Regular readers of the Boot Room may remember the inspirational "I Believe" column I wrote last year. You know, the one that went like this: "I believe in ... the pre-game pint, passing out of the back, and blah, blah, blah." I'm sure you do. Well, today I present the, "I Don't Believe" column.

Maybe I've gotten more skeptical in the past year, a little wiser, a little more pessimistic.

Nah. Maybe I'm just sitting in a hotel room in Berkeley, Calif., hurting for ideas.

So here goes.

I don't believe ...

· A bunch of MLS fans have been e-mailing me with their concerns about XFL TV ratings and what it means for soccer.

· Cobi Jones is really going to get a job in the Premiership.

· You can lose a lot of weight by eating subs every day, unless you take away the cold cuts and the bread ? and the oil and the vinegar.

· There should be a limit on the number of discovery players a team can have. I mean, god forbid an MLS team wants to go out and scout for better players.

· There was anything good to be learned from the NBA All-Star Game. So, if you MLS marketing people were thinking, "we need some of that" ? reconsider your position. Want to make this year's MLS All-Star Game better? First, have two captains choose up sides, "playground style." Then, offer up some real prize money to the team that wins.

· That some of the same people who have complained about the amount of press coverage that MLS gets were upset about reporters who were speculating on trades at the Combine and SuperDraft. I recommend to all those who were ticked off about the "rumor mongering" and to those who were hell-bent to plug the "leaks" to open a sports page once in a while and see how baseball, football and hockey are covered in this country. There are more trade rumors reported in an hour at the baseball winter meetings than there were in four days in Fort Lauderdale. Believe me, the last thing MLS needs is a bunch of ambivalent reporters writing fluff during the one weekend of the off-season where some things actually happen. If I sound mad, I am.

· That Temptation Island is real "reality TV."

· That perhaps the dumbest rule on the books in MLS is the one that prohibits teams from practicing with a ball until a specific date on the calendar. I know it's designed so the warm-weather teams don't have an advantage -- and I also know it's not enforced -- but it looks really, really dumb.

· That putting Youth International players into the SuperDraft and making them roster-protected is fair to American college players who are just as promising but don't get drafted because teams don't have room on their rosters.

· After watching the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team on HBO that I'll ever witness a better sporting event in my lifetime. So, yeah, you can conclude that I don't believe the U.S. will ever win a World Cup in my lifetime. I figure, if countries like Holland and Spain haven't won one yet, the U.S won't win one of the next 10. Sorry.

· The average MLS fan prefers sitting in a comfortable seat with a drink holder at an 80,000-seat stadium to sitting on aluminum bleachers at a 20,000-seat stadium.

· That if MLS takes Landon Donovan on a loan they're setting the wrong precedent.

· The MLS players really think they can drop the appeal of their class-action lawsuit because if they do, they will lose the only bit of leverage they might have in a negotiation for a better deal. As one player asked me, "What's the difference between the words 'collective bargaining' and 'litigation settlement?' If we call off the appeal and form a union, the only thing we can take into a negotiation is the threat of a strike, and most of our players don't make enough money to go on strike for more than a week or two."

· There's any difference between the 48-hour Hollywood Miracle Diet and a really strong laxative. Not that I've tried it, but I have read about it.

· That just because season-ticket sales are supposedly up league-wide in MLS, it's going to translate into noticeable improvement in overall attendance. The key to drawing bigger crowds for MLS is group sales, not season tickets.

· The Fusion will get enough votes from the people of Broward County to get the $35 million Ken Horowitz wants to upgrade Lockhart Stadium and turn the old baseball complex into a youth soccer facility. Unless, of course, dimpled chads count as "yes" votes.

Jeff Bradley is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail jeff.bradley@espnmag.com.