Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think my least bold prediction of all time is that Onterrio Smith will never play another snap for the Minnesota Vikings.

2. I think there's a pretty significant NFL meeting coming up Tuesday and Wednesday. It will cover not only the rubber-stamping of the new Vikings owner (Zygmunt Wilf, with Reggie Fowler as the defrocked limited partner) but the latest round of debate among the owners, who are trying to figure out a fair economic system for all 32 teams. When they do, then and only then will they be able to make a fair deal with the players association.

3. I think this HAD to have been the first-ever punter-for-punter trade in NFL history: the shamed Todd Sauerbrun to Denver for Jason Baker, with the Broncs throwing in a seventh-rounder. Mike Shanahan better be ready for some ego.

4. I think one other thing the NFL will discuss this week is that horse-collar tackle thing. And if I'm a defensive player, I'm really ticked off about it. Tell me something: When you're diving to make a tackle, and you grab onto a guy's shoulder pads or something in the neck region, and you jerk the guy down, what's wrong with that? A few injuries have happened, freaky injuries, because of these odd tackles, but you can't ban a tackle because a defender is grabbing onto equipment or a jersey and happens to jerk the guy down awkwardly. This is football. It's violent. It's risky. Dumb rule, if it passes.

Will Ricky Williams be trade bait for Nick Saban and the Fish? Bob Rosato/SI

5. I think the only reason Nick Saban wants Ricky Williams on his roster is to develop him as a trade factor.

6. I think I'm sick and tired of interleague baseball-bashing. It takes two forms. One: Interleague play disrupts the purity of baseball history. True. It does. But give me a good reason why the Red Sox shouldn't play in Wrigley Field during the regular season once every five or 10 years; see, you can't do it, because there isn't a good reason why the Red Sox shouldn't play the Cubs. Two: No one wants to see Arizona-Detroit; for every Mets-Yanks or Cubs-White Sox matchup, there are two or three Diamondbacks-Tigers. True too. But you have a choice. More Tigers-A's, or some Tigers-Diamondbacks -- and with that Detroit-Arizona series you also know there are four or five interleague series you'll really like. In other words, the who-cares-ness of a boring series should not prevent the exhilaration of some compelling ones. By the way, entering this year's interleague slate, attendance in the short history of interleague games was 13.4 percent higher than the regular games.

7. I think Paul Edinger is the best kicker recently thrown to the curb. Must have been some mental thing with him in Chicago, because the guy's a stud. I'd sign him in a second.

8. I think Tedy Bruschi sure sounded like a guy who wanted to play football this year when a Boston TV station caught up with him the other day.

9. I think I'm a week or two away from making a fool of myself with my 2005 Super Bowl pick. But let me give you one hint: It won't be Seattle-Jacksonville.

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. I have never seen a Star Wars movie, and I'm not about to start now.

b. Major congrats to the Montclair (N.J.) High School softball team, which scored two major upsets to advance to the Essex County finals Saturday night before falling to Caldwell High 1-0 in eight innings. Caitlyn Bishop, you're doing one incredible job as Mary Beth King's heir in the circle. This team has accomplished so much more than was expected. Great job this year, girls.

c. You might want to get hopping on those potholes, Boston. I hope I still have axles after driving around town for the weekend.

d. Coffeenerdness: Memo to the southern New England Starbucks Region. That store along I-84 in Manchester, Conn., a regular stop on the Montclair-to-Boston run, is painfully slow. The folks are friendly enough, but it's regularly a 10- to-12-minute stop for a simple latte.

e. This is the kind of year it's been for the old rotisserie team: I've had a spate of pitching injuries (Jason Schmidt most notably), so I had to claim and activate Sidney (Ralph Kramden) Ponson and Jeff (Heaven Knows Why I Ever Thought He'd Give Me a Good Outing) Suppan, both of whom had been going OK prior to last week. Well, they were a combined 0-3 with an ERA of about 900.00 in four starts for the week, and I am totally, absolutely sunk. Serves me right for relying on Sidney Ponson.