ITEM ONE:

NFL ATTENDANCE ON RECORD PACE

Last year, the NFL set a single-season paid attendance record of 65,349 per game. That may be old news by the end of this season since 2000 paid attendance has increased by nearly 1,500 fans per game through the first quarter of the season. Games this year have averaged 67,318 tickets sold through Week 5. The ’99 season was the first time the NFL averaged 65,000 fans in the regular season.

ITEM TWO:

YAHOO! NFL RADIOCASTS ON THE INTERNET

No more dial-fiddling for NFL fans. Now all they have to do is click on the Internet to hear radio broadcasts of their favorite NFL team – even if they’re in San Diego and their loyalty is to the Miami Dolphins. In an agreement announced this week by the NFL and Yahoo! Inc., NFL fans for the first time this year are able to access live-game audio for free on the Internet at NFL.com and team sites. The agreement was announced in San Jose, California on Tuesday (October 3) during NFL Commissioner PAUL TAGLIABUE’s tour of the Silicon Valley to discuss ways the NFL’s fast-growing Internet services can expand even more. "We want to make certain that we stay on top of all the innovations in technology and services in order to make them available to our fans," said Tagliabue.

ITEM THREE:

POLITICS, YES. BUT FOOTBALL, TOO

The editor of the publication, MICHAEL KINSLEY, claims not even to be a football fan. But he obviously knows what his readers may like mixed in with their daily dose of politics – NFL football. That’s why Slate, "the interactive magazine of politics and culture," has added a "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" column to its usual array of articles such as "Undecided Voters To Decide Election" and "Web Sites Aim To Expand Debate Arena." The column is written by a very "un-football" sort of guy – GREGG EASTERBROOK, an author and journalist who usually writes about public policy and subjects such as theology, physics and cosmology. Easterbrook recently compared the passing skills of Super Bowl XXXIV MVP KURT WARNER of the St. Louis Rams to a "neutrino transference array" and a "photonic vortex beam generator." Not your usual "he’s-strong-in-the-long-game." "The NFL is a wonderful artificial world and a very entertaining one," says Easterbrook. He prefers, he says, to use an "interdisciplinary approach" to write about "the mad absurdities of the NFL." DENNIS MILLER, where are you?