Waving white flag: Draft e-mailers pummel narrator into submission

�€� From Chris of Palmyra, Pa. "Something I don't understand. Why does the NFL put so much emphasis on 40 times when the players aren't even wearing equipment? Wouldn't it make more sense to have them run the 40 in full gear?" It probably would, but I don't think you could get them to do it. They're always trying to lighten themselves. And that pro day doesn't make sense either, running on souped up tracks. This is just my opinion, but when they get into the range of the 4.4's and 4.3's, it becomes kind of a blur. I think what they're looking for is guys who come up unforeseeably SLOW in the 40.

�€� You know something? I think we've finally broken free from draft questions. And I feel like kissing the ground, like a coal miner who finally lands a job topside. Greg of Atlanta wants to know how I prepare for the draft and all the junk, I mean the analysis, that I provide. I try to call at least one person from each team with a pick in the first round. Some I know will never return my phone call, such as Jerry Angelo , the Bears' GM. Not sure why. Guess he doesn't like me, can you imagine? I talk to the agents who don't lie too outrageously, scouts on different teams who will pass along scuttlebutt. I once kept track of how many phone calls I made during the week leading up to the piece I had to write. I think it came to 355 (are you paying attention, T&E, when my expense report comes in?) Thanks for the nice words, Greg.

�€� Ike of Richmond liked my Vermeil wine piece (thanks) and wants to know how he, as a 21-year old, can get to learn something about wines. Here's the best way. Find a few people who share your love of wine. Get them together for regular tastings, each one to be plugged into a certain theme, the narrower the better. For instance -- German wines, Kabinett level and higher, of the 2005 vintage. Or maybe California Syrahs of the last two years.

If you're the organizer, you'll have to be the recorder as well. Have them tell you, in advance, what wine, or two if they can afford it, they'll be bringing, and check them off against a master sheet, so two people won't bring the same thing. If you do it right, and you can find a store or stores with wide varieties, and if you round up, say, 10 people, then you'll have a tasting of 10 or 20 wines of the same variety, and you've got a real event going.

Make sure everyone takes notes. Try to train yourself to spit the wines, rather than swallowing each one. There are no taste buds in your throat, and afterward you can socialize and drink a glass or two. Discuss the wines. Write down the various comments. Now you're into record keeping, and you'd be surprised at how valuable all this will be in the future, especially when you're reading all the bullsh....uh, all the hokum fed to you by the various experts.

�€� Lance of Norcross, Ga. , wants to know what I would do as a GM. How I would handle the draft and salary cap, what kind of owner I'd want to deal with, how I'd....whoa there, podnah. I am an outsider and always will remain so until someone in the NFL wants to take me into his strictest confidence and confide in me the secrets of the universe. The best mistake writers can make is to assume we have more inside knowledge than we do. I found this out the hard way in my younger days, when I was trying to show off and got put in my place -- hard!

�€� I'm saving my e-mailer of the week for last. Mikil Taylor of Nashville . It's not that his question is so wonderful, it's just that he touches such a nostalgic chord from my own humble background. He wants to know how and why football originally came up with 11 men per team. But what got me was his statement that, "I was putting off studying for final exams last night and wondering exactly why..." and then he gets into his questions about history.

Oh man, does this bring back memories. Midnight, and exams loom for the following day, and all of a sudden I've got to try to fix the clock that's been broken for two years. Or compile a list of every state I've been in, and how I rate them. Mikil, do your parents know that right now instead of cramming in the knowledge, you're pestering some unbalanced writer about the number of men on a team?

OK, brother, I feel for you. Let's get this out of the way quickly. In the murky past they played a brutal game called Mob Football, which could have any number of participants. Early American football was played with 15 on a side, rugby style, and then in 1878, Walter Camp , at a meeting of the Intercollegiate Football Association, proposed trimming the number to 11, to speed things up. He was turned down, but two years later the idea went through. And there the number stayed. Now get back to studying for those exams, or I'm going to feel guilty all week.