Hello there sports fans and fanettes. You have probably been wondering what happens to the New England Patriots if Tom Brady is injured or out. The second string is a pretty severe step down; for those scoring at home, or even if you are alone (shameless rip off from Keith Olbermann), Brady’s backup is Matt Cassel, a perfectly fine chap, and by all accounts a good quarterback. But he is no Tom Brady.

Well, here at Emptywheel, we have the same phenomenon. My name is bmaz, and I am no Emptywheel. Most of you know me; and for those that don’t, well, please don’t be scared off. This will not be the only thread; there will be substantive thread as well, if, and as, called for. If you see breaking news that is important, or have something critical for discussion, please ante up. I have noticed in the past the absolutely incredible talent that frequents this site, and TNH before it, tends to dissipate when Marcy is away. The group I know and love, and that is all of you (crikey, even the house troll I suppose), is too good, and works too well together, for that to happen. I will do my best to at least be a marginally competent guest host, but its no good without all of you; so have at it.

With the pleasantries thus out of the way, lets get down to business. It is crunch time in the NFL:

Looks like the weather may be a bit dicey in the greater Beantown area. Are the the Pats going to need a work furlough crew of convict snow plow drivers; or is Belichek going to hang a 75 point runup on his ingrate student, Mangini?

Did you know there was a game tonight between the Bengals and 49ers on the NFL Network? Do you even get the NFL Network? For those answering yes to these two questions, hey Mr. and Mrs. Dilfer and hey Mr. and Mrs. Palmer.

Will Brett Favre make his 251st straight start against the Rams in St. Louis? Is this record more astounding than Cal Ripken’s streak of 2,632 games? My take – of course he will, and it just might be.

The best of the rest appears to me to be the Browns v. the Bills. These are both up and coming teams that are coming on at the right time of the year and look to be pretty solid for the future. It really was a brilliant move for the Bills to scoop up Willis MaGahee in the draft when everybody else was spooked by his collegiate injury. Where in the world did Derek Anderson come from for the Browns? (Hint: Beavers are involved). Did anybody know about this guy before this year?

Will Neil give us another of his pre-game pigskin prognostications that are literally so good they could be scripts for John Facenda of NFL Film lore?

What games are you interested in, who you got in them and what do you have to say? Don’t be shy, if you don’t know football, or don’t care about it, that is just fine; lob out anything you have and are interested in, whether it be other sporting events, getting punked on FISA (Is that like deja vu all over again, or what?) or, for that matter, nuclear physics (Hey, Schrodinger’s Cat made a recent appearance). The pub is open; step on in and trash the joint.

Update: BooRadley reminds that although the Bills did make a great draft selection in Willis MaGahee, but they shipped him out to the Ravens. The current Bills running back is Marshawn Lynch, drafted out of Cal, and who is also pretty darn good.

I’m supposed to be in Philly right now. Me and mr. emptywheel and McCaffrey the MilleniaLab were supposed to pile into the new Honda Fit and drive to Philly for an early Christmas celebration with the family. Only, for a variety of reasons, it didn’t happen. And the fallback plan–to leave tomorrow and drive without mr. emptywheel–well, that’s forecast to get buried under 10 inches of snow tonight.

But in preparation for this mythical trip to Philly, I recruited someone to post for me on my driving days. It was a pretty easy decision, really. When I meet TNH/emptywheel people in person, they tend to rave about bmaz. So I thought I’d give him the keys to the front page while I’m gone.

And no way to get him up to speed on the controls of this thing then to have him do the new official weekly Football Trash Talk thread–since bmaz can trash talk with the best of them. Except for maybe Brett Favre.

So look for bmaz to post that in the next couple of hours (he keeps telling me there’s a game this evening on some "NFL Network" that I’ve never heard of). I’ll be around for trash talk today and (if the snow does come as expected) tomorrow. But be nice to bmaz while I’m gone. Well, at least as nice as you would be anyway.

Say, did you know that the last time the Detroit Lions won on Thanksgiving Day, they beat the Packers?

And if you want to answer the absurd quiz, click through to NFL.com, which apparently needs to have four entries for all of its quizzes. How else to explain the presence of Kitna who, though he has moments of inspiration, is not in the same league as the other guys, particularly not Manning or Favre–the latter of which will face one of the worst pass defenses in the league today, ranked #30.

Oh! And may you all have a safe, happy holiday. Go Lions!

Okay, not bear-hunting. But mr. emptywheel and McCaffrey the MilleniaLab and I are going on a road trip–I’m calling it mr. emptywheel’s NFC North driving tour. Where I’m going, the WiFi gods really are jealous gods, so I can’t even guarantee I can check in. Though I think I’ll find WiFi in time to check in for the Pats-Colts game on Sunday.

And I’ll be driving all day Tuesday, which practically guarantees fireworks at the Mukasey vote on Tuesday. Or maybe someone else will quit, though with Karen Hughes gone, I don’t think there’s anyone left.

I’ll be back posting regularly on Wednesday.

Mr. emptywheel and I are headed to DC so McCaffrey the MilleniaLab can attend a very important Furrin’ Policy Summit with Kobe, Katy, and Lucy (oh, and so we can go to a wedding or some such rot). The emptywheel pack is going to play around in the mud together for a couple of days on the way back. And mr. emptywheel has requested (well, demanded, and who can blame him!?!?!?) that I leave my Toobz behind. So aside from the possibility of some puppy porn while we’re in DC, don’t expect to hear from me (and I mean it, this time) until next Tuesday.

Have a great weekend!!