At The Grammys, The Rewards Go To The (Taylor) Swift

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It was billed as "Ladies Night" at the 52nd Grammy Awards Sunday night with Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift leading the pack (and CBS' promotional push) in nominations and in-demand performances.  And that it was, but there were a couple of interlopers.

Six Grammys went to Beyonce (a record for a female performer) mostly for "Single Ladies", one of which was for Song of the Year, an award that goes to the songwriter.  Considering that she's a married lady now, she's already got her ring courtesy of Jay-Z.  So for her, the song is out of date now, isn't it?

Taylor Swift's album "Fearless" won some Grammys, including Album of the Year.  And Kanye West was nowhere in sight.  She even performed with Stevie Nicks, which might not have been a wise idea since Nicks' voice is more powerful than Swift's.  It'll be more interesting to see how her career pans out when she's had a little more life under her belt.

We mentioned the interlopers.  Record of the Year didn't go to a woman, as was expected.  Instead, it went to "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon.  And the Best New Artist went to the Zac Brown Band, who will now take their place with those past winners who have since found success.  If we only knew who they were.

Other things we took from the Grammys:

• Lady Gaga opened the TV show duetting with Elton John.  Which is only appropriate because both of them share a taste for outrageous wardrobes.
• The Grammys' inevitable tribute to Michael Jackson, who died last year, was wasted on a weak "heal the world" tune that was broadcast in 3D.  (Even without those glasses, seeing it can still induce headaches)  Celine Dion, Carrie Underwood, Smokey Robinson and Usher became backup singers to an invisible voice. For this Jackson received a special award, which was accepted by his two children. But it was better than an all-star cast attempting to sing Jackson's classics.
• Instead of the usual pronouncements of celebrities pretending to care for the plight of Hatians, we got Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli collaborating on "Bridge Over Troubled Water" as their musical tribute to that earthquake-stricken country.  One thing:  In Haiti, those bridges crumbled.  And the ones that are still standing aren't the ones you'd want to be anywhere near right now.
• We also got a rap collaboration between Drake, Eminem and Lil' Wayne, in which half of the lyrics were bleeped out by CBS.  And you wonder why hip hop is so popular.  

Welcome To The Real World, Mr. President

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Last night's State of the Union address by President Barack Obama was the most informal I've ever seen, which for all its usual stuffiness and formality was really saying something.  But then, I suppose it had to be that way.  The President had a tough crowd to work with, in and out of the House chamber.

In the year since he took office, the President's approval ratings have dropped from their inevitable highs to something around 50 per cent.  Why is this?  First, everybody who voted for Obama thought he'd wave a magic wand, and all the sins of the Bush/Cheney era--two wars and a bad economy--would just disappear.  Didn't happen.  Then he pumped billions of dollars into a stimulus package that has yet to flower.  And he spent the bulk of his legislative efforts on health care reform, which is currently in critical condition in Congress.

The other problem was that Obama was facing a Congress with Nervous Nellie Democrats too timid to take advantage of the majority they had, and with Republicans who still worship Reagan.  Former First Lady Nancy Reagan, that is.  The one who coined the phrase "just say no", though in a much different context.

This time, instead of lofty goals more worthy of Don Quixote than the federal budget, the President opted for more modest proposals.  He made a jobs bill his top priority this session, announced a spending freeze on all federal programs except for the military and homeland security (whose own budgets are sky high, but too much is never enough for these guys), and asked for the rescinding of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy among gays and lesbians serving in the armed forces.  He didn't, however, spend much time on foreign policy.

Obama also took the time to chastize the Supreme Court for its ruling allowing corporations to spend tons of money on political ads, while challenging Congress to pass new laws to address this.  On TV, it looked like the justices were sitting like statues, save for Samuel Alito, who shook his head when the President made his comment.  So what were they doing there if they knew they were going to be insulted like that?

Throughout the speech, we were witness to another SOTU tradition:  the endless standing ovations the party in power (in this case the Democrats) gives its President each time he says something they agree with, while the opposition (that would be the GOP) sits on their hands.  That's visual evidence of what Obama was talking about when he said that Washington is a place "where every day is Election Day".  And it needs to stop.

The plea for bipartisanship by the President is likely to go unheeded by Republicans, who just sent Democrats cowering in fear for their political lives after former male model Scott Brown won the Senate seat in Massachusetts previously held for decades by Ted Kennedy.  But they don't seem to have any ideas of their own besides "no new taxes" and parroting whatever Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity says.

As for the chances of Obama's proposals getting past Congress, no one really knows in an election year.  On the one hand, they could push everything back to 2011.  But then their opponents could snap back with :do-nothing Congress" as their campaign mantra.  Anything they do pass, however, might come back to haunt them if it's seen as pandering to anyone but the folks back home.

Perhaps Obama's main accomplishment with his first State of the Union address is that he realizes he needs to come down to Earth.  Health care reform and climate change initiatives are important, but people need jobs so they could afford insurance and fuel-efficient cars.  What they don't need is, in the words of William Faulkner, more sound and fury signifying nothing.

It Didn't Come Easy In New Orleans

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Here in Minnesota, the football-loving populace is shrouded in purple misery after yet another Vikings team found a way to avoid their first Super Bowl since 1977.

Losing 31-28 in the NFC Championship game in overtime to the New Orleans Saints at the Louisiana Superdome Sunday, it was not the greatest game ever played.  Not even close.  Oh, there were a lot of points scored, but neither team seemed to want this game badly enough.

It is said that the team making the most mistakes tend to lose games.  So it went for the Vikings, with Adrian Peterson becoming a liability with his fumbles, quarterback Brett Favre throwing an ill-advised pass in the dying seconds of regulation, and the offense getting caught with too many men on the field.  The Saints were handed this game on a silver platter.

The Saints defense revealed Favre to be an old, beat-up quarterback who could barely move at game's end.  But he was an old, beat-up quarterback with a high threshold of pain, and for that he earned people's admiration.

After another successful but unfulfilled season, we're into the by-now-annual game of whether or not Favre wants to play another year.  ESPN reports that Favre says it's "unlikely" he'd come back.  If that's the case, then the Vikings should plan on signing a veteran free agent quarterback.  Otherwise, check back with us in August.

We must congratulate the Saints for making it to their first Super Bowl since the franchise was founded in 1967.  After all the team and the city of New Orleans has been through the last few years, they deserve this one.

They will play the AFC champion Indianapolis Colts February 7 at Your Name Here Stadium in Miami (actually it's Sun Life Stadium, the seventh name that place has had since it opened).  Good luck trying to get past Peyton Manning, one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL, who has already led the Colts to the Vince Lombardi trophy.

Back in Minnesota, people will be spending another cold winter's day wondering what the hell happened to a football team that had a successful season, but fell apart at the wrong time.

Democracy For Sale?

This is what happens when a Supreme Court made up of five conservative makes decisions that benefit other conservatives, never mind the consequences to the country.

Not content to simply hand George W. Bush the 2000 presidential election, the justices voted 5-4 to allow corporations and practically anyone with an unlimited amount of money to fund political ads that attack or support causes and candidates in an election year.  Funding through political parties would remain illegal.

That means corporations, if they wanted to, can spend whatever it wants to influence the elections of everyone from the President of the United States to the local dog catcher.  And they can also weigh in on whether or not hot-button issues such as health care reform or same sex marriage becomes law.  Which gives themselves a significant advantage over not-so-well-funded organizations that might have an opposing view.

Yes, we know this has been going on forever.  Lobbyists representing top companies and organizations routinely try to convince lawmakers to see things their way.  And some of those elected officials have been known to put a little corporate cash into their bank accounts.  Nothing new here, except the Supreme Court just made it legal.

For Republicans, this is a win-win.  Being the party of big business, its candidates can now expect oodles of money to come their way and eventually dominate politics for years to come.  For Democrats, who usually rely on unions for their support, the impact of the ruling is not so good.  Unions have been losing members, money and clout for decades through concessions to big business.  And the moment any of these elected officials grow a spine and refuse to take corporate money, they risk being outspent and outwitted by better-funded opponents.  The parties might risk being more irrelevant than they are now.

The corporations claim that they wouldn't use their money to exert their influence over the political process, because they don't want to offend the consumers who buy their products.  Which begs the question:  Since when has big business actually cared about consumers?

Keith Olbermann made a rather alarmist rant about the Court's ruling Thursday night, painting a bleak picture of America under the control of corporations.  This all sounds rather depressing, until you realize that Olbermann's broadcast airs on General Electric-owned MSNBC.  And his sponsors include drug companies and the petroleum industry, which makes him no different than most other newscasters on TV.

Members of Congress are talking about limiting the effects of the Supreme Court's ruling by passing emergency laws.  But do they really want to do that?  Baby needs a new pair of shoes, you know.

If there was ever a Political Golden Rule, it should be updated.  The rule should now read:  "He who has the gold makes the rules, and anyone who disagrees may do so at their peril".

Conan Walks. Air America Radio Crashes

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Conan O'Brien Says Goodnight to "Tonight"

It's official, folks.  Conan O'Brien is leaving NBC's "The Tonight Show" after only seven months because he decided the network was no longer big enough for him and Jay Leno, who will now get his old job back after his prime time show famously tanked.  For this, O'Brien walks away with $45 million (12 million of which will go to his staffers), then will take a few months to cool his heels before his next big TV opportunity.

The reasons why have been well documented.  But it seems as if every comedian on late night TV has been taking a whack at the pinata that NBC has become, depicting Leno as the bad guy and O'Brien as the victim.  (Not that it wasn't deserved)  Don't forget that it was O'Brien who was promised the "Tonight Show" a few years ago because NBC thought Leno was going to hang it up.  Then Leno changed his mind, got offered the prime time show so he wouldn't jump to ABC, and O'Brien was left holding the bag.

Here's the thing:  O'Brien's ratings had been abysmal since he took over the "Tonight Show" with or without Leno as a lead-in, getting regularly beaten by David Letterman on CBS and "Nightline" on ABC.  Now that he's leaving, he's been winning the time period because he's been making these not-so-subtle potshots at the way he's been treated by NBC.  Anywhere else, he would have been shown the door immediately.

Now NBC has to pick up the pieces of this debacle.  Not only do they need to re-establish themselves as a late-night destination, but also to alter the public perception that the network is run by clueless boobs who don't know what they're doing.  Maybe that's why General Electric is selling NBC to Comcast.

Air America Radio Grounded

In recent months, radio behemoths Clear Channel and Citadel Broadcasting have filed for bankruptcy because the economy and changes in the way we listen to music have taken their toll.  After a few court-ordered instances of belt-tightening, both should be back in the pink in no time.

The same can't be said for the progressive radio network Air America, which says it is ceasing operations next week, leaving affiliates in the lurch as programs disappear.  They've been having problems paying their bills almost from the time they first went on the air.

Created as an alternative to the conservative talk shows dominating the airwaves, Air America gave platforms to the likes of Al Franken, Rachel Maddow and Janeane Garofalo with their own shows.  Then Franken became a U.S. Senator, Maddow got her own TV show, and Garofalo went back to acting.  More recently, the only Air America personality of note has been Thom Hartmann.  Most of its remaining affiliates have added shows form other sources hosted by Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller and Bill Press.

Air America practically invented the progressive talk format, which with the network's demise has made it an endangered species in the face of conservative talkers, who can usually be found on big-watt stations on both sides of the dial.  But then, there's always NPR.

News From The Political Landscape

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The Elephant Has Left The Room

Norm Coleman has decided to take a pass on entering the 2010 Minnesota Governor's race.  The former Republican senator told his legions of Facebook followers that "(t)he timing on this race is both a bit too soon and a bit too late".

He's right on both counts.  Having lost his U.S. Senate seate to Democrat Al Franken in a protracted recount and trial, there wasn't time to put together a new campaign with precinct caucuses starting soon.  Besides, why risk losing another election to a novelty candidate?

Now that Coleman's made his decision, the other candidates no longer have to worry about him blocking their sunlight.  If Coleman had run, his chances of succeeding Governor Tim Pawlenty looked pretty good.

It's a wide open field now with seven Republicans and 12 Democrats in the running.  Most of the candidates, with the exception of former Democratic senator Mark Dayton, are familiar only to those political junkies who follow the goings-on at the Legislature.  But it'll be a long campaign, so by the time October rolls around, you'll be thouroughly sick of the remaining two or three left.

Scott Brown Wins In Massachusetts

Everyone knew that filling the shoes of the late Ted Kennedy in the United States Senate was going to be difficult, if not impossible.  Who knew it would end up being vital to the passage of health care reform?

The Associated Press reports that the seat that had been held by a member of the Kennedy family since the 1950s has gone to a Republican.  Scott Brown, who was given little chance only a few weeks ago, has defeated Democrat Martha Coakley, the state's attorney general.

Coakley had been the front-runner in the special election, but she got lazy in her campaigning while Democrats watched in horror as her lead in the polls slipped away.

Brown benefitted not only from Coakley's blunder, but also from all the anger cooked up by anti-tax zealots who want to scuttle health care legislation and don't believe Barack Obama is a legitimate President of the United States.  Or is it because the voters in Massachusetts were sick of the Kennedys, and the Democrats who acted as if that Senate seat was their birthright?
 
With one more vote in the Senate, Republicans now have enough to kill the compromise health care bill about to come up before it.  The 'supermajority' the Democrats enjoyed since the last election is now gone.  Not that they made much use of it, anyhow, because they kept trying to appease the conservatives in their own ranks.

Welcome back to gridlock.

Poor, Poor, Pitiful Haiti. And How It Got That Way.

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A 7.0 magnitude earthquake destroyed much of the country of Haiti, leaving hundreds of thousands (according to current estimates) dead and its survivors fighting over what food and water is left.  Billions of dollars worth of aid has been coming into Port-au-Prince from all over the world.  But most of it can't be moved because of damaged roads and threats of violence.

Recession-plagued Americans are cleaning out what's left of their bank accounts to the charity cartel (the Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc.), under the illusion that they are actually helping those suffering folks they see on TV.  That's wonderful, but what happens after the cameras are turned off and everyone moves on to the next big media event?

Haiti is already one hellhole of a country, its people being shortchanged for centuries by brutal dictatorships (often with help from the United States) and benign neglect of its environment, health care and economy.  Thousands of Haitians have fled to North America (legally or not) to escape the conditions.  Those that remain are serviced by multitudes of missionaries and non-governmental organizations (NGO), doing some of the work that the government there should be providing, but isn't.

Once this manna from heaven trickles down to the survivors (if it ever does), things won't change much.  There will be promises to spend billions of dollars to rebuild the infrastructure damaged by the quake, as well as improving the economic climate.  And people will still try to get out, because either those promises won't be kept, or the Haitian government will find a way to keep most of it to themselves.

For the United States, there's little incentive to help out its Caribbean neighbor outside of humanitarian relief.  There's no oil or other natural resources to exploit.  Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups aren't based there (yet).  And cruise lines don't make Port-au-Prince its port of call (but they do on the island of Labadee, which is 100 miles away).

As the tragedy continues to unfold, recognize that your generosity will only benefit the people of Haiti for a short time.  What they need is a long-term plan to pull itself out of the conditions imposed on them internally and externally.  In other words, Haiti needs a miracle.

Return of the Prodigy

Six years ago, Lindsay Whalen made women's basketball in Minnesota relevant in the same manner that George Mikan did with the Lakers in the 1950s and Kevin Garnett did with the Timberwolves in the early 2000s.  She led the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers to the final four of the NCAA women's basketball tournament, set scoring records that have yet to be equaled, and became an inspiration for female players across the state.

Then Whalen went away.   In spite of the hometown Minnesota Lynx' best efforts, the Conneticut Sun chose Whelen in the WNBA draft, and there she has played ever since as one of the stars of that league.

Now Whalen is returning to Minnesota for the 2010 season.  The Lynx acquired her in a trade with the Sun for Renee Montgomery and the top pick in this year's draft.   Conneticut gives up the number two pick.

The Lynx already have a talented roster that includes Seimone Augustus and Candice Wiggins, but they haven't made the playoffs since 2004.  Having Whalen could improve their chances not only on the floor, but at the gate as well.  It seems people would rather be outdoors on a summer's night than to come inside the Target Center to watch women's professional basketball.

The WNBA, which is an offshoot of the National Basketball Association, has been having problems keeping things together.  The Houston Comets (winners of the first four league titles) and Sacramento Monarchs have folded.  The Detroit Shock are now based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Rosters have been trimmed from 13 to 11.  And some teams are selling advertising on their jerseys.

Unlike in the NBA, players don't get rich playing in the WNBA.  That's why they hightail it to Europe every winter not just to brush up on their skills, but to earn extra money playing in more lucrative leagues.  Whalen, for example, plays for a team in the Czech Republic.  Becky Hammon of the San Antonio Silver Stars represented Russia at the 2008 Beijing Olympics because she played for a professional team in Moscow.

The task now facing Lindsay Whelan, besides helping her new team to a place in the WNBA playoffs, is to make the Lynx relevant to sports fans in Minnesota.  If she does that, then she will have really accomplished something.

Mark McGwire: Apology Better Late Than Never

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Disgraced baseball slugger Mark McGwire finally decided to talk about the past Monday, confirming what we've long suspected.  Yes, he did take steroids during his career, which includes the year when he hit 70 home runs to break the single-season mark set by Roger Maris.  No, they were not for recreational use.  He said they were meant to mend the injuries that had been plaguing him.  And yes, McGwire said he should never have used them.  Also, he said he would have hit 583 home runs in his career whether he was on chemicals or not.

McGwire could have said all this back in March 2005 when a congressional panel interrogated him and other Major League Baseball players on alleged steroid use.  But he chose to clam up on the advice of his attorneys, hoping to save his testimony for a court of law.  Well, his day in court never came, but risking contempt of Congress didn't help him much in the Court of Public Opinion.

Now that he's going to work as the St. Louis Cardinals' hitting instructor this coming season, McGwire figured he'd better come clean now or risk getting hounded about it everywhere he goes.  So he's been making the rounds in the sports media--MLB Network, ESPN, USA Today--to unburden himself to a skeptical public and the Hall of Fame voters who snubbed him once again.  As with all the public apologies we've been seeing lately, you can never really tell whether he's being sincere or he deserves an Academy Award.

The other players that have been caught up in what is now known as the Steroid Era--Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds (who broke McGwire's record in 2001 with 73 homers)--have all denied that they juiced up, even though the evidence points otherwise.  But Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte have fessed up.

Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees has also come clean about his use of performance enhancing drugs, but it's been pretty much forgotten since his team won the World Series.

They, like McGwire, stand accused of mucking up some of baseball's most-cherished records with an asterisk because they allegedly wanted an edge.  But we don't care.  We still dig the long ball, and that won't change whether players frequent the weight room or their doctors' offices.

NBC Demotes Leno, and Other Media Tales

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Here's just some of what's been going on lately in the wonderful world of broadcast media.

Jay Leno Not Ready for Prime Time

It has become painfully obvious that the decision made by NBC to give Jay Leno five nights of prime time a week, as an incentive for not jumping to another network, was not a good one.  Poor ratings had a trickle-down effect from local news to the late-night shows that follow it.  So now it appears that NBC will move Leno back to late night after the Olympic Winter Games conclude, with the rest of the lineup (Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Fallon and Carson Daly) backed up half an hour.  Which leads to the following conclusions:

• NBC now needs five hours of programming at 10 p.m. Eastern (9 Central), which means putting the "Law & Order" shows back where they belong for the time being.  They already gave away the crime drama "Southland" to cable's TNT.
• Conan O'Brien has to realize that, as long as he stays at NBC, he'll always play second fiddle to Leno.  So don't be surprised if he bolts.
• Comcast, which is purchasing NBC Universal, might be taking on more than it can handle.
• Isn't David Letterman enjoying this right now?

B-96 B-Gone

Twin Cities radio station KTTB (96.3 FM) has ditched the hip hop/R&B music to focus on more contemporary hits, and is changing its name to KHTC.  Which means that, for the first time in two decades, KDWB (101.3 FM) will be getting some competition.  (Anyone remember WLOL-FM before Minnesota Public Radio bought the station and turned it into a classical outlet?)  The new 96-3 Now will differ from KDWB (which has been in the Top 40 business since today's listeners' parents were toddlers) in that it will be more Lady Gaga and less Nickelback.  Hip hop won't go away, since half of the pop charts are rap-oriented anyway.

KHTC is owned by the Pohlad family, which also owns the Minnesota Twins.  Since this could be the team's last season on KSTP (1500 AM), there's a possibility that, if WCCO doesn't pick up the radio rights, 96-3 just might.

Schmit Back at KSTP-TV

Now that his old boss Tom Petters is headed for prison, Joe Schmit is returning to his old job as sports director at KSTP-TV.  He replaces Phil Aldredge, who's moving to weekends.  This has become quite a habit for KSTP, bringing back old faces such as Cyndi Brucato and Art Baron to anchor "5 Eyewitness News".  Before Schmit went to work for Petters, some of you might remember that he was a news anchor for awhile, and he did pretty well at it.  Now if they could only bring back their old ratings.

Fly The Reactionary Skies

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As the new year (and decade) begins, what nearly happened in Detroit on Christmas Day has politicians and other government officials pointing fingers while airline passengers are treated even more like criminals.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is currently being held at a federal prison somewhere in Michigan awaiting trial.  He allegedly tried to bring down a Delta/Northwest flight from Amsterdam wearing bomb-making material in his underwear.  It took several passengers to keep him from carrying out his plot.

There were many mistakes on the intelligence front, despite Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano's initial insistence that "the system worked".  The father of Abdulmutallab warned authorities in Nigeria that his son might be a flight risk, but boarded a flight from there to Amsterdam anyway.  Once he was there, security either didn't notice or just waved him through.  Then he was on his way to the U.S.

While all this was going on, President Barack Obama and his family were in Hawaii on vacation.  He monitored the situation and made some statements, but he seemed to give the impression that it was no big deal as long as nobody was killed.  He really should have gone back to Washington immediately.

Today, the President announced stringent new security measures for international flights that come into the U.S.  Among them:  more emphasis on passengers that come from parts of the world where terrorist activities might be taking place.

What a novel approach.  Since 9/11/01, the symbol of America's war on terror has been the knee jerk reaction to an incident, and airline passengers have been the victims of it.  It goes like this:

• You fly airplanes into our buildings, and we'll invade your countries, whether they had anything to do with it or not.
• You try to detonate yourself with shoes, liquids or underwear in an airplane.  Then we'll force everyone to take off their shoes, throw liquids in the trash, and submit them to body scans.  And that includes babies and grandmothers.
• You try to come in through Canada or Mexico without so much as a visa, then we'll make everyone buy passports even though those two countries are within driving distance.  We might throw in Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico for good measure.
• You try to sneak past security, then we'll make everyone go through it again.

No wonder Al Qaeda is laughing its heads off, because all this is costing the United States billions of dollars a year.  And this nonsense will keep happening unless there is a rational, clear-headed plan to protect people's right to have a safe and relatively painless flight.

If you must fly, this is the way it's going to be from now on.  For the rest of us, there are other modes of transportation that don't require restrictions on what you can and cannot bring.  And the price of gas doesn't seem so bad by comparison.

Vikings In Playoffs. Now What?

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The Minnesota Vikings ended the NFL regular season with a 44-7 blowout of the New York Giants on Sunday, but that hasn't stopped the question marks that began surfacing about their chances in the playoffs.  Even though they won the NFC North, they only got the number two seed courtesy of the Dallas Cowboys, who shut out the Philadelphia Eagles in one of the late games.  Over the past month, it's become increasingly clear that the Vikings are hothouse flowers--that is, they're undefeated at home inside a dome, but have a losing record in the Great Outdoors.  Especially when it's freezing.

You can't say that relations between quarterback Brett Favre and coach Brad Childress have deteriorated.  But what was that heated discussion on the sidelines during the game at Carolina about?  The Vikings were going nowhere that night, and Childress wanted to change quarterbacks, but Favre wanted none of it and won the argument.  Both sides said it was no big deal, but with each Vikings loss, perception tends to become reality.

Off the field, owner Zygi Wilf began his strongest push yet for a new football stadium, with the lease at the Mall of America Field at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (or the MOADome, if you prefer) about to expire.  Wilf hasn't said it openly, but he's implying that if the powers-that-be don't give him a billion dollar stadium with a retractable roof, the Vikings would move to Los Angeles.

First of all, the Vikings aren't the only possible tenants that have been mentioned for that new L.A. stadium.  There's the Chargers, Bills, Jaguars, etc.  It's also no big secret that the NFL would prefer two teams, one from each conference, to share the stadium.  That could happen by the end of the coming decade.  But the residents of the City of Angels have gotten used to life without NFL football (except on TV), so it's a question of whether they'd want it back.

Second, if Wilf really wants a new stadium, he'd be wise to make it an open-air facility.  Bseides saving millions, it might make the Vikings more competitive against the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears--whom you'll notice don't play home games indoors.  Fans of a certain age will long remember those games at Metropolitan Stadium in the 1970s, when Bud Grant's playoff teams used the cold and snow to their advantage.  It might be nice to host a men's final four in college basketball, but is that really necessary?

Before the season, we thought the Vikings with Brett Fave would be good enough to win the division and make some noise in the playoffs, but would not make the Super Bowl.  We still feel that way.

As for who we think will be meeting in Miami a month from now, we give you:  Dallas vs. New England.