That's Sam Bradford last week.

Really. It is.

It appears that if this NFL thing doesn't work out for him that he may have a future with NASA. Or the local swim team.

Beating the dead horse, Vol. 440

University of Southern California Head Football Coach Lane Kiffin. Dirtbag? [CHECK] Hot wife? [CHECK] Needs a spanking from the NCAA? [CHECK]

You may have already heard that Little Laney Kiffin offered a scholarship to a 13-year-old last week. I wish I could lay $1000 on "that kid won't be exactly well-adjusted as an adult" somewhere but I don't think Bodog.com has it up yet.

If you wanted more detail regarding one of the absolute slimiest stories this side of Rae Carruth, here you go, again courtesy of Yahoo's Dr. Saturday.

I mean does this guy look creepy or what?

Beating the dead horse, Vol. 439

And just so you think you're getting "fair and balanced" here at Level 6 (you're not), I submit the following endorsement of recruiting class rankings. Yahoo.com's Dr. Saturday explains why five-star recruits are actually...five-star recruits.

I don't know what he's saying. If you buy into all this recruiting hocus-pocus, you'll probably enjoy it though.

Beating the dead horse, Vol. 438

The 2006 Texas recruiting class that just played for the national title was ranked 20th by the know-it-all pundits.

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

Beating the dead horse, Vol. 437

From The Big Lead...

The best cornerback in the NFL is Darrelle Revis. In 2004, when he was coming out of high school, Revis was ranked as the 36th best cornerback in the country by Scout (and 41st overall, as five junior college players were listed ahead of him). Perhaps more staggering is that in 2002, Aaron Rodgers, one of the more promising young QBs in the NFL, was not even ranked as a high school prospect.

I think this clearly indicates that I had a much better chance than I thought to be an All-American. Had the recruiting services not more accurately recognized my talents I would have achieved great things.

Mazol Tov

Muchas congratulations to former Buckeyes Will Smith and Malcolm Jenkins of the Superbowl champion New Orleans Saints. Based on what I recall from the game I think that both of them had a small part in the victory.

You have to wonder if the incredibly talented Malcolm Jenkins will ever achieve these heights throughout the duration of his career. Then again, I'm sure there are hundreds of former players that would have taken a Superbowl victory in their rookie season over no Superbowl at all.

I'm not sure what happened exactly but I found myself rooting for the Colts in this one. I'd say if there is a surefire way to determine who is going to the win the Superbowl it's to just find out who I'm rooting for and go the other way.

Let's review:

2010 - rooting for the Colts, Saints win
2009 - rooting for the Cards, Steelers win
2008 - rooting for the Giants, GIANTS WIN!
2007 - rooting for the Colts, COLTS WIN!
2006 - rooting for the Seahawks, Steelers win
2005 - rooting for the Eagles, Pats win
2004 - rooting for the Panthers, Pats win
2003 - rooting for the Raiders, Bucs win
2002 - rooting for the Rams, Pats win
2001 - rooting for the Giants, Ravens win
2000 - rooting for the Titans, Rams win

So that's two wins out of the last 11 Superbowls. Sweet.

And the bizarre thing is I haven't the slightest idea why I was rooting for the Colts yesterday. Maybe it's general disdain for southern football, which extends somewhat to the pro ranks. Maybe it was faith in my own expectation of what would happen.

Maybe I'm still mad at Drew Brees for beating Ohio State his senior year? I have no idea.

The game was apparently not only the most watched Superbowl of all time, but in fact the most watched television program of all time beating the season finale of M*A*S*H.

The name of the M*A*S*H theme song by the way? That would be 'Suicide is Painless'. Heartwarming.

Speaking of heartwarming. Here's some quality video from New Orleans after the Saints win. Somehow CBS failed to realize that there may have been something worth seeing in the French Quarter at the end or immediately following the game.

Must be a strange day in parts of Indiana. Certainly they were rooting for the Colts. However, both of the heroes for the Saints, QB Drew Brees and CB Tracy Porter played collegiate ball in Indiana (Purdue and IU respectively). Then again, I can't stand the Steelers and took very little solace in the fact that Ohio State's own Santonio Holmes was the MVP last year.

I love that people are praising Saints Head Coach Sean Payton today for gambling on the onsides kick. Had the Saints not come up with that ball (and the Colts blew it not recovering the kick), the Colts would have had a very short field and Manning could have put a little more distance between the two teams on the scoreboard. The media would have been CRUSHING him today for being the first coach to ever call an onsides kick before the 4th quarter in the history of the Superbowl.

Purdue and Alabama are now the only schools that have had three different QB's win the Superbowl. Name all six QB's and you win...absolutely nothing.

As unpopular as the sentiment might be, I tend to agree with this clown from FanNation, the Superbowl was kind of boring. It probably had a lot to do with very efficient play from both offenses, a well-played game with almost no penalties, and the key "go-for-it" moments coming right around halftime.

For now though, live it up ladies...

The Odd Couple

If it's Valentine's Day and it's Columbus, OH that must mean The Village People are performing at the Palace Theater.

Huh?

Yeah, I don't know either.

I do know that proceeds from the concert will be going to the Stephanie Spielman Fund. That means of course that OSU's own Chris Spielman will be at the concert and I'm guessing, appearing on stage at some point.

So if you had "Chris Spielman will appear on stage with the Village People before hell freezes over" in the pool than you win. Congrats.

Superbowl Commercials: The good, the bad, the Spoof

"I know, let's make a Superbowl commercial where a guy builds a whole house out of Bud Lite! And then someone comes along and asks him if all the cans are empty and it turns out they're not! So they dismantle the house by drinking all the Bud Lite! YES! GENIUS!"

- Overpaid, untalented advertising agency executive



Can we please all stop it with the fucking Superbowl commercials? That shit hasn't been funny since Bud Bowl II. The notion that Superbowl commercials are somehow better than anything you see during a Law & Order re-run is absolutely ridiculous.

Doritos in a coffin? Another stupid-ass Budweiser Clydesdale tale? Betty White? ABE VAGODA!!?? I'm mean how stupid are we? Yes, I know, pretty stupid. I mean 'Two and a Half Men' is a hit show for crying out loud. Jay Leno makes millions. I get it, it doesn't take much to make some people laugh.

Isn't this why they invented DVR though? So I don't have to watch all that garbage anymore? And while I'm on the subject, is there anything more useless than listening to Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason, Bill Cowher and Shannon Sharpe yell at each other during halftime? GET OUTTA HERE!

As long as I have command of the clicker (meaning until they pry it from my cold, dead hand), no commercials will EVER be intentionally viewed during the Superbowl or during any other sporting event. It's not happening.

And here's another little hint for all the idiots out there that actually want to watch expensive advertisements. Listen very closely...in the highly unlikely event that there is a commercial from the Superbowl that is worth watching, YOU CAN WATCH IT ON THE INTERNET AFTER THE FACT. I know, I know, this whole Internet thing might just take off one of these days.

And finally, the Tim Tebow commercial? I know the organization that backed the advertisement has been responsible for some utterly ridiculous statements but what was the big deal with Tebow and his mother anyway? Why did he tackle her? And why did it look like they were dating at the end? I thought for a second that it was a Match.com commercial.

One of the reasons that I was forced to watch commercials last night was because when I try to execute the DVR delay, my wife constantly checks the score on her phone because she doesn't care to watch the game unfold! Even though she typically doesn't blurt out the score just knowing that she knows what's already happened annoys the crap out of me. Cripes! Due to that unfortunate circumstance I did catch the Google advertisement, which I thought was somewhat clever and compelling compared to most of the mindless BS that they trot out.

Even better than the Google commercial though? The Google commercial spoof with the Tiger Woods theme. Enjoy...

Sadly, it's probably all downhill for this kid...

Seriously. Greatest moment of his life and he'll never remember it?

We'll check back in 20 years to see how that turned out.

Ongoing recruiting lunacy...

Two years ago we were treated to the ludicrous and unending Terrelle Pryor recruiting "process". Ohio State is now indirectly linked to another round of extended recruiting coverage that just about makes me puke. Once again it's the consensus top recruit in the nation but this guy's no QB. And frankly, I'm wondering if the kid can spell Q-B.

Of course I'm referring to 6'8", 300 lb. Seantrel Henderson, the massive offensive lineman from Minnesota. For those of you that aren't already familiar with Mr. Henderson, he's exactly the kind of kid that exemplifies much of what's wrong with collegiate football recruiting in general. He appears to be milking the process, his father is WAAAAY too publicly involved in the whole thing and, as always, there is no guarantee that the kid will be any good at all at the next level.

Remember the last 6'8" recruit that showed up at Ohio State? That guy made more noise off the field than he did on it. Yes, that was Mr. Alex Boone. Another very, very heavily recruited player that did not come anywhere close to living up to his potential. How about another blast from the past, Jefferson Kelley? Anyone remember that guy out of Cincinnati Colerain? He was 6'6", 300 lbs. when he came to Ohio State and never ended up playing a lick. I believe he even quit the team eventually.

Not that Seantrel Henderson is going to be Alex Boone or Jefferson Kelley. Those are just a couple of the thousands and thousands of examples of how many of these guys just don't pan out, and therefore don't warrant nearly as much of the attention that they receive.

Dismissing the fact that Henderson could very easily be a complete bust at the collegiate level, we should note that on signing day Seantrel spurned several schools including Ohio State and "signed" with Lane Kiffin and USC. Except it turns out he didn't "sign" at all. He committed to Southern Cal, but has decided he wants to wait and see what the NCAA has to say about USC before he actually signs the letter of intent.

Here is what Seantrel Henderson's father, Sean Henderson, had to say about the situation:

"I wouldn’t lose the leverage that we have. I mean, at the end of the day it’s still a business and at the end of the day it’s still my son’s future. And everything that’s going to possibly go on in his life could boil down to that decision and I wouldn’t sell him basically, per se, you know, but my son, his life away and put it in their hands not knowing, you know, what the future holds for USC or for him. And so I’d rather be able to at least let him keep his options open, because if things aren’t looking good come the 20th or the 21st [of February] or whatever, then we might have to move in a different direction, but it’s only for the sake of his future."

Wow.

I don't even know what to make of that...stuff. All I know is that Sean Henderson seems to give more interviews than his son. And I also know that after reading that garbage that I really don't care to see Sean Henderson or his son anywhere near Ohio State's campus. The whole thing just SCREAMS 'high maintenance'.

I bring this all up of course because presumably Little Seantrel is still available for the taking, especially if the NCAA has anything bad to say about Southern Cal. And this is where it gets real stupid. Ignore the fact that if the Henderson family REALLY was worried about potential NCAA sanctions that they would have already crossed USC off the list. Ignore the notion that Lane Kiffin is a carpet-bagging dirtbag that makes Bobby Petrino look like a reasonable fellow.

The chances that anyone is going to find out anything about what will actually come down the pike from the NCAA as it pertains to USC within the next month or so (which is how long the big lug has to pick a school) are very remote. There are glaciers in North America that move faster than the NCAA.

And finally, the genius/ridiculousness of collegiate football recruiting is that indecisive attention whores like the Henderson family get far more attention than the kids that decide by the end of their junior year where they want to go to school. Is it because the kids that wait are better football players? Hardly. It's because a kid making a decision and sticking by it doesn't sell subscriptions to useless piles of "insider information."

More random YouTube...

I have no idea what's going on here, and I don't think Detroit Lions QB Matt Stafford does either. All I know is that Marissa Miller is insanely hot. There's a 9% chance the former Georgia Bulldog messed his pants at about the 20 second mark here.

The Daily Moron: Jamarcus Russell

The phrase "more money than brains" was never more apropos.

Here are a few of Fatty Jam. Russell's best game day get-ups:

The ever-present efficiency of our federal government

Everything's going just great around here? Nothing else needs fixin'?

How's unemployment? Record high?

How about the economy in general? Still in the pits?

Iraq? Afghanistan? Haiti? All still fucked?

Good, now we can get to the important stuff...

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S ADMINISTRATION LOOKING INTO LEGALITY OF BCS

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is considering several steps that would review the legality of the controversial Bowl Championship Series, the Justice Department said in a letter Friday to a senator who had asked for an antitrust review.

In the letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, obtained by The Associated Press, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote that the Justice Department is reviewing Hatch's request and other materials to determine whether to open an investigation into whether the BCS violates antitrust laws.

"Importantly, and in addition, the administration also is exploring other options that might be available to address concerns with the college football postseason," Weich wrote, including asking the Federal Trade Commission to review the legality of the BCS under consumer protection laws.

Eat shit Orrin Hatch. Find something important to do with the time and money of the nation you colossal dickbag.

CLEVELAND ROCKS!

Well done. I guess they don't call it the Mistake by the Lake for nothing.

ESPN.com's Bill Simmons recently broke down the 15 most tortured franchises in sports history.

Guess what Cleveland? You landed three out of the top 10 slots! A trifecta!

Cavs, Indians and Browns all made the list. Well done indeed.

The Ochocinco you don't hear about

He may be a clown, but he's a clown of the people.

Here's a story about Chad that won't make Sportscenter, but it should.