Ten Things I Think I Think

	You have to give NFL rushing king Emmitt Smith credit for his competitive fire in Dancing With the Stars. AP
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1. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of Week 11:

a. Great stuff in USA Today in the last few days on money made by college coaches. The paper reported that Ohio State coach Jim Tressel gets an all-expenses paid (plus insurance) car for he and his wife, can use private planes to recruit, can use private planes for 10 personal hours of travel per year. In 2007, Tressel will earn $200,000 if OSU plays in the national championship games (now assured), $400,000 if he still is the coach on Jan. 31, $500,000 in salary, $625,000 as a "consultant'' for Nike, $675,000 in coaches' show and promotion income, along with $10,000 per personal appearance at Coca-Cola-related events.

b. Now you know why college coaches like Iowa's Kirk Ferentz and Oklahoma's Bob Stoops are so reticent to go to the NFL. They can make $2.5 million a year and take significantly more time off between January and July than an NFL coach can.

c. Even though I would watch a test pattern before I'd watch Dancing With the Stars, I admire Emmitt Smith for taking a totally foreign concept like ballroom dancing and working at it until he got very good. It says much about his competitiveness that he won the thing.

d. Was that a metallic suit worn by Doug Flutie on the ABC Ohio State-Michigan pre-game Saturday?

e. I say play a Michigan-Ohio State rerun in the national championship game 48 days from now. Play it again.

f. Cancel that Piscataway parade for Jan. 9, Rutgers. Sheesh. Nothing like going down without a fight. Greg Schiano needs to have some competition at the quarterback position next summer, that's for sure.

g. Terrell Owens writes children's book on sharing. If I wrote an adult book on nuclear war, it'd be with an equal degree of expertise.

h. Now this is idiocy: Rutgers, Louisville and West Virginia all are 9-1. In the last three weeks, Louisville has beaten West Virginia and Rutgers has beaten Louisville. In the BCS poll out Sunday night, West Virginia is 7, Louisville 9 and Rutgers 14. No wonder we don't trust these polls and computers. Why are the games played if the games aren't going to be the determining factor as to who is ranked where?

i. What a great football game Sunday night in Denver.

j. What a great football game Sunday afternoon in Dallas. Those two games are why the NFL is impossible to duplicate for drama on the big stage. Great players excelling at the big moments, and the Tony Romos stepping up to start starry careers.

2. I think from the people I talked to last night, the football world is sadder for Donovan McNabb than they would be for other players who tear an ACL. Because McNabb's such a good person and he's been so bedeviled by injuries. "Terrible, just terrible,'' was Tom Brady's reaction when he heard. "Donovan's had it tough, hasn't he?'' This makes it three of the last five years he's had regular-season-ending injuries.

The players in the Eagles locker room, from reports, were crushed after the game. I'm sure 10 percent of it was because they can't figure out why they're stinking up the join, losing to Tennessee and Jacksonville at home with their season on the line. But 90 percent had to be because of their respect and sadness for McNabb, who is the unquestioned leader of that team. And we talked about this on NBC last night: you have to wonder about McNabb's future now, because of the injury history and because he'll turn 31 next year. Is he ever going to be the Super Bowl-winning quarterback Andy Reid thought he was getting in the '99 draft?

3. I think Brett Favre plays next week. I'm sure of it. The streak will live, and ESPN, which has the Packers-'Hawks Monday-nighter, just breathed again. He got hit and landed on his funny bone, and it's nothing too serious, from what I'm told. He could have played had the game been a nailbiter.

4. I think Eric Mangini might have liked his quick-onside-kick call at the start of the second half, trying to jump-start his offense against the Bears, but I didn't. "I like the situation, I like the play, I like the call,'' he said later. With the Jets and Bears scoreless, if the play works, New York has a first down at its 43 or 45, let's say. If it doesn't work -- and the kicking team has no more than about a 20 percent chance to recover -- the Bears have the ball at the Jets' 43 or 45, with a short field to try to gain the lead in a game where it looks like no one will ever score. The Bears recovered, and four minutes later, Robbie Gould kicked the game-winning points, a 20-yard field goal. Chicago went on to win, 10-0.

5. I think I had some problems, too, with the strategy at the end of the Chargers-Broncos game last night, in a contest meant for very long strategy debates. I have to steal this one from Cris Collinsworth. After San Diego scored a touchdown in the final moments to make it 34-27, we're watching the game at NBC and Collinsworth says, "They ought to go for two.'' I think for a minute. He's absolutely right. If San Diego goes for two and makes it, there's 1:10 left to play, they've got a nine-point lead, and the game's over. And if they fail, Collinsworth's right -- even if the Broncos scored, they wouldn't go for two on the conversion; they'd go for the extra point, and the tie, to send the game into overtime. They went for one, of course, and Denver drove to the San Diego 32 in the final seconds before fumbling it away.