Zippy, Windy, Claude and webchatting

Congrats to Zippy, voted mascot of the year just a few moments ago at the Capital One Bowl. The newsroom gang here in the Cleveland office keeps teasing me that they want us to cut in with breaking news. I told them only if we send a reporter to the zoo for reaction from other kangaroos. Of course, when I told the newsroom that Zippy was a girl, they all looked at me like I had three heads. Slowly educating them I am!

The wind and blowing snow on I-77 is a mess. If you have to go out tonight (New Year's Day), my advice is plan plenty of time. I got blown all over the freeway trying to get from Akron to Cleveland. The snow is one thing, but the wind is making it even tougher.

While we're all enjoying our football today, former football coach Claude Brown is hoping to be sitting in a recliner in time for the BCS title game. The former Buchtel Head Coach has a parole hearing tomorrow morning after serving 6+ months of his two-year sentence for having sex with a female student.

If history serves, I would expect Judge Marvin Shapiro to grant Brown's request. Two years ago, Shapiro paroled another Akron teacher, Randal Crane, after serving a similar amount of time for the same charge.

I'm going to open up the webchat here on "Have I Got News For You" around 8:30 p.m. tonight for anyone whose board with football and feels like gabbing about anything TV News related. See ya then .. Eric