Friday, October 31st
Happy Halloween!  This morning the cruiser left the hotel at 11:00 for the Colts practice facility for an 11:30 practice.  Just when you thought the Colts were getting healthy on the offensive side of the ball the secondary comes up limping.  In practice on Wednesday Marlin Jackson tore his ACL, out for the year, Kelvin Hayden misses the entire week of practice and today Bob Sanders sat out, the Colts are saying it is just a rest day because he practiced the last two days.  Then on Thursday they sign Keiwan Ratliff again, who they cut earlier in the year, and he is going to start!  Not to mention Freddy Keiaho, the starting weakside linebacker, is most likely going to miss Sunday's game. 

After practice Coach and the crew met with Tony Dungy, Peyton Manning, Bob Sanders, Ron Meeks and Joseph Addai before the cruiser brought us back to the hotel to watch the film of last weeks Indianapolis game against the Titans.  I don't think Coach is sold on the fact that the Titans are the best team in football, they may be undefeated but boy it is hard to buy into them being the best team after watching the film and the Colts have not gotten back to being themselves offensively either.  There is just a little something that is off with this offense.  Getting Joseph Addai back this week should help.

After film we all met in the lobby to have dinner at the Capital Grille attached to the hotel and then a short lobby hang with Vinny before calling it a night. 

Thursday, October 30th
The cruiser pulled into Indiana this morning bringing me "Back home again in Indiana."  We arrived to the hotel around noon. Coach and I were having lunch at the hotel when Vinny Rao came in. Coach and Vinny got caught up from a couple weeks apart with some stories of the road without Coach and stories of a couple weeks at home from Coach.

Dinner was with Coach, Dick, Drew, Vinny and myself at Ruth's Chris, it was fantastic.  What was better than the food was the conversation. It was just a running banter between everyone with the occasional dig and no one was excused from being dug upon! One of the stories Coach told of was on the Saturday we did the Buccaneers game, Coach went to a dinner hosted by Al Davis in honor of Gene Upshaw. There were something like 110 of Coach's ex-players there. You can only imagine the stories that were told at that dinner!

We then moved onto the off week and as we went around the table what everyone did, it got to Vinny. He told us that he went to a Coldplay concert with his girlfriend, who he has been seeing for quite a few months. Of course that brought up the question of engagement and Vinny says that he hasn't even used the "L" word, but just before the concert started the setting was right and he caught himself almost saying it but stopped himself. Oh boy did that take the conversation in a different direction! The guys were all over him about when he is going to say it, how he is going to say it, why he didn't say it when the time was right and how now that he told us he has to do it this week! 

After dinner Vinny, Coach and I were hanging in the lobby for a little while. I will give you one guess what the topic of conversation was! After that it was time to head to our rooms.

Wednesday, October 29th
The cruiser continued to make its way across the country today starting out in Utah. Coach did his radio show on KCBS followed by his Sirius radio show with Adam Schein. After that stop we continued the trip into Wyoming and then Nebraska where we stopped in Ogallala to pick up the tape of last week's Colts game that had been Fed Ex'd out to us from New York and then made a pit stop in North Platte for some dinner at a mexican joint. The food was so bad that it got scratched off the list of stops, even though our options are limited, it still got axed! 

Following dinner we watched the last three innings of the World Series and then put in the Colts tape before retiring for the evening.

Tuesday, October 28th
The Cruiser got back on the road this evening pulling out of the Bay Area a little before 8 p.m., destination Indianapolis.  Coach and I got caught up from a couple weeks away as well as the days news around the NFL and had some Popeye's chicken along the way before calling it a night.

Saturday, October 11th
Patriots day started with breakfast and film of last week's Patriots game in which their defense looked like it is still playing pretty good but the offense quite simply misses Tom Brady.  Matt Cassel is a capable quarterback but they don't make many Tom Brady's! It is hard to believe that this guy had only taken a few dozen snaps at the college level or professional level before being thrust into the starting role for the New England Patriots. 

Following film we all retreated to our rooms for a few hours and then reconvened at 4:00 for our editorial meeting.  Usually this meeting would be part of our Sunday morning meeting but being on the west coast that meeting gets moved up to Saturday afternoon.  Following the editorial meeting everyone piled on the cruiser, destination Patriots hotel and meetings with Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels, Matt Cassel, Randy Moss and Rodney Harrison.  The day ended with a ride back to our hotel.

Thursday & Friday October 9th and 10th
The Outback Madden Cruiser got a later start than usual this Thursday. Because our game is in San Diego and Coach hasn't been home for a couple months he decided to take in a freshman high school football game between Foothill High and Cal High.  His sons Mike and Joe along with a few other great guys coach the Foothill freshman and we were along to cheer them on. It wasn't the outcome that we might have been looking for as the Falcons of Foothill fell to the Grizzlies of Cal 41-6.  After the game Coach and I met J.J. and Willie for the overnight trip down to San Diego. We had a little work to do on the road watching last week's Chargers and Patriots games before we went to bed.

Friday morning we woke up at the hotel in San Diego and Coach did his daily radio show with the KCBS guys on the cruiser and then got settled and cleaned up to go watch the Chargers practice and meet with Norv Turner, Ted Cottrell, LaDainian Tomlinson and Philip Rivers.  After the meetings the cruiser headed back to our hotel for Chargers film and then dinner in the lobby.  We had a surprise visitor for film and dinner, our old friend Stephen Nagler made the trip down from Los Angeles to hang for a few hours. It is always good to have Stephen around for a few laughs.

Monday, October 6th

Finally it's time to eat
Making our way across Texas, an all day affair, the short ribs were slow cooking and the further we traveled the heavier the smell of ribs filled the bus.  Finally right before kickoff of the Monday night game they were ready.  It was like the stars had finally come together and the short ribs were on the table.  I am not sure that they lived up to the hype but they were pretty darn good.  Something that gets that much build up, the anticipation of the after game meal and then looking at it laying all over the floor to the process of starting all over again and finally having it in our mouths...

Sunday, October 5th

Cruiser catastrophe
After our Sunday morning meeting, Ray Stein and I set out on the mission of finding 20 pounds of short ribs and all the necessary things to go along with it.  First stop was a hit, everything we needed! Departure for the stadium was at 4:30 so the cooking of the short ribs started about 5:10. First we had to brown them for a minute or two just to get them started and then into the crock pot they went for a five hour cook.

That meant they would be ready to eat as soon as the game was over.  It was a really hot topic so Sandy Montag was one of the first to sample and then of course Ray Stein was next before we pulled out of the parking lot.  We were getting some help from Jacksonville's finest getting out of the stadium, so Coach and I were going to wait to eat until we got on the road.  Sure enough we take two turns out of the parking lot and the ribs hit the deck, they were everywhere and not a single one salvageable! What a mess and worst of all the we didn't have any ribs to eat! 

Word spread like wild fire and by the time we hit the Texas state line Monday morning and purchased another crock pot to begin the process all over again my phone was ringing, it was Coach Robinson sitting in an aiport on his way home.  He says is the tragedy true?  If it is it is worse than the Cubs being swept this weekend! I happen to agree with him but I am sure the Cubs fans out there would not agree.

Friday and Saturday October 3rd and 4th

Aborted mission
Friday morning the cruiser left the hotel at 10:15 for the Jaguars facility and practice upon arrival. After practice Coach and crew went to meet with the coaches and a couple of players.  One of the players was Maurice Jones-Drew who Coach knew from back in his high school days.  After the meetings we went back to the hotel to watch the Jaguars film of last week's game.  Coach noticed a couple things that were different about the Jaguars since we saw them in the preseason.  With the injuries to the middle of their offensive line it doesn't look like the two running backs are running the same, not hitting it as hard as they did before, and that their defensive tackles don't look the same, they are not nearly as dominant as they were earlier in the season.  A little later in the evening Coach and Coach Robinson met in the lobby for a burger. 

Film started Saturday morning at 10:00 and then meetings with the Steelers in the evening at 5:45.  After the meetings with the Steelers Coach, Coach Robinson, Audrey Mansfield and I hung out in the lobby for a couple of hours.  While we were there Coach started talking about Ray Stein's wife, Robin's, short ribs that we had from New York to Indianapolis earlier in the year.  He said he had been thinking about them for a week.  We continue to talk about them and keep in mind it is 9:00 on a Saturday night at a hotel in Ponte Vedra Beach Florida.  The more he talks about them the more he wants them for the trip across the country after the game.  That sets me in motion!  First I have to track down a car, then a butcher or at least a market that is capable of having short ribs in large quantities and then insuring we have all the ingredients we need to make them properly. 

Of course there is no market open at 10:00 on Saturday night, the mission was aborted until after our Sunday morning meeting.

Wednesday and Thursday, October 1st and 2nd

Feast fit for kings
The Madden Cruiser pulled out of Chicago Wednesday at 7 p.m. with a load of food fit for an army.  The guys from Stanley's Kitchen and Tap, Art Moore, had brought by a load of food for Coach, J.J., Joe and I to have for the trip down to Jacksonville and they brought enough for 10 of us.  This evening's menu, layed out much the same as last week's McNabb feast featured Kentucky fried tomatoes, crab cakes, millie's salad, southern style fried chicken, bbq pork chops, chick fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, apple pie and sweet potatoe pie.  Boy oh boy was it good and along with dinner we watched a replay of last week's Monday night game to get in a little more studying of the Steelers.  Following the feast we popped in the tape of last week's Jacksonville Jaguars game against the Houston Texans and watched the first half before going to bed.

Thursday began with a check of the market after the Senate had passed the Bailout Bill over to the house and then of course Coach's radio show with the KCBS guys in the Bay Area.  We then moved onto the second half of the Jaguars game. 

We hit Jacksonville about 2 p.m. and got settled before our 6:30 dinner with Dick, Fred, Drew, Vinny, Coach and I at the Seahorse Grille.  As soon as the menu hit the table Coach asks the waiter what kind of soup they have and the waiter begins to try and sell Coach on the butternut squash soup.  Coach says that isn't a soup, the waiter starts to defend the soup and quickly realizes who he is up against and changes his tune to well you are right it is not a soup but whatever it is, it is good.  After dinner Coach, Vinny and I made it back to the hotel for a short hang before the Vice Presidential debate.