1. I'll take Tennessee minus 9 against Cincy for $33. The Bungles got a bounce last week with their new coach and scored 13 points quickly. Now they revert to their talent level - which is sub-par. Good in golf; bad in the NFL.

2. I'll take Denver minus 6.5 against SD for $33. Junior Seau said it all when he said it could indeed get worse in SD. Scary thought.

3. I'll take Giants even against Falcons for $33. Atlanta has been favored all week and late money sent this line from 1.5 to even. Neither team is that good but I think the Falcons are headed toward dreadful.

Green Bay may or may not have Dorsey Levens again - depends on which “insider” you prefer to listen to - and has to go to Detroit where the Lions are supposedly good but are not. It does not matter much if the Lions are good or bad, because the Pack ain't that good either.

Baltimore and Jax play in a big time game for both teams. If Jax loses here, they get Tennessee and Washington next, and that could spell big time trouble. Jax cannot run very well and Baltimore only gives up about 40 yards per game so Brunell should throw about 50 times. Baltimore also gets Washington and Tennessee next and so a victory here puts them in a good position in the AFC Central race. Is this the coming out party for the Ravens - or are they still not quite ready for prime time?

The University of Minnesota has had a committee look into the academic scandals perpetrated on the university by Clem Haskins and the basketball program. Evidently this group has concluded that there was evil-doings by 17 "students" - all of whom were basketball players - and 1 now retired faculty member. All the students are gone from the school and so the sanctions available to the university are limited but they can consider rescinding diplomas, reducing numbers of credits granted to students who may ask for courses to be transferred to other schools, reducing grades in courses and things like that. The retired professor will not be allowed to use "retired faculty facilities" such as offices and computers and will not be allowed to teach courses at the university as an emeritus professor. Hopefully, this will close this chapter of this particular scandal so we can await the next one. And you know the next one is coming; you just don't know where it will hit.

Speaking of scandals, the conversation would naturally gravitate to the topic of - boxing. After Bob Arum has been suspended in Nevada for a while and denied access to locker rooms and the ring area in Nevada fight venues because he bribed an IBC official to sanction a title fight of zero consequence, it seemed to be business as usual. But now the New Jersey boxing overseers have suddenly caught a case of the conscience and are wondering if that admitted behavior makes Arum fit to be involved in boxing in New Jersey at all. He and an accomplice could be declared “unfit for casino business licenses.” They probably are “unfit” in some grand and cosmic sense, but if Don King is fit to do business in NJ, then so are these goofs.

The new ABA will begin play on the day after Christmas this year with their new 8 team league. Remember I told you that two teams will be named the Dogs and the Thunder Dawgs? Well another team will be the Memphis Hound Dawgs and the Jacksonville entry will be the Jackals. So let me say now that at the first hint of difficulty in the league, some clever person will say that the league was “destined to go to the dogs.”

Terrell Owens and Randy Moss and Andre Rison are all considering taking their talents to the NBA. So is Tony Gonzales. Can Deion be far behind? And if there is a crossover in the other direction, I suspect that Jahidi White could be a DT and if you put an orange dunce cap on him, Greg Ostertag could be a perfect goal line pylon.

The Paper Clips have suspended center Keith Closs for a lack of physical conditioning. After watching him play last year - when presumably he was in satisfactory physical shape and was under the direct tutelage of Kareem Abdul Jabbar - I would say that moving him off the team for lack of physical talent would be a more relevant move.

The Knicks already waived Vernon Maxwell after getting him as part of the Patrick Ewing trade. Maybe they think he would be a bad influence on Latrell Sprewell?

Allen Iverson has now issued a “profound apology” to any women or gays who are offended by the misogynist and homophobic lyrics in his rap album. Can this really be a surprise to him since he is so street smart and wise in the ways of the world? Iverson thinks “his music” is his individualistic expression of what he has experienced. In reality it is merely copycat music of the typical rap recording. Sorry Allen; you are not a rebel at all; you are “mainstream” in a backwater of the social flow.

In NCAA football, Gary Barnett has ordered the buffalo logo removed from the helmets of the Colorado football team. With an 0-4 start, he is demanding that the team earn back the privilege of wearing the logo. The Buffaloes go to Texas A&M this week and are 7.5 point underdogs. I think Gary got very lucky one year at Northwestern and was declared a “great coach” by the media - lots of whom graduated from the Northwestern journalism program - and has been living off those accolades since then. One of the team co-captains said that taking the decals off the helmets and telling the team that they are not Buffaloes, “hurts”. Was it really news to this scholar-athlete that he is not a buffalo?

Iowa State's football team should never make any mental mistakes on the field. Their QB is named Sage Rosenfels and they have a WR named Moses. It ought to take a lot of people named Dumbass or its equivalent to counteract a Sage and a Moses.

Finally, Bowling Green is the team that lost to Temple and Buffalo U this season and Ball State has the longest losing streak in the country now at 27 - or something like that. These teams are geographically close to each other; might they meet later on in the season? Scary indeed!

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...