OK, a couple of things. - The season is exactly the right length, give or take a week or two. It'll probably end a little sooner next year. We need to have a season of this length giving the number of games to be competitive. An NASL-style April-August schedule is no good. Most 'problems' associated with a season as long as ours are solved with stadium control, anyhow. Plus, a seven month offseason is killer. I don't expect that we will ever have nearly year-round schedules like in many other countries, but occupying 8 months of the year isn't asking too much. - A few things bother me about the Telander article. Don't think I don't appreciate it, I do, and it's a good article. One, it's consderably more jokey than the Downey piece, which in and of itself is not bad, cause it's funny. I just like that Downey played it straight the same as if he was writing about the Cubs or Bears and that's never something you see in Chicago. Two, he's written this article before. He did in 98 and 00, and though the players were differerent ti was always the same tone; "who knew we had winners in this town?" and "Hey i don't understand soccer but these guys apparently are good at it"...also not a bad thing but disconcerting when he mentions it a third time in 6-odd years and you think, "well we haven't ever STOPPED winning, really...so why are you not picking up on that?" Still, nice article and good to see Jimmy gettin some deserved press. He's defender of the year as far as I'm concerned.