There aren’t many sports power couples, but there’s definitely a hierarchy. Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf are the A-listers. Shelden Williams and Candace Parker are, generously, B-list. Jennie Finch and Casey Daigle are just scraping by as C-listers. So where does that leave MMA Fighter KJ Noons and Lingerie Football League “player” Melany Lorenzo? Who cares, she’s hot and has lots of pictures. Happy New Year to you, too.

Noons has put together a 7-2 record in MMA, mostly EliteXC of late. And Lorenzo, big surprise, is a former Playboy model (I’m shocked - shocked! - that someone in Lingerie Football would have to resort to something so degrading). Which means, if you were so inclined, there are ways of seeing her in less clothing. Although these will suffice for now, I think.

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Sure, Americans are superficial, but in terms of national sensitivity, no country is more image-conscious than China, and nowhere was it more evident than the 2008 Olympics. Their ceremonies were–to put it mildly–extravagant and the precision and execution of the games themselves were testaments to a discipline nonpareil.

(Quick, China, cover your eyes and ears! She’s about to express an opinion!)

But there are significant (potential) sources of embarrassment for China, not the least of which include human rights concerns, Tibet, Darfur, and I’ll just stop now before they treat SbB like they did Jennie Finch and a handful of her fellow Olympians. USA TODAY reported today that before the Olympics, China put together a list of “potential troublemakers” on the American squad and asked American officials to squelch any possible demonstrations. Touchy much? Read more…

There are several sports that trying to get a place on the Olympics Games rotation (yes Peyton, including football). CO-ED MAGAZINE talks about one that probably won’t be, but would probably make guys watch more Olympics coverage online when their wives are asleep with their wives: Competitive Pole Dancing.

Apparently such competitions exist: SFGATE.COM has a list of several, ranging from the clothed to the nude. The story includes a video of the Belgian Competitive Pole Dancing Champion, Anouch Proost. Are we going to give you the SFW video? Of course we are…after the jump.

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• Jennie Finch & the U.S. softball team gets jumped by Japan in the sport’s final Olympic gold-medal game.

• Mark Spitz says he could’ve taken Michael Phelps - to at least a tie.

• Jerry Jones pops up an idea on how to keep Peter King quiet.

• Gene Upshaw goes to that great bargaining table in the sky.

• Chinese authorities have no problem sentencing 70-year-old ladies to manual labor. It’s their own fault for complaining about their houses being bulldozed for the Olympics.

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Softball is a sport that has been dominated by the United States in it’s short Olympic history. The American team basically shows up every four years, destroys the “competition,” and then goes home with a gold medal. Four years ago in Athens, the Americans outscored their opponents 51-1 en route to yet another gold.

Which is why the IOC has decided that 2008 will be the last time softball is featured in the Olympics. As you’d expect, this is pretty upsetting for the U.S. team, who are doing everything they can to try and get the sport reinstated back into the Olympics. Of course, I didn’t think they’d go this far.

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• DEADSPIN sits down for a nice chat with the one & only Sean Salisbury.

• J. Darin Darst of CBSSPORTS.COM asks the most pressing question of this year’s Games: Who’s hotter - Jennie Finch or Alicia Sacramone?

• WITH LEATHER pins down news of a high school wrestler getting in trouble for grinding his groin in a fellow grappler’s face.

• THE SCORES REPORT rolls out a typical daily schedule for Michael Phelps during his Beijing stay. No wonder the guy eats 12,000 calories a day.

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• THE ANGRY T pitches their tent at the College Softball World Series, as they search for the next Jennie Finch.

As if there could be any other.

• DEADSPIN takes a leap of faith with this old shirtless guy diving on a beer pong table.

• KISSING SUZY KOLBER hails to the Chief, as they believe in Brodie Croyle.

• PART MULE tries to work out how Tiger Woods could be named the fittest American.

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What do you do when your sport is dropped from Olympic competition? For a group of female ski jumpers, there’s only one logical & level-headed approach to the situation: Sue the bastards!

The VANCOUVER PROVINCE reports that the shut-out slalom seekers plan to file a suit against the Vancouver Organizing Committee, hoping to have women’s ski jumping return in time for the 2010 Winter Games.

So, what kind of case do the ladies have? Read more…

Headline of the day (so far), courtesy of REUTERS:

You’d have to be pretty emboldened to prepare for a speech to the ladies in that fashion. Wonder what Olympians are part of this particular pep talk.

Jennie Finch?

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Jennie Finch will be in Beijing this August as part of the powerhouse U.S. Olympic softball squad. However, her biggest win may not be in Beijing this year but in Copenhagen in 2009. That’s when the games will be selected for the 2016 Summer Olympics and will be the next opportunity for softball to be an Olympic sport again.

That’s right; softball has joined baseball as persona non grata at the 2012 London Olympics due to their limited world appeal and (in the case of softball) U.S. domination of the sport. The Isle of Great Britain will only have bats swung within its shores in 2012 by soccer hooligans.
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