Roger Goodell probably didn’t expect The Spanish Inquisition when he went to The Hill on Wednesday for a hearing entitled “Legal Issues Relating to Football Head Injuries.” But that’s what he got, courtesy of Steve King of Iowa (R-Nuts), who used it as an opportunity to grill Goodell on his opposition to Rush Limbaugh as a part-owner of the Rams.

But when the dust had settled from King’s attack, it was time for Rush himself to comment on the proceedings via his radio show. And that’s when the conservative talk host did a most remarkable thing: He took a page from the Barack Obama playbook. What? Has Rush Limbaugh become a liberal softy? See the quote and judge for yourself. Read more…

One of the odder stories of the past couple of weeks concerns Michael Vick and his amazing disappearing Nike contract. What exactly possessed Vick’s endorsement agent, Blue Equity Sports Television Managing Director Mike Principe, to announce this past Wednesday that Vick “just became a Nike client” and “has a new deal” with the company?

Could it have been a way of testing the waters; a “What if?” type scenario to see if the villagers would take up pitchforks and boycott Nike products if Vick reentered their orbit? Or is Nike simply paying Vick under the table to wear their stuff, thus avoiding the wrath of PETA? Read more…

In all the commotion over dog abuse, prison time and PETA protests, we’ve almost forgotten who the last person was to wear No. 7 for the Philadelphia Eagles. That would be Jeffrey Jason Garcia, the pride of Gilroy High School and one of only seven quarterbacks in NFL history with two consecutive thirty-touchdown passing seasons.

I prefer to think that all of those No. 7 jerseys popping up in public lately were passive-aggressive cries by Eagles fans to bring Garcia back to the fold. And now with Donovan McNabb’s inured McRibs, A.J. Feely to the Panthers (seriously, that happened) and Josh McCown’s injured McFoot, the NFL’s most prominent recurring theme arrives in Philly to save the day. Read more…

In Dave Chappelle’s timeless “Killin’ Them Softly” standup special, he describes his plan for avoiding assassination if he were ever elected President: get a Mexican vice president. It’s funny because it rings so true, that black people in high profile jobs who are subject to the whims and vagaries of public opinion often face added pressure and scrutiny - and rarely have a safety net when it comes to protecting themselves from the type of opposition that seems awfully similar to racism.

(Welcome to your worst nightmare, haters.)

To that end, we were a little confused by CBSSPORTS.COM’s recent column saying Michael Vick’s signing by the Eagles was something of either a warning shot or a slap in the face to Donovan McNabb. Considering the language of the deal makes it heavily likely that Vick won’t spend more than a season in Philadelphia, it seems more like Vick was, among other things, insurance for McNabb against his most virulent of haters. Like a, “oh, you hate McNabb for being black? Just wait till you see his backup!” situation.

So while we don’t really know all of McNabb’s underlying motivation, we do know we weren’t terribly surprised to read McNabb’s recent blog entry at YARDBARKER saying he had personally approached the team about signing Vick earlier in the offseason.

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The next step toward the inevitable future of football — robot players — has been taken by the new United Football League. A Miami-based technology company has invented The ID Coach, an electronic wristband device that quarterbacks will wear in which plays, and possibly their favorite TV shows, can be transmitted to them during games.

Somehow the makers of the device have convinced the UFL, which begins its inaugural season in October, to use it, but the NFL is going to be a harder sell. Donovan McNabb here seems to really dig it, however (“Will it tell me when overtime begins?”). Read more…

When it comes to sports news, never trust anything you read online. Especially anything by Peter King. But especially anything on Wikipedia.

Titans TE Bo Scaife knew not to panic this week when he was flooded with phone calls asking about his trade to the Eagles. But that’s why you don’t automatically believe Wikipedia, especially when updated by a grade school kid who just got done defacing Donovan McNabb’s page.

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If you know Philadelphia, you know it’s a corrupt town. It came out that the last mayor was being wiretapped by the FBI, and he still won re-election. So what does it say about the Eagles when that former mayor is calling them liars and cheats?

(l to r: Tom Ridge(?!), John Street, Liar, Hambeast)

To condense the legal mumbo-jumbo, here’s the gist: the city was suing the Eagles, until the Eagles threatened to sue the city for, coincidentally, the same amount of money. Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie went to then-mayor John Street, and allegedly made a handshake deal to just let both lawsuits go away quietly for $1 million. Now, Street says there never was such a deal, and protesters are marching on Lurie’s lawn.

It’s always shady in Philadelphia, after the jump.

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The NFL free agency period kicked off not with a bang, but with a text. T.J. Houshmandzadeh ushered in the speculation and salivation with a text message to a Philadelphia radio station reading: ““I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but if they want me, I will be an Eagle tomorrow.”

Stirring stuff. Wouldn’t it be great if all athletes clearly and publicly said where they wanted to go, the team indicated their mutual interest, and the two sides compromised on a deal? The free agency window need only last a day! But when it comes to negotiations, nothing is ever as straightforward as it seems. So let’s spend far too much time analyzing most famous text message since Chris Brown’s booty call, after the jump.
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B.J. Upton isn’t exactly the biggest role model out there — just check his rap sheet and you can tell that’s he’s not a full-time model citizen — but he is a notable resident of Tampa Bay. It was in that capacity that he spoke with Florida radio station 97-X about Sunday’s Super Bowl, and Upton didn’t mince words about how he was awfully glad the Eagles aren’t going to be there.

(B.J. was just trying to raise hype for his charity golf tourney. Oops.)

BUGS & CRANKS comes through with the video, which you can also watch after the jump, in which Upton dishes as much about his own golf tournament and recovering from surgery to repair a torn posterior-labrum as he does on trashing Philly fans. Needless to say, that doesn’t stop dumping on the city of Brotherly Love from making the highlights.

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• The ladies of the Lingerie Bowl are leery of playing at a nude resort.

(Lingerie footballer Reby Sky prefers her spectators clothed)

• Got it bad, got it bad, got it bad - I’m hot for the school’s athletic trainer.

• It’s hard to tell what’s more ludicrous - a ‘Rock of Love’ contestant falls on hockey rink ice & thinks she’s broken her boobies, or that she has no idea what’s inside her implants.

• A Minnesota skater hopes to make it as a model - and needs your vote!

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