Is she a natural blonde?

By the 2nd half, that was the only mystery left remaining in the Colts & Rams game

Watching Sunday's NFL Week 7 games made for some real drama and competitive finishes.  In my fantasy football league, that is.

Total points scored by Sunday's winners - 406
Total points scored by Sunday's losers - 152
Average margin of victory in Sunday's Week 7 games - 21 points

Were you watching from the edge of your seat all day?

If so, might want to purchase some of this

(Because the football surely wasn't the cause)

Here in Indiana, the early game had the undefeated Indianapolis Colts trouncing the winless St. Louis Rams in a matchup that provided as much suspense and unpredictability as the pregame weather forecast did.  (Note: It was played indoors).  The victory was the 15th straight regular season win for the Colts and the loss was the 17th in a row for the Rams.

42-6 was the final.  Wow, didn't see that one coming.

In the later game we were treated to a cliffhanger in Cincinnati, where the Bengals and Bears final (45-10) was more lopsided than the leftover deep-dish pizza I used to turn sideways to fit into the mini-refrigerator of my Chicago condo.  Mercifully, when that game ended, the network switched to the Saints comeback win in Miami and not to the New York Jets blowout (38-0) in Oakland.

When the National Football League introduced a salary cap before the 1994 season, there were two objectives for doing so: To control costs and to promote parity.

Without having the tax reports from all 32 NFL teams handy, I'm pretty sure some costs have been controlled by the salary cap.  But without enough competitive games to watch each week, I'll safely go on record as saying that there is less parity in the NFL as there were Rams fans yesterday at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.

In 1994 (the first under the salary cap) the Patriots, Steelers and Vikings were all either atop or tied for first place in their respective divisions.  Also that season, the Buccaneers, Redskins and Rams finished in last place.

Anyone want to check the NFL standings after 7 weeks of the 2009 season?

In the 16 seasons since it's been implemented, the salary cap can take credit for taking some perennial NFL losers (2008 Arizona Cardinals, 2006 Seattle Seahawks, 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and turning them into Conference, if not, Super Bowl, champions.   But, likewise before the cap, the 1970's Steelers and the 1980's San Francisco 49ers were able to reverse a history of losing into a decade of dominance without the help of controlled player salaries.

The NFL's salary cap will likely be gone by 2010 following the next labor negotiations.  As a result, if so, the balance of the league's competitive power may very well be affected.  Just like it's been WITH the salary cap.