Brett Favre. Wow. I could fill this column with thoughts on the Monday night game but I don't have the writing skill to do it justice. So I'll leave it at "Wow".

Congratulations to all the folks who made their playoffs and to those who won their leagues. I've received a ton of email from these folks. But I'd like to hear from all you guys who won this season. Shoot me an email at [email protected] and let me know how it went for you.

Speaking of winners, congratulations to Frank DeFontes, our Footballguy subscriber who took home the $15,000 in our Subscriber Contest. Frank's team (Carnage) scored 141.7 points vs Scott Hamnett (River City Rhinos) 131.8 to win the $15,000 first prize in the Championship game. Congrats to Frank and everyone else who competed. As you probably know the contest was free to enter for folks that subscribed to our in season content. Lots of people in the "industry" said David and I were stupid to pay out such a large sum of cash to a contest with so relatively few entrants. Who knows, maybe they're right. All we know is we wanted to say thanks to our guys for being a part of this and it was fun giving something back. If that's stupid, I'm guilty as charged.

No confirmation as of yet, but I hear Coors Light will be teaming Joe Namath with Kid Rock for the new commercials...

Hats off (literally) to Randy Moss for the stylin' blow out afro (LINK HERE)

Much is made of warm weather teams traveling North in December. Miami's Jason Taylor made a pretty strong statement without saying a word when he warmed up before the Buffalo game in 20 degree wind chill temps wearing a skin tight sleeveless shirt and shorts.

New York's Herman Edwards was asked how he'd react if one of his players pulled a Joe Horn type touchdown celebration. Herman was calm when he responded: "I won't have to react to that. That's not going to happen here." I believe him.

Speaking of Horn, the figure of $100,000 was reportedly discussed in the NFL offices when deciding his fine.

I bet Dallas' Troy Hambrick wishes he could take some of those words back from last season when he ran his mouth about Emmitt Smith. Hambrick looks awfully humble these days. I can't see him in a Cowboys uniform next season.

When discussing one play where Hambrick ran out of bounds instead of fighting for yards, Steve Young said, "Hambrick ran out of bounds...like a receiver" as he looked right at Michael Irvin...

Atlanta running back TJ Duckett pounded out 93 yards on the ground, but the big news is that he never found the end zone. Prior to Saturday's game, he had scored at least one touchdown in each of Atlanta's previous 7 games. It was that bad karma catching up to him that I wrote about last week where he did his touchdown dance with the game over and his team being smoked.

Tampa Bay is now 0-4 in games where Brad Johnson has thrown for more than 300 yards.

Note to defensive coordinators facing Atlanta's 6' 5" Brian Finneran: Don't put the 5' 9" cornerback on him in the redzone...

I wonder if I'll get hate mail this week like I did last week for pointing out the fact that Kansas City is now 0-3 facing good teams on the road. I'm just sayin'...

Congrats to coach Bill Parcells. He's the first coach in history to lead four NFL teams to the playoffs and achieve a 10 plus win season with four different teams.

Speaking of Parcells, did you see how nervous quarterback Quincy Carter was about dousing his coach with the Gatorade? He said he made sure long time Parcells player Richie Anderson was good with it first.

If kicker Billy Cundiff could play every game against the Giants, he'd have made 88 field goals this season.

"They're the greatest show on turf, we're the greatest improvement on grass." -- Bengals WR Chad Johnson after a 27-10 defeat at St. Louis.

Arizona wide receiver Anquan Boldin broke Terry Glenn's rookie receiving mark of 90 receptions. This came after being named as the only rookie to the Pro-Bowl this season. On his 60-yard TD reception, Boldin put CB Ken Lucas on his back shedding him like bothersome fly before leaping for the ball down the sideline and running the distance for the score. I keep harping on it but watch out for this guy if they get a supporting cast.

Does it seem weird to you when Emmitt Smith comes into the game during garbage time?

Here's how it went for Arizona - at one point, they were ahead in the turnover department 4-0 and trailed on the scoreboard by 21-3.

Another not so good sign for the Cardinals. The leading rusher had 38 yards. And he was the quarterback...

Oakland tackle Lincoln Kennedy went to the University of Washington. That's a presidential sounding resume...

Baseball's Javy Lopez reportedly has a "weight clause" where he can earn an additional 5 million dollars if he keeps his weight down. Can you imagine Bill Parcells or Jimmy Johnson going for that?

I hear New England's Tom Brady mentioned in the MVP talk. Has there ever been an MVP that didn't make the Pro Bowl?

I don't disagree that it's a shame LaDainian Tomlinson didn't make the Pro Bowl. But let's be serious - are you really going to bump off Priest Holmes, Jamal Lewis or Clinton Portis? No you're not.

I will make a case for Tom Brady though. I take him over Trent Green all day long.

Did anyone else notice that Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders had the same red Huggy Bear suit on Sunday? I wonder if they called each other Sunday morning...

Steve Young said to Irvin, "Did you wake up and just pick that suit?"

If New England wins against Buffalo this week, they'll have won 15 straight games if they win the Super Bowl. That seems pretty hard to do.

I know you're supposed to talk about parity and everything like it's gospel, but I find it interesting that 10 of the 32 teams have 5 wins or less though 15 games. That seems like a pretty good distribution to me.

Indianapolis had the ball for 15:02 Sunday. Guess who won?

Hats off to Pittsburgh's Jerome Bettis who rumbled past Marcus Allen into 7th place on the all time rushing list. Next up is Jim Brown just 13 yards away.

New Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling bought Drew Bledsoe's 20 room mansion near Boston. Waterfall and all. Just because I know you guys like to keep up with stuff like that.

Giving credit where it's due: I got on Washington's Tim Hasselbeck last week for his zero quarterback rating (that could have been worse if the formula allowed for negative ratings). He bounced back in a big way Sunday with a 209 yards and 2 touchdowns with no interceptions for a QB rating of 116.9.

It hasn't been a secret for quite some time but now everyone knows Kansas City can't stop the run. In their last 6 games, they've given up 3 games of 200 yards rushing or more. They must fix that if they're going to survive the playoffs.

Randy Moss joins Jerry Rice and Marvin Harrison as the only receivers to ever notch 15 touchdowns, 1,500 yards and 100 receptions in a season. That's elite company.

"I told him, you need to go home." Dallas coach Bill Parcells to Quincy Carter after finding Carter in the Cowboys practice facility 4 hours after everyone had gone home on Friday.

Kevan Barlow? I knew it. Truthfully, we all knew it. Now let's see if the 49ers do anything about it.

Poor Lions. Shawn Bryson followed his best game of the year with 6 rushes for 17 yards.

Make sure to watch the Baltimore - Pittsburgh game as Jamal Lewis has a shot at history. Asked if he expected the Steelers to focus on stopping Lewis, Ravens coach Brian Billick said, "I'd be surprised if they have anyone covering the wide receivers. I think we'll see 11 in the box."

It's a simple formula for the Bengals: When Jon Kitna protects the ball, they win. Kitna has 1 interception in their 8 wins. And 13 interceptions in their 7 losses.

Speaking of the Bengals, they'll need some help from Pittsburgh this week if they're to make the playoffs. Marvin Lewis seemed reluctant to talk about anything other than his team's game but when pressed he finally said, "I'm with the Bus, man. Check those tires, get him going."

Baltimore's Jamal Lewis is chided for not catching passes. But Sunday, he had as many catches (3) as their leading wide receiver.

Denver's Quentin Griffin ran wild Sunday Night. Say what you want about Mike Shanahan and the Denver front office but those guys can scout running backs.

Of course the system doesn't hurt either. Clinton Portis is feeling it when he said, "It would have been great if we would have come out and won the game passing," Portis joked. "But since we came out and 'Q' dominated? I'm trying to get on the field before people forget who I am."

Talk about going out with a whimper. One week after his four-touchdown, $30,000 cell phone call game, Joe Horn wasn't targeted for the first time until late in the second quarter He finished the game with just three targets, the final one resulted in an injured left shoulder that finished his season.

Tennessee's Drew Bennett is one of those athletic quarterbacks that was converted to wide receiver. I've always thought those guys had an advantage as they've been on the throwing side of the ball and know what they'd want in a receiver.

Think Fred Taylor is a big part of Jacksonville's offense? Taylor was targeted on 12 of Jacksonville's first 19 plays from scrimmage and his 225 total yards represented 60 percent of his team's 374 yards

Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb had his first and his last pass intercepted. In between, he was pretty solid throwing for 238 yards and completing 27 of 37.

I mentioned a while back to keep an eye on 49er WR Brandon Lloyd. With Terrell Owens' future in San Francisco cloudy, watch Sunday's game closely to get a sneak peek of what we might see next year. He scored a touchdown and a 2 point conversion Sunday. I like this young man a lot.

Had to like the old school end zone in Pittsburgh with the diagonal stripes.

The television announcers were comparing Philadelphia's Brian Westbrook with Barry Sanders. Easy, fellas.

It was about this time last year when we were wondering if there was anything to Jerry Jones talking to Bill Parcells. Things move fast around here.

How bad was it for Raider fans on Monday night? Quarterback Tee Martin had their best completion percentage and was the only Raider QB not to throw an interception. Both Super Bowl teams from a year ago will be watching the playoffs on television. The Buccaneers have struggled but at least seem to be competitive. But I don't recall a team just free falling like the Raiders did.

Atlanta owner Arthur Blank said he's looking for a coach that can work in a "collaborative environment". You don't have to read very far between the lines to understand Blank wants a guy who'll do what he says.

If Jamal Lewis could play the Browns every week, he'd roll up 4,000 yards this season. I've heard this a hundred times since Sunday and you probably have too. But it's still pretty impressive.

Cincinnati's Chad Johnson wore his orange cleats again in St. Louis, once again defying the NFL's uniform police and likely adding to his list of fines.

Bengals QB Jon Kitna certainly seems to have the respect of his teammates. Even after a tough loss, they were solidly behind him. Said Corey Dillon, "He's a soldier. Don't even think about pointing any fingers at him. The guy carried the team for this whole season. If it wasn't for his play, who knows where we would be." Offensive tackle Willie Anderson had this to say about his quarterback: "You're talking about a big dog," Anderson said. "The reason why we're where we're at right now is because Jon Kitna's made the receivers play at a higher level, the offensive lineman at a higher level, the running backs, everybody. Even if it's not in your mentality to think you're a big-time player, star guys make you think that way. Jon Kitna makes everybody think that way. ..."

How can you not feel bad for New Orleans and for John Carney? I'd be suicidal if I were a Saints fan.

Checking the drive charts from last week (the lengths I go to for you guys...) and noticed Washington scored a field goal Sunday on a 4 play drive that took 17 seconds and gained zero yards. That's not easy to do.

Hard Luck Awards

Hey, it's Christmas. No hard luck stories in this one. If you lost by a nullified penalty or came up inches short of that 100 yard bonus, I'm not going to tell you about it. What you don't know won't hurt you and you'll feel better about it tomorrow.

Seriously, I hope you and yours have a great Holidays. We'll wrap up these Random Shots with next week's finale. In the meantime, be safe, have fun and have a great one.

Joe

Thanks to Footballguys David Shick, Kathy Fazio and Bob Harris for the help on this one.