The NFL Network schedule of games isn't exactly an advertisement for pressuring Time Warner

to carry the channel. The Thanksgiving night matchup between the New York Giants and Denver

Broncos is decent but not as attractive as it was a few weeks ago. Then it is the Bills-Jets

in Toronto on Dec. 3 and the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers at the hopeless Cleveland

Browns on Dec. 10.

The network's best game looks like Dallas against the unbeaten New Orleans Saints on

Saturday, Dec. 19. The finale between San Diego and Tennessee is on Christmas night.

ESPN officials certainly would be shocked if Jon Gruden became a candidate for the

Bills job after signing him to a multiyear deal. ESPN Executive Vice President Norby

Williamson told Sports Illustrated that he expects Gruden will be there at least until 2011.

Gruden also has told SI he won't coach next year and might not in 2011.

I've been a Gruden fan since his first preseason game on Monday Night Football. He will be

adding the NFL draft and Super Bowl week roles to his duties and call the 2010 Rose Bowl and

BCS Title Game on ESPN Radio with Mike Tirico.

In an interview before the season, Gruden didn't sound like he was itching to get back into

coaching. He was enjoying family life in Tampa and watching one of his three sons play high

school football.

Buffalo Bills fans haven't seen enough of top draft choice Aaron Maybin on the field,

but some Channel 2 viewers believe they have seen more than enough.

Several days ago, the station was interviewing Terrell Owens in the locker room and

inadvertently aired a shot of a naked player from behind. Channel 2 and Bills officials

declined to say who the player was, but many viewers thought it was Maybin. If it was Maybin,

that's the most we've seen of him all year.

Inquiring minds want to know: What is up with Channel 4's HD coverage of Bills

games? A station engineer wrote to a reader that the bandwidth "is being starved" at times on

CBS feeds.

ESPN college basketball analyst Bob Knight was singing the praises of Syracuse on

Thursday night in its romp over California. He even said, "I don't think losing [Jonny] Flynn

will be a bit of difference to this team." The Niagara Falls product left Syracuse for the

NBA.

How many times have fans said they wish coaches would try to win games rather than

play not to lose?

Think about that the next time ... if there is a next time ... a coach makes a gutsy decision

like New England's Bill Belichick, who went for it on fourth-and-2 on his own 28-yard line

late in the Indianapolis game with a six-point lead.

I liked the call, thinking that the Pats would lose anyway if they kicked to Indy and its

quarterback, Peyton Manning.

NBC's Cris Collinsworth immediately criticized Belichick and ex-Patriot Rodney Harrison

piled on in the postgame show after the play failed and Manning drove the Colts to a winning

touchdown on the short field. That's playing results.

Since game night, math majors who explained the odds were in Belichick's favor and some

former coaches turned analysts have said they understood the gamble even if they wouldn't have

taken it themselves. The topic is surely to be debated on this Sunday's pregame shows.

Junior Seau, who is back on the Patriots, has a new show on Versus, "Sports Jobs With

Junior Seau." It officially kicks off with two episodes at 10 p.m. Dec. 2. In the 10 half-hour

episodes, Seau tries out various jobs in sports.

The jobs include major league bat boy, a horse trainer, part of a stadium construction

crew, equipment manager for the Washington Capitals, an Indy Car pit crew member, a college

football writer for Sports Illustrated, a golf caddie on the LPGA Tour, a member of an arena

conversion crew and a bullfighter at a Professional Bull Riders (PBR) event.

Clearly, NFL announcer doesn't qualify.

In the Jan. 20 horse training episode, a Versus release said that "Seau will feed, groom,

shoe, clean and care for racehorses, and then do the dirtiest job he's done yet ... castrate a

live horse."

Sounds like must-see TV.