You know how dirty you feel after you've been out working in the yard and mowing the lawn in the summer when the temperature is in the nineties and then how clean you feel right after you step out of nice cool shower? That's the way I hope most of American society feels today in the wake of the news that OJ Simpson's book will not be published and his interview on FOX regarding the book will not be on the air. In a less tolerant society, the people who thought this was a good idea in the first place would be sent to "re-education centers" for a while so that they could better align their actions with the wishes/needs of society.

Approximately 10% of the NBA season has passed. Did you notice? Without peeking, can you name the leaders of the six divisions? For the record, I got only four right - - and I was guessing on two of those.

Ladies and gentlemen, you need to focus on something that is potentially evil and insidious that is approaching rapidly. You see ads for it on TV every week; and of course, the ads make it look inviting and innocuous. It is neither. I am talking about the evil of the NFL Network (NFLN). This network will broadcast its first game on Thanksgiving night to those few homes that will get it. NFLN has not been able to strike a deal with many - if not most - of the cable systems nor with all of the satellite TV providers. How can that be? After all, the bandwidth is littered with channels that no one wants to watch - Oxygen, Versus and Game Show Network come quickly to mind. So how come they find their way onto my cable system but NFLN can't? Can my cable company be interfering with my desire to watch football? Not likely…

The reason is the rights fee that the NFL wants to extract from cable companies, which would then have to be passed along as yet another rate increase to all subscribers including those who don't care about football. If NFLN would take the same rights fee as Oxygen Network for example, it would be on every cable system in a heartbeat. So the evil lies with the NFL. And why is this insidious? Because it is a first step along the path to pay-per-view for the NFL?

Some games will only be available to a certain few folks. They will have to pay for them. Now when a few more people pony up, then more pressure builds for everyone to pay to see these "special games". This is the first step toward pay-per-view for the playoffs and the Super Bowl. It happened with boxing and you'll notice there are no championship bouts on TV anymore; they're all on pay-per-view.

So, you need to stop this in its tracks. Naturally, the ratings for this Thursday's game will be minuscule; many households won't have access to the games. So the NFL has a built in excuse for that. What needs to happen is this:

Gamblers on football games need to pass on this game entirely. I mean pass in Las Vegas and on the Internet and with your friendly local bookie.

Let's be pragmatic here. The NFL protests that it hates gambling on its games; in reality, the NFL knows that the popularity of pro football is linked to the amount of gambling done on the games. They know that the popularity of the sport can be measured by the surrogate data provided by gambling establishments. And they need to know that putting games on NFLN and making them unavailable to everyone is a BAD IDEA. The NFL is making an economic decision here; they are looking for yet another way to dip into our pockets. We need to find an economic response for them to observe and one response will be that the public is greatly displeased and wants to ignore that part of the NFL product. That might get their attention. But it needs to start with the first tranche of games that will be on this season.

At the Indy 500 they say, "Gentlemen, start your engines."

Now I say with regard to NFLN games, "Gamblers, hold your money."

For those of you who watched MNF last night, perhaps - all I said was perhaps - ESPN may see the difference between a visitor to the broadcast booth who has something to add to the game and a total waste of skin visiting the booth. Ronde Barber's presence in the booth was far better than "inoffensive"; he provided some insight into the game and into his relationship with his brother on the field. I could have done without him being there, but I was not itching for him to leave. Later in the game, the booth became infested with someone called Jay-Z who is evidently coming out of retirement. I didn't know that for the simple reason that I did not know what he ever did that would have prompted him to retire. He had nothing to add to the game nor anything even borderline relevant to add to the discourse. At some point, he mentioned wanting to move the NJ Nets to Brooklyn which may be interesting to people who follow the Nets but this was a football game in Jacksonville. That kind of nonsensical blather was so far off-point that I muted the TV until I was confident he had been left.

Memo to "The Mouse": No more superfluous guests on MNF dammit!

On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers lost Bret Favre to an elbow injury in the first half and Aaron Rodgers to a foot injury later. The Packers started three rookies on the offensive line on Sunday. To demonstrate what happens when an offensive line can't block a defensive line, the Packers gained a total of 120 yards of offense all day, held the ball less than 21 minutes, made only 5 first downs, gave up 4 sacks and got their top two QBs hurt. That's why teams need to build a solid offensive line as a foundation piece for the team. All the rest of the "skill players" won't be able to demonstrate their "skills" without a competent offensive line.

Two weeks ago, the Saints gained 517 yards on offense and lost the game to Pittsburgh 38-31. Last Sunday, the Saints gained 595 yards on offense and lost the game to Cincy 31-16. Gaining 500 yards in the NFL is uncommon; losing when you gain 500 yards is very uncommon; I wonder if any team ever lost two games in a row and gained 500 yards of offense in both of them. I doubt it.

Finally, here's an astute observation from Vikings' coach Brad Childress about two fans in the Metrodome who have taken to impersonating him by wearing glasses, headsets, moustaches and game-plan play cards that they hold over their mouths:

"Some people have got too much time on their hands."

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

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