Starting Five

1. The San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos each play ONE outstanding half of football, but Peyton’s squad plays the better one.   Score at halftime: Chargers 24, Denver 0. Final score: Broncos 35, San Diego 24.

2.  Mitt Romney and President Obama sequester themselves for a few days for “debate camp.” (there’s a color wars joke in here somewhere, we are just unable to locate it).

3. Picturesque Kennebunk, Maine, is reeling as a 29 year-old Zumba dance teacher is arrested soil running a prostitution ring. The police will release have released the names of her johns. English teachers everywhere silently hope one has the surname Prynne.

“How much did you say those dance lessons cost, again?”

4. Sure, the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-1 to even the NLCS at 1-1, and everyone is talking about Matt Holliday’s hard slide into second base against Marco Scutaro. Us? We are intrigued by Giant third base coach Tim Flannery performing the national anthem with two members of the Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh and Bon Weir.

5. Three-time BMX world champion Kyle Bennett, 33, dies in a single-vehicle accident near his home in Texas. Bennett lost control of his vehicle and was not wearing a seatbelt.

Reserves

Okay,  the headline that caught our eyes this morning was “Worker Dies in Tuna Plant Oven.”

The New York Post accuses A-Rod of hitting on female fans seated in the second row of Yankee Stadium during Game 1 of the ALCS ( the good news is he’s hitting).

Our favorite moment of MNF was the post game show when our friend Rick Reilly said that the Broncos “played the first half like Cicely Tyson and the second half like Mike Tyson.” Stu Scott quickly added, “Eighties Mike Tyson”, which is also the last decade in which that joke might have been funny. Oh, Riles. you are just stealing money at this point.

It may not be fair, but every time we see Chuck Todd on camera we wonder how many pairs of jorts he owns.

How many Garth Brooks concert T-shirts does he own?

Ray Lewis and Derek Jeter suffer season-ending injuries on the same weekend? Now there’s a leadership void.

Mack Brown  says he will not listen to any suggestions about retiring — the Longhorns trailed 56-8 to Oklahoma at one point Saturday — because a lot of boosters have told him to keep his head up.  In a way Brown is fortunate he won’t be going up against Johnny Football and Texas A&M.

Happy Birthday, Mom!