Author: Gino Cerruti

Miami Heat forward LeBron James is an interesting figure in sports. He often garners cursory praise—the type of commendation that skirts the line between excessive boasting of his talent and retracting from comparisons to NBA legends, most notably Michael Jordan.

As bracketology experts begin the painstaking process of calculating the positions for the 2013 NCAA Basketball Tournament, Kansas, Gonzaga, Indiana and Miami fans can rest easy knowing that they’ll be seeing some March Madness action. All four schools are predicted to enter the tournament as No. 1 seeds, and if each team continues its incredible run, they’ll most likely be a part of the Final Four pandemonium. But what would the tournament be without some upsets? Here is a list of five teams that have the momentum to shake up the top ranks of college basketball.

In less than a month, I will be flying to Phoenix for five days of sun and baseball. From mid-February to late March, southern Arizona is a hotbed of baseball activity with teams such as the San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers and Texas Rangers. And although more than 1.5 million people attended games during last year’s Cactus League spring training, the ballparks usually aren’t filled, allowing onlookers to choose their own seats and, if desired, get up close and personal with their favorite players. It’s a much different environment than a regular season exhibition game and one that, so far, has produced quite a bit of interesting news.

You’d think that watching LeBron James, Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant—the best of the NBA—coming together to play a friendly five-on-five would be worth watching, right? Then why did I switch over to a cable-censored version of Demolition Man after the first 30 minutes? It’s a question I pondered intently after witnessing Sly Stallone’s 20th f-bomb come out as “fudge.” Rolling my eyes as Wesley Snipes quipped, “Simon says…die!” and then turning the TV off completely, I searched for a plausible explanation as to why the loudest sound in the Toyota Center this week was caused by the crickets.

Last week, Seattle Mariners pitching phenom Felix Hernandez agreed to a seven-year, $175 million deal that not only is the largest contract for a major league pitcher, but one of the largest contracts in baseball history. Hernandez’s deal now stands above New York Yankees ace CC Sabathia’s seven-year, $161 million deal and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ recent six-year, $147 million agreement with Zack Greinke.

If you picked up Sports Illustrated or skimmed through the sports section of a major newspaper in the two weeks leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, chances are good you came across an article fawning over San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. It wasn’t a surprise to read accolades like “savior,” “wunderkind” and “phenom” thrown around by reporters in anticipation of the biggest game of the year. What did surprise me was how readily these writers awarded such highfalutin praise to a second-year (and, during the first half of the season, second-string) quarterback.

The Reddit.com Ask Me Anything feature has become one of this century’s favored methods of prying into the lives of celebrities, allowing the Internet population to ask sports figures, musicians and actors, well, anything they want. So, on Monday evening, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell decided it would be a fantastic idea to participate in one of these newfangled AMAs. He answered about 15 questions in an hour and then split. Here are the top five gems delivered over the course of that hour.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the 47th Super Bowl is that it will be the first in history in which the head coaches of each team are brothers. So which team flag is Jack Harbaugh, father of the Baltimore Ravens’ John Harbaugh and the San Francisco 49ers’ Jim Harbaugh, going to fly outside his home?

In the past few years of challenging friends and coworkers to “pick ’em” football bets, I’ve tried to be as conservative as possible, taking into consideration the football pundits’ projections and Vegas spread. However, one team has always stood out to me as the underdog, one that never got its due accolades.

With Washington Redskins rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III sitting on the sideline, face in hands, the final seconds of his team’s wild-card matchup against the Seattle Seahawks came to a close. Thus ends the first weekend of NFL playoffs—a series of a few surprises and a large dose of disappointment. Although the home-field teams won three out of four games played last weekend, the overwhelming presence of displeasure seemed to outweigh the glee.