Not to pick on poor Calvin Pace, who claims today to be the latest NFL victim of those sneaky, nefarious over-the-counter supplements, but come on here, people. At what point is it fair to start calling out the NFL on the performance-enhancing drug issue? This guy's no superstar, but he's an important player on a New York team. The baseball equivalent would be somebody like Ryan Church on the Mets or Hideki Matsui on the Yankees. Imagine if one of those guys had been suspended today for steroids? Would ESPN even think about leading SportsCenter with anything else?
I heard Michael Jackson died at approximately 5:30 PM ET. Hours later, I still don't think it's fully hit me. This was the man I idolized growing up as a kid ... I watched Moonwalker about 80 times on VHS (Joe Pesci was the villain). I once furiously outbid someone $159 for a replica Beat It jacket with 13 zippers. I actually have an 8x10 glossy of Billie Jean Michael taped next to my bedroom door.
Everyone -- from celebrities to sports stars to ordinary people -- had their way of trying to feel connected to the King of Pop. In his mere presence, fans have fainted and needed medical attention. So when news broke that Jackson had passed away, the reverberations on social media sites like Twitter were immense. Outspoken wide receiver Chad Ochocinco even went on to tweet "this is just as sad as 9/11" and then tried to play damage control after his offensive comment.
After the jump, read the emotional reactions from current and former athletes.
Remember when Eli Manning had that dopier-than-usual look on his face after the San Diego Chargers, against his wishes, took him with the first overall pick of the 2004 Draft? Good times.
On Saturday, around 6:30 PM ET, commissioner Roger Goodell made his way to the podium at Radio City Music Hall and announced that, with the 16th pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, the San Diego Chargers had selected Larry English, defensive end, out of Northern Illinios.
The pick was immediately met with skepticism; in the weeks leading up to the biggest offseason event on the NFL calendar, most mock drafts had the Chargers taking a running back. Georgia's Knowshon Moreno would have been an obvious choice, but the Broncos' impetuousness took him off the board at No. 12. Which meant that San Diego would have to settle on the second-best back on their board (assuming Moreno was first), or, perhaps, they had every intention of bolstering the defense all along.
Everyone makes mistakes. But when those mistakes are magnified by intense scrutiny of the NFL draft, well, they become much more embarrassing than, say, my typical Friday morning, mustard-stain-on-khakis incident.
Which is why the NFL FanHouse braintrust got together to determine who is the biggest bust for each NFL team. They're not listed in terms of stupidity -- they're all stupid relative to a team's total draft performance. Meaning, of course, some teams "bust" is much different than another organization's; we did it this way to avoid just linking you to DetroitLions.com.
Instead, we're putting it in current draft order, sans trades, and allowing this list to serve as a reminder of each's team's ability to properly execute a fail. The "bust factor" was based primarily on three things: statistical production (or lack thereof), position in the draft and other available options during that year's draft.
With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.
The San Diego Chargers were one of the earliest contenders to be drafting a running back in the 2009 NFL draft (and they probably would have had their pick, too, if not for those darned kids). But then Darren Sproles got tagged with the old franchiser and LaDainian Tomlinson worked out his feud with A.J. Smith, and, suddenly, the Chargers were back to the secretly-stacked squad that just needs a little defensive help.
Okay, "little" might be off -- it was the absence of Shawne Merriman last year that killed the defense as a whole; without Merriman in the middle of the D to create havoc, the secondary suffered and teams moved the ball almost at will against San Diego. In other words, you should see some defensive picks in this year's draft.
"I don't care who we gotta play. I really don't. If we're going to be World Champions, we gotta beat them all in some form or fashion, anyway... I embrace tough schedules. Hopefully, we'll always have a tough schedule because I think if we're able to see our way through it like we were this past year, it strengthens you for January football."
After the draft, the NFL schedule release party is the biggest event of the offseason -- at least to hear the NFL sell it to us. For football-starved fans, it doesn't take much, so if NFL Network devotes two hours to scrutinizing the just-released 2009 schedule, well, I'm all for it. In fact, here's a look at some potentially big matchups, at least from the perspective of April.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
The San Diego Chargers are a hot mess. Things are kind of working out for them right now -- Darren Sproles has been franchised and there should be some sort of resolution to LaDainian Tomlinson in the near future -- but there's still a good chance that A.J. Smith screws the proverbial pooch on handling his real franchise player.
No, not Philip Rivers -- although he's really, really good, turning in an MVP caliber quarterbacking season on a relatively shoddy Charger squad. Tomlinson.
The draft has become one of the biggest events of the year for NFL fans. Maybe because everybody's a winner on draft day, or maybe because hope springs eternal and all that. Whatever the reason, we're fully trying to horn in on the action. Hence our first FanHouse mock draft of the '09 offseason. And we'd like to stress "mock."
So naturally, general manager A.J. Smith responded to Tomlinson by ... mocking him. Hardly seems like the best way to assuage any concerns LdT might have about his future with the team, and that might explain why linebacker Shawne Merrimanhas seen fit to get involved.
Not to pick on poor Calvin Pace, who claims today to be the latest NFL victim of those sneaky, nefarious over-the-counter supplements, but come on here, people. At what point is it fair to start calling out the NFL on the performance-enhancing drug issue? This guy's no superstar, but he's an important player on a New York team. The baseball equivalent would be somebody like Ryan Church on the Mets or Hideki Matsui on the Yankees. Imagine if one of those guys had been suspended today for steroids? Would ESPN even think about leading SportsCenter with anything else?
On Saturday, around 6:30 PM ET, commissioner 
With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call 
"I don't care who we gotta play. I really don't. If we're going to be World Champions, we gotta beat them all in some form or fashion, anyway... I embrace tough schedules. Hopefully, we'll always have a tough schedule because I think if we're able to see our way through it like we were this past year, it strengthens you for January football." 
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 
Last week, Chargers running back 
