Owner's seclusion making Millen Lions' fall guy
Why do Detroiters have a preoccupation with Matt Millen's next career move?
It's because we need somebody to scream at, and the primary source of our anger - Lions owner William Clay Ford Sr. - remains in seclusion. If you can't gripe at the one doing the hiring, you're left with those he hired.
If Ford would show his face, answer pointed questions from reporters and fully accept his accountability for this enduring football disaster, Detroit quickly would divorce itself emotionally from Millen. But Ford doesn't possess the required backbone.
It's cowardly. Ford could let Millen off the hook, but he figures that if he must pay Millen the remaining $12 million on his five-year contract extension, then Millen must accept the role of studio stooge in any future television arrangements. Every time Millen goes before a camera now, he'll bear the legacy of 0-16 and the worst eight-year stretch of NFL football.
There's speculation that Millen might earn a seat in the ESPN Monday Night Football booth next season. That's fine as long as he's introduced as the architect of 0-16. It should be specifically written into his contract.
A national radio host recently asked me why Detroit hasn't finally let go of Millen. It seems that many took issue to WDIV's hilarious crawl at the bottom of the television screen during Millen's appearances as a studio analyst during NBC's Super Bowl coverage.
The station used the ploy to draw traffic to its website, seeking input on whether Millen's history with the Lions compromised his credibility as a football analyst.
It was genius.
But to outsiders, it came across as petty. I reminded the host that Detroit is no different than any other Midwest city when it comes to its sports teams.
There's a strong emotional attachment that occasionally might blind the city from rational thought, but nobody can argue that there must be a target for one's venting following 0-16.
If Ford's not man enough to step forward and publicly take the heat for his role in four-plus decades of futility by the Lions, then it's left to his minions to endure the punishment. It doesn't earn Millen sympathy. It only explains why he'll keep taking the hit from Detroiters as long as he remains in the public eye.
Copyright 2009 USA TODAY
The nightmare is complete: Two Ohio college studs propel the Steelers to Super Bowl victory
Tonight's game brought back a familiar feeling for me personally. Years ago at Bowling Green State University I watched Ben Roethlisberger destroy the Falcons chance at a MAC championship. Tonight, as a Pittsburgh Steeler, he continues to haunt my life.
The Arizona Cardinals made one of the greatest comebacks in NFL Super Bowl history, only to have their hopes crushed by Roethlisberger and the Steelers.
After a heroic touchdown catch-and-run by Larry Fitzgerald the Cardinals went up 23-20. Then in a blink of an eye the Steelers drove down the field with less than three minutes and won the Super Bowl.
The final score was 27-23, Pittsburgh wins.
Roethlisberger, who played college ball at Miami University, threw a spectacular pass to Santonio Holmes for the winning touchdown. Holmes, a former Ohio State Buckeye, was the hero of the game.
Of course.
Although this may have been one of the most exciting Super Bowl games I have ever seen, I felt like I was watching the Cleveland Browns play football. The Cardinals, so close to winning, fell short in the most agonizing way. A way that many Clevelanders know too well.
The worst part is that two Ohio football guys made the Pittsburgh Steelers dreams a reality.
examiner.com
Are Larry Fitzgerald Sr.'s Unimpeachable Journalistic Ethics A Little Overblown?
Last week, Rick Reilly's column deified Larry Fitzgerald Sr., who promised objectivity in his Super Bowl coverage even though his son plays for Arizona Cardinals. It'd be a nice story, if only it were true.
Slate writer Josh Levin dutifully points out that building up Fitzgerald Sr., a veteran sports reporter for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, as anything more than a cheerleader with a pen is a little ridiculous. In Reilly's column, the elder Fitzgerald assures people that he "won't cheer" in the press box and that his familial ties won't influence his coverage of the event. Fitzgerald Sr. has covered 28 Super Bowls in his reporting career and will approach this one the same way and wait his turn on Media Day just like everyone else to ask Larry Jr. softball questions. Levin doesn't attack the elder Fitzgerald's sentiments as much as writers like Reilly, Michael Wilbon, and USA Today's Jarrett Bell, whom he accuses of never reading a word of Larry Sr.'s writing before they wrote their fawning profiles about his journalistic integrity.
Fitzgerald Sr.'s column in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, a weekly African-American newspaper, is less a work of journalism than a proud parent's scrapbook. Judging by the last two issues, the Spokesman-Recorder doesn't run straight game stories, meaning that Fitzgerald Sr.'s columns represent the bulk of the paper's writing about football. As such, the Spokesman-Recorder sports section is essentially a Larry Fitzgerald Jr. tribute page - since 2003, the elder Fitzgerald has written about his son at least 23 times.
Granted, it is a nice storyline to play up during Super Bowl week (which is always in search of treacly subplots) but it is a little preposterous to consider Fitzgerald Sr. blessed with Zen-like objectivity considering, as Levin puts it, he "basically acts as his son's PR rep."
But that's a little harsh. Take Fitzgerald Sr.'s unbiased coverage of the NFC Divisional playoff game with the headline "Cardinals Soar With Fitzgerald Leading The Way". In that piece you'll find Fitzgerald Sr. completely unbiased in reporting about little Larry's breathtaking performance in that game, which he claims was even more remarkable considering the Cardinals other star receiver "Anquan Bolden" [sic] was out with a hamstring industry.
Maybe Carl Boldin should also cover the Super Bowl for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder just so he can make sure the surname is spelled correctly.
My Son Is Greatest Football Player Ever [Slate]
deadspin.com
Super, again: Same old Steelers beat Ravens 23-14
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Pittsburgh Steelers refuse to change faces, alter systems or break up teams based on the latest offensive gimmick or defensive scheme. They hire a new coach only once every 15 years or so, and he's expected to do it their way.
The Baltimore Ravens learned the good old way can still be the best way, trying and failing for the third time this season to beat the Steelers at their own game.
The Steelers used a big play each on offense and defense, plus their traditional toughness and meanness, to defeat Baltimore 23-14 in the AFC championship game Sunday night and reach the Super Bowl for the second time in four seasons.
"The Steelers play the way they always play," Ravens rookie quarterback Joe Flacco said.
Call them traditional. Call them old-fashioned. The Steelers don't care - they're winning the same way now that they won four Super Bowls in six years during the 1970s, and they don't see any reason to change.
"You can call it whatever you want," the Ravens' Trevor Pryce said. "They come at you from all angles - the defensive linemen are doing this, the linebackers are doing that. They are a good bunch."
If they can beat the Arizona Cardinals and their staff filled with ex-Steelers coaches, led by Ken Whisenhunt, the Steelers will be among the best - the first to win six Super Bowls. Mike Tomlin is the third coach to take the Steelers to the NFL's title game, and he could win it much sooner than Chuck Noll (6th season) and Bill Cowher (14th season) did.
"This is the Steelers' story and not my story," Tomlin said.
The Ravens-Steelers game followed a familiar story line, with the league's two best defenses going at it in a slugfest-type game. Predictably, Ravens rookie quarterback Joe Flacco struggled against a defense that thrives on causing confusion, forcing mistakes and creating turnovers.
In a performance reminiscent of then-rookie Ben Roethlisberger's first AFC title game four years ago, when he was picked off four times during a 41-27 loss to New England, Flacco's three interceptions were the difference. Flacco offered the perfect illustration of why no rookie quarterback has taken a team to the Super Bowl.
"You can't make mistakes in a game like this," Roethlisberger said.
The last one, Troy Polamalu's 40-yard interception return with slightly more than four minutes remaining sealed it after the Ravens, down 13-0 early in the second quarter, closed to within 16-14 on two Willis McGahee touchdown runs.
The numbers were telling: Flacco, 13-of-30 for 141 yards and three interceptions. Roethlisberger: 16-of-33 for 255 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. This was as one-sided as Roethlisberger vs. Tom Brady four years ago.
"A rookie can never replace experience," Polamalu said. "He (Roethlisberger) has a lot of big-game experience. As far as our defense and the rest of our team, I think when we get into those tough situations and close games ... most of our victories were in those type of close games."
Early on, it didn't look like it would be close as Jeff Reed kicked the first two of his three field goals and an improvised Roethlisberger-to-Santonio Holmes touchdown play covered 65 yards, giving the Steelers that 13-0 lead.
On his touchdown throw, a hurried Roethlisberger threw an off-balance pass off his back foot that Holmes caught near the Baltimore 45 and took to the end zone, cutting diagonally across the field.
No wonder Tomlin said afterward, "Ben is Ben. Ben is a special guy."
"I kind of felt like he was throwing the ball away," said Holmes, whose punt return touchdown keyed the Steelers' 35-24 divisional win over San Diego last weekend. "When I saw it was short, I reacted quicker than he (the defender) did."
As usual in the NFL's nastiest rivalry, there were numerous big hits and injuries, just as there were when Pittsburgh won 23-20 in overtime in September and 13-9 in Baltimore last month - two of the league's roughest games all season.
In this one, Roethlisberger took a hard hit to his shoulder, causing Byron Leftwich to quickly warm up. Hines Ward left with a knee injury. And, in the worst of all, McGahee was carried off the field in the closing minutes with a possible neck injury after being leveled by safety Ryan Clark.
Maybe Flacco and his rookie head coach, John Harbaugh, can be encouraged by this: The season after Roethlisberger couldn't take a team with a 16-1 record to the Super Bowl as a rookie, he came back and won it all.
"I don't know how to explain it, but that's what our thoughts go to right now," Harbaugh said. "The next thing is free agency and the draft and continuing to build a football team, a championship team."
The Steelers may be such a team now. First, they must prove it against the Cardinals, who have little history of success despite being one of the NFL's original franchises. Their last NFL championship came in 1947.
Whisenhunt and his top assistant, Russ Grimm, were seen as the two prime contenders to replace Cowher two years ago. When Whisenhunt sensed he wouldn't be picked, he took the Arizona job, and the Steelers subsequently chose Tomlin over Grimm in a surprise decision.
Now, the Steelers will go into the Super Bowl trying to prove they hired the right coach, though there has been little debating the decision in Pittsburgh since Tomlin took over two years ago. Even though Whisenhunt's Cardinals beat Tomlin's Steelers 21-14 early in the 2007 season.
Numerous Steelers players were close to Whisenhunt and Grimm, so playing the Cardinals in the NFL's biggest game will bring back numerous memories. More than a few members of Arizona's staff were on Pittsburgh's sideline when the Steelers beat Seattle 21-10 in Detroit three years ago.
"It's going to be emotional for us," left tackle Max Starks said. "Those are the coaches I won my last Super Bowl with. It's going to be a challenge. It's going to be old school vs. new school."
Old school, of course, is what the Steelers do. It's why those five Super Bowl trophies fill a display case in their practice complex, serving as motivation to players and coaches alike as they walk by them daily.
"It sure doesn't get old," Steelers owner Dan Rooney said, referring to the franchise's seventh Super Bowl appearance. "(And) if you win six - nobody has won six. We're going into Tampa with the idea of playing well."
Copyright (c) 2009 The Associated Press
Jason Garrett Was at the Top of Everyone's Coaching List a Year Ago
Summer 2008 showed to be Jason Garrett's most promising offseason of his coaching career. Despite a loss to the Super Bowl-bound New York Giants in the second round of the playoffs, Garrett proved worthy of topping the list of future head coaching candidates across the NFL.
With Atlanta and Baltimore knocking on the door, desperate for a new head coach to lead their respective franchises back to glory, what was Garrett to do?
It seemed at the time that Atlanta needed a total overhaul. Backup QB Matt Schaub was traded to Houston in order to keep assurances to both Michael Vick and the Atlanta fans that Vick would remain the cornerstone of the Falcons offense. This backfired with such force that Bobby Petrino, then head coach of the Falcons, couldn't get his office packed quickly enough and skipped town to return to college football.
Baltimore, although in a different situation from Atlanta, had higher expectations. Brian Billick was relieved of his duties as head coach for falling short of the Ravens' playoff expectations. Their defense was still standing strong, but it was the offensive side that needed some heavy retooling.
Both programs were in need of serious overhauling on their offense, and both teams felt Garrett was the answer.
Jerry Jones, on the other hand, had different plans for Garrett.
Jones offered to make Jason Garrett the highest-paid coordinator in the NFL. Wade Phillips, the defensive-minded head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, had little to no interest in anything but the defense, leaving Garrett full reign of the star-studded offense.
And who knows, perhaps Phillips would fall short again the next season, giving Garrett the head coaching spot on America's team.
Garrett chose to stay home in Dallas.
Six months later
The Cowboys didn't lose their first playoff game this year, but as we all know, that wasn't a good thing. Injuries aside, the Cowboys' chaotic and disappointing ending to the 2008 season seemed to not be the effect of their defense, but rather Garrett's lackluster offense. His common schemes proved predictable and unoriginal, allowing too many points left on the field instead of the scoreboard.
After the season meltdown, Jones decided to keep Phillips on as head coach for another year, arguably because he did not want Garrett at the head of the team.
In case that wasn't enough of a sting, Atlanta and Baltimore both ran successful campaigns to the playoffs. Atlanta did so well their new head coach was named coach of the year. The Baltimore Ravens are currently in the AFC championship and fighting for a Super Bowl berth. Either franchise would have gladly used Garrett instead.
As this year's offseason creeps towards us, Detroit, Denver, Cleveland, St. Louis, and the New York Jets are all in a scramble for a new coach. Sadly, Garrett isn't at the top of any hiring list.
Garrett will have another year of trying to keep T.O. in check, another year of trying to keep Tony Romo's on field mistakes to a minimum, and another year of both the Dallas Cowboys fans and Jerry Jones demanding nothing but perfection from an underperforming offense.
The current rumor? Mike Shanahan becomes the new head coach for the Dallas Cowboys in 2010.
Jason Garrett turned down head coaching jobs to stay an assistant coach. It's possible that he won't even be that next year.
Copyright (c) 2008 Bleacher Report, Inc
Browns' Lerner knows criticism to come with his game plan
The Browns seem prepared to move down the road toward hiring Eric Mangini as their coach and George Kokinis as their personnel guru.
This train seems loaded. Whether it rolls will be answered when Kokinis interviews, and that won't happen until Sunday (according to Cleveland.com).
Mangini impressed Browns owner Randy Lerner greatly in an interview, and Kokinis (the Baltimore Ravens' director of pro personnel) is very close to Mangini, dating to their days working for Bill Belichick in Cleveland.
The moves will be scrutinized.
This isn't the hiring of Bill Cowher or Mike Shanahan or Mike Holmgren, and Lerner knows that he might have to ''sell'' the new team that will run his team.
But he feels strongly that this new team will help the Browns win.
And that's what matters to him. Because when all is said and done, all the questions about Mangini this or Kokinis that will go away - if the Browns win.
Lerner has remained mum about the hires, instead choosing to bury himself in the job. But discussions with NFL folks who have talked to people who have been interviewed and with other NFL folks who have observed the process have painted a picture of how the Browns got to this point.
They did it by making a decision that it didn't necessarily matter if the coach or GM were hired first and by making some judgments about the qualifications wanted in a coach.
Two factors were key, both of which sprung from the four-year experience with GM Phil Savage and coach Romeo Crennel.
That pair wound up not seeing eye to eye, and differences between them affected the team's ability to win, especially last season.
Lerner did not want a repeat.
So he insisted that the two people whom he hired be able to work together, which means they had to know each other and get along.
He also saw that Crennel hired two coordinators who eventually were replaced. A rookie coach, his research showed, was more likely to make mistakes with his key hires than one who had been through the battles.
That led him to conclude that the Browns of today need a coach with head coaching experience.
As Lerner studied and reflected on the experience of Belichick, he also decided that the best thing that the New England Patriots did was to create an environment where he could succeed. Forget Belichick's personality, forget the media complaints - make it where the guy can win and let him do his job.
That's what Lerner decided the best thing would be for the Browns - find the right guy, then create the environment and circumstances where he could win.
Lerner did not enter the search determined to find a GM or coach first. He instead focused on finding the ''right guy'' for either job.
Before interviewing, he went to several teams to ask: Who makes the decision on personnel?
With the Pittsburgh Steelers, decisions are agreed on by all, and the owner breaks any tie.
Other teams gave different answers. One team said the coach, another the GM, and others said it had to be a complete team decision.
That led Lerner to conclude that the most important thing was to find people who could work together.
Thus he requested and was granted permission to interview Kokinis, a come-from-nowhere dark horse who entered the picture because he and Mangini are very close. Clearly Mangini recommended him, and Lerner believes strongly enough in Mangini that he is willing to consider and perhaps go with Kokinis.
This gives a lot of influence to a guy who was fired from the New York Jets. But Lerner was intrigued the second that he heard Mangini had been fired.
He called him quickly, and when he interviewed Mangini, Lerner was more than impressed with Mangini's knowledge, his ability to explain that knowledge and his ability to show he could apply it.
He liked Mangini's plans for everything from putting in a disciplinary structure (something the Browns think was missing with Crennel) to how to run training camp to how to game-plan for a specific opponent.
He found him to be anything but ''Romeo Light,'' the term being used to knock Mangini's candidacy by those who thought that he was another hire just like Crennel.
These feelings blended well with other studies the Browns had conducted, studies that favored hiring a coach who had experience in one place but was still young in his development.
The team thinks that this would get the coach on the good side of the learning curve, so to speak, because he could learn from his mistakes.
Other candidates
It's why the Browns decided not to wait on Mike Shanahan, who had worked almost his entire NFL career with one owner and who wanted to take two weeks off after that owner fired him.
The Browns reached out to Shanahan several times, but eventually viewed him as being too emotional to take another job so quickly.
Brian Billick's approach did not fit what they wanted.
Mike Holmgren was committed to taking a year off.
There was never a real desire to go back to a Marty Schottenheimer.
And when Cowher said thanks but no thanks, the feeling grew that perhaps some of these coaches were just too entrenched with their former team. That no matter how hard a guy like Cowher tried, he would always be a Pittsburgh Steeler.
Scott Pioli interviewed to be the GM, but there has been no indication that he was eager to leave the Patriots, much less join the Browns.
Rich McKay of the Atlanta Falcons was considered strongly, but he delayed his interview and did not seem eager. His hiring also would entail hiring a personnel man and a coach, and Lerner evidently thought that he could accomplish the same thing without the extra layer of management with Mangini and Kokinis.
Deciding to hire a coach with some experience but not one entrenched and branded with a team limited the pool, especially because Lerner also did not want to wait for a coach in the playoffs.
Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey coached the Buffalo Bills for two years but was not viewed as having the same strategic abilities as Mangini.
Cam Cameron and Dick LeBeau are with playoff teams.
Back to Mangini
Which leads the road back to Mangini, a Belichick-trained assistant who rose quickly with the Patriots to become defensive coordinator before he took the job with the Jets.
There are positives about him, starting with three years of head coaching experience and two winning seasons.
He is bright, organized (perhaps to a fault) and a workaholic.
He started his career as an intern in the Browns' public relations department, and when the Jets visited Cleveland two years ago, he sent the media lunch with a note that said: ''I don't forget where I came from.''
Concerns come mainly from his personality rather than his football IQ. He was said to be very difficult to work for, especially in his first season.
He ended the past season terribly, as an 8-3 record turned into a 9-7 finish. Losses came to the Miami Dolphins in the finale, but also to the Oakland Raiders, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks. Between them, they won 16 games.
Some point to the fact that quarterback Brett Favre had a terrible December, and that Favre was foisted on Mangini late in training camp by owner Woody Johnson and GM Mike Tannenbaum.
Mangini also was criticized for some of the same on-field decisions that Crennel heard criticism. Field goals vs. touchdowns. Punting vs. kicking a field goal. Some of those calls, especially in a late-season loss to the Seahawks, did not sit well with Jets fans and media.
The Browns think that he will learn from those mistakes (if they were mistakes) and grow given a second chance.
Finally, Mangini is cut from the Belichick cloth that a hamstring injury is a ''leg'' injury and the timetable for return is ''day to day.'' He also wants a cone of silence around his team and reportedly fined players for talking about injuries and/or saying more to the media than he liked.
Hopefully he'll learn that being honest about injuries and being honest in general really does not affect who wins or loses. Especially because he's walking into an environment where fans are frustrated and being open will help heal some of the wounds.
Bottom line is winning
The Browns, and Lerner, understand the questions.
They don't hide from them. They just believe that the positives outweigh the negatives, and that a guy who is willing to learn and grow will be better the second time because of the things that happened the first.
Too, they see some of these things as decorations on the cake.
What matters to Lerner, and the team, is winning.
In a sense, this is the first time that Lerner has stepped with both feet into the operations of his team. John Collins was team president when Savage and Crennel were hired, and he had as much to do with their hiring as anyone.
Mike Keenan now is the team's president, but he's more of a financial/business guy. Lerner is making these hires.
He wants a coach with experience working with a front office guy whom he can trust and work together with.
No matter who was hired first, coach or GM, Lerner was going to ask the same question: Can you work with (insert name here)? If he found two people who could work together, his job was then to create an environment where the two could succeed.
He knows that he will have to sell this team, but he believes that he's on the right track.
And he believes that the wins and losses will justify sending the train out of the station.
(c)2008 The Akron Beacon Journal
Bengals Top Chiefs, Head To Offseason
Following his team's 35-3 loss at Indianapolis on Dec. 7, a loss that dropped the Bengals to 1-11-1, head coach Marvin Lewis stated the Bengals would go out and win their last three games. The players proved worthy of the coach's confidence, knocking off the Chiefs on Sunday to finish off their end-of-the-season run and leap-frog past Cleveland into third place in the AFC North.
That's a fact not lost on the players even if the goal of reaching the postseason was long lost two months ago.
"I'm proud of everybody we've got - the guys that are hurt and the guys that are playing," said right guard Bobbie Williams. "I hate that the season is over with because I think that we found our mojo. If this was the start of the season I think it would be a great season but obviously it's the end. What can you do?"
The Bengals jumped out to a 13-0 lead in the second quarter by scoring on three consecutive drives; Cedric Benson scored on a 2-yard run sandwiched around field goals of 38 and 30 yards by Shayne Graham. Graham added a third field goal of 43 yards with 6:21 left in the game to push the lead to 16-0.
Kansas City scored its lone points of the game on a 5-yard pass from Tyler Thigpen to Tony Gonzalez with 2:20 left to prevent the Bengals from posting back-to-back shutouts for the first time in franchise history. The Bengals beat Cleveland 14-0 last week.
They instead had to settle for equaling the franchise record of nine consecutive quarters without allowing a touchdown; they had not allowed a touchdown since Washington scored with 4:44 left in the second quarter on Dec. 14. The Bengals outscored their final three opponents 50-19 after losing games to Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Indianapolis - all AFC playoff teams - by a combined count of 96-16.
"I thought it was a good way to finish the season," said Lewis. "Our defensive phase of the football team played well and won on third down, which keeps points off of the scoreboard. Offensively, we were able to do some things in the running game."
Benson's 111-yard performance comes on the heels of him gaining 171 yards at Cleveland. It is the first time since Rudi Johnson rushed for 169 yards against Cleveland and then gained 117 yards against Detroit on Dec. 11 and Dec. 18, 2005, that the Bengals have had an individual 100-yard rusher in consecutive games.
Benson didn't join the Bengals until Sept. 30 but ended up leading the team with 747 yards on the ground after replacing Chris Perry as the starter against Pittsburgh on Oct. 19. A former No. 4 overall pick in the 2005 draft by Chicago, Benson signed a one-year deal and is eligible to become a free agent.
"I think this is an offense with schemes that we can be successful and we mesh well," said Benson. "We had me coming in, we had different guys starting and we still managed to get things together."
Well, sort of. The Bengals offense still finished last in the league in scoring, averaging 12.8 points game and they never scored more than 23 points in a game. They only scored 20 or more points in a game four times this season. Graham, who is also eligible to become a free agent in the offseason, finished with 78 points scored. It is the first time in his six seasons with the club he has scored less than 106 points.
The Bengals offense was so anemic that punter Kyle Larson set a franchise record with 100 punts on the season.
Defensively, however, Mike Zimmer's unit showed consistent signs of improvement throughout the season. They entered the finale ranked 21st in overall defense, a marked improvement from finishes of 27th, 30th, and 28th the last three seasons.
"These last three games we came in here with the mentality that we're going to win, and that's what we were able to do," said cornerback Leon Hall. "When you're passionate about defense and you love football like Zimmer does, you can't help but play hard for that guy. We're comfortable that he's going to put us in the right position to make plays. We've just got to go out there and play hard and make plays."
Copyright (c) 2008 JungleInsider.com and Scout.com
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