As mentioned in my profile, I sometimes have radical opinions. This is probably the most controversial of them all. Sport (n) - a physical and mentally competitive activity carried out with a recreational purpose for competition, for self-enjoyment, to attain excellence, for the development of a skill, or some combination of these (Source: wikipedia.org). I have always found this popular definition to be extremely broad and I personally cannot accept it. This definition is worded such that the act of cooking a meal, building a house, writing a computer program, or drawing a picture could all be considered sports. Clearly, the majority of individuals reading this blog would not recognize the above activities as sports. Golf, rugby, softball, soccer, and basketball are more widely considered as sports. This is where my connotation of "sport" REALLY narrows down what activities can be called a sport. If you ask me, golf, tennis, racing, running, billiards, swimming, cheerleading, driving, boxing, figure skating, poker, cycling, fishing, bowling, hunting, wrestling, chess, and weight lifting are very strenuous and difficult endeavors. They take courage, athleticism, devotion, and years of practice to master. But none of them are "sports." The amount of athletic ability it takes to compete in any event has no bearing on whether it is a sport and something else isn't. This may read more like a philosophy book than a sports blog, but below are the factors for what I consider to be a sport: 1) First and foremost, this quality is of utmost importance. To be a sport, the activity MUST have some way of strategizing to defeat your opponent. There should be some kind of "offense" and "defense." There has to be a way that you can use your physical and mental ability to outsmart your opponent and impede his chances of achieving his goal. In bowling for example, you roll your ball then take a seat and watch your opponent do the same. There is no way to hinder your opponent's ability to knock down more pins than you. To be a sport, there must be constant game planning-a way to build a strategy that will change depending on weather conditions, the strength of the opponent you are facing, the score at the time, and etc. 2) The activity in question must be team oriented. This helps tie in rule #1. You must be able to strategize with your teammates; the moves that you make will be coincided with their moves and vice versa. Furthermore, the teams MUST be at least 3 team members per side. 2 people form a partnership, not a team. There can be only 2 teams competing in the event at one time (no more, no less). And, both teams MUST compete in the arena simultaneously. 3) There must be some way of knowing with 100% certainty whom the winner of the event is. There must be "points" or "goals" that let the audience know who has won the match. There can never be any judges (not counting referees who will call penalties and enforce the game's rules). There must be a definitive way of scoring a point or goal. The game must end when a pre-determined amount of time has elapsed or a certain score is reached. Some sports that meet these criteria: basketball, hockey, soccer, rugby, baseball, lacrosse, softball, volleyball, and football. The rest are leisure activities.

Kansas City Chiefs GM Carl Peterson has a-I guess I'll call it a policy but it's more like a strategy-of relying on the draft rather than expensive free agents to fill needs. But, when your drafts are as bad as Peterson's have been, it's no surprise the Chiefs have only 3 playoff appearances and 0 playoff wins over the last 10 years. Here is to grading the Chief's drafts going back to 1995: 1995 - This might be the worst draft of them all. #1 pick OT Trezelle Jenkins was a major bust, and the only other player who made the roster and played considerably was #3 pick WR Tamarick Vanover, who was a special kick returner with a drug problem that shortened his career. GRADE: F 1996 - The two best players from this draft did not blossom into stardom until they were allowed to sign with other teams in free agency. LB Donnie Edwards and WR Joe Horn are now stars on the Chargers and Saints. Both safeties, Jerome Woods and Reggie Tongue, were starters but only Woods made the Pro Bowl. DE John Browning, drafted in the third round, was a below average starter. GRADE: B- 1997 - #1 pick TE Tony Gonzalez is a future Hall of Famer. Nobody else contributed anything to Chiefs or any other team in the NFL. GRADE: B- 1998 - First round pick OT Victor Riley was a serviceable starter for a few seasons before leaving as a free agent. #4 pick Greg Favors turned out to be a decent special teams player-for the Titans, and CB Eric Warfield, drafted in the seventh round, started for years but was below average. He was finally released (and rightfully so) this off-season. GRADE: C 1999 - #1 pick John Tait, much like Riley, was a decent starter, and is now anchoring the Bear's line. Third round pick Gary Stills, a LB, has made the Pro Bowl as a special teams player. GRADE: C 2000 - The first two picks, WR Sylvester Morris and CB William Bartee, were both huge busts. #3 pick SS Greg Wesley has been a solid contributor while starting every season since his rookie year, but he did fall off a bit his last two seasons. Dante Hall, drafted in the fifth round as a RB, is considered one of the best return specialists in the NFL. GRADE: C+ 2001 - Only fifth round pick Derrick Blaylock (RB) and seventh rounder Shaunard Harts (DB) contributed anything-both on special teams. Each player made a few scattered starts due to injuries. GRADE: F 2002 - Every pick was a bust, including the sixth overall pick in the first round DT Ryan Sims, even though he has started every season as a Chief. Fifth round pick LB Scott Fujita played well at times, but was traded last year to the Cowboys. GRADE: D- 2003 - Peterson's best draft, where he has 3 projected starters heading into 2006 (RB Larry Johnson, LB Kawika Mitchell, and RT Jordan Black). Johnson may be the best overall RB in the NFL. GRADE: A 2004 - Two fourth round picks, DE Jared Allen and WR Samie Parker, are starters. Allen is a future Pro Bowler who has led the team in sacks the last two seasons. Parker is a possession receiver. GRADE: C+ 2005 - #1 pick LB Derrick Johnson has a bright future on the team's defense, and P Dustin Colquitt was adequate as a rookie. LB Boomer Grigsby figures to be a decent special team's player. GRADE: B When the Chiefs were a perennial playoff team in the early 90's, Peterson drafted solid starters like Derrick Thomas, Tim Grunhard, Dave Szott. Dale Carter, and Will Shields. For the Chiefs to get back to the playoffs, they have to improve the quality of their drafted players.

Three teams made big mistakes Saturday during the 2006 NFL Draft. 1) Houston Texans - General consensus is that GM Charley Casserly made a huge mistake passing on a RB some scouts have compared to Gayle Sayers. Reggie Bush is the best RB to come out of the college ranks since Barry Sanders in 1989, and he could become as electric of a player in the pros. Having Bush in the backfield would give QB David Carr another weapon to utilize on offense and it would keep even a good pass rushing defense honest. Bush was certainly more of a "sure thing" than DE Mario Williams, who might have slipped to number 5 to the Packers had Houston taken Bush instead. 2) New Orleans Saints - It might seem contradicting to knock the Texans for passing on Bush, then the Saints for taking him, but let me explain. Assume that the New York Jets could have acquired the 29th pick in the first round prior to trading up with the Saints to select Bush #2. The Saints could have had the 4th, 29th, and say, the 71st (third round) picks. They could have taken OT D'brickashaw Ferguson or LB A.J. Hawk #4, and would have had their pick of LBs at #29, including DeMeco Ryans, D'Qwell Jackson, and Roger McIntosh, or could have taken CB Jimmy Williams. In the 3rd round, the Saints would have been wise to take a backup RB like Brian Calhoun or Jerious Norwood with their 71st pick. Are we forgetting that New Orleans already has the best RB in the NFC-Deuce McAllister-under contract for several more years? I don't see how Bush will provide enough of an upgrade over McAllister to offset not improving their defense and offensive line. 3) Chicago Bears - The Bears went into the draft really needing a solid WR who could provide depth behind Muhsin Muhammad and Mark Bradley and a TE who could start immediately. I have no problem with the Bears trading out of the first round, because there was not a player at that position who could really provide one of those two things. It is the players who the Bears drafted with the two picks they got in return that really make it bad draft. In the second round at pick #42, they drafted CB Danieal Manning, who will amount to nothing more than a dime back behind Nathan Vasher, Charles Tillman, and newly acquired Rickey Manning Jr. With pick #73 from the Bills, Chicago nabbed a DE. I feel the player they needed to pick was TE Leonard Pope, weather they reached and took him in the second round or traded up for him in the third, it was necessary either way as Pope would have become an instant starter. Taking defensive players really baffles me. Chicago had the #1 ranked defense in the NFL last season, and they ran into a hot team (Carolina Panthers) with a hot WR (Steve Smith) in the playoffs and got burned-badly. They panicked, however. After signing Manning the Bears were set in the defensive backfield and passed up an opportunity to make huge improvements to their passing game.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has recently expressed interest in adding not one, but two teams to the metropolitan Los Angeles area, and the National Football League is certainly interested in putting a team there (as well it should be). Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who is retiring in July, wishes to set forth on a plan to eventually add a team in L.A. in the near future. Make no mistake about it, L.A. needs a football team, and it is in the NFL's best interest to put one there. There are two problems with this scenario, however. First, it would not be wise forward thinking to add an expansion team. Other than the obvious crisis of having one division with 5 teams while the other seven divisions have only 4 (which creates scheduling conflicts and makes the playoff scenarios a little more confusing), my biggest fear is that if the NFL keeps expanding it will end up like the National Hockey League; too many teams and not enough quality professional players to fill up the rosters. When the NHL completed an expansion frenzy, going from 17 teams in 1979 to 30 in 2000, it reached fans in more markets but also filled up the rosters with players who were just not good enough to play at that level of hockey. Adding one more team would actually create this problem in the NFL, since it already deploys 32 teams each with a 53-man roster. With 33 teams, somebody's backup QB will be another's starter, a third stringer will be a backup, and a guy who is only good enough to play in the Arena League will likely make a team's practice squad. I can't speak for everybody, but I certainly don't want to pay to watch inferior football. As the NHL expanded more and more, it was tougher and tougher for teams to turn a profit and the games became less and less exciting for fans to watch. These factors largely led to the 2005 lockout, canceling the entire season. The NFL should learn from another league's mistakes. It is very easy, looking at the bottom line and seeing so many billions of dollars in revenues, to over expand. I don't know where the line is, but I believe the NFL is drawing dangerously close to it. So, expansion is out of the question, and the next scenario to be discussed is relocation. The ideal solution would have been to move the Arizona Cardinals, a lowly team with poor attendance and low fan interest, to the L.A. area. But, since the Cardinals have recently built a new stadium costing roughly $450 million, that isn't going to happen. The New Orleans Saints, whose home stadium, the Louisiana Superdome, took heavy damage during Hurricane Katrina, are another candidate. Considering team owner Tom Benson briefly threatened to move his franchise to San Antonio, Texas and then changed his mind, it is plausible. But how immoral would one individual have to be to take away a city's football team in the aftermath of such a devastating storm? The Saints should stay home in Louisiana. Relocation is definitely the preferred method, but at this time, there isn't a team who can be considered primed for a change of scenery. The NFL will eventually need to put a team in southern California, but now is not the time.