Full-Blown Lin-Sanity: Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks

Jeremy Lin of the NBA’s New York Knicks has become a legend in the span of less than two weeks, as he has gone from a bench-warmer, scrub, DNPer, garbage time player to a bona fide star, force to be reckoned with impact player.

In this new era of hyper hype, Lin has set the new standard for over-the-top hyperbole and over-night successedness. I just made that word up.

So in keeping with the spirit of jumping on the bandwagon and coming up with new and more ridiculous ways to celebrate professional sports’ latest phenom, I am proposing a whole new lingo based on his Lin-ness.

“Lin-Sanity” is a limp tribute to be waved in our face given the majestic heights reached by this Asian-American dynamo, a flaccid moniker and an insufficient way to pay homage to the Magician of Madison Square Garden.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Lin-glish. Here are words, presented in no particular order, that I propose replace their English counterparts.

Lin-come Tax as in, on April 15th is when our Lin-come Tax returns are due. If you do not pay on time you will be charged Lin-terest.

Lin-digestion, as in Jeremy Lin’s roundball exploits give his opponents Lin-digestion.

Lin-ebriated, as in Knicks fans are so happy they are Lin-ebriated by Jeremy Lin’s roundball exploits. BTW, have you ever heard of a square ball? Roundball is a dumb nickname. Which roundball, the bigger orange one, the white one with color patches, the little one with stitches?

Abraham Lin-coln. As in the former US President who sported a beard an according to an upcoming movie was a vampire hunter. This is a spelling-only form of Lin-glish.

Lin-ferior. As in any other point guard in the league is not as good as Jeremy, therefore, everyone else is Lin-ferior.

Lin-ovater. Being creative on the basketball court is being a Lin-ovater. Lin-ovative is also acceptable.

Lin-jury or Lin-jured. A victim of one of Jeremy’s tantalizing drives to the rack can be said to have been Lin-jured or suffered a Lin-jury. If the player gets pulled from the game by his coach as a resilt of this condition, he was critically Lin-jured.

Lin-fidel. Anyone who doesn’t think that Jeremy is the greatest thing since the lace less ball is a non-believer and shall be referred to as a Lin-fidel.

Lin-fidelity. Not to be confused with Lin-fidel. A person is guilty of Lin-fidelity when they claim another player is better than Jeremy. “He said Baron Davis is better than Jeremy Lin. What Lin-fidelity!”

Lin-anity or Lin-ane. Any criticism of “Asian Jesus” will be referred to as being Lin-ane, and the person will be guilty of uttering a Lin-anity. Criticism of “AJ” is ridiculous, and must be treated as such. NOTE TO THE SENSITIVE AND STUPID: “Black Jesus” was one of the early nicknames of old school New York Knick, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe when he was a playa for Winston-Salem. So there.

Lin-testinal Fortitude. Any player who has the stones to put the game on his own shoulders and take pressure shots and make them shows Lin-testinal Fortitude. “Guts are for wimps, he has Lin-testinal Fortitude.”

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Feel free to add your own, but I will be adding to the Lin Lexicon as his legend grows.

The Ramble: More Things You Should Stop Doing in the Gym, Immediately

There is an epidemic sweeping the country these days. No, it’s not the obesity epidemic, or the drug abuse epidemic, or the Glee epidemic. The “Doing Stupid, Waste of Time Stuff in the Gym Epidemic,”is a real problem. Earlier this summer I posted a piece about some of the things that people need to stop doing, and this is a follow-up piece that follows the same theme.

Take the weight belt off and wrist wraps, too. Wearing a weight belt for anything, but especially when doing exercises like triceps push-downs, and doing them poorly, to boot, just makes you look ridiculous. Thirty years ago before people knew any better, you had an excuse for wearing a weight belt while squatting or dead lifting, but today, no. If your back hurts, no belt or brace will “fix” it, and if you aren’t strong enough, you aren’t strong enough; the belt doesn’t make you stronger. Wrist straps make you weaker, not stronger. If you can’t lift the weight, make it lighter. Try developing the strength in your hands, wrists and forearms rather than ignoring these incredibly important muscles by using wrist straps. The person who can dead lift 200 pounds without straps is stronger than the person who needs straps to lift 225 or more.

Stop doing curls in the squat rack. The squat rack is really for doing squats. No, really. The rack is not for barbell curls or upright rows. I actually saw some guy doing a barbell curl, dumbbell curl superset in the squat rack last week. I almost said something to the guy, but I figured he really was misguided and was better off left alone. Just because you can curl with 100-pounds on a barbell doesn’t mean you need a heavy duty piece of equipment like a squat rack. Actually, the less time you spend time doing curls the better.

Don’t do the Sleep Walk on the treadmill. Walking on the treadmill is okay for an occasional warm-up. All of this low-intensity (slow) walking is a tremendous waste of time and, no matter what the computer read-out says, does not require a lot of energy. Think of it as 30-45 minutes of your life that you will never get back. And walking on an incline and hanging onto the top of the treadmill, or the side-rails, is plain silly. If you can’t keep up the pace slow it down, don’t hold on. Do you hold when walk down the street? Treadmill; it’s what’s for warm-up on. Occasionally.

Using the Step Mill really doesn’t get you in shape. Disabuse yourself of the notion that doing work on the Step Mill, or other similar “stair climbing” machine, is truly improving your fitness level. Disabuse, I say. Using these machines will only improve your performance with regard to using these machines and will not improve your performance in any meaningful, purposeful way. As a matter of fact, these “steppers” are really a waste of time, as they require a minimal range of motion, allow the user to hold or lean, and bear no semblance to any real function. And contorting your body so you can lean into the machine not only stresses the body in a way it really shouldn’t be stressed, it makes an inefficient exercise even worse.

Get off of the mat and onto your feet. There is very little that we do in our day-to-day lives, aside from sleeping, lying down. So stop exercising this way. Gravity is the single, most-important factor to take into account when designing an exercise or exercise program, so to lie down while exercising ignores the physics-based reality of our existence. And if you participate in sports at any level, doing prone or supine exercises (fancy talk for lying down), you are really doing yourself a disservice. We need strength, stability and balance in the vertical plane (standing up) not the horizontal plane, and the only way you develop skills in the vertical plane is to exercise in it. Think about it, do you know of anyone who practices the golf swing lying down?

Get more efficient with your workouts and stop wasting your time and energy.

Whose Side Are You On, NFL Owners or the NFL Players?

I am not aligned with either side in the battle between the NFL players and the team owners. But taking the players’ side simply because of the risks they face playing the game is an oversimplification of the issue and of the problems that must be fixed. By the way, I consider the owners and the commissioner as one in the same.

I am a football fan and have no insider info, but 99.99% of the public falls into this category. From this position as an outsider, it appears that the union has escaped their fair share of criticism. Certainly the owners deserve a lot of the blame, but while the union has enriched the players, they have not protected them from more dangerous risks. And for all the money the players make, which is less than they could/should, they do make enough where they should be able to hold out to improve their situation.

However, that there is universal agreement that the players will have to give in because so many of them live almost paycheck-to-paycheck is not the fault of the owners.

What’s more important, higher wages or a safer workplace? Do we really need “data” to tell us that football shortens the lives of the guys who play it at the highest level in the NFL. Is this a fact that has come to light in the past two or three years? Given what we know about the damage football players suffer from playing the game, how could any rational human propose or accept the idea of an 18-game regular season game? If player well-being is the most important issue, how can a bigger piece of the revenue share make up for the physical damage and shortened lifespan? Who is willing to sell away years and/or quality of life? I could never support this position.

By the way, if the league wants more exposure they can stick to the 16-game schedule and spread the games out over the course of the week. Two more weekends of the regular season does little to help football in the down markets, but “Wednesday through Sunday Night Football,” would be a ratings success. The schedule can be arranged so that the 16-games are played over a 19- or 20-week period, which would give the players more rest during the grueling season while giving more teams the chance to own the national spotlight game. But that’s a different issue.

Athletes aren’t coal miners or iron workers who earn $25-$50/hour and who need to work full-time to make ends meet. Football players aren’t born in a geographic location that restricts their ability to earn a living. If anything, their gift allows them to escape the limitations of their environment.

Football players come into the league knowing they only have a few years to earn. If you are of the belief that these “kids” don’t know any better, than I would say you haven’t been paying much attention and also this is where the union deserves some blame. The players deserve a lot of blame. Ultimately, it’s their money. I don’t buy the explanation that the players are unsophisticated kids who get taken advantage of by unscrupulous representative and leeching and mooching friends and family.

Maybe the colleges and Universities need to take more blame for not preparing their hired football help for life after the BCS. Although since Ohio State apparently wasn’t able to teach their players that they weren’t supposed to sell their trophies and rings, or trade on their position as players to get free tattoos, there isn’t much reason to hope that these institutions of higher learning can impart greater lessons of fiscal responsibility. But if these schools cannot at least help these guys prepare themselves for life in the workforce, they are worse than the NFL owners. Football Factories should be able to produce players who can take care of themselves on and off the field. If a college had a reputation as an “Engineering Factory,” and yet those who attended couldn’t totally function in the workplace, their rep would suffer.

There is an uproar because teachers don’t want to pay 30% of their benefits; how can anyone expect there to be sympathy for players who can make more money in 4 or 5 years than the rest of us can make in a lifetime? That being said, if the union made player safety, health and long-term care the focus of their efforts, they would garner a lot more support.

One of the biggest myths going is that the two sides of the negotiating table have the players on one side and the union on the other. I wonder who is negotiating for us. As a fan, a coach, a former player and father of three football playing sons I choose my side. There are a whole bunch of college football players being exploited, so I’ll have plenty off football to watch this fall, and there are a lot of nice Sunday’s through the month of October and I’ll find something to do if there’s no NFL.

The Ramble: Four Fitness Articles You Should Know About for the Week of January 24

I have a whole stack of fitness stuff that’s been piling up in my in-box that I have been meaning to share.

Study Finds Caloric Info on Menu Doesn’t Alter Ordering Habits. What is amazing is that someone had to actually take the time to conduct a study on this, and not the findings that people won’t change their ordering habits as a result of being told how many calories are in their food. This study and the comments made by the researchers reveal just how little these academics know about the people they study, how little they get about human nature.

This isn’t the first study to reach this conclusion, as other studies have shown putting calorie counts on menus has little, if any affect on people’s ordering habits. This whole endeavor is a huge waste of time and resources and the Food Police should move on to other issues. Surely, they will continue to try to legislate our behavior, for if they cannot incite people to change habits of their own volition, they will eventually use force. As matter of fact conflicting and/or overlapping state and federal legislation is sure to make this a government-led comedy of errors.

Makers of Power Balance Energy Wristbands Admit There’s No Science Behind Their Product. Really? Here’s another story that shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone; there isn’t scientific proof that holographic images, just like the ones found on a credit card, have no powers to improve, “balance, strength and energy.” What’s next, the makers of the Shake Weight admit that holding a huge vibrator isn’t better than doing few repetitions of lifting weights? I know, let’s not get crazy here…

The company that makes this “product” has already been punished and forced to pay a huge fine in Australia, has had to fess up to a lack of real evidence to back-up the claims made for their wristbands, and pled guilty to violations of Australia’s Trade Practices Act. They also had to refund the Australian suckers who fell for the scam. Two and a half million bracelets (at $30 a pop) were sold down under. How long before the advertisements for Power Balance Energy Wristbands contain a disclaimer? Oh, and people will still buy them. Maybe the Power Balance people can strike a deal with the makers of the Shake Weight.

A History of Diet Failures is on Display at the Library of Congress. There is a new exhibit at the Library of Congress that features advertisements for some of the ridiculous diet programs that have been pushed on people over the years. If you read about some of these diets in the USA Today account of this exhibit you might – actually, you should – think to yourself, “Hmm, these diets don’t sound that much worse than the crap us enlightened folks in the 21st Century fall for.”

What’s more ridiculous, a diet that tells you it’s safe, easy and effective to lose weight by eating cookies or smoothies or one that promotes the consumption of a special kind of bean or using an electric device that “shakes” the weight off? Seriously, is the Bile Bean Diet that much worse than the diet nonsense that we are bombarded with these days? Is the claim of weight loss from taking a bath that much more outrageous than the claim that you can lose weight while sleeping?

Rather than using this exhibit as a way to promote the meddling ways of our so-called “public health officials,” this should be an occasion to point out the futility of dieting, and get people to move away from the misguided and unhealthy practice of following diets. However, since the diet industry sucks billions of dollars per year out of our pockets we can look forward to a future exhibit featuring advertisements of failed diets from this era.

Don’t Go Gluten-Free Unless You Have a Gluten Allergy. One of the recent diet fads is to remove gluten from the diet as a way to lose weight and improve health. Well, there’s no indication that going gluten-free will help you lose weight and, more importantly, there’s no indication there are any health benefits from avoiding gluten. However, this won’t stop the gluten-free train from leaving the station. There will be celebrity gluten-free diet books (there already are, but there will no doubt be more) and maybe even a gluten-free workout program. Hey, why not?

The American Dietetic Association says that there is no reason to avoid gluten unless you have a gluten sensitivity. But their voice, and the voice of others who try to get the message out that gluten-free isn’t effective, will be drowned out by those who have something to sell. Have you noticed that people who promote diets always have something to sell? That should tell you something.

The New York Jets Need to Fire Sal Alosi

The New York Jets should immediately fire Sal Alosi – their strength coach – for instructing Jet players to form a wall along the sideline in an attempt to interfere with a Miami Dolphin punt team player. Actually, the Jets should have fired Alosi the moment he admitted he purposefully moved to trip a player or otherwise interfere with the action on the field.

If the Jets don’t fire Alosi the NFL should step in and do the dirty work for them.

Suspending and fining Alosi is a half measure that is insufficient given the nature of his offense. It is incomprehensible that a guy in his position, or any non-player, would act to interfere with a player on the field during a game. It’s just a mystifying that the Jets haven’t fired him yet.

What are the reasons for not firing him? I can’t think of one.

Actually – given the response of his teammates – there is a scenario in which I can see why Alosi hasn’t been fired; he was acting with the Jets’ tacit approval. Since this story broke there have been stories of other teams forming the same kind of wall on when the opposing team is punting and Jet players ave come to Alosi’s defense. So is it possible that there was a wink-and-a-nudge kind of arrangement going on where Alosi was actually a good soldier doing something the team wanted him to do? Could it be possible that this is a common practice in the NFL?

If Alosi isn’t fired you have to think maybe the Jets aren’t that upset with him after all.

The Ramble: Notre Dame and USC, Derek Jeter, Miami Heat Hype, Coors Light Commercials

Another week, another edition of The Ramble. The wide world of sports gives us a lot to be thankful for, but it can also irk us. I guess this is an irk edition of The Ramble.

Notre Dame and USC. Who really cares about these football programs? In the New York market Saturday night we got stuck watching this meaningless, toilet bowl of a game. These teams put a C-list level product on the field, but have A-list alumni in the New York and California markets, so as a result we got stuck watching this trash instead of an exciting and meaningful Oklahoma/Oklahoma State game. Thank goodness there were other viewing options.

Derek Jeter. In case you missed it, the Yankees’ legendary shortstop is a free agent and is negotiating a new contract. The Yankees are offering an overly generous 3-year/$45 million contract, Jeter wants over $20 million for at least 5 years. For as good as Jeter has been, he was overpaid by his last contract – almost $200 million over the past decade – when the economic conditions were completely different. Jeter’s best years are way behind him and he’s coming across like a money pig.

The Miami Heat. The greatest team in the history of the NBA has lost 4 straight games with the 2 best players in the history of the NBA. The hype machine was working in overdrive during the off-season and through the pre-season, as hoops experts told us the Heat could win more games than any team ever. The Heat may very well wind up being a very good team but they have a long way to go. However, as we enter December the spoiled brats in Miami are leaking information that the coach is the problem. Meanwhile, it’s fun to watch them struggle.

Coors Light Commercials. These beer commercials are probably the least funny commercials in the history of advertising. I thought the “coach’s at the post-game press conference” commercials were the worst ever until I saw the “talking football players picture” commercials. Who comes up with this stuff and who thinks it’s funny? The idea is horrendous and the execution is even worse. I’ve heard funnier stuff from second grader knock-knock jokes.

Josh McDaniels Carrying on the Bill Belichick Tradition. Super Bowl winning coach Bill Belichick was caught conducting a systematic, against-the-rules campaign of secretly taping opponents practices and signals during games when he was coach of the Patriots. Denver Broncos’ head coach and Belichick protege Josh McDaniels, with the help of another former Pats’ employee who was involved in the original Spygate, has been caught doing the same thing in the Mile Hile city. That is all.

The Ramble Football Edition: Cam Newton, Wisconsin Scores 83 Points, Donovan McNabb and the NFL

Football season is in full swing and there are more than enough gridiron stories to fill a month’s worth of Rambles. I know other sports are in season right now and baseball’s “Hot Stove League” has kicked off but for the next three months there will be nothing bigger than college and pro football.

Cam Newton. Who cares if he took – or even just asked for – money in return for enrolling in Auburn or any other university? High-profile college athletes taking money is on the same level as the-steroids-in-sports story and anyone who thinks this is an isolated incident has been Rip van Winkling it for a long time. I have to laugh at sportswriters and announcers who express shock, dismay and indignation that the best college football player in the country – or his “people” – might have asked for money. By the way, this is the same player who left another school in response to an academic cheating scandal. This whole thing is so shocking and unprecedented isn’t it?

Wisconsin Scores 83 Points. In principle, I have no problem with a team running up the score, especially in a conference game. Saturday Wisconsin beat Indiana 83-20. Indiana needs to get better and if the Badgers’ fourth and fifth stringers can score against Indiana starters or scrubs, so be it. Indiana Head Coach Bill Lynch said, “I’ve always felt it was our job to stop the team and play the game. We didn’t do that very well.” Although I will say it’s hard to defend Wisconsin throwing a 74-yard TD pass to go up 76-13.

More Auburn. Things got chippy at the end of the Auburn/Georgia game and two of Auburn’s starting defensive linemen got ejected from the game with about a minute to play. By rule these two will have to sit out the first half of Auburn’s next game, a match-up with Alabama in their traditional day-after-Thanksgiving rivalry game known as the “Iron Bowl.” Imagine if Auburn’s national title hopes get derailed as a result of these suspensions.

Donovan McNabb. A few weeks after being pulled in favor of Rex Grossman, the Redskins give the 34-year old McNabb a huge contract extension worth approximately $40 million guaranteed. Daniel snider still hasn’t learned his lesson. That and it’s amazing to think how much money NGL teams really make if they can afford to throw away $40 mil.

The Best Team in the NFL. The best team in the NFL changes every week. Pittsburgh? Not this week. The Giants? Hell no. The Patriots? Last week, no way, this week, maybe. What’s going on? Are we approaching two-levels of parity, one level for the bad teams and the other for the contenders? The last half of the season will be more interesting than usual.

The Ramble: Jose Guillen, HGH, Brock Lesnar, Carmelo Anthony, the NBA and Stuff

The Ramble is back and chock full of pithy nonsense. Some may think this is nothing but sucking up to the search engines by picking hot topics – which is really what makes the web go ’round – and “some” would be correct. But it’s also fun to give some subjects a quick run through.

Jose Guillen and HGH. On a night where the San Francisco Giants opened up a two games to none lead over the Texas Rangers in the World Series, there are reports that Giant Jose Guillen is linked to a federal investigation for receiving shipments of Human Growth Hormone (HGH). According to the story, Guillen’s wife allegedly received shipments of HGH that were delivered to the Bay Area. Guillen was left off of the Giants’ post-season roster due to a neck injury, but this story in the New York Times alleges that Major League Baseball told the Giants to leave the outfielder off the roster. Wow. How long before we hear a variation of this line of reasoning used in Guillen’s defense, “You know, he isn’t one of these big muscled guys. I don’t think he looks like a guy who would use HGH.” This will be a fun story to follow as it develops.

Brock Lesnar versus Cain Velasquez. Don’t read anything into an item featuring Lesnar coming immediately after a story dealing with HGH. The order of these stories can be chalked up to the vagaries of editing. Really. I mean, who would ever think Mixed Martial Arts fighters would use steroids or any kind of anabolic agent? Lesnar is a really big guy, isn’t he? Cain Velasquez is also a pretty big guy, but looks small when he stands next to Lesnar. Lesnar got knocked out by Velasquez in less than four-and-a-half minutes last weekend in one of those Mixed Martial Arts fights for some kind of championship. I love when the little guy knocks the big guy silly, don’t you?

Carmelo Anthony. Who really gives a damn about Anthony’s contract situation or desire to leave Denver? Of all the spoiled brat professional athletes out there, the basketball players may be the worst. Compare this brat to Shaq who last week decided to show up at Harvard Square and pose with fans. Don’t you feel badly for these young guys who have to play basketball for a living for millions of dollars? This guy was a one-and-done at Syracuse University and wouldn’t know a commitment from a commode. I’ll be at the edge of my seat following the Carmelo Anthony sweepstakes. Won’t you?

The NBA is in Trouble. Revenues are down. Ratings are down. 95% of the regular season games are meaningless and the first two-and-a-half to three quarters of these games are meaningless, as well. Every 15-point third quarter difference turns into a three-point nail-biter as the game winds down to the final buzzer. Doesn’t this strike anyone as odd? Too many of the players are totally unappealing from both appearances and personalities and the games are really a chore to watch. If the big boys like the NFL, Major League Baseball and NASCAR are feeling the pain of the Obama Economy, you can be sure the NBA is feeling it worse. They have only themselves to blame.

The NHL. Apparently, something called the National Hockey League has begun play for the 2010-2011 season. From what I’ve been able to discern, the season lasts almost 10 months and doesn’t end until about the summer. The league schedule is 80 games and at the end of the season four or five teams do not make the play-offs. I’m shocked to learn that from where I live there are four teams within a 2-hour drive. Crazy. What’s next, I’ll find out about a professional soccer league?

The Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones had big plans for the 2010 Cowboys. He build a gazillion dollar stadium, got the chance to host the Super Bowl this year and planned on his team playing in it. However, there were a few problems with Jerry’s plan. Wade Phillips, Tony Romo, the defense, the offensive coordinator, etc. Jerry is like Lex Luthor and Phillips is his Otis. The Cowboy’s record is 1-5. I like how that rolls off the tongue. The Cowboys’ record is 1-5.

The Ramble: NFL Illegal Hits, Notre Dame, the Texas Rangers and Shaq

If you’re a sports fan this has to be one of your favorite times of the year. We have baseball playoffs, college football, the NFL, and the beginning of the pro hoops and hockey season. It kind of makes up for the colder weather and early sunset. It also means it’s a great time to Ramble.

Illegal hits in the NFL. This is a cheap shot that should result in a player Brandon Merriweather getting fined and suspended.

This is a clean shot that comes with the territory in the NFL; two guys running at full speed and colliding with frightening results.

The league seems to be willing to view/treat these two hits in the same way, which could lead to some problems. Defensive players have already drawn their line in the field turf and many have gone on record as saying that they won’t change their ways. Rightfully so. It’s ridiculous and hypocritical for the NFL to legislate and punish the spontaneous nature of the game. I’ve heard break down of the Dunte Robinson/Desean Jackson hit where Robinson’s actions were described as him putting his helmet under the chin of Jackson, as if he were aiming at, and hitting, a stationary target. Offensive players are moving targets and react to avoid defenders and to gain yards, and defenders have to constantly readjust in order to make tackles. It is pure folly to think that these athletes can do what they have to do and be able to avoid hard hits and many helmet-to-helmet hits. And really, where’s the league’s concern for defensive players? Many guys have suffered injuries from getting low-blocked in the open field and yet this practice hasn’t been outlawed.

Notre Dame. How great was it to watch Navy beat Notre Dame 35-17? The Midshipmen had 367 yards rushing! The Irish are now a C-list product. The school’s stubborn insistence on remaining a football independent has earned Notre Dame untold millions of dollars, but at the cost of ruining their football program. Irish sycophants tell us Notre Dame is a victim of their lofty convictions. This is what their convictions look like; $$$. Their alleged top-of-the-list recruiting classes never materialize on the field. If you believe that ND gets blue-chip recruits I say they never pan out on the field because they are never challenged on the field, week-in-and-week-out and year-in-and-year-out. They should have joined the Big Ten when they had the chance.

The Texas Rangers. Congratulations to the team that plays in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex for making it to their first World Series. I’m rooting for a Texas/Giants World Series, and not just because I hate the Phillies. I’m sick of the Yankees, Phillies, Angels, Red Sox, Cardinals and Braves. A great sports double-standard is we hear about how unfair baseball’s salary structure is, and yet when new-comers meet in the playoffs or championship games we’re told that “nobody wants to see these teams play.” Sports fans should welcome the opportunity to watch new match-ups and the possible start of new rivalries.

College Football. Every weekend there are great games and compelling match-ups. Upsets abound and there isn’t a team in the country that is unlikely to be upset. Number 1’s losing, prohibitive underdogs winning, nail-biting finishes and great story lines are part of the college football landscape every week. As I write this, it’s about half-way through the Saturday schedule and two top-20 teams have already lost and #7 Michigan State needed a late rally to earn a win.

How Cool is Shaquille O’Neal? I don’t think I’ve seen an athlete pull a cooler move. He sat in Harvard Square in Boston for an hour and let fans take pictures of him. Awesome. Check it out.