We've moved...

To our clientele:

If you are looking for us, we've moved here.
Yeah, the rent's a bit higher in the new place, but that doesn't mean you'll pay one dime more.

So visit often. The attitude is on us.

-The Grill Room Management

Willkommen to the Stammtisch, Brett!

While the Grill Room caters to mostly an American audience, we do follow certain German traditions around this joint -- besides serving the best beer in the world.

Recently, we had the idea to move around the tables with the aim of positioning one in the finest location in the place. So, after a little work, we now have our Stammtisch. It is right next to the fireplace, has unfettered access to the bar, and offers a picturesque view of the storybook German countryside on the left and our 120-inch, big-screen TV on the right.

Of course, the Stammtisch is reserved for only our finest customers, and able consumers of our strong stuff.
In the last couple of weeks, that table's been a bit quiet, even if New Orleans' Bourbon Street contingent have been regulars.

Well, this week we've invited Brett Favre's Vikings up to join the Saints and Peyton Manning's all-too-polite Colts at our Stammtisch. What they accomplished in Green Bay last Sunday was mighty strong.

The table's plenty exclusive, but it's also plenty big, so we've extended an invitation to the defending champion Steelers to gather 'round next week, but only if they go to Denver and beat the Broncos Monday night. With incentive like that, how can they lose?

The gang around the Stammtisch will be watching.


THE STRONG STUFF

• 1 (1) New Orleans (99 proof, 7-0) With Carolina, St. Louis and Tampa Bay coming up, Saints won't play their next NFL game until the Patsies come calling on Nov. 30.
  
• 2 (2) Indianapolis (95 proof, 7-0) With Manning completely ineffective (31-48, 347 yds., 0 TDs), Colts had to go to RB Addai to throw clinching TD against 49ers.
• 3 (4) Minnesota (91 proof, 7-1) Favre and Peterson get the headlines, but Percy Harvin is the story.

WORTH A SHOT

• 4 (3) Pittsburgh (87 proof, 5-2) Ready to head to Denver Monday night to finish what Ravens started last Sunday.
  
• 5 (5) New England (85 proof, 5-2) After bye week spent in Florida with wife Gisele Bundchen, Tom Brady says his body feels great. And this is news...
  
• 6 (7) Philadelphia (84 proof, 5-2) Used scrimmage against Giants to prepare for confident Cowboys this Sunday.
• 7 (9) Baltimore (82 proof, 4-3) Put Denver in its proper place, and is fixin' to do the same with Cincy.
• 8 (10) Cincinnati (79 proof, 5-2) Used bye week to make sure all their fillings were properly glued in place with rock-'em, sock-'em Ravens coming to town for revenge.
• 9 (6) Denver (78 proof, 6-1) Took 'em eight weeks, but they are what we thought they were. OK, maybe they're just a little better...
• 10 (15) Dallas (77 proof, 5-2) Well, well, it's about time the Cowboys started their rise. Otherwise, how can they fall?
• 11 (13) Houston (76 proof, 5-3) Loss of TE Daniels, is a mighty downer to a team on the way up.
• 12 (11) Atlanta (74 proof, 4-3) After tough loss to Saints, Falcons will benefit from Obama's NFL bailout plan when they host his team on Sunday.

WATERED DOWN

• 13 (18) Chicago (66 proof, 4-3) This team has 9-7 written all over it.
• 14 (8) Arizona (65 proof, 4-3) Speaking of having 9-7 written all over it...
  
• 15 (16) San Diego (63 proof, 4-3) Had to play a full 60 minutes to put away awful Raiders. Lucky for them, they might need only half that to put away Giants Sunday.
• 16 (14) Green Bay (61 proof, 4-3) Rodgers holds the ball for 10 seconds in the pocket and O-Line gets rapped. Nice...
  
• 17 (12) N.Y. Giants (60 proof, 5-3) Defensive coach Sheridan vows to finally make an adjustment Sunday when he crosses his arms the other way on the sidelines.
• 18 (17) San Francisco (58 proof, 3-4) Just what Tennessee needs, an angry 49ers team at home this Sunday.
• 19 (19) Miami (57 proof, 3-4) Finally figured the best way to get the ball in Ted Ginn's hands -- don't throw it to him.

CHEAP STUFF

• 20 (20) N.Y. Jets (56 proof, 4-4) Buddy boy's Jets will spend bye week talking big to themselves, because frankly, nobody else is listening anymore.
  
• 21 (24) Carolina (55 proof, 3-4) Big win in Arizona Sunday, but Coach Fox won't last long holding his breath every time Delhomme drops back to pass -- even if it was only 14 times.
  

ROT GUT

• 22 (21) Jacksonville (50 proof, 3-4) Enough of this team already.
• 23 (23) Seattle (47 proof, 2-5) Just dumped Edgerrin James. There! That will fix it!
  
• 24 (22) Buffalo (45 proof, 3-5) The exciting Dick Jauron is heading to Norton, Kan., during the bye week, to kick seriously tail in a bingo tournament.
• 25 (25) Kansas City (39 proof, 1-6) Had a bye week Sunday and nobody noticed.
• 26 (26) Oakland (37 proof, 2-5) Coach Cable will join Jauron in Norton to make sure those blue-hairs pay up -- or else.
• 27 (30) Tennessee (30 proof, 1-6) Now that they've played that mighty Young trump card, what's next?
  
• 28 (27) Cleveland (29 proof, 1-7) After firing GM, Mangini warns owner he might be next.
• 29 (28) Tampa Bay (28 proof, 0-7) Why do we think they can beat Green Bay this week? Seriously, why?!
• 30 (31) Washington (19 proof, 2-5) After years of running the team into the ground, it has finally occurred to Dan Snyder things aren't going well. Will ya cut this guy off already.
  
• 31 (32) St. Louis (18 proof, 1-7) Into fourth day of 11-day drunk after winning Sunday.
• 32 (29) Detroit (15 proof, 1-6) Ahh, home...

(*) -- denotes last week's ranking.

Golf Hall setup is too easy

For a game that generally demands the highest standards and decorum, requirements for gaining entrance to the World Golf Hall of Fame have always seemed just a little too vague and a little too low to us in the Grill Room.

On Monday night, Lanny Wadkins, Jose Maria Olazabal and Christy O'Connor Sr. were inducted into golf's shrine to itself in St. Augustine, Fla.

These three gents join the likes of Tony Jacklin, Gene Littler and Larry Nelson -- to randomly pick just a few of the head-scratching members for no good reason at all -- as inductees.
It is not like these guys weren't good players. They were very good, in fact, but don't belong anywhere near the likes of Nicklaus, Palmer, Jones and Hogan in anything resembling a nod to greatness.

I guess this doesn't make it unlike so many of the other sports Halls these days. It seems like the NFL, for one, lowers its standards of greatness each year. Baseball has lately been called by some the Hall of Good, so maybe we're being a little hard on golf and the players it considers great. It just seems like more should be expected of the world's greatest game.

Wadkins was like players of more recent vintage, Fred Couples and Davis Love III, who had a ton of game and should have won more, but didn't. Mostly, that's because Wadkins had no back-off button on the golf course. It was said that he never saw a pin he didn't like. His go-for-broke approach no doubt speared him a few of his wins, but most likely cost him many more.

Wadkins managed to win a very respectable 21 tour events, including the 1977 PGA Championship, his one and only major. He also won the venerable U.S. Amateur, and was one of the United State's great Ryder Cup players, racking up an impressive 20-11-3 record in the event.

Wadkins, who will be 60 next month, has been pretty outspoken lately about not being included for induction earlier with contemporaries like Hubert Green and Nelson. In fact, Wadkins has never been shy about saying what's on his mind, which made his wishy-washy approach as the game's lead analyst on CBS all the more baffling.

CBS dumped him in 2007, after five languid years behind the mic. While he remains dumbfounded by this decision, he was clear about what Monday night's honor meant.

"To join this (Hall) and be a part of something with my heroes ... I am honored beyond belief," Wadkins said.

Frankly, I've always had a particularly soft spot for Olazabal (pictured), even if I do question his Hall-of-Fame credentials.

I named a dog after him once back when I was being paid to cover the sport a very long time ago. Yes, I realize that both of those developments are equally pathetic.

Olazabal the golfer, comes from a small fishing village in the north of Spain, has always carried himself like a gentleman and let his clubs do most of his talking in his prime. Olazabal the dog was a royal pain in the ass, who came from hell. (Sorry, I obviously have unresolved issues where this dog is concerned.)

Olazabal the golfer is best known for winning two Masters and partnering with countryman Seve Ballesteros in the Ryder Cup to rain terror on the Americans. The Spaniards were as responsible as any Euro not named Montgomerie for turning around that continent's fortunes in the bi-annual event. Ballesteros and Olazabal amassing a gaudy 11-2-2 record playing together, and
Olazabal sports a solid 18-8-2 overall record in the event.

In my book, Olazabal has been one of the two or three best putters in the game over the past 20 years or so, which mostly explains his stellar record on the slippery greens of Augusta.

Too often his game has gone sideways off the tee, however, or he would have undoubtedly improved on his record of 23 wins on the European Tour and six more on the PGA Tour.

Included in that PGA resume is one of the most impressive ball-striking exhibitions I have ever seen.
Olazabal won the 1990 World Series of Golf at Firestone Country Club by a whopping 12 strokes. The Spaniard, who was a mere 24 at the time, opened with a 61, and then lit the brute of a course up with three consecutive 67s, to finish an unheard of 26-under.
It's ironic that the long-distance runner-up in that event was none other than one Lanny Wadkins.

Admittedly, I know little about O'Connor, 84, beside what I've read. His record says he won 24 times on the European Tour and played in a mess of Ryder Cups. I'm sure the guy was a very good player, which is good enough these days to get a seat next to the game's greats.

A footnote: President Dwight D. Eisenhower was also posthumously admitted to the Hall Monday night. Eisenhower was the most prolific of all our golfing presidents, playing an estimated 800 rounds during his presidency. With apologies to the above three inductees, that is a statistic worth getting excited about!

Packer fans in purple haze

Justice can be hard to find in this cruel world, especially if you are digging around NFL stadiums on a Sunday afternoon.
Just ask any virtuous Green Bay fan who crowded into hallowed Lambeau Field yesterday.

When Brett Favre started his interesting road to retirement two seasons ago, he broke the hearts of Packer-backers everywhere. But he was certainly forgiven.
When he exited that road and landed as the quarterback of the hated Vikings this past summer, he did the unforgivable.

So there would be hell to pay, that was all there was to it.

The Packer Nation circled the date on their calendars when their once-favorite son would return, and then gathered 'round to bear witness to his beating.

Of course, they are still waiting.

With the Green Bay faithful expecting their team to dole out justice, Favre instead showed no conscience and delivered rockets to wide-open Vikings all over the joint. While the Green Bay faithful waited for quarterback Aaron Rodgers to take his place as the second-coming, the Viking defense showed no mercy and unceremoniously planted him in the Lambeau sod.

When it was finally over, the scoreboard read: Vikings 38, Green Bay 26.

If the disillusioned Green Bay fans learned anything at all yesterday, it's this: If you are looking for justice you'd best try a court, because in the NFL, baby, might still makes right.


Now onto a sampling of what the nation's sportswriters and columnists are saying about their football teams across every NFL city, because in the Grill Room we love the newspaper business, even if it hates itself.


(4) Minnesota 38
(14) Green Bay 26

• Gambling Vikings now running the table thanks to draft picks.
• Packers can't corral Favre, and that takes talent.

(9) Baltimore 30
(6) Denver 7

• Ravens back where they belong by putting Broncos where they should be.
  
• Broncos forget to put on game-faces for Halloween.

(13) Houston 31
(22) Buffalo 10

• These Texans lasso victories not excuses.
• Bills offense is nothing to shout about.
  

(18) Chicago 30
(27) Cleveland 6

• Bears neither good nor bad against the ugly Browns.
• If anger were a tool maybe Browns could fix this mess.
  

(15) Dallas 38
(23) Seattle 17

• Cowboys season goes forward with a look back at Philly.
• After another frightful loss, Seattle goes mad.
  

(32) St. Louis 17
(29) Detroit 10

• Rams win! Enough said.
• Detroit reclaims title as biggest loser.
  

(2) Indianapolis 18
(17) San Francisco 14

• Addai, not Manning, throws 49ers for a loss.
• At least things are becoming clear under center for 49ers.
  

(7) Philadelphia 40
(12) N.Y. Giants 17

• Giants knocked cold thanks to all those punches the Eagles landed...
• ...and now this embarrassing team doesn't even remember what it used to be.
  

(19) Miami 30
(20) N.Y. Jets 25

• Dolphins hit Jets right where it hurts -- in their big mouths...
• ...while Ryan's big ego swallows all common sense.
  

(16) San Diego 24
(26) Oakland 16

• Chargers kill QB, then time, and hold on for win.
• Isn't it time Davis dumped his Cable?
  

(30) Tennessee 30
(21) Jacksonville 13

• With first win, Titans are finally feeling Young again.
• Jaguars still blowing hot and cold.
  

(24) Carolina 34
(8) Arizona 21

• Jake comes up with a game he can believe in.
• When did Cards' pass game become so offensive?
  

(*) denotes NFL 100-proof ranking