I apologize for the delay in my links — holidays, death in the family, extreme case of what I think can only be the SARS or something like it… But either way, I’m back. Enjoy.

The May 2 mega-fight between pound-for-pound superstar Manny Pacquiao and 140-pound champion Ricky Hatton will take place in Las Vegas. There were rumors of England, but in the end, Vegas offered the most potential money for both parties.

Rob Parker, the Detroit News writer who asked Lions coach Rod Marinelli if he thought his daughter should have married a better defensive coordinator, shockingly resigned. Who could have seen that coming?

Peter King doesn’t like the NFL’s overtime rules. Neither do I, but there isn’t a better alternative at the moment. College rules in the NFL would lead to a never-ending game of dive, dive, dive, field goal; until someone forced a turnover. It would be much worse. But I agree, coin-toss, drive, field goal isn’t much better.

Marvin Harrison will not face charges for the incident in Philadelphia last year that resulted in someone getting shot in the arm, perhaps by Harrison. The D.A. said there was not enough evidence for charges.

Somebody is giving Carl Pavano $1.5 million? To pitch? I hope you know what you’re getting into, Cleveland.

Scott Boras has managed to overprice Manny Ramirez from two more teams, almost guaranteeing that he will end up in New York. At this point, unless his price comes down, no one else can afford to even negotiate with him.

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If you like broken legs, click here. If not, I will just tell you that if someone tells you to watch a video of a play from the Southern Miss vs. Troy bowl game, be careful. Southern Miss receiver DeAndre Brown snapped his leg while running, non contact, and was left lying on the ground looking like he had two knees on his left leg. It’s quite gruesome, so click on that link at your own risk.

The Boston Celtics are good at basketball.

Lennox Lewis says that David Haye can beat Vitali Klitschko, but would have a better chance against his brother, Wladimir. I get the feeling that Lennox just wants anybody to beat Vitali — and soon.

Who is worse, the NFC West or the AFC West? It’s a tougher question than you’d think.

Brady Quinn may or may not have been assaulted by a teammate with a weight in a weight room altercation. Those Cleveland Browns sure have their shit together.

Ron English finally landed that head coaching gig he deserved three years ago. How come it’s bigger news when a black man is not hired to be a coach than when one is?

Girl tries to use fire extinguisher to make “snow.” She apparently fails. Then she can’t stop crying while trying to explain it. Hilarity ensues. They sure got some catches down there in Oklahoma.

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Mississippi basketball coach Andy Kennedy was charged with assault, after allegedly punching a cab driver “while calling him ‘bin Laden’ and other racial insults.”

NASCAR settled a $225 million lawsuit filed by an ex-official, that claimed racial discrimination and sexual harassment. Yeah, that’ll help the image.

The Black Coaches Association may try using the legal system to get more black coaches hired in college football. They are currently looking for opportunities to bring a case under civil rights legislation.

Have you ever seen worse defense than in the Jacksonville - Indianapolis game on Thursday night? Granted, Peyton Manning and Maurice Jones-Drew are quite good, but those defenses would have made Ryan Leaf and Lawrence Phillips look good.

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Two years ago, I moved from the non-stop sunshine of Phoenix, AZ to the non-stop sunshine of Las Vegas, NV. After spending my early years in beautiful New Jersey, I thought my snow days were over. I was wrong. I’m sitting in Las Vegas under multiple inches of snow. This is bullshit.

For some reason, we are being forced to sit through Antonio Tarver - Chad Dawson II. Apparently, Tarver didn’t think Dawson embarrassed him enough the first time, so he’s elected to make him do it again.

ESPN Ombudsman Le Anne Schrieber is back with another column, a column that is more and more my favorite thing to read from the WWL.

Lennox Lewis is not only going to help coach David Haye for his upcoming bout with Vitali Klitschko, but apparently Double L is going to spar with him as well.

There’s a quarterback controversy in Minnesota between the old guy who sucks and the young guy who sucks in slightly different ways. Here’s a tip — whoever hands the ball off to Adrian Peterson better should be the starter. No other skills are required.

Holy shit! Did you see the latest pictures of Mike “Buster Douglas” Tyson?

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Joe Paterno, you know, the coach about to turn 82, got a three year contract extension. I shouldn’t really be surprised by this, since there is no doubt that Penn State will be employing JoePa until the day he dies or retires, whichever comes first.

Contrary to reports, Erin Andrews apparently is not banging a UNC hoopster. That’s good news.

Your daily BCS title game news: Oklahoma running back DeMarco Murray will miss the championship game with a partially ruptured hamstring. I’ve had hamstring injuries, and I can’t imagine one being so bad that it needs to be surgically repaired. Also, Florida’s offensive coordinator Dan Mullen will remain with the team and call plays in the title game. After the game, Mullen will take over as the new head coach of Mississippi State.

Michigan’s defensive coordinator Scott Shafer “resigned” after just one year at Michigan. Rich Rodriguez said the program needed to go “in a different direction.” Yeah, it was all the DC, Rich.

Not Tiger Woods won the PGA Tour player of the year award.

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Is there actually some traction to the story that Auburn hired their new head football coach based on his whiteness, and equally important, the non-whiteness of the other candidate? Perhaps the whiteness of the said non-white coach’s wife was a reason he wasn’t hired down in SEC land. I don’t believe it, but it sure does sound like an interesting story. Charles Barkley would never lie to me.

Tampa Bay defensive end Greg White is now officially Stylez G. White. What the hell did Chad Ocho Cinco start?

Speaking of Mr. Ocho Cinco, coach Marvin Lewis was none too pleased with his 15-yard penalty on a crucial drive during a rare winnable game.

The Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson “rivalry” has now crossed over to their caddies.

It turns out that that stupid penalty called on the Steelers kicker Jeff Reed after a last-minute extra point may have been retaliation for Ravens cornerback Frank Walker spitting on Steelers holder Mitch Berger.

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David Haye says that an agreement was reached for a fight in June with Vitali Klitschko. According to Haye, the terms were hammered out in a late night session following Wladimir Klitschko’s destruction of Hasim Rahman on Saturday. He says that all that is left is dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s. Let’s hope this is true.

Bud Adams, the apparently slightly delusional owner of the Tennessee Titans, still thinks Vince Young is his quarterback of the future. Quick, name the last Big 12 quarterback who made it in the NFL. Beware Bradford, McCoy and Harrell — the NFL is not the Big 12. They play defense up there.

Sean Avery is done with the Dallas Stars, meaning his “sloppy seconds” press conference may have ended his career. Was it worth it?

Fox Sports had the exclusive story on Tim Tebow winning his second consecutive Heisman Trophy.

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Terrell Owens is about to break up with another quarterback. Owens is under the impression that Tony Romo and Jason Witten are scheming together and creating their own plays behind Owens’ back. Yeah, that’s how NFL offenses work. Romo and Witten are using a bottle cap and a twig to draw plays in the dirt when Owens isn’t looking. Owens also finds it unfathomable that a tight end has more catches than him. Did he ever think that if he caught the ball when it hits him in the hands (like Witten does), that he’d have more catches than Witten? Hopefully for football, when Owens is done in Dallas, he is done everywhere.

Sergio Medina admitted that he was lying about taking a dive against Juan Manuel Lopez last weekend. Not necessarily lying about pretty much quitting in the ring, but lying about reveiving death threats that caused him to throw the fight. He will likely receive mental help and never fight again.

Joe Calzaghe and Carl Froch are trading meaningless insults with each other. It does Calzaghe no good to say that a name isn’t big enough when he makes the same complaint to defend his soft competition when he was younger (big names wouldn’t fight him argument), and it does no good for Froch to make an idiot of himself by saying that Calzaghe is jealous of his WBC title (the one Calzaghe threw away, allowing Froch to fight for it). They are both acting like idiots, and a fight between the two will never happen. And if it did, Froch wouldn’t win a single round.

Cole Hamels called the Mets “choke artists” and for some reason, this is news. How is it that you’re not supposed to recognize a team that chokes for two straight years as choke artists. Until the Mets prove that they can do something about it, the Phillies can say whatever they want about them.

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Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) is planning on introducing legislation that would force college football to adopt a playoff system. His brilliant idea “will prohibit the marketing, promotion, and advertising of a postseason game as a ‘national championship’ football game, unless it is the result of a playoff system. Violations of the prohibition will be treated as violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act as an unfair or deceptive act or practice.” I’m not kidding, this is genius.

The Cubs are for sale, but is Wrigley Field part of the deal?

As if it wasn’t enough to land K-Rod, the Mets also traded away a bunch of overused, under-performing role players to grab J.J. Putz to be their new setup man. They could have traded Aaron Heilmann for two bags of sunflower seeds, three Red Bulls and a tin of Cope and they would have been big winners. Getting the Putz is just icing on the cake.

Is this Graham Harrell, wearing a sweater right out of the closet of such legendary sweater-wearers as Bill Cosby, Casey Kasem and Zack Morris?

The Phoenix Suns traded a bunch of guys for some other guys and a draft pick.

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The New York Baseball Mets solidified their closer position in the wake of Billy Wagner’s arm injury and signed the top free agent reliever in Francisco Rodriguez. Let’s see if K-Rod deals with the Big Apple as well as A-Rod did.

Jermain Taylor vs. Carl Froch looks promising.

Mikkel Kessler plans to make his American debut in March.

Barry Melrose hopes that the Tampa Bay Lightning don’t win another game all year. Yeah, that’ll get you another job soon.

Ana Ivanovic poses for some French magazine/website/something. I’m not really sure because the writing is all in Paris talk, but her looks translate just fine.

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