Sports Monday (brought to you by Clif Bar)

A weekend of stupefyingly good football!! Coke Zero's and Clif Bars all around!!!

In Tuscaloosa, the Mississippi State – Alabama game pitted the number one team in the nation against number five. The home team prevailed, parting the Red Sea. But not before Ohio State beat Minnesota up north in the snow. The night game featured the Florida State Seminoles against the Miami Hurricanes, in a matchup of wannabe parolees granted preferential treatment by the state police.

Say what you will about the dominance of Southern football, particularly the SEC, the best college football team in the nation in this reporters opinion is Ohio State. The Buckeyes are peaking at the right time, have a freshman quarterback that will, if he stays in school, win the Heisman, and are coached by the legendary Urban Meyer, the best coach's name in all of football.

And while we're talking legendary, a good call on the Alabama game by the legendary Verne Lundquist of CBS. What fan doesn't hear Tiger's chipshot rolling in on the 16th hole at the 2005 Masters when listening to Lundquist? Disappointing though was the absence of legendary Brent Musburger! What's up with that? Apprarently Brent's now calling high school football games in Billings, Montana. Let me just say that college football has lost a truly great voice and this reporter would like to see Brent back up in the booth for big-time college football.

Pro football, under attack from the New York Times, had a bounce back weekend with a number of entertaining marquee games, too numerous to detail.

At this juncture in the season, certain questions loom large. How does the ageless Howie Long keep the same look year after year? Howie looks like he could still suit up for the Raiders, who need him desperately. Does 49er coach Jim Harbaugh really buy his pants at Walmart, and without an endorsement deal? Do retro jerseys, such as those worn by the Green Bay Packers Sunday, sell as briskly as contemporary Brett Favre jerseys?

The NFL, currently generating an annual revenue of $9 billion, has evolved into a corporate juggernaut. It's really quite a success story!! And so uniquely American!!!! Nothing can get in pro football's way--not lawsuits against the league by former players suffering from dementia and early onset Alzheimer's, not battered women, nor media overexposure, nor lousy play like that exhibited by the New York Giants yesterday, who couldn't score with the ball on the 49ers 4 yard line, first down, with a minute to go in and the game on the line. Eli Manning is the most overrated QB in the league, and Tom Coughlin won't make anyone forget Lane Kiffin.

In other news, the NBA season is off to a pretty interesting start. Once again, the world champion will come out of the Southwest; no, not the San Antonio Spurs! With Kevin McHale's Celtic charm and his ability to coach Dwight Howard another year, mentoring Howard to become a consistent scoring threat in the low post, and with the remarkable James Harden, whose beard makes him undefendable, the Houston Rockets will surprise everyone and win the title in six games.