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On Tuesday we noted a report that former Stanford, Notre Dame and Washington head coach Tyrone Willingham had accepted a new job as an assistant coach in the upstart United Football League. But now it appears that Willingham won't be a UFL assistant after all.

The St. Louis Rams will have a new head football coach in 2009, as interim coach Jim Haslett has been notified he is no longer a candidate for the full-time gig. Though he was said to have interviewed well for the job, I can't see how this is much of a surprise. He went 2-10 after taking over for Scott Linehan, including 10 consecutive losses to end the season.

Delving through the extraneous information (and the egregious typo in the title) in the article, it would seem Leslie Frazier is the front-runner, though Steve Spagnuolo is reportedly close to Frazier on the Rams' wish list. Other candidates presumed to still be in the mix are Rex Ryan, Jason Garrett, and Jim Fassel.

Twelve months ago the Rams had just put the finishing touches on a 3-13 effort. If the team had fired head coach Scott Linehan and replaced him with Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, I think most fans and media types would've praised the move.

As I've mentioned before, Garrett's star lost some luster after a seemingly indifferent Cowboys offense went through the motions these last four months. Of course, Tony Romo missing time with a pinky injury didn't help, but that doesn't explain the late-season implosion that kept Dallas out of the playoffs.

What it does explain is the tepid response from the St. Louis Dispatch's Bryan Burwell, who admits that names like Rex Ryan, Jim Haslett, Leslie Frazier and Steve Spagnuolo fit within general manager Jim Devaney's "publicly stated description of meat and potatoes' football guys and strong leaders of men," while Garrett, well, does not.

Last week, we mentioned a report that former San Francisco head coach Mike Nolan was on the verge of becoming the Green Bay Packers' new defensive coordinator.

That report appears to have been premature, as Nolan is headed instead to Denver to run the Broncos' defense under new head coach Josh McDaniels.

With Nolan apparently out of the picture, the Packers now have to move in a different direction.

The St. Louis Rams interviewed Jim Haslett -- who served as the interim head coach when Scott Linehan was mercifully let go after four games -- Monday for their head coaching vacancy. I think we can all agree that it was a token interview. Sure, the Rams have a billion holes to fill, and Steven Jackson was hurt for much of the second half of the season, but Haslett didn't really do anything to distinguish himself. He stormed out of the gate with two victories, but then lost the Rams' last ten games -- many in embarrassing fashion.

Two very intriguing names are on the Rams' radar, though. They plan on interviewing 32 year-old Josh McDaniels for the job, and they have received permission from the Patriots. He's currently their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Obviously the work of Mr. Matt Cassel has made this young coach a hot commodity. We know the Patriots offense could score points, so the Rams could do much worse.

There are two weeks remaining in the regular season and we've already seen Mike Nolan, Lane Kiffin and Scott Linehan lose their jobs for varying degrees of incompetence. But more heads will roll in the coming months, and some bone-headed decisions made yesterday will go a long way in cementing the fate of the less fortunate.

Dick Jauron, Buffalo Bills:
A crappy economy might be the only thing to save Jauron's job, because after jumping out to a 4-1 start, the Bills are now sitting at 6-8. And the last two minutes of yesterday's game against the Jets was a microcosm of their season.

With Buffalo leading 27-24 and trying to run the last 240 or so seconds off the clock, somebody thought it would be great fun to let J.P. Losman throw a pass on second-and-five from the Bills' 27. Predictably, he fumbled, the Jets' Shaun Ellis recovered, and 11 yards later, that's your ball game.

While the NFL story of the day is the touchdown call in the Steelers-Ravens game, there was another referee controversy to come out of Sunday's action. The only reason nobody seems to be outraged by this one is, presumably, because it involved Seattle and St. Louis, a pair of teams who entered play this week with a combined record of 4-22.

Of course, that shouldn't matter, because everyone plays for the same reason -- to win the game. So let's evenly distribute our anger, football fans.

According to St. Louis wide receiver Torry Holt, the referees in Sunday's game used the stadium's video screen to call a questionable pass interference call on Holt, negating a 20-yard completion. Here's what Holt had to say after the game:

"He said he looked up in the Jumbotron and saw that I pushed off," said Holt, who is in his 10th year with the Rams (2-12). "I told him I never extended my arm. It is one thing if you extended, because that is pass interference. But everything was in motion catching the football. I don't even know if I had my hands on the guy. "That was his explanation, and I told him it was a bad call."

At one point early in the second half, the St. Louis Rams had out-gained the Seattle Seahawks by nearly double. They did not, however, close out the game on offense or defense. When the dust settled, the Rams only amassed nine more yards than the Seahawks, and they ran 10 more plays. They also won the time of possession battle by nearly eight minutes. And they still came up short.

Just in case anyone thinks Jim Haslett is really going to retain this job because of winning his first two games, today was yet another reminder on how the Rams need to dismantle this team. Richie Incognito was penalized with regularity, the offense fumbled twice -- one was taken back for a touchdown -- and solid offensive efforts from Marc Bulger and Steven Jackson were wasted.

During New England's 24-21 come-from-behind win in Seattle this past Sunday, the Patriots were charged with only one penalty the entire game. If nothing else, they made the flag worth it, when tight end Ben Watson shoved the football under his jersey and gave a salute to his pregnant wife.

Bill Belichick, obviously, wasn't exactly thrilled with Watson's celebration because it resulted in a 15-yard penalty assessed on the ensuing kickoff. Of course, there's an entirely different debate in there as to whether or not using a football to make yourself look like your pregnant wife is worthy of a 15-yard penalty (or a fine!), but, we're not really addressing that here. And, for the record, my opinion is, no, this should not be worthy of a penalty or a fine.

Anyway, had Watson not performed his celebration, New England would have played a perfect game on Sunday, at least as far as yellow flags are concerned. And this isn't really something that's new to the Patriots this season.

The last time the Cardinals franchise won a division title, they played their games in Busch Stadium. They were the Saint Louis Cardinals. Coincidentally, they pasted the hapless current St. Louis team today at home to clinch the NFC West.

While it was no surprise the 2008 Cardinals easily handled the 2008 Rams -- 34-10 -- let us examine how rare an occurrence this is.

- The Cardinals franchise has only finished above .500 four times since 1976.

- The Cardinals franchise has not won their division since a strike-shortened 5-4 record was good enough in 1982. In the past 25 years, the Cardinals had only made the playoffs once -- when Jake Plummer took them on a 9-7 whirlwind in 1998.

- Since moving to Arizona, the Cardinals have lost at least 10 games 13 times in 20 seasons.

I could go on and on, but you get the point. This was one futile organization. I'll admit that when covering a team who is not your favorite, you still develop some love for the team. I've been rooting for these guys to do well, and they are a likable bunch from top to bottom. To the true Arizona Cardinals fans -- who have been with the team since the beginning -- you really deserve this. Enjoy it, and hopefully it's simply the start of things to come.