It is time to ring the bell on Kansas State and declare them a certifiable fraud. Playing their second real team of the season they lost for the second time. Texas A&M - not a top ten team by any measure - beat them 26-10. I'm sure that the K-State athletic department is scouring the agate type looking for some more creampuff opponents to run up scores on. If they don't mind traveling to New England here are two results that may have slipped their attention - and yours too:

Mass. Maritime 21
Framingham State 7

Salve Regina 51
UMass-Dartmouth 27

The world is not a just place; it's just a place!

The XFL held their draft over the weekend. Quarterbacks were predominantly taken in the first round with Scott Milanovich being the first player taken in league history. That tells you that this league will not be football of a caliber that makes you forget the NFL, but if they can keep the games competitive - and if they do not overburden viewers with the "extremist" or "exhibitionist" shtick that is associated with rasslin, it could be interesting. What I think is a very good twist is that each XFL team has territorial rights to players from three colleges in the local area of the team. That will help build some fan interest in many areas.

Speaking tangentially of rasslin, there was a rassler with the nom de guerre of Yokozuna. Well Yoko was 34 years old and weighed 740 lbs and had to cut back his appearances a lot and could not pass a physical in New York to perform even in the sports entertainment venues. Yoko passed away last week; he lost a pinfall to the Grim Reaper. I wonder what the over/under line is for the number of pallbearers?

The faculty Senate at Penn State passed a resolution which will be read at PSU home games denouncing "negative cheering" at the football games. The faculty Senate is trying to ban booing; I got money that says the fans will boo the ban as soon as it is read. I know this is not a "First Amendment" thing since Congress is not trying to make a law out of this, but you would think that professors at a university have better things to do and more important things to worry about.

Michael Jordan was facing a dilemma regarding the Wizards roster. He can only carry 15 players and he had 16. The dilemma was not that all of them were so good that he dared not cut any of them lest he strengthen one of his rivals - would that it were so for fans of Les Wiz. No, he just could not decide who was the last guy to keep. And then it hit him; he did something that the braintrust before him had not been able to figure out since 1996. He cut Lorenzo Williams who has been with the team since signing in 1996 and who has played in 44 games in that time due to injuries and who is out for at least 4 months this year with yet another leg/foot/ankle surgical procedure. Williams will collect the balance of his guaranteed 7 year $10.6M contract meaning that he will have earned $241K per game with them.

Meanwhile, the once again rededicated point guard veteran leader of Les Wiz, Rod Strickland has been arrested in an incident outside a night club in the wee hours of the morning. This is not news in any sense of the word. But at the moment, the only thing the Wizards can/will do is fine him for being late to practice as he was arranging for bail and for his attorney to take care of some details. None of this is really important to Les Wiz because they are guaranteed to lead the league in players named Michael Smith this year; they have two.

The Sixers need a guard to replace Speedy Claxton who underwent knee reconstructive surgery and so they signed Vernon Maxwell who has been "a bit edgy" wherever he has played in his career. He is now on the same team with Allen Iverson. This has the potential for headlines.

Finally I heard someone in the national media say it. On ESPN's Sports Reporters on Sunday, Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe said that it was abjectly stupid of the Timberwolves to have done what they did for Joe Smith because Smith just is not anywhere near that good! Others there commented that Smith's former agent may have been the one to drop the dime on this when Smith fired him. But some were also worried about poor Joe Smith who was "hammered" by the commissioner because he lost his "Larry Bird rights" and would have to play for some other team for 3 years to re-acquire them. Excuse me folks, Smith was complicit here too. He signed - according to David Stern - at least 5 contracts that were all post-dated. I think a one year suspension would be in order, myself.

Lots of baseball players have filed for free agency. The Cubbies are negotiating a contract extension with Sammy Sosa and hope to have one done before 11 November when teams can make offers to free agents. The Cubbies want to know what kind of payroll numbers they will have to work with in the free agent market.

Memo to Sammy: Sign a deal. You have to stay with the Cubs. You and they were made for each other. Your name is an acronym for the Cubbies. SOSA Cubbies = Same Old Sorry-Assed Cubbies.

In the NFL yesterday, the Ravens managed not to score a TD for the fifth straight game running their streak to 306 minutes without a TD of any kind. They have had 59 possessions in that streak without putting the ball in the end zone; the Ravens are "Oh for October" in touchdown scoring. Next week they go to Cincy which is the team they beat 37-0 in the first meeting and the team from whom they got their last TD. Too bad they are not playing San Diego so I could say that they will try to turn over a new Leaf next week. The Ravens managed an ordinary 274 yards of total offense on Sunday and that was more than Pittsburgh got. But they turned the ball over 3 times and lost 9-6.

The Bengals beat the Browns 12-3. Cincy ran the ball 51 times for 179 yards which is OK but not spectacular. The reason they did this was because when the did throw the ball, not much happened. Akili Smith was 7-20 with one INT and a net of 61 yards. You don't have to be a curmudgeon to say that those stats stink! But the Browns' tandem of Spergon Wynn and Doug Pederson were only marginally better combining to go 13-32 with one INT for a net of 128 yards.

The Vikes lost to the Bucs 41-13. Looking at the stats, there is no way you would predict that. Minnesota had 22 more offensive plays, more first downs and an edge in time of possession. Three turnovers did not help the Vikings. The win puts the Bucs squarely back in the playoff race particularly since Detroit lost to Indy yesterday.

The Giants just plain handled the Eagles. The Giants had 81 offensive snaps and the Eagles only had 42. I do not ever recall seeing such a disparity. The Eagles only had the ball for about 16 minutes and Donovan McNabb had a horrendous game going 10-31 with an INT for a net of 120 yards. The Eagles have Dallas, Pittsburgh and Arizona as their next three games and they need to win at least two of them if they want to stay in the playoff chase. (If the playoffs were held today, two things would be true; the Eagles would be in and it would be the end of December.)

The Cardinals had more first downs than the Saints; they had 36 more rushing yards on fewer carries than the Saints; they had 111 more passing yards than the Saints; they had 19 more offensive plays than the Saints. The Cardinals lost the game 21-10 on the basis of 4 turnovers in the second half of the game. (Miracle man, Jake Plummer threw two INTs - one of which went back the wrong way for a TD - and fumbled once.) You can change the coach; but if you have "Bill Bidwell players" whose most important attribute is that they will play for a number that fits into a small overall payroll structure, there ain't much positive that's gonna be goin' on there. Cardinals' kicker, Cary Blanchard, missed two field goals hitting the upright both times. The Saints still have a playoff shot and may be battling the Eagles for the last slot. If so, the Saints loss to the Eagles in week 4 could be a big deal.

Buffalo won a game they absolutely had to win on the last play of the game. The Bills are now 4-4 and still have an uphill road to the playoffs, but a loss yesterday would have probably dug them a hole too deep to climb out of. They have the Patriots and the Bears in the next two weeks before the schedule turns difficult again. They are alive but have not yet been released from the hospital.

Even though the Chargers covered against the Raiders last night, they showed that bad teams can find ways to lose games. It was the fourth loss this year where the Chargers had led in the 4th quarter. After holding the Raiders to less than 50 yards of offense and one first down in the second half, they took the lead by 1 and failed on a two point conversion. Then they kicked off to the Raiders who proceeded to march down the field to get a chip shot field goal (their fifth of the game) from Sebastian Janikowski to win. But the good news for San Diegans is that the game was a sell-out. Thousands of Raider fans came meaning that the city did not have to buy tickets - unless of course the Raider fans scored them from whatever people had access to them after the city gave them away. And the Raider fans were in their typical garb meaning that I had to think about the fact that this was the Sunday Night Game nearest to Halloween where fans tend to dress up in weird costumes to get on TV…

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