NFL doesn't have to worry about soccer just yet

David Beckham made his MLB debut on July 21 when the Los Angeles Galaxy took on Chelsea FC at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. Robert Mora/MLS/WireImage.com

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:

Pill-poppin' sluggers, dog-drownin' passers, point-shavin' refs, ah me, big-time sports have moved to the dark side of the moon. Should we add our voice to the chorus of the damned?

"NO!" scream Andrew, Paul F., Jimmy and the gang at the office.

"No, God no," says The Flaming Redhead. "Your readers are good people. They work hard all week and they don't deserve any more flogging."

Right you are, so let's go to something as devoid of controversy as Tiger Woods' 4-iron, and that is Major League Soccer, and from Jonas of San Francisco comes this question that all Americans must take seriously:

"Should the NFL be worried about MLS as competition now that Beckham has arrived? I mean, they do have a team in L.A., which the NFL can't seem to do."

You're almost right there, Jonas. Except that the place they have chosen in which to showcase the Big B is Carson, Calif. And didn't you read how the crowd of 27,000 in the Home Depot Center absolutely went wild, even though his team, the Galaxy, lost, 1-0.

"They got drilled," My Flame Queen said. OK, honey. Let's remember who tells the jokes around here. The serious part is that Hollywood turned out in a big way. I can see it now.

"Driver ... driver ... I believe you've driven right by Carson. We told you to turn right at the Plumbing Supplies sign."

OK, ha ha, let's get serious. Threatening to immediately eclipse Beckham in popularity is the Chicago Fire's Cuauhtémoc Blanco, whose attributes, according to the AP report of his debut against Celtic AC Sunday, were his "stutter-step dribbles, change of direction and uncanny backward passes."

OK, so only 15,719 showed up in Bridgeview, Ill., at Toyota Park, but that's almost capacity, isn't it?

"Toyota Park?" Linda says. "You think NFL players are tough enough to play a game in a car lot?" That does it. Time to move on.

Remember my story about Vic Ziegel, my old buddy on the New York Post, and the Weatherman explosion right near his house in the East Village and how the TV lady backed off because she spotted his movie book? Guess what? I heard from him, and you're not going to like what he has to say:

"Thanks for telling my story," he writes. "Now it's my turn to tell the one about the time you shredded that cigarette into the woman's drink in Kansas City?"

Hey, I don't do stuff like that ... I mean I didn't do stuff like that ... and how can you remember, you were as drunk as I was? What I do remember is that they were having this big debate in the papers about fluoridating the water in K.C. and we were in this all night cafeteria and you told us, "Watch how I operate" and went over to this lady and leaned on her table and stared into her eyes and said, "What do you think about fluoridating the water?" And her answer was, "I'm waiting for someone." And how about on that same Yankees trip when you wired the paper, from Minneapolis, for more money, and Gellis said, "What happened to the hundred I gave you?" and you said, "I guess it was just blown away." You want to start trading stories? You're gonna lose.

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