Just Thinking Out Loud XVII Doug Coutts, Fantasy Football Senior Staff Writer Oct 7, 2003 | More

Let me see if I have this straight, Denver coach Mike Shanahan "forgot" to bring the dark jerseys to San Diego so the Chargers had to wear their powder blues while the Broncos enjoyed wearing their white threads. Why do I get the feeling that they weren't "forgotten" at all. Why do I not believe anything out of his mouth?

And by the way, isn't Federal Express an official sponsor of the NFL? Hmmm.

Got quite a few thoughts from my readers this week, one of which was a guy being thankful that fantasy baseball season is over and he can now concentrate on fantasy football. I don't know about anyone else, but mine ends at the beginning of August with football preparations. Actually, this year it ended a lot earlier than that since my team absolutely stunk.

Another reader wondered how much candy is to be handed out to kids at Halloween and should the number handed out depend on the size of the candy. I'm not really sure myself, especially about the size aspect (like in many situations, with candy, size does matter). However, I do subscribe to 'Amount and Time Deployment' theory. Meaning, as it gets later in the night, each kid gets more pieces. Plus the bigger the kid, the more pieces. In addition, if it's big kids late at night, I just let them help themselves from the bowl. These are the kids you don't want to piss off since you know they are just looking for a reason to use some eggs on someone's house. Ever tried to scrape that stuff off a shingle? Not good times.

Memo to Fox: Enough with the flashing of the numbers on top of the scoreboard picture. Just change the numbers and move on.

I wish I had seen this, someone told me that John Burkett was sporting swimming goggles in the lockerroom during the celebration of the Red Sox making it into the post season. Now THAT is some serious planning ahead. Then again, I wouldn't mind a little champagne in my eye.

Speaking of the baseball playoffs, does anyone else find it outrageous that the times for games three and four of the opening series are TBA?

And about those celebrations, would it be too difficult to remove the tags from whatever item it is? Manny Ramirez wearing a hat tilted to the side with a tag handing off it just looks dumb. Couldn't the person that brings the box onto the field rip thru the items quickly and pull the tags? Perhaps the silly girl that sweeps off the bases between some innings could do it. I mean, we're not talking about Beanie Babies here where you have to leave the tags on, are we?

I'd like to hear from someone that makes it thru an entire fantasy football season without some sort or controversy over the rules. There always seems to be one whiner in every league.

Why is it $99 to go one way to London, while it costs $250 to go one way to Florida? Shouldn't prices be calculated on how far you need to fly?

I never understood why there aren't 1000 people running for President. Why doesn't the same chaos happen to our highest office that is happening in California? Or does it and no one even notices?

From one hopeful reader: I'm starting my planning on selling the house, taking all of my money out of the bank and moving to a remote island someplace, or just blowing all the money. If the Cubs and Red Sox meet in the World Series, that's a sign of the end of the world. Or hell freezing over. Or something like that, nothing good can come out of it.

Finally this week, a bit of a shameless plug (not sure if this will get past the editor or not), anyone in the Providence (RI) area this weekend looking for something to do, check out the annual Columbus Day Festival on Federal Hill. Plenty of food vendors (including the famous Federal Hill Sausage, www.federalhillsausage.com), craft tents, and rides for the kiddies. There will even be a parade on Sunday at noon. The festival runs Saturday thru Monday, though the best days to go are Saturday or Sunday.

PFGH!