Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis has had a tough couple of years here. But rarely, if ever, has it been this bad. After Saturday’s 38-34 loss to Michigan, Weis’ detractors are out in unprecedented numbers. They want the big man out.

These boo birds are pointing to the way Weis handled the clock on what turned out to be the Irish’s final meaningful series. The basic idea is that, had Notre Dame run the ball on second and third down and forced Michigan to use their final timeouts instead of throwing two incomplete passes and stopping the clock, the Irish would have won the game.

In a word… hogwash.

To understand why Weis should not only not be criticized for this move but actually applauded, consider the following facts:

• Notre Dame’s defense had been pounded all day. By that point, Michigan, led by a true freshman quarterback in his second game, had rolled up nearly 400 yards of total offense and scored 24 offensive points.
• Michigan was having an awful time trying to stop Notre Dame’s passing game. Jimmy Clausen was firing at will into the Wolverine secondary, which was badly overmatched.
• In college football, the clock stops after each first down
• All Michigan needed was a field goal to send the game to overtime

True, Armando Allen gained 13 yards on the first play of that drive. But, at that point, Michigan figured Notre Dame was going to try to run the ball to make them call their timeouts. So they stacked the line of scrimmage and stuffed the next play. That left the following situation: second down and ten with 2:29 left and Michigan owning two timeouts. Let’s analyze the two decisions Weis could have made here:

1. He could have continued to run the ball to force Michigan to call its final timeouts. This is what all the naysayers are screaming Weis should have done. But Michigan was putting nearly everybody in the box. If you know football, you know there is almost zero chance of gaining significant yards against that type of defense, no matter how well you’ve run it all day. So chances are overwhelming that Michigan stuffs two runs, calls its final two timeouts and forces Notre Dame to punt. In that case, Michigan gets the ball back with the same amount of time it did anyway (actually, a few seconds more since running plays are quicker than passing plays). Two minutes and 15 seconds is an eternity in college football, where the clock stops after every first down. And remember, Michigan only needed a field goal to tie. Maybe they don’t score a TD, maybe they do. But are you going to tell me that 2:15 isn’t enough time for Michigan to go 45 yards to get a chip shot field goal?

2. Weis could have gotten aggressive on second and third downs, which is what he chose to do after seeing how the Michigan defense played first down. Keep in mind Michigan hadn’t stopped the pass all day long. True, Michael Floyd was out with an injury, but Notre Dame still had plenty of good receivers out there. Weis likely said to himself, “There’s only one way to guarantee we win this game — don’t give them the ball back. Clausen’s been scorching them all day. We can’t stop their offense. This game absolutely has the feel of one in which the last team that has the ball wins. Let’s complete a couple passes like we’ve been doing all day and get the heck out of here.”

Not only was this a totally acceptable football decision, it was one of which fans should be proud. In calling those pass plays, Weis did what every sports fan in America wants his team to do in any sport: play to win the game instead of not to lose it. Weis went for it. He tried to deny Michigan the one thing you need to score points — the football. He knew that was the only way to guarantee victory. Giving the Wolverines the ball back, with or without timeouts, was not something he wanted to do. And for good reason.

That’s smart, aggressive coaching. Unfortunately, smart, aggressive coaching doesn’t always result in wins. But that doesn’t make it wrong. If Clausen completes just one of those two passes, Notre Dame wins and today everybody’s talking about how Weis took the bull by the horns and won the game like a man.

Charlie Weis certainly deserves criticism for decisions he has made since he came to Notre Dame. But yesterday’s decision was not one of them.

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I bought the album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” today. The digitally remastered Beatles catalog came out today and since I lost my “Sgt. Pepper’s” CD years ago (it’s the only one I don’t have), I bought it.

I got into work and read a CNN review of the remastered albums. The review said the new recordings were great and you can really hear the difference. They specifically mentioned the song “Lovely Rita” on “Sgt. Peppers’.” Having uploaded the album to my iPhone as soon as I got it home, I plugged my headphones in and listened to the song. I’m surprised and thrilled to say it’s TOTALLY different. It almost sounds like a completely different recording – and much better! The sound is much clearer and has a bit of a raw edge the original release doesn’t.

As I write this, I’m listening to “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds.” It’s just as good. I’m hearing things I’ve never heard before. John whispering… Paul’s raw background shouts… Ringo’s joints cracking. (Okay, I made that last one up.)

I might just have to buy the whole remastered catalog. This is a revelation. It’s a Revolution!

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After hearing of the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, I did what I always do when big news breaks. I rushed to the World Wide Web to learn more about Kennedy and his life.

Even though Wikipedia is by no means infallible, it is still an amazing resource, especially for us journalist types who are looking for a quick, Cliffs Notes-like description of important persons, places and things.

I read all about the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident, which resulted in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. I didn’t find anything there that I didn’t already know. But a couple clicks away, I found a Kennedy family tree. (You can click here for the link.) Here, I learned some things that I didn’t really know. For example, Bobby Kennedy and his wife, Ethel, had 11 children in 17 years. How’s that for some work? Also, according to Wikipedia, President Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, thought Bobby’s kids were so wild they refused to let their children play with them. (I have no idea if this is true. It sounds difficult to believe, but I’ll let you do the research on that one.)

Regardless of what you thought of their politics, you have to admit all of the Kennedys led incredibly interesting lives. But what I found out about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was mind-boggling. What that woman went through in the late 1950s and early 1960s was enough to break any human being. It was enough to break ten human beings.

In 1953, Jackie married then-Senator John F. Kennedy. That wedding began arguably the most eventful and stressful decade a human being has ever endured. Here’s how the next ten years of Jackie’s life unfolded:

• In 1955, she had a miscarriage
• In 1956, she gave birth to a stillborn baby girl named Arabella
• In 1957, she gave birth to Caroline
• On November 8, 1960, her husband was elected president of the United States, instantly making her the most visible and famous woman on the planet
• Seventeen days later, John F. Kennedy, Jr. was born
• On August 7, 1963, she gave birth to Patrick Kennedy, who died two days later
• Three months later, her husband was killed

During those ten years, the woman essentially lived the life of a soap opera character. It would be difficult to imagine anyone outside of a war prisoner going through more trying times. And, of course, after the assassination she still had two young children to raise by herself in a world that, nearly 50 years later, still hasn’t stopped thirsting for Kennedy family information.

The amazing thing is that Jackie somehow managed to keep her children out of the public eye as they grew up. Both Caroline and the late JFK, Jr. turned out to be well-grounded, productive members of society. If you think about the troubles famous children have had over the years, that’s a pretty amazing feat.

So as we pause to honor the man whom President Obama has called “the greatest United States Senator of our time,” it’s difficult not to think about the Kennedy family as a whole. And, in particular, a woman who always made the most out of a nearly impossible situation. What a life. What a mother. We should all be as successful in what we do as Jackie was in dealing with tragedy.

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Fox 28’s Nadia Crow is doing a story tonight about the return of high school football and what it means to people who have been struggling recently in this down economy.

For tens of millions of people across America, the beginning of the football season is a lot like the first day of spring. Check out any sports bar around 12:45 pm on a fall Sunday afternoon, and you will see a sea of jerseys wrapped around the (often rotund) bodies of rabid football fans.

Many of those jerseys, though, will belong to women. Probably more than you’d guess. In fact, the NFL tells us that nearly half its fans are female. So why do so many wives and girlfriends across the country dread the start of the season?

These “football widows,” as they’re known, trudge through September, October, November, December and, yes, January (playoffs, baby) knowing that Sundays are no-fundays. Not for them, anyway. Their husbands and boyfriends plop in front of the television at 1o’clock and don’t move a muscle (except for their thumbs on the remote control) until the prime time game is over at 11:30.

And it’s even worse now thanks to fantasy football. Now, guys want to watch every game, not just the one involving their favorite team. It’s enough to make a football widow want to blow the whistle and call illegal procedure.

I should know. My wife’s a football widow. I even gave up college football for her when we started dating and have stuck to it for the most part. But that means nothing come Sunday morning, when she knows I’m about to be as helpful and attentive around the house as a 13-year-old boy with a new Xbox.

Ours is a particularly bad case. You see, my wife literally wasn’t sure what a touchdown was when we started dating. And I’d be willing to bet she couldn’t even begin to explain what a first down is even now. To make matters worse, despite my efforts to get her interested, she has no desire to learn. To her, watching grown men play sports on television is about as interesting as a Dick Cavett rerun. She says the only way she’ll ever get interested in sports is if our daughter starts to play when she gets older.

Ah, our two-year-old daughter… my secret weapon. She’s old enough now that she will sit in front of the TV and watch sports if she’s interested. Fortunately, for me, she seems to like just about every sport there is. She even watched the final round of the PGA Championship with me last week. If I can get her to watch football with me, this season (and future seasons) will go so much more smoothly.

So that’s my plan. I don’t like that my wife is a football widow any more than she does. But if that’s the way it’s going to be, the least I can do is turn it into some quailty time with my daughter.

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It was 26 years ago, but I can still remember it like it was yesterday.

The day after Michael Jackson debuted his signature dance move, the “moonwalk,” there wasn’t a kid in my 7th grade glass who wasn’t talking about it. It was May 1983, at the beginning of Jackson’s reign as the undisputed King of Pop. When he took the stage for Motown’s nationally-televised 25th anniversary show, the world stopped. At least our world did. The hat, the glove, the way he slid across the floor in a manner none of us had ever seen – that’s an image that sticks with you forever.   Watch Michael on Motown 25   I love that move so much, I learned how to do it as a kid. And I’ve passed it on, teaching it to my two-year-old daughter.

You can say what you want about Michael Jackson. He did himself no favors with his ever-changing appearance, the child molestation accusations and hanging his son over a balcony. But none of those things tarnishes Jackson’s true legacy — that of arguably the greatest entertainer the world has ever seen.

He entertained us with his voice and he entertained us with his moves. And he did it for decades. Rarely does a successful child entertainer find further success as an adult, let alone become even more successful. Jackson didn’t just re-establish himself; he became the biggest star in the world.

How popular was Michael Jackson? Eight years after the release of his last album, and 15 years since he appeared to lose his musical relevance, Jackson sold out 50 shows that were to take place later this summer in London. That’s more than a million tickets sold. How many acts could do that at the height of their popularity, let alone decades later?

It’s a sad day. Michael Jackson is gone, and part of my childhood is gone with it. But it hasn’t all been taken away. I can still moonwalk. I’m pretty good at it, too.  And so is my daughter.

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Don’t tell anybody this, but I used to be a huge American Idol fan.

In fact, I used to write a live American Idol blog that my old co-workers read religiously. (Yes, I understand that I need to be stripped of my “man” card.) It was funny stuff. It was irreverent stuff. It was the kind of stuff you could not write in a blog associated with a local television affiliate. I would have rated it PG-13.

Now, I’m back in television anchoring a 10 pm newscast. Even though we’re a Fox affiliate, I don’t get to watch Idol anymore. Traci and I see five or six minutes at the end of the show when we’re out on the set getting ready for the news to start. Sometimes it kills me that I can’t watch the whole show. I guess I could DVR it at home, but it’s just not the same.

Even though I don’t blog Idol anymore, we still have you covered here at Fox 28. Colleen Bormann does an American Idol blog every week when the show’s on the air.  But Idol is really a year-round phenomenon. Kris Allen was crowned just a few weeks ago, but auditions for the 2010 season have already begun.

Colleen will be in the Windy City Monday to cover the Chicago auditions. She’ll report on those auditions Monday night on Fox 28 News at 10. One of the stories she’ll be following is that of Courtney Myers, the 17-year-old Niles High School student we profiled on Thursday night’s newscast. Courtney has a really good voice. Here’s hoping the Idol producers and judges agree.

Oh, and by the way, you can catch the ninth season of American Idol right here on Fox 28 starting in January! (I had to write that to make my boss happy.)

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Has anyone else noticed Super Bowl XLIII seems to lack heat? Not sure what it is, but I don’t hear people talking about the game much. Maybe it’s because last year’s game was so interesting with the Patriots bidding for a perfect season, and this year’s Super Bowl seems boring in comparison.

Regardless of the buildup (or lack thereof), nearly 100 million people will watch the Steelers battle the Cardinals on Sunday in Tampa. And since it’s un-American not to choose sides, here’s my take…

If you’re not from western Pennyvlania, you should be rooting for Arizona. The Cardinals are a seven point underdog, but it goes so far beyond that. This franchise has been the NFL’s doormat forever. Even before they moved to Phoenix, the St. Louis Cardinals were nobodies. The team hasn’t won an NFL title since 1947, when they played in Chicago. Harry Truman was president in 1947. That’s 61 years of frustration. How can you not root for a team like that? (Even if their own fans couldn’t have cared less about them when the playoffs started — but that’s another story.)

So cheer like crazy for the underdog. Just know that your cheering probably won’t go rewarded. There’s an old adage in sports that you’ve probably heard: good defense beats good offense. There’s a reason people have been saying this for decades. It’s the absolute truth. It works for every single sport — at least the sports we care about. In baseball, good pitching always beats good hitting. In basketball, high-scoring teams nearly always lose playoff series to tough-nosed defensive squads. And it’s no different in the NFL. Just look at last year’s Super Bowl. The Patriots had arguably the best passing attack the league had ever seen, but that passing game became ordinary when the Giants started putting Tom Brady on his backside.

As great as Arizona’s passing game has been this year, the Steelers secondary has been even better. If you saw the AFC Championship game, you saw Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco with literally five full seconds to throw the ball on several occasions. Yet he still couldn’t find open receivers because the Steelers defensive backs were all over them. True, the Cardinals receivers are superior to Baltimore’s, but Arizona has shown cracks along the offensive line. So expect the Steelers to get some heat on Kurt Warner, and since the Cardinals have zero running game, that’s going to spell doom for the Cards.

Plus, even though they’ve played decent football in the playoffs, the Cardinals defense is nothing special. The Steelers are going to get their points. Probably lots of them.

The Cardinals are a great story, but that story won’t have a storybook ending.

Steelers 34, Cardinals 17

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As we draw closer to February 17 and the federally-mandated switch to digital television, the picture keeps getting cloudier.

That’s not the way it was supposed to work, right? This whole thing is about giving you a better quality picture. 

Unfortunately, the powers that be in Washington are making things a bit difficult. The Obama administration and the U.S. Senate want to move the switch date back four months.  It looked like a done deal until the House of Representatives threw a wrench into the works Wednesday and shot the delay down.

So where does that leave us? Who knows? We’ll surely see more wrangling on Capitol Hill. Maybe the delay happens, maybe it doesn’t.

Whether it does or doesn’t or whether it should or shouldn’t… that’s not the point. The point is, if you’re one of the small percentage of Americans who needs to buy a converter box - and you should know who you are by now - run, don’t walk ,to your nearest electronics store and buy one right now. Even if Congress passes the delay, chances are Fox 28 and the other stations in town will make the switch to digital on February 17 anyway.

And we promise to keep you up to date on what’s going on with the switch. Even if it is a bit confusing.

(To visit the FCC’s DTV switch information page, click here.)

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I’m not one to toot my own horn. (Publicly, that is. At home, as my wife will tell you, I’m a conceited terror.) But I’m proud to say that when I first saw the photo of the alleged Bigfoot found by two Georgia men last week, I said to anyone who would listen in the newsroom, “That thing looks like a rubber gorilla suit.”

Turns out what was purported to be a 500 pound half-man, half-ape was really just… a rubber gorilla suit.

I do love it when I’m right.

Of course, this wasn’t a tough one to call. This whole thing reeked of hoaxdom. First of all, the guys who said they found the thing wouldn’t divulge the location of the discovery. Then you had this Tom Biscardi guy fronting the press conference. Biscardi was involved in another false Bigfoot story back in 2005. And, of course, you had the suit. If you’ve never seen the movie “Trading Places,” rent it tonight and watch the scene where a young Jim Belushi is dressed in a gorilla costume. It’s the exact same suit.

Our Kelly Gilmartin did a story on Bigfoot last Friday, the day of the press conference. In fact, we led our 5:00 pm newscast with it. Fridays are typically slow news days, and the Bigfoot story was what everyone was talking about that day. (The Bigfoot story was the most viewed on our Web site for days.) Plus, we found a local angle involving Michiana residents who had reported Bigfoot sightings in the past.

And why not? It was fun. It was funny. And it was news. Not news in the way that the presidential election or the Russia-Georgia conflict is news. But our job is to give our viewers the stories they’re looking for in the most informational - and yes, sometimes entertaining - way. Hopefully we did that.

As for the players in this hoax, they might get more than they bargained for. The Indiana group that performed the “autopsy” of the gorilla suit is thinking about suing the hoaxers. And one of the Georgia men, a police officer, lost his job. Which, of course, he should have. Would you want somebody who’s capable of perpetrating this kind of scam on the American public patrolling your street?

In the end, though, it was a fun scam. It got us all talking. And it did one other thing… it gave kids all over America a great idea for a Halloween costume!

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As I watch the Brett Favre saga unfold in Green Bay, I’m reminded of how silly human nature can be. Why is everyone so interested in whose fault it is? If you Google the name “Favre” along with the phrase “who’s to blame?” you get 7,330 links. I wish I were joking. Go ahead… Google it for yourself.  

So what does this say about us? We love conflict. And we love it even more now that the Internet has permeated our lives. It was bad enough when talk radio hit its zenith 15 years ago. Now we have literally millions of people out there looking to fill their Web pages with something. I should know. I’m one of them. (In case you forgot you were reading a blog.) And what are these bloggers going to fill their Web pages with? Whatever’s sexy, that’s what. And what’s sexy is conflict. Everyone loves a good fight.

You want proof? Here’s some homework for you: Go to a crowded place with a friend, and start loudly telling each other how much you like each other. Shake hands, do high fives, hug. Then write down the number of people who pay attention to you. The next day, go back to the same crowded place and start punching each other in the face. I’m no professor, but my bet is you’re going to be a lot more popular with the crowd the second night. (By the way, if you actually do this, make sure you videotape it. After all, we have a show to fill tonight.)

So we love conflict. But you know what we love even more? Blaming people. That’s the best part of the conflict, right? You get to pick a side. What’s more exciting than that? It’s my team against your team. You’re wrong and I’m right.

That’s what Packer fans are doing. Some think the team is at fault: Why in the world wouldn’t they want Favre back? The guy’s a Hall of Famer. He was great last year. Others blame Favre: Why did he retire if he knew there was a chance he would want to come back? Why can’t he just call it a career and let people move on?

As it nearly always is, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Or nowhere at all. Maybe, just maybe, it’s nobody’s fault. Maybe Favre really wanted to retire in March, and maybe he changed his mind in July. Maybe the Packers simply feel Aaron Rodgers is the future of the team, and maybe they want that future to start now rather than next year. Maybe neither side is trying to hurt the other. None of that is too difficult to believe, is it?

I don’t think most people ever stop to consider that possibility, no matter what the situation. We’re too quick to judge. Too quick to blame. And it’s only getting worse. That’s where conflict comes from. When you stretch it to the nth degree, that’s where wars come from.

Maybe we should judge ourselves before we start judging others. The world would be a much nicer place if we did.

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