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Well, I hate to — oh, wait, this just in. Brett Favre’s coming out of retirement to play for Ottawa’s expansion team in the Canadian Football League.

Just kidding.

In any event, I hate to say I told you so — but I told you so.

When Brett switched jerseys, I predicted the New York Jets would go 8-8 and be, at best, a wild card if they made the playoffs. (insert Jim Mora’s rant here) End result was actually 9-7 and missing the playoffs. So I didn’t miss by much.

Though I will admit it got interesting when the Jets were 8-3. One NFL analyst said he wouldn’t be surprised if the Super Bowl had Giants vs. Jets. Well, we know how all that turned out.

Next items on Brett to do list: Find a way to get back to Green Bay and sign a contract there so he could retire a Packer. Further, I’m sure he’d like to get more involved in the Fourward Foundation, host golf tournaments and other fundraisers — and really give back.

Oh, and don’t be surprised if moves are made to waive off the five-year waiting period — in an effort to get Brett in the Pro Football Hall of Fame that much sooner.

Long before I rooted for the Golden Eagles or the Buckeyes, I rooted for the Vols of Tennessee.

The Morris family called Knoxville home in the ‘70s. My dad taught Air Force ROTC at Tennessee. One floor below his office was the basketball court and the office of Pat Head.

Nowadays, you know Pat Head as Pat Summitt. And now, we all know Pat Summitt as the only coach in college basketball history, in either the men’s or women’s game, to earn 1000 wins. The grand victory came, moments ago, in a win over Georgia’s Lady Bulldogs by a score of 73-43.

The accolades are coming in fast and furious. So I’ll keep this one short.

Coach Summitt, Knoxville always holds a special place in the hearts of the Morris family. You continue to make residents of Knoxville, past and present, proud. Here’s hoping the ninth championship is just around the bend.

And yes, as you told ESPN’s Kenny Mayne in a “This is SportsCenter” promo, you do have this coaching thing down pat.

Congratulations.

Seventy-five years ago today, Prohibition came to an end in these United States. And what better way to celebrate than going out for a drink? Such will be the case all across the country.

For example, word is there will be celebrations throughout California’s wine country. If you’re a Vulcan, you have to admit that’s logical. At least one Boston-based bar is also celebrating with an end-to-Prohibition party. If Norm, Cliffie, et al, were real people, they’d join in.

And to mark this milestone in Indianapolis, I’m sure a former co-worker in Fred Scott Sands will enjoy plenty of booze, buy women a few rounds of drinks, get them to… uh… well… if you knew Scott the way I knew him, you have a pretty good idea of the likely remainder of the story. Ladies of the Circle City, unless you *really* want to have Scott’s babies, it’s best you keep your distance from him.

But seriously, tonight and any night, after you’ve indulged in adult beverages, remember to leave the driving to someone else.

If you have not heard the story of Shane Stanford, you need to.

Shane currently serves as host of The United Methodist Hour: Time That Makes The Difference from its Hattiesburg-based headquarters. The program has been a statewide and regional program for decades — and it recently went national thanks to FamilyNet.

Doug’s Place Flashback: The first time I saw the program, it was on Tupelo’s NBC affiliate while visiting relatives in Alabama. Its then-host was Sam Morris. My father’s name is Sam Morris — but the preacher and my father are two different Sam Morrises. It became quite a running joke in the family when we all moved to Mississippi in the early ‘90s.

But back to Shane. Life has dealt him many a setback over the last several years. He’s a hemophiliac. He contracted HIV and hepatitis-C through a blood transfusion. Through it all, Shane’s happily married with three daughters (the Mrs. and girls are all healthy) and he continues to preach the Gospel.

Shane’s also an accomplished author. His story is told in the book When God Disappears. Shane and Pokey’s recently discussed their story on Life Today with James & Betty Robison. If you missed that program, click here.

A note of disclosure, as well as pride: Shane’s wife worked with my wife at William Carey University. When I relayed a message to Cindy that Shane was becoming the next host of the Methodist Hour, her reaction was, “Pokey’s husband?” Shane and I have since talked about Cindy’s story and her favorite verse of scripture: Jeremiah 29:11.

Bottom line: Just like Timex, Shane’s taken a licking — and, yet, he keeps on ticking.

I’m not a political junkie and Doug Morris dot org hasn’t necessarily been a haven for political blogging. Well, save for the times I followed this gadfly’s runs for office…

…and you don’t need a political science degree to understand why his runs for seats in the legislature and Hattiesburg’s city council ended in epic fail.

But back to the originally intended point for this post. I voted for John McCain because of his fearless leadership and service to our country. Stories of McCain as a military man and politician are all well documented.

Barack Obama on the other hand, to me, comes off as too much of a political neophyte. He’s served as a U.S. senator, was a state legislator in Illinois previously and… uh… is that all?

That reasoning noted, I’m going to take the high road from here. First and foremost, congratulations to President-Elect Obama on a fine win. Also, condolences to Mr. Obama and his family following the death of Madelyn Dunham, his grandmother.

Further, I wish to quote the words of John Wayne, the legendary actor who voted for Richard Nixon for president in 1960.

Nixon lost that election to John F. Kennedy. After the numbers were tabulated and JFK was declared the victor, Wayne said, “I didn’t vote for him. But, he’s my president — and I hope he does a good job.”

Regardless of who you voted for, let’s hope the same for President-Elect Obama.

Wow, what a saga.

First he retires, then he gets the itch to come back, tries to reunite with the Packers and the Pack trades him to the Jets.

At WDAM, we weren’t following a story. We were following a soap opera. So was the rest of the media in Green Bay and nationwide. Trust me, we got several calls from Wisconsin, ESPN and the like, all throughout the saga.

Early buzz, is of course, good. Thousands of #4 “Gang Green” jerseys have been sold, either online or in sporting goods stores. Jets fans have welcomed him with open arms. And I think I’m not going out on a limb in saying a percentage of those sales involve customers here in these neighborhoods of South Mississippi.

Question, of course, is this: What will be the end result? Depending on how well Brett does, the New York media at large will either be Brett’s best new friends or worst new enemies. There’s just no in-between.

On this 8/8/08, I’d say the absolute best that can be done in his first year as a Jet is 8-8. If he does better than that and reaches the playoffs, Wild Card at best.

Sure, I’ll root for Brett – unless it’s Week 6, when my Bengals are due to arrive in Giants Stadium to take on the Jets. Still, my gut feeling is – he would’ve been better off retired.

Even I could use a light-hearted post here. So here goes.

More than two dozen people are slated to be honored with stars on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame next year. Check out the story here.

As much as I’d like to take credit for one of those stars, the Doug Morris they’re referring to here is the longtime CEO of Universal Music Group.

From one Doug Morris to another, congratulations.

In what’s become a ritual this election year, I, as producer of WDAM’s 5:00 p.m. newscast, take a feed from the NBC News Channel’s Washington D.C. office (for the record, “NBC News Channel” is the name of a feed service; not to be confused with MSNBC or CNBC) every weekday at 2:30 p.m. Usually, Steve Handelsman, a correspondent for the feed service, would be in a booth with a nice view of the Capitol building doing his on-air work covering the latest political developments.

Today at 2:30, no Steve. Five minutes pass, still no Steve. I wait another few minutes and then came news of the death of Tim Russert. I thought to myself – we’re talking about the Meet The Press moderator and not confusing him with his father, nicknamed “Big Russ”, right?

Then, the NBC Sports golf announcers, covering the U.S. Open, toss to an NBC News special report. During this special report, an obviously upset Tom Brokaw delivered the unfortunate news Tim Russert “collapsed and died…while at work”.

We’d later learn Steve was relieved of his usual political coverage responsibility for the day. Instead, he was to file an obituary piece on Tim Russert for NBC affiliates via the News Channel service.

I can still remember back eight years earlier, back when I was morning producer, when the results of the election hinged on three words. Tim Russert wrote those three words on a small and simple dry erase board.

Those three words: “Florida Florida Florida”.

In an era of state of the art graphics and sleek presentation throughout the network level, it all took a backseat to that small, simple dry erase board.

My schedule rarely allowed a chance to watch Meet The Press. (If MTP was starting, that was my cue to get to work on Rock 104 RockTrax.) But throughout the rest of the week, I’d still get to see on other NBC programs – for he wore other hats as bureau chief in D.C. and host of programs on two of NBC’s cable networks.

Tim was a straight shooter and set the bar high for political journalism throughout it all. Further, along the way, it looked like he was having fun covering politics.

To say the absolute least, the next moderator of Meet The Press has one tough act to follow.

As noted on DougMorris.net, I’m taking some time off to commemorate what would’ve been a third wedding anniversary with Cindy.

Geof and I are meeting up in Jackson, Tennessee – where we’ll take Mom up to Kentucky to spend the night.

Then, roughly 48 hours in the Lima, Ohio area – including a visit to Walnut Grove Cemetery in Delphos and Cindy’s gravesite. We’ll also visit my in-laws, who I still claim as such, and see “the kids”, the nieces and nephew Cindy virtually claimed as her own children.

Then it’s on to the Morris family’s former stomping grounds in Beavercreek, just outside Dayton. Mom has not seen the old neighborhoods since we left in ’91; the rest of us have. This will be a real treat for her.

Thanks for all the prayers since January of last year. It’s hard to believe Cindy’s been gone almost a year and a half. We’re always comforted in knowing Cindy’s reunited with her father in Heaven. We’re also comforted in knowing she’s free of suffering. Prayer for traveling mercies in the week ahead would be in order.

Although I didn’t have him for a journalism class in my days at Southern Miss, I knew of Dr. Art Kaul.

I would really get to know Dr. Kaul better through dating, and later marrying, Cindy. Long after I graduated and entered “the real world”, I can remember a time Dr. Kaul called me at WDAM. He was calling on behalf of St. John Lutheran Church in Hattiesburg – requesting interview time for their upcoming Oktoberfest.

As he was making his pitch, I giggled throughout the call. I had to confess that I wasn’t laughing at the idea of Oktoberfest – I was only laughing out of giddiness over the fact I was dating a member of the church. All I had to do was mention the name “Cindy” and he immediately knew who I was talking about.

Word came that Dr. Kaul died last night after a bout with cancer. Prayer is requested for the family of Dr. Kaul, including his wife Nancy.

If God allows Oktoberfest to be celebrated in Heaven, count on Dr. Kaul and Cindy making plans. Here on Earth, the next time you’re at Oktoberfest, be it at St. John Lutheran or elsewhere, raise a glass to Dr. Kaul and Cindy.