I'd say a C+.

I can play the groove, but not up to the tempo of the song, and I don't channel Porcaro when I do it. 

Nutty: I don't understand what you're saying.  The grade range is from A+ (best) to F (worst).  I'm asking you to grade yourself. 

Maybe you were confused by my joke about a "gentleman's F" which is a play on the "gentleman's C" -- a euphemism for a passing but unremarkable academic performance.

I haven't played it in a little while but I don't think it would take me long to get it back to where I was with it. I would have to give myself a B on it, based on what I was doing with it. I play it and play it at the tempo and can play it at a faster tempo but wouldn't dare say I have channeled Porcaro and sound just like him. Very nice groove.

 
F
 
(A good shuffle groove isn't easy, is it?)
 

I'm still planning on featuring this on the series of Legendary Drum Licks. I'll be breaking the groove down a bit more than what Jeff demonstrates, plus show what each limb is doing independently. 

Well I think I can do a reasonable attempt at it thanks to Bart.  So I'd give myself a C. 

I started trying to figure this out when I was 17. It wasn't until I saw JP doing it on his video that I worked out where I was going wrong. I will hesitantly rate myself a B-. I am very reluctant to rate myself against any Porcaro groove - though I will say that they keep me motivated to play.

Lido is obviously another great groove, though my favourite is "Black Friday" on the Katy Lied album by Steely Dan.

I'm still trying to figure out the notation. 

Never saw parens on a chart before.

And actually, notes with parentheses around them mean they are optional or played occasionally. In the case of the notation you are probably looking at, the parentheses are around ghosted notes. I just wanted to point out that this is not really common to do. There's no "standard" per se.

Ghosted notes are typically the unaccented notes. Sometimes they will use smaller note-heads for the ghost notes. I don't notate ghost notes with parentheses because it gets too cluttered. Others feel the same way, which is why the parentheses are reserved for notes that are either optional or are not played every single time (assuming you are repeating the figure).

Just an FYI. 

Jeff had an extraordinary amount of talent from all accounts I heard.

Chalk me up for the big 'F'. I've tried, but its beyond me.

I am going to say A- or B+ for me. This is one groove I have alway played pretty well. Perfect,,, NO.

I played that song in another band. I'd give myself a B mainly because I haven't played it for a while. That particular band done a lot of shuffle songs, so I got that beat down pretty good.