Morning Walk-thru - So Many Sports, So Little Time

Busy weekend so this is gonna be a marathon. Don't forget to grab a plastic cup of water about half way down. Those people are volunteers. They're only paid by being useful.

Anything is Moss-ible*...Randy Moss. Patriot. The two words go together like Entourage and funny but together they will be under the New England autumn sun four short months from now.

Can it work? I think so. The Patriots have a pretty good track record with this sort of thing, but this will be Bill's biggest challenge yet.

Personally I'm pumped. I'm also not a Patriots fan (so maybe the two are related). Always felt the Pats were a little boring, what with all their winning and the such. Now, there should be some fireworks week in and week out.

Tom Brady's publicist has to be the happiest person in the world right now.

*These are not my words. I'm not afraid to make a lame play on words, but this is perhaps the lamest I've ever seen and it's from some random Minnesota Vikings fan from a Monday night game about six years ago.

D-Wade has more time to hang out with Charles Barkley now...The Baby Bulls appear to be growing up, and the defending champs just looked old as Chicago swept Miami.

I like this. Chicago's a fun team to watch once you get past the fact that their team is 1/6th Dukies. Every time I see Kirk Hinrich with the ball I can't help but think: this is a guy who has spent the vast majority of his life hanging out in Sioux City, Iowa and now here he is dropping in a runner over Shaquille O'Neal. Always amazing.

Throw in Andres Nocioni, who is NOT Italian, and gritty, gutty Scotty Skiles and the Eastern Conference is suddenly interesting.

Speaking of Chi-town...Cubs actually have a three-game winning streak going right now. Sweet Lou looks like he might be finding a line-up he likes with Theriot at short, Soriano in left and Pie in center.

Of course, this can all be attributed to the little, statistical wake-up call I gave the Cubs last week.

R.I.P. Josh Hancock...Sad day in St. Louis, following the news of Josh Hancock's accident, the second Cardinals pitcher to die in less than five years. Oddly enough, they were set to play the Cubs when Darryl Kile died in 2002. It may be a rivalry, but I doubt the Cubs and Cards could be any closer than they were on those two days.

Hooray Huskers...I really don't give a damn about the NFL Draft. Really, I don't. Draft coverage is like Scandinavian pop music to me: annoying and incessant. My only real interest in the event is as a measuring stick for the current value of Dear Old Nebraska U, and, in that respect I was pretty pleased.

St. Louis decided they needed another Husker on their D-Line, taking Adam Carriker right where everyone thought he would go. (And that would be the highest Nebraska draftee since former Ram, Grant Wistrom.)

The Packers realized they needed a Nebraska back to fill-in for the recently departed Ahman Green, taking Brandon Jackson a round or two ahead of where the pundits thought he'd be. I said it during the season and I'll say it now: Brandon Jackson will be a solid if not spectacular NFL back. He runs pretty well, can catch the ball out of the backfield, and he pass blocks like a banshee (This explains the accompanying photo. They tell me it's a banshee and apparently banshees love Komodo dragons.)

With Stew Bradley going in the the third round to Philly, Nebraska had three players go on the first day which was the best total of any Big XII school not named Texas (who only recruits first-round talent).

We're getting there, Nebraska, we're getting there.

Hello?..."Yeah, this head ball coach." Quite simply the best part of 12+hours of Saturday draft coverage appears below. I will believe forevermore that this really is the way Steve Spurrier answers the phone. Click-clack.



And finally...It's Derby week. I feel a bit unprepared to this point, but now that we're in the stretch run I'm looking to make a strong move to catch up to the field. Stay tuned for further details...