A fitting end to a forgettable season Well that put the tin hat on it firmly last Sunday didn’t it, as we registered another massive offensive tale of woe in the face of a team that though play-off bound themselves had very little to motivate them. I got loads of grief from the missus for listening to that game on Christmas Eve and to be honest it wasn’t really worth the effort as we again stunk the joint out for the umpteenth time in a 2006 season now cast into the bad memory bank. It was good to see Joey Galloway register another decent season in a shambles of an offense, and I do love the Editor's nickname of Polish Pop-Gun for Mr Gradkowski – I wonder how many yards Galloway left on the field this year thanks to having balls one-hopped to him by a QB with the arm strength of a cheerleader. On the positive side we have the 3rd or 4th pick in the draft and $20m plus of cap space to go hunting in free agency, though something does worry me about where messrs Gruden and Allen may be looking in this area. For starters we don’t want any more ex-Raiders a la Doug Jolley, and please no 35-year old QBs seeking one last pay-packet from a desperate franchise like us. Quite who we will pursue go only knows, but this regimes past ill-fated recruits do not exactly fill you with confidence do they? Of our own free agents Dwayne White would be worth keeping and Tim Rattay has at least confirmed he can be serviceable back-up QB in this league and for a small outlay he also might be worth retaining. The temptation must surely be to recruit heavily on the defensive side of the ball as we have gotten very old, and extremely over-matched this year and the unit needs major surgery and an influx of youth to spruce things up. A few things I think 1) I think it’s nice to see Jon Gruden acknowledge we need some stars on both sides of the ball – no **** Sherlock! I’d say we are about 10 decent players short in skill positions and our lack of depth when we lost a starter or two was glaringly obvious. 2) I see Nick Saban has left the Dolphins to go back to the college ranks. Does anybody actually give that much of a **** because I don’t and yet it’s being treated like news story No.1 in the States. Why would the Dolphins be so upset at losing a coach who’s led them to a glorious 15-17 record in his tenure and chose Culpepper over Brees? I’d say they may be better off without the guy. 3) Randy Moss? Please god no. 4) Jeff Garcia? Double “no” with bells on, a rattle and a ribbon. 5) I think I’m wondering if there’s anyway we can slip a double-sided coin into the hand of the official NFL coin-flipper at the scouting combine. Knowing our luck Bruce Allen would call a tail on a double-headed coin anyway. Apparently the early line has the Browns favoured by a flip to nil. 6) I think based on his production this season and role within the team, it really is time for Mike Alstott to hang em up whilst he still has his body intact. 7) I think I note the Bucs were apparently outscored 82-30 in the first quarter this season. Lets not mention quarters 2-4 either please as from my view we were garbage in those too. Drafting 3rd or 4th if the choice came between a star receiver like Calvin Johnson or a dominant lineman like Joe Thomas, I’d take the Tackle anyday. Boring though that is if we can protect our quarterbacks blindside effectively for the next 10 years then this has to be the choice. We will have to see how things develop and the circus begins before the draft itself as Im sure Mel Kiper already has us selecting about 15 different players in his collection of mock drafts – I bet his not knowing the full draft order yet is killing him as well! At least there is some joy in the suspense. Now the season’s over and we have been put out of our misery we can at least look forwards and step away from the train wreck of 2006. It started with a shut-out at home and almost ended with one too, so this can be the fitting epitaph to a year easily placed in the Leeman Bennett section for utter and complete futility. Time to start putting things right, making the necessary and many personnel changes and turning this ship around. The key question is, do we believe Coach Gruden is up to the task? Chucky, the jury is very much out…… Play-Off Predictions Time for me to hang myself and jinx four teams this weekend, Colts over the Chiefs on the Indy Race track, Seahawks to beat the Cowboys by 10 or more in a laugher, Pats over the surprising Jets as Belichick just does not drop two at home to the same team, and finally the upset special - Giants to win at the Linc. Get your money on those four ……. And you’ll probably lose it all! Nod of Acknowledgement to - Brett Favre That finally did look to be it for the old gunslinger last Sunday night. Great gamer and a throwback quarterback who will be missed. Sports News Story I No Longer Give a Toss About – Barry Zito I see after his agent whored him to the biggest paymaster, Mr Zito claimed at a news conference that remaining in the Bay area “delighted” him. Yes right Barry, hmmm and the $126m you got had no bearing at all did it. I'll wager that if the Milwaukee Brewers had offered $130m you’d be freezing your ass off in Wisconsin right now, listing a distant relative from up north as the reason for the choice of location. Get in the Real World Award - …. I see Universal Medical Systems Inc has come up with the (shock horror) theory that the Baseballs used in the 1998 season were juiced. Nooooo, get away with you …… what next, some of the players in the major leagues that year might have been on illegal performance enhancing drugs? News like that is right up with the revelation that water is wet and Monday follows Sunday in the revelation stakes.