Pay attention, kids. This kind of thing gurgles up only once in a great while, at least at Watchable Levels of American Football. Dig the Spartans’ Hail Mary victory.

Past and present NFL alumni footballers love love love to talk about how professional the league is, and how professionally run the franchises are.

This is not a pro move.

This week we’ve been all about the swearing of the athletes on the TV. It appears that digital wave has crested and receded, only to be overswept by today’s media tide of brawls. First, there was this inglorious piefight in the great American Southwest. Now, the Chinese. Has the sporting world gone mad?

PS This kind of lets Georgetown off the hook, right?

IF only the Bruins had shown this much fight during regulation time over the Neuheisel Era.

You know in your heart that Magic is right.

Here it is, sportsfans. Here is the footage you’ve all been waiting for. AJ Hawk flips the bird to HIS OWN SIDELINE after sacking the opposing quarterback.

O.M.G.

It’s awesome, and it’s funny. It’s probably not good family television. But guess what, America? The idea that the NFL is good family television – AJ Hawk’s #1 salute notwithstanding – is a joke. And you’re a fool if you think otherwise.

These Giant, Violent, Drugged-up Gladiators pound and punish each other with all the Might of their Flesh, Viscera, and Bone for three hours a week. It’s a bloodthirsty public spectacle. Hundreds of thousands of people watch in person. Millions watch on television. It’s not Saturday morning cartoons. And these Men-Beasts are Crude, because their job requires it. All AJ did was slip in a moment of candidly vulgar bonding.

So we laugh and giggle, especially in the media. Because anyone who is a member of the sporting press – and this is 99 percent true – is fundamentally 10 years old. We really like the games we play out on the blacktop at recess, and we like gossiping about who misbehaved and who got busted.

And so on.

Poor Shonn Greene. He must have a devil of a time getting people to spell his common first name in the uncommon manner his parents bestowed upon him. And now, he’ll be receiving no favorable calls for the remainder of his professional playing career. Or at least for a while, after this.

Kids: if you never saw Earl Campbell, it kind of looked like this, only all the time. And with defenders.

In the words of Joe Starkey, what a bonanza.

Carson Palmer is reportedly headed to Oakland to fill the Raiders quarterback void. 2 first round draft choices are headed to Cincinnati, where Mike Brown reversed his field and agreed to trade the disgruntled – and until now, retired – Palmer. It’s a great move for the Bengals, who had a dead-weight asset in Palmer. The Raiders, well…it’s potentially brilliant.

How do you feel this morning if you’re Kyle Boller?

2-time Indianapolis 500 champion Dan Wheldon died in a 15-car crash in the Indy 300 in Las Vegas on Sunday. All of our thoughts and prayers are with his family. We had the distinct privilege of visiting with Dan last Tuesday. Here is the interview, unedited.

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