Tuesday ESPN’s “E:60″ will examine the lengths some people will go to have more athletic kids.

ESPN: “E:60 correspondent Tom Farrey exclusively reports the story about the ultimate effort to buy athletic advantage – the purchase of sperm from anonymous donors who are college athletes. He visits the world’s largest sperm bank, California Cryobank in Los Angeles, where the seed of Division I football, basketball and baseball players sells fast. Farrey also speaks with families who purchased the sperm of a former tight end, and he addresses the question: How do expectations change when parents know their child is born with the DNA of an elite athlete?”

So what type of down-and-outer person, athlete or no, is selling their sperm?

Exactly.

Farrey also has a book out on the subject, and appeared today on KSPN-AM’s “Mason & Ireland” show in Los Angeles today to talk about the ESPN piece.

John Ireland to Farrey: “How many people are breeding kids specifically to be athletes?”

Farrey: “I’m not sure they’re breeding to create elite athletes. They’re folks who are lesbians or same sex couples or mothers who never found mister right or it’s a heterosexual couple who can’t have kids on their own. So, they go to the sperm bank and they go through the catalog. And inevitably, when you’re like, ‘OK, what are we going to pick?’ … you end up picking the stuff you prioritize and you value and there are a lot of people out there who want their kids to have athletic traits.”

The main ethical question when it comes to this game of offspring roulette is if prospective parents should be allowed to know the identity of the sperm donator. So long as they don’t, I don’t see anything wrong with knowing the occupation and/or athletic history of the contributor. Problem is, if someone is donating sperm for money, what’s the odds that individual has a current occupation? (See Todd Marinovich.)

Yes, we’ve all heard over the years about Warren Sapp being a social cripple. Not to mention a man of questionable personal hygiene. So with that, I was delighted today at his selection to the latest lineup of “Dancing With The Stars”. Though I would love to see him plague survive the entire competition, that might be a little too much to ask, considering he’ll be dragging around a hazmat-suited partner.

In all seriousness, one media source close to the Raiders told me today that Sapp has always been known for raging, 100-yard halitosis. In particular, one veteran defensive lineman for the Raiders used to bark out “Breath!” whenever Sapp walked into a room or on the team plane.

That eventually lead to the team’s primary rallying cry last season: “BREATH! BREATH! BREATH!”

Sapp thought it was funny, but didn’t know the joke was on him and would bark it out too.

Coincidentally, when Marinovich was quarterbacking the club, the team’s rallying cry was, “METH! METH! METH!”

OK, I made that last part up. Read more…

Ah, Dancing With the Stars — our national reality entertainment institution that is neither as compelling as American Idol nor as “real” as Project Runway. Because the show is filled with “stars,” everyone acts all nice and no one gets too angry even as people dance their careers away. It’s fun. And it’s fake.

Anyway, the casting for the show is now exactly as predictable as The Real World. Just as that show needed a token black person every season, so does Dancing With The Stars need its retired football player. And just who will play this year’s role? Try Warren Sapp on for size. Read more…

One of the perks of being a professional athlete is that the ladies take notice. You don’t even have to be in shape, because you’re worth several million dollars. Amazing what money will do.

But there are apparently other reasons why the Capitol’s finest ladies love Jason Taylor, the freshest, hippest, salsa-y-est player on the Redskins. The CANADIAN PRESS reports that some of them don’t even realize he’s a football player. They just love him for his Dancing … on the Stars. (Last sentence in my best David Caruso voice.)

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• WITH LEATHER is sad to discover that Bia & Branca Feres, the similarly sexy synchronized swimmers from Brazil, aren’t on any Olympic roster.

• DEADSPIN feels a great disturbance in the Force, as the Death Star makes a cameo at the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies.

• Now that Dan Marino has declined to go Dancing With The Stars, NEXT ROUND taps up a list of 11 former athletes they’d like to see on the show.

• ESPN’S NFL NATION finds ex-collegiate skiing star Jeremy Bloom trying to slalom his way to a Steelers roster spot.

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• LeBron James would leave the NBA & play in Europe, all for a yearly salary of only … 50 MILLION DOLLARS! (raises pinky to corner of mouth)

• Prince Fielder is sorry for brawling with Brewers teammate Manny Parra, but isn’t sorry for the kind of competitor he is.

• Tiger Woods, the world’s #1 golfer, is having problems going number 1.

• On the heels of Manny Ramirez joining the Dodgers, laundromats in the L.A. area have been inundated with lost red socks.

• Carson Palmer is confident the Bengals will win the AFC North.

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Now that Brett Favre has gone and broken just about every one of his “unbreakable” passing records, Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino will try to satisfy his craving for the spotlight by appearing in next season’s run of “Dancing with the Stars”.

According to the PALM BEACH POST, the man who holds the record for most, uh … passing yards in a season(?) will follow Jason Taylor to become the second consecutive Miami Dolphin to take off his cleats and strap on some dancing shoes.

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Now that Warren Sapp’s retired (and received such a big sendoff from the Raiders), what’s a 300-pound ex-football lineman to do with his time? Well, there’s only one logical answer - go on “Dancing With The Stars“!

YAHOO’s SHUTDOWN CORNER foxtrots over news that Sapp has apparently been asked to appear on the ABC reality show, a program that’s already shown America the sweet dance moves of Emmitt Smith, Mark Cuban and Jason Taylor.

And Warren is all over the idea of tripping the light fantastic: Read more…

Jason Taylor of “Dancing with the Stars” fame has just wrapped up at news conference at Hard Rock Live in Miami, FL, to announce he will only participate in reality shows for one more season and wishes to be traded to a contending show. The reason for the location of the news conference remains a mystery as Taylor has no previously known connections to south Florida.

(Reality TV star Jason Taylor & Edyta Sliwinska dancing to Rilo Kiley)

Rumors abound that shows like “American Idol”, “Survivor”, and “So You Think You Can Fellate a Wild Turkey in a Kids’ Ball Cage Dropped from a Construction Crane” have made a play for Taylor since his runner-up performance on the ABC show. However, Taylor has chosen to speak mostly through his agent’s agent’s business manager’s bus driver’s married sister in Ohio to this point.

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Jason Taylor mamboed and sambaed to the best of his ability (as far as we know, not having seen any episodes - well, OK, maybe a few here & there). But like his Miami NFL teammates, he just couldn’t win.

Skater Kristi Yamaguchi bested the Dolphins defenseman Tuesday night to claim this season’s “Dancing With The Stars” title. While Taylor did manage a perfect score in his last dance, he was toppled by Yamaguchi’s double dose of dancing perfection.

Video of Taylor’s last tango with Edyta Sliwinska after the jump.

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Now that he’s had a taste of the small screen life, Jason Taylor finds himself thinking more about his acting career than his football one, as noted on ESPN’s Sunday Conversation last night: “In 10 years from now, when I’m 43 years old, I’m hoping that people are talking more about the things I’ve done in the film business than what I did in football or dancing.”

First, let’s nip this in the bud: you didn’t do anything in the world of dancing, Jason. Twyla Tharp’s not quivering in her taps and you’re not exactly on the Gregory Hines career path. You were on a ‘reality TV’ show. Bless you, but you’re not a dancer now.

Still, we loved Taylor in The Defensive End That Ate London and are rooting for him to pull a key supporting role in Cloverfield II: Electric Boogaloo (with heavy promotional sponsorship by Dramamine). Certainly, we expect him to be more successful than Tiki Barber, who was last spotted… actually, has anyone seen Tiki Barber recently? (No points for spotting Ronde.)

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