Thom Loverro, of ESPN 980 in Washington, D.C., is the author of the piece in question, which claims Tony La Russa is not worthy to go into the Hall of Fame because of the myriad steroid users he has coached over the years, as well as his claims of ignorance as to the situation. 

Sigh. You guys do know just how much it rankles me to defend Tony La Russa, don't you? 

The answer, of course, is it will be a farce. And honestly, it will probably be one of the more embarrassing and shameful farces we've witnessed in a long, long time. It will be a pathetic, ugly production spin-doctored to a painful degree. Tiger has ensured as much with his one-camera, small-room, limited-press, no-question format. Stalin held press conferences with more chance of something interesting coming out. Tiger will make his statement, take no questions, and disappear again. The other PGA players are already fuming he chose to pull his little stunt in the middle of a tournament (and a tournament sponsored by a company who dropped Tiger as spokesman, no less), and will likely continue to blast him afterward. In short, the whole thing is going to be a train wreck. And not a fun one, either. So why am I so looking forward to it? 

Because like most other things in life, this will be made so, so much better by betting on it. 

Now, first off, I have to say this: it was an historically bad year for Super Bowl commercials. Seriously. Just awful. I'll put it in automobile terms. The usual Super Bowl advert lineup is the cream of the crop, the very best advertisements money can buy. Creative. Funny. Memorable. There are hits and there are misses, of course, but overall, you get the flagship ads for most companies in any given year. The Super Bowl commercial lineup is a Cadillac, synonymous with the apex of the field. 

This year's commercial lineup was an '82 Pinto with a milk crate driver's seat. 

Still, there were a few good ones, ads which managed to rise above the sea of mediocrity and make an impact. Here's my own list of the five best this year. 

Tonight, Black Entertainment Television will air the first of a ten-part documentary series about the embattled quarterback. It will focus on his fall from grace, his time in prison, and his road back to some measure of respectability. (Well, maybe not respectability, exactly, but a life in which he's free to ply his trade without constant controversy.) 

Vick himself says of the show, "I'm on a mission to get everything back - not the money and the fame, but to restore my family's good name." Noble words, certainly, but I wonder if that's really an achievable goal at this point. 

Yes, the machine that is the National Football League got its wish, and I, for one, am sickened by it.

Earlier in the week, Ochocinco had announced he planned on wearing the jersey of Chris Henry, his friend and teammate who was killed after falling out of a moving truck, in the Bengals' game against the Chargers on Sunday. Ocho and Henry were incredibly close, sharing a relationship nearly that of brothers, rather than just teammates.

Can you hear my depression settling in for a nice, long stay? 

Sigh. 

See, this is the reason so many people are sick of Derek Jeter. The guy goes out and has a very nice season, and then, instead of receiving modest praise for being about the third or fourth best player on a championship team, he gets a bunch of ink for the MVP award, somehow wins the Hank Aaron award as the best offensive player in the American League, and SI tells us he was the single best athlete on the face of the earth this year. 

It's enough to drive a man to drink, you know? 

Larry Johnson was given his walking papers yesterday by the Kansas City Chiefs, after they had finally had enough of his antics. The latest incident involved him criticising the Chiefs' head coach, Todd Haley, and using gay slurs to attack both members of the KC media and commenters on his Twitter page. Of course, the real reason Johnson was released wasn't because he's a bad guy (which he most assuredly is), but because he's a bad guy who isn't an elite football player any more. 

As part of my job writing this column, I listen to an enormous amount of sports talk radio. It's incredibly unpleasant much of the time, mind you, and will eventually destroy whatever faith you have in humanity, but hey, it's part of the job. I have to know not only what is actually going on in the sporting world, but what people are saying about it as well.