• SPORTS ILLUSTRATED votes Barack Obama’s alma mater as the best high school athletic program in the country.

• WITH LEATHER flies in the story of a couple of Hofstra hotties who almost missed graduation to try out for the Jets’ cheerleading squad.

• NE PATRIOTS DRAFT beats a dead horse, as they wonder how Arlen Specter would ring up the Eight Belles tragedy.

• GOSSIP GIRLS catches Eva Longoria Parker getting herself ready for her hubby’s first night of work in L.A.

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• ODENIZED gets a rise out of Charles Barkley, who tells his TNT audience that Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy looks a lot like Ron Jeremy.

• WALKOFF WALK sings the praises of the Pirates’ Jason Bay - to the high-pitched tune of a Beatles classic.

• THE WIZARD OF ODDS is sole-d on Chris Leak’s BCS Championship shoes up for bids on eBay, with a buy-it-now price of only $10,000.

• DEADSPIN is bedeviled that the Rays are in first in the AL East.

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Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) wasn’t only raising a stink about the NFL’s handling of the Patriots’ taping scandal. Recently, commissioner Roger Goodell and the league had sought to crack down on churches that were showing the Super Bowl on their big screens.

According to the WASHINGTON POST, Specter, along with Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), questioned the policy, and Lord Rog is allowing churches to worship at the altar of the prolate spheroid when Super Bowl Sunday rolls around in Tampa next season.

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• It’s deja vu all over again, as Tommy Lasorda will be back managing the Dodgers this year - in some exhibition games.

• AOL FANHOUSE doesn’t think it’s turrible that Charles Barkley will be in Playboy next month (hopefully just talking & not posing).

• JOE SPORTS FAN feels their hearts racing after checking out this NASCAR dating site.

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The PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE reports that this whole “Spygate” business has gotten a bit personal for Arlen Specter, as the Pennsylvania senator says that the Patriots secretly videotaped coaches’ signals during four Steelers games.

Specter commented on the new revelations by saying, “I think Steelers fans have a lot to be concerned about this and I’m one of them,” adding, “Maybe Steelers ownership should think about it a little.”

Apparently they have, and they haven’t. Read more…

The one person who benefited the most from yesterday’s congressional hearings: Roger Goodell.

The NFL Commish had his meeting with Arlen Specter, the highlights of which normally would have been top of page 1 pretty much everywhere, I think.

Instead, such nonsense slid past everyone a little bit. Maybe the story will get its due today. Or maybe the NFL is just Teflon? I think, though, that these things are too had to ignore:

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