With six weeks down and ten to go we will now reveal our plucky Fantasy Fuseball football managers. Our second offering is Ron Berry!

Name: Ron Berry
Title/Occupation: Executive Director, Fusebox
Name of Team: Las Chalupas
Website: fuseboxfestival.com

Where did you grow and how did you end up where you are now?

I grew up in the suburbs of Houston.  I was a NASA kid.  Spent a lot of my summers growing up in west Texas on a family ranch.  Attended a small, liberal arts college (Earlham College) in Richmond, Indiana.  It was a bit like going to school in a John Cougar Mellencamp video.  Richmond is actually an interesting place.  Used to be a big jazz center–Billie Holiday and Glen Miller used to record and play there.  I studied theater there, but you didn’t necessarily go to Earlham to study theater.  I just knew I wanted to go somewhere out of state and wanted to get a good, liberal arts education.  At the time I thought I wanted to go into film, but was operating under the assumption that in order to be an interesting filmmaker I first and foremost needed to learn about the world.  I suppose this is true of many things.  But that was my thinking.  Earlham didn’t really have a film department so got involved with theater instead.  Spent my senior year in London studying and then spent part of my summer in Greece on a research grant, then moved to Austin with some friends.  I didn’t really want to move to NYC or LA and make it as an actor.  I really just wanted to make stuff.  I had always really loved Austin growing up, and here I am, sixteen years later still here.

Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

Hmmm, I don’t know if there’s a single greatest influence.  But early influences include David Lynch, Tom Waits, the Talking Heads.  Saw a Robert Wilson production of Hamlet at the Alley Theater in Houston that re-arranged some braincells.  I also had a really dynamic group of friends growing up.  We were constantly making stuff, hunting for new music, reading books, painting, etc.  So those friends were quite influential as well.

How did you come up with them name of your team and how do you approach managing it?

I think I just like the word chalupas.  Got a nice ring to it!  Plus, that was my favorite Mexican food growing up.  I’ve used it for years for various things.

Is sport art to you? Please explain.

Sure.  I mean I think most things are art or contain artful elements.  I definitely think sports are great theater.  Or certainly can be.  They leverage a lot of what I love about the live event.  The unexpected can happen.  The impossible can happen.  All sorts of things.  It’s an exciting space and creates a lot of different splintered narratives.  I also love all the various different story lines that come into play–the history of the teams/cities, the back-stories of the individual players, the rivalries, the in-game strategy, the head games, and of course, the amazing things these athletes can do physically.

If you weren’t your “title/occupation” what would you want to be and why?

I pretty much love what I do x 1000.  In some ways though, I suppose for me it’s less about the actual job and more about how to engage with the world.  Trying to remain curious, and humble, and present, and a concerned citizen.  The festival allows all these things, encourages these things really.  I do love thinking about space though (not outer space, but physical space), so perhaps I might be an architect of some kind.

Ron contemplates the bean dip at Doc’s on South Congress during a Houston Texans game.

The current Fuseball standings…

Black Division

2. SupSukers 6-1-0

4. Las Chalupas 4-3-0

5. The Chrysanthemums 3-3-1

6. The Underbites 3-4-0

9. The Meerkats 1-6-0

Blue Division

1. Collective & Bargain 7-0-0

3. The Lone Stars 5-2-0

7. Dusty Danger Dogs 3-4-0

8. The Mother Huskers 1-5-1

10. Fightin’ Bobs 1-6-0

Annie La Ganga is a writer, a stand-up comic, a spoken word artist, an improvisational monologist, and one of Rubber Rep’s all-time favorite Austin performers. Our friends at Rubber Rep decided to throw her a series of 12 surprise parties, with each party held at a different location, with La Ganga brought to each location blindfolded. At each location the audience has had cake, and then watch her perform and say and do whatever she wants for as long as she likes. Here, only on the Fusebox blog, Annie gives her exclusive response to the event(s) as we reach the last series of performances.
In June or July, Josh sent me a Facebook message asking if I wanted to do a show with Rubber Rep. I felt giddy and girlish and utterly thrilled, like he’d asked me to the prom.  I said yes immediately and began a long summer of searching for just the right dress. I made one, a calico-print party dress from a discounted Jo-Ann pattern and $6.99/yard fabric. It turned out okay and I wore it for the photo shoot, which was at my house on a hundred and fifty degree day in August. Josh and Matt had me do all kinds of ridiculous poses — holding a bunch of plastic flowers and lying down on a dirty old chaise lounge in my backyard, sitting in Billy’s (my boyfriend) horrible messy man room with plastic ponies arranged around my head, crouching in my bathtub holding a big cake. Josh was searching for something that could be defined only as “what they wanted,” and he and Matt marched around my house looking for it.  Finally they settled on my front porch. Josh stuck about twenty party hats on me — my head, my arms, my face, my legs—and Matt stood in my front yard making spooky faces so I’d react with interesting expressions. I kept mirroring Matt’s faces, which was not what he wanted me to do. He made even more scary and dramatic faces to elicit good photogenic responses and I just kept copying him. He took deep breaths and shook out his hands and made more faces as if he was drowning and believed that contorting his face would keep his head out of the water. Josh stayed oddly calm and kept a thin smile frozen on his face, one that said, “I’ve taken seven hundred fucking pictures and I’m not leaving you alone until I get what I want.”  Everyone was frustrated. I sat on my porch in the heat, in a stupid dress, tiny elastic party hat straps cutting into my neck.  I had been a good sport. We all had — it was one of our first work sessions together and we all wanted to be sweet.  Then there was this strange moment when everyone just paused. I see it like a snapshot in my mind’s eye — Matt sweating and grimacing, looking down at my dead lawn, Josh sighing and staring at a point somewhere beyond my head, tapping his index finger on his forehead. It was like everyone dropped into themselves for a second and thought, “Why am I doing this? Why the fuck am I here, right now, doing this shit?” And then I did what I usually do as a result of introspection of any kind, I had a little tantrum. I started tearing off the stupid party hats and yelling at them, “Why are we doing this? Why are you doing this to me?” It was at that moment that Josh took all of the pictures that ended up on the show’s poster and then they were happy and they left.  I decided not to wear the calico dress for the shows because the fabric was cheap and papery. I found a good black dress online, and, miracle of miracles, it fit. We had a few rehearsals in September and then the run started in October. So far there’s been a show on a boat, in a rich lady’s bedroom, at the Moose Lodge, in a parking lot, in a Hummer limo, all kinds of places.  Each night when Matt picks me up and blindfolds me and drives me to one of the shows I always think, “Why are we doing this? Why are you doing this to me?” And then a bunch of people scream, “Surprise!” in my face and scare the shit out of me.

-Annie La Ganga

Click here for more information on Surprise Annie.

AN EVENING WITH WILLIAM SHATNER ASTERISK seems terribly technological, but it really isn’t. I’m knee deep in video and audio samples at the moment, wading through every episode of the original Star Trek series. But the point is not to look at Star Trek, study William Shatner as some cultural artifact. Rather, it’s about getting to know his image and how it behaves. And while the project might not be live at the moment (I’m sitting in an apartment in Hell’s Kitchen), all my thinking is about the live moment—what will Shatner’s image do in a live space? How can I manipulate it? What’s possible?  It’s really some sort of spiritual pursuit. I spend hours with these samples—my characters (sample puppets) —discovering them, imagining their possibilities. It’s like any creative activity—finding out the nature of the materials at hand. In this case, it’s something we all know and have an opinion about—Captain Kirk. But it’s not him, it’s an image of him that I’m dealing with. And playing with that image and discovering what it can do is the pursuit of art. And art is what I’m interested in, particularly live art.

Years ago I read a Zen parable–I think it’s Zen, I read it in a John Cage book—about 3 men who spot another man on a distant hill. They all think he’s up there for different reasons but when they get to said hill they find out he just stands there.  That’s all he does. No matter what meaning the other men read into him, he just stands there. And that’s the way I think about live events. They’re phenomena—They’re like that guy standing on the hill.  My job is to create precise choices about that phenomena—what happens, when it happens—but the meaning of it is up in the air. And that’s where I ask an audience to engage it, participate with it, define it in their way.

When you throw anything up there, for public view, it changes. In an instant. Even when you ask someone to close their eyes, then open them—that moment of darkness then light transforms how one sees the person, the phenomena, the standing guy one looks at. And I can never quite put my finger on the meaning of the transformation. The blinking of the eyes can be read countless ways by the viewer/interpreter—a passage of time has elapsed, that person is sad, then that person is happy, he/she is angry, etc. It’s this liveness that beguiles me and if it were solved, it would be boring. So I probe it. And that’s where Kirk comes in. It’s not about him, his image, but about liveness. What happens when the image is put front and center and the human performers are secondary? That’s not the usual fare. We’re all used to being the center of attention. In fact, most theaters are laid out that way. The audience sits in organized rows and stares into a box. It’s as if the theatrical image said—”It’s all for you”!— It’s a powerful thing and seductive too. And if you fuck with that, look out! Audience members will be up in arms. Look at the public’s response to Occupy Wall Street—What do they want? What are they for? Tell us, so we can disagree or agree with certain parts of their platform. It misses the point. Their liveness puts into question everything the culture knows about protest movements. Maybe Shatner will act as some sort of touchstone for these thoughts.

-Phil Soltanoff

With six weeks down and ten to go we will now reveal our plucky Fantasy Fuseball football managers. Our first offering is  Aaron Sanders!

Name: Aaron Sanders
Title/Occupation: Writer/currently unemployed
Name of Team: The Lone Stars
Website: www.rockabillyslim.blogspot.com – It has been neglected, be gentle.

Where did you grow and how did you end up where you are now?

I was born in Grand Rapids Michigan in 1973. Then my family moved back to my dad’s hometown of Lapeer. The first place I can remember is a town named Dansville. You may or may not know it as the setting of The Burning Bed. It was a nice enough town, quiet and removed. My father was the preacher of the local one room church. That seems like a dream now – a memory of someone else’s life.

We moved a lot for different reasons – divorce, gypsy blood . . . once it was because of a maintenance man with an AK47, but that is a long story and I am not nearly inebriated enough to tell it. I’ve lived in Lansing, Columbus OH, Tampa FL, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Arlington, Plano, Richardson, Garland, Waco, Galveston, San Marcos, and now Austin. I’m sure that’s not a complete list. We lived in more places than we went to grades in school. One day in college I suddenly realized that my ratty little apartment was officially my longest stint at one physical address.  For us it was normal. I still get itchy when I live someplace more than a year or two.

How’d I end up where I am now? The truth is it was girls. I followed one from Waco to San Marcos, from community college to university. Eventually she moved on and I found the love of my life. She kicked me out of San Marcos after I graduated and I headed to Austin to wait for her to graduate too and see if we were going to make it. In her defense, I was a little intense back then. Austin opened itself to me and I started reading poetry at the local venues. This was back before the Electric Lounge closed, just to give you some sense of my place in the timeline. I dug in my heels and I’ve been here ever since.

Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

There have been so many. I’m not sure one was more important than the other. I remember the thing that made me want to write was a poem called The Death of The Ball Turret Gunner. I had been writing for years, but it changed the way I looked at writing.  It is a short poem of immense truth and power. I knew that writing something like that was going to take a lifetime of work and I was looking for that kind of challenge. Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke offered me solace early in my journey. On some level Pink Floyd has always influenced my aesthetic. They were my mom’s favorite band when she was pregnant with me. I heard The Dark Side of the Moon before I exited the womb. The Old Guitarist by Picasso sticks in heart. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy made me laugh when I didn’t think I could. And I would have to say that Austin is teeming with artist that have pushed me to reach farther and become more.

How did you come up with the name of your team and how do you approach managing it?

The Lone Stars is our team name. It is an homage to the prodigious amount of tall boys I drank my way through at and around the last Fusebox Festival. It may not be the official beer of the festival, but it was certainly my mascot this year, so I thought it was appropriate.

And how do I approach managing the team . . . well I have my guys; players who I like to watch or who have done well by me in the past. I usually load up with them first, then I scour the news, message boards, blogs, and stats and grab anybody else that looks like they might be worth a damn. But in the end I think it’s all guesses for the first couple of weeks. I try to get an elite QB and a couple of good running backs. The rest just sort of shakes out as injuries and bye weeks necessitate change. Every once in a while I burn a black candle or channel the dark side of the force, but I mean . . . I’m a yankee by birth and everyone in Texas knows we don’t know nothing about football, so a lot of it is obviously luck.

Is sport art to you?

I think it is. In football in particular I have seen some amazing NFL films. Some of the slow motion clips really illustrate the elegance, athleticism, and control that these athletes have attained through a lifetime of commitment. It could certainly be argued that the film is the art and not the players and I will grant you that most of those guys don’t suit up thinking to themselves, “Today I’m going to make my tackling a reflection of the anger and disappointment that society suffers through during each election cycle.” . . . but if you pull back far enough, their process is much the same as ours and the audience or fans feel similar catharsis, joy, pain. They feel the struggle. They follow the stories. Sometimes they even suspend their disbelief. It’s an interesting question. To some degree it lives in my head as a sort of unintentional art. It is not what they set out to do, but it is still part of the game.

If you weren’t your “title/occupation” what would you want to be and why?

I think I’d like to help create video games. It is an industry that is experiencing incredible change and it is a story telling technique with almost no boundaries. More than that even, in some of the role playing games that I play, it is a way to provide a construct for people to create their own stories and that really interests me. Outside of storytelling though, I have always been fascinated by physics. I think if I were given a clone and twenty years back, I’d set Aaron number two on that path. The challenge of answering the big questions we all face through science ranks right up there with using fifty words to change the world.

The current Fuseball are…

Black Division

3. SupSukers 5-1

4. The Chrysanthemums 3-2-1

5. The Underbites 3-3-0

6. Las Chalupas 3-3-0

9. The Meerkats 1-5-0

Blue Division

1. Collective & Bargain 6-0-0

2. The Lone Stars 5-1-0

7. Dusty Danger Dogs 2-4-0

8. Fightin’ Bobs 1-5-0

10. The Mother Huskers 0-5-1

I would like to start this week by apologizing for not supplying our loyal Fusebox blog readers with a post last Sunday. I was in a foul and disgusting land known as “New England”, home of Bill Belichick, ushering a wedding between a New York based actor and singer-songwriter, surrounded by Patriot fans who couldn’t pronounce “chowder”.  As a Colts fan, this was my worse nightmare. I forgot how much Boston smells like drinking, and I live in Austin. Ironically, I was invited to a Texas vs. Oklahoma party in room 216 at the Best Western of Newport, RI, by a man wearing Vince Young’s college jersey, and carrying a case of Shiner Bock. Thus, I traveled 1,700 miles to do the exact same thing I would be doing in my living room that Saturday. But, let us not mention the travels (the wedding was amazing, and filled my snarky heart with joy). This has been a busy time for Fusebox. We saw the Peacock Hair Salon host the Haircuts by Children Happy Hour, a rum tasting at East Side Show Room (go there and order an Old Fashion made with Smith and Cross rum), and one of our fantasy football managers was awarded the “Best Composer” in Austin by the Austin Chronicle. We also saw our first tie in Fantasy Fuseball. Let us take a look at the standings.

Black Division

3. SupSukers 4-1-0

4. The Chrysanthemums 3-1-1

5. Las Chalupas 3-2-0

6. The Underbites 2-3-0

10. The Meerkats 0-5-0

Blue Division

1. Collective & Bargain 5-0-0

2. The Lone Stars 4-1-0

7. Dusty Danger Dogs 2-3-0

8. Fightin’ Bobs 1-4-0

9. The Mother Huskers 0-4-1

Upcoming matters of note: Remember, we have “Infernal Comedy” on Oct 24 & 25 in conjunction with Texas Performing Arts. And, don’t forget to Catch Rupper Rep’s “Surprise Annie”, running now through Oct 29^th in various locations. See this innovative show and drop us a line. The thoughts we find to be the most insightful and intriguing we will post on this blog in weeks to come.

-Timothy Braun, Editor-In-Chief of New and Social Media

Before we head to the Digestible Feats rum tastings at East Side Show Room this evening, let’s check into the Fantasy Fuseball standings. This week we expect to see a change in the competitive nature of our league as the manager of The Meerkats has returned from Italy. To provide a hint as to that who controls this team, he be a member of the Rude Mechs, and you might say his “art” is golden (Golly, Tim, could you make it more obvious)? Sadly, this manger has had little opportunity to administer thus far because of said adventures in Italy. Lesson here is this: never go to Italy. The Meerkats are 0-3. From this point expect a more aggressive ‘kat in this confederacy of hypothetical pigskin. Now to the standings…

Black Division

3. Las Chalupas 2-1-0

4. SupSukers 2-1-0

5. The Chrysanthemums 2-1-0

7. The Underbites 1-2-0

10. The Meerkats 0-3-0

Blue Division

1. The Lone Stars 3-0-0

2. Collective & Bargain 3-0-0

6. Fightin’ Bobs 1-2-0

8. Dusty Danger Dogs 1-2-0

9. The Mother Huskers 0-3-0

Before we head to the television for our football, and East Side Show Room for our rum, we want to give a shout out to Loaded Gun Theory for producing their 8^th Slapdash at the Off-Center last night. As is the tradition, Slapdash was silly fun, featured a wacky show by our very own Dusty Danger Dog manager (who could it be?), but more importantly last night was the 15^th anniversary of LGT’s Julie Winston-Thomas and Tim Thomas. Congratulations.

-Timothy Braun, Editor-In-Chief of New and Social Media

I’m working on a new project with my partner Rob Ramirez called AN EVENING WITH WILLIAM SHATNER ASTERISK.

Why?

First of all, it’s a follow-up to some previous work. In LA PARTY I was exploring how 6 people could recombine parts of themselves—voice, body, face– to make 1 person—a kind of video puppetry. It takes something very human—precise listening, collaboration– to manipulate the different video elements to create a real-time puppet. And the audience is privy to all the manipulations—no lies happen. And it’s this “liveness” I’m fascinated with. I’m also dealing with the intervention of technology.  I’m certainly not very good when it comes to the technological—I’ve never sent a text message in my life—but I consider this ineptness a creative resource. We’re all dancing with technology whether we like it or not, and it’s the doing of this dance, not whether it’s good or bad, that interests me. In AN EVENING WITH WILLIAM SHATNER ASTERISK I’ve moved the discussion to a figure we all know, but isn’t there. When you say the name ”William Shatner”—and yes I’ve spoken to him directly and got his permission to do this piece—everyone has a response. They know him. At least they know his image—and that’s what’s important to me. He’s a cultural icon, Captain Kirk– somebody we all have an opinion about. That opinion might vary but that doesn’t matter. I can make a discussion about him, his image, and dispense with the usual dramatic tools. I don’t need to develop Shatner because we all start somewhere with him. I can make the discussion go from there. I’ve done it in the past, particularly with costumes—business suits come to mind—a thing that we all know and have an opinion about.

In AN EVENING WITH WILLIAM SHATNER ASTERISK the discussion is about object theatre, puppetry–A kind of “sample” puppetry– where it takes multiple human beings to make an image of William Shatner come alive. I’m busting up the entire original Star Trek series into fragments of Shatner that Rob and I can play, “live”, and make the image of Shatner speak eloquently on the subject of technology and art in the 21^st Century. Last spring at Fusebox I workshopped an idea with Ron Berry about a panel discussion as a performance. Certainly it was provocative and lively. I’m going to add an interesting text to the mix– a NY sound artist, someone else who’s working and thinking about art and technology –is writing a text that Shatner’s image will speak—perfectly and precisely. After his address, Shatner’s image will take questions from the audience. There’s no preparation when it comes to the Q & A so human beings, the Shatner operators, will scramble—desperately–to make him work. Glitches and errors are included in the experience—and aren’t they always. I’ve taken an idea about object manipulation in LA PARTY and moved it forward. Maybe it’s a companion piece?

-Phil Soltanoff

A question for all the fun-lovin’ Fusebox fans across the inter-web: before we reveal our team managers and provide interviews with their thoughts and ideas on art and sports, can you guess which team Artistic Director Ron Berry?

Black Division

2. SupSukers 2-0-0

4. Las Chalupas 1-1-0

6. The Chrysanthemums 1-1-0

7. The Underbites 1-1-0

10. The Meerkats 0-2-0

Blue Division

1. The Lone Stars 2-0-0

3. Collective & Bargain 2-0-0

5. Dusty Danger Dogs 1-1-0

8. The Mother Huskers 0-2-0

9. Fightin’ Bobs 0-2-0

-Timothy Braun, Editor-In-Chief of New and Social Media

As the fresh football season is now underway, our first week of Fantasy Fuseball saw high flying action and trash talking that included jokes related to Fusebox favorite Reggie Watts, the lacking of care from honey badgers, and the prostitution of mothers. For the opening game we had a modest, but lovely, gathering for the New Orleans vs. Green Bay game which included pizzas themed around the teams; one with nothing but green toppings, one with nothing black and spice toppings from the pizza artists at Homeslice. In the coming weeks we shall reveal the managers of each team and how they view sports and art. Here are the current standings.

Our week one results were…

The Chrysanthemums 143.85 over Las Chalupas 114.70

The Lone Stars 167.95 over the, well, The Underbites 88.50

The Meerkats 93.95 got wacked by SupSukers 167.05

Dusty Danger Dogs 135.10 edged The Mother Huskers 131.40

Collective & Bargain 186.05 crushed Fightin’ Bobs 106.35

Leaving our current stands at…

Black Divison

3. SupSukers 1-0-0

4. The Chrysanthemums 1-0-0

7. Las Chalupas 0-1-0

9. The Meerkats 0-1-0

10. The Underbites 0-1-0

Blue Division

1. Collective & Bargain 1-0-0

2. The Lone Stars 1-0-0

5. Dusty Danger Dogs 1-0-0

6. The Mother Huskers 0-1-0

8. Fightin’ Bobs 0-1-0

Our week two contests look like this…

SupSukers vs. The Chrysanthemums

Fightin’ Bobs vs. The Lone Stars

The Underbites vs. The Meerkats

The Mother Huskers vs. Las Chalupas

Collective & Bargain vs. Dusty Danger Dogs

Taking all bets. Taking all bets now.

-Timothy “The Chrysanthemums” Braun, Editor-In-Chief of New and Social Media

I’m more than excited about the upcoming football season. During the spring and summer, when football has left me, I feel a void in my heart that can’t be filled. It’s as if a lover has gone missing from my life. A big sweat-covered lover who can blitz, and drop into pass coverage. In welcoming football back into my life, into all of our lives, I will introduce a new concept to Fusebox: Sports and Art. Now, I’m certain some will argue that sports is, or can be, art, but we will be exploring the ideas of sports and it’s impact on art. This idea germinated as Fusebox Artistic Director Ron Berry and I interviewed Morgan Thorson last year. She commented on how she loved sports and how it had influenced her work. This fall Fusebox will be launching a Fusebox Fantasy Football league called “Fuseball”. Across the season we will post interviews with artists and “Friends of Fusebox” (F.O.F.’s) on how they view sports, how they see their team, in both a positive and negative way. The winner of Fuseball will be recognized at the opening night party of 2012 festival. First let’s take a look at the season to come in “real” football. To establish the tone of what we are attempting to achieve I will breakdown the season to be by taking a page from The Nails “88 Lines About 44 Women” (you can remember the song at this link), and write of each team in such a manner. This is a daunting task, as I am notorious longwinded, but I’m up to the challenge.

-Timothy Braun, Editor-In-Chief of New and Social Media.

NFC North
4.) Chicago: They can run and play defense, but something isn’t right. Is Jay Cutler the next Jeff George?

3.) Detroit: Much better than last year, but will be a loser nonetheless. However, the Lions will fight in this season to the bitter end.

2.) Minnesota: Adrian Peterson has acted like a teenage girl, and I’m afraid of girls like that. They win their first three games, then crash and burn in the snow.

1.) Green Bay: The 3-4 defense has looked dazzling. Keep your peepers on Aaron Rogers as an MVP candidate.

NFC South

4.) Carolina: I love the new, multi-layered defense. But, the injuries always seem to mount on this team.

3.) Atlanta: Could be a surprise contender. The birds will push New Orleans ‘til Christmas.

2.) New Orleans: Sean Payton has no fear, and he will call plays with a “Devil may care” mindset. Drew Brees will shine like a star once again.

1.) Tampa Bay: My cousin is a Bucs fan. He loves misery.

NFC East
4.) Washington: No cohesion. No play-offs.

3.) Dallas: Read the Washington lines again. You know it be true.

2.) New York Giants: Eli Manning is playing with a smooth confidence. Fewer distractions make this team a Super Bowl challenger once again.

1.) Philadelphia: I like the team speed. But, can Andy Reid pull it together when it matters?

NFC West
4.) Seattle: Name one player on this team that strikes fear in the heart of the opposition. I couldn’t name one either.

3.) Arizona: The sand birds have receivers and little else.  The QB situation looks sad.

2.) St. Louis: The Rams won’t win much until Halloween, but then they will scare the “Hell” out of the NFL. I think this coaching staff will be under the arch for years to come.

1.) San Francisco: Jim Harbaugh has the gift of gab. He rallies his troops to a first place finish with moxy and a mean tongue.

AFC North
4.) Cincinnati: Profound players aplenty, but the offensive line has questions. Andy Dalton can’t get the ball to his receivers on his back.

3.) Cleveland: I like this Colt McCoy kid. Where did he play college ball again?

2.) Baltimore: A good squad, but not great. Will Ray Lewis start to show his age?

1.) Pittsburgh: The blitz comes in waves. So will the wins.

AFC South
4.) Jacksonville: More and more, head coach Jack Del Rio looks like Ahab. This year he drowns hunting his white whale.

3.) Tennessee: This unit feels like it’s hurting for a heartbreak year, like a teenage boy on a Saturday night. A once delicious defense now looks vapid.

2.) Houston: Matt Schaub goes to the Pro Bowl again. But, will they win in December?

1.) Indianapolis: Start rough but end strong riding the best chemistry in the NFL. Peyton Manning has a geographic offense and will throw to all the corners of his globe.

AFC East

4.) Buffalo: Playing for the number one draft pick. Might be the worst team in the league.

3.) Miami: This team has more than the “wild cat”. This defense could make a nun nervous.

2.) NY Jets: I like the attitude, but not much else. Once again the Jets are in a year of learning.

1.) New England: Men behave badly when they have something to prove. This fall, Tom Brady will be one bad man.

AFC West
4.) Oakland: This team is as complicated as a French film. They could be second place in this division and still have a losing season.

3.) Denver: A few pieces here, a few pieces there. Let’s see if they can piece it together.

2.) San Diego: The time is now. The Bolts must win, or whispers of breaking-up the roster will be heard.

1.) Kansas City: I’m tempted to put them at the two spot. They could surprise.

Play-Offs
NFC (in no honest order).

Tampa Bay
New Orleans
Green Bay
San Francisco
Philadelphia
Atlanta

NFC Title Game: Green Bay vs. New Orleans

AFC (in no real order).
Kansas City
New England
Indianapolis
Pittsburgh
Houston
NY Jets

AFC Title Game: Indianapolis vs. New England

Super Bowl: New England over Green Bay