1. I will take Washington minus 3 at Jax for $44. Jax has gone from one of my "good teams" to one that I will bet against.

2. I will take Over 36 Wash/Jax game for $33.

3. I will take Indy minus 8.5 versus New England for $33. Despite winning two in a row, New England is not a good team. Jets showed that last weekend.

4. I will take Denver minus 10 versus Cincy for $33. Broncos have scored 217 points this year; Bungles have scored 37.

5. As a flier, I will take Philly minus 6.5 versus Chicago for $22. Philly is not a good team but Chicago is a bad one.

American University decided last Spring to withdraw from the Colonial Athletic Conference to join the Patriot League next year. This started an exodus from the CAA and the remaining schools decided to bar AU from playing in their post season tournaments this year. AU went to court to sue them. The judge would not issue an order putting AU into these playoffs/tournaments and so the proceedings march on. Now the senior athletes are going to sue asserting their right to participate. I must have slept through that lesson on the Bill of Rights back in civics class. Talk about wasting time on an issue that has no importance…

Patrick Roy set the record for the number of wins by a goalie in the NHL. He has won 448 games and surpassed the record held by Terry Sawchuck. What I find interesting is that he broke the record while playing in 125 fewer games than Sawchuck. That is impressive.

Less impressive is the congratulatory video compiled by the NHL to commemorate this event. One of the people on the video who offers his congratulations to Roy is a rassler known as "Stone Cold Steve Austin". (What is his shtick? Is he a cadaver?) But as a rassler, I'll wager just a small amount that at some point in his career he has picked up a chair or a tennis racket or some "foreign object" and clocked someone upside the head from behind with said "foreign object". In the aftermath of Marty McSorley's trial, is this the image the NHL wants? It is not what they need!

Given the subway series and the fundamental animosity between Mets' and Yankees' fans - and the overarching congeniality that permeates NYC at all times - I wonder if there will be XFL scouts present to check out the stands looking for people who want to hit and be hit. If not, they could be missing a rich talent pool.

By the way, the TV ratings for the NLCS and the ALCS were down more than 30%. Where are the instant pundits who quickly concluded that the Olympics' ratings were down because of the tape delay? These games were on in real time. The real answer is that ratings go down when there are other things to do/watch and when the event is "less than compelling". At least two of the baseball games went more than 4 hours and there is a limit on how much stalling and lack of action will hold one's interest. My two rule changes to speed up games would be:

1. Call higher strikes so batters are in the box swinging so you get fewer deep counts.

2. Batter is allowed to step out of the batter's box one time per at-bat except to replace a broken bat/helmet. Second time he steps out, he is out.

In NFL news, Leo Nomellini died. Leo played OT/DT for the 49ers in the days when players went both ways on offense and defense and when face guards had not been invented and when being replaced in a game meant that there was a broken bone sticking through the skin at the moment. Even by those standards, he was one tough guy. He was 76 years old.

Dick Butkus was also a legendary tough guy. He had been named the coach of the Chicago Whatevers in the XFL but he has already been kicked upstairs. Butkus will be the "director of football operations" for the league. With the World Wrestling Federation as a prime investor/owner here, does that mean Butkus picks who wins? Or maybe Butkus is the league officer tough enough to go to NY to scout for players in the stands at World Series Games? So the Chicago Whatevers need a new coach and the XFL goes out and gets Ron Myers for the job. Wasn't he involved in getting the SMU football program the NCAA "death penalty"?

Frank Garza better be one tough guy. He is the stuckee who drew the short straw and has to referee the Tyson/Golotta fight tomorrow night. For his journey into the ring with two guys who might stand a second glance by psychologists looking for examples of sociopathy, he will reportedly earn $350.

Things are not all warm and fuzzy in Cincy. There was a story in the Cincinnati Enquirer interviewing the head of the math department at the University of Cincinnati and dealing with the mathematical calculations of the probability of an 0-16 season for the Bengals. (Somehow they came up with a probability of 0.31 for a winless season but the logic was less than crystal clear.) And to add to that aura of good feelings, Paul Tagliabue was in town to talk to some business leaders and to tour Paul Brown Stadium (note he did that when there was no game ongoing therein!) and Tagliabue issued a "vote of confidence" for Mike Brown and the Bengals' long term plan. He told the fans that patience was necessary and that it would be a mistake for the Bengals to change course and do something different. First of all, winning a game would be "something different"; secondly, don't people usually wind up getting the axe after a vote of confidence? How might the commish get rid of an owner?

By the way, no team has gone 0-16 for a season since the season was expanded to 16 games in 1978. The worst start was by the Saints in the early 80s when they lost the first 14 games and finished the season at 1-15. In addition to being 0-6 this season, Akili Smith is now 0-9 in his last nine starts. This is the guy who was angry that two teams passed him over in the draft in 1999.

Lots of announcers are falling all over themselves now to declare that Duante Culpepper is the best of the QBs in the "Class of 99". He may well be, but it is far too early to know that. Three of the QBs taken ahead of him play for Cleveland Cincy and Chicago. Those three teams all play in cities that begin with the letter "C" (proving that I did watch Sesame Street with my kids) and those three teams stink. The other QB taken ahead of Culpepper plays for the Eagles who are a middling team. Culpepper is a great physical specimen with an arm that will allow him to throw a football through an engine block; but at the moment, his success is as much a function of the team around him as it is his natural greatness.

The last time the Arizona Cardinals scored on their first possession of the game was in December 1997 - 38 games ago. Later this season, they play in Cincy and the streak could be up to 43 at that point. That may the only interesting thing to look for in that game between two stinko teams.

Kent Harvey is the kid who caused the incident that got Bob Knight fired at IU. He and his two brothers have withdrawn from IU and along with their mother and stepfather have left the state. There is no word on where they may be enrolling in the future but leaving IU was probably a smart move on their part.

The Sixers waived Mark Karcher from Temple who was their 2nd round pick in last year's draft. Karcher just does not have an "NBA body" at this point in his life. He left Temple early because he had financial difficulties including having a daughter who is stricken with sickle cell anemia. Outside the NBA, the only money in basketball is in Europe; CBA salaries are better than what he might earn as a WalMart greeter, but the difference in money between a CBA contract and an NBA contract is humongous.

Toronto released Taymon Domzalski yesterday. I wonder what miraculous set of events the Raptors' brass had imagined being visited on Taymon to qualify him as an NBA player?

According to this morning's Washington Post, Tiger Woods and Notah Begay III and Stewart Cink and Kirk Triplett were playing a warm up round for the President's Cup and they announced to the press trailing along that they had bet money on the round. Where is the outrage from the Congress? Where are the college presidents who think that banning betting on college sports in Las Vegas will cure gambling and restore the purity of sport? Imagine what happens if A. Bartlett Giamatti is reincarnated and is made the PGA Golf Guru on the basis of poetry he writes about golf. Tiger Woods and Pete Rose; brothers in infamy; banned from their sport; forced to submit to interviews by gnats like Jim Gray. The lesson here is that people make wagers; it isn't gonna stop; deal with it.

Yesterday, I said that Laurel Racecourse had started its Fall meet. Well let me tell you what they did yesterday. Remember that most tracks - Laurel is one of them - take a higher percentage of the pari-mutuel pool for "exotic wagers" like exactas and trifectas than they do for straight win/place/show betting. Laurel ran its opening day stakes race yesterday with four starters. That is "four" as in the number of quarters in a football game, the number of quarters in an NBA game and the number of years that the next President will serve - no matter which goof is elected. With four starters, they allowed trifecta wagering. There was no "show wagering", but there was trifecta wagering. Quick call the spin doctors to explain how that was a favor done by the track for its valuable patrons.

I'll see you all next week; same bat time; same bat channel.

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