Hey King,

The two times you've picked the Bucs to lose as your What The Heck™ Pick of the week, you've been right. And these have been their only two losses. What gives?

Of course I think the difficulty of the Bucs' remaining schedule will make it pretty tough to put them in this category again anyway, but just in case you were thinking about doing so, (being an avid Bucs fan) I can only say: Cut it out!

;-)

-Jack

This is the last Editor's Choice letter for this column. From now on this thread won't be moderated.

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I noticed a definite dearth of letters for Friday's column, so I'm assuming I'm not the only regular who didn't get the Sports Daily email update. It's so much work to actually look for anything these days.

It's nice to see all the talk about the Packers and Farves final hurrah, but I'd really like to hear more about sex parties and Dieon's wardrobe.

I disagree on the WTH pick. I think Rattay will get a chance to play and put anouther nail in Nolan's coaching coffin. Bay Area Niners haters are euphoric.

Take a break King, and came back refreshed for the Swoopes discussion. Now that there is only football and the NBA preseason, we need something sports to talk about.

I'll probably have something to say on Sheryl Swoopes next week. There was a piece about her coming out in Broadsheet, our new women's news blog, and I didn't feel the need to jump in just to get my card punched on the media cycle. The issue isn't going away.

A little trade secret: Frankly, I'm a little burned out after the baseball playoffs, just kind of charred -- October is a very long month in my house -- which is why I usually limp to the end of the last week of the World Series and then take a vacation. I generally do the same after the basketball/hockey playoffs end, and sometimes after the NCAA Tournament. There's a feeling of reaching the finish line and just wanting to kind of chill for a little bit, let the mental batteries recharge.

I can't do that this year because November is Salon's 10th anniversary month, and I was asked to delay my vacation till December, which I agreed to do. But the point of all this is to say that I just didn't have the wattage to tackle Sheryl Swoopes coming out and what I think it means. If it hadn't been mentioned elsewhere, I'd have tried to slap something together. I was glad I didn't have to.

A vacation would help, but the weekend will do. I'll get to it next week.

As for the Packers, I think they're really bad, and with the injuries, they aren't getting better. The Football Outsiders efficiency ratings, which isn't the be-all of everything but which I trust a lot, has the Packers as the 25th best team in the league, just ahead of Minnesota and just behind Cleveland and Baltimore.

I realize that, in the absence of a proper TV deal, the NHL has the national visibility of, oh, let's say deer hunting with bow and arrow (which seems to be OLN's other main programming asset), but are you planning on continuing to ignore the legitimate renaissance of pro hockey that's been going on for the past month? I understand that the baseball playoffs (rightly) take precedence, but c'mon, King - throw us a frickin' bone. Don't make John Buccigross's weekly ESPN column the only game in town.

I have to disagree with the last post. Aside from the Saints game most of Green Bay's points have come in garbage time with teams in the prevent defense. For every minute of vintage Farve I have seen this year there have been 2 minutes were he looks like a former high school star QB flinging it around the parking lot at a tailgate party

King,

The Packers certainly aren't a good team, but they aren't really hideous. How many 1-5 teams have ever had greter Points For than Points Against (144 vs. 118). Of course that's due largely to the 52-3 blow out of the Saints. But even if you just look at their losses, 4 of the 5 were by a field goal or less ( the other was by two touchdowns). With a little luck the Packers could be 3-3 or 4-2.

Anyway, the Packers are definitely light on talent this year, but I have been surprised by how well they have played, and how bad their record is.

Does KK from Hunchpick, TeeEnn have anything to say about our first openly gay team sports star? I know with the WS and the 24/7 indictment/withdrawal watch going on this is not getting as much press, but it seems like it would be a pretty big deal to King as he has been out front on this issue in the past. But when babies fuss all night its hard to think clearly - I can appreciate that :)

On the Ravens - how fast do you think Deon can sprint out of those pads and into a 5K Armani overcoat and a sideline mike? I too remain amazed that anyone had them doing anything this year.

Once again thanks to the White Sox for proving you don't need a $200M payroll or a name-brand manager to win it all and that defense still matters in baseball.