Who's Now?

Well, Whitey called it, Joey Chestnut shoved more hot dogs in his grill than Kobayashi. I think the final tally was 66-63. I have to admit that I watched this thing, but I had my eyes glued on the numbers in the upper left hand corner of the screen the entire time. Why? Because watching this stuff makes me physically ill. Kobayashi regurgitated his lunch at the end and tried to force it back down. That's it...even writing about this makes my stomach turn.

A couple points. Number one is obviously the change in appearance of our website. We felt a different look was in order, and hope you agree. On to the sporting world. ESPN came up with a new gimmick: Who's Now. It would be best if I quote them on the idea behind this:

Throughout July, "SportsCenter" will air "Who's Now," a daily series in which viewers will help ESPN determine the ultimate sports star by considering both on-field success and off-field buzz.

As of this writing, only three match-ups have been decided. The contestants look like this:

MICHAEL JORDAN BRACKET
July 1: (1) Tiger Woods def. (8) Matt Leinart
July 2: (4) Dwyane Wade def. (5) Shaun White
July 3: (2) LaDainian Tomlinson def. (7) David Beckham
MUHAMMAD ALI BRACKET
July 5: (1) Peyton Manning vs (8) Amanda Beard
July 6: (4) Dale Earnhardt Jr vs (5) Chuck Liddell
July 7: (2) Alex Rodriguez vs (7) Terrell Owens
July 8: (3) Kobe Bryant vs (6) Ronaldinho
BILLIE JEAN KING BRACKET
July 9: (1) LeBron James vs (8) Kelly Slater
July 10: (4) Jeff Gordon vs (5) Barry Bonds
July 11: (2) Derek Jeter vs (7) Sidney Crosby
July 12: (3) Reggie Bush vs (6) Danica Patrick
BABE RUTH BRACKET
July 13: (1) Tom Brady vs (8) David Ortiz
July 14: (4) Maria Sharapova vs (5) Vince Young
July 15: (2) Roger Federer vs (7) Tony Parker
July 16: (3) Shaquille O'Neal vs (6) Michael Phelps

This ain't rocket science: "The winner of each matchup will advance based upon fan voting (70 percent) and ESPN's three-person panel (30 percent). In the first round, the panel consists of Michael Wilbon, Kirk Herbstreit and Keyshawn Johnson." The interesting thing about this is how much weight one wants to give to "off-field buzz." I like to give a whole lot of weight to it, since otherwise the entire point seems ridiculous.

I don't see anyone beating Tiger, but I'll comment on the results thus far. Shaun White should have beaten Dwayne Wade. Wade may have won a championship, but I've seen White in a Hewlett-Packard and an American Express ad while Wade has been a shill for some car company (I can't even remember which one). Oh yeah, he's in some ad with Charles Barkley too (cell phones I believe). Not good enough; I'll bet White actually gets results. David Beckham should have been a no-brainer. I don't think I'd recognize LaDainian Tomlinson unless he was wearing his helmet. Beckham can't even walk down the street in most of the free (and not-so-free) world without stopping traffic. I have no idea who Chuck Liddell or Sidney Crosby are. I have heard of Kelly Slater, but don't ask me how. Here is who the final four should be:

1. Tiger Woods
   
2. Peyton Manning (maybe Dale Jr.)
   
3. Lebron James (maybe Jeff Gordon)
   
4. Maria Sharapova

Amanda Beard baring all for Playboy got her the desired result: she's in the field. I have no idea how Vince Young made it in. Or Matt Leinart (dating history?). You don't have to wait three weeks for the results here...