1. I'll take the Vikes minus 5.5 at the Cowboys for $33. I do not like the Vikes' defense; I do not like anything about the Cowboys.

2. I'll take the Steelers minus 3.5 at the Bungles for $33. If the Steelers do not win this handily and hold Bungles to 10 points or less, they can mail in the rest of the season. On the ESPN webpage, someone typed in a wrong number on Tuesday morning and had the over/under line here at 88.5. (It should have been 38.5). But if I were in Vegas and they had these teams at 88.5 for the total, I'd think it was a proposition bet for both of their games in a season; I'd still take "under".

3. I'll take the Titans minus 3 at the Jags for $33. Titans need the game to hold on to best record in AFC; Jags woke up Sunday night and now it is back to nap time.

4. I'll take the Raiders minus 10.5 versus the Falcons for $33. As the NY Yankees radio announcer might say, "The Falcons stink! The Falcons stink! Thhhhhe Falcons stink!!!!!"

I am not playing KC/San Diego or Giants/Arizona either. Yes, I do believe that the Chargers and the Cardinals are dismal when they reach the limits of their potential. The problem is that I am not convinced that the Chiefs or the Giants are as good as their records say. And remember, the Chiefs are 5-6 at this point!

This same argument holds for the Jets. The Bears come to NY and look to be overmatched and ought to be blown out by 15 or more. But the Jets have a knack for playing only about 40 minutes a game and sleepwalking through the rest of a game.

And if you wonder why I did not jump on a good team (Baltimore) over a dismal team (Cleveland), the reason is that the spread is 15.5 and I am not yet convinced that the Ravens' offensive woes are cured. They could win this game 6-0.

The Chargers are poised to start Cryin' Leaf in their last 5 games - assuming that he does not break a toenail or come down with a really bad case of jock itch. Leaf had his best day ever last Sunday against Denver and I think that the Chargers' braintrust has the idea that they might just showcase this guy and maybe unload him in the offseason. It is thinking like that which gets you a Cryin' Leaf in the first place. When - not if - Leaf is cut and is out there on the free agent market, there will be a team somewhere that signs him on the theory that he must have been mishandled in San Diego because he has so much raw talent. But the test of that genius will be how big a signing bonus Leaf gets; the more it is, the more they have to keep him around. And until Leaf grows up (he is currently 24 going on 13), this guy is not much more than a clipboard holder. But don't think harshly of the Chargers' braintrust here; these guys are in serious jeopardy of spending next year selling life insurance; if they find a way to trade Leaf and get anything in return that can wear pads to training camp for even two days, they will catapult themselves into the running for NFL Exec of the Year.

There were hints in Sydney that all was not going well in the preparations for the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Now they have booted out the person in charge of minor parts of the process - such as getting the venues built - and brought in someone to get things started. One "official" was quoted as saying that the process is about 18 months behind schedule. For as many as five venues, the current plans do not call for any shovels of earth to be turned until the spring of 2002 and there is still debate as to the site of the Olympic Village meaning that they would not know where to send the guys with the shovels even if they wanted to start work on this tomorrow. Someone else opined that preparations are so far behind that they can't get all the work done in the next 4 years. Wow. What are they planning to do that will take more than that much time? Stand by for more news here and look for some contingency planning to be done to move the games elsewhere if there are no facilities.

Obviously, Sydney could hold the games again. If that is even contemplated, NBC officials would be throwing themselves out of windows in NY at such a rate that they would have to build nets under their office buildings just to protect pedestrians. LA and Atlanta still have facilities that could be used. But watch somewhere along the lines for someone to float the idea that the Games might be taken to a "secondary economy" to stimulate it and to show that the Olympic spirit extends to all people and not just to athletes. Just keep thinking Bamako Games 2004…

In the Rae Carruth trial, one of Rae's co-defendants told the jury that Rae asked him where he could get a gun because he had gotten a woman pregnant. And this is not the guy who struck a plea deal with the prosecution and will testify later; this is another one of the putative MENSA members that was there on that evening; he was testifying without immunity or a plea bargain. He also said that Rae told him that he was paying child support to some other woman already and did not want to spend that much money on another set of payments. Hard to square this with the defense theory that this shooting was the result of anger over Rae refusing to provide some money to buy marijuana. I can see the drama playing out in California as OJ wonders if Rae has an alibi for where he was the night that Ron and Nicole got a Ginsu demonstration…

The majority leader of the Senate in Minnesota has formally asked the State Attorney General to investigate the ethical implications of Jesse Ventura's "deal" with the XFL. Lots of politicians in Minnesota have still not gotten over the fact that Ventura won the election there and have challenged other things that he has done while in office - including the time when he was a ring announcer for one of the rasslin pay-per-view events. So this saga moves forward. And for those media highbrows who rhetorically wonder if there aren't duties of governor that need to be attended to in Minnesota, I wonder just how critical decisions need to be made on Saturday nights. And without reading the Minnesota Constitution, I am willing to bet that there are provisions to handle the situation where the governor is in communicado. Here is my ethics question:

If there is nothing legislatively more important enough for the Senate in Minnesota to be doing than worrying about this nonsense, why is the leader of the Senate still drawing a pay check and benefiting from the perks of office there?

There will be a strike/lockout after next year and that has to be resolved first. In the process of doing that, there will have to be some kind of revenue sharing or salary cap to level the playing field. THEN we can move teams from the basket case areas into new areas where there are new taxpayers to be fleeced.

The Celtics have signed Doug Overton. Sigh. The Celtics are a mediocre team at best and they do miss having their point guard out there, but Overton has shown rather conclusively over the last decade that he is just not going to get it done in the NBA. It is sort of like having to put on Hamlet and the leading man comes down with some dread disease and so you wind up looking for anyone who can act - even a little bit - and you figure you can make do with Adam Sandler. No, it .. does .. not .. work.

Fiinally, the Cleveland Indians have hired former Phillies' manager Terry Francona as "special assistant for baseball operations". I can hear it now, "Hey Terry, the truck with the season's load of baseballs just arrived at the loading dock. Get down there and put 'em in the warehouse."

But don't get me wrong, I love sports… Oh, Happy Thanksgiving too.