Its December, and in some cities the weather is bad, the football is worse.While overall attendance in the NFL is up -- credit in great part the Rams move from St. Louis to Los Angeles -- those empty seats you see in several stadiums are no mirage.There are even lots of empties in the LA Memorial Coliseum; maybe there was no honeymoon period with the Rams returning to LA.Jacksonville, Cincinnati, Miami, San Francisco, Cleveland and the Jersey Meadowlands when the Jets are home have had rows and rows of unused tickets. Other than Miami, those clubs have losing records this season.The Dolphins (8-5) have announced sellouts each week, but there have been thousands of empty seats.Detroit, perhaps on its way to a first-round playoff bye, has seen the same; last weekends win over the Bears drew 61,726 to the 65,000-seat facility.Atlanta is tied for the NFC South lead and has sold out 67 straight games, but the stands have not been filled for much of this season, including a crowd almost 3,000 under capacity for the opener.The Bucs, tied atop the NFC South with the Falcons, are averaging 60,423 through seven games, 5,000 under capacity.When the 49ers hosted the Jets last Sunday, Levis Stadium was about half full. Of course, the matchup was a weak one, but the Niners havent drawn well for other contests, including against division rival Arizona.It appears to be a combination of the team consistently losing, people not enamored of the stadium and its location in Santa Clara, and, on hot days, the sun baking a significant number of seats, making it uncomfortably hot.Dont think the players dont notice, either. San Franciscos Ahmad Brooks called it disrespectful that so many Patriots fans were in the building on Nov. 20. Minnesotas Stefon Diggs said it was a great crowd when most of the fans in Jacksonville on Sunday were wearing purple.I almost thought it was a home game it was so loud for us at times. Its louder back home, but it was great fan support for us today. They came out and showed a lot of love.Theres not much love being shown in Cleveland, which seems logical given the Browns chase of infamy. Browns fans are among the most loyal in football, but an 0-fer is a bit too much to bear.That means plenty of empty orange seats at FirstEnergy Stadium. The crowds have gotten noticeably smaller and last Sunday the stadium was only half-filled for Ohio rival Cincinnati. For other games, notably against Pittsburgh and Dallas, there were thousands of opposing fans.Well, we did that to ourselves, said tackle Joe Thomas, Clevelands best player. Were the ones that didnt win the games. If we would be 13-0, I guarantee it would be packed, theyd be selling tickets for a thousand bucks a pop.So its not discouraging any more than the record that we have is discouraging. Thats the nature of the NFL. If you dont win, people dont want to watch you.In Tampa, which has a young and exciting team building something impressive, the first game in which there wasnt a massive presence of fans in visiting regalia was against Seattle -- the Bucs sixth home game.Visiting fans dont have problems getting seats because there are so many tickets available.After last weeks 16-11 win over New Orleans, Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston said: People want to come to these games and see the Bucs play now. Thats fun. Thats fun as a team to know that were coming into a building and everyone is here for us, not the other team. Thats great.This weekend could provide quite a test of fans allegiances for the Bengals and the Jets. Cincinnati has advertised the availability of tickets for Sundays matchup with the Steelers, so theres a decent chance Paul Brown Stadium will be full -- of Terrible Towels.New York has a Saturday night matchup against the Dolphins, one of its top rivals. Dont expect to see waves of green throughout the stands at MetLife Stadium, particularly with a chance of nasty weather.Ryan Bosma, a Jets season ticket holder since 2009, gave his two tickets to friends.Its challenging when the Jets are down the drain, he says. There are just so many tickets available on the secondary market, and supply and demand does not work out in your favor. The market is just flooded with tickets, so to get any kind of return on tickets, its virtually impossible.Yet people keep buying season tickets, hardly an inexpensive venture, particularly when personal seat licenses (PSLs) are involved. Giving away tickets, selling them for less than face value or, even worse, eating them only exacerbates the costs, particularly for fans financing the PSL payments.Bosma admits he chose to purchase the seats and PSLs, so he is stuck with the payments. Hes also stuck with a product that can be woeful. Just like his brethren in several other cities where, despite the overall health of the 32 NFL franchises, pro football is not a slam-dunk attraction.I was on the waiting list for five or six years, Bosma says. They were going into a new stadium and a lot of people decided not to do PSLs, and I went right up the list.Now, he doesnt feel so fortunate. But at least he has company.It is an endless cycle with the Jets, he says with a chuckle and no apparent bitterness. Its the Jets fans life.---AP Sports Writer Charles Odum, Josh Dubow, Joe Kay, Mark Long, Fred Goodall, Tom Withers and Larry Lage contributed.---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFLRay Nitschke Jersey .B. - Sebastien Auger made 44 saves as the Saint John Sea Dogs edged the visiting Acadie-Bathurst Titan 2-1 on Saturday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Yosh Nijman Jersey . 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NEW YORK -- Bartolo Colon and the New York Mets are beginning to play much better. Now they need to start gaining some ground in the standings.Wilmer Flores launched a grand slam, Asdrubal Cabrera homered from both sides of the plate and even Colon had two helpful hits while pitching the third-place Mets to a 9-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night.Jose Reyes and Cabrera opened the Mets half of the first inning with consecutive home runs, just the second time the franchise has accomplished that feat. But the defending NL champions (65-63) remained 3 1/2 games behind St. Louis in a crowded race for the leagues second wild card.Weve still got things weve got to make sure we address and stay on top of, Mets manager Terry Collins said. Its not all a cakewalk from here on out.The 43-year-old Colon (12-7) carried a two-hitter into the eighth and took over the team lead in wins as New York began a pivotal 10-game homestand by winning for the fifth time in its past six.The only other time he got two hits in a game was in August 2002 with the Montreal Expos against Milwaukee.Colon just seems to own us, Philadelphia manager Pete Mackanin said. We cant square the ball up off of him.The pudgy pitcher lashed two sharp hits that delighted the crowd, a leadoff double in the fifth and a line-drive single in the sixth. He scored both times, first ahead of Flores third career slam and then in front of Cabreras second homer of the night.The switch-hitting shortstop became the first Mets player to go deep from both sides in one game since Carlos Beltran at Colorado on May 12, 2011.Its not easy, but Im excited that happened, Cabrera said.A tiring Colon gave up four straight hits to start the eighth but walked off the mound to a warm ovation and acknowledged the crowd by patting his glove and pointing two fingers.It means a lot. It took me back to my Cleveland days, when it was a sellout every time I went on the mound, and we feed off the energy, Colon said through a translator.Phillies left-hander Adam Morgan (1-8) gave up two homers on his first five pitches but recovered. He was trailing 2-1 when Neil Walker, just back from the paternity leave list after the birth of a baby girl, worked a nine-pitch walk to load the bases with two outs in the fifth.Flores reached down and lofted the next delivery over the fence in left-ccenter.ddddddddddddHe was summoned out of the dugout for a curtain call.It feels good, Flores said. They make you feel good every time you do something special.Morgan, who has dropped eight straight decisions, allowed eight hits and struck out eight in five innings. He was fortunate to avoid a serious injury, too, when he barely ducked out of the way of Yoenis Cespedes screaming line drive.Morgan, hit by a line drive earlier this season, spun around and crouched in front of the mound as he caught his breath. The crowd let out a trio of collective groans as the big video board showed three replays of the ball whizzing just above Morgans head.I just know that Im learning. I see improvements. Sure, the home runs and the numbers will tell you different, but I see improvements, Morgan said.CHART CLIMBINGWith his 230th career win, Colon passed Luis Tiant for third-most by a pitcher born in Latin America. Dennis Martinez had 245 and Juan Marichal finished with 243.START ME UPThe only other time the first two Mets hitters homered was in July 2007 when Reyes and Ruben Gotay connected against Cincinnati. Not long before Reyes went deep Friday night, Gotay homered for the Long Island Ducks in the independent Atlantic League. ... Reyes hit his 23rd career leadoff homer and 18th with the Mets, tying teammate Curtis Granderson for the club record.TRAINERS ROOMMets: CF Justin Ruggiano struck out twice and then left in the sixth with left shoulder discomfort. He was replaced by Alejandro De Aza, who drew a leadoff walk to start a three-run sixth. ... RF Jay Bruce struck out all four times, drawing boos from the home crowd. Bruce was back in the lineup after missing Thursday nights victory in St. Louis. He left Wednesday nights game with cramping in his right calf.UP NEXTPhillies RHP Jeremy Hellickson (10-7, 3.60 ERA) starts the middle game of the series Saturday night against Noah Syndergaard (11-7, 2.61). Hellickson, set to make his fourth start this season against the Mets, has won four consecutive decisions overall and six of his last seven. Syndergaard, who is 3-0 with a 1.40 ERA in three career starts against Philadelphia, is coming off eight scoreless innings of two-hit ball at San Francisco on Sunday. ' ' '