Pro Football

Truly the NFL has become the most bizarre major professional league out there. With a couple of exceptions on any given Sunday any team can win or lose.

The Bears got crushed in the fourth quarter against the Lions last week. And then Brett Favre tore them apart in the first half last night -- 19 of 22 for 243 yards and at least one incompletion was a spike. The Packers had played 4.5 solid games at this point. In the second half, Favre was 10 of 18 for only 79 yards and two interceptions and half the yardage came against the Bears prevent defense in the last series. Hard to believe it was the same two teams out there as it had been so far this season.

But it's bigger than the Bears, who moved to 2-3 with the win. The top four teams in the NFC last year were the Bears, Saints, Eagles, and Seahawks. The Seahawks are 3-2, the Eagles are 1-3, and the Saints are 0-4 and among the worst handful of teams in the NFL. In the AFC, the Chargers were 14-2 last year and have already lost three games, and the Jets went from the playoffs to 1-4. If the season ended today, the Raiders, Redskins, and Titans would be in the playoffs. Of course, there are still 12 weeks to go, so we'll see how it sorts out.

Cubs

Blech! Wait 'til next year, I guess.

People will point to Piniella's decision to pull Zambrano or other moves, but simply the Cubs didn't hit or didn't hit in the right spots. In a best of five anything can happen, though a sweep is unlikely. And we almost had a four-way sweep in the first round. Barring a big Yankees comeback tonight, in four series you'd have to describe as near even, the losing team is going to win a total of ONE game.