ESPN College Gameday's Lee Corso, suffered a stroke this week. He is expected to fully recover. The former Indiana head coach has been with ESPN since 1987 on THE college football pregame show. Gameday has been our personal favorite for well over a decade, we never miss it Saturday mornings during the season. He is often the comedic foil to co-hosts Chris Fowler, Kurt Herbstreit & Desmond Howard & has become world famous for his 'mascot head prediction' at show's end. Corso can't go more than about 15 minutes without interrupting one of his co-stars with "not so fast my friend" & calls everybody 'sweetheart'.  He is both popular & polarizing, often drawing the ire of thousands of fans assembled for the live telecast each Saturday. The 73-year old Corso, was a starting quarterback at Florida State where his college roommate was Burt Reynolds. We sincerely wish Coach Corso a speedy recovery.

I told you about the perpetual disappointment that is Jeremy Shockey & his ambulance trip Sunday from the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. Now, in one of the most absolutely ridiculous explanations I've ever heard, agent Drew Rosenhaus, another personal favorite, stated today that even tho he hadn't spoken to Shockey, he doubted alcohol had anything to do with the New Orleans tight end's gurney ride out of the hotel's "Rehab" party. Knowing what I do about Shockey, the Hard Rock, "Rehab" & alcohol, I'd put Rosenhaus' claim at 99.9999% B.S. He constantly insults our intelligence with statements like this & with each one, his shrinking credibility will soon be microscopic.

Cowboy owner, Jerry Jones said yesterday "I expect our players to be very inspired playing in our new stadium, simply the best facility in any sport". I doubt the projected inspiration will even get the Cowboys to the playoffs. Gee Jerry, I know I'll be inspired just being lucky enough to see the stadium on TV. WooHoo! The stadium is so inspiring Jones has been unable to get any corporation to buy the naming rights & he hasn't sold all of his season ticket allocation. I can't see any reason his players wouldn't be inspired playing in the yet unnamed stadium, especially playing in front of fans disguised as empty seats.


Southeastern Conference Commissioner, Mike Slive, had a closed door meeting with his head coaches & the diminutive Slive let 'em have it. It was reported Slive didn't just raise his voice, he yelled & then he yelled some more, "stop this bickering, bitching & arguing & stop it now".  New Tennessee coach Lane Kiffen, Florida's Urban Meyer & South Carolina's Steve Spurrier have made accusations against each other, many of them unfounded & the media has exploited all of it to the detriment of the Conference according to Slive. In true SEC form, Slive didn't refute the stories of his tirade, he almost boasted of his shoutdown saying "I put all 5' 8", 160 pounds into each syllable I yelled at them".

It looks as tho the State of New York vs. Plaxico Burress is going to happen despite the prosecution's desire to make it go away with the Ex-Giant wide receiver pleading guilty to a lesser charge & doing 60-90 days in jail with maybe 1,000 hours of community service. Why hasn't this gone away? Because our hero refuses to do even one day in jail, according to sources close to Burress, because he is terrified of being incarcerated. He hired attorney Benjamin Brafman, who got P. Diddy off a gun charge in New York with just probation. But, as Brafman has repeatedly told Burress, P. didn't fire his gun & Brafman was able to discredit the witnesses involved. Burress blew a hole in his leg that required a hospital ER to mend & Giant linebacker, Antonio Pierce told police, hospital workers, the media & team management Burress had shot himself. So, same lawyer, but a different case & probably a different outcome. Here's the real rub, if it goes to trial & he is convicted of the original charges, he's facing a minimum 3 1/2 year sentence, far from the 60-90 days he could do by pleading guilty to lesser charges.

Texas Representative Joe Barton, one of the leaders in congress of the BCS witch hunt, just might have the ammunition to make the BCS, the bowl committees & chief lobbyist, J.C. Watts really squirm. Yahoo Sports has published a report refuting the testimony before congress of Alamo Bowl director & spokesman for all 34 bowl committees, Derrick Fox. Fox stated "almost all the postseason bowl games are put on by charitable groups & local charities receive tens of millions of dollars every year".  According to Yahoo Sports, 10 bowls are privately owned(6 by ESPN), 1 is owned by a local government & the remaining 23 all have tax exempt status. Those in the tax exempt group had a combined revenue of $186.3 million but a paltry $3.2 million given to local charities, an average of $139,000 per bowl. Barton, who wrote a bill forbidding the BCS from calling any game a 'National Championship' contest unless the opponents had gotten to that game thru a playoff. The bill hasn't gotten out of committee yet, but with President's Obama's blessing, congress has now entered into the BCS vs a playoff system quagmire. Barton, in typical politician-speak, said "it's possible Fox has perjured himself & contempt of congress is also in play". Fox responded with a written statement that said the figures in his congressional testimony were compiled from the Football Bowl Association. Sugar Bowl CEO & Football Bowl Assoc. chairman, Paul Hoolahan, said Fox's figures were incorrect. I hate the BCS & the Bowl Association, I've said all along the bowls are more about big money & less about charity & the welfare of student athletes. I hate to see congress get involved in this, Lord knows they have many more important things to deal with, but when I see figures like this & people being caught with their pants down, I kinda like it.