NFL Week Eleven: My Three Wishes

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1. I wish that the NFL understood Ochocinco

I've never been sure what to make of the guy myself, to be honest. For large chunks of the time, he comes across as the biggest idiot alive – the name change, the begging to be traded and so on.

On the other hand, he's one of the few players who has really worked out how to use modern technology to his advantage, and this in turn has helped to soften his image – no-one who reads his Twitter feed can be in any doubt about his devotion to his children, his loyalty to his friends or his dedication to his craft.

Then there is the fact that, oddly, we seem to have the same sense of humor. An acquaintance I had a rather public row with a few weeks ago has been complaining about the amount of spam she's been receiving lately and I am so tempted to send her a tin of the real thing.

Especially now we now about Ochocinco's proposed mustard stunt. And waving a dollar bill at an official carrying out a booth review? Hell, I'd love to have the chance to do that!

The fact remains, though, that by being so po-faced about everything he does, the NFL just plays into his hands. They're giving a shameless self-publicist the oxygen of publicity. There's always a risk that in ignoring him, he would do something really stupid.

But there's also the chance that he'd become a real asset to the league, a character, but also a positive influence for all of the reasons I have mentioned above. I don't understand why they can't look beyond all the nonsense and realise that, actually, here is someone with the potential to be a real ambassador for the game.

2. I also wish that the NFL had a sense of proportion

I'm sorry, but I don't care if someone does flick the Vs at opposing fans and I don't care if they are so wealthy that they sweat money, fining someone $250,000 is obscene. That's close to the NFL's own minimum wage.

To say that you are going to take that sort of money for something like that, whilst at the same time allowing people to play when they have significant criminal convictions is vulgar, repulsive and frankly untenable. Until this week, I thought Roger Goodell was doing a good job. Now I am worried that he is losing it.

3. I wish that the Titans had started Vince Young earlier

At the start of the season, I thought they would be less troubled by the Haynesworth trade than they thought they would be. Then they started like 53 people who had never met each other before.

I appreciate that it would have taken some guts for Jeff Fisher to admit that he was wrong and make the switch to Young, but at the same time those sort of hard decisions are what he is paid for. The change in the side has been incredible, but imagine what their season would've been like if it had happened in Week three?

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