The job never ends
First off, might as well as alert folks to my latest column. It seems a lot different working on it at the office as opposed to just sitting at my laptop at home cranking it out.

Anyway, there wasn't much else to my weekend, mostly sports, plus a brief interlude Saturday night.

First off, I can see why many are opposed to a college football playoff -- the regular season takes on that atmosphere, too. That would explain the electricity of the amazing Miami-Florida comeback. Plus, there were a bunch of other upsets and close calls that had me flipping all over the dial during the afternoon. I was hardly even thinking of my pool picks -- I was just enjoying the ride.

However, I wasn't as happy with Northwestern's 22-21 loss to Air Force after the Cats were leading 21-7 heading into the fourth quarter. Three picks in the fourth quarter sealed the Wildcats' fate despite not having to play against Chance Harridge for most of the second half after he was ejected. The defense looked solid again, but have to avoid giving up the big play, which has happened a couple of times already. They did a decent job on the option, at least compared to last year's debacle. The Cats needed to get Jason Wright the ball a little bit more, especially when running out the clock. One last note, I may not have liked NU's road uniforms, but they were passable -- I just didn't like white-on-white. The home get-up doesn't do much for me, either, especially since they ditched the black. The bluish-purple doesn't look as good as the dark purple I've been used to, especially when it's monochromatic, for all intents and purposes.

Also Saturday, I thought CBS was going to have a conniption when Agassi lost to Juan Carlos Ferrero (not to be confused with Juan Carlos Fernandez of cinnamon rolls fame) and Andy Roddick was down two sets and match point to David Nalbandian, best known for making people have to care about him for the first time when he reached the finals of Wimbledon a few years ago. But in an amazing comeback I missed, Roddick somehow won the match, and made people care about the U.S. Open final instead of watching some of the mediocre late NFL games. I didn't even watch the women's final, only catching a glimpse of the trophy ceremony while I was out. Besides, I watched the real final with the three-hour classic semifinal match between Henin-Hardenne and Capriati (now playing the role of Aaron Krickstein).
The men's final was actually a bit of an afterthought for me, since I was working on said column, but there seemed like no way Roddick was going to blow this opportunity when everything else pretty much went his way. The final game was one of the bigger exclamation points on a title in a long way. A couple of things about the victory: We can stop whining about when the next big American will come through, that's happened. And can we please stop calling him A-Rod? It's not that clever with Alex Rodriguez, and it's sillier here.

Onto the NFL, it was a very strange Sunday to say the least, but enjoyable in fits and starts. Some quick observations from Week 1:
-- The Dolphins probably killed a ton of survivor pools by losing to the Texans. I know I got smoked.
-- The Rams looked very bad, and they need to give Marshall Faulk the ball.
-- It'll be a weird year for the Broncos since they won in spite of Jake Plummer.
-- Priest Holmes is just fine, thank you very much.
-- Yes, it's neat Craig Hentrich kicked three field goals relieving Joe Nedney, but remember that Hentrich was a kicker at Notre Dame. The ESPN guys were also impressed with Drew Bennett as a holder. Bennett was a backup QB at UCLA, and I'm sure holding had to be on his list of priorities.
-- Should the Lions-Cardinals stats even count for NFL or fantasy purposes? Anquan Boldin for 217 yards? As much as I praised him in April, does he get 217 yards the rest of the year?
-- Northwestern alums are getting their props: D'Wayne Bates caught a TD pass, Kevin Bentley picked off a Peyton Manning pass, Napoleon Harris had a bunch of tackles for the Raiders and Jeff Roehl ended up in the Giants lineup after Luke Pettigout's injury. BTW, what is it with the Giants and Notre Dame offensive lineman. Mike Rosenthal and Pettigout were alums and Roehl was with the Irish before transferring to Northwestern around the time Zak Kustok did a few years ago.