RELISHING A VISIT BY THE COUSINS.

Byline: SCOTT MAGOLOFF The Gridiron Grill

Our people here at The Gridiron Grill are a tight group, a second family, of sorts. We have a huge gathering every Sunday, eat (and drink) perhaps more than we should, enjoy engaging, sometimes heated conversation and look forward to doing it again the next week.

Some real families have dark secrets that sometimes are revealed at similar get-togethers. Or there could be a known indiscretion people are hush-hush about, but the looks in their faces and their stares tell all.

When cousins Aaron Brooks of the Saints and Michael Vick of the Falcons meet today for the festivities in New Orleans, the happenings are sure to be far more fit for the viewing eye than the evil eye. And it is likely the crew at the Grill will want to see it, as they select the best five games of the day for the bar's main cluster of TVs:

Sven the bartender: It's hard to know what to expect in a meeting of two of the best quarterbacks in the league, who both play with a similar athletic style. Add that this is a divisional game, so the teams know each other, and that the QBs are cousins. This has the makings of a wild game.

Sal from the Bronx: Brooks and Vick were raised in Virginia. Virginia is in the south. So I guess it's par for the course when New Orleans and Atlanta play that a couple of cousins will go at it - on the football field, of course.

Marietta Molly: I usually prefer watching tough defenses. But I'm a sucker for a great quarterback duel. And I haven't been this excited for one of those all season long. Get those running shoes on Aaron, 'cause cousin Michael's in town and you know you want to show him how it's done Cajun-style.

Carson City Cal: Vick is the phenomenal physical specimen but he doesn't have the weapons around him that Brooks has in Deuce McAllister and Joe Horn, especially considering the Falcons might be without T.J. Duckett. Brooks is no slouch athletically, but he does more damage with his arm. It should be fun to see how the defenses try to play these quarterbacks.

Manny from Alameda: Because this is Vick's first full year as a starter, this will be the first time Brooks faces his cousin in the NFL. But with the Falcons and Saints in the same division, you know it'll just be the first in a long line of memorable meetings.

Sal: And what better city than New Orleans to stage the debut? Brooks or Vick, whoever wins will have a real party on his hands after that game. Heck, even the loser should go out.

Sven: I always wanted to own a bar in New Orleans. If I did, I'd make sure I had the Raiders-Chiefs game on there as well as here. That's one of those great traditional matchups I like.

Tucson Wade: How loud will Arrowhead Stadium be today?

Cal: They'd better be careful to not get cheered out. With all the scoring that game will have, there could be a serious epidemic of deflated CheerStix.

Manny: The Chiefs defense will have to cooperate because my Raiders haven't been the offensive machine of late that they'd been in the first four games, when they averaged better than 40 points per game. In their last two, they've averaged 17. It doesn't take a genius to realize how they won their first four and lost their last two.

Molly: I read about another interesting quarterback connection today, in the Broncos-Patriots game. Denver's Brian Griese beat out then-sophomore Tom Brady at Michigan for the backup job that led to a starting position on the 1997 national championship team.

Cal: I think it's about time we got a Lions game up on these TVs. They're at Buffalo today and that could be another one of these great quarterback matchups. We all know how well Drew Bledsoe has played for the Bills and Joey Harrington is starting to emerge now. And you can't discount the kind of fire it lights under a team when your general manager, in this case Matt Millen, calls one of his players a ``devout coward'' and questions the whereabouts of his players' ``testicles'' on a radio show.

Sal: The only reason to watch the Cowboys-Seahawks game is to see if Emmitt Smith gets the 93 yards he needs to surpass Walter Payton's career rushing record. And then, finally, they can feel better about sticking him on the bench more.