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<DIV>[The old boy still has a few volts in the chair. From his ESPN column.
DP]</DIV>
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<DIV>The big thing now is to make sure the football season continues without
interruption, which I think it will. Football is necessary now. Until recently,
it was only a brutal diversion, but now it is a key to the national sanity. We
are still deep in shock from the attacks on New York and Washington. We still
can't figure out what it all means, or how to keep it from happening again --
and who is this horrible bastard bin Laden, anyway?
<P></P>That is a serious question for a country on the brink of a $400 Billion a
year war against an unseen enemy. That is almost half a Trillion dollars, which
is sure to make a dent, if not a bottomless pit, in many budgets. It is a
staggering number to behold, and the President says this War will continue for
many years, against many enemies in many countries all over the world, until
America feels safe again.
<P></P>Wow! Stand back! That is likely to be quite a while, eh? The NFL could
play for 600 years, at that price. We could have football every Day, with money
left over for beer and Polish sausage. Rabid football fans -- and even non-fans,
for that matter -- would happily queue up to buy time-shares in high-end luxury
boxes in gigantic new stadiums, which would also serve as their Homes, for as
many days of the week as they could afford to pay. Stadium-living would become a
whole new Way of Life. Hell, most of those boxes already have full-service
kitchens and 36-inch TV sets with close-up seating and personal parking spaces.
It would be like a dream come true -- the new American Dream, I suspect, with
21st Century features and super-modern gimmicks in every drawer. I have already
drawn up the plans, and my patent is pending. </DIV></BODY></HTML>