Who’s the best tight end in football? If you haven’t paid attention the past year and a half, you’ll likely say Tony Gonzalez. Hell, even if you have noticed what Antonio Gates has been doing for the Chargers, you may say Gonzo’s still the best simply because he’s been the best for so long. But not anymore. Gonzalez has been complaining about his lack of activity in the KC offense, and rightfully so — coming into this week’s game, Gonzalez had just 25 catches for 209 yards and no touchdowns. Gates, meanwhile, had 33 catches for 430 yards and three touchdowns.

But if there was any real debate about the identity of the NFL’s best tight end coming in to this week’s Chargers/Chiefs game, that debate is now officially dead. Gonzalez delivered his best line of the season, catching seven balls for 97 yards and his first score of the year, but Gates was even better, snagging 10 catches for 145 yards while reaching the end zone three times. You know Gonzo wanted to show up big against Gates and the Chargers, but apparently Gates wanted the same thing.

For Gonzalez owners, though, a silver lining can be found in the game’s box score. Not only did Gonzo have a solid performance but the Chiefs’ passing game, which had been rather lackluster this year, found a groove. Eddie Kennison had 115 yards and a score, Chris Horn caught seven passes, and Trent Green completed 31 of his 47 attempts for 347 yards. But even if Gonzalez finally starts delivering the kind of numbers owners expected from him on draft day, he’ll still play second fiddle to Antonio Gates.

SUNDAY HEADLINERS

Jake Plummer: 309 yards, 4 TD, 0 INT
Okay, this is getting crazy. It’s now been six weeks since Jake Plummer has thrown an interception. Six! We’re talking about a guy who’s thrown at least 20 picks five different times in the last eight years. We’re talking about a guy who, coming into this season, owned a 132-141 career TD-to-INT ratio. But this year, Plummer now has 12 touchdowns vs. just three interceptions. Not coincidentally, the Broncos are now 6-2 after thumping the Eagles 49-21 Sunday.

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Every week, I submit six names to our readers – three borderline fantasy players to start and three to bench. Here’s how I did last week:

START

Jake Plummer, DEN – 194 yards, 1 TD (PUSH)
Plummer didn’t put up big numbers, but he was efficient and didn’t throw any picks.

Chris Brown, TEN – 37 rushing yards, 0 TD (MISS)
Brown left the game with a neck stinger.

Az-Zahir Hakim, NO – 6 catches, 100 yards, 1 TD (HIT)
Hakim is a great play as long as Horn is injured.

BENCH

Michael Vick, ATL – 116 pass yards, 3 INT, 18 rushing yards, 2 TDs (MISS)
The league’s most inaccurate passer threw three picks but managed to run for two scores.

Jamal Lewis, BAL – 34 rushing yards, 0 TDs (HIT)
Lewis has been awful. Is it time for Chester Taylor?

Mushin Muhammad, CAR – 3 catches, 39 yards (HIT)
Muhammad is wasting away in the Bears’ lowly passing attack.

On to this week’s picks:

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Jerry Reinsdorf went on record early and often about how he would trade all six of the Chicago Bulls’ NBA championships for one White Sox World Series championship. Well, now he doesn’t have to. The White Sox win 10 out of 11 playoff games and sweep the listless Astros to win their first World Series since 1917. Unbelievable.

Any columnist, especially the ones in Chicago, will tell you that the Sox didn’t stand a chance in hell in going the distance. They needed another bat, maybe two, that was the conventional wisdom across the board. And yet, like they always say about playoff baseball, good pitching always beats good hitting. In this case, though, it was more a matter of good pitching beating aggressively mediocre hitting. I mean, what on earth happened to Morgan Ensberg? Dude hit 75 home runs during the season.

Some other observations:

Sports Illustrated has released its All-Poison team – a list of the baddest of the NBA’s “bad apples.” Jalen Rose, Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant are just a few of the players joining Stephon Marbury on this talented, yet nightmarish squad.

There is one name noticably absent from the list: Latrell Sprewell. This may be due to the fact that Spree doesn’t have a team at the moment, but they should have at least penciled him in as the water boy.

ESPN is reporting that the Milwaukee Bucks have traded swingman Desmond Mason and their 2006 first round pick to the New Orleans Hornets for power forward/center Jamaal Magloire. It’s possible that the Bucks will play Magloire alongside Andrew Bogut, with newly acquired Bobby Simmons at small forward. This would give the Bucks a starting lineup of T.J Ford, Michael Redd, Simmons, Magloire and Bogut. If Bogut progresses quickly and Ford continues to play well, this could be a formidable fivesome.

Mason will step into the starting small forward spot for the Hornets, playing alongside Chris Paul and J.R. Smith, giving New Orleans an exciting trio that will look to push the ball. Chris Andersen and P.J. Brown will likely round out the starting five.

Even if the White Sox end their curse in much the same way that the Red Sox ended theirs, in a four-game sweep and on the road, history should note that despite the lowest ratings in World Series history, these games have been fantastic. The largest margin of victory so far has been two runs. When was the last time that happened? Even when the Reds stunned the world by sweeping the A’s in 1990, at least one of those games was a bona fide blowout.

Not these games. They’ve been hard fought defensive gems, with the meanest relief pitching you’re ever likely to see. Bobby Jenks is just ridiculous, with a near unhittable fastball and a curve ball that makes batters curl up in the fetal position. It’s just a pity that they end at 2:20 in the morning.

People can talk all they want about why this Series is getting such low ratings, since New York and Boston aren’t involved. But Houston and Chicago are currently duking it out over which city is the third largest in the country, which means the other city is the fourth largest. That’s not big enough? No, that’s not the reason these games are rated so low; it’s because they’re all lasting until midnight, and in the case of last night, well beyond midnight. The kids are all in bed well before these games are halfway finished. How is the next generation supposed to get into baseball when it’s never on when they’re awake?

The Series likely ends tonight. Freddy Garcia against Brandon Backe? Advantage: Sox. But hey, what do I know? I thought that Oswalt would shut them down last night. It’ll be a great night for Chicago, but a bad 20 years for Cubs fans, since they’ll have to endure the vicious taunts of the Sox faithful. Then again, maybe a Sox Series will finally motivate the Tribune Company to do something about their pathetic team. After all, they’re about to start losing money, when ticket jersey sales all tilt the Sox’s way. And nothing is a faster motivator than the loss of money.

Ahman Green is done for the season and Robert Ferguson is out for a month. The Falcons, Jets, Colts and Seahawks are on bye. What does all of this mean for your fantasy team?

Post all of your roster questions here and we’ll try to give you the right answers.

Another week has come and gone, and two more Packers have found themselves on the infirmary list. If you are still trying to fill holes on your fantasy squad, here are a few guys to keep in mind:

QUARTERBACKS

Other than Jeff Garcia, Chris Simms, Jamie Martin and Kelly Holcomb, whom I mentioned in last week’s Watch, there is only one potentially attractive option on tap this week.

Billy Volek, TEN – Steve McNair was a late scratch for the game against the Cardinals and Volek – usually a very capable backup – was knocked out of the game with a concussion. The status of both players is up in the air, but this is a situation to keep your eye on as the QB for the Titans is reasonably valuable.

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In the world of fantasy sports, anyone can make solid picks in the first few rounds. It’s the middle to late rounds where championship squads are born. Here are a few sleepers (all being selected, on average, in the 8th round or later) that I’m trying to pick as the draft wears on.

GUARDS

T.J. Ford, MIL
After a terrific career at the University of Texas, Ford was drafted #8 overall by a Milwaukee Bucks team in need of a point guard. Known to be lightning quick and a great distributor, the two big knocks on him are his size and lack of shooting touch. He didn’t do anything in his rookie season to dispel either, shooting just .384 from the field before going down with a season-ending spinal cord injury. But the injury might have been a blessing in disguise for Ford, who rehabbed with former NBA coach/player John Lucas. Lucas wisely decided to reinvent Ford’s jumpshot so that Ford wouldn’t have to go to the hole to be a scoring threat. Fast forward to this preseason and, through four games, he’s averaging 13 points and six assists while shooting .474 from the field. I think those numbers are reasonable expectations for the season, putting him at the level of Jamal Tinsley and Luke Ridnour, who are both going a few rounds ahead of him.

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ESPN’s Chris Mortensen has reported that the Saints have probably played their last game in New Orleans. The city is seen as a struggling small market and there were talks of the Saints moving even before Hurricane Katrina. The Saints will probably play next season in San Antonio with a possible move to Los Angeles on the horizon.

Since the Rams and Raiders left, the NFL has been dying to put a franchise in the country’s second biggest market, but the city wasn’t able to get its act together in recent years and lost out to Houston for the league’s 32nd (and possibly final) team. Now the city is the first to be mentioned whenever a franchise is thought to be moving. As a SoCal resident (living in Orange County), I’d like to see a team relocate either to Anaheim or to a site somewhere along the LA County and Orange County border. It’s a sad situation, but given all the other entertainment possibilities in the area, I think residents of both counties need to have access to the team in order for the NFL to thrive in Southern California. And they need to do what the Browns did when they moved to Baltimore – change their nickname. Somehow, the LA Saints doesn’t sound quite right, unless you’re trying to be ironic.