Silent Auction overtime? Former Bengals receiver guarantees playoffs

+ The Friar brought up a topic that's often generated debate among the CJ crowd. Originally we brought up the debate of overtime after the Bengals and Eagles finished the game in a 13-13 tie. However in reality, changing overtime because of a potential tie isn't a strong enough argument -- there's been two ties in the past ten years and four ties since 1990. But if the case is argued on fairness, then I believe you have the strongest argument. In March, Rich McKay said that the "team that won the coin toss won 63 percent of the games." And of the teams that won, 43.4% won on the first possession.

Back to the Friar, who referenced this Shutdown Corner piece, saying that instead of a coin toss, the NFL should use a silent auction.

Each coach writes down the yard-line at which they’d be willing to accept the ball, and they put their bid in a sealed envelope. Both coaches hand the envelopes to an official at midfield, and the coach who’s written down the least advantageous yard-line gets the ball, at the yard-line he's written down.

So, for example, say the Steelers and Cardinals are going to overtime. Naturally, both teams want the ball first. Mike Tomlin would like the ball, but he wouldn’t mind putting the responsibility on his great defense, either, so he writes down “22 yard-line.” But Ken Whisenhunt is willing to take more of a risk, trusts his offense more, and he’s written down “11 yard-line.”

You have to admit, it's interesting. We'll have to wait for that "$1" Price of Right bid which will give Marty Mornhinweg some company in the great hall of brilliant overtime decisions.

+ Recently you've gotten the feeling that either T.J. Houshmandzadeh has completely changed, or feels comfortable enough to open himself up being a self-declared lead dog. Granted, he's a Seahawk now, so our opinion of him matters little. But since we're in the middle of another dead period in the NFL offseason, why not chat about the guy that's more comfortable in Seattle because people are richer and don't ask him for an autograph as much (or perhaps Houshmandzadeh hasn't been in Seattle enough to make his face recognizable to more normal fans who just watch the games).

Last week, Houshmandzadeh guaranteed the Seahawks will make the playoffs. We don't have a problem with a player guaranteeing his team will make the playoffs; in fact, shouldn't more players have enough confidence to say that their team is a winner? But don't you guys get a little tired of athletes "guaranteeing" anything?

More.

Chick Ludwig makes the argument (again) that Ken Anderson and The Rattler should be in the Hall of Fame.

Even though he's just a punter, Bengals rookie Kevin Huber is expected to make a difference on special teams.