ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOT-BALLLLL!!!!

If you're a sports fan like I am, you know that we have some exciting baseball pennant races going on, some high drama involving NBA stars like Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal and a big story about an injured soccer player named David Beckham who looks like a model, is in fact married to a bonafide "looker", but his ability to put two cogent sentences together has become a concern along with the fact that he might in fact be...a has been.

All the above merit headlines in the sports world until...The NFL is ready to take center stage.

Baseball, the NBA, the NHL and even soccer, get large amounts of fans in the stands, but mediocre to lousy television ratings.

The NFL gets the fans in the stands and television ratings. Great television ratings!

A lot of those great ratings are directly related to the amount of gambling that is done on NFL games, but that's a story that NFL executives dismiss immediately and do their darndest to make the reporter who dares to bring the subject up, look foolish! How?!? By publicly mocking, ridiculing or dismissing that reporter.

Here's the deal, gang. If it were somehow made impossible to make a bet of one kind or another on an NFL game, the NFL would be close to soccer, interest wise and baseball would again be our so-called "national pastime" instead of being what it is. Which is a sport that's "past it's time".

WHEW!!!!

Having said all that...

The NFL presents its season opener tonight on NBC. A great game (on paper) between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. How good is this match-up? A lot of people wouldn't be surprised if these two teams played against each other again. In the next Super Bowl. The Colts are favored by 6 points and the over/under is 52 1/2 points. If you don't care about either of those numbers, you won't be watching.

IN ANOTHER COMPETITION...

Fred Thompson made it official yesterday. And then he made it official (again) during an appearance with Jay Leno. Fred Thompson wants to be our next President of the United States. Thompson is a Republican and the other presidential wannabes were busy debating last night. Wisecracks were made about Thompson's noticeable absence and the time it's taken for Thompson to make this announcement, but on Leno's show, Thompson said, "I don't think people are going to say, 'You know, that guy would make a very good president but he just didn't get in soon enough.'" Thompson also said, "If you can't get your message out in a few months, you're probably not ever going to get it out."

SHAQUILLE O'NEAL IS SAYING, "SHOW ME (what you did with) THE MONEY!!!"

Okay. Another big (in this case, very big) celebrity wants a divorce. Yawn! But have you been paying attention to what Shaquille O'Neal says he wants in addition to a divorce from his wife Shaunie? Shaq wants Shaunie to be required to provide a "correct accounting of all money, funds, stocks, bonds and other securities that she had access to or obtained during their nearly five years of marriage."

Wow! Are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'? Is Shaq.....?!? I'll let you finish the rest of that question!

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW EASY IT IS THROW AROUND THE WORD "HERO" OR "HEROIC":

I do it and I know that you do it. We throw the words "hero" and "heroic" around like....Well, we use those words to apply to things that aren't at all heroic, but more often than not, they are things that simply cause us to shake our heads or...to smile! Not that there's anything wrong with that, but...

I tend to use the words "hero" or "heroic" when I see someone do something that is either life saving or an example of a person defying huge obstacles while proving that his or her quality of life will not be affected by said obstacles.

I do a daily 3-mile walk in the San Fernando Valley. I've seen a lot of things during these walks. Accidents, police chases, hookers wearing next to nothing while "thumbing" for customers, etc., etc.

Yesterday, I saw something that made me stop! I mean, a dead in my tracks, stop! And when I (finally) began to walk again, I smiled.

I was walking down a street called Laurel Canyon Boulevard heading toward Riverside Drive. Both streets are heavily traveled streets filled with lots of business activity. It was about 10 in the morning.

I was passed by a guy who was driving a bicycle. Nothing unusual about that until I noticed four things. (1) He was going at a pretty good rate of speed. (2) He wasn't using both pedals. He was using (0nly) the right pedal. (3) He didn't have a left leg!!! (4) He was carrying a crutch with his right hand over the handlebars.

Nothin' but nothin' is gonna affect that guy's quality of life. And I salute him for that.

That's heroic, folks! And yesterday, he was my hero!

EDITOR'S NOTE: IF YOU READ THIS BEFORE PICTURES HAVE BEEN ADDED, COME BACK! PICTURES WILL BE UP SOON!

A new blog is written every morning, Monday through Friday and is posted between 7 and 7:15, Pacific Time. Sometimes earlier. Questions and comments can be sent to scottstjames@sbcglobal.net. I do write back.

TOMORROW: I'll tell you about how a fish could force you to have to cut your water usage by thirty percent!...Some new films that will be opening...Thoughts about 3 films that are on the cable circuit...and anything else that makes me say, "Whaaaat?!?"