6. I think the passing of New England defensive end Marquise Hill is sad for many reasons. But for those of us who did not know him, it's sad that when Hill's name came up in his three NFL seasons (which wasn't often, because he was not an impact player), the first thing we thought is, "failed second-round pick.'' Now we've learned about the work he did building a ramp for a multiple sclerosis victim in Massachusetts, and about the tireless behind-the-scenes work he did post-Katrina in his native New Orleans. The guy worked hard at football, but it never came for him the way the Patriots, or he, thought it would. But that should not define him in death.

7. I think, thankfully, I've got an update for you on U.S. Army First Sgt. Mike McGuire, the St. Louisan who has served the country so selflessly in the Iraq conflict. Mike is home in Germany with his family, getting another platoon ready to ship out to Iraq to sweep for Improvised Explosive Devices. I heard from Mike last week after writing to check in and to tell him how so many of you miss hearing from him.

He writes: "I am flattered that people still ask how I am doing. Of course you can update them on things. Things are tough over here now. We have a lot of new privates in the company (a lot), but are struggling to get in the sergeants we need to train and put discipline in them. You would not believe how young these guys are. Honestly they are younger than the last time. The guys who were privates when we deployed last time are now the sergeants and running squads.

"I don't know when we are leaving yet, but it will be before November and it is a 15-month tour, so that means two Christmases gone, two birthdays for everyone gone, two Thanksgivings. It takes a special woman to be married to me because I rely on her to do all the home-front things and really raise the kids. We will do our two-month 'train up' soon to get ready for Iraq. During this time we will be away from our family also.

"I am a little curious this time about going down range, where will we be, what type of fight will we be doing, what equipment will we have? Because last deployment we only had the up-armor Hummers and that is not enough to conduct IED route clearance. We were blessed to only lose one great man that last deployment and to have only two others injured. Specialist Huerta, who was injured in that blast, is back with us, but he will not deploy again, and Specialist Regusci, who was also injured that day, is still having eye surgeries to repair and keep his eye.

"To be honest I felt better about going last time than I do this time. I just feel lucky to have lived through that hell and now we are going back after being home less than a year. I love this job and being able to say I am a SOLDIER, but sometimes it is tough. Maybe this time we will get Baghdad and not Ramadi. Anyway, I will keep you posted on the events as best I can. Tell the readers thank you for keeping me in their thoughts.

"Last thought: It is a long baseball season, and thanks to being in the worst division in baseball, the Cardinals can still pull it out. Although right now it does not look good for the home team. Take care.''

8. I think it's going to be interesting to see how far Levi Jones pushes his dissatisfaction with getting roughed up by Joey Porter's buddies in Las Vegas. If he had let it die, or settled with Porter quietly, I bet the NFL would have called it a no-harm, no-foul incident. But with the possibility of a civil suit here, the NFL may have no choice but to suspend Porter for a game or two. With a tough opening slate (at Washington, Dallas, at the Jets), and Miami's offense behind the 8-ball with its quarterback dilemma, the Dolphins will need Porter to get off to a strong September start.

9. I think there's no end in sight to Trent Green Held Hostage, which is now in Week 6.

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

a. Heck of a Sopranos,' wasn't it? So much for going down quietly, David Chase.

b. On vacation I dreamed the craziest dream. I dreamed the Red Sox were 12.5 games up on the Yankees after two months. Yeah, right.

c. LeBron James must be very good. I guess I should have a scintilla of interest in Cleveland-San Antonio, but I don't. Help me on this one, Mike Wilbon. Other than the occasional 163-158 Nets-Suns barnburner, the NBA lost me long ago.

d. You did the right thing, Billy Donovan. You were taking the job in Orlando for the money, regardless of how you tried to convince yourself otherwise, but there will always be money for people as talented as you.

e. Coffeenerdness: Interested to see that Starbucks plans to replace whole milk with 2 percent in its American and Canadian stores by the end of the year, though customers can still request whole milk if they wish. Hmmm. I know its good for me, and I know it'll save me 70 or 80 calories to have a 2 percent latte rather than a whole-milk latte, but let's be frank here. It's an outrage Starbucks didn't consult me before making this sea-change.