Real Jersey Guys often do some dumb things, but rarely do they make stupid moves. Say hello to Rhode Island basketball coach Danny Hurley. Hurley is a very much a Jersey guy in every sense of the word. He played for his dad, Hall of Fame coach Bob Hurley, at St. Anthony’s in Jersey City. He went to school at Seton Hall. He coached high school basketball at St. Benedict’s in Newark. Therefore it made perfect sense when Hurley’s name moved to the top of the list for the Rutgers job after the fiasco involving Scarlet Knights’ basketball coach Mike  Rice and the forced resignation of Director of Athletics Tim Pernetti.

But Hurley, who took over at URI last season, listened to Rutgers offer, and shook his head in either amazement or disgust when it was for only five years, instead of the 7 he expected and wanted to clean up the toxic waste area that RU basketball has become.

And then, with a two-year contract extension in his hands from URI which will pay him approximately $750,000 a year, Hurley turned down his state university.

Smart move for which Hurley earns our Jersey Guy of the  Week Award.

It’s crisis time in New Jersey, with the mess involving the Rutgers Athletic program. So it is time for a true Jersey guy to step in and take control. We have a candidate, who could not only do the job–he has experience running a waste-management firm, as well as RU athletics.

Staff meetings could be held in the Jersey Pinelands for security, privacy and convenience.

We give you James Gandolfini, who the folks in Jersey also know as Tony Soprano.

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She was born in Brooklyn. Went to school at Vassar. But the essence of what she was and became was developed in Millburn, where she developed her acting pedigree.

With that as a backdrop, plus the events of last month when she won an Oscar for her performance as Fantine in Les Miserables, Anne Hathaway is our Jersey Guy (Girl) of the Week.

Acting in her blood?

Well try this, her mother, Kate, played the role of Fantine in the first US Tour of Les Miserables. Anne who turned 30, was a teenage star at productions at Millburn High School and in the local Paper Mill Playhouse.

Picking a Jersey Guy of the Week can vary in the degree of difficulty.

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If the football writers get it right and do their job and if the moons are properly aligned, Bill Parcells should have something to celebrate in New Orleans this weekend. The Big Tuna as he has been called in many circles, should finally get elected to the Pro Football Hall of  Fame.

For the coach with two Super Bow wins with the Giants and one loss with the Patriots, for the man who spawned Bill Belichick and who had stints not only with the Patriots, but the Jets, the Dallas Cowboys and the Miami Dolpins it is time to put an exclamation point on an NFL career which began as a 7th round NFL draft pick by the Lions out of Wichita State in 1964 and who started his coaching career the same year as the linebackers coach for the Hastings Broncos.

Parcells had stops at Army, Florida State, Vanderbilt, Texas Tech and the Air Force Academy before he turned pro as the Giants defensive coordinator in 1979.

But before that, there was the kid from Jersey who was born in Englewood, grew up in Hasbrouck Heights and went to River Dell High School in Oradell, all within a 10 mile radius of each other in Bergen County.

Even then, Parcells had a lot of Jersey guy in him. He didn’t like the name of Duane given him by his parents Ida and Charles. So he chose the name Bill. It stuck

It sill took Parcells who was a three-sport star at River Dell., some time to find his stride. He enrolled at Colgate out of high school and turned down an offer from the Philadelphia Phillies because his father thought that there were better career opportunities than sports offered at the time.

Parcells emerged as a decent football player at Wichita, but not at the NFL level and his career ws over before he played a regular season game with the Lions.

His career in coaching and in the NFL began and spanned 46 seasons before he ended his tenure with the Dolphins front office in 2010.

My favorite memory of Parcells was in training camp with the Patriots when they were still spending their summers in Smithfield at Bryant College (now University). It was a quiet day and the Tuna didn’t have much news, but he could always entertain.

“Tough day today, fellas,” said Parcells to the group of  reporters looking for some Tuna talk. “Tough day. They’re putting No. 7 in the ground.”

No. 7 was Hall of Fame  Yankee center fielder Mickey Mantle who had just died.  For any kid growing up in north Jersey in the 50′s or 60′s as Parcells had, the Mick was the Mick. And for 30 minutes Parcells told story after story about Mantle and the Yankess and being a Yankee fan, growing up in Jersey.

And then he was done. “Got to go to work, felllas ” said Parcells who then disappeared back into the Patriot coaching offices.

Let’s hope that by the end of Saturday, being a Hall of Famer is included in Parcells profile, who is our Jersey Guy of the Week.

He has been underrated and you could certainly make an argument that he has also been underappreciated.

Not any more. No, Joe Flacco may not be the QB flavor of the week–that is San Francisco QB Colin Kaepernick right now

But that changed after Sunday’s 28-13 win over the Patriots in the AFC championship game. Flacco and the Ravens are going to the Super Bowl in two weeks to meet Kaepernick and the 49ers.

All Flacco did was throw 3 TDs to win the duel with the Patriots’ Tom Brady. All he did a week earlier was to throw three more TD’s to win a 38-35 shootout against the Denver Broncos and Peyton Manning. And all he did a week earlier was throw a pair of TD passes to win a 24-9 duel against the Indianapolis Colts and the next designated great QB, Andrew Luck.

Officially, that is 8 TDs, 0 interceptions for 853 yards and a 3-0 record in the playoffs.

Not bad for a QB who came to the NFL, via the University of Delaware and New Jersey, where the 28-year old Flacco came out of Audubon High School in South Jersey as a 3-star recruit who has gotten better at each level of football he has tried.

For his past performances and what he might do in two weeks in New Orleans against the 49ers, Joe Flacco is  our Jersey Guy of the Week.

I like Dick Vitale. Always have. And yes, I’ve heard the criticism that Dickie V takes it over the top too much on his college basketball broadcasts. And yes, he has no mute button, no matter what subject he is talking about.

But what makes Vitale different and special and certainly worthy of being included in the National Broadcasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame as was announced over the weekend is that Dickie V is 100 percent genuine.

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Sometimes in the world of ajerseyguy,  you just have to shake your head in amazement. Which is our reaction to the news that Rutgers’ basketball coach Mike  Rice had been suspended for inappropriate behavior.

As our buddy, Providence Journal wise guy, but only a jerseyguy wanna be Jim Donaldson said, “Inappropriate behavior from a Jersey guy? Is that possible?”

Well, it is although we confess that the bar is set so low here that a limbo dancer would have to be in a subway to get lower.

Here’s how the Associated Press story described  what happened to Rice this week.

“Rutgers has suspended coach Mike Rice three games without pay and fined him $50,000 for a violation of department policy.

Athletic director Tim Pernetti announced the decision Thursday. He said the suspension is a result of inappropriate behavior and language, not NCAA violations.”

For this, Mike Rice is our Jersey Guy of the Week.

In this era of marketing and social network promotion, ajerseyguy.com is offering a  gift for the holidays and beyond. A Jersey Guy t-shirts are now available and can be purchased through the process on this website.

With the motto of  A Jersey Guy: “Deal With it ” as a reminder–in a nice way of course, we hope to  keep the hits and highlights-more than 300,000 views and counting-as well as the news coming.

Mark Blaudschun–ajerseyguy

How much more Jersey guy can you get than to grow up in South Orange, attend Saint Benedict’s Prep in  Newark, migrate south to North Carolina, settle down in the Midwest as commissioner of the Big Ten and then finally come back to New Jersey as the patron saint of the state University of New Jersey, Rutgers.

That is the shortened bio of Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, commissioner of the Big Ten since 1989, who made Rutgers officials happy last week by extending the Scarlet Knights an invitation to the Big Ten, a move that will secure the financial future of Rutgers.

And that Delany came back, taking indirect shots at Notre Dame and the Atlantic Coast Conference by taking Maryland as well,  in true “don’t get mad get even fashion” makes Delany our Jerseyguy of the Week.

Well done.