The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va., Bob Molinaro, column

Jan. 01--Hot seat: Tom Coughlin's job is said to be on the line when the Giants play the Redskins on Sunday. It shouldn't be. Didn't Coughlin go through this before, when he was blamed for everything that went wrong with the Giants, only to regroup and win a Super Bowl? He's the same coach now as he was then. What's hurting the Giants most is a defense that appears to have been highly overrated.

Not welcome Seeing as how the Seattle Seahawks are still alive for postseason play despite losing seven or their past nine games, I propose a new NFL rule that prohibits any team from making the playoffs with a record that wouldn't qualify it for a bowl appearance.

Impatient Old Dominion reports that highly-regarded redshirt sophomore quarterback Dominique Blackman is transferring for "personal reasons." Translation: He doesn't want to play behind Thomas DeMarco next season. It's too bad for ODU, which thought it had a future star in Blackman, but defections are common in every program, especially at the crowded quarterback position.

In passing The safest prediction about the Orange Bowl meeting between Virginia Tech and Stanford is that it will be Jim Harbaugh's final game as Stanford coach.

Idle thought No result makes more sense than Army winning the Armed Forces Bowl.

Wrong message We're accustomed to hypocrisy in college athletics, but let's be serious: once Terrelle Pryor and Co. were found to have violated NCAA rules, they shouldn't have been allowed to play for Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl. If Ohio State were an actual family, the grown ups in charge would be guilty of bad parenting.

Arms race The reduced role of running backs in the NFL becomes more noticeable every year. Quarterback play decides everything, it seems, both good and bad. The passing game is entertaining, but I miss the days when running backs played bigger roles. A little more balance on offense would be welcome.

Captive Tuesday's primetime Vikings-Eagles game on NBC drew a viewing audience 25 percent larger than last year's Week 16 game on Sunday Night Football between the Cowboys and Redskins. Michael Vick was the prime attraction, but it didn't hurt ratings that East Coast blizzards kept millions of people trapped inside.

Mouthing off Are Americans really the "wussies" Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell said we are? I don't know about that, but I can recognize a publicity hound when I hear one.

Quick hit The critical and popular success of the "The Fighter" is further proof that boxing is a lot more popular as cinema than sport.

Screen gem "The King's Speech" is another example of the Brits creating a movie masterpiece from a buried bit of English history.

Numbers game Though it's not an official NFL statistical category, people who keep track of "quarterback hurries" report that Chris Long, Rams defensive lineman and former U.Va. star, leads the league.

Bottom line As reported by Golf Digest, when Tiger Woods' earnings on and off the course in 2010 declined by $48 million from 2009, he lost more money than any other player made. No need to take up a collection for Woods, though. He still managed to take in a reported $74 million last year.

At the top There will always be haters, especially where Duke basketball is concerned, but if you don't appreciate Mike Krzyzewski's success and demeanor and can't acknowledge that he's the standard to which other coaches aspire, you might want to check yourself.

Rising How can a young, exciting NBA player with 20 consecutive double-doubles in points and rebounds and an assortment of the season's most spectacular dunks remain a relative mystery to the average fan? By playing for the historically bad and irrelevant L.A. Clippers. Welcome to Blake Griffin's world.

Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373, bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com

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Va vet gets Purple Heart

Associated Press - January 3, 2011 3:15 AM ET

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Nearly seven decades later, a Virginia veteran has received the Purple Heart for injuries suffered during World War II.

The Virginian-Pilot reports 92-year-old Turk Turner was honored Sunday at a church service in Virginia Beach.

Turner was an electrician on a Navy submarine that was attacked by the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean. Turner says he and others were taken to a prison camp on an island in the Dutch East Indies, where he was held for more than three years.

Turner says he still has scars on his back from prison beatings, while his health was damaged by malnutrition.

Turner also received a medal Sunday for his service in the Korean War.

Information from: The Virginian-Pilot, http://www.pilotonline.com

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Gay Basher Owen Honors Should Be Fired From the Navy Pronto

Welcome to America, where our puritanical roots make us cringe at the word "sex" in a public setting. What would a new year be if we didn't have a sex scandal to celebrate? The case of Navy Captain Owen Honors, who the Norfolk, Virginia newspaper the Virginian Pilot has revealed is at the center of the first raunchy scandal of 2011, might actually deserve your clucking tongue.

Honors stands accused of organizing the filming of sexy videos that include everything from naked women soaping one another down in the showers of the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier Enterprise to gay slurs and bestiality. Free speech? To each his own? Sorry, not on my dime.

He can be a jerk on his time; that's his problem. What he does on the public taxpayers' is ours. That's the problem here: Honors allegedly did all this while on the Enterprise, using military owned equipment. While he was working for you and me, using video cameras and editing software our tax dollars paid for, he was being a sexist, bigoted pig.

If I was his boss, I'd have him packing his things . . . immediately. Oh, wait, I am his boss. I was paying Owen Honors' salary in 2006 and 2007 when all these videos were being filmed. As his boss, I want him gone; and I'm flummoxed by his other bosses who don't agree. Comments on the We Support O.P. Honors Facebook page call this a witch hunt, beg us to remember that he's a father and that this happened three to four years ago.

Honors is about to be deployed again, left in charge -- as captain -- of a multi-million dollar aircraft carrier that we own. Failure to censure him for his actions will allow him carte blanche to do it again, on our dime, on our equipment. To put this in context, imagine you own your own small business. You're rooting around in your files, doing a little clean up at the end of the year and find videos that your employee, Bob, made in 2006 in your offices, using your video cameras, containing offensive material. At that time, you were paying him a fair wage, with the expectation that he would actually work for it.

Do you shrug? Giggle? Throw him a party? Or do you call your employee into your office and demand some accountability? Owen Honors was a shoddy employee. As his boss, I'd like to see some accountability: now. Do you think he should be fired?