1. I'll take Skins minus 10 at Cards for $33. This would have been a bigger bet but Jeff George starts his first game Sunday. Very good team rolls over bad team.

2. I'll take Ravens minus 5 at Benglas for $22. Ravens adopted motto, "We will score no TDs before it's time." Well, it's time! Good team rolls over bad team.

3. I'll take Dolphins plus 3 at Lions for $33. Yes the Lions play well at home. No they are not the better team. 'Fins win outright and the points are gravy.

4. I'll take Giants minus 10 at Browns for $33. Formula bet. Good team rolls over really bad team.

5. I'll take Colts minus 7 at Bears for $33. Colts are better at home to be sure but Bears are bad. Good team rolls over bad team.

6. I'll take Bucs minus 7 at Falcons for $55. Bucs need the game and Atlanta is miserable. Good team rolls over bad team.

7. Monday night - - - we'll see after this weekend.

Mike Riley must be the best performer in interview circumstances or he must be the nicest guy in the world or he must have some mystical power over people who make hiring decisions for football coaches. He had a mediocre record at Oregon; he is not distinguishing himself in San Diego and yet, he is mentioned as the guy with the inside track to replace Phil Hackett at USC after the season when Hackett is virtually certain to be run out of LA on a rail. If that happens, Hackett should be prepared to cite an Abraham Lincoln story about a guy who was run out of town on a rail. Lincoln said that the man commented, "Other than the honor of having left in that way, I'd rather have walked."

As I said, Jeff George will start for the Skins on Sunday in Arizona and the word now is that the knee injury to Brad Johnson will have him out 2-4 weeks. (The Skins' bye week falls in that span.) It is a second degree sprain/injury/whatever to the MCL and the doctors say that he could make the injury worse if he plays on it too soon. So George plays and now the backstage opera with Danny Boy starts. One reason Danny Boy was upset with Charlie Casserley was that Charlie "overpaid" for Brad Johnson. Bringing in George to make more money than Johnson to be the back-up and then stalling negotiations in Johnson's final contract year tells you that Danny Boy likes George a lot better. So if George lights up a pathetic Cardinal defense this weekend, there will actually be a reason within Redskin Park to ask the musical question, "Who Let The Dogs Out?"

I am really bummed by Andy Beyer's column today. I had picked my longshot in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf and Andy tells everybody else about Catella in his column today. Turns out that he also handicapped the Juvenile Filly race the same way I did and so the odds on my selections there will be reduced. Now I certainly hope he is right because that means I will also be right. But next year, maybe he could break both wrists prior to typing out his column and revealing that information?

Dexter Manley is coming back to the DC area to play in a charity golf tournament to help inner city kids. The tournament is being sponsored by the Good Samaritan Foundation. Somehow, I don't see Dexter as the poster child for this organization. But if he can help raise some money for a good cause, good on him.

It takes time to do things right. It has taken more than six months since the announcement of the existence of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) for the league to identify the teams and the dispersal of the players from the Women's National Team - and Olympic team too - and to talk about its inaugural season schedule. There will be 8 teams; they will begin play in April 2001; they will play a regular season of 21 games. The teams project to draw 7,000 to 8,000 per game which is a reasonable goal but the Washington entry - the Washington Freedom - has signed a lease to play in RFK stadium. Even if they draw 12,000 per game which is 50% over their high estimate, the crowd will rattle around in that facility. If you buy a season ticket to the Freedom games, you can also get two free season tickets usable by children under 6 years old. Not a bad marketing strategy.

Memo to WUSA: Please change the name of the Tampa franchise immediately. The baseball team name stinks and calling the soccer team the Tampa Bay Cyber Rays is pure awful.

After laying an egg in their season opener where the Knicks scored only in the mid-70s and allowed the Sixers to shoot over 55% from the floor, the Knicks clocked the Atlanta Hawks. Granted, Dikembe Mutombo did not play, but anyone who thinks that Mutombo is an offensive force is visiting from another galaxy. The Knicks defense held the Hawks to 69 points. The Hawks only shot 26 for 78 from the field and the only player to shoot 50% or better for the night played 3 minutes and made his only shot. The Knicks are not as bad as they looked in their opener; the Hawks may just be this bad.

After the Blazers lost at home to the Lakers in their season opener, they traveled to Phoenix and got scorched. The Blazers lost by 26 to the Suns. Interesting note in the box score involves the Suns' rookie, Tsakalidis. This is the kid who had the ironclad European contract for the next umpteen years and the team would not release him but he said he would never play anywhere except in the NBA again and all that nonsense. Well after a lot of wrangling and some negotiations, he is in Phoenix. Last night he played 7 minutes and had 3 personal fouls. He may be big and young and talented, but he obviously has a lot to learn yet.

What is going on in the Athletic Department at Iowa? Last season they were out looking for a football coach and Bob Stoops was available and Bob Stoops is an Iowa alum and a former member of Hayden Fry's coaching staff. The suits dilly-dallyed and fidgeted and kept saying they needed to go through a complete selection process and Stoops told them to take a long walk off a short pier and went to Oklahoma. Note, OU is doing moderately well thusfar this year. Iowa eventually got their act together and hired Kirk Ferentz who has not exactly taken the Hawkeyes to the mountain top yet but the Athletic Department must not want to go through another "complete selection process" any time soon. They just extended Ferentz' contract through June 2005.

Just in case you missed it - or worse yet care about it - Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria defeated Kveta Hrdlickova (6-4, 6-0) in a second round match in the Sparkassen Cup played in Leipzig.

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