Bill Belichick

Andy Reid never ceases to amaze Bill Belichick. Nearly 7 years ago, the Patriots coach was absolutely dumbfounded as he stood on the sideline of what was then called Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville during the waning minutes of Super Bowl XXXIX and watched Reid's Eagles, who were trailing by 10 points at the time, stroll down the field on a time-consuming 13-play drive as if they were on a leisurely sunset walk along the beach. "Have I got the score right?" Belichick asked his assistants up in the booth via his headset.

Nothing like a winning start to make an NFL team flex its muscles. Consider the Buffalo Bills, who are following their 4-2 start with a big ambition: convincing taxpayers to foot the bill for an extensive face-lift of Ralph Wilson Stadium. Bills CEO Russ Brandon told the Associated Press that the team has hired Populous, an architectural firm that specializes in sports-facility projects, to do a study on upgrading the stadium. Brandon called the renovations necessary in order to keep the stadium viable and to help ensure the Bills' long-term future in western New York.

SOME BRONCOS fan are apparently planning to shell out $10,000 to rent billboard space in an effort to convince coach John Fox to replace quarterback Kyle Orton with Tim Tebow. Fans could be heard chanting "Tebow! Tebow!" in the second half of Monday night's loss to the Raiders. But the next day, Fox said Orton would remain the starter. "We were sitting around after Fox said he didn't hear the chants for Tebow, and we figured if he's deaf, we hope he's not blind," fan Jesse Oaks told the Denver Post . Oaks said he and seven friends were planning to use the money to go to the Super Bowl in Indianapolis, but decided instead to "better our team.

RANDY MOSS and Corey Dillon were malcontents when they joined the New England Patriots. Rodney Harrison arrived with a reputation as a dirty, washed-up player. All of them fit in very well with their new team. Now it seems Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco are coming and "The Patriot Way" will be tested once again. After a seasonlong feud with Washington coach Mike Shanahan, Haynesworth, a 335-pound defensive tackle, was traded by the Redskins yesterday for a fifth-round draft choice in 2013, a source confirmed to the Associated Press . Later yesterday, a source confirmed that the Patriots had obtained Ochocinco, the colorful receiver from Cincinnati, and that he agreed to a new 3-year contract.

HONOLULU - Even Mr. Humorless himself, Bill Belichick, took time on Sunday to speak to Michael Vick. Before the Pro Bowl turned into a 55-41 NFC rout, as Vick was warming up throwing passes to Atlanta Falcons receiver Roddy White, the New England Patriots coach crossed the field at the 50-yard line, approached Vick, and shook his hand. Belichick spoke to the Eagles quarterback for at least a minute, a one-way conversation toward the end of which Vick draped an arm around Belichick's shoulder in a gesture that let observers know that whatever Belichick was saying, it had meaning and Vick appreciated it. It seems everyone within the tight-knit National Football League community is pulling for Vick.

MAKE NO MISTAKE, media, the stakes are high this Sunday. This isn't about the Jets or the Patriots. Isn't about Antonio Cromartie or Tom Brady, or Rex Ryan or Bill Belichick. This is about loosening up the dead and dreary world of professional football, so often and aptly referred to as the "No Fun League. " We need the Jets, as currently constructed, in the NFL. We need Rex's team to win Sunday. Not because we hate Brady the way Cromartie claims to, not because we agree with Ryan that Brady is no Peyton Manning.

Thumbs up To Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who once again proved why he's the smartest man in the NFL. With the 33-year-old Randy Moss in the final year of his contract, Belichick decided that the seven-time Pro Bowl wide receiver's declining play - he's got just nine catches in the first four games - and his increasingly bad attitude over the team's disinterest in giving him a new deal, were sufficient reasons to trade him to the desperate Vikings....

Picture a phlegmatic football brain like Bill Belichick, then picture him combined with the verve and showmanship of, say, Buddy or Rex Ryan. You'd end up with a pretty good coach, and possibly an arrogant loudmouth who irritates nearly everybody because he hardly ever loses. Fly him across the pond, and you might have somebody like Brian Clough, regarded in England as perhaps the greatest football (soccer, if you prefer) coach in the country's history. "The Damn United" is a lively biopic based on Clough's controversial professional life.

In the NFL, as with most professional sports nowadays, many players migrate from one team to another. So when a player faces a former team, there usually is not the awkwardness that, say, Hall of Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott felt the first time his Oakland Raiders played the San Francisco 49ers. "It's a business," Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel said. "You signed up with somebody [else] and you move on. That's how it goes. " Last off-season, Samuel left the New England Patriots when he signed a multimillion-dollar contract with the Eagles.

COACHING COMPARISONS are inexact science. You win a championship with an emotional, wired-to-the-max guy like Tom Coughlin or Bill Cowher, well, then that's the way to go. You lose a game you should have won with either at the helm, then those sideline histrionics are construed as unsettling to your squad. Is Andy Reid's demeanor a plus or a minus? Maybe it's a bit of both, good for weeklong preparation, lacking on game-day adjustments and overall mojo. Tom Landry couldn't win the big game for years and it was supposedly because of his stoical approach.