Bush's Last Tax Cut

Bush's last tax cut just took effect at the beginning of this year. It doesn't apply to me, as I own no stock, and don't have the deductions to get under the earned income limit. If either of you know someone who has stock, this would be a good year to sell. The article didn't say, but I'd assume this only applies to long-term capital gains. Otherwise this would be a great time to dabble in some daytrading.

Side note: What percentage of people in this tax bracket do you suppose own stock? What percent do you suppose have a savings account? I'd guess more have a savings account, as should every American. So why does long-term capital gains get taxed at 0% whereas interest gets taxed at the normal rate? This to me, is a joke. Just like the reduced tax rate on dividends. Tax cuts for the top 10%!

Side side note: Why is bank interest taxed, anyway? The government should be promoting savings, rather than penalizing it. At the very most, interest should be taxed at the same rate as dividends, 15 percent. With the tax "rebate" and reduced interest rates, the government is telling us to take our money out of the bank and 'invest' it in $600 LCD TVs. Good for Wal-Mart, bad for Americans.

Week Two

Another week, another drop in weight. Although not as good as last week's loss of 2.4 pounds, this week still resulted in a loss which puts me closer to my goal. I idled around my previous weight most of the week. I managed to lose .4 pounds over the weekend. Oddly enough I think I need to consume more calories than I did last week. Many times I was well below 2,000 calories and the site recommends 2,650. This stopped my metabolsim and I think inhibited my weight loss. In the weight room I am making significant gains and my workout routine seems to be working and is easy to follow. I considered moving my weigh-in day to later in the week because Monday's can be pretty brutal at times. I decided not to, to help limit my intake on the weekends. This next Monday should be interesting being the day after the Super Bowl, but if nothing else it may keep me from super bloating myself. My goal for this week is to get below 215 pounds. My rate in weight loss has declined but I am still making progress and as I have learned before patience is weight-losses best friend.

Week Starting Weight: 216.2
Week Ending Weight: 215.8
Week +/-: -.4 pounds
Total +/-: -2.8 pounds

Jay Borschel

Jay Borschel, a high school friend of mine, has finally got the respect he deserves. After losing only one match his entire high school career he was recruited heavily but was still not even the best recruit in his Virginia Tech recruiting class. After Brands jumped ship for Iowa, so did his recruits. All of them lost a year of elgibility for the move. Now Jay, a third year Sophomore, is in his first season of collegiate wrestling attached to a university (the last two years he spent wrestling in collegiate tournaments unattached). After beating two wrestlers ranked in the top five at the National Duals the other weekend in Cedar Falls, Borschel has climbed up to 2nd in the nation. It was always fun watching Jay in high school prove his doubters wrong. When I would go to his house to play PS2 or plan something for our tailgating club his wall was covered with inspirational quotes and newspaper clippings of people who doubted him. Jay was not once ranked pre-season #1 in his weight class in high school. He proved everyone wrong winning 4 state titles at 103 lbs, 125 lbs, 152 lbs, and 171 lbs, the first to ever win four titles at four different weights. I am happy for Jay after the troubles he has faced between Virginia Tech and Iowa. Now that he is finally getting a chance to prove himself at the college level he is taking full advantage of it. How sweet would that be for him to add a National Championship title to his resume? Best of luck to Jay, the #2 ranked wrestler in the nation.

Week One

After one week my resolution is still intact. Even with using Monday as a marking point, I was still able to lose 2.4 pounds. My goal is to keep this pace up so that every 4 weeks I will lose 10 pounds. This would result in a loss of 20 pounds by Spring Break, not that I am going anywhere that will require less clothing than four shirts, long johns, a hat and mittens. However, 20 pounds is a nice "milestone" if you will and it would put be under 200 pounds for the first time in awhile. Cutting calories has been easier than I imagined. The website told me to shoot for 2,650 calories per day. I have been keeping it under 2,000 calories except for the weekend. I am pleased with week one's results after a weekend that included 50 cent draws, Hickory Park and Old Chicago. I will try to keep a weekly tab on my progress, not that anyone really cares.

Week One Start: 218.6
Week One End: 216.2
Week One +/-: -2.4 lbs
Total +/-: -2.4 lbs

Another reason why Time Warner sucks

Apparently, Time Warner wants to charge users for total data transmission. I'm not sure if this is in addition to the bandwidth rates they charge for now. In any case, they are trying to get their piece of the content-on-demand pie. Essentially, they are going to tax anything you don't get through their set-top box. (Assuming they offer video on demand)

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/time-warner-download-too-much-and-you-might-pay-30-a-movie/

Here's my comment,

Data networks are RATE limited. Therefore, providers current process of charging for Mbps is appropriate. Even at this, they are apparently over selling their bandwidth, because I've heard that cable companies do not provide the rates they advertise. This would contrast with power companies. They charge per kilowatt-hour because they have to input coal, natural gas, whatever to generate the electricity. Some of the charges are going to transmission costs, sure, but the majority is to the creation of energy. In essence, Time Warner is taxing content that they did not create - or even provide!

This is not the first questionable pricing scheme by TW. When looking into cable service, I was informed that TW would charge me $25 per outlet to have analog cable installed. I attempted to discover what this charge was for. Of course the sales rep did not know, but she switched my call to a technical service rep. She said that the charge was to "turn on" the service. I told her that I didn't think the service needed to be "turned on" for each outlet individually, that it needed to be hooked up at the box, then all my outlets would work. We didn't get anywhere, and I didn't get the TV service (I did, however, get cable internet). It turns out that the "installation" consisted of the technician making a coax cable and screwing one end into the wall and the other into your TV. That's something I probably could have handled.

New Year's Resolution to Look Like Zach Morris

Roughly five years ago I hit my pinnacly of obesity. Standing around 5'10 and weighing in at 25o pounds I was just about as wide as I was tall. I finally decided to put an end to it. Over the next year and a half or so I changed my lifestyle and transformed myself into a 6 ft tall 175 pound 21st century Zach Morris. I vowed to never get hefty again. Half-way through my third year in college I have once again turned into a chubster. Fully equipped with sugar tits, a flat tire and two chins, I have decided to change my lifestlye once again. Five years ago I didn't enjoy some of the greater pleasure life has to offer, namely Keystone Light and Jack Daniels. That is one more obstacle I am going to have to overcome this time. To help me in my quest to once again look like Zach Morris I found a site (Calorie-Count Plus) that keeps track of your daily allotment of calories taken in and calories burned. It gives you healthy alternatives for a variety of foods and also can serve as a poor man's facebook. It is my latest craze and hopefully it will last. To hold myself accountable I will try to keep updates of my progress.

Week One
Started January 14th
218.6 pounds

If done right I should lose approximately 1-2 pounds per week. I will use Monday's as my weighing date although I weigh myself daily. Wish me luck.

2008 Presidential Nomination Season Heating Up

A quick thought, isn't it interesting that all the candidates keep saying they are running for president. Technically, they are running for their party's nomination. It's hard to argue that we wouldn't be better off with more choices when it actually comes down to ballot box time, but the truth is there will be two presidential candidates: one representing the democrats, one representing the republicans. The current candidates seem to have forgotten this. One step at a time, and if one of the players (especially on the Democrat side) stepped up to say they wanted to lead their party, I think it would resonate with a lot of voters.

Well that wasn't that quick, at all. Here's what I wanted to include in the blog. USA Today has a Presidential Nomination Poll Tracker. It gives a neat look at where public opinion is headed and where it has been. Also, its about the only practical application of regression analysis I've ever seen.

Roger Clemens

Roger Clemens is slimy. The tape released at today's news conference reeks. McNamee seems like he's upset about something. Clemens sounds like he's acting. When Clemens says "I don't know who's on the line." He lies to him. Then Clemens talks about a press conference, but doesn't say that he's going to throw McNamee under the bus. McNamee starts breaking down at the end of the call and asks Clemens what he wants him to do. Clemens asks McNamee why he would tell everyone that he did steroids. Clemens didn't ask McNamee why he lied and McNamee didn't say that he lied. It sure sounds like McNamee is at the end of his rope. Someone who has everything to lose has nothing to gain by lying.

Clemens and his lawyers came across as pretty greasy, taping a phone call without the other person's knowledge and exposing that person's raw emotions to the world. If Clemens was really "pissed off" like he told Mike Wallace, why wasn't he screaming at McNamee, the person who started this whole thing?

Republican caucus

I'm deeply concerned about the caucus coming up in a few weeks. As a pretty liberal person, I don't normally follow republican politics too closely. I currently am following it in Iowa, since I heart Huckabee is making a big run. I really want that guy named Mitt or Mr. 9-11 to win, since they will both get crushed in the general election by any of the democrats. I'm worried about I heart Huckabee since he can probably win every southern state with his Christian ways, and will probably pick up a couple northern states as well (Possibly Iowa, Ohio and maybe Florida). Losing those states again would be detrimental towards Democrats goal of gaining control again. I think he would be an awful president who would blur the separation of church and state lines (he was a minister) and would decrease social programs and cut taxes all while heavily funding the military. Anyway, just a quick thought. Also, Mitt Romney's commercial is really funny. He says "I believe marriage should come before children because every child deserves a mother and a father." However, apparently he doesn't believe that every child deserves health care. Ah, the good, core values of a multimillionaire. Here's his health care policy:
Rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all, government-run system, we must recognize the importance of the role of the states in leading reform and the need for innovation in dealing with rising health care costs and the problem of the uninsured. By expanding and deregulating the private health insurance market, we can decrease costs and ensure that more Americans have access to affordable, portable, quality, private health insurance.

Putting health care in the hands of states isn't the best idea. It decreases buying and negotiating power that the federal government could have with a single payer system. The medicare reform did something similar thing where there are a bunch of private companies that people can chose from. Taking choice away from people sucks, but it also gave the government no power to decrease medicine costs that the single payer system is useful for.

Texans Win!

Texans had a big home win against the playoff bound Bucs. Tampa Bay was without Jeff Garcia, and their best WR, "Old Man" Joey Galloway was probably a step slow coming off an injury; however, Houston wasn't at full strength either. Ahman Green has been placed on IR, and Ron Dayne went down with an injury early in today's game. The Texans were able to manage the clock through short, controlled passes by Sage and a decent running game from rookie Darius Walker. They always seemed to get just enough for a first down. The Texans were effective on third down (10-17, 59%) which allowed them to keep the ball for most of the game.

Sage and Matt Schaub have been around for about the same length of time in the NFL. Sage had a few starts and some relief appearances before this year, whereas Schaub hadn't had much experience at all. Still, Schaub is supposed to be the man. So why do I have more faith in the Texans when Rosenfels is starting? He seems to manage the game a little better, has thrown more TD passes and seems to put up more consistent numbers than Schaub. Joe asked whether anyone was talking about Sage starting instead of Schaub. I haven't heard any talk yet; the Texans believe Schaub is their starting QB of the future, and they will play him when he's healthy. However, it has to be reassuring to the Texans coaching staff and front office that they have a backup QB that can win games both as a starter and in relief.

The Texans' Record Setting Season
Best record through 13 games: 6-7 (.452) 2007
Total team TD passes: 17, 2007

Are libraries still relevant?

An article in last Sunday's Houston Chronicle spoke of the deficincies of Houston's school's libraries. The state of Texas has established benchmarks (9000 books with an average age of 15 years or less) to measure libraries. Many of the schools in Houston's school districts fall short. The funding necessary to update these resources would be large. Even larger would be the funding necessary to staff these upgraded libraries. My question is, are libraries outdated? Over Thanksgiving, my grandfather was lamenting Monticello, Iowa's building of a new public library. He made a remark that most people are getting information from the internet. This made me think on a couple levels. One, I was unaware that he knew what the internet was. To my knowledge, neither of my grandparents have been exposed to the information superhighway, and two, he was on to something. I haven't been to a library since I moved to Houston. I can't remember the last time I went to a city library, and I don't believe I had ever checked out a book from the library at Iowa State. Are libraries still relevant?

Books are important. They continue to remain an important part of education. The state of Texas has differentiated between elementary school, middle school and high school libraries. I'd agree with them. Real books are more important for younger children, who are more likely to read fiction stories front to back. High schools students are more likely to use books as resources, and are looking for specific information. This information is more easily accessed digitally, however the "whole picture" that reading a book on a subject would give you would be lost. Certainly, there are different needs for different groups of users, but how can we adapt to provide the best resources for each group at a reasonable price?

Elementary schools should have large, fully staffed libraries. Especially in Houston, where many students don't speak English as a first language, libraries should have many books of varying difficulties. The librarian is important in stimulating students' interest in books and finding books that would be of interest to the student. However, the age requirement doesn't make much sense to me for younger students. My book about big cars, small cars probably still has relevance. High schools are a somewhat different story. I believe there should be a determined effort to digitize much of what is contained in libraries. Access could be restricted to computers in the school to protect copywrite laws. I enjoyed the traditional method of research - looking through indexes and reading large portions of books to find relevant material. However, I think that may be a little outdated. While real books will continue to be an important part of research, online searching should be appreciated as a larger part. Aside from the digital editions of books, another logical step would be to link the collections of all libraries in HISD. As one of the largest school districts in the nation, HISD could spread the burden of a complete library over many different schools and campuses. Keep an online record of all the books and allow students access to books at other sites. There are probably trucks travelling between the schools anyway, why not put books on them? This makes sense because students are there everyday anyway, so they are more likely to order a book from another site knowing they won't have to do much to pick it up and return it.

I feel libraries are still relevant, but they need to adjust to technology. Maybe they don't need the resources that they once did, just a little more innovation. Large school districts can benefit from distributing the burden and allowing students to check out books from any location. Finally, older students should be able to conduct research through digital access to collections. Google has begun an effort, and I believe most authors and publishers would be receptive to having their books available in an electronic format to students and educators.

$100 laptop and Amazon digital books

The rise of Amazon's new digital book, combined with the "$100" laptop ($188 is current cost of manufacturing) has big implications in world education if we can get past the cost. I find it interesting that schools in third world countries are buying laptops when they can't afford chalk, pencils, or anything else. However, with internet access, computers are far more important than any of that other stuff. Especially if you can download books on line, especially text books. Now there just needs to be someone with the courage to offer free downloads of old textbooks. I noticed in Mali, they just don't have any way to learn, since there aren't enough books for everyone. I think the combination of the $100 laptop, a few generous professors who say screw it, I'm open sourcing my textbook could revolutionize the bottom of the pyramid's education system. This will never happen, since professors make huge profits off of textbooks, hence the "revisions" of editions every few years. I would love to write some simple textbooks, like basic math, basic science, etc, and not copyright them and make them available for download. There would be no profit, but if you could get a bunch of people working on it, it wouldn't be too big of a deal. The problem is, with higher level of courses that are changing, it would be difficult since not having any financial incentive to advance the field could hinder development. But basic k-8 science and math aren't really changing as far as I know. Anyway, just a quick thought for the day.

Thoughts from Week 10

The Packers are the real deal. They seem to have found a running back in Ryan Grant. Donald Lee looks like a fine replacement for Bubba Franks. Brett Favre still has something left. His wide receivers look pretty good and spreading the ball around makes it tough for the defense to defend the pass.

The Vikings are terrible. Brooks Bollinger is not a NFL quarterback. He looks tentative in the backfield, can't complete a pass when necessary. They'd be better off lining up two left tackles and Peterson in the backfield. I understand now why Peterson doesn't get the ball as many times as he should. Minnesota can not convert third downs and their offense can't stay on the field. On the flip side, it looks like the way to keep AD from dropping 300 on you is to keep him off the field. The Packers have been running the ball, converting third downs, chewing the clock.

Fox just switched to a different game! We're now watching the Eagles play the Redskins. Washington missed a PAT: bad. They then chased the points after their second TD and missed the two point conversion: worse. Philly just scored, and what do they do? Chase the points. Of course they missed it. This wasn't as bad of a call as the Redskins, but I'd take the free point in the third quarter.

After ups (win vs. Colts) and downs (2 losses vs. Texans) last year, Jacksonville seems to have figured it out this year. Garrard seems comfortable with his position as starting QB, Gray has played well with Garrard hurt. The RB tandem of Taylor and Jones-Drew seems to keep both fresh and effective. Maybe most of all, the mood on the sidelines seems to be positive. Garrard congratulating Taylor on a TD run, Taylor congratulating Jones-Drew on a big run. Playing as a team is what it will take to win in the AFC.

The Vikings got the ball 1st and 10 inside the redzone. Sounds like AD time, right? I guess not. 1st down: B. Bollinger pass to TE, 7 yards. 2nd and 3rd: AD? nope, B. Bollinger pass to C. Woodson. Charles Woodson plays for the Packers. Who is calling these plays!?! You have three yards to gain and three plays to gain them. Perhaps you should give it to the NFL leading rusher / offensive ROY / best rookie RB of all time. Just a thought. (Editors note: Editor just read that Peterson was hurt in the third quarter and didn't return to the game. Editor still thinks Vikings should have run the ball instead of letting Bollinger pass.)

Eagles just missed another 2 point try. They now lead by 1 point, instead of three, with a little over 3 minutes left. The Redskins let Philadelphia score after giving them the ball back. The Redskins get the ball back with a little over 2 minutes to play and it's still a one possession game. If Philly kicks in the third, they could have kicked in the fourth to go up three and now they'd be up 10 with two minutes left. Take the free points early in the game!

Brian Westbrook accounted for 183 of the Eagles 379 total yards (48%) and 18 of the Eagles 33 points (54%). My guess is that he accounts for more total offense than any RB in the NFL. Andy Reid is probably overrated as a coach, but one thing he knows: giving his best player, Westbrook, the ball a whole bunch gives him the best chance to win the game. Coming into today's game, Westbrook had 1036 of the team's 2950 total yards (35%) and 36 of the team's 156 points (23%). That's a pretty sizable chunk of the offense.

A quick look showed that Adrian Peterson had 44% of the Vikings total yards and 32% of their points. Brad Childress should attend the Andy Reid school of coaching.

This just in ... Childress was the offensive coordinator for the Eagles before taking the Minnesota job! 2003 through 2005, while Childress was the offensive coordinator, Westbrook averaged 15.5 touches per game. The last season and a half? 22.3. Maybe it isn't so surprising that Peterson is only averaging 18 touches a game.

Does anyone suck the life out of a telecast quite like Joe Buck? He's got an uncanny way of making even the most exciting games nearly unwatchable.

I just noticed that every article on espn.com has a comment section except for Bill Simmons. Here's the comment I just submitted to Page 2.

Why is there a comments section on every other article on espn.com except for Bill Simmons'? Jemele Hill gets constant harassment, TMQ gets railed for his articles but Simmons gets a free pass? I think readers would appreciate the chance to let other espn.com readers know how they feel about The Sports Guy.

We'll see what they have to say.

21 Tags! A very productive Sunday.

Sage Wins!

This post is about a week late, but with the Texans on a bye, I get one too.



Sage looked pretty good in his first start with the Texans. The Raiders aren't much of a team, but there are not gimme wins for the Texans. Rosenfels did some work with his feet, including a 14 yard scramble on the Texans' first offensive play of the game and a fourth down QB sneak. Kubiak has confidence in Sage and his ability to run the offense, going for it on fourth down from the Oakland 5. That decision was rewarded with a TD, only the second touchdown on an opening drive all season.

The one issue that Rosenfels has is under throwing deep balls. He also has a tendency to lead the receiver into the middle of the field, allowing DBs to make a play on the ball. The second play of the second quarter was a deep pass that was intercepted. Walters, the WR, was uncovered and had a lot of ground. If Sage throws the pass so Walters straightens his route out and puts the pass 5 yards deep in the endzone, it goes for a TD, or at the worst, an incompletion, because the DB doesn't have a chance to make a play on it. This quote, about his 4th quarter TD pass, pretty well sums up his hesitancy to air it out.

"Andre' ran a great route," Rosenfels said. "I saw that he had 3 yards on him
and threw it. I thought I overthrew him, but he ran that sucker down."

Overall, Sage had an effective day. The Raiders had been allowing about 175 yards passing, and had allowed 6 TD passes through 7 games. Sage's numbers were 180 yds and 1 TD, which is pretty good for a backup QB making his third career start.

Look for Matt Schaub to start next week against the resurgent Saints.

The Texans' Record Setting Season
Best record through 9 games: 4-5 (.444) 2007, 2004

Coal - the first step in energy independence

A coworker brought up an interesting point. Oil is valued in US dollars. As the dollar continues to decrease in value, oil becomes cheaper for other countries. This increases the demand worldwide and increases the price for the US. Specifically, the Canadian dollar has increased in value 26% against the US dollar since the beginning of the year. That means more and more US dollars are needed to purchase a barrel of oil. The same would be true for natural gas, a source of energy that is increasing in favor in the US.

Burning coal is a major source of pollution, yes, however, coal is cheap and plentiful within the United States. A major part of any energy policy should be the continued work toward energy independence. This, as shown above, would be good for the economy, as well as international relations.

That's a long introduction to what I found in the Houston Chronicle on Friday. Thad Hill, president of NRG Texas had this to say,

"Coal is our most abundant energy resource, and there's no way for the U.S. to get anywhere near energy independence without finding an acceptable way to use coal."

That's an expected statement from a company that operates a coal power plant, but it makes it no less true. Coal is a national resource and we should be looking for ways to use coal in a cleaner manner. Check out how NRG is working toward that in Friday's Chronicle article.

Sustainability

I recently looked in this magazine called Dwell. Its an architecture magazine, and the thing I found interesting was that a lot of the "trendy" products in there were popular because they were sustainable. This has a major implication that "green" things will become a very profitable future (Therefore many people will start working that area) and also will help the environment significantly. People in the developed world love trendy things and if going green is the new thing, we could make significant strides reducing our carbon footprint. It seems like architects are on the fast track to become green builders, while engineers seem to not care. Obviously this is a generalization, but seems to be true on the whole. However, engineers are the key to developing environmentally friendly buildings, cars, and whatever else. See this article for something about using fly-ash from power plants to create bricks. I think its pretty interesting and hope engineers get fully on board.

Another Sage Sighting

Sage played again in San Diego, this time because of a Matt Schaub concussion. Unfortunately for Sage, Houston had already spotted the Chargers 32 points by halfway through the 2nd quarter. He still looked effective passing against a talented Chargers defense, even though the play calling was obviously skewed away from the run. It sounds like Rosenfels will get the start this Sunday vs. the Raiders, a winable game for the Texans. Hopefully they let Sage throw the ball around from the beginning.

The Texans Record-Setting Season
I can't think of anything right now.

Warren Buffet and taxes

I watched NBC Nightly News tonight and they had a story about Warren Buffet's tax beliefs. He feels that he should pay more taxes than he currently does, even though he has no tax shelters and said "I pay exactly what congress tells me too." Anyway, I've always been a fan of Buffet since he's a self made billionaire who has always been considered by most to be an honest investor who never takes advantage of people. Anyway, you should read this article, it's pretty interesting. From the initial thought, I agree that people who make less shouldn't pay a higher percentage than multimillionaires. Oh well, quick, thought. By the way, he offered $1 million dollars to anyone in the top 400 richest in the U.S. who can prove that their secretary pays a smaller percentage in taxes than they do. Gotta like Warren Buffet.

Sage!!!

I'm officially the only Texans fan still excited. There's the tough matchup against the Chargers this weekend, the tough loss to the Titans last weekend and the embarrassment of the Sunday before that. What was once an over .500 season isn't even an even .500 season anymore. The prospects look grim at best. No playoff hopes. Last in the division, behind by 3.5 games. But I see something through the darkness ... behold ...

SAGE!!!

Sage's four fourth quarter TD passes were impressive, as were his 290 yards passing. Between last weeks heroics and the garbage time he played the week before that, Sage has thrown for 372 yards and 5 TDs. Schaub in those two games? 282 yards and 0 TDs. Here are the season lines for both QBs.

Sage has a slightly higher completion percentage, essentially the same yds per attempt, the same number of TDs (with only a quarter of the attempts), a higher rating, and maybe most impressive of all, he hasn't been sacked. Granted, he played garbage time against Jacksonville and the Titans were playing prevent in the fourth, but this was the same line behind which Carr got sacked 41 times last year. He should be getting sacked on accident!

It isn't set in stone that Sage will start. I hope he does, because I'd like to see him play. Unfortunately, Schaub will start the week after that and all through the rest of the season. Rosenfels probably deserves a chance to start at least part of a season, but he won't get that opportunity in Houston.

The Texans Record Setting Season

Even with the two losses, we're still in the midst of what could be the greatest season of Texans football ever. I'll add some new records every week and link to my ever growing list.

Most touchdown passes in a game: 4, Sage Rosenfels 10/21/07

spread offense

This will be a short post about how I think defenses could catch up to the spread offense. First, the defensive line would stay the same, because they still need to be able to stop the run just in case. Next, the linebackers would be smaller and faster. They'd be more like safeties. This allows better pass coverage on the excess amount of people who go out for passes. The safeties and would be more like corners and corners would stay the same. Making the defense smaller and faster would end the spread offense. You could also play the safeties shallower from the start if you knew they were quick enough to not get burned, which would allow them to help out with the run. I kind of like spread offenses, it makes the nfl more exciting, but I can't believe teams can't stop it yet. Also, TMQ made a good point last week about how all of the Patriots passes are down the middle deep. I know other teams have that figured out, but I think Moss is opening up the middle of the field for people like Wes Welker since he's double covered about every play now. I think that shows how good Moss still is. Anyway, thats my brief football column. Let me know your thoughts. I should probably do some real work now.