ITEM ONE:

AS GRANDMA SAID, "GET OUT AND VOTE!"

Leave it to a grandmother to cut through the confusion, and get down to the core of the truth. Particularly when it comes to Election Day next Tuesday (11/7). The Green Bay Packers were talking politics in the locker room the other day, and fullback WILLIAM HENDERSON related his view of things in the midst of Democrat/Republican, Gore/Bush, tax cuts-or-no debate. "My one thing is," said Henderson, "and my grandmother preached it to me as a child, that we’ve put too much work, and our forefathers have put too much work, into the ability to have a voice not to use it. It really doesn’t matter what your opinion is if you don’t go out and cast your vote, because you’re basically showing that you really don’t care. So get out there and cast your vote!"

ITEM TWO:

Congressman STEVE LARGENT (R-Okla.), the Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks (1976-89), is a heavy favorite to win re-election for a fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives on Election Day. Largent is the fifth former NFL player to serve in the House. The previous four: JACK KEMP (1971-88), WINIFRED DENTON (1949-53, 1955-57), CHET CHESNEY (1948-50), and LAVERN DILWEG (1943-45)......And with all the political predictions that will be heard in the next few days, the most accurate may be one that took place last Monday night. To wit: In the past 15 presidential elections, when the Washington Redskins won their last home game preceding the election, the incumbent party won. The Redskins lost to Tennessee this past Monday night 27-21 – their last home game before the election.

ITEM THREE:

At the halfway point of the season, NFL games have been the top-rated television program every week the local team has played in 13 NFL cities. In three of those cities – Buffalo, Kansas City, and New Orleans – NFL programming also represented the top-rated show in television weeks in which the local team did not play (due to a bye or a Monday-night game which is counted in the following week’s ratings). The 13 markets where an NFL game was the top-rated program each week that the local team played: Buffalo, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Tampa and Washington.