1. I'll take SF plus 5.5 vs Atlanta for $44. I know that Chandler is going to play for the Falcons, but SF is a poor team on the rise and Atlanta is a poor team going to sea on a sub named Kursk.

2. I'll take Pittsburgh minus 4 vs Jax for $44. If Steelers lose it could cost them even a shot at the playoffs. Jax is a good team that has unraveled like a cheap Argyle suit.

3. I'll take New England minus 7 vs Cincy for $22. I don't like betting on teams like New England with injuries and a coach that has all the motivational skills of Bob Dole, but there are two words that justify this wager: Scott Mitchell.

"Coaching Note: League office investigating Bruce Coslett's claim that he lost his Bengals job because of a 'hanging Chad' ".

Look, Jesse Ventura is no longer a rassler; he is a recognized national figure. He played football; he coached high school football in Minnesota; and he continues to coach high school football in Minnesota even as he is the governor there. So, he knows something about the game. As a politician, he is certainly comfortable with a microphone stuck in his face or pinned to his lapel. So maybe he will be good at announcing and maybe he will be horrendous, but that is for audiences to decide after he is on the air and not before. As for his implied dereliction of duty as governor, the voters of Minnesota will have a chance to address that issue in about two years. Unfortunately for the horrified pundits of the moment, it is solely the people of Minnesota that will make that decision and all the opinions of these pundits do not amount to a pinch of platypus poop.

And by the way, who ever said that Jimmy Kimmel - on the FOX TV pre-game show - was qualified to talk about football. He is a comedian and not a particularly funny one. Over on the other network, they employ Jerry Glanville who pretended to be a coach while in fact he was a comedian. It is bad enough to make sweeping judgments about announcers after one performance, but to demonstrate ahead of time that you are not going to like whatever they might do is unseemly.

Tamarick Vanover used to be a WR and kick returner for the Chiefs after a brief career at Florida State and a year or so in NFL Euorpe when it was called the World League of American Football. Vanover was sentenced in a case involving insurance fraud and the interstate shipment of at least one stolen car. He got a fine and a little jail time and some in-home detention which was pretty light because he "assisted prosecutors" in some other cases. One involved his "joint venture" with Bam Morris to transport marijuana from Texas to KC - and as I recall the amount of marijuana was in the "tens of kilograms" range. Additionally, Vanover and another "partner" worked to import some cocaine from Florida to KC. Just a guess here, but I don't think he will be invited into the locker room to give any motivational speeches to the FSU Seminoles tomorrow before the game with Florida.

On the same day that this story hits the news, we have a role reversal for Darryl Strawberry. Darryl is no stranger to courtrooms and sentencing situations; in fact, if the ABA allowed for "life experience credit" or "on the job training", Darryl might be practicing law by now. But at this moment, he is in court as a witness for the prosecution in an attempted murder trial with someone else playing the role of defendant. (If this were a Broadway musical, Darryl would now break into a chorus of I've Looked At Life From Both Sides Now…") It seems that while Darryl was actually paying attention in one of his group therapy sessions, someone else admitted shooting someone and trying to kill them. (I guess there is a need to consider the possibility that if I shoot someone, I might have some other end-state in mind - such as making it harder for them to pass through a metal detector at an airport without starting a meaningful relationship with one of the geniuses that wields the hand-held detection unit - but normally shooting someone and trying to kill them go hand-in-hand.) Darryl also managed to remember something from his civics classes and did the "good-citizen" thing and reported this admission to the authorities.

Jeff Kent won the MVP Award in the National League. I do not mean to diminish anything that he did during the season; he had a great year. But my pick would have been Jim Edmonds.

The Phillies announced the signing of John Kruk to their player development staff. We can only hope that he will not advise young players on things like physical conditioning, sartorial splendor or personal grooming. The announcement did not say what Kruk had been doing since his playing days ended, but one possible field of endeavor for him might have been haunting houses.

The city of Philadelphia seems determined to continue their unbroken streak of making the wrong choices regarding sports facilities. The streak started back in the late 60s when they decided to build Veterans Stadium where they did and continues to this day. After years of complaints by everyone from players and coaches to people who have spent years trying to track down a yeti, the city fathers decided to replace the turf that is currently on the field with a different surface. They chose another synthetic rug called NeXturf.

Memo to Philly Mayor: The NeXturf needs to be - listen closely - turf. As in grass. As in what cows eat and turn into meadow muffins.

Early in the college basketball season, there are days where the number of games played is very small and so there is room in the papers for scores that you will never see once everybody is playing. Yesterday, Lambuth beat Lindsey Wilson 73-60. I have no idea where either of these institutions of higher learning might be and if you know, then you must live nearby because I think that the Board of Trustees for these places need to get directions to each and every Board meeting.

Lots of people get named to the position of "interim coach". Usually this happens when a coach is fired or resigns during a season and it is understandable that the team just wants to get through the rest of the scheduled games before making a more permanent choice. Sometimes there are unusual events that cause these kinds of assignments such as when Bob Knight was fired and there was a great controversy about that firing and about the future of the program. But "interim coach" is a title that has a stigma attached to it. One translation is, "You're the only person in sight who knows your ass from your elbow about this sport but we think you are a dolt and so we'll let you try to do this for a while and hope that you don't embarrass the organization too much." With that as a backdrop, Belmont Abbey just named an "interim softball coach". The season does not begin for 4 more months. What message would you attach to that hiring decision?

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