FanHouse Mark Smith

On Friday I sat down to do a radio show here in Nashville with my friend Chad Withrow. As we were going on the air, ESPN brought in a reporter to discuss a seismic story breaking in the college football universe on the televisions hanging above us. Tennessee was firing its strength and conditioning coach, Mark Smith.

Seriously, this was the story. We were about to go on the air in Nashville and we weren't going to lead with this story, but ESPN was. A year-round sport demands controversy, even if there's no real controversy.

If you've ever doubted how much the internet has changed college football, this was a tipping point of epic proportions.

There are some questions that mankind has been searching to answer for ages. How were the pyramids built? Why was Mike Milbury never fired? And of course, there is the one that dwarfs all the others, which member of the Calgary Flames is the best at the video game Guitar Hero?

Today, we are a little bit closer to finding out the answer to that question, as Dion Phaneuf takes on Mark Smith in the accompanying video. The Flames have been airing a segment dedicated to a Guitar Hero tournament between Phaneuf, Smith and their teammates Eric Nystrom, Eric Godard and Wayne Primeau during games that are televised on Pay-Per-View.



These days, when it comes to knowing anything and everything about athletes, we are slowly inching closer to the point where we'll know them better than our own family members. It scares me and to a lesser extent bores the crud out of me. Society has gone off the deep end, but I'm still waiting for the day a network spawns that follows Paris Hilton's every move 24/7 until I throw in the towel. Or maybe that's what E! is for.