Word is that the NFL wanted to move the game back on Thursday to Atlanta for a 1PM kickoff on Sunday.  The Texans protested for the obvious reasons I’m sure, lost ticket sales and of course a lost home game.  Well sometimes things happen, life happens and sometimes life sucks. You just need to adjust and move on.

The league has decided to shuffle the bye weeks of three teams in order to placate Texans’ owner Bob McNair.  On the surface the shifted byes seem to be a reasonable alternative but a closer look reveals that the Ravens will now play three consecutive road games to start November – a fail proof recipe for at least one loss. Meanwhile, McNair and his Texans get to enjoy home cooking for the entire month of October beginning on October 5 when they host the Colts.

One of McNair’s complaints about playing the game against the Ravens at a neutral site had to do with competitive fairness and balance.  So how is this fair and balanced for the Ravens?  Look when things like Hurricane Ike happen, the inconvenience levels in the world rise exponentially.  But somewhere along the way, the Ravens seemingly took one for the “team” known as the NFL.

Seems to me they took one for the team a few years ago as well when the league rescinded the trade that would have made Terrell Owens a Raven.  You may recall that the Ravens had their second round draft pick returned to them but nothing was given to them for the time they lost while an arbiter decided what was fair.  The delay in the ruling essentially took the Ravens out of the free agent market for wide receivers.

And now the league has essentially taken a bye week away from the Ravens.

And somewhere down there in Texas Bob McNair’s face is adorned with a greedy little smile.

Someone who isn’t smiling (and who could blame him) is Chargers’ Head Coach Norv Turner.  His team was shafted in a big way yesterday after referee Ed Hochuli blew a call that was obvious to everyone accept the person that mattered the most.  Teams rarely make or go deep into the playoffs after a 0-2 start. Without the services of Shawn Merriman and now 0 for 2 on the field, the character of Turner’s gang will be severely tested.

Brian Billick seemed to do ok during the broadcast of the Saints v. Redskins – at least the portions of the game that I observed.  Perhaps he has found his calling because personally I don’t think it’s on the sidelines anymore.  Billick got by and was reasonably successful as a head coach by stroking veteran players and being a pretty good task master.  His organizational skills off the field are impeccable although he could never organize an offense on it. 

Maybe Billick can do better at X’s and O’s with the telestrator in the TV booth than he did while carrying that pizza box of a play chart on a Ravens’ sideline.  That said, something tells me that Billick, somewhat of a fraud as a head coach, will be back on a sideline in that city in California by the bay in ’09.  And don’t be surprised if he takes his golden boy with him.  Remember, Kyle Boller played by that same bay in college while a member of U Cal’s Golden Bears.

And speaking of Boller, remember his debut as a starting quarterback – a road game against the Steelers?  With the Ravens’ altered schedule now Joe Flacco’s first road experience as an NFL starting quarterback will also be in Pittsburgh when the Ravens meet the Steelers on Monday Night Football.