FanHouse Usain Bolt

Usain Bolt is the fastest man in the world at 100 meters and the fastest man in the world at 200 meters, so it's not like anyone doubted that he's also the fastest man in the world at 150 meters. But just to prove the obvious, Bolt ran in a 150-meter race over the weekend, and he ran the fastest time ever recorded.

I don't quite understand this one. Michael Phelps -- he of the Olympic record eight gold medals this past year -- was beaten out in the international voting for athlete of the year by Jamaica's Usain Bolt. I mean this as no disrespect to Bolt, who is a stud in every sense of the word. I've gushed about his abilities before. Sure, some might be a bit miffed by the fact that he's been known to showboat from time to time -- including during a race. Overall, though, Bolt is a superstar and would be quite worthy of this accolade in most years.

My problem is that 2008 wasn't most years. Michael Phelps broke the record for the most Olympic gold medals of all time in a single games. He should be an automatic winner.

As I sit around trying to figure out what would compel voters to vote for Bolt over Phelps, I'm only left with the simple realization that many people hate America.

Look, I know we can be ego-centric in this country, and I'm more guilty of that than most people. Knowing this, I tried to figure out what else could have possibly spurred on this voting. Here's what I came up with:

Who can blame him at this point?

Usain Bolt barely even broke a sweat in Beijing this past year when he broke every Olympic record in front of him. The 100 meter world record wasn't even a challenge, as he celebrated for the last 10-15 meters, and he also took down Michael Johnson's 200 meter world record -- which had stood for 12 years.

Now he's going to start running the 400-meter, and there is very little doubt he can easily shatter this record as well -- also owned by Johnson. He's obviously the fastest man in the history of the planet, so I see no possible reason he cannot break this record with ease, barring injury.

In fact, I started doing some thinking about Bolt and his amazing gift. Remember those Man vs. Beast shows on Fox? When they did sprints, they'd pit a sprinter against a giraffe or zebra or something. The human would always burst out of the gate with a lead. Once the animal got a little warmed up and started moving they'd blow by the poor human with ease.

Last Monday night, ESPN introduced a thing called optical-tracking technology, brought in to show how fast different players like Reggie Bush and Adrian Peterson really are.

The Saints young star was kind enough to break two punt returns for touchdowns, each showing that explosiveness most in the Louisiana area have been waiting for. With the new technology, we got to watch Bush reach a top speed of 22 miles per hour. How fast is that if you compared him to other quick-footed humans? The LA Times broke it down.

If you don't think 22 mph sounds that fast, consider this: Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt averaged 23.07 mph over 100 meters when he took the gold medal with his blistering 9.69-second performance in the Olympics. That's according to EliteFeet.com, which also translated the times of star runners Maurice Greene (21.0 mph in the indoor 60 meters), Michael Johnson (20.71 in the 400) and Florence Griffith Joyner (21.32 in the 100), among others.

Yes, those speeds are averages over the distance, as opposed to Bush's top speed at a given point. But those runners also weren't carrying a football and saddled with a helmet and pads.

With attention spans dwindling, we forego full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. Click here to go back in time.

The 1s

Tennessee (4-0) at Baltimore (2-1): Okay, fine, I'll agree, the Titans are a good football team. They're giving up just 11.5 points per game, best in the NFL, they have a competent quarterback that doesn't do anything flashy but also doesn't make a lot of mistakes (only one interception in four games) and a rookie running back in Chris Johnson that made every fantasy owner that didn't snag him do a collective head slap. Interesting little comparison here, last week Johnson had just 19 less yards than Adrian Peterson with one less carry and as many touchdowns. Also worth noting, the 4-0 Titans have just one nationally televised game the rest of the season, October 27 against the Colts, while the Browns still have four. Does Al Davis also dabble in national television scheduling? Cool.

Pick -- Tennessee

The world's fastest man, Jamaican gold medalist Usain Bolt, visited David Letterman last night, and Letterman asked Bolt why he didn't run hard through the finish line instead of slowing down at the end of the 100-meter dash:

"Before the finish line you're dancing and whirling around and flapping your arms in celebration," Letterman said. "Now that's not technique. That's something different from running technique, isn't it?"

Bolt tried to make a joke that he wanted to fly, but Letterman wouldn't let it go.

Carl Lewis won nine gold medals in four Olympic Games and is considered by many to be the greatest track and field athlete of all time.And while Lewis is impressed with Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who won three gold medals and set three world records in Beijing, he's also skeptical that Bolt is doing it without the benefit of performance-enhancing drugs.

Steroid Nation passes along this quote from the London Times, which apparently began with a Sports Illustrated interview Lewis conducted:

"When people ask me about Bolt I say he could be the greatest athlete of all time. But for someone to run 10.03 one year and 9.69 the next, if you don't question that in a sport that has the reputation it has right now, you're a fool. Period."

It's a shame that athletes like Ben Johnson, Marion Jones and the entire East German athletic program of the 1970s and 1980s make us feel this way, but Lewis is right: There's no proof that Bolt used steroids, but you're a fool if you don't at least acknowledge that it's possible.

Terrell Owens has been in the middle of countless drama-fueled spectacles during this 13-year NFL career. And the laws of probability suggest that you'd be right more times than not by simply taking the other side of any argument he might put forth.

But he's sort of reformed himself since coming to Dallas in 2006, and save that bizarre "he may or may not have tried to kill himself" saga, T.O.'s remained out of the media crosshairs. In fact, he's even been viewed as something other than a selfish jerk, which is no doubt a testament to aggressive therapy.

Checkered history aside, I can't disagree with Owens, flagged last week for loosely impersonating Usain Bolt, when he talks about the absurdity of the NFL excessive touchdown celebration rule. First, the video evidence. Scandalous, indeed.

Here's what VP of Officiating Mike Pereira told the New York Times earlier this week when explaining the penalty:

Terrell Owens clearly has an obsession with Usain Bolt.

Last week we told you about Owens' claim that he could beat Bolt in a 100-meter dash -- as long as he got a 20-yard head start. (We agree; Owens would probably beat Bolt, barely, if he got that big of an edge.) And today Owens gave the fans what appeared to be an homage to Bolt in the Dallas Cowboys' season opener against the Cleveland Browns.

After catching a 35-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter, Owens lined up at the goal line like a sprinter at the start of a 100-meter dash. It was a funny way of reminding everyone of his challenge to Bolt, but the premeditated celebration resulted in a 15-yard penalty, and the Cowboys then had to kick off to the Browns from the 15-yard line.

My advice to Owens: Keep talking all you want about your vow to race against Bolt. But knock off the Bolt-themed celebrations, so your teammates don't pay the price.

On tonight's episode of Hard Knocks, the HBO show that chronicles the Dallas Cowboys, the cameras followed wide receiver Terrell Owens and a few others when they went out to dinner, and Owens was telling his fellow diners about his speed.

Owens first claimed that if he were in the Olympic 100-meter dash, he wouldn't come in last, which everyone at the table (and in the viewing audience) realized was patently ridiculous. Owens is fast, but he couldn't come close to out-running an Olympic sprinter.

But then he made a more interesting claim, saying that he could beat Usain Bolt -- if he got a 20-yard head start.

So could he? Bolt can run 100 meters in 9.69 seconds. Can Owens run 80 meters (actually about 82 meters, since Owens expressed his head start in yards) in less than 9.69 seconds?

I think he can. Owens can run 40 yards in about 4.6 seconds, and based on my back-of-the-envelope calculations, I figure he ought to be able to run 82 meters in somewhere between 9.0 and 9.5 seconds. So yes, he'd beat Usain Bolt in the 100 meters. As long as he got a 20-yard head start.