nearby Annapolis.

"How about hiring Ron Wolf?" I said.

"I'm learning," he said, skirting the topic but not really skirting the topic. "I will get this thing right. I will do what's in the best interests of the Washington Redskins. What does that mean? I don't know. We may still need some tweaking."

The last thing we talked about was his scouting trips this fall to see Fresno State's David Carr and Oregon's Joey Harrington, the two top quarterbacks in this April's draft. I wondered about the wisdom of an owner injecting himself into the scouting process. "The owner can watch a football game!" he boomed. "People got a hold of that and wondered what I was doing. I just wanted to watch the kid with the killer arm!"

He paused for a minute. "I'm trying," he said. "My interests are very pure. I just want us to win championships."

I walked out of there thinking: The best thing about Snyder running a team now -- I think -- is that he knows what he doesn't know. Being knee-jerk is no way to run a football team and I'd be surprised if he does much knee-jerk stuff from now on.

There were two magazines at the bottom of Cris Carter's locker Sunday: Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal and Custom Home.

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Kansas City RB Priest Holmes. This guy's having a more productive year than Marshall Faulk. You can look it up. With his 277-yard rushing-receiving day in Oakland, Holmes now has 1,635 total yards this season, more than any back or wideout in the game. That is stunning production for someone on a bad team.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: St. Louis CB Aeneas Williams, who had four tackles, two interceptions and one heck of a pass broken up on Terrell Owens in the Rams' win over San Francisco. With a 14-0 lead in the first half, Williams blanketed Owens in the end zone as a pass tried to wedge its way in. Williams got a fist in there and barely knocked it away. And that, my friends, is the kind of play this great, great player has been making all season.

SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: (tie) New England S Lawyer Milloy and DT Richard Seymour. On Troy Brown's game-breaking 85-yard punt return for a touchdown against Cleveland, Milloy and Seymour, regular starters on the defense, made wowing blocks. Milloy leveled linebacker Dwayne Rudd and Seymour obliterated punter Chris Gardocki. When your regulars are selling out on the specials, that's a sign of a very good coaching staff.

COACH OF THE WEEK: New England's Bill Belichick, who kept his team late at practice Thursday because he saw something on Cleveland's special-teams film that intrigued him, and he figured he could capitalize on it with a little bit of work. So he kept the padded Pats a few minutes longer than usual, worked on punt returns, and it paid off as a TD on a punt return was the game-turner.

GOAT OF THE WEEK: San Francisco QB Jeff Garcia. This may be the last time I write anything negative about Garcia. Ever. But if you're a 65 percent passer, which he is, there's no way you can complete 36 percent in the biggest game of your season.

Dan Snyder has a three TVs in a console to the left of his desk. One large one is tuned to CNN. The twin smaller ones above the big one are tuned to CNNSI and ESPN.

1. I think these five players have gotten lost in the shuffle -- either because they're playing on bad teams or because they're overshadowed by excellent players on their own teams -- and I keep thinking I want to recognize them:

a. Kansas City tackle Victor Riley. He gave Michael Strahan his toughest game of the year in shutting him down back in Week 2. Strong. Very good feet. He'd be one of my all-pro tackles if the season ended today.

b. Carolina defensive tackle Sean Gilbert. I've been one of his harshest critics. He never was worth the two No. 1 picks plus big money that the Panthers mistakenly paid Washington for him a few years back, but he's playing with a resolve and consistency that I didn't think he had in him. Even on a 1-12 team.

c. Chicago linebacker Warrick Holdman. Until you see the Bears live, you think it's the mules in the middle -- Keith Traylor and Ted Washington -- along with the backbone of Brian Urlacher and Mike Brown that makes this defense so great. A scout I respect told me last week at the Bears-Lions game: "Watch Holdman. He's having the best year of anyone on this defense." I would argue with that; Brown's pretty hard to beat. But Holdman is instinctive, vicious at the point of attack and relentless in pursuit. And he's a restricted free agent. Hey, Houston: Forget the crappy unrestricted free-agent list. Look at Holdman and make him an offer the Bears can't match.

d. San Francisco guard Ray Brown. At 38, he's having the best season of his career and no one knows it. He nearly retired last year, which would have crippled the league's second-best rushing team. But his consistency and leadership have led the way for the Niners. Ask his coaches and they'll tell you he never makes a mental mistake. Never.

e. Washington defensive tackle Dan Wilkinson. He crushed the interior of Philly's line two weeks ago and the Redskins tell me he's been doing it all season. This is the type of player he should have been every year since the Bengals picked him first overall seven years ago.

2. I think Butch Davis and Dick Jauron are 1-2 on my coach-of-the-year ballot, but Belichick is No. 3. With a bullet. With Drew Bledsoe and Terry Glenn in the lineup for two of 13 games, the Patriots have outscored 27 teams. With a no-name defense, they've been stingier than Tennessee and New Orleans.

3. I think, re: my point last week about the over-protection of quarterbacks in the NFL, that it is both an outrage and not at all surprising that Chad Eaton was fined $12,500 for his hard tackle of San Diego quarterback Doug Flutie a couple of weeks ago. I'm dead serious about this: If I were Eaton, I'd hire a lawyer, insist on appealing the fine in person at the NFL office in New York, walk in there and demand to know why this tackle violated any rule in the NFL book. It didn't.

4. I think these are my college football thoughts:

a. I have no righteous indignation for Oregon (softer schedule than Nebraska) or Colorado (two losses, including one to Fresno State), but Nebraska is lucky to be playing for the Big One. Last year was time for righteous indignation. This year is just another example of why a playoff system is needed.

b. George O'Leary. Notre Dame.

c. Johnny Keane. Yankees.

d. I bet Beano Cook would like to have the prediction he made at dusk Saturday back. "There's a 90 percent chance Jon Gruden will be the next coach of Notre Dame," he said on ESPN Radio, at just about the time I assume O'Leary was packing for the flight to South Bend.

5. I think the Giants can finally stop mouthing every quote on the planet about how they're beating themselves. They look like a legitimate 5-7 team to me. I also think every time I see a highlight featuring the Giants, the opposing quarterback i's throwing, successfully, at Jason Sehorn.

6. I think the guy who got plowed over at the Eagles-Chargers game was really Georgie Jessel . Was that guy 96 or what?

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

a. Montclair High Field Hockey Note of the Week: A good week for the Mounties. The banquet was Wednesday, celebrating the 16-2-4 season of these fine Jersey girls, and capped by an emotional speech from senior Kate Haberbusch. This is what I love about high school sports -- the emotion, the bonding, the love these kids feel for each other that happens only when you're in intense competition and working so hard to achieve a goal. And Kate, when eloquently discussing what valiant lessons she'd learned from the other eight seniors this year, began to cry. A couple of tears at first, but then she just broke down. And I looked at the seniors' table and they were crying. And I looked at the parents and some of them were crying. And then fellow senior Lindsay Korotkin rushed up to hug and comfort Kate and help her finish. On Saturday, The Star-Ledger came out with its all-Essex County team, and we placed three -- goalie Kaitlyn (The Great Wall) Robinson, midfielder Allison Farley and left wing Alexis Barbalinardo -- on the first team. Ali Altieri and Alex Sharp won second-team honors, while Meghan Shapiro, Kate Haberbusch, Jessica Giammella and -- drum roll, please -- Mary Beth King made the third team. On Saturday morning, as I got comfy on the crack-of-dawn Northwest flight from Newark to Minneapolis, I found the field hockey honors page and, abandoning all pretense of modesty, had to show it to plane-mate Ian Eagle, the CBS play-by-play man from nearby Essex Fells who was also going to Titans-Vikes matchup. Under "Newcomers of the Year," The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger correspondent Mike G. Morreale wrote: "Sophomore wing Mary Beth King, who finished with eight goals and eight assists for Montclair, was an invaluable contributor for coach Mary Pat Mercuro . King's spirited play and determination are qualities that will certainly benefit the Mounties the next two years." I believe I could have flown to Minneapolis without the plane.

b. My wife and I rented The Contender Friday night. Had no idea what it was about or who was in it. But I have to say it's one of the best movies I've seen in a while. Is Joan Allen a great actress or what? I've always liked her, but she was incredible in this movie: convincing, principled, very believeable.

c. David Justice for Robin Ventura. Now that's going to swing the balance of power in baseball.

d. Poor Bud Selig. You know what I'd do if I were him? I'd fly Wellington Mara, the classy New York Giants' co-owner, to the winter meetings in Boston this morning. Have him speak to the body of owners and GMs. Make sure Steinbrenner is in the room. And have Mara give his talk about how, four decades ago, he and George Halas and neophyte commissioner Pete Rozelle determined that unless all key revenue, including TV dollars, was shared, the big markets would soon obliterate the little ones. Green Bay wouldn't exist as an NFL team. That is by far the single biggest reason the NFL is the most popular sports league in the land today, and the single biggest reason why Major League Baseball isn't.

e. Coffeenerdness: Tried the white chocolate mocha at Seattle's Best Coffee Saturday morning. It is the furthest thing from coffee I have ever tasted. The next time I want a sugar rush, I'll just stick a needle in my vein and pump in pure sucrose. And don't try the coffee at the Metrodome press box. Ever. It stinks. Stinks bad. Weaker than a Tim Wakefield fastball.

f. In case you want to come out to watch a grown overweight man lag behind the pack, I've signed up for the Polar Bear Five-Miler, a road race in Asbury Park, N.J. (I hear the runners start in front of the place Springsteen's been playing charity shows the last few nights), later this month.

g. Newspaper Lead of the Week, from Paul Fahri of The Washington Post, on news babe Ashleigh Banfield of MSNBC: "The war is winding down. The Taliban are on the brink of collapse. At long last, peace could be at hand in Afghanistan. This could be very bad for Ashleigh Banfield."

h. I've always liked Jeff Van Gundy. I do not like midseason quitters, however.

8. I think Saints receiver Joe Horn is no midseason quitter. I really admire how this tenacious guy plays. And imagine this: He's on pace for a 95-catch, 1,496-yard season. Every time I look up, he's making a play.

9. I think this point best illustrates what's happened to the home-field edge in the NFL this year: Good teams have become immune to the type of pressures that formerly influenced outcomes of games. Intense fans. Big noise. Travel. Intimidating stadia. The Rams are two games better (6-0 vs. 4-2) on the road than they are at home. The Jets, 5-1 on the road, are 2-4 at home. The Eagles have four losses at home, none on the road. I haven't heard one player this year say, "We're really going to have play our best game at (insert stadium name here) because it's such a tough place to win." Says Dan Snyder: "We're very conscious of trying to make FedEx Field the type of place people hate to play." Well, that hasn't happened yet. The Redskins are 2-3 at home, including a 32-point loss to three-win Kansas City back in September.

10. I think if you like the Giants, or just plain like football, you should say a prayer tonight for George Young. The former New York general manager died Saturday night at the age of 71. Of the many lessons he taught me in four years as a Giants beat man, these stick out: The library is an important place. Don't read a lot of sports books. Don't be a big dog because you used to be a little dog and one day you will be a little dog again. Treat every person you meet on the road of life the same. Free agency stinks (I didn't buy that one totally). Agents stink. Listen to everyone on draft day. Everything you do in life depends on your education. There is no more important person in the world than a teacher. Always write back, with a pen, not a keyboard, when people write you letters.

One of these weeks Peyton Manning is going to throw for 381 and beat someone singlehandedly. But not this week. Miami, 22-21.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN's NFL Preview. Click here to send a question to his NFL Mailbag.

Related information
Stories
Peter King's Insider Archive
Multimedia
Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video
Search our site	Watch CNN/SI 24 hours a day
	Sports Illustrated and CNN have combined to form a 24 hour sports news and information channel. To receive CNN/SI at your home call your cable operator or DirecTV.