pool standings after week #2 <> auto club 500

• floyd -- 365 points
• jason -- 360 (-5)
• tom -- 347 (-18) / 1 winner
• justin* -- 319 (-46) / 1 winner
• jim -- 303 (-62)
• robin -- 278 (-87) / 1 winner
• rich -- 271 (-94)
• candy* -- 212 (-153)
• kevin -- 196 (-169)
• scott* -- 108 (-257)

* denotes rookie competitor ... welcome candy, justin and scott!

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nascar 2010 pool picks for week #2 <> auto club 500 from auto club speedway in fontana, ca (for most points <> for race win)

• jason -- jeff burton (31) <> dale earnhardt, jr (88)
• tom -- clint bowyer (33) <> jimmie johnson (48)
• justin -- greg biffle (16) <> jimmie johnson (48)
• floyd -- jimmie johnson (48) <> matt kenseth (17)
• jim -- clint bowyer (33) <> mark martin (5)
• robin -- jamie mcmurray (1) <> jimmie johnson (48)
• rich -- kevin harvick (29) <> mark martin (5)
• kevin -- jamie mcmurray (1) <> mark martin (5)
• candy -- greg biffle (16) <> carl edwards (99)
• scott -- jeff gordon (24) <> kevin harvick (29)

big east game #14 ... #5 syracuse 75, #10 georgetown 71 ... more later

next up is providence (12-14/4-10) at 7:00 pm next tuesday from the dunkin' donuts center in downtown providence

report date for red sox pitchers and catchers is today ... first scheduled workout is saturday ... "scheduled" only because a bunch of the guys who will make up what is expected to be a very talented and deep pitching staff have been in fort meyers for up to 2 weeks now ... early reporters include

tim wakefield <> at 43 years old, the ageless knuckleballer is old enough to be the father of most of these pitchers ... what will wake's role be on a staff stacked with young armed starting pitchers

josh beckett <> can josh avoid the injuries that have hampered him the last 2 years ... will he pitch like he's in a contract year ... or will he pitch like the contract year is in his head

jon lester <> the stud of this staff ... now that roy halliday has gone to the phillies to challenge "the freak" for nl cy ... this should be the year lester pitches like a cy young contender

clay buchholz <> reported to have added 15 lbs to his wiry frame ... marriage and texas home cooking will do that ... what will buck's role be if wakefield is the 5th starter ... will he even be on the red sox roster ... come opening day, most likely ... at the trading deadline, oh so many things can happen between now and then

daisuke matsuzaka <> after a winter of working out at "athletes performance institute" ... dice-k arrived in florida with a strained back from overwork ... after the conditioning and injury fail that was matsuzaka's 2009 season ... 2010 has the feel of a breakout year for the former doughboy

jonathan papelbon <> paps needs to rediscover his splitter and/or change-up ... pitches that helped make him unhitable in '06 and '07 ... he will not survive another season in the al east as a fastball only closer

daniel bard <> the north carolina kid with 100+ mph heat ... on opening day, bard's responsibility will be the 8th inning ... but if papelbon falters, daniel's already got a big chunk of red sox nation behind him

hideki okajima, manny delcarmen and boof bonser are other early arrivals in fort meyers ... welcome back to our boys of summer

last fall at taladega, tony stewart saw his employee and teammate do this ... and watched ryan newman climb thru a cut-away roof and walk away with little more than wet undershorts

tony narrowly missed his old home depot car just before it barrel-rolled numerous times at dover last summer ... and then watched joey logano walk away unscratched looking like a 19 year old kid who had just been for the ride of his life

stewart survived his former teammate using his front bumper like in pinball at daytona last july ... and watched an uninjured but feisty kyle busch resist a mandatory trip to infield care

so, if i understand this right ...

after tony stewart ... that's team owner and 2-time nascar champion tony stewart, right ... after he's spent roughly 12 hours meeting commitments to sponsors and media, meeting with nascar officials, driving 500 miles at just under 200 mph and standing by anxiously thru 2 hours of pothole repairs

after tony and 42 of his closest racing buddies slipped and slid and bumped and drafted for 500 miles without a major accident ... a "big one" as they say... following nascar's decision to stop their policing of bump drafting

considering all that as background, "viv" chose this moment to ask tony stewart what ... DO YOU FEEL LIKE IT'S TOO SAFE OUT THERE? ... are you freaking kidding me ... wow

after suggesting they saw a leg off reporter's chairs because they might be "too safe" , tony answered "i don't think fans that watch nascar want to watch their drivers get hurt, so no"

and to tony's answer, deadspin has the last word ...

"we agree ... fans of nascar don't want to see their drivers get hurt, but we think they're perfectly happy watching other fans drivers get hurt ... also, non-nascar fans really don't care which driver crashes as long as some of them do"

for many, this weekend's daytona experience will be remembered like this ... unfortunately

wow ... where did junior come from ... the video of this daytona 500 finish should be added to wikipedia's "from out of nowhere" page ... this was a finish that had many screaming at their big screen after near 7 hours of relative calm

congrats to jamie mcmurray for the win, and to martin truax, jr for his strong 6th place finish ... always good to see guys driving for new teams start well ... also excellent to see earnhardt-ganassi (mcmurray 1st & montoya 10th), michael waltrip (reutimann 5th & truax, jr 6th) and richard childress (bowyer 3rd, harvick 7th & burton 11th) cars run strong all day and finish well ... petty motorsports entrants (sadler 24th, kahne 30th and almendinger 32nd) ran very strong most of the afternoon but only menard finished well ... the disappointments would have to be hendricks motorsports (martin 12th, gordon 26th & johnson 35th) ... and stewart-haas with hendricks engines (stewart 22nd & newman 34th) ... the exception, of course, would be hendricks' dale earnhardt, jr ... his 2nd place finish would have been a win if this race had been 1/2 mile longer ... jr took the white flag (1 lap to go) in 7th place ... but once he blew through clint bowyer (2nd high side) and greg biffle (3rd low side) like an nfl running back pounding the ball up the middle, and had mcmurray in his sights ... it was only a matter of time before jr made one of his familiar winning moves to the high side ... but time ran out

yesterday, i asked if this race could possibly live up to expectations after 2 weeks of excellent competition at daytona ... the racing sure did ... thank you nascar for bigger holes in the plates and for firing the bump drafting police ... the race, not so much ... but rather than remembering potholes and hours of red flag racing ... i will remember 21 different leaders, the absence of a "big one" and an electrifying finish to a full 500 miles of racing thanks to dale earnhardt, jr

watch nascar's sights and sounds of daytona here ... watch and listen to race chatter here

pool standings after week #1 <> daytona 500

• jason -- 190 points
• tom -- 190 points
• justin* -- 175 (-15)
• floyd -- 170 (-20)
• jim -- 156 (-34)
• robin -- 156 (-34)
• rich -- 96 (-94)
• kevin -- 84 (-106)
• candy* -- 78 (-112)
• scott* -- 0 (-190)

* denotes rookie competitor ... welcome candy, justin and scott!

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nascar 2010 pool picks for week #1 <> daytona 500 from daytona international speedway (for most points <> for race win)

• jim -- kevin harvick (29) <> tony stewart (14)
• tom -- jamie mcmurray (1) <> tony stewart (14)
• jason -- jamie mcmurray (1) <> tony stewart (14)
• robin -- kevin harvick (29) <> tony stewart (14)
• floyd -- greg biffle (16) <> dale earnhardt, jr (88)
• kevin -- robby gordon (7) <> tony stewart (14)
• rich -- elliott sadler (19) <> kyle busch (18)
• justin -- dale earnhardt, jr (88) <> mark martin (5)
• candy -- kasey kahne (9) <> tony stewart (14)

big east game #13 ... louisville 66, #2 syracuse 60 ... the orangemen on the court, the 30,000+ in the stands and me ... we all had one thing in common today ... we didn't want to be here ... this loss was several weeks in the making ... depaul they should have lost, cincinnati they could have lost, uconn they should have lost ... this has the feel of a team playing of late like they're reading their press clippings ... this group has won a ton of games playing solid, active zone defense and working for high percentage shots on offense ... sound, fundamental basketball ... they've gotten away from that ... there's more showboating ... more high risk ... more carelessness ... more turnovers ... this is now a team that needs to refocus quickly ... a loss to georgetown on thursday night would be so much more than 2 losses in a row

next up is #8 georgetown (18-6/8-5) at 7:00 pm on thursday from the verizon center in our nation's capital

more t-shirts for haitians in need ... go orangemen ... terrible towels, thunder sticks and cowbells <> dumb ... big heads <> kewl

in the 1st duel, jimmie johnson beats kevin harvick across the finish line by .005 ... in the 2nd, kasey kahne makes it to the finish line .014 ahead of tony stewart ... so ended the twin 125 qualifying races at daytona on thursday afternoon ... the first 4 rows at the start of sunday's daytona 500 will feature (1) mark martin (2) dale earnhardt, jr (3) jimmie johnson (4) kasey kahne (5) kevin harvick (6) tony stewart (7) kyle busch (8) juan montoya... impressive

five days earlier, kevin harvick, greg biffle, kasey kahne and jeff gordon battle through a green-white-checkered finish of the annual bud shootout until gordon lifts biffle into teammates kenseth and edwards ... ending the race with kevin harvick the winner

the question i have about tomorrow's season opening daytona 500 is ... can this race possibly live up to expectations after 3 breathtaking finishes in 7 days ... for some reason, the recesses of my mind are suggesting i was asking this same question a year ago tonite ... the answer a year ago was no ... the race could not and did not live up to expectations ... i am hoping the answer this year is different

did you know ... historically, 54.4% of all sprint cup races at daytona are won by a driver who starts in the top 5 ... 79.2% by top 10 starters ... and 91.2% from starts within the top 15

rule change for daytona (and taladega) ... nascar will no longer police bump-drafting at daytona and talladega ... nascar's robin pemberton says "we will put it back in the hands of the drivers and we will say, 'boys, have at it and have a good time"

drivers to watch ... row 14 ... denny hamlin (11) will start 25th, brad kesekowski (12) will start on hamlin's outside in 26th position ... these two have been feuding for 2 years now ... ever since brad made denny look like a girl during a joint post-race presser ... and last year's nationwide series ended with hamlin and keselowski yapping at and banging on each other the final 3 weeks

pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to fort meyers on thursday, february 18th ... everyone else arrives by the 23rd ... reports out of florida say jon lester, jonathan papelbon, manny delcarmen and kevin youkilis are already there and working ... justin masterson is also there but he'll realize sometime in the next week his training camp is in arizona ... pedroia's not there cause he's too busy with his "laser show" on weei (every saturday with mut & bradford)

so why is florida on my mind today ... because today was "truck day" in boston ... for most, the departure of the red sox equipment truck each february is a simple reminder the team's spring training is just ahead ... but for some, this truck thing has become an event, a ritual ... there are actually people who gather annually in the dead of winter on van ness street outside fenway park to watch and take endless pictures of employees of a local mover load big, brown boxes into a big, long truck ... there are no executives shaking hands ... no players signing autographs ... no team officials passing out souvenirs ... no podium, microphones or speeches ... no cheerleaders, high school bands or parade ... just a truck, lotsa boxes and men in jumpsuits ... but if you check local sports websites, they all have video of the truck, the boxes and the men ... the boston globe has 26 pictures of the "event" ... this one i just don't get

this morning the new york daily news reports that university of louisville head coach rick pitino has expressed interest in being general manager and head coach of the disgracefully bad new jersey nets ... as you would expect, rickie p quickly denied any interest in taking over the currently 4-48 nets

if i created a poll asking who is more credible, the daily news or coach scumbag ... the coach wouldn't even win his home state ... he fed them the same denials 13 years ago before he bolted lexington for boston ... and shortly after his team's season ends with a loss in the nit ... he will be off to wherever it is the nets play in new jersey ... or some other nba city

one blogger asks "why would pitino leave a program that he essentially built into a contender over the last decade?" ... i'll take a shot at answering that ... first, rickie p built a contender at louisville while fuzzy smith and billie gillispie were coaching over in lexington ... now that coach scumbag the 2nd is running the program at uk, the original scumbag needs to make a move or become the second coming of denny crum in his declining years

next, there's no doubt coach scumbag's extra-marital tryst with a crazy lady that led to pregnancy, then abortion and then extortion offended some powerful and influential folks across the southern bible belt ... add those to the powerful and influential he offended 13 years ago ... and his base of support in the home state has got to be a bit thin about now

rickie p abandoned kentucky for boston back in 1997 because he thought he's have the #1 draft pick and rebuild an historic but struggling franchise around tim duncan ... instead he became the absentee owner's resident idiot ... the big black mark on his resume ... failure as an nba general manager/head coach ... enter the ego factor ... the need to prove he can build, manage and coach an nba team successfully ... new jersey is a perfect landing spot ... high draft picks they will have ... cash to flash at free agents to be lebron james, dwayne wade, chris bosh and joe johnson they will have ... how could rickie p possibly screw that up

lastly, impatience ... rickie p's impulsive personnel moves while in boston showed him to be an impatient man ... coach scumbag's louisville team is 6-5 in the big east, 15-9 overall and unranked ... they may or may not get invited to the big dance ... meanwhile, coach scumbag the 2nd has kentucky at 8-1/23-1, leading their conference and ranked #3 in the country ... freshman superstar john wall and his uk teammates are on track for a #1 seeding in the tournament ... and they will be picked by many to win it all ... kentucky is in, louisville is not ... wildcats are hot, cardinals are not ... coach scumbag knows it ... and he understands it's not gonna change anytime soon ... time to move on

his ego ... his impatience ... they will drive him to the new jersey nets, or to somewhere else as soon as this college basketball season ends ... all the denials you'll hear from the original coach scumbag the next few weeks ... they will be lies ... "nick saban" kinda lies

now please excuse me for a time ... after writing about these people, i feel the need for another shower

big east game #12 ... #2 syracuse 72, connecticut 67 ... you expect a close, hard fought game whenever connecticut and syracuse play basketball ... tonite, uconn brings their "a" game to the dome ... and syracuse narrowly escapes on their "c" game ... sure, there are times the zone looks impenetrable ... but you don't shoot 42.6%, turn the ball over 20 times and blow a 14 point lead if you're on your game ... the first time the orange shoot that poorly and give away the ball that much in march, they will lose ... other observations would be

• andy rautins is the engine that powers this team ... 1st half his presence is felt everywhere yet he scored no points ... 2nd half he drives the orange to a 14 point advantage early (48-34) ... rautins sits down with 4 fouls and his teammates look discombobulated ... lose all but 3 of that 14 point lead (54-51) ... rautins returns, steadies the offense and sinks 5 of 6 foul shots along the way ... orange win
• i'm beginning to think wes johnson is a bit over-hyped ... he's a really good basketball player no doubt ... passes, rebounds, blocks shots and smiles with the best of them ... but his offensive game has holes ... and when his team needs him to step up and take over this game in rautins absence ... he can't do it
• all season kris joseph and scoop jardine have been rock solid off the bench ... tonite both get chewed out by the coach after bonehead plays ... joseph has superstar potential but he is a turnover machine ... he's got to learn to better protect the basketball
• this is a good uconn team ... jerome dyson, stanley robinson and kemba walker are big-time players ... they've lost some tough games ... tonite was one of them

next up is louisville (15-8/6-4) on sunday at 1:00 pm from the dome ... six conference games left on the orange schedule ... louisville shows up twice ... syracuse closes out their big east season at freedom hall on saturday, march 6th ... if you're looking for between games reading, i recommend this mike waters piece on "unheralded recruits" ... excellent work ... su has announced the dome is sold out for the 2/27 game against #4 villanova ... 34, 616 will be the largest on-campus crowd for a college basketball game in ncaa history

the truth as we have believed it to be is, in fact, the truth ... mike pereira has been the nfl's vice president of officiating for the last 12 years ... he will retire after today's super bowl ... on friday afternoon, pereira chatted with the sports hub's mike felger and tony mazz down in miami ... listen to the interview here ... it's 15:10 minutes long ... the pertinent part starts at 12:30 minutes in

bottom like ... indianapolis colts general manager bill powleen used his influence with the nfl's all powerful competition committee back in 2004 to have a "point of emphasis" placed on the enforcement of illegal contact rules for defensive backs vs wide receivers ... this after the 2003 afc championship game where new england's hard hitting defensive backs dominated colt's wide receivers ... forcing peyton manning into throwing 4 interceptions ... holding the "godfather of his own philly ghetto" to 3 catches/19 yards and forcing marvin to fumble away the ball once ... a game where new england beat up on indianapolis 24-14 ... the effect of this "point of emphasis" was to shift the balance from a strength of the patriots, their secondary ... to a strength of the colts, their wide receivers ... beginning in the 2004 season ... legalized cheating, nfl style

rumors are powleen may be up to more influence wielding this offseason ... some believe he will push for a change to the on-side kick rule, eliminating the element of surprise ... others speculate he will campaign against bon jovi headlining next year's super bowl halftime show

big east game #11 ... #3 syracuse 71, cincinnati 54 ... reality is there are few teams in the country that can match the talent, depth and versatility of this syracuse team for 40 minutes ... cincinnati tried and lasted 28 minutes ... the bearcats actually had a 6 point lead with 12 minutes to go ... this was no repeat of depaul ... the orange came to play today and cincy is better than depaul ... but syracuse owned the last 12 minutes of this one ... the run was 28-5 ... kris joseph and scoop jardine put up points ... rick jackson and arinze onuaku did the rebounding ... andy rautins was awesome all afternoon ... andy kept the cuse in the game in the 1st ... and was the engine that powered the last 12 minutes ... syracuse needed a great day from rautins with wes johnson still aching and in foul trouble most of the game ... andy rautins was high scorer with 20 (4-8 from long distance) and super sub joseph followed-up his career high with 17 today ... jardine scored 11 off the bench ... "ao" had 11 points too ... rick jackson had 10 rebounds ... i've been harping on it, so now i'll give them credit ... syracuse had only 7 turnovers in this one

next up is connecticut (14-9/4-6) at 7:00 pm on wednesday evening ("rivalry week" on espn) from the carrier dome ... this doesn't seem to be uconn's year ... jim calhoun is on medical leave ... the huskies have lost 6 of 9 and they are mired in the bottom half of the big east standings ... but anyone who follows syracuse and big east basketball knows uconn is a top notch program and should never be underestimated ... is there anyone out there who does not remember what happened the last time these teams met ... hint #1: devo hit a game winning 3-pointer at the buzzer ... hint #2: the game ended at 1:22 am madison square garden time ... hint #3: devo fouled out with 7 minutes left in the contest

more good news ... #7 georgetown took down #2 villanova yesterday 103-90 ... first conference loss for 'nova (20-2/9-1) dropped them into a 1st place tie ... with today's win, syracuse (23-1/10-1) moves 1/2 game ahead of the wildcats and into sole possession of the big east lead ... and when the new week's rankings come out tomorrow ... syracuse will move ahead of villanova and should be ranked #2 ... how is it the best basketball conference in the country has 4 teams ranked in the top 7 (villanona #2, syracusae #3, west virginia #6 and georgetown #7) yet not one is or has been good enough to rise to #1

a week from now ... super bowl xliv will be history... the post-game celebrations and analysis will be fading into the background .... the new buzzwords in the nfl offices in new york ... and in the hallways of the worldwide leader will be ... "final league year" and "uncapped year"

the "final league year" of the current nfl's collective bargaining agreement begins on march 5th ... a month before, there are no signs a new agreement is even being discussed ... what is being talked about is how teams can/will do business without a new agreement ... commissioner goodell pretty much confirmed this week in miami a new agreement is not imminent ... and that 2010-11 will be an "uncapped year"

assuming 2010-11 is to be played under the old agreement ... in the "final league year" of that agreement, there are changes to the rules of engagement

• there will be no salary cap ... there is also no salary floor ... daniel snyder (redskins) can throw away more money than ever before and mike brown (bengals) can save more than he ever thought possible


• players in their 4th or 5th year of service who would have become "unrestricted free agents" will now be classified as "restricted free agents" ... down in foxboro, logan mankins and stephen gostkowski will fall into this category


• "the final eight" ... teams who reached the conference playoff weekend ... teams like indianapolis and the ny jets jets jets ... will only be able to sign unrestricted free agents to replace a free agent lost ... the new player's salary cannot exceed the departed player's wage ... there are several built-in exceptions for the teams that lost on conference playoff weekend


• teams will have available a 2nd "transition player" option ... meaning a team can continue to tag 1 player their "franchise player" ... and tag 2 others as "transition players"


• teams will will be relieved of their obligation to contribute to a number of player benefit programs


• the league will have the option of maintaining or eliminating the pool of dollars for 1st year players ... keeping it would maintain the slotting/sliding scale structure but would also assure another year of huge dollar contracts for 1st round draft picks ... eliminating it would eliminate any structure for signing rookies and would create a climate for record contract dollars ... in other words, chaos would ensue

should be an interesting off-season in the nfl

big east game #10 ... #3 syracuse 85, providence 68 ... had to work, didn't get to see or hear the game ... looks like this one went as you might have expected ... the orange regained their shooting touch (57.6%) ... and they set the new standard for best start in school history (22-1) ... things that might not have been expected ... wes johnson fell awkwardly and hard early in the 1st half and played only 22 minutes ... super sub kris joseph had a career high 23 points (9-11)/7 rebounds/4 steals/5 turnovers ... "ao" (arinze onuaku) scored a season high 20 points (10-12)/7 rebounds/4 blocks/2 steals/4 turnovers ... brandon triche chipped in 15 points ... and big man rick jackson led in assists (7) ... can't help but mention the turnovers (16) and poor free throw shooting (63.2%) ... a year ago, syracuse went to providence in the middle of a miserable slump (1-3 in last 4 after 16-1 start) and lost 100-94 ... this time around, providence coach keno davis left town saying all the right things

"i think they’re as good as anybody in the country ... they just have so many guys who can have big games against you ... and there’s their defense, as well ... and then they’re pretty physical when you try to rebound ... they have all the dimensions ... they’ve got several pros on that team ... they’re just a deep, physical, talented team"

next up is cincinnati (14-7/5-4) at 2:00 pm on sunday afternoon from "fifth third arena", home of the bearcats ... let's hope the orange shoot better in cincinnati than they did last weekend in chicago ... cincinnati is a better team than depaul ... in "bracketology" terminology, cincinnati is "on the bubble" ... their chances get better the longer pittsburgh's freefall continues ... but they still have to face uconn, marquette, west virginia, villanova and georgetown ... bottom line, cincinnati needs to win this game

the nfl's annual pro bowl has come and gone ... thankfully ... originally conceived as football's version of an all-star game ... a gathering of the best players from across each conference ... as selected by their peers ... used to be played in honolulu the week after the super bowl ... this year the game was moved to the week before the super bowl ... and to miami ... not sure just how much "pro" this one was but yes it was played in a "bowl" ... my question is "if the so-called all-stars play a football game and nobody cares, did the game really get played?"

pictured above is a screenprint of part of today's nfl pro bowl page ... the headline says "star power" ... surely this must be referring to all the "star power" that was selected to play but did not play in this "all star" game ... at least 15 players withdrew due to injury ... 14 were eliminated because they play for the super bowl bound colts or saints ... no peyton manning (indianapolis) ... no tom brady (Injury) ... no drew brees (new orleans) ... no phillip rivers (injury) ... no brett favre (old age) ... and on and on ... who woulda believed the afc's "all-star" quarterbacks would be matt schaub (9-7 houston) <> david garrard (7-9 jacksonville) <> vince young (8-8 tennessee) ... next the nfl should change the name of this game ... i recommend "the mediocre bowl" ... no, wait ... don't rename it, abolish it ... gather the real all-stars at the super bowl, recognize them at halftime, give them a plaque and be done with it

headline bar in above pic includes this ... "colt's manning, saints' brees see pro bowl from sidelines" ... i rest my case

i don't easily come to the defense of anyone or anything connected with the new york jets jets jets ... but, enough already ... mouthy head coach rex ryan goes to an mma (mixed martial arts, i think) event in miami ... he's in south florida for the pro bowl and super bowl ... rex says a few words to the assembled crazies ... he mentions his jets jets jets are planning to beat up on the hometown dolphins a couple times next season ... miami fans are still stinging from beating new york twice but losing out to the jets for a playoff spot this year ... so when a couple fins fans in an undetermined state of inebriation expressed their ideas on the coach's plan ... rex extended them the fuck you finger ... and that extended finger has now appeared on the front and back pages of the ny post and the back page of the daily news ... yikes ... rex's dad buddy ryan didn't get this much heat after he punched out the offensive coordinator on the houston sidelines over 16 years ago ... and he probably wasn't fined big bucks by the nfl as rex will be ... didn't tennessee titans owner bud adams cough up $250,000 a couple months ago after giving buffalo bills fans the "gfy" signal

the jets hierarchy is apparently none too pleased ... why else would rex offer this rather extensive apology

"it was stupid and inappropriate ... i wouldn't accept that type of behavior from one of the coaches or players, and it's unacceptable from me ... i apologize to the jets' organization, the national football league and nfl fans everywhere"

thank you rex ryan but, for me, an apology isn't necessary ... i am not offended by your middle finger ... i use it too ... there's a reason this gesture is universally recognized and understood ... stealing a few words from deadspin ...

"a typical eight-year-old in nyc sees five middle fingers on their way to the bus stop and three more from the bus driver once they're on the road ... when can we stop pretending this gesture is outrageous and/or offensive?"