I'm of two minds on the suspensions as well, but I thought I had read that the players and teams were specifically notified that the supplement used here contained an illegal substance back in 2006. So it's not just buying a jacket with big pockets, it's buying a jacket with big pockets after having been told wearing that particular jacket is against the law.

We all know the NFL is fairly anal when it comes to their drug policy, the point of which is to try and help the players live longer (and to make the NFL look better, make more money etc...), so it's insanity to take anything without checking the approved and banned lists. This time of year one should probably check those lists twice.

Dude for the sake of your country and your kids, take a stand on following rules and personal responsibility.

The rules on what players ingest is clear, you eat it, you own it.

Shouldn't it be that the players *allegedly* received positive drug test results due to the unlisted ingredient? We can’t say for certain that the players aren’t simply using StarCaps as an excuse. Plus, doesn’t the NFL issue a list of supplements that have been approved by the league or is that MLB?

At the end of King's collumn, he lists his stats for the picks this season:

Season record: 114-78-1

So far this week: 1-0

Last week: 9-7

What the Heck™ Picks: 2-11

Consecutive columns in which the concept of urination has been discussed: 2. And counting

So, 114 games picked correctly, 78 picked incorrectly, and 1 game what? Not picked? Picked correctly and incorrectly - how does that work? A tie - can that even happen - and would you just be wrong on the pick it it did - as you picked someone to win and someone to lose and no one did either.

And just out of pure curiosity, how do the kids rank for the season on their picks and why isn't it included in the weekly total?

I wonder why pro football players are taking diuretics in the first place.

Do they need to stay under a minimum weight requirement, say, like a Jockey?

Wouldn't that be one of the first questions asked, why would players of this specific sport need diuretics?

Just wondering...

A tie - can that even happen -

Well, a tie did happen, Nov 16 between the Eagles and Bengals. A tie is an inconclusive result. No problem with it being separated out from the games that did have a conclusive result.

Boy, there seems to be a lot of spreads this week that are wide enough that the kids got auto-picked. 8 total out of 15 games. I'm not sure if that's more than normal though.

Arrrgh.

I am a Sooner fan who lives in Austin Texas. The hostility toward the BCS and OU all week has been palpable. The radio, papers and TV have been nothing but BCS all the time.

And yet, when I turn to my internet national new sources like salon and slate: utter radio silence.

Now I know what Sarah Palin is talkin' about when she talks about elitists.

Kaufman and Salon are too good to write about the BCS?

For what its worth, I will defend Oklahoma here.

OU had to thread a very narrow eye of the needle to get a shot at the national championship this year after losing to Texas, a team in the same division in the same conference. Ordinarily, you would think it would be impossible after a head-to-head loss.

All OU did was thoroughly thrash every team it faced after Texas - over 60 points in each of the next 4 games. The Longhorns actually needed OU to beat Texas Tech, but only by a little. Otherwise Tech would have won the division with an undefeated season. OUs demolition of Tech, however, made Texas' loss to Tech look bad.

Tech almost lost to Baylor on Saturday, which would have put Texas in the Big 12 Championship game and probably to the National Championship. Luckily, Tech rallied and Beat Baylor, preserving the 3-way tie.

OU benefited more than Texas from each teams final intra-state rivalry game that always ends the season every year. For Texas, the rivalry game is Texas A&M, who stank this year. So Texas beating them didn't mean very much. Oklahoma's rival is the Oklahoma State Cowboys, who are really good this year (ranked 11). Texas barely escaped with a win over the Cowboys just a few weeks ago and all of Austin breathed a sigh of relief when that game was over. Same for the Sooners. The Cowboys played great and have a great athletic scrambling QB. The final score of 61-41 does not show how close the game was.

Anyway, the Sooners not only had to win all these games, they had to win with enough style points to impress the BCS computers. Anyone who thinks that is easy is wrong.

Boomer Sooner!

I think players have weight restrictions based on their coaches style. If for instance a coach likes his defense more quick than powerful then the player would have to keep his weight down. And if said player likes turkey and fixins with their family once a year, or a 3AM burrito a couple of ties a week, that player would need to lose some weight. I don'e understand the need to take the drugs, though. Women have been using two fingers and a gag reflex since at least the 60s.

would somebody please explain to me what is so damned hard to believe about the the williams "twins" deliberately using this supplement to mask steroid use?! one of the things that doesn't wash is how few players tested positive for it. if nothing else, that undermines the notion that they were lambs led to slaughter. and really, any excuse based on a multimillionaire professional athlete's supposed naivete' about pill-gobbling in this day and age sounds like utter b.s. to me. i hate the legalistic attitude of the NFL as much as the next guy, but putting it on the players makes sense to me. i think most pro athletes probably know more about some of these substances than a lot of doctors and some pharmacists do, and certainly they have the resources to find out what they don't already know. so just deal with it saints and vikings. you could have had your own staff breaking this down to your players.