Dr. Z has selected Steve McNair as his All-Pro QB the last two years. Al Bello/Getty Images

My 10-year NFL Draft retrospective was ridiculed. The Bush-lovers out there can't wait until I'm sailing for New Zealand. There's such a bubbling swell of resentment that I guess I'll apply for that job in the shoe factory after all. Meanwhile there are letters to answer. OK, you loyal Amurrikans who think that our prez is just the swellest thing since Watergate, I'll take you first.

From Russ of Charlotte (if she'll have him): "You're going to move to New Zealand if the president is re-elected? When can I show up at your house and help you pack?"

Friday after the election.

Lt. Keith (I never did get along with officers very well when I was in the service) of New York: "If you promise to move to New Zealand when Bush gets elected, I will skipper the boat that will take you there."

If you skipper it the way Dubya has skippered our country, it's sink city. Scott of Suffolk, Va.: "I look forward to your mailbags on rugby and the AFL (Australian Football League)."

A brain dead. New Zealand's got nothing to do with Aussie football.

Jim of Hillsborough, N.J.: "Do you think you can handle the food in New Zealand? Lots of lamb cooked in a strange way."

Hey, Jack, I was there. So was the Flaming Redhead. Food was great. Anyone who thinks the lamb is strange is himself, or herself, strange to begin with.

Calvin of Baltimore: "God, I feel sorry for all the New Zealanders next year."

Save your sorrow. Just got a wire from the New Zealand embassy. "Thirty days and that's it. There's no way you'll get a green card or a work permit in this country."

And screw you, too. I've got some tricks up my sleeve involving cover and concealment.

OK, we finished? Is that it, Andrew? Can I go to something sensible now? What's that? Oh yeah, the chart-rippers. Very seldom do I work all day over a hot chart only to get it so thoroughly rejected.

"The most useless collection of trivia/statistics since my uncle decided to count the tread nodules on his Goodyear radials," writes Rick of Norwood, Mass. You'll never guess what is now going through my mind. Would you, ahem, happen to have the information on just how many nodules there are?

John of San Diego was quick to point out how incomplete my survey was. The problem, he says, is that I didn't do a breakdown on just what the drafting position was for each team in the first round -- in other words, how high up in the round did it get its player(s)? That would give a clearer indication of how it really did, etc., and so forth. Ergo, my gold medal winner, Baltimore, (seven Pro Bowlers out of 11 Ozzie Newsome first round picks) would not seem so special, since the Ravens have drafted consistently high.

Oh, is that so? Is that so? Well, try this one on. The average drafting position for Ozzie's seven Pro Bowl first-round choices was 15th, just about the middle of the pack. Included in that group were a 26th choice (Ray Lewis), a 31st (Todd Heap) and a 24th (Ed Reed). You know something? I'm getting sick of all these whining, nit-picking e-mails, backed up by inaccurate research.

Next whiner! And here he is, right on cue. Josh of Nashville: "PLEASE READ THIS!!!" he begins, and yes, I did note the three exclamation points, which, I imagine, is supposed to make my heart beat faster. Year after year, he says, he hears about how the Titans will struggle for .500, and how Steve McNair will break down and how neither Titans nor McNair command any respect, etc.

Dear Josh Whiner: Last year I picked the Titans to win the AFC South at 10-6 and reach the divisional playoffs. They finished as a 12-4 wild card team and reached the divisional playoffs. Two years ago I picked them to finish 11-5 and win the AFC South and reach the divisional playoffs. They finished 11-5 and won the AFC South and made it to the AFC Championship. McNair was my All-Pro QB for the last two seasons and last year he was my league MVP. Don't complain to me, complain to the other writers out there. I'll give you their address. Just mail your complaint to Other Writers Out There, USA, and you're guaranteed a snappy reply.

"It never fails," writes Josh's Nashville friend, Jason, and I've often wondered why so many parents gave their kid this name, since he was kind of a creep ... couldn't have stolen the golden fleece without Medea's help, and then he treated her so badly that all she could do was kill their kids, you know. Where was I? Oh yes, "It never fails ... every time I write a question, it happens to be a week sans mailbag!!!" (Again the exclamation-point trifecta ... what the hell's going on here?). Dear Jason: Mailbag queries are saved for a week and pumped in the following week, if Andrew, the new Jimmy, deems them worthy. Jason wants to know the future of Raiders back-up QB Marques Tuiasosopo. They like him. He played very briefly last year but looked impressive, at least to my way of thinking, when he did get in. Norv Turner likes a big arm, though, so he's going with Kerry Collins right now. If I were Tuiasosopo, I'd ride it out until I became a free agent, then it would be sayonara Oakland.

Mark of Cleveland realizes "that you get a ton of e-mails; however, I'm surprised that you refuse to respond to my repeated question in regard to 240-250-pound offensive and defensive linemen from yesterday and their ability to play in today's game. How could Ron Mix, Forrest Gregg or any 250-pound tackles play today? They'd get killed." No they wouldn't. Steroids and more intensive weight training would have them up around 300 pounds. Steroids? Oh, good heavens, listen to the word the man used. I'm sorry, but I've said this for quite a while. Masking agents are better (and more expensive) every day and the league has not had the wherewithal to catch up to them. No one will ever convince me that a 6-3, 290-pounder with 10 percent body fat is contoured as God originally intended him to be.

I'll bet you thought that I was in such a bad mood that I'd never pick an E-mailer Of The Week, admit it. Well, I've got one and his name is Brad Mudd of St. Louis. He wins the award because he's a convert. (No, Linda, I didn't write "convict"). He has been converted to timing National Anthems. He mentioned a few, but the one I liked best was Wayne Messmer of the old Chicago Stadium. Messmer was shot in the throat, Brad tells me, but made a comeback (singing in a huskier tone, no doubt). If you come across a really long one, Brad, like upward of 2:35, and you want to submit it to me for record consideration, remember that you have to have two watches on it (unless I'm timing it myself), so you'll have to convert someone else.

Oh, yes, Brad's football question: Is Marshall Faulk 100 percent right? Is Stephen Jackson ready to step in if needed? I think Faulk will suffer little nagging things for the rest of his career. There's a lot of mileage on him. Jackson might run OK, but it'll take him a long time to become a factor in Mike Martz's passing game, if he ever does.

I had to give the award to Brad, but Marc of Margate, N.J., came close because he gave me a fascinating research project to devote about an hour and a half to ... make that to which to devote about an hour and a half. The question: "What's the most dominant tandem of running backs you've seen?" And then he listed eight tandems, sending me on a nice trip down memory lane. I got the numbers on all those you listed, and I could have spent about three more hours with this one, searching out all the great twosomes in history, but I limited myself to the people you mentioned. And you all know what's coming. A chart, which lists the stats for each twosome in the season in which it recorded its highest combined yardage. The eight pairs are as follows:

Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung, Green Bay; Jim Brown and Ernie Green, Cleveland, Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris, Miami; Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier, Pittsburgh; Alan Ameche and Lenny Moore, Baltimore; Alex Webster and Frank Gifford, New York Giants; Joe Perry and Hugh McElhenny, San Francisco; Matt Snell and Emerson Boozer (rookie season, pre-knee injury), New York Jets. I have listed carries, yards rushing, average per carry and TDs.

Notes and interesting points before I name my favorite twosome: Usually one, not both of the backs, was a blocker. Green blocked for Brown, thus his production was fairly modest, although this pair has the highest overall total. Morris and Jim Kiick shared the load at halfback for the unbeaten Dolphins. Bleier's 1,000-plus yards was amazing, considering he was the best pure blocker of any backs on this list. "He gained 1,000 yards without making a cut," Steelers center Ray Mansfield said that year.

Webster's biggest career year (928) yards came in 1961, but Gifford did not play that season, thanks to Chuck Bednarik's killer hit the year before. The Giants also were a three-back team in those days, with fullback Mel Triplett assuming some of the load. The Jets' year I chose was 1969, because Boozer and Snell had their highest combined yardage, but in 1966 Boozer was an early Barry Sanders. An amazing runner. He became a terrific blocker, though, clearing the way for Snell, the fullback.

Now we get to my favorite twosome. Look at McElhenny's numbers. Eight yards a crack. He missed half the season, but oh, my, what an open-field threat. He averaged 20.3 yards per pass reception, too. He was early in his career then, Perry was in his prime. And who was the third back, the blocker? None other than John Henry Johnson, giving the Niners three Hall of Famers in the same backfield. Never happened before or since. Man, did I used to love to watch that offense, when it was really clicking.

"Will we ever see a true two-back attack again?" Marc asks. I don't know what "true" means. We've seen HB-FB tandems in which both got their share of carries, such as the Bucs with Warrick Dunn and Mike Alstott, although Alstott was not known as a devastating blocker. Chiefs fullback Tony Richardson is a good blocker, though, and there were games, before Priest Holmes arrived, in which he got more carries than the halfbacks did.

Len of Grand Prairie, Texas, feels that my chart shows that Jerry Jones, who was ripped for his bad drafts, wasn't really any worse than Jimmy Johnson was once Johnson went to Miami. Very hard to evaluate because I don't know how much input Jones had or has in the Cowboys drafts. Johnson's drafts at Miami were OK, not great. Ditto the Cowboys picks for the same years.

A thank you to Steve of Seal Beach, Calif., for his kind words. Steve's question: Are special teams given their proper status in evaluating teams and coaches? I think the most important thing is how many regular starters a coach is willing to use on his special teams. He can inject some real life into them by that method, but at what cost?

And now here's a funny one. Have I ever thought about marketing myself as a charity fund-raising event, such as, "Sign up for lunch and football talk with Dr. Z for only (??? $), which will go to help fight cancer," etc. The answer is that no one's ever asked me to do it, but in my days as a regular wine columnist, I was awarded the honor. Once. My cousin in Baltimore once raffled off a lunch with Z at Smith and Wollensky's, the steak house and wine emporium in NYC. So I sat down with this young couple that had been the high bidders, and believe me, I was really sorry for them, all that money it had cost them, plus the cost of the meal. So I tried to be jolly and witty and really informative about wine, just so they'd get their money's worth, and what was the thing that blew it all? I sent the iced tea back. I'm not kidding. I've returned bottles of wine in restaurants, but never iced tea. I just couldn't help it. The thing tasted like someone had poured sewage into it. Well, the waiters smirked, and my lunch partners looked embarrassed, and ... I guess that's the last time I was ever called upon to be a luncheon gift. Maybe I'd have better luck in a football context.

Zach of Columbia, Mo., has a long memory. He goes back to a piece I did in the late 1980s, predicting my All-Pro team of 1995. The fun part was picking high school guys such as wideout Andre Hastings, who was all-everything in Georgia and actually made it with the Steelers for a while. I remember I picked Bob Whitfield, who was a freshman tackle at Stanford at the time. He rewarded my choice with one year in the Pro Bowl, although it wasn't '95. I don't think Chris Gardocki was much past his freshman year at Clemson when I picked him as my punter. He's still going strong, and every time I see him I ask him when he's going to make my pick look good, and each time he apologizes for letting me down. Zach wants to know if I ever did a follow-up piece (no) and how many flunks did I have (not too many, if I remember correctly).

To Mike, a serious Jets fan from NYC: Honest, I don't know zip about boxed wine. Why does everyone keep asking me? How about bagged wine, like the way the guys drink it on the street? Question No. 2 involves his "poor Jets." Hey, don't abandon hope right away. Chad Pennington's a rare talent, and if he stays healthy all year ... OK, I'm trying to keep your spirits up, but the guy can fling the ball.

Dave of Hornbrook, Calif., wants to know my all-time disappointment regarding a great player on a subpar team. He mentions Barry Sanders but I have a better one. Sanders at least went to the playoffs. My guy, Archie Manning, never even saw a winning record. A terrific player. A Hall of Famer in my book. Not his fault that the team and the ownership stunk.

Steve of Crofton, Md., is upset that the '91 Eagles didn't make my pantheon of all-time great defenses. Great front four, but the rest of the unit wasn't, I feel, as good as those of the other teams I mentioned.

To Jimmy of Houston: Thanks for the compliment. My take on the Texans --  getting good at the flashy positions, but before I rate them as a serious playoff team I want to see a better O-line. The funny thing is that it was the area they went after hardest in the expansion draft.

	MAILBAG Dr. Z will answer select user questions each week in his NFL mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

But on the same general topic, except that this time Detroit is the team mentioned, I say to Bob of Byron, Mich.: Yes, I really believe they are "reclawed," as you put it. Could be in the postseason. Terrific offseason. A Lions fan I talk to regularly, though, asked me to research the fact that they always manage to suffer more injuries than anyone else. Why? The turf? Training habits? Food in Detroit? Might be a good project for you to look into, Bob.

A long and extremely thoughtful e-mail from Olaf of Chicago, who wants to know why the 3-4 defense has kind of faded. I think it's hard to find 3-4 ends who can stand firm against the run and still provide a first pass rush, since the book is to throw early on 3-4 teams, while their run-stoppers are on the field. I'm not even so sure that teams that are listed as 3-4 really fit the definition. I mean, in the Patriots' base 3-4, Willie McGinest is listed as a linebacker, but to me he's more of a stand-up DE who occasionally drops back, which would mean they're more of a 4-3 team while he's in there. Consequently, 4-3 teams might use a soft, or dropped end, so he looks more like a linebacker, giving the defense more of a 3-4 aspect. The important thing isn't the alignment, it's what they do on the snap.

Fred, a Giants fan and former lineman from NYC (and thank you for the nice things you wrote), predicts the following for his Giants: Bad times for Kurt Warner. Eli Manning to snap up the chinstrap for real around Week 4. A painful season, ending around 6-10. Fred, do you know what would happen if I wrote those same things? It would wake up that whole gang that accused me of Warner-bashing a few weeks ago, and the battle would begin once again. Let's put it this way: I think Tom Coughlin is too solid a coach to let the team fall to 6-10, but I don't see the Giants in the playoffs, either.

Tom of Denver invites me over for a grilled cheese sandwich and a bottle of Pinot Noir, then fails to give his address. So how am I gonna find you? As a payback he would like me to rank my offensive and defensive lines for the upcoming season. Can't do it till I find out who the starters are, so does that cancel the wine and cheese party? Thanks, incidentally, for mentioning that you didn't think I'm not as bad a guy as other people do.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Paul Zimmerman covers the NFL for the magazine and SI.com. His Power Rankings, "Inside Football" column and Mailbag appear weekly on SI.com.