The main thing (and I didn't read the article) I see is that by not punting, you're not only going to raise your own ATR, but the oppoenets as well. Imagine after taking the ball on a touchback, you run two ineffective runs and two imcomplete passes. You've just more or less given the other team 3 points.

Unless you get rid of place kicking, of course. :)

Human error is beautiful. Human error gave us fireworks and potato chips and made Lucille Ball and Buster Keaton funny. It gave us the Long Count, the Immaculate Reception and Kansas City's only World Series title.

Human error should be guarded against in the specific but embraced in the general. I'm vigilant against typos, semicolons and other errors, but what could explain my having this job in the first place beyond some kind of cosmic mistake?

I have to call you on this one. You're apparently not so vigilant on commas, as in there should be one between "Reception" and "and".

Perhaps, King, you should follow your NFL-pick strategy and ignore baseball for the rest of the season. It would give you plenty of time to watch hockey. :) Regular Season Hockey pointless? Well, probably, but it's more exciting than looking at baseball stats.

College Basketball may be perceived to be better than college football because college b-ball can reasonably be labelled the best basketball on TV. Very few people I know will say that college football can even hold a candle to the NFL, but I often hear college b-ball is better than the NBA.

I can't watch basketball in any form, so I can't say for sure. There's something unwatchable about a sport where scoring doesn't mean much. Sure, you just made a great shot, but I'm going to see at least 60 more shots go in this game, so it really doesn't matter.

Now hockey on the other hand...

So much for 'hard to get'.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/29/polonium_available_online/

Grant, the vendor updated the web site to mention that you'd have to buy 15,000 units to get the amount required.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/30/ba_polonium_investigation/

Not mentioned is season ticket holders usually get the option to buy extra tickets. In many cases, you can get your season tickets for 'free' in your team makes the playoffs and you scalp a few playoff tickets or regular season tickets in sports towns.

As a wrinkle to this, the Buffalo Sabres (and probably other teams) have a system from season ticket holders to sell tickets they're not going to use. I guess it would only really when the season is sold out (as it nearly is in Buffalo this year, only single tickets available since November).

http://replay.tickets.com/buy/TicketResaleServlet?orgid=22445&agency=HSBM_REPLAY

"Help, I'm being held hostage in a fortune cookie factory!"

- several years ago from a restaurant in Owego, NY

Impressive, I've never heard a Buffalo native's tendency towards conspiracy theories applied to the Yankees before. We usually save those for the Bills or how the Sabres got screwed out of the Cup (they did, BTW).

Based on current win-loss records, of the next six best teams in the AFC, the Patriots have already played (and beaten) 5 of them. And out of that group, they've beaten the Bill twice. They have also beaten the team with the best record in the NFC, the Cowboys.

As a Bills fan, I'll say that using them as an example of 'good' team the Pats beat is a little silly. They've beat the Jets twice, the Dolphins twice, The Ravens, The Bengals, and the Redskins. Only the 'Skins are even close to a playoff spot.

The other part of the reason is all these cable companies that are holding out from putting us on the air, their response is, "Well, people don't want a niche network. It's only eight games they broadcast every fall, and the rest of the year it's just NFL Films replays."

I'm sorry to say it, but NFL network really is just 8 games a year. Maybe it's more for NFL fanatics that want to watch hours of analysis, but I don't hear any of my coworkers clamouring for it.

I will admit it was cool to see the early 90s Bills-Oilers Wildcard game where the Bills came back from 35-3. I never saw the game since it was blacked out on local TV.

"Give Bill Belichick two weeks, and you're toast", "10 reasons why the Patriots can't lose", the list goes on. You have a heap of crow waiting, Mr. Kaufman, and you haven't even started eating yet.

Jeez, give it a rest. Are you going around to every columnist and blogger that picked the Pats and demanding their apology?

Besides, the "10 Reasons" column was funny. And, King's column (I think) has a stated policy of not picking against the Pats until they lose.

When Carano and Young came together, there had been two minutes, 12 seconds of fighting in an hour and nine minutes of airtime.

I think that's still a higher percentage of action-time per hour than tennis.

Regardless, I take issue with your comment that the Red Wings dominated the Penguins in the 2nd and 3rd overtimes. I thought the Pens at least held their own in those periods. I thought the Red Wings started to show their age, and that the Penguins younger legs were able to get to a lot more loose pucks.

As an impartial viewer, I suspect you're a Pens fan with hope or a Detroit fan not wanting to admit that your team should have sealed the deal. For most of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th periods, didn't think the Pens had a chance. In the 5th and 6th periods, it seemed like the Wings came out strong, but their older legs got tired and the Pens dominated the later parts of the period.