Dancing with the Sports Stars

[SideshowBob]

Ok, to avoid getting in trouble here, I am going to post my latest blog entry here... but I would recommend that sportsminded WRs head over to The Sporting News and register (free). My brother got me interested last week, and now I'm hooked. After only a week, its obvious that TSN writers and columnists are paying attention to these blogs and comments. BTW, my brother offers some pretty good NFL Picks Of the Week.

My blog home is here. Click over to my profile, and you should be able to find my brother's picks, if you are so inclined.

Here's my latest entry:
DANCING WITH THE SPORTS STARS

Last night, former Arizona Cardinals running back Emmitt Smith was crowned the winner of ABC's Dancing With The Stars. He looked familiar, though. Kinda like a stud running back from the Cowboys. Weird.
All day today, I have listened to the personalities on ESPNradio bang on the guy, albeit very carefully. They were trying very hard to maintain that they were not fans of the show, not that they disagreed with Smith participating. It was obvious that the ESPN hosts were under pressure to NOT disparage the show, as it aired on their sister network under the Disney umbrella. Personally, I think ESPNradio's credibility often suffers because of their unwillingness to criticize their own network's broadcast, broadcasters and overall quality of work. But that is a story for another day. If you are reading this, you are on TSN, and most likely agree.
Back to Emmitt...like Jerry Rice before him, the future Hall of Famer ventured into a world where he would be challenged, physically and mentally. Say what you will about reality TV, but I didn't mind his decision to participate. As a matter of fact, the whole idea was to draw football fans like myself to watch the show. It worked enough to get me to watch a couple episodes. I was interested to watch a large, powerful former fooball player learn to dance, while "pretty boys" like Joey Lawrence and Mario Lopez hammed and posed their way through.
So the question is "Who's next?" ABC will be lining up at least one former (or off-season) male athlete to maintain their audience for next season. It will need to be a very confident man, but which athlete isn't? It will also need to be a man who can laugh at himself, and therein lies the problem. Earlier today, someone mentioned Cal Ripken, Jr... I could see Cal doing it. Along those same lines, I wonder if Mark Grace is available. Or maybe Jerome Bettis or Mark Messier? Next season ought to be interesting.