You know that commercial Nike keeps running where they have LaDainian Tomlinson running roughshod over the Chicago Bears defense? LT revealed the other day that the opposing team was orginally supposed to be the Patriots, but Tomlinson thought better of it. "I told them, don't use New England." Tomlinson said.

The Bears are ripped about it. They open the season against the Chargers Sunday, and they're all sorts of fired up. “We're pretty excited for next week because of that commercial,” said Bears DT Tommie Harris.

But Tomlinson isn't worried. He shrugged off the idea of giving Chicago bulletin board material with “Oh yeah, that's expected. It's all fun and games though.” So apparently LT's concern about cheesing off an opposing defense begins, and ends, with the Pats. The Bears? They're just a football team. Tomlinson knows he can handle them.

Smart move. No team in sports history has been better at finding slights, real or imagined, to motivate themselves than the Pats. If that defense had to sit through repeated viewings of a bunch of union actors in Patriots uniforms flopping around helplessly after Tomlinson, they would've dismembered him when the teams meet in Week 2.

So let's get this straight: Right after the Pats beat San Diego in the Divisional Playoff, Tomlinson says the Pats are classless. Days later, he reiterates what he said and calls them everything but terrorists. At the Pro Bowl, Belichick has one coversation with him, and Tomlinson starts confessing his manlove for the Hooded One. Now he's the world's leading advocate for respecting the Pats. Can there be any doubt Belichick used a Jedi Mind Trick on him?