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Let's stop the games right now.

This one thing we can do at this moment in the face of madness.

Stop writing the time-worn clichés about the triviality of sports and live the message.

Stop the games. Retrench ... reorganize ... take a breath ... enhance security ... mourn.

Shut down all sports. All of it, shut it down if for no other reason than out of common decency.

Don't make college athletes hop onto airplanes just hours after watching countless replays of airliners crashing into the World Trade Center.

Don't turn stadiums into so many bull's-eyes so immediately after the attack.

Let's think about people.

Come back fresh on, say, Monday with renewed energy, minds a little clearer.

Some consciences, at least, would be cleansed -- because in the wake of the tragedy, big-time sports have fallen into chaos for all the wrong reasons.

The dust needs to settle. Literally.

If some games do go on, then we're bound to see large sections of empty seats at all games. The fans will have voted with their hearts, the ones that are beating calmly at home because they're not a target for some loon.

Maybe being a shut-in this weekend is good. Bodies, perhaps some alive, are buried under tons of rubble. Listening to some announcer analyze the zone blitz while rescue crews continue their work simply doesn't make sense.

This is a nation with jitters right now that no game is going to cure.

Whether you want to admit or not, we're at war. Some sort of fuzzy, faceless, conflict, but a war nonetheless. Pearl Harbor times 10.

Most frightening, we certainly don't know if the attacks are over or just beginning.

It's not right to step right back in the batter's box until the athletes and fans can be assured of some measure of safety. Take a beat and start fresh next week.

Let's prove how healthy sports can be in our society -- not declare blindly that "the games must go on."

There are arguments about how playing games shows our resolve against the terrorists.

Hogwash. Does Osama bin Laden care if Tennessee plays Florida on Saturday?

There's only reason he would ... and the reason is too horrific to contemplate.