NFL Yankees

Confession time. I believe that one of the most genius sites on the interwebs is the precisely titled Hot Chicks with Douchebags. (warning not terribly NSFW) The founder of the site, Douchebag1, receives pictures from readers of beautiful womens paired with guys who are douchebags. Lots of websites attempt to arouse and amuse their male readership in one place, and this site is probably the most honest, direct and successful at it.

It's well written and very funny. There is something strangely poetic and philosophical in DB1's quest to find the platonic form of the perfect chica matched with an appallingly preening, gesturing, greasy, oft-orange douchebag. And to speak movingly about how wrong it is. This is hard to explain without pictures, so I guess I will send you directly to some of the HCwDB immortals such as Fish Slap, Joey Porsche, Oompa Prompa, and Millenium Bag. (yeah, there is some vulgar language in those links and the ones below too, if you are the delicate flower).

Recently, DB1 declared that Deion Sanders has earned a place in the Hallowed Hall of Retro Douche. The case is made with the above YouTube video and DB's discussion and reader comments on same. It is nearly impossible to watch that entire video. I couldn't and now I have that "song" as a ear worm. "Must be the money....that's turning them on." Exactly. You've been warned.

Thanks to DB1 for bringing attention to the menace of global douchebaggery, and good luck with your upcoming HCwDB book.

There's an old story that during a Yankees road trip in the 1920s, a knife-wielding woman chased a naked Babe Ruth through a railroad car. The reporters who covered the Yankees saw the whole thing, never wrote about it, and never bothered to ask the Bambino what transpired between him and the woman. Reporters in that era thought their job was to tell their readers about the Babe's exploits on the field, not in the bedroom.

We've come a long way, baby. Eight decades later, Alex Rodriguez spends an evening with a buxom blond, and it's front-page news. A high school pole vaulter has her picture splashed on the internet, and it's front page news. Tom Brady wears a Yankees hat, and it's front page news. A Chicago Bear makes a profane rap song, and it's front page news. Sports coverage has gone tabloid, and there are no signs that it will ever go back.

When did all this start? Maybe it was when Ball Four took fans inside the Yankees' locker room. Maybe it was when O.J. Simpson went from running back to murder defendant. Maybe it was when Sports Illustrated put Anna Kournikova on its cover.

Or maybe it was a gradual process, the same gradual process that we've seen in coverage of politicians and celebrities. Bill Clinton wasn't the first president to cheat on his wife, Alec Baldwin wasn't the first actor to berate his daughter and Britney Spears wasn't the first singer to drive without properly securing her children in a car seat. But our culture has changed, and the media have reflected that culture.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. Photographers who follow Alex Rodriguez around all night might not be the world's best photojournalists, but I'll take the paparazzi over the reporters who ignored Babe Ruth's peccadilloes any day of the week. Fans spend many hours and many dollars on sports, and they deserve to get the whole picture of the athletes they follow, even if the picture isn't always the one the athletes want us to see.

When I was 8 years old, in the summer of 1984, I visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the first time. John Madden was there, too, taping a segment for CBS. And in an act of generosity that will always make me a Madden fan, he invited me, my family, and other people hanging around the Hall of Fame to step aboard his bus. The bus was a thing of beauty, with two full-time drivers, a bedroom, bathroom and two TVs with those new-fangled VCR things so Madden could watch game tape on the road.

I bring this up today because it turns out that all these years later, Madden is still generous with his bus. A New York Post report notes that Roger Clemens is with the Yankees in New York today and will get a special ride to his next minor league start:

Clemens, who will pitch at Double-A Trenton on Wednesday, has secured an unusual way of traveling from Manhattan to New Jersey's capital: He and organizational pitching guru Billy Connors will board John Madden's customized bus.

I'm sure Clemens will have a nice ride, and if he's in the mood for some TV, I'm guessing that Madden has upgraded from VCR to DVD.

This certainly puts a new spin on that ESPN commercial with David Ortiz putting on Jorge Posada's Yankees cap. I knew the very idea of a New England sports icon wearing a Yankees hat would be repulsive to some Boston fans, but is it really front page news?

I guess so. Tom Brady walked down the street while wearing a Yankees hat. That's the front-page story in today's Boston Herald. And there's a hint of scandal in the stunning news that he's done it before:

But avid Brady Bunchers know this isn't the first time No. 12 has committed the ultimate in homer heresy. We told you way back in 2003 that Tom was sporting a Pinstripes lid when our ever-vigilant spies spotted him fueling up at a Dunkin' Donuts in Foxboro. At the time, the excuse was that it was a gesture of solidarity with then-Yankees rookie Drew Henson, who, like Tom, is a former quarterback for the University of Michigan. Of course, that lame-o rationalization has gone by the boards now that Henson has ditched MLB for the NFL to play third-string quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings

With Leather says it in stronger language than I can, but seriously. It's just a hat. It's not like he made a profane rap song or anything.

Previously at FanHouse:
Tom Brady Galpal Gisele Stops Modeling Victoria's Secret
Bridget Moynahan Talks Baby, Not Tom Brady
Shocking! Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Brady Like Hot Women
Greg Olsen's Rap Lyrics Cause a Stir in Chicago