First, there’s Tom Shales of the Washington Post, who is definitely not among the NFL junkies. When President Bush welcomed the start of the NFL season in a taped message, Shales lamented: “He also said pro football ‘celebrates the values that make our country so strong.’ Like what, violence and greed?”

Oh, go watch “The Sopranos.”

Second, there’s ESPN.com’s football writer Len Pasquarelli, a fine reporter. In his review of the Jets-Redskins game, he wanted to describe how the Jets offense was too conservative (not risky enough) in its play-calling: “But to overemphasize the right-wing bent with which Hackett called the game would be to diminish the performance of the Redskins defense.”

Huh? So if the Redskins throw a long bomb to Coles, it’s a left-wing play? (How can anything characterized as a “bomb” be a left-wing play? Unless it’ s of the Unabomber-Baader-Meinhof variety…)