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Have you ever just had a really bad day at work and a fellow employee comes over to you and says one of those “it’s just one of those days, huh” types of comments and you just have to give a sly smile about it given the circumstances? Well ESPN cameras caught Arizona Cardinals starting quarterback Derek Anderson doing just that last night in the waning moments of an embarrassing loss to the 49ers on Monday Night Football. And when asked about the smile during a postgame press conference, Anderson made the unwise decision of going into defensive, freak out mode, cursing ...

The life of sports fan can be mind-boggling at times. Days are filled with fantasy teams, power rankings and ESPN as your emotions hang on a team or an individual athlete’s performance. It fuels a passion beyond any restraint, which explains why we fans can’t get enough, most of the time. As a New Year approaches, I started to reflect on 2010, and three stories stood out. They were not the greatest sports stories but the headlines that started to make ESPN seem more like TMZ. So, which headline gave me the biggest headache in 2010? Without question it was ...

Then Belichick Said to Brady: The Best New England Patriots Stories Ever Told by Jim Donaldson Triumph Books 2009 There are so many "The Best Stories Ever Told" books about the New England Patriots and other NFL teams that it all starts to get jumbled together and it becomes difficult to distinguish between them, but this book stands out. While there is nothing really new in this volume, it is well written, well organized and has a bit more than similar recent books on the New England Patriots. There are many good, short, player profiles of prominent Patriots ...

The art of the nickname has vanished in the past decade.  Team nicknames almost never catch on and players nicknames often just include a players initials or their name abbreviated (See: KG, T-Mac, D-Wade, A-Rod, LT, T.O., and the list goes on and on).What's in a great nickname?  Originality and relevance. I don't know if sports writers and people in general were more creative back then, but eras of the past definitely can boast the most memorable nicknames of all-time.Here are the top 50 coolest team names in sports history.Begin Slideshow

The Birth of the New NFL: How the 1966 NFL/AFL Merger Transformed Pro Football by Larry FelserThe Lyons Press 2008ISBN: 978-1-59921-151-0 Despite the stodgy prose, this is a comprehensive history of the merger between the American Football League and the National Football League in 1966.  The most informative aspect of this book is the story behind the formation and advancement of the upstart American Football League when several wealthy (and some not so wealthy) businessmen wanted into the professional football fold.  Thwarted by the NFL and desiring a team, it was Lamar Hunt, owner of the Dallas Texans (later the Kansas City ...

If you love good writing, football history and the meaning of football to society, look no further than this account of the 1925 Pottsville Maroons.  This is sports history and sports writing at its very best. The Pottsville Maroons were a team located in a small, hard scrabble coal mining town in Eastern Pennsylvania, the kind of small town that would never be able to successfully host a professional team in 2010.  But 1925 was a different era when professional football was a more quixotic endeavor and college football reigned supreme.  The team featured some great players that came from the coal ...

Do you remember what inspired you to expand your horizons and to become a winner? Demetria Walker does. The Oakland Raiders were winners during the early years of her career. She believed, she, too, could become a winner. She joins the fans in Raider Nation by a belief that the Oakland Raiders can reclaim their glory and inspire young people, even now. On this Black Friday in 2010, Walker is one of many whose industry has been affected by the ups and downs of the economy. Black Friday is a day designed to boost sales in the United States. The winning spirit and last-minute victories of ...

British PM David Cameron has admitted his frustration at the BBC's (British Broadcasting Corporation) decision to broadcast a controversial Panorama episode before the World Cup vote. England's hope of hosting the 2018 World Cup is disappearing fast following a number of press stories surrounding the vote. And with major nations in South America and Asia now voicing support for the Spain/Portugal joint bid, England have dropped from favorites to outsiders. And the PM has now criticised the decision to broadcast the episode, which investigates FIFA, so close to the crucial vote. Cameron told BBC's Football Focus, which will air tomorrow: "Is it frustrating that ...

Since the inception of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) in 1998, only MIT graduates and savants (aka "Rain Men") have possessed the mental acuity necessary to comprehend the BCS' many nuances. What about the average Lay-Z-Boy-sitting, pretzel-eating, ripped-jersey-wearing college football fan? How is it possible for he or she to understand the most nefarious mathematical formula since E=MC2? Benny, that's how. The nation's top-rated BCS computer, Benny, recently decided to open his hard drive and banter, on the record, about what critics often call the most muddled ranking system in sports. Below is the exclusive interview, verbatim, conducted by this ...

On this Thanksgiving day, the dynamic Michael Vick has ascended toward the top of the NFL pecking order of players with his brilliant play, his team's success, and his apparent acts of redemption. On this day of thankfulness, many football fans who appreciate a superb talent—and many others who simply enjoy a successful second act after a precipitous fall from grace—are thankful that Vick is back. On this day of appreciation, one hopes that Michael Vick rewards all those fans, and all those who are still skeptical, with his own sense of true appreciation for where he finds himself once ...