For years, the Yankees have been able to withstand the onslaught of challenges to their throne from all comers because of their enormous payroll and their willingness to actually spend the money. This offseason, the Yankees may face some problems, as the new collective bargaining agreement will make them change their ways.

First off, I am not saying that the Yankees will become a second rate team. That is just clearly not true; they have too much talent, too much money and too good of a staff to fall far. What I am saying is that the Yankees may have some new problems.

First off, the Yankees have a number of players who are albatrosses. Raul Mondesi, Sterling Hitchcock, Rondell White and others make an unbelievable amount of money for what they bring to the table. It seems as if the Yankees believe that they can trade a number of these players, but that is just ridiculous. Very few other teams are looking to add salary this offseason. The unstable economy, along with the new baseball luxury tax makes teams reluctant to increase any salary whatsoever, and teams will particularly shy away from underachieving, overpaid malcontents.

The Yankees supposedly want to cut salary this offseason and, since it is unlikely that they will be able to trade some of their deadweight, they must then try to trade core players. But again, they are going to run into some problems here. Over the years the Yankees have overpaid players because they have been parts of winning teams. The best example of this is Derek Jeter, who makes $19 million per year, but players such as Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada are also the owners of bloated contracts. Both of these players have been put on the trading block, but at roughly $11 million per year each, they are overpaid and will be difficult to move.

The Yankees seem to have two options right now. First, they can dump salary and receive literally nothing in return. If they want to trade big salaries they won't get any talent back and they may have to take another team's problem in return. Secondly, they may say screw it and pay an enormous amount of luxury tax if they decide to keep their team intact. George Steinbrenner will not stand losing in the playoffs any longer, and he will try to add expensive players in the next few months. The Yankees will be one of the best teams next season, but they have some major decisions to make.

Comebacks not worth the effort

The recent troubles of Chris Carter in his return to the NFL should remind athletes that they are not invincible.

Carter, who did not want to leave the league after last year, had been working for HBO this fall as an analyst for their football show. He had tried to sign with a number of teams after last year, but was unable to find the right fit and thus moved into the press box. He was a success in this role, but I think that he planned to return to the league at some point this year.

Well, in his first game back from the quasi-retirement Carter dropped a few balls, and he also fumbled in a crucial situation. In the week after that game, he was diagnosed with having a kidney disease, and it looks like the rest of the season will be lost for him.

What this experience should tell athletes is that coming back to the game isn't as easy as they may think. Carter was only slightly removed from his playing days and he still struggled and was injured right off the bat. I don't know if the injury was related to playing the game, but it is still telling.

Recently it has been rumored that Troy Aikman was going to return to the field as a quarterback for the Dolphins-who clearly are shopping for retreads this year-and I can not advise strongly enough against it. Aikman plays the most dangerous position in the league, has a serious problem with concussions and has been away from the game for two years. The thought of him coming back to the NFL and getting knocked out is sickening, and hopefully he has enough brain power left to stay out of the league.

Comebacks can work in sports where the physical contact is minor-such as basketball and baseball-but football is a completely different beast. In a sport where the average career is around four years long, any comeback is ill advised. The game is too fast, the players are too strong and coming back is only a risk to the players involved.

Starters return as backups

For a long time there has been an unwritten rule that regards starters lost to injury. Usually, when you return from injury you get your job back, but in recent years that hasn't always been the case. Last year, this problem flared up for the New England Patriots, when Drew Bledsoe was knocked out and Tom Brady took over. Brady kept his job when Bledsoe was cleared to play again, and the rest is history.

This year, the same problem has arisen for the St. Louis Rams, and they would be wise to look at what happened to the team that beat them in the Super Bowl last year before they make a brash decision. Kurt Warner was ineffective before he was injured, much like Bledsoe last year, and his unheralded backup has shined in his place. Marc Bulger threw for over 450 yards this past weekend and led the Rams to a come-from-behind win over the Chargers. He has sparked the team to four straight victories after five losses to start the season and generally played like an All Pro.

It is always a tricky situation when a player is injured and wants his place back when he returns to full health. Warner led the Rams to unprecedented success for three years, but it seemed like the league had figured him out this year. Right now the Rams don't have to make that decision, because they are still saying that Warner can't play, but they have an important decision to make when he does return.

Amherst proves me wrong

In my final column for The Student I think that it may finally be time to talk about Amherst sports. After picking the football team to be 31-10 losers to Williams this past weekend (a score that was inadvertently printed as 31-10 in favor of Amherst in the Homecoming Issue) the team played the best game that I have seen them play in my four years here. Coming out as a dominating victor, I don't think that the game was as close as the final score; the Jeffs were able to make up for earlier losses and win the game. Considering that the only game of the year that truly matters is the final showdown against Williams, the Jeffs stepped it up when it mattered most.