And now for sports' next trick:

Anyone stop me if you see this coming too...

This year will mark the tenth anniversary of Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s death at the Daytona 500.

So much is made out of this that the entire third lap of the race is being asked to be run in silence, with the crowd standing and extending three fingers into the air.

So why is this here?

For the same reason that many people believe that Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the summer Daytona race, the 2001 Pepsi 400.

It's one of the more prevalent NASCAR theories, that the league wanted Dale Jr. to win that race the first time the circuit came back after his father died.

So, ten years later and Dale Jr. far removed from being a relevant Cup driver (IMHO, he has no business on the circuit at all -- his car ownership and celebrity have sapped him from being a valid driver on the Sprint Cup!), he wins the Shootout pole and the 500 pole.

And they're going to run the 3rd lap silently and all that too...

Watch this one.

EDIT: And now he HAS fucked it up.

He crashed his car in practice and has to start the 500 in the back.

Of course, that would make the rig-job even bigger.

Best idea for game shows for years, now a complete and utter farce...

I hadn't watched Jeopardy! in a long time, but I was still intrigued by the ongoing Jennings/Rutter/Watson Man vs. Machine IBM Challenge match.

In fact, it got me to watch episodes for the first time in a long time, where the computer, at least through one of the two games, has utterly crushed the two human grand champions.

After one game:

Watson: $35,734
Brad Rutter: $10,400
Ken Jennings: $4,800

Tomorrow, presumably, Watson and his IBM handlers will be handed a check for one million dollars (which, according to the show's website, will be split between World Vision and the World Computing Grid).

So, why does this win Rig Job of the Day?

Not by pre-decision, though it could certainly, win or lose, be seen as a massive commercial for IBM.

But this appears to be a rigging by construction -- that the advantage gained because of events constructed through the play basically ends any hope of a valid contest. (Which see the entire Steroid Era in Major League Baseball for a very good sports analogy.)

How do I say this?

A paragraph from this eweek.com article.

"Watson appeared to have breezed through Double Jeopardy, but that was apparently not the case. During the course of the game, Watson had crashed multiple times during the taping, said NOVA producer Michael Bicks, who had been at the taping of the show. The half hour match took four hours to tape, he said."

Any hope of a competitive contest went out the window, especially if you're the likes of Jennings and Rutter, who would like to have taken home $500,000 for themselves and a half million for VillageReach or the Lancaster County Community Foundation, respectively.

But how can you expect a human being to stand up to that kind of intellectual pressure in a stop-and-start environment (unplanned to be as such, on top of it!) for four solid hours and take on a supercomputer??

The best idea for game shows in years, a technical showcase, now basically a full-on farce.

Not rigged by pre-ordainment, but through what happens when someone doesn't perform a regular debug on the system.

In light of yesterday's game:

Read Brian Tuohy's prediction on the game, posted about 1 PM Pacific the day of the game, after an appearance on "Coast to Coast" the night before.

Just read it.

Haven't posted a lot lately...

If this were more public, I'd probably take some heat for my last post.

I was shocked the Packers won, but now have a feeling they're going to get the preferred calls.

You really are at a crossroads for the league after Sunday.

1) They are all but certain to lose at least the 2011 season to a lockout -- a lockout preordained by the last TV contracts (which, oh by the way, the players lost the ability to block the owners from getting their payoff, even if the season is not played!).

2) Which way does the league want to be portrayed? As a bunch of brash and violent loudmouths, or where some smokescreen of civility still reigns?

3) Consider Rothlesberger and the Steelers' mouthing off to the league in the light of this quote by Brian Tuohy on his website:

One way a league could fix its own games is by blackmailing its players to comply with their wishes. The easiest players to blackmail? Those that break the law or league rules. Most players may have gone to college, but most never graduate and need their salary to survive, not knowing much beyond their sport. Banishment from the league means facing reality, and after being coddled for years, that won't seem like the best proposition. So why not take a dive in a game if it means your career continues?


This is the first Super Bowl in years that there isn't really an obvious rig-job (with the exception of Rothlesberger and the Steelers vs. NFL angles).

But then you add the Brett Favre angle. Favre has done more to disgrace the NFL than any player outside of actual criminal conduct in the last 1-5 years.

What better way to rip his legacy apart than to have his successor, in the ESPN "Year of the Quarterback", win the title?

If the Steelers win, then it probably is because the league wants the Rapist-burgers and Rex Ryans of the world to run the circus.

But I seriously doubt it.