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This is the latest Ed Hughes picture in my collection and I've added it to the Ed Hughes Tribute page on our league site. It's similar to several others I have and one of a few that also shows Oiler Assistant Ernie Zwahlen. It turns out that Zwahlen played a central role in the drama that dogged the Oilers during Coach Hughes' one-year tenure in a Colombia Blue mock turtleneck.

The articles below make for an interesting read. Some attribute CEH's firing to Bud Adams, others put the credit/blame on GM John Breen. Breen himself says it was his doing, not Bud's. But when Breen was a radio show co-host here in Houston in the 80s he was always a Bud Adams apologist so I have my doubts about all this. 

The only sure thing is that Zwahlen was a Hughes guy and he got booted out before the Oilers took their team photo for the season. I also know that the club finished with three impressive wins to end up at 6-6-1. 

The author of the third article below, Wells Twombly, was a SF Examiner writer who had a column in the Sporting News (where I found this story). He wrote this story just a year after leaving the Houston Chronicle for the West Coast. That explains why he was familiar with the Oilers' mess. It doesn't explain why he comes off as such an asshole in this column.

League Stuff... I'm kind of burned out on research but I'd like to know the last time two clubs got doughnuts in one game and when was the last time a club had the high total for a week and that total included a zero. The Flyers and Strawmenn both had blanks, the Flyers had our high score anyway.

Watching the end of the Bucs-Ravens and Baltimore has a 10-point lead with a couple minutes left. Troy Aikman wants the Bucs to 'pack it up and live to fight another day." WTF? It's 10 points and the Buc's kicker is very good at on-side kicks. Troy talks so damn much he doesn't think about what he's saying. STFU once in a while, Troy. jesus.

After seeing Chris Godwin's foot facing the wrong way as he was down on the ground, I bet Todd Bowles would like to have that sequence back. But how are folks criticizing him for playing his best guys?

The Bucs lost Mike Evans earlier and are now just about out of wideouts. Baker Mayfield...meet the Flyer's bench. And guys are falling out everywhere. The Niners have their top three players out. And so on and so on... of the Top 25 Wide Receivers drafted NINE are IR'd, Out, or Questionable, and at least three others missed multiple games! FOUR of the first eight RBs taken are currently out... QBs have been luckier. Of the NFL starters only two, Tua T. and Anthony Richardson have been sidelined although Jayden Daniels may now join them. 

From my perspective, that MNF'er was a very odd game. At one point in the second quarter, Padilla had crawled within 6 or so points of me, Mayfield was throwing picks like Halloween candy from a firetruck float, and Derrick Henry appeared to be taking a nap. Meanwhile, the Strawmenn had Murray and McBride going for three more quarters. Then, suddenly, Henry does a couple of his 'locomotive on a downgrade' imitations and Mayfield realizes his club is about nine scores behind. Game over. Fantasy is weird. 

For a few minutes late Monday, the Nats and Blizzard were about as close as two teams can be in this era of decimal scoring. James Conner's last run sorted it out. Speaking of the Cardinals, I wish I could un-see those uniforms. Horrible. 

Random Nonsense and Trivial Crap... the three teams that led their divisions at this point last season (Legends, Strawmenn, Rbacks)  have one thing in common...they are all in last place this season!.. the Barenholtz Bunch had the tightest 'race' last year after seven games (all within two games of each other) and that holds true this season as well... 

Who's Hot? ...Flyers lost in Week 1, and the Holes lost in Weeks 1 & 2. Neither has lost since... Who's Not? ... the Pirates have dropped three since their 4-0 start. (but they are still on top in the Kuhlmann)...  

I was going through my old Hughes News archive looking for something else and saw this from Week 9 of 1998...

Poor Fred Lane. 

One last thing. Here are the Top 10 scorers thru Seven Weeks for 2023 and 2024. Make of it what you will.

I keep messing with a feature for this site.. My Top Ten Musical Artists. The trouble is I can't seem to cut it down to ten. Maybe one day. But when I do decide on 10 I can promise Merle Haggard will be one of them.

That's Ellis working hard at school. LOL