Mark Tauscher Now Behind a Mic Instead of Protecting a QB

Former Green Bay Packers offensive tackle Mark Tauscher has joined the Packers Radio Network as an analyst. Tauscher will give insight on the network's pre- and post-game shows and on the Packers TV network for pre-game analysis this season.

It's a natural fit.  Tauscher is a former University of Wisconsin player and one of the most popular Packer players in recent memory.  It will be interesting to see how he does.

What About Those High Tech Swimsuits?

The swimsuits Olympic swimmers wore four years ago won't be in London.

They have been banned. so what will the Olympic Swimmers be wearing?

Bells Will Be Ringing...

No, not for Christmas just yet, I'm talking about the Olympics.

At precisely 8:12 on July 27, the day the curtain officially drops on the 2012 London Games, hundreds of thousands of Brits from all across the world will be encouraged to ring every bell they can find for three straight minutes.

Church bells. School bells. Door bells. Dinner bells. Cow bells. Butler bells. Bicycle bells. Car horns will be blowing, who knows what other sirens will be going off. They will all ring in celebration of the start of the Olympics, which will culminate with the opening ceremonies precisely 12 hours later.

Even historic Big Ben will get in on the act.

Lawn Painting is all the Rage

Despite the nationwide heat wave, the grass really is greener in some neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey.

Homeowners with brown, dried-up lawns are turning to "lawn painting" to spruce up their yards.

Business is booming, according to Joe Perazzo, who launched his lawn painting company in New York's most suburban borough of Staten Island a few years ago, inspired by the tinting process used to color professional athletic fields. Other companies have sprung up in the region and elsewhere in the country.

"We've had a lot more calls and jobs in the past few weeks," said Perazzo, who added that this season's heat has been particularly hard on lawns due to a lack of rain.

For about 15 cents a square foot ($1.61 a square meter), or $150 for 1,000 square feet ($161.40 for 100 square meters), Perazzo will spray a plant-based, non-toxic turf dye on lawns or even dried-up shrubs and trees.

The biodegradable spray can last up until next spring's new growth if grass is truly desiccated, he said.

For lawns with a bit of life left in them, the paint will last for "two to three mows," he said.

Rich Pacailler of Howell, New Jersey, had his 1,500 square foot lawn sprayed this week.

"It gave me the green lawn I've been working for," he said. "I come home and see I've got the greenest lawn on the block."

He said it was very natural looking, "like new sod."  I guess we now know what "brown" can do for you.

Packers Only Want 2 Preseason Games

Green Bay Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy said Tuesday that he no longer supports any move to an 18-game, regular-season NFL schedule.

Murphy said he backed the idea of two preseason games per team followed by the 18-game schedule during last year’s negotiations with the NFL Players Association on a labor deal. He has since changed his stance.

"I was in favor of it during the bargaining process because I saw it as a way to bring the parties together and reach an agreement . Now, to be honest with you, I couldn’t support a move to two (preseason) and 18 (regular season). I just think with all the focus on player health and safety, it would be really hard to do that,” Murphy said. “And actually, I would be in support of a move to two (preseason) and 16 (regular season).”

 “The challenge there, obviously, is you’re losing revenue,” he said at the team’s annual stockholders meeting at Lambeau Field.

Murphy also said it could impact coaches, since it would reduce the amount of time they could spend developing young players. Murphy said he figured the starters would play roughly the same number of snaps in two preseason games as they do in four games now, so “I don’t know if you’d gain that much from a health and safety standpoint. But I think those are things we have to look at. What kind of things could we do to make sure the game is as safe as possible for our players?”

Murphy, who played eight seasons in the NFL as a safety for the Washington Redskins, made it clear that he is against the proliferation of concussion-related lawsuits being brought by ex-players. He said the lawsuits are “a real concern for the league” and questioned the motivation of some of the plaintiffs.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has some decisions to make with the rule changes, fines and suspensions because the league wants to improve player safety without significantly altering the game, Murphy said.

“Roger has to protect the future of the game and the integrity of it. I do think there’s a little bit of a tension there,” Murphy said. “You want to strive to make the game as safe as possible, but you don’t want to turn it into a 7-on-7 flag football game. So part of what makes the game so exciting is it’s so fast and physical. I think it’s finding a balance there.

“We’ve talked about it on the league level, it wasn’t that long ago that boxing was one of the most popular sports in America, and I think people just got turned off by the violence, the impact that it had on boxers. My concern in the long-term is that parents look at the game and say, ‘It’s too violent, too many risks involved, I don’t want my son playing the game.’ And that really starts to erode at your fan base in the future.”