Over the last decade, my love and interest in the ‘other’ football has grown exponentially. What started as an every-four year dalliance like the forbidden love between a Bulgarian Men’s Olympic tennis coach and a Romanian Olympic weightlifting official, has blossomed into an on-going affair straight out of Wisteria Lane. We even started vacationing together a couple years ago. This could be love. Just don’t tell Florida State and the Broncos.

A little over a week ago, I was in Vegas for the weekend, and after gambling until 5:30 in the morning on Sunday morning (in my defense, I was winning), the first thing I did on waking up was check the final weekend Barclays Premier League scores to confirm my Arsenal Gunners had clinched another season in the Champions League.

This past Saturday I arrived at Denver’s best soccer bar (Three Lions) about 3 hours before kick-off of the UEFA Champions League final and remained in my seat until Didier Drogba’s final penalty kick goal won the game for Chelsea roughly 5 hours and several pints later.

While the game had been entertaining, I left the bar with a slightly bad taste in my mouth. It might have had something to do with the English breakfast and 5 pints of London Pride I had consumed, but there was something more.

I don’t like deciding games with penalty kicks.

After 120 minutes of end to end action requiring the coordination of a whole team, it feels arbitrary to decide a game based on a one-on-one match-up. Why not just use Rock-Paper-Scissors? There is as much skill, luck and nerves involved in that as there are in penalty kicks. And much like the goalie that shows his lean early there are always players who show their rock, scissors or paper a step early and give a huge advantage to their opponent.

So, how can we fix soccer’s extra period? I’m glad you asked. After exhaustive research and discussion with The Hierarchy of Hate Brain Trust, I humbly present our best ideas for fixing the world’s game:

(and I am sure, FIFA, who is just now discussing the testing of technology that actually proves whether a goal was scored will adopt these ideas immediately).

Skills Challenge: If the sport is adamant about some sort of penalty kick, than let’s improve it and not eliminate it. Forget the goalies. If we don’t need defensemen, we don’t need goalies. Let’s instead put in place a wall (a real Berlin-like wall, not a bunch of guys hold their junk) that covers the majority of the net. In the open spots, we place targets of various size with various point totals – smaller, more out of the way targets worth more. Each player gets one shot at the target of their choice. Team that tallies the most points wins. Do I propose this solely because I know my Gunners could do well at it? No comment.

Corner Kicks: Taking college football as inspiration, rather than one-on-one penalty kicks, let’s instead give each team an opportunity to score in the flow of a regular game – just with some small level of advantage to make it easier. College football gives each team the ball on the 25 yard line. For soccer, we will instead give each team a corner kick and then a short period of time after the kick to try and score (say 1 minute). If they don’t, then play is stopped and the other team gets 1 minute started with a corner kick. Each team takes turns until a team scores and the other fails in response. I expect a royalty check from David Beckham if this is adopted and it guarantees him a spot on the English national team or a Premier League team bench.

The Power Play: Another college football inspired one. This time rather than starting with a corner kick, the offensive team starts at mid-field with 7 men (no goalie or defenders) but the defense plays with 6 men. A man advantage and a more wide open game. Each OT session would be played in 2 minute increments with each team getting 2 minutes of man-advantage offense. And no, Sir Alex, you don’t get 3 minutes just because you are ManUnited.

Human Fooseball: The biggest concern about soccer  extra time would seem to be players running themselves to exhaustion in endless overtimes, if neither team is able to score. So, in this system, long beams are strung across the field every 20 yards at about 8 feet of height. Players hang (probably in some sort of harness) and try to slide across the beam to kick the ball. They can move laterally across the field on their beam but can’t move forward or backward (just like regular fooseball players). Beside, resting the weary legs of players, it would open an entire new coaching position on each team for guys who spent too much time in college smoking pot and playing fooseball. This alone might solve the European economic crisis.

WAG Pageant: Let’s face it in a sport where Peter Crouch and Bastian Schweinsteiger can attract beautiful mates, FIFA is really missing out on exploiting one of the best assets they have – the WAGs (Wives and Girlfriends for those of us without a subscription to Grazia). Well, if we can’t play endless extra time because players might collapse quicker than the Greek economy, than it is time for the WAGs to earn their astronomical shopping budgets. Throw a catwalk at mid-field and let 5 chosen WAGs from each side strut their stuff. Winners chosen by a panel of experts. A panel to which I humbly suggest I should have a permanent position.

It’s the least FIFA could do for the guy that fixes their game.

Sepp, I await your call. You are welcome.

In the joyous aftermath of the Nuggets defeating the Lakers last night to force a Game #6 in their first round playoff series, a friend of mine left the Staples Center and began wandering the streets of L.A.in a happy daze. As he passed in front of one of the major studios, a piece of paper laying on the sidewalk caught his eye. It was a promotional pamphlet for a new show coming this fall to a TV network near you. Excited, he forwarded it to me to share with the world.

Miller & McGee: Cleaning Up the Streets

For years, these streets have been dominated by a roving gang of criminals. A gang, whose purple and gold colors are seemingly everywhere, all of the time. So dominant for so long, even people with no relation to the gang or the gang’s original neighborhood wear the colors and claim false pride when the gang wins another shoot-out.

The head of the gang is the legendary Black Mamba. Reclusive and lonely but brilliant, he seems to strike at will, causing maximum pain in his rivals. Many question his desire to fight every one of the gangs’ fights almost alone, yet his ability to find victory at the last moment has made people stop questioning his selfish antics.

Recently, he has been joined by a new partner in crime: the Man-Child. He acts like an overgrown child, barely capable of controlling his emotions, yet he is built like a small bus and possesses the wild, graying hair of a young Fred Samford.

The Black Mamba’s partnership with the Man-Child seems to be an attempt to recreate a partnership from when the Mamba had just joined the criminal ranks. Taken under the massive wings of a legendary criminal, Shaq-Fu, Black Mamba enjoyed early success while he was still learning. But true to his narcissistic nature he soon wanted to be the boss and forced Shaq-Fu out of town to South Beach to continue his criminal activities.

Now, Mamba seems to want to be the senior partner to another giant and has taken the Man-Child as a protégé. But the Man-Child can’t be trusted. He often disappears on the days of big fights or is so out of control during fights, he hurts his own gang more than the other.

The police – the men in Blue – have tried for years to defeat the gang but always come up short. They even hired a hot-shot recruit, top of his class out of the FBI Academy. While the recruit pushed the gang as far as he could, he couldn’t eliminate them either and decided it would be easier to join an old-class mate in New York and instead focus on stopping The Big Three – the notorious Miami based drug cartel – and The Original Big Three, a Boston-based gang with loose ties to the IRA. Sadly, he has seen even less success with these east coast criminal syndicates and looks to be destined to be a popular failure.

While the Blue have a strong cast of young professionals, none have been able to solve the mystery of stopping Black Mamba and his gang. Police Commissioner Karl has grown desperate to find someone that can take on the Purple and Gold. Begging Mayor Kroenke, Karl finally gets his wish. 2 new detectives are brought in.

Miller is a wily veteran officer, having served for over 13 years in a variety of locations. He had been one-step from quietly retiring in the Pacific Northwest until he got the call for help from Kroenke. Unable to turn down a challenge, he accepted the position and came back to a city he had failed to clean up on a previous stop years ago.

McGee is the wild child of the D.C. police force. Talented, he often struggles to reign in his talents for the good of the squad, instead seeking big-time busts that do little to make the streets safer but greatly enhance his image. Surrounded by a squad of other selfish young players and no leadership in D.C., he had developed a reputation as an undisciplined glory hound. Tired of his antics, the D.C. Police Commissioner happily sent him packing when Kroenke called.

In the first few showdowns with the Purple and Gold, Miller and McGee defer to the detectives that have handled the case for years without success. But in the most important face-off, Miller decides to step up and he brings the young, wild McGee with him. Unprepared for this new team, the Purple and Yellow cower while Black Mamba single-handedly tries to defeat the entire Blue force, coming close but ultimately failing.

Suddenly, there is new hope that the Purple and Gold’s reign may finally be coming to an end. But is this just another false hope, destined to disappoint?

Can these two new sheriffs bring a surprise element that Black Mamba and gang aren’t prepared for and finally defeat them?

Can Miller reign in McGee’s talents to harness them for good of the whole rather than the glory of the one?

Can they stop the Purple and Gold from completely taking over the city?

Find out, this season on:

Miller & McGee: Cleaning Up The Streets

Just in time for the draft, we are back to speed rush through the NFC. It is easy to mock, mock drafts but no mock draft is more mockable than this.

NFC East

New York Giants – Giants seem to have a never-ending carousel of relatively interchangeable, anonymous running backs. David Wilson from Virginia Tech is the perfect candidate to be next in line. Even his name is interchangeable and nearly anonymous.

Dallas Cowboys – Drafting Mark Barron from Bama helps alleviate a weakness at safety, and fulfills for Jerry Jones a dream he has held since fighting in WWI of bossing around a Barron.

Philadelphia Eagles – Dontari Poe, is a defensive tackle, sky-rocketing up draft boards based on strong work this spring so it is only fitting that the team that brought us the on-going joke that was drafting Mike Mamula make the same mistake again.

Washington Redskins – We had JFK. LBJ. GHWB and GWB and now we have RG3. As long as he doesn’t invade Cuba, Vietnam, or Iraq, RG3 he will go down as most successful acronym in D.C. history.

NFC North

Green Bay Packers – Jerel Worthy from Michigan State helps bolster the defensive line and keep blockers off Clay Mathews. Plus I am already looking forward to the Deductible Worthiness Exam insurance commercial

Chicago Bears – Luke Kuechly from BC is the perfect candidate to step into the ‘white guy that gets inordinate amount of love for totally not that reason’ role hat Brian Urlacher is just getting too old for.

Detroit Lions – Dre Kirkpatrick meets the Lions needs at corner back and can collaborate with Detroit native Eminem on a new album. Win-win.

Minnesota Vikings – Ryan Kalil will help keep Christian Ponder and Adrian Peterson alive which will make the Vikings relevant and possibly keep them in Minnesota. If they don’t draft Kalil, they might as well save the money and draft a real estate agent instead.

NFC South

New Orleans Saints – Stephon Gilmore’s description includes:  ‘a clean slate off the field helps make him a top corner prospect’. If any team could use a player with wholesome image on the defense, it’s the Saints

Atlanta Falcons – They gave away their entire draft to move up and grab Julio Jones, so I don’t care who they draft. Maybe some linebacker? Whatever.

Carolina Panthers – Cam Newton’s father offered Melvin Ingram to the Falcons for $2,000,000 but then convinced Melvin to instead sign with the Panthers for free.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Mohamed Sanu from Rutgers will be the surprise pick until we learn he was drafted just so Greg Schiano has someone to laugh with about how a record of 30-21 over the last four years somehow landed him an NFL head coaching job.

NFC West

San Francisco Forty- Niners – For the love of God, I don’t care as long as the guy can return punts without fumbling. Seriously, that should have been the entire workout for any player auditioning for San Francisco. Just fielding punts.

Phoenix Cardinals – Coby Fleener gives the Cardinals another offensive weapon. Plus Kevin Kolb and Ken Whisenhunt seem like the types of guys that were bullies in school, so they will love getting to mock a guy named Fleener.

Seattle Seahawks – Riley Reiff from Iowa shores up the offensive line and as an added bonus fits right in on a team that loves alliteration.

St. Louis Rams – Justin Blackmon from Oklahoma State would address the embarrassing Rams receiving corps and with Sooner Sam Bradford under center will help settle how seriously players take this bedlam stuff. If Sam throws high over the middle, I will finally take that OU/OSU rivalry seriously.

The draft is always the best week of the NFL off-season. Especially for those of us that love and closely follow college football. I always laugh at NFL experts who watched 30 seconds of highlights and read combine stats and can then speak definitively about a player, having no idea how they actually played in real football games. These people make Charles Barkley during March Madness seem well-informed.

This is the one week when many of us out here know significantly more than the experts (unless the experts include Keyshawn Johnson, than the weeks when we know more would be estimated roughly at ‘all of them’).

But the real beauty is that we still don’t know anything.

So, in honor of all the experts out that will at best be about 51% correct about their pre-draft guesses, I present my annual suggestions for each team.

AFC East

New England Patriots – You can argue there are many remarkable things about Bill Belichick, including the fact that he is found attractive by women. But the single most impressive thing is that he has found a way to be continuously successful without finding a single good running back. He is the Bizarro Mike Shanahan who could turn any panhandler off the street into a 1,000 yard rusher (which is, I am pretty sure, how he found Olandis Gary). But Bill never stops trying and so he will draft Doug Martin at the end of the first round, which is too bad. I like Doug Martin. Sad to see his career end before it even starts.

New York Jets – Might as well start preparing now for when Tebow starts because it will happen. He needs a solid running back to take attention away, so I would say the Jets need to trade up and grab Trent Richardson who has made a career of winning with mediocre quarterbacks. However, given Rex Ryan’s apparent love of hoarding below average QBs with different skillsets , I wouldn’t be shocked to see them instead go after Ryan Tannehill instead.

Buffalo Bills – Stevie Johnson is a lot of things. Talented player. Oldest man in America to not appear on The Sopransos still known as ‘Stevie.’ Possessor of the tattooed hipster look perfected by Lil Wayne. But he is also an inconsistent player. With a quarterback that possesses a better beard than a quarterbacking skillset, the Bills need to get some help that will catch the touchdown pass rather than have God deflect it at the last moment. Michael Floyd is the obvious solution. His God doesn’t deflect touchdowns, he signals them.

Miami Dolphins – The poor Miami Dolphins. Their hunt for a legitimate quarterback has lasted longer than the hunt for Osama Bin Laden did. And now they are looking at settling for Ryan Tannehill like a 39 year old woman settles for a husband that is ‘good enough’ because her biological clock is ticking. If I were one of the Dolphins’ girlfriends and we were talking over Cosmos and tapas I would try and warn them but they would ignore me and marry him anyway, resigned to an unfulfilled life married to an insurance actuarial and evenings spent at PTA meetings. An improvement over the last few years, but still not the never ending honeymoon that she so rightly deserves. Yeesh, MEN. Am I right, ladies?

AFC North

Pittsburgh Steelers – The Steelers were eliminated from the playoffs on a long Tim Tebow pass last year. Read that again. And one more time. Just a thought but it may be time to find a defensive back better at covering receivers than filming shampoo commercials. Janoris Jenkins is the perfect fit. He is athletic and fast and brings great cover skills. He also brings an off-field history that even got him kicked out of Florida, where arrests are usually cause for moving up the depth chart. He is the anti-Tebow.

Baltimore Ravens – Ray Lewis is getting up there in years. Sooner or later he is going to have to retire to his off-season hobby of stabbing people full time. Vontaze Burfict can step in and learn from Lewis and with his instability there is a decent chance he too will be charged with murder in just a couple years. A perfect fit.

Cleveland Browns – I just can’t quit Colt. No, I’m not talking about a chewing tobacco addiction. I’m talking about the real McCoy. But he needs help. An offensive lineman so he isn’t running for his life. A running back to take some of the burden off. They can reach for a running back early (probably Richardson) and then follow up in the 2^nd round with Mike Adams a tackle out of THE Ohio State University under the WNBA rule that local college kids always help attendance for bad teams.

Cincinnati Bengals – Do you realize the Bengals made the playoffs last year? Seriously! Sure, they lost to TJ Yates and the Texans but still, they made the playoffs! They have a great young wide receiver in AJ Green. They have a quarterback with potential in Andy Dalton. They need a running back and Lamar Miller comes out of the U, so he is accustomed to dysfunctional teams with regular legal issues. He should fit in well.

AFC South

Indianapolis Colts – The last time the Colts drafted a Stanford quarterback #1 overall, he refused to sign and they had to trade him to the Broncos for an offensive lineman and that QB is now in the Hall of Fame after leading the Broncos to 5 Super Bowls and 2 championships. As a lover of the Broncos and historical parallels, I hope after the Colts draft Andrew Luck, the Broncos send Ryan Clady to Indy for him. Broncos will even throw an experienced quarterback who knows the Indianapolis area to sweeten the deal.

Jacksonville Jaguars – The Jaguars have failed to land Tim Tebow twice, first in the draft and then again this spring on the trading block. A team with an apathetic (and small) fan base twice couldn’t land the greatest local hero since Ponce de Leon. It is crisis mode time – the Jags need attention now or they are leaving on a jet plane to LA. Obviously, the solution to their problems is drafting Stanford guard David DeCastro. He will help block for MJD and whatever bad quarterback they put in but more importantly once Ozzie Guillen hears they drafted him, he will praise him and get the Florida immigrant population up in arms again. A protest would probably triple the Jags usual gameday attendance.

Houston Texans – In need of a replacement for recently departed Mario Williams, the Texans should draft North Carolina defensive end Quinton Coples, who would feel right at home on a team that gets lots of praise every off-season as a ‘team to beat’ only to be slightly above average once the season starts. Maybe Gary Kubiak can hire John Blake to start illegally recruiting Coples now.

Tennessee Titans – The Titans are located right in the heart of SEC country, so you know they can’t draft outside the greatest conference since Yalta. Alabama linebacker/ D-End Courtney Upshaw is perfect: He fits the team’s needs. He’s from the SEC. He allows Titans/Vols fans their only moment of superiority in about a decade when they joke about Nick Saban producing player’s with girls’ names.

AFC West

Oakland Raiders – I have a 12 year old neighbor who is unnaturally large and has a moustache thinker than a 1970’s porn star. Given that the Raiders don’t have a pick until 2022 (estimated), they should totally plan to target him.

Denver Broncos – The Broncos are so thin on the defensive line that they might consider drafting my oversized 12-year old neighbor this year. In all seriousness though…ok, in at least partial seriousness…I expect the Broncos to take Fletcher Cox out of Mississippi State. While he does help address the defensive line problems I lean toward Cox mostly because I think Elway will get him confused with his old teammate Simon Fletcher. John did get hit in the head a few times.

San Diego Chargers – Amini Silatolu is a highly regarded guard out of Midwestern State (really! Look it up!). While it makes sense to find Philp Rivers some protection, I mostly project this pick for the sheer joy of trying to imagine Norv Turner trying to say his name.

Kansas City Chiefs – The Chiefs desperately need more playmakers on offense, so they will reach for Stephen Hill, a freakishly athletic wide receiver from Georgia Tech. Hill’s college production was very low due to the running option heavy Tech offense which should suit him well in Kansas City on a team without any quarterbacks capable of completing a pass.

Fifteen years ago, Charles Barkley came under fire for daring to say that he, as a star athlete, was not a role model for children. The ad campaign focused on the (ultimately ridiculous) notion that a man born with a freakish body and athletic abilities is automatically meant as a role model for children to emulate.

Pilloried for speaking what should be an obvious truth all those years ago, I just have to ask where the Round Mound of Rebound is for today’s youth?

As amply demonstrated today, there is no correlation between success in the athletic world and any semblance of real world intelligence.

Bobby Petrino had an affair with a 25-year old, finagled to get her a job with his own team and then drove around a small southern town with her riding on the back of his motorcycle. When he had an accident, he naturally assumed his role as the leader of the most important team in the state would shield him from any fallout. When his contradictory statements (or bald-faced lies for those of us that aren’t lawyers) came to light, he issued apologies and assumed a 21-5 record in the last couple of seasons would provide air-cover until this all blew over.

When he was fired and practically dismembered by his boss on national TV, he belatedly learned that wasn’t the case.

A man who jumped ship from Louisville at a moment’s notice for the Falcons job (after flirting with Auburn) and then dumped the Falcons for Arkansas with a post-it note on the way out the door, Petrino has never shown the barest hint of an understanding of ethics, let alone the possession of a soul. For that reason, his actions over the last week shouldn’t be a surprise. The man clearly has one interest and one interest only and it looks back at him in the mirror each morning and tells him not to listen to the nay-sayers, for he is the fairest of them all.

Beyond any basic decency this entire episode shows Petrino isn’t just a lying dirt-bag, he is a complete and total moron.

Not thinking through his actions. Not reflecting on the impression of him based on his previous actions. Not understanding how the lies he would spin would ultimately be his downfall.

These are clear indications that there as many brains under that plastic Pig Sooie hat as there are in the snout of that Pig Sooie hat.

But Petrino isn’t alone in his incompetence.  

Marlins manager and perpetual quote machine Ozzie Guillen is in trouble for making brainless statements about Fidel Castro.

(Ignore for a minute, the redundancy of saying a statement by Guillen is brainless for I recognize that they are all brainless.)

Guillen has proven consistently that while he may know how to manage a baseball team, his intelligence ends at the foul line.

This isn’t all Guillen’s fault. He isn’t smart enough to stop himself from talking as that, much more than baseball, is truly his favorite pastime. I blame anyone seeking to hear Guillen’s point of view on Castro and Cuba.

Why should anyone care what Guillen thinks about Castro? Did he spend the off-seasons of his 16 year major league career studying Caribbean History? Of course not. He has probably spent more hours contemplating how they get sunflower seeds to taste like dill pickles.

Guillen is a loud mouth with an empty brain, yet, he feels entitled to espouse his views on Fidel Castro. It’s his Constitutional right, I understand.  But it also only brings light to the many things Guillen doesn’t know.

Anyone know the Spanish translation for: “It is better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt”?

This is the same phenomenon that led to Hank Williams Jr. appearing on a news program to talk about politics. As if the views of a guy who wrote an anthem for football played on Mondays has any bearing on anything.

Williams felt his point of view was valid for the same reason Guillen did. Because he was successful in an unrelated field. I listened to ‘Family Tradition’ just about every weekend during college, but that doesn’t mean I care what Williams says about politics. No more than I would ask Taylor Swift to handicap the Kentucky Derby.

For some unknown reason, we as a country have accepted the notion that success in one arena provides a level of wisdom and intelligence that casts across all others. This of course is lunacy, especially when bestowed upon people that gained fame by focusing their lives on succeeding at a very narrow activity not related to intelligence, logic or reason. Stephen Hawking may not be able to hit a curveball, but he would be smart enough to develop a reasonable response to a question about the politics of a country he doesn’t know much about. Or how to avoid the embarrassment comeing form embarking on an affair with a woman half his age. For one thing, he certainly wouldn’t hire her.

As proven by Guillen and Petrino once again this week, succeeding in sports has little to do with intelligence or morals. It has to do with focusing on your chosen field, working hard, being ambitious and being (at least a little) lucky.

Yet, we are always surprised when these imbeciles that we have placed on a pedestal, turn out to be disappointments.

Where have you gone Charles Barkley to remind us about the limits to be placed on the influence of people successful in sports?

A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

This year is the 147^th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, yet it is starting to feel like the results of that long ago contest are suddenly in doubt.

Yes, a replay that takes even longer than an NBA ref’s review.

ESPN, the major TV networks and New Yorkers may still think the world orbits around the Big Apple, but they are wrong.

It’s now the south’s world and we are all just sittin’ on their porch sipping mint juleps.

The revolution has been slow in coming over the last several years, but when a man with the most southern of names is crowned champion of the most southern of events, it is official. The south isn’t some backwoods where everyone is living in the past. The south is now the trendsetters we all follow.

Obviously this has been the case for several years in college football, where the SEC not only out-plays the rest of the country on an annual basis (6 straight titles) but also out-crazies and out-scandals the rest of the country combined. After years where interlopers like Nebraska, California or Ohio made claim to greatness, there is no longer a question as to where the best football is played. Now the debate is to where the 2^nd best might be.

In the NFL, you can argue that the south with teams like Carolina and Tennessee is an afterthought, but think about where the majority of NFL players come from. Also ask yourself, where the current Super Bowl MVP (New Orleans/Ole Miss), biggest off-season free agent (New Orleans/Tennessee) and the NFL’s latest made-up scandal to stay in the headlines (New Orleans) are from?

And never forget, the south’s original gun-slinger Brett Favre. He may be temporarily out of the spotlight, but he shall rise again. HE SHALL RISE AGAIN WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.

In basketball, Kentucky has finally returned to its place of glory and with it, a state largely forgotten for the entire year outside of the first Saturday in May has re-claimed its misplaced feelings of superiority. Just because they hired an Italian from Pennsylvania and players from across the country that will spend less time in Kentucky than someone on a layover at the Cincinnati airport, makes no difference.

In baseball, the college game is ruled by the south (and frankly, it’s the only place that cares) and in the majors, where Boston and New York once ruled, Texas, Missouri and Florida now seem to possess the best teams – all locations generously lumped in to the south (especially since they all now include at least 1 SEC school).

And now, a sport invented by the Scots, whose biggest championship was usurped by Georgia years ago, has a champion named Bubba. Who also owns the General Lee.

But the south’s influence isn’t solely limited to sports.

Issues that would seem to be settled years ago by much of the country, are suddenly back up for debate.

The killing of a boy of a different race solely because he looked ‘suspicious’ is apparently no longer a crime, harkening back to a time when entire towns could band together and kill outsiders expecting little more than a slap on the wrist and tha was only if any law was brought in beyond the ‘judgment of their peers’.

A woman’s decision to use birth control, a long held personal liberty is suddenly something for debate and discussion. A vague religious ideal holds the same weight as a person’s desires for their own bodies.

It may be slightly unfair to paint the South as the purveyors of these less-than progressive attitudes – there are forward-thinking and backward looking people everywhere. But as voting trends continuously show, the south is still dominated by people that still view 1951 as the epitome of civilization.

Californians still dominate television and movies but they even recognize the pull of the south (see: The Help).

New Yorkers and New Englanders still dominate the media and tend to see nothing of importance ever occurring south of the Potomac river.

Increasingly though, especially in sports but not solely in sports, it is the south that is dictating what happens in the rest of the country.

Is it good, is it bad? That is up to your personal point of view. I am never in favor of taking a step backward toward the intolerance of others or the dictating to others what they do with their own bodies.

However, if it means more southern barbeque and sweet tea for the rest of us, then I say, welcome y’all.