David Beckham is perhaps the most recognizable soccer player in the world. Simon Bruty/SI
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7. I think this is what I think about David Beckham coming to save soccer in America: He's not going to do it. Soccer is a participatory sport in America. My kids played years of youth soccer and loved it. I watch some World Cup games, America's usually. But our family has not attended one professional soccer game, and I don't believe I've ever heard my 23- and 21-year-old daughters ever say they saw a soccer game on TV, or planned to watch with their friends.

I think soccer's a great game, and if I lived in a country where it was the be-all end-all game, I'd follow it enthusiastically. But I live in a country that covers other sports voraciously. We only have room in our life for so many sporting passions, and soccer got here too late, I'm afraid. In my life, it's like bowling -- an activity you do at some point in your life but not one you make time to watch on TV.

8. I think every person associated with the NFL in any way should find out what he or she can do to pitch in and help former Giants defensive end George Martin raise money for the first-responders to the 9/11 tragedy who are experiencing health problems.

As Dave Anderson wrote in his New York Times column last week, Martin is leaving on a cross-country walk on Sept. 15. Martin intends to walk 50 miles a day, starting from Manhattan and finishing at the Golden Gate Bridge, to raise awareness and funds for those with illnesses stemming from the work around the hazardous Lower Manhattan site after the World Trade Center bombings. Martin hopes his Journey For 9/11 will raise $10 million to fund treatment for those the insurance companies, and time, have forgotten.

In the coming weeks, I'll be writing how you can help, and if Martin -- who I covered as a Giants' beat writer in the 1980s -- is game, I'll feature his walk through the fall in this column.

9. I think, speaking of valiant causes, hats off to the Arena Football League for committing to holding its annual Arena Bowl in New Orleans late this month. The league could likely have made more money holding the game elsewhere, and what league couldn't use a bigger paycheck? But the AFL stuck to its guns after promising to hold the game in the city last year, and it will be rewarded with a sold-out house and a city fired up for the indoor game.

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

a. As we sit here today, there is little doubt in my mind that the best team in baseball is Detroit. Excellent starting pitching -- have you seen the Tigers' amazing young lefty Andrew Miller? -- and a batting order as good as any in the game -- maybe better, 1 through 6. The bullpen's a C-plus at best, but from the looks of it, that team might not need much of a 'pen.

b. Terrific movie, Sicko. You can nitpick little factoid problems with Michael Moore's story of health care being better in most of the free world (and some of the non-free world too) if you wish, but you'd be overlooking the guts of the story: that for the richest country in the world, our health care system is full of holes. And the disgrace of Los Angeles hospitals dumping indigent patients on the street long before they're ready to be discharged ... to watch that and not be outraged, you've got to be comatose.

c. It's probably better to keep your anti-CBS thoughts to yourself for now, Katie Couric, rather than blabbing them to New York magazine.

d. Coffeenerdness: Most underrated brewed coffee I drink -- Peet's. Wish it could muster up the store volume to compete with Starbucks. Love a Peet's latte too.

e. Thanks for the opportunity to visit L.A., Kathy Schloessman and those at the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission.

f. And thanks for the hospitality, Laura King.

g. Restaurant of the Year, at least in my book: Mozza, Mario Batali's pizza place in Los Angeles. Get the fennel sausage pie -- if you can get in.

h. I'll be the first to admit that ESPN is full of wonderful programming, but whoever thought up this idiotic "Who's Hot Now" bracket and debate needs some sort of reality check. The aim, evidently, was to find the 32 hottest/most talented/handsome (I guess)/People-magazinish athletes in the world, pair them off against each other, and see who is the most "now'' guy. I got a kick out of Matt Leinart being in it, with the ESPN anchor talking about him like he's one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Injecting performance into the debate made this all the more laughable, seeing that Leinart was the 23rd-rated quarterback in the league last year, completed 56.7 percent of his passes, with a minus-1 TD-to-interception ratio. And the panel discussions arguing the levels of nowness. Silly, silly stuff. Poor Mike Wilbon. This is why ESPN lured one of the best columnists and journalists in America to work there full time, so he could debate who's more "now'' -- Kobe Bryant or some soccer player from Brazil?

i. We ought to be ashamed in this country when events like hot-dog eating contests gain popularity -- the Coney Island fiasco was actually covered on New York sports-talk radio on my vacation -- instead of inviting revulsion. Stomach-gorging is not a sport, and it is abominable to try to make it one in a country where too many people go to bed hungry every night.

j. I mean, what is America coming to?

k. Good luck, Dan Patrick. Radio's really going to miss you.

l. Loved the HBO documentary on the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn. The one thing you learn is how hard Walter O'Malley tried to keep the team in Brooklyn in the mid-'50s instead of moving it to Los Angeles.

m. You sure do run a great, tight and entertaining ship down there with the Trenton Thunder, Brad Taylor.

n. Red Sox: 36-15 in late May, 19-21 (with about four clutch hits) since. I see storm clouds. In fact, I feel the rain.