NFL Week Nine: My Three Wishes

Chris Trotman/Getty Images

1. More of the Return of the Return Men, Please

We seem to have evolved into a two season cycle when it comes to returning kicks.

In 2007 we had Devin Hester and Josh Cribbs battling it out to be the leading kick returner in the NFL.

Then, in 2008, Hester decided that he wanted to be a wide receiver, whilst the rest of the league finally wised up to the fact that, if you kicked the ball straight to Cribbs, there was every chance that he was going to run it right back into your endzone.

This year started quietly on the return front. Then Vikings' rookie Percy Harvin exploded onto the scene and suddenly we had a new return star on our hands.

Last weekend, a real sleeper joined him. The Dolphins' Ted Ginn Jr. had lost his starting role and needed to prove himself all over again after being something of an underachiever since being drafted in 2007.

Becoming the first player to return two kicks for TD in the space of seven minutes certainly got him noticed again.

As fans, we love the return men. Nothing really gets a crowd going that the ball being run back for 80, 90, even 100 yards. It might not be good for special teams coaches—and, arguably, it should be easier with the banning of the wedge formation—but the NFL wouldn't be the same without it.

2. Can the Raiders Just Resolve the Tom Cable Thing, Please

One way or the other. I honestly don't care. Just get it over with. It's worse than the long slow departure of Lane Kiffin. It's not like it will make JaMarcus Russell a great quarterback, or make the Raiders a decent team, or put their owner on the right side of very annoying.

3. Can the Browns Stop Fooling About, Please

I have no idea what Randy Lerner is or isn't trying to achieve, but at the moment it just looks like a man frantically rearranging the deckchairs aboard a certain unsinkable ship.

It doesn't matter, Randy. No one could make that side winners—not Mangini, not Belichick, not Lambeau, not Lombardi, not Paul Brown, and certainly not you.

Let one coach have a decent run at building a team, clear out 80 percent of the current roster, and accept that it will be another five years before you get anywhere.

Then talk to the fans, tell them what you are doing and, if you can't achieve it after that, get outta Dodge.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?