FanHouse

There's no more simple way to put it than by saying that Nolan Ryan articulates very well what I think everyone believes is killing/did kill Roger Clemens' reputation. (Via SbB):

Nolan Ryan appeared today on Dan Patrick's syndicated radio show and made it clear that he in no way supports the PED-denials of fellow Texan Roger Clemens (audio): "It's just a shame that Roger has gotten caught up in this situation and he took the stance that he did and that so many things have come out ... that have cast a bad light on his career.

If you look at what happened with some of the other players (who used PEDs), they stepped up and said 'hey, I did it, I knew it was wrong,' and they asked for forgiveness and have gone on about their business. I think it's just unfortunate Roger took the position that he did and that so much has come out about it."

Exactly.

Andy Pettitte made one simple, semi-humble admission to using steroids, took his single lash of the belt, cried a little and then shut his mouth and played baseball. No one cares about his mistakes anymore.

In recent weeks the once formidable White Sox pitching staff has been pretty damn awful. After spending the majority of the season with the best ERA in the American League, White Sox starters have had an ERA of 6.75 in the team's last 20 games, and they've fallen to sixth in the league.

So is it that the staff is just going through a rut, and slogging through the dog days of summer, or is there a deeper mental issue? Is the pressure of a divisional race getting to them? If you ask Mark Buehrle it has nothing to do with any pressure, well, unless your Gavin Floyd. That's guy is a mental marshmallow.

''If anything, Gavin might be a guy that's affected,'' Buehrle said. ''[John} Danks is so laid-back, it doesn't seem like anything bothers him. Where Floyd, it seems like there's a little bit more that gets to him. A bigger situation or bigger game might get him more nervous, but Danks isn't a guy I worry about.''

Keep in mind that Buehrle is 8-10 on the season, while Danks is 9-4. Floyd is 11-6. Though I'm not saying that Mark is wrong in his assessment, I'm just wondering why he feels the need to say it publicly. Gavin Floyd is a pitcher that lets things bother him on the mound, and his confidence is extremely fragile, so questioning that in the paper probably won't do much to help it.

Especially when you already play for a team who has a manager that has no qualms what-so-ever about ripping you in public.

There is a wonderful website that lists the coverage maps for the NFL's regional coverage every week. I highly encourage you to bookmark the site so you can check it every week and see what you're getting.

According to the site archives, the New York Jets were only televised in all of Wisconsin three times in 2007. Additionally, eastern Wisconsin got the Pittsburgh game in Week 11, and western Wisconsin got the New England game in Week 15.

I can virtually assure you that number will increase this year, even without factoring in the Jets' presence on national television.

Something about Brett Favre getting traded there has suddenly made the Jets quite popular among Wisconsin sports fans. Even die-hard Packer fans are hoping to follow Favre's new team, and they're making their feelings known to local CBS affiliates.

With the morning guys glad to be far away from Oakland Hills and the afternoon guys struggling with some rain and inclement weather, it sure seems like a mini party at the PGA Championship!

Phil Mickelson, after a Texas Giant-like front nine, got himself under control and finished at even-par 70. Of the last five PGA champions, only one has failed to break 70 in his Thursday's round. After the round, Lefty talked about the difference in the golf course from yesterday to today.

"I was surprised at the transition, how different it was from yesterday to today," Mickelson said. "I thought it would be a little firmer, a little faster, but it got a lot firmer and a lot faster ... That's going to make it play pretty difficult on the weekend unless we get some rain."

Not everyone was so nice when discussing the conditions of the golf course, namely Lee Westwood, who some morons were picking to win this crazy tournament.

"(The only way to make it fair is to) cut all the rough out. I think the US Open was set up perfectly. It rewards accuracy and penalizes you if you are off liner. I didn't see that today. I asked my partners if I was out of order and they said 'No, if you are slightly off line you are crucified'. In my opinion it is too thick around the greens as well. It takes the skill away from chipping. Yoy don't need it. The course is 7,500 yards long, the greens are firm, and the pins are tucked away. They are sucking the fun out of the Major Championships when you set it up like that."

Do you remember where you were one year ago? I was on my aunt's couch in Aiken, South Carolina enjoying the air conditioning after spending a day in the 105 degree heat, watching the Pirates play the Diamondbacks on my computer. My brother was watching SportsCenter on my aunt's TV as the clock crawled past midnight. As they'd been doing all week, ESPN cut away from SC to play Barry Bonds' at-bat live. That meant that I got to watch the player I'd grown to loathe as a Pirate fan hit his 756th home run off of Mike Bacsik, along with the message from Hank Aaron and the truly touching speech from Bonds made with his godfather, Willie Mays, at his side.

Like everyone else, we here at FanHouse went crazy posting Bonds news and opinions. We made at least six posts on Bonds alone in twelve hours after his record-setting homer. One year later, you have to scour the internet for a reminder that this is the one year anniversary of the most sacred record in American sports being broken.

In the year since Bonds broke Hank Aaron's record, the Mitchell Report broke and the Roger Clemens circus started while Bonds has essentially been strong-armed out of the game by owners not willing to put up with the media circus that constantly surrounds him. Rather than deal with their problems, baseball seems content to use Bonds and Clemens as scapegoats and merely erase them from the public mind.

Barry Bonds never existed. Roger Clemens never existed. Steroids never existed. Move along with your life. Please take note of the rainbow in the sky, but not the flood rushing towards you.

There might come a time next spring (and who knows how many springs after that) when Kellen Clemens is going to need somebody to talk to. Somebody to tell him that, yes, there is light at the end of the tunnel. There will be only one person who can truly say that: Aaron Rodgers.

The Jets and Brett Favre have both agreed to go year-by-year with Favre's future beyond 2008. Unlike past offseasons in Green Bay, this decision won't just be weighed by Favre's desire for the game. It'll also be dictated by how the Jets perform as well as how Favre feels after a year about his new location, teammates, and organization. One thing the decision won't be dictated by is Clemens.

So Clemens, like Rodgers, is a highly-drafted quarterback once penciled in as the franchise's future. Sure, Clemens already has five times more passes thrown in the NFL than Rodgers, and hasn't looked liked the Jets' future, but I don't think last year's team is the best barometer to judge a young quarterback who surely hasn't reached his ceiling.

And Clemens, like Rodgers, now gets to be the one whose development is stunted and hopes dashed by the annual will-he-or-won't-he seesawing Favre has now become famous for. Maybe Favre finds peace with himself after this year and retires, handing the team over to Clemens. But even if that's the decision Favre makes you can be sure he's going to labor over it intensely next year. Either way, Clemens' future is now stuck in the hands of a man who can't decide what to do with his own.

Now that the drama between Brett Favre and the Packers is over, let's take one last reflective look at the past few months, the unprecedented enormity of it all, and how we arrived at this place.

Done?

Good, now: let it go. The past is the past. It's time to look to the future. Everybody will be keeping tabs on the goings-on in Green Bay and East Rutherford this year, whether out of allegiance, curiosity, or thirst for waging your dollars on the uncontrollable actions of others.

Bodog's got a whole new set of action if there's no limit to your gambling pursuits. Some highlights:

• Over/Under, Favre's touchdowns: 25.5
• Over/Under, Favre's interceptions: 15.5
• Over/Under, Jets wins: 8 (-155)
• Over/Under, Packers wins: 8 (-135)
• Odds that Mike McCarthy, Ted Thompson, or Mark Murphy will lose their jobs before the 2009 season: 3/2 (one of them), 9/4 (two of them), 5/1 (three of them), 6/5 (none of them)

Keep in mind, this stuff isn't determined with probability in mind, only what will draw the most bettors. That being said, I'm taking under, over, under, push, and banking on all three of those guys keeping their jobs. Degenerate gamblers, weigh in!

Since the NCAA puts restrictions on it's student-athletes when it comes to earning money and having jobs, players sometimes have to resort to other tactics to make some cash. While some players may turn to committing crimes to make money, there are others who rely on more traditional means.

Like buying lottery tickets.

That's what Ohio senior offensive lineman Michael Eynon did when he walked into a local gas station on Tuesday, and I have a feeling lunch is going to be on him for a while.

When most students are starting to think about paying off student loans, Ohio University senior Michael Eynon is considering what to do with a quarter-million-dollar lottery prize.

The Ohio University offensive lineman won $250,000 in the Mega Millions drawing on Tuesday night.

"It hasn't settled in yet," said the senior from Westlake, who is an accounting major. "I've been out throwing footballs, and it's still the same routine."

Eynon will pocket around $172,500 after taxes are taken out, but that's still a pretty healthy prize for a college kid. Of course, when first hearing about this my first thought was how would the NCAA try and take the money away from the kid, but it turns out there's nothing illegal about Eynon winning the lottery.

Well, at least not yet anyway. Give the NCAA a few days, and I'm sure they'll come up with something.

As the "rest of the world" catches up to the United States in the sport of basketball, it seems worth considering how other world events have impacted the global hoops scene. Namely, the end of Communist imperialism has split up a few would-be basketball powers.

Consider the former U.S.S.R., which includes present day nations Russia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, the Ukraine and more. Lithuania is among the best teams going into the Olympic hoops tournament. Russia is the reigning European champion, having beat Spain in Spain last summer. Here's a sample starting line-up for the mythical Team U.S.S.R.

Sarunas Jasikevicius: The top non-NBA point guard in the world.
Ramunas Siskauskas: The reigning Euroleague MVP.
Linas Kleiza: A top-flight scorer and rebounder from the forward position.
Andrei Kirilenko: The best Russian ever to play in the NBA.
Andris Biedrins: $63 million.

Off the bench: Zaza Pachulia, Darius Songaila, Viktor Khryapa, Martynas Andriuskevicius, Arvydas Macijauskas, maybe Zydrunas Ilgauskas, if he disobeys the Cavaliers. That's not a gold medal team perhaps. But it is sure good enough to make Team USA sweat.

Team Yugoslavia wouldn't be as potent, though a Beno-Sasha-Peja-Nenad-Darko squad actually looks pretty good.

Green Bay quarterback, Aaron Rodgers says he doesn't want our pity, but he is going to get some of mine. The kid in the short YouTube above rejected Rodgers' attempt to autograph his football, and as was explained in an article preaching that fans take it easier on Rodgers, another kid told him:

"We don't love you. You suck."

Children often express elemental but brutal honesty, and I'm not sure things are going to be much better for AaRod in his dealings with fans in general.

Whatever side you pick in the Packer front office versus Brett Favre pissing match dispute, there is going to be a percentage of the fanbase who will be bitter at GM Ted Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy for kicking Favre to the curb in favor of an unproven Rodgers. And however misguided it is, those fans will take it out on Rodgers.

Though the course of a game, it is easier to boo Rodgers than Thompson and McCarthy. Emotional and overwrought perhaps, but that's how things work. The decision makers don't throw incomplete passes and every quarterback does.