• USA TODAY’s GAME ON races over word that Danica Patrick won’t be held responsible for Friday’s accident that sent a pit crewman to the hospital.

In the meantime, Charles Buckman is still being held for observation after suffering a fractured skull & brain hemorraging.

• THE GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS is shattered that Jack Glasscock is still not in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

• JOE SPORTS FAN honors those players who paved the way for memorable home runs - by getting on base beforehand.

• And THE LEGEND OF CECILIO GUANTE expects even more remarkable base-clearers in the near future, as starting pitching is becoming pathetic.

Read more…

It appears the Chargers like to keep their boo-boos secret. After Philip Rivers admitted to playing against the Patriots without an ACL, the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE learns that kicker Nate Kaeding was booting field goals with a broken leg.

A person “familiar with the situation” said that Kaeding’s lower left leg was injured back on Dec. 24 against the Broncos, yet the kicker continued to play in San Diego’s last 5 games. Even with a fractured plant leg, Kaeding scored all 12 of the Chargers’ points in the AFC Championship Game.

The team had claimed that Kaeding’s injury was only a ‘bruise’, while also declaring Rivers’ torn ACL as just a ’sprained MCL’. But you have to admire Nate’s bravado in soldiering on despite the broken limb.

Read more…

• The ASSOCIATED PRESS tosses news that Roger Clemens has been invited to join the Astros - at one of their pitching camps.

• Speaking of comebacks, Buffalo Bills player Kevin Everett is coming out with book in February.

• 100% INJURY RATE studies the evolution of football video games.

• For your viewing pleasure, here’s another enjoyable episode of ‘Blog Show‘, with your hosts, Jamie Mottran and Dan Steinberg.

• INSIDE USC knows there won’t be many pleasantries exchanged when Pete Carroll & Norm Chow meet next season. Read more…

Here’s Your Recap of SbB Today …

• Packers Bikini Girls apparently have “been around for years” (see update on this post). More pics here.

• Dwight Howard is no Philip Rivers, but we’d be tempted too.

• NYC radio host: Pete Carroll is the Redskins’ “mystery” coaching candidate.

• Dungy’s staying for one more season until failed college coach Jim Caldwell takes over Colts.

• Steelers receiver’s girlfriend needs SWAT team to take her down?

• Laurence Maroney “doesnt want to blow my wad early“. Us too!

• “Coming To America” predicts Giants-Packers outcome. Really.

Playing with a hurt knee during Sunday’s loss to the Patriots, Philip Rivers showed he had a lot of guts. But what the Chargers QB didn’t have was a working ACL.

The SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE scopes out news that the anterior cruciate ligament in the San Diego signal caller’s right knee is “totally gone,” and he’ll have to undergo reconstructive surgery. Although his recovery time is unknown, the Chargers QB expects to be 100% healthy before the start of next season.

Rivers played the entire game with a missing ACL, but didn’t come clean about his true injury until Monday, earlier saying it was just a ’sprained MCL’.

Well, if Bill Belichick can be so secretive about his players’ bumps and bruises, why not San Diego?

HOT FOOT BLOG, via DEADSPIN, has the reason we should look to mid-’80s movies for guidance in NFL handicapping:

Speaking of ’80s movies, no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t find anything about the Bolts-Pats game, except for this:

Subtitle: “The Philip Rivers story“

• That tears it: ROTOWORLD hears that the Bolts’ Philip Rivers may be struck down by an injured ACL.

• San Diego might not be the only team minus QB, as the NORFOLK VIRGINIAN-PILOT notes that the starting signal caller for Virginia isn’t enrolled in school.

• DC SPORTS BOG bounces along the steps on becoming a Wizards ballboy.

• Even though he’s already been given a contract extension, 100% INJURY RATE finds Bud Selig digging for gold:

• HOME R