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MasterChef Season Four has gone for bigger challenges like providing healthy lunch for 300 school children.

That’s probably a smart play since, even with a former NFL football player among the contestants, there’s unlikely to be anyone as compelling as Season Three’s winner Christina Ha, a blind chef who thrilled audiences and irritated the other contestants with superior cooking skills.

Even without Ha, MasterChef is addictive fun. There are the stay-at-home moms desperate to get out of the house, the secretly sensitive/creative he-men, the chance of a few lucky home cooks to become professional chefs and a kinder-gentler Gordon Ramsay (of Hell’s Kitchen fame), and the even sweeter Graham Elliot–what’s not to love?.

Meet the top cooks of MasterChef Season Four here.

What kind of backup quarterback will Tim Tebow be with the New England Patriots, assuming he even makes the team?

Will he hunker down and work? Will he use the time to work on his flaws and improve his strengths?

Will he learn from Tom Brady? Will be he a positive presence in the quarterback room?

Or will he be a disruptive force, like so many of his detractors seem to believe?

There have been pretty much every kind of backup quarterback in NFL history: the good, bad and ugly. Here are 10 of them that the newest Patriot could learn from.

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I don’t want to promote myself as an all-seeing, omnipotent NFL genius or anything, but I knew this was going to happen.

Tim Tebow is too good an athlete to be completely ignored by the NFL, and so in an amazingly short period of time, Tebow has gone from an unwanted free agent, cast aside by the New York Jets, to a New England Patriot.

Granted, Tebow probably didn’t have many other offers, if any. That’s evident from his two-year, no guarantee contract.

But, at least we should all find out finally whether this polarizing figure can play in the NFL or not.

The good news for Tebow fans is if he makes the team, he will be in the perfect environment to work on that hitch in his throwing motion and to learn from some of the best offensive talent and brains in the league.

For his detractors, well there is no good news other than the fact they will still have Tebow to kick around at least for a time. More on that here.

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The NFL should rip the Jaguars out of Jacksonville and drop them in London, and the sooner the better, I say.

If the NFL wants to reach a global audience as it says it does, London is a great start. The only better choice would be Sydney, Australia, because the Australians are even more like us than the British, but Sydney is too bloomin’ far.

And the Jaguars are the team that must go. Actually, though it has not been officially announced, I’m fairly certain it’s a done deal concerning the Jaguars. That’s why they’ve committed to “home games” in London for the next four years.

Sorry, Jag fans, but it just makes sense. Read my story here for a comparison of the two cities.

You Jags fans can sound off if you want.

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Anyone who was an NFL fan in the 1960s remembers the “Fearsome Foursome,” and the most flamboyant member of that redoubtable defensive line, David “Deacon” Jones.

Jones, who passed away yesterday, was an irresistible force against opposing quarterbacks. I still remember both chuckling and cringing at his trademark headslap, the way he smacked offensive linemen up side the head to give himself a head start.

Most of us will always remember him as a Los Angeles Ram, though he played for other teams later in his career. I’ll also remember him as a fellow Floridian; Jones was born in Eatonville, one of the first all-African American towns after the Emancipation Proclamation.

With his passing, Roosevelt Grier, now 80 years old, is the only surviving member of the “Fearsome Foursome.”

Here’s my profile on Jones, an outspoken, imaginative, supremely talented player who was one of the best pass rushers ever to play the game.

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Moving the NFL draft back two weeks has stirred up more controversy than you or I might have thought.

True, it will almost certainly help the league with its TV ratings, since the extended buildup will draw out the suspense.

But, will it hurt the rookies, since they’ll have less time to make that huge transition to the pros? We have differing thoughts on that.

And what about the NFL going into the equity investment  business?

Between all this, plus the “concussion lawsuit” pending in a U.S. District Court, it seems like the NFL is sort of ignoring the game itself.

You know, how to make it better and safer. I have some thoughts here on the NFL focusing too much on the financial bottom line these days and not enough on the game.  As always, your comments are welcome.

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I love NFL football, I’m just not so sure about the NFL.

When the owners recently rejected Miami’s bid for the Super Bowl, it was basically sending out a not-so-subliminal message to its fans:

“You either pony up to spruce up your stadium or no Super Bowl for you.”

Remember, this is a league that rakes in $10 billion a year and says it expects to increase that to $25 billion within the next 15 years.

Looks like they have a pretty good business plan.

All NFL stadiums have public financing one way or another. The NFL gets all sort of tax breaks, yet it seems like it wants more and more, at the expense of fans, many of whom can’t even afford tickets to watch the games in person.

Yes, I’m getting pretty disgusted with the league and its owners. Read more about that here. I welcome your comments.

U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), has introduced a bill that would allow cable TV subscribers to buy individual channels, rather that more expensive channel “bundles,” and limit the National Football League’s ability to “blackout” local TV coverage of its games.

The main part of Sen. McCain’s Television Consumer Freedom Act of 2013 (S. 912), would offer incentives to cable TV providers to “unbundle” their programming and allow their customers to select exactly which channels they pay for.

“For over 15 years I have supported giving consumers the ability to buy cable channels individually, also known as ‘a la carte’ — to provide consumers more control over viewing options in their home and, as a result, their monthly cable bill,” said McCain in introducing his bill.

As the Senator pointed out to his fellow lawmakers, consumers continue to have only two choices when buying cable TV programming: “Purchase a package of channels whether you watch them all or not; or, not purchase any cable programming at all.”

“This is unfair and wrong – especially when you consider how the regulatory deck is stacked in favor of industry and against the American consumer,” said Sen. McCain. “This is clear when one looks at how cable prices have gone up over the last 15 years, which is brought to light by the most recent Federal Communications Commission pricing survey.”

According to the FCC survey cited by McCain, the nationwide average cost for basic cable TV service has increased from about $25 a month in 1995 to over $54 today. “That’s a 100 percent price increase,” said the Senator.

And Goodbye to NFL Blackouts?

Sen. McCain’s Television Consumer Freedom Act would also prohibit the always unpopular National Football League (NFL) practice of “blacking out” TV coverage of non-sold out pro football games in cities whose teams play in taxpayer funded stadiums.

“When the venues in which these sporting events take place has been the beneficiary of taxpayer funding, it is unconscionable to deny those taxpayers who paid for it the ability to watch the games on television when they would otherwise be available,” McCain stated. “Therefore, the bill proposes to repeal the sports blackout rules insofar as they apply to events taking place in publicly financed venues and/or involve a publicly financed local sports team.”

Just for the record, Sen. McCain’s favorite NFL team, the Arizona Cardinals, play their home games in the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Opened in 2006, the 63,400 seat, retractable-roof University of Phoenix Stadium was built at a total cost of $455 million, $308 million (68%) of which was provided by local taxpayers.

In fact, only one of the 20 NFL stadiums opened or renovated since 1997 has been constructed totally with private funds and without any taxpayer support: the $1.6 billion MetLife Stadium where the New York Jets and New York Giants play their home games.

Does Sen. McCain’s Television Consumer Freedom Act have a chance of passing? While the bill is supported by most cable TV consumers and football fans, it is opposed by two far better organized and magnificently funded groups; the cable TV industry and the National Football League. So let’s just say the Senator’s bill is facing 4th and 30, running into the wind on the road.

Also See:
Cable TV Costs Jumped 8.2 Percent from 2001 to 2002
Justice Department Tackles Midget Football
College Football Playoff Bill Gains Yardage

Pretty much every NFL fan in the world has had fantasies of being a General Manager, putting his or her own team together.

That’s one reason why fantasy football is so popular. How do you stack up against the pros?

It’s a little trickier in the real world, of course. You have salary cap restrictions, interfering owners who think they know it all and then you have great athletes who simply can’t deal with the pressure and fail miserably.

Truly great talent spotters are actually pretty rare in the NFL. Through the years, there have been a handful who stand out.

So, since the draft is behind us and free agency has pretty much played out this year, it’s a good time to take a look at the truly great ones.

Here is my list of the top 10 talent spotters in the NFL of all time. Feel free to disagree or add your own personal choices.

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Don’t like the proposals for expanded instant replay in baseball? Blame the NFL.

“Now we’re addicted to instant replay,” writes Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post. “The NBA stops the flow of the game so a referee can check to see which player touched the ball last before it went out of bounds. Major League Baseball wants to greatly reduce the authority of umpires by expanding use of replay in 2014. Where does it all stop?”

The answer, nowhere yet. MLB commissioner Bud Selig says his position on instant replay has “evolved” and that the owners will hear proposals at an Aug. 14-15 meeting in Cooperstown, N.Y., according to the Associated Press.

What people are saying: Instant replay debate

You Make The Call: Instant replay expansion