Just a heads up that I'll be talking with Friday Night Lights head writer and executive producer Jason Katims on Thursday. We'll be discussing the finale (which I've already seen, natch), the future and much more.



But I want to hear what you want to know? I'll do my best to fish out some answers from the man in charge. Leave your questions in the comment section of this post.

Monday it was announced that the last major hurdle in the negotiations for a Manny Pacquiao/Ricky Hatton May 2 mega-bout has been cleared, as Hatton’s team agreed to hold the fight in Las Vegas rather than in its preferred location of London.

So now that everyone is on board with the major logistics and money questions, all that’s left to do is dot the t’s and cross the i’s and gear up HBO’s 24/7 machine, right?

Not so fast. The Bobfather, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum, is making some noise in the press that HBO is far from a lock to broadcast this fight, because he is free to negotiate with Showtime and he fully intends to explore that option. In this Los Angeles Times piece, Arum is quoted as saying, “In order for boxing to prosper, it has to be on free network TV. CBS, because of its relationship with Showtime, is best positioned to be the network that does this. [CBS President] Les Moonves is a huge fight fan."

Now, obviously, Pacquiao/Hatton won’t be on free network TV, or even regular Showtime. Without question, it’s going to be a pay-per-view event, whether it’s on HBO or Showtime or Nickelodeon for that matter. What Arum is talking about is a matter of promotion and who will air the now essential 24/7-like hype series leading up to the fight. His thinking is that because Showtime’s parent company is CBS, that network likely would get involved in promoting a Pacquiao/Hatton PPV and even potentially air an episode or two of a 24/7-like show devoted to the fight.

For a boxing fan, this concept is a double-sided coin. On one hand, you can’t argue against HBO’s chops when it comes to staging big fights. From the production quality of 24/7 to the broadcast team, time and again they put out the highest quality boxing programming bar none, and you want to see an event of the magnitude of Pacquiao/Hatton fall into their very capable hands.

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Though injuries prevented Penny Hardaway from becoming the player we all expected him to be, his signature line of Nike sneakers is among the best ever. Starting with the Nike Foamposite One, a sneaker that Mike Bibby and Miles Simon also helped bring to the masses during their exhilarating run in the NCAA tournament with Arizona, and continuing with the Nike Air Penny 1-IV, the Nike Air Penny line is a classic example of a well thought out, designed, and executed signature basketball sneaker line.

To pay homage to the Air Penny line, Nike is releasing the Nike Air Penny 1/2 Cent, a hybrid sneaker that combines the best elements of the Foamposite and the Nike Air Penny 1-IV. The launch colorway is an Orlando throwback colorway to Penny's younger days, with a young Shaq, in Black and Varsity Blue.

The Orlando Nike Air Penny 1/2 Cent is set to release in March at a retail of $190. After the initial launch colorway, Nike is set to release an all Black colorway as well.

eBay is full of hidden gems, particularly when it comes to sports-related items. David Arnott brings you the best oddities.

At what point does one's thirst for memorabilia verge into the intrusive? Generally, inquiring about politics and personal finances makes folks uncomfortable, but with a global icon, we can't contain ourselves. Michael Jordan has actively hidden his political beliefs for more than twenty-five years, but details about his personal finances are just a click away. Therefore, is it intrusive to keep one of his credit card receipts? (Editor’s note: The bidding has not surprisingly ended without any bids. $2,500? Riiiiiight.)

 

 

In the United States, a couple sports figures tower over everything else. Tiger Woods's absence was the defining element of this past golf season, and his impending return will be one of 2009's biggest sports stories because he embodies the American Dream. Tiger's story -- as much his parents' as his own -- tells us that love, passion, and hard work will give us everything. The other major pillar of sports celebrity is still Jordan. His Airness hasn't played professional basketball since 2003, but he maintains a presence as a front office executive with the Charlotte Bobcats and, especially, his relationship with Nike. Jordan stands for American dominance, on the court and in business, where his competitive urges were and are both monstrous and awesome. His story tells us to never let up, even after you think you've won something. So, if you were to procure an autograph by Mr. Michael Jeffrey Jordan, it only makes sense you'd get one on a credit card receipt.

Of course, Jordan's legacy as an NBA executive has stained his overall image, since he is widely believed to have muddled through his time as shot-caller for the Washington Wizards and is now in the process of screwing up the Bobcats. This receipt is allegedly from December 1986, a time before Jordan was Jordan, when he was merely a transcendent scoring force coming off an injury-plagued second season. Sure, it would be absurd to say a twenty-two year old receipt is an intrusion on Jordan's current privacy. However, is his signature on anything so valuable people will pay for it? Is our collective curiosity so great that we'll scoop up anything having to do with him, even if it means staring in awe at his hotel bill?

We're looking for the best/worst of sports-related shirts from around the world to feature in this space. If you have a submission, send it to FirstCuts@sportingnews.com.

So, by now, you all know the tragic tale of J.C. Romero, the Phillies flinger who will now sit out 50 games to start 2009 because of "negligence" after taking a supplement purchased from GNC that the Phillies said was acceptable to ingest, but turned out not to be so kosher with MLB.

The 700 Level, those denizens of all things Phillies, are now supplying the only gear you need to climb that tree in Philadelphia, or chain yourself to the Rocky statue, go on a hunger strike in front of Citizens Bank Park, or whatever radical method you're planning on using to bring the "Free J.C. Romero" cause to the non-baseball masses.

In the spirit of the New Year, we did something different for the January 2009 episode of the KATC StockRoom. Instead of beating your pockets a couple of days after you splurged for the holidays, we reflect on 2008 by taking a look at the 23rd Anniversary of the Air Jordan line. In this video, I take a look at Air Jordan 1-14 from the Air Jordan Countdown packages while giving a brief history on each sneaker and Michael Jordan's career.

We're looking for the best/worst of sports-related shirts from around the world to feature in this space. If you have a submission, send it to FirstCuts@sportingnews.com.

Listen, Chicagoans, the Bulls are 14-20, so there's really not much to celebrate about this once vaunted franchise, and there probably won't be as long as one Larry Hughes is in red and black. Doesn't mean the Bulls can't represent when it comes to apparel, and Abstrxx has a nifty design paying tribute to the balling crew and all those who love their shoes. "Strong Kixx Game" stacks two shoes sole to sole and creates the smoke-blowin' Bull design, which is shown on the back for good measure in its original (and slightly altered) version in case your eyes didn't catch the imagery the first time around.

If you watched football all weekend (and I know you did), then you saw ... well, look, how many Budweiser ads would you say you saw total this weekend across the space of four NFL games? Me, I’m putting the number at somewhere between a thousand and a million.

I’m a dedicated sports fan, and so I’m used to having trucks and beer (trucks and beer, trucks and beer) shoved down my throat at every commercial break. Even then, however, I have to admit that the sheer number of Bud spots this past weekend blew my mind. It was utter carpet-bomb territory. I’d say without exaggeration that there were eight Bud ads for every ad for another beer. In fact, I’d say there were maybe two Bud ads for every other ad, period.

At that volume, the whole Bud thing would get annoying even if the ads were good. And these ads they’re running right now are not good. For a company that really pioneered the central conceit of the American beer commercial -- that American guys are basically overgrown children who like boobs and sports and have no time for pretentious, fancy-pants crap like beers from other countries that purport to taste good -- I find the recent trend in their advertising to be disturbing.

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