Saints to interview Mike McCarthy at the end of this week near Jan 29-Feb 1 [Underhill: McCarthy would have to be the current favorite]

The reaction to a McCarthy hiring will be something. I suspect that a widely held opinion in Green Bay is that the Packers letting McCarthy go and hiring LaFleur was the best thing that happened to the Packers in years and that a popular sentiment in Dallas is that McCarthy was a mistake.

I personally am not thrilled with any of the head coach prospects being discussed. Vrabel was always going to New England, and Ben Johnson is not even considering us. Unless we go the college route, I am resigned to Glenn, though at this moment I would not be upset with Rizzi. The next two years are going to be bad--especially if we continue to doing what we have been doing and chase mediocrity.

Total opinion--but I believe it true. For several reasons--philosophy with drafting and the salary cap, success without Payton, age--there is not another NFL team that would hire Loomis as its general manager were he unemployed. He has close-relative status with Gayle--are there persons in his private life personally closer to her than Lauscha, Loomis and Bensel?--so he will decide when he leaves.