Some Friday Links

This week's anticipated preview of the AFC South and West will have to be delayed until next week while I enter the new data on Peyton Manning's knee into our roomofzen super computer. However, I will complete my AFC predictions for you early next week. In the meantime, here are some Friday links:

1) Charles Barkley helps a busboy out with his tuition , from Ball Don't Lie via the Philadelphia Daily News : It's no secret that we love Chuck here at roomofzen. He was my favorite player in his prime, and he is still in my top 5 of all time. I've only had one real life encounter with him, in which he had me thrown out of a bar, and that still stands out as one of the best memories of my life. People have been coming down a little bit heavy on Chuck lately, but for what? His gambling issues don't mean anything about him as a person. And, I think it's refreshing to have a genuine and honest guy like him out there. I love this story.





2) Thanks to Smokey for sending over this NPR story on the kid who, despite being too young to know what was going on, was seen naked by millions of people all over the world on the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind.



3) Ted sent us this hilarious deadspin story about the Beijing games.


4) Nice piece by Bernie Lincicome of the Rocky Mountain News on the recently retired Rod Smith.


5) Hilarious piece from the Sports Pickle (no link so I'll just paste it in). If you have followed the Giants closely, then you'll know that this hits the relationship between Eli Manning and Jeremy Shockey (or, at least the way the relationship was perceived by the public) dead on. :

" Former New York Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey stopped by the team’s facility one last time on Monday to say his goodbyes to his ex-teammates before departing for New Orleans. He also made sure to pull Eli Manning’s underwear deep into the quarterback’s anus one last time.
“Oh, Eli, you stupid, little dork,” Shockey said, ripping Manning’s underwear strap up over his head. “I know I gave you a hard time. But I’m going to miss trying to jump for your overthrown passes and giving you wedgies and shoving your head in floater-filled toilets. You suck and I hate you. But it was all in good fun, you stupid queer.”
Manning says he has mixed feelings about Shockey’s departure.
“You hate to lose good players,” he said. “But I think I’ll play better without him yelling at me all the time. Not to mention that I’ll have less bleeding anal wounds to play through. The other fellas give me wedgies, of course, but not as much as Jeremy did.” "



6) The pope this week urged young people to spurn materialism. I'm not disagreeing with him, but it seems like quite a request coming from a man who dresses like this:





7) Despite this report in the Onion , the Brewers seem to be on a roll right now. They finished off a perfect 7-0 road trip last night, and are right on the Cubs heels.



8) Finally, here is more on the planned Dimebag Darrell tribute from the Headbanger's Blog . Scroll down to see Ted's post yesterday with the official Ozzfest press release. None of us have Ozzfest tickets. But, if any readers make it to the show, please send in your words on how the tribute was, and we'll get them up. We'd like to hear setlists, and any special words that were said. Pictures and videos would also be great.

Also, make sure you go down a few posts and read Babcock's piece on Hagerstown, MD.

Have a sick weekend.