40th Edition - 10/31/06

• MNF: Booo!

With a weekend of hype, and the national stage on Monday Night Football, the Vikings scared their fan base in about two minutes. The Patriots came to town and smacked them around 31-7. The league's leading rusher? Chester Taylor was held to 22 yards on ten carries. The Patriots had Tom Brady pass almost every down and he finished with 372 yards, 4 TD and 1 INT.
The Bears can rest a little easier now that they have a three-game lead in their division (not that they were scared).

• NBA: Look, he's dressed like a racist.

The Houston Rockets were playing in Orlando against the Magic when season-ticket holder Hooman Hamzehloui allegedly called Dikembe Mutombo a "monkey" Thursday in the third quarter. Mutombo yelled back at Hamzehloui and gestured from the court.

I guess that is all that happened from the report I read. Hamzehloui has said he didn't know "monkey" was racist. The Magic have taken away his season tickets. Hamzehloui has issued an apology through the Orlando Sentinel and said he would donate $5,000 to the charity of Mutombo's choice.

If Mutombo was white, would anything had happened? Or is it impossible for a person to call a white player a monkey and have it been an insult. I do NOT know this situation well enough to comment on Hamzehloui's behavior at the game. Racism is bad. If it came from hate, actions should be taken. But Hamzehloui said he was heckling, like he always does. Heckling comes from being an idiot, waste of arena space, and an overall fool, but not from racism.

• My Cubs: Not so scary

These players just filed free agency; Henry Blanco, Kerry Wood and Juan Pierre. John Mabry and Wade Miller will probably as well. Clearly Pierre would be the most important on that list. But considering the Cubs have no idea what they are going to do, it's too early to say who they MUST bring back.
Aramis Ramierez is a different story. He wants many years and many dollars. Look for the Cubs to try and make him happy ($11 million a year) but not Derrek Lee happy ($15 million a year).

• My Bulls: Scary good, not scary bad

The Bulls undefeated streak (the NBA season starts today) is in jeopardy tonight against the defending champion Miami Heat. But I am still thinking it is going to be a hell of a season. At this stage I am just curious how the Bulls will use their deep bench.
Bulls vs. Heat
7:00 on TNT

• More on Red Auerbach from Bill Simmons
  
• Stuff

Green Day and U2 video for "The Saint's are Marching."

Do you like TV and Halloween? Then this quiz is for you.

I'm glad I didn't dress up as a grub this halloween.

And now, thanks to a reader who complained, you can simply click on the link and it will open up in a new window. Sure I had to learn a new HTML code and spend the morning playing with it, but it was all worth it to make one reader happy (actually, he'll probably not be happy, just content).