While I'm still excited about UCLA's prospects in that college basketball thingy I keep reading about everywhere, I'm also a bit melancholy as I've come to the realization that I may be divorced by the time this is all said and done. Checking Ebay, craigslist, stubhub, and the other usual suspects, it looks like I can expect to pay at least $700 for a pair of opening weekend tickets and another $800 for the regionals. This comes after having just returned from a spring training trip that had totals costs of around a grand and a Santa Barbara trip the weekend prior to that. But I guess that's why God killed off the dinosaurs and created credit cards. I'm hoping that the Washington Huskies don't travel well and end up with some extra tickets. Otherwise, I'm pretty much screwed for opening weekend.

I'm not the only one choosing whether to make huge sacrifices. It appears that Stephon Marbury has been sacrificing his game for the sake of the team. He says it isn't working and he needs to go back to being a scoring machine, aka "Starbury." He said this because he was upset by averaging only 9 points in the Knicks last two games. Two games that the Knicks won, by the way. It's comments like these that make me wish they had a Wonderlic test prior to the NBA draft...

Speaking of the Wonderlic, I have some NFL to catch up on. Daniel Snyder continued following his philosophy that anything worth buying is worth overpaying for with the signing of Antwaan Randle-El and his one TD catch from 2005. He may be a very average wide receiver, but this signing does make Randle-El the best QB on the Redskins' roster...

Edgerrin James signed a 4 yr, $30 million contract with the Cardinals. The move on his part was no doubt motivated by playing his entire career alongside Peyton Manning, where he learned to accept losing as being inevitable. I'm sure he figured he might as well take some cash where he at least won't be falling short of any expectations...

The Vikings are on the brink of stealing Steve Hutchinson away from the Seahawks. They've offerred him a 7 year, $49 million contract that will cost $13 mil against the 2006 salary cap. That alone would have been enough to make it very difficult for the Seahawks to match. But the NFL Network is reporting that the Vikings' offer also includes a clause which says that Hutchinson must be the highest paid OL on his team or he will receive a $50 million cash bonus payable immediately. If the Seahawks are required to match the contract letter-for-letter, this clause could be the breaking point as they have Walter Jones on their offensive line. It appears that the Vikings have come across an ingenious (bullsh*t?) way of using the "matching" property of the transition tag to their advantage. Personally, I'm shocked that the same organization that brought us the Whizzinator, ticket scalping, Randy Moss, and a sex cruise could be capable of something so clever. It's a story of inspiration and triumph that all of us can gleam hope from...

(note...due to an error w/ blogger's photo uploader and the fact that i don't have my ftp info w/ me while i travel, i'm unable to include any pics of scantily clad babes in this post. I apologize and will rectify the situation as soon as possible.)