The wheel of time

"The time commitment to pottery has meant less time for blogging." —"A Tight End Happy to Have Hands of Clay," NYT

Annals of facial hair: His New Friend

From the NYT (aka The Beard Gazette):

CORTLAND, N.Y. — Braylon Edwards has turned his beard into a person. Over the past week alone, The Beard here to Jets training camp, conducted interviews and considered making T-shirts.

Braylon Edwards was selected No. 3 over all by Cleveland in 2005, but he says he feels more comfortable with Rex Ryan and the Jets. “This is all I ever needed,” he said.

Edwards started growing his new friend months ago, and it now juts some six glorious inches from his chin. The Beard represents Edwards’s most obvious growth since the Jets traded for him last season. It also underscores his continuing revival, away, Edwards hopes, from the perceptions that have plagued him, toward potential again fulfilled.

Annals of hair

Tim Tebow was all the buzz Saturday night at the Denver Broncos' practice.

The rookie quarterback stood out not only for his play at practice but for his shaved locks, the top of his head completely sheared to leave a ring of hair that made him look like a monk....

—ESPN

(From Jane)

Dogville

(From Karolina)

Buffalo 66, alternate universe version

(Via Sweeney)

Poetry in motion

Ravens vs. Steelers:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary.

But Roethlisberger, still availed of enough weaponry to try and stretch the lead, went deep.

To Sweed.

To Sweed!

(From Jenny)

Gridiron grumblings

I. Chain reaction:

Since 1906, football teams have needed to gain 10 yards for a first down. From the sideline, far from the action, two sticks connected by a chain have measured the required distance, their placement estimated by eyesight.

For a game of inches, it has never seemed an exact science. For a game long advanced by technological innovation, from helmets to video replays, the chains are antiques. Dozens of inventions have been patented to improve or abolish them.

Yet the chains stand the test of time, if not distance. —NYT

II. And from ESPN:

Sunday was the Single Most Interesting Day in NFL History, both for the numerous high points and for the Single Worst Game Ever Played, supplied by the Dallas Cowboys. Before we get to the particulars, let me make sure you know about the player of the day. I speak, of course, of Ramzee Robinson. In the second half at Green Bay, Robinson, a Lions defensive back, was penalized for taunting. The Lions at that point were 0-15 and within sight of attaining the designation they now hold, that of worst NFL team ever. After a Green Bay incompletion, Robinson danced around, pointing at himself and taunting Packers receiver James Jones. A player for the worst-ever NFL team was called for taunting in the game in which that team reached 0-16.

(Both via Dzyd Jane)

Wildcat strikes

“I’m just like any other coach, I’ve always tried to steal ideas,” said Malzahn, now the offensive coordinator at Tulsa, which entered Saturday with the highest-scoring offense among major college teams. “We were looking for ways to get the best players on the field.” —NYT

(This piece also features someone named "Houston Nutt.")

(Via Jane)

Memory

The exciting-sounding Giants-Packers game ended with Lawrence Tynes's 47-yard overtime field goal...

Forty-seven yards...

Dizzies Newsfeeds for November 13

Andrew Lewis Conn has a long appreciation of Norman Mailer up at The Fanzine: "Let us sing of the man’s ambition: that wild, prodigious, uneven, infuriating, embarrassing, brave and blustery and bruising arc, the longest, greatest song of himself in American letters."...Shades of End Zone: "After Jets linebacker Jonathan Vilma sustained a knee injury this season, Coach Eric Mangini was asked at a news conference if he knew which play the injury occurred on. He said no.

Q: Do you know which knee?

A: Yes.

Q: Are you going to tell us?

A: No.

Q: Right or left?

A: Tricky. It’s one of those two."

—"Paranoia Strikes Deep, Into Your Headset It Will Creep," NYT (via Dizzyhead Jane)...