Could our long national nightmare really be over?

I hope Brett Favre really is done, but no one can trust him at this point. If he goes a full year without football and doesn't make noises in the offseason about playing again, maybe we'll start to believe Favre's career is really over. If this is it, Minnesota will have no one but themselves to blame for being in a very tight spot at quarterback. The decision not to draft Jimmy Clausen or Colt McCoy seemed poor at the time, and really looks bad now. As for Favre, it's been a shame to see him become a punchline. The guy was a lot of fun to watch during his better days with the Packers. The never ending "will he retire" storyline that dominated his final half dozen years in the league washed away lots of that goodwill though. Favre became like Pete Rose - excellent players, but guys who dominated far more of the discussion of their sport than their on field performances justified. (No, angry Favre fan, I'm not comparing the pair's actions in any way - just the never ending discussion of them.)

Governments around the country are looking for ways to balance their budget, and more of them seem to be figuring out there's an obvious source sitting in plain sight that they aren't benefitting from. A California state senator is the latest to call for legalized sports betting in a state currently barred from having it. This is not a choice between whether it's good or bad for society to have sports betting. We have it, and we're going to have it. The question is whether governments can benefit financially from the activity while also trimming by one the list of things police have to deal with. How is it a bad thing for a guy to be able to put a hundred dollars on the Packers to win legally but perfectly fine for the guy to spend the same amount on lottery tickets? At least on the football game he has a 50-50 shot of winning. Sooner or later this is going to happen - the pro leagues don't like it, but the need for revenue is greater than threats of taking the Super Bowl away.

Normally GQ magazine is not the first place I'd turn to for sports insights, but they do have a moderately amusing piece this month about the eight stupidest things sports fans say. Not sure why they chose to name just eight, but I'll throw in two more to even things out at ten. All the variations of "we need to run more trick plays" that get brought up on coaches shows and at booster meetings would certainly qualify. My personal favorite is "we should trade our below average players and mid level prospects for someone else's All-Star". Thanks to dopes like the Memphis Grizzlies GM that does happen occasionally in real life, but it's not a viable strategy to plan around.

The Princeton Review's list of the nation's top party schools is out, with Georgia sitting in this year's number one spot. Considering their AD got caught for DUI with a pair of someone else's panties in his lap, it's safe to say there's a little partying going on in Athens. The best part of this is that it's going to drive Georgia president Michael Adams crazy. Ole Miss at five and Florida at seven were the only other SEC schools in the top ten - the conference is slipping. The only things I know about DePauw are that it's Dan Quayle's alma mater and it shows up on this list every year - I'll have to go by that campus someday.