QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I hate him. He talks too much. He talks too much, he doesn't make sense, he's fat, he's sloppy, he acts like he's the best thing since sliced bread, he's ugly, he stinks, his mouth stinks, his breath stinks and basically his soul stinks too.''
 -- Carolina defensive tackle Kris Jenkins on Oakland defensive tackle Warren Sapp.

Apparently, Jenkins has a problem with Sapp. Or is it my imagination?

FACTOID THAT MAY INTEREST ONLY ME

It has been a while, as a loyal New York Times reader, since I've seen the paper run so strident an opinion on a sports topic as Friday's anti-Jets-stadium piece on the editorial page. City and state officials are expected to vote today whether to approve the construction of a potential $2.2 billion stadium complex on the west side of Manhattan.

Among other statements, the Times said:

• The stadium complex "is a bad deal for taxpayers, mass-transit users and New Yorkers.'' 

• Politicos "should do the right thing and vote to block an outrageous misspending of taxpayer funds."

• The public "has been surgically cut out of the process," yet could have to come up more than $1 billion to fund the project."

• "The football stadium -- no matter how it is camouflaged as a 'multi-use' facility --  is not an Olympic stadium. It is a football stadium. Its main function will be as the home field of the Jets. The Olympics are a long shot at best, and politicians should not be held responsible for organizers' failure to come up with a sensible stadium plan. The city's whole Olympics pursuit is like a Saturn V rocket: once it has helped to launch the Jets' ambitions, it can fall away, having achieved its purpose."

And then, on Saturday, one of the most respected columnists in the country, Dave Anderson of the Times, wrote that the stadium plan was a boondoggle. Jets owner Woody Johnson's going to need some friends in high places to blunt that kind of negative buzz. I am a fan of the Jets getting a new stadium. I'd much rather see it happen either out on Long Island or somewhere in Queens, where the thing can be built for $800 million, not a billion more.

AGGRAVATING/ENJOYABLE TRAVEL NOTE OF THE WEEK

Darren Sharper bobblehead dolls can be had in the Austin Straubel International Airport for half off. Not a bad bargain, a bobblehead that's a decent likeness for $9.99.

"How are they selling?" I asked the clerk on the gift shop.

"They're not,'' she said.

"Pretty good bargain,'' I said.

"You don't go play for the Vikings if you want people around here to like you,'' she said.

STAT OF THE WEEK

Comparing the current earned-run averages and 2005 salaries of the five starting pitchers who nine weeks ago began the season in the rotations for the mighty New York Yankees and the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates:

TEN THINGS I THINK I THINK

1. I think Kellen Winslow Jr. is going to have a very tough time of it -- not, apparently, that he cares -- if his dad keeps speaking out in his defense. I understand the frustration Kellen Winslow Sr. has dealing with the media, which he feels was unfair in pursuing his son when his son wanted privacy after injuring himself in his motorcycle accident. You know, I might do the same thing if my kid was a jillion-dollar bonus baby in professional sports. But you know what? I'd be wrong. Kellen Jr. is a jillion-dollar bonus baby in a very, very, very public business, and he should be accountable for his mistake in some way other than a ridiculous "personal" statement written by someone else. Face the music, kid. If you don't, there will be sharks in the water now, and for a long time. And your father won't always be there to speak for you when the sharks surface.

2. I think Eli Manning is going to have a really, really good year.