Lighten up, folks, really. It appears that even days after Georgia handed it to Florida, some are still upset by Georgia’s first quarter flashmob-like celebration and Mark Richt’s instructions to his team in the pre-game to embark on such a celebration.

In today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Terrence Moore takes Richt to task for ordering the celebration.

“Guess those little green men who sneaked into Jacksonville last Saturday for the Georgia-Florida football game and yanked the real Mark Richt away in their spaceship have returned him.

Welcome back, coach.

We forgive you.

Now don’t ever do that again - or anything close.”

Really? Is forgiveness in order? It wasn’t like Richt instructed a player to go out and hurt someone. His pre-game pep talk didn’t include the normally stoic coach telling his players, in no uncertain terms, that they were to punch each member of the Florida defense in the groin and face after their first offensive touchdown. This was simply Richt’s way, in a world where sports, as much as I love it, is wildly over-cared about, to remind his players, his kids, to go out and have fun. Fun is a word that isn’t often associated with “student athletes” in the corporate world that big-time college athletics have become. Do I want to see this sort of thing every week? No. Do I want to see the Tennessee offense break into a song and dance number when (maybe if, these days) they score a touchdown? No. But I’m ok with it and I would have been ok with it even if Richt didn’t apologize. Besides, whatever he said to those kids must have worked because that was the best game the Dogs have played all season.

Sorry, Andre Woodson. Enjoy the NFL next year, Darren McFadden. There’s always next time, Tim Tebow. This year’s Heisman is going to Boston College’s Matt Ryan.

Simply put, Ryan is filthy, clutch and money. If you caught any of that drizzly, ugly BC/Virginia Tech game last night, you probably didn’t miss much. But if the bit you caught was the final 2:11 minutes of the game, you know the part where Ryan led his offense, an offense with a line that couldn’t protect him all night and receivers that allowed themselves to be swallowed up by VT’s defensive backs (and occasionally linebackers), down the field twice on scoring drives, then you saw Ryan win the Heisman. Going on the road to hostile environments and winning big games is what great players do and while those of us who knew Matt Ryan was great weren’t surprised by what we saw last night, many of us didn’t know whether or not he had “it.” Well, as last night’s game indicates, the Boston College senior has “it” in bunches.

How else do you explain going 9-for-15 with two touchdowns on in the final two minutes and change of the game, including throwing the game winning touchdown with 11 seconds left? I’m not convinced that BC won’t lose a game this season but the win Thursday night is validation that the road to the ACC Championship certainly runs through Chestnut Hill.

Mike Luckovich’s political cartoon in the Atlanta Journal Constitution today.

The good people over at Fanhouse ponder, in light of the recent sports media “trade” that saw longtime Sportscenter talking head Dan Patrick and overrated, sarcastic columnist Rick Reilly trading places, who comes out on top: ESPN or Sports Illustrated?

In the words of the famous (and Western New York’s own) Nick Bakay: Push.

Both of this guys have a shtick that we’ve seen before. It’s nothing new here folks. You know what you’re getting with DP. You’re getting his heterosexual lifemate Keith Olbermann, you’re getting the widow’s peak, the weekly Reggie Miller appearances on the radio show, the daily Adam Sandler name-drops and of course, his trademark, suffocating smarm. Ditto for “Riles,” as he was called by Patrick when he used to appear on Patrick’s radio show. You’re getting an occasionally clever column, some cliché pop culture references, favorite targets include Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, some golf columns and the Albom-esque tearjerker usually involving parents of kids who have killed themselves, died in car accidents and/or donated organs to thankful now-living folks wracked with guilt. I’ve seen it before. None of it’s clever, none of its new and none of it is noteworthy.

The real question though is what will fill the backpages of two, seemingly rival but completely different sports publications. I speak, of course, of Sports Illustrated and ESPN: The Magazine. I’m hoping, as a subscriber, that SI opts to groom a young columnist and give him a chance to shine or lure George F. Will away from Newsweek and write some heady, statistic-laden baseball columns that no one not wearing a bow tie can understand. I hope they don’t consider publishing some version of the dopey, Dan Patrick “outtakes” that formerly ran in ESPN: The Mag. Let’s see some originality from the most authoritative sports publication in the country. SI is the Time Magazine of sports and now that it’s tricky pony has jumped ship for the Worldwide Leader, the magazine will be left with a very interesting choice.

Finding cloudy, cold weather music on my iPod is becoming more of a challenge. This morning, the sun was shiny, the autumn wind was refreshing and sweater-enducing — it felt like Heaven. I was ready to lay down a playlist of “Here Comes the Sun” and light, poppy songs from The Shins, The New Pornographers and Shout Out Louds. The weather had other plans for today’s playlist. The clouds have rolled in.

1. Nada Surf - Your Legs Grow - The Weight is a Gift

2. Keane - Try Again - Under the Iron Sea 

3. Death Cab for Cutie - Company Calls Epilogue - Forbidden Love EP

4. Matt Nathanson - Bulletproof Weeks - Some Mad Hope 

5. Radiohead - (Nice Dream) - The Bends 

The NFL is cutting the time between picks in the first and second rounds of the NFL draft. I love this idea. I am kind of surprised that they are doing this since the draft is such a ratings behemoth and the NFL isn’t one to normally turn down ad revenues by making sanctioned events shorter. The first round of the draft shouldn’t be four hours long as it has been in recent years and I will be interested to see if this change sticks.

ABC is picking up Pushing Daisies for a full season. My hope is that they would pick it up under the condition that they drop the terrible, soul-sucking voiceover that makes me want to kill myself when I watch the show (which I love, by the way) but I’ll take a full season regardless. I am not sure about the long-term future of the show. The premise is limiting and if the show serves two full seasons, I think that’s a great life for it.

Since reading about Melanie Dunea’s new book “My Last Supper,” where the author asks 50 of the world’s greatest chefs what they would want to eat for their last meal on Earth, I have been thinking about my own answer. Last night, I was in bed, reading Anthony Bourdain’s “The Nasty Bits,” when I thought of a way I could answer Dunea’s fascinating question. A better question for me, I thought, would be what would I want to eat if it were my last night in Destin. What would I want from the local culinary scene that you just couldn’t get any other place in the country. What follows is an artery-clogging five-course history of my life in Destin.

Course 1: Fried Sea Scallops - Dewey Destin’s - I’ve eaten a lot of fried seafood in my life, both here in Destin and elsewhere, and few have bigger or tastier scallops than Dewey’s rustic (and I mean rustic) restaurant down on Choctawhatchee Bay. Are they pricey? Absolutely but the scallops are enormous, beautifully done, and well worth it.

Course 2: Margherita pizza - Camille’s - I consider myself to be something of a pizza connoisseur and I’m not sure that I’ve ever had a better, lighter piece of pizza than Camille’s margherita. It’s not greasy, it’s not dry. It just is. I’ve been to Charles Morgan’s restaurant in Crystal Beach half a dozen times and my order has never deviated. Some might say that’s closed-minded but I know a good thing when it’s placed in front of me.

Course 3: Italian Sub - Callahan’s - Callahan’s holds a very special place in my heart as it was the first place that I ever lunched in Destin. I think that day, if memory serves, I ordered the mahi, which was fine, but the Italian sub is as good as any on the planet. Simply put, this sandwich is huge. You’d have to have intestines of steel to eat the whole thing in one sitting. I can put away some food but I would never attempt to eat the Italian sub all at once. It’s a fool’s errand. When the thing plops down in front of me, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that half of the thing is going home in a box. It just doesn’t get better.

Course 4: Seafood Pasta - Graffiti’s Baytowne - I think this dish really encapsulates everything that owner Chuck Stiles set out to do when he opened Graffiti’s, both the one now open at Baytowne Wharf and the flagship restaurant off 98 in Destin. It’s seafood, it’s pasta and it’s amazing. Big sea scallops, clams and shrimps all tossed with a spicy red sauce.

Course 5: Key Lime Pie - The Donut Hole - Simply, a Destin institution. Key Lime Pie is the official desert of the South and no one does it better or does it fresher than The Donut Hole. For me, heaven on a plate is an ice cold piece of key lime pie with a graham cracker crust from the Donut Hole, though Publix’s pie isn’t anything to scoff at.

So there it is. It’s not foie gras terrine as requested by Daniel Boulud or Scott Conant’s choice of a spit-roasted goat but the meal for me really represents Destin, my Destin, the once-sleepy fishing village that I came to a year and a half ago. Bon Appétit.

Destin is beginning to look and feel more like Seattle everyday. A (finally) cold and blustery autumn day in the Panhandle makes me want to stay in bed and watch Scrubs and re-runs of Rescue Me all day. Here’s a playlist that reflects that sentiment.

1. The Beatles - I’m Only Sleeping - Revolver 

2. The Format - On Your Porch - Interventions and Lullabies 

3. Fiona Apple - Not About Love - Extraordinary Machine 

4. Coldplay - A Whisper - A Rush of Blood to the Head

 5. Jim Croce - New York’s Not My Home - Have You Heard: Jim Croce Live

Rich Kotite, Ray Rhodes, Todd Pederson, Bobby Hoying, Ricky Watters, Bubby Brister. I’ve been through all of it. But nothing hurts like this does. Nothing hurts worse than being a Phildelphia Eagles fan at this moment in history.
When you have the expectation that your team is bad and won’t perform well week-to-week then it’s something you can live with. I remember telling friends that after Week 1, I always looked ahead to the next season after being rightly trounced by a team far more deserving of the win than my beloved Iggles. And then they got my hopes up and strung me along.

I remember getting misty when Donovan McNabb hoisted the NFC Championship Trophy above his head in 2004 and then watched in disappointment as they floundered their chance to make me and thousands of others of equally suffering Eagles fans happy for a lifetime.

But nothing compares to this.

After riding Jeff Garcia’s back all the way into the playoffs last year, we came into the season thinking that we would be back in the playoffs like it was divine right. We should have known better. Any off-season where your major acquisition is Kevin Curtis, formerly the St. Louis Rams’ third best receiver, you know you’re in trouble.

And then there’s the McNabb saga. Twice, the Eagles have had their season ruined, and nearly ruined last year if not for Jeff Garcia, by McNabb’s inability to stay healthy. I know that some will say that the Eagles have never given him a marquee receiver, save He Who Shall Not Be Named, and I agree with that whole-heartedly except that McNabb won with far less earlier in his career. Lest we forget, Donovan took the Eagles to the NFC Championship with Todd “Crocodile Arms” Pinkston and James Thrash on the outside. McNabb may very well be a victim of his own success but the team’s inability to score this season has to fall on his shoulders.  I have always been a McNabb supporter. I thought it would have been foolish for the Eagles to take Ricky Williams ahead of him in 1999 given that the Eagles had a solid back in Duce Staley. I have rooted for McNabb and wanted him to succeed but I have also understood that he’s a far from perfect quarterback. He displays little to no touch at times, rifling fastballs into the arms of tight ends on 5-yard hook routes, is not a terrifically accurate quarterback and seems to have abandoned his ability to scramble and improvise. As great as it’s been since he took over the starting job from Todd Pederson his rookie year, it may very well be the end of number 5 in Philly.

And then there’s Andy Reid. I am not going to get into the ongoing legal saga that is the lives of his two sons and I’m certainly not going to speculate how much that has or hasn’t affected his ability to coach and lead the Eagles this season. At the end of the day, as much as I love the Eagles, a man’s family is more important than anything. What I have to judge as a fan is the product on the field. For the better part of this century, we haven’t questioned Reid’s decision making as coach and GM because we were winning.  But this is different. With a team that nearly made it to the NFC Championship last season circling the drain, blame has to fall somewhere.

Forget that Sunday, the Eagles’ once-vaunted defense managed to make Brian Griese look like John Elway. The problems with the Birds started on  April 29 at Radio City Music Hall.

This year’s draft, like many others recently, was an unmistakable failure. With so many holes, particularly at receiver and linebacker, the fact that they traded out of the first round (with a team in their own division) to take Kevin Kolb with their first pick of the draft is inexcusable, particularly considering that Kolb was rated by some as the fifth best quarterback in the draft behind Drew Stanton and Trent Edwards, not to mention JaMarcus Russell and Brady Quinn. At such a critical juncture in team history, to screw up such an important draft pick that spectacularly is a particularly condemning act.

So where do we go from here? It appears that this team needs a facelift and it needs leadership. So who goes? Is it Andy Reid or Donovan McNabb or both? Make no mistake, this could be the most important off-season in franchise history.

It’s a little soggy here in Destin and I’m feeling a little under the weather and I thought I’d post a Rainy Tuesday playlist today.

1. Radiohead - High and Dry - The Bends 

2. The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight - Give Up

3. Ben Folds Five - Evaporated - Whatever and Ever Amen

4. Josh Ritter - Still Beating - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter 

5. Jay-Z - Song Cry - MTV Unplugged