You can never have too many entries on your résumé. That is what career counselors tell you when you have the opportunity to take on a “broadening assignment” in order to “expand your horizons” and give you a “higher perspective” on things. Translation: you are not getting that promotion you wanted. Well, the sport of soccer has one more item on its résumé this morning in its quest to win the Nobel Peace Prize for which it had been nominated. A soccer referee in South Africa was working a “friendly match” when he blew his whistle and made a call awarding a penalty to the visiting team. At this point, the players and coach stormed the field in protest but it turns out that the referee was packing heat during the game. Was he paranoid or prescient? The referee starting pumping rounds at the oncoming horde and winged two players and shot the coach in the chest; the coach died at the scene. Police continue to search for the referee. Imagine if this was not a “friendly match”…

Consider that the referee took the field in this game with a loaded gun in his possession. If you were to assume that he is the only referee in South Africa who ever did so, you still have to wonder what made him think that was a good idea. Normally you use the metal detectors to screen the fans; now it seems soccer will have to do that for the officials and players and coaches too.

By the way, South Africa will be the venue of the World Cup in 2010. Remember the ever so politically correct processes that FIFA went through to assure that Africa would be on the rotation to host the World Cup and then it picked South Africa to host the games.

Memo to FIFA: Who needs terrorists or soccer hooligans when you can have your mayhem provided by the referee? Good choice here.

After an item on the silliness of soccer, what better way to hit the exacta than to turn to the world of golf and the golf-goofs? Colin Montgomerie had this to say about the game:

“This is not fun and this is not enjoyable. This is a job and a horrible one.”

Memo to Colin: Have you ever cleaned out a septic tank?

Based on an item in Dwight Perry's column in the Seattle Times, a company in Media, Pa did a survey to find the most-hated sports. I have no idea how they conducted this survey or who paid for it so I have no way to assess the bias that is built into any survey. The most hated sport on their list was dog fighting; that was mentioned by over 80% of the respondents. That alone makes me suspicious about the survey because I have a feeling that if I asked 100 people at any sports bar to list 20 different sports, dog-fighting would not be on more than 10 lists. Whatever. PETA will be happy to know that in addition to dog fighting, bullfighting is on the list of despicable sports; a little less than half of the respondents named that. Interestingly, in the top-10 of the most hated sports is the PGA Tour. It joins animal fighting, boxing and pro rasslin among others on that prestigious list. See, it's not just me who thinks those prima donnas are despicable.

Over on the LPGA side of golf, one of the players has put out a calendar full of bikini pictures of her. Natalie Gulbis said that she “wanted to show a side of myself not often seen on the golf course.” Excuse me? Not often seen? When was the last time you saw women golfers in bikinis on TV? If you ever put women's golf on TV with all the participants wearing bikinis – and if you selected the participants on the basis of something other than golf scores – you might actually get the game of golf off that top ten list of most hated sports. It's a thought…

There seems to be a rash of women involved in athletics posing for calendars or for skin mags at the moment. [Maybe “rash” was a poor choice of words here given the fact that these photos are showing a lot of exposed skin. Whatever…] In addition to our bikini-clad golfer, Canadian track athlete, Katie Vermeulen, posed for Playboy and said, “It's not about boobs and butts. It's about … women who are posing to represent their strength and courage in their sport.”

Memo to Katie: Maybe you have convinced yourself that's what it is about. If so, good for you; life must be swell in Pollyanna-land. But the folks who run Playboy don't care about your “strength and courage”. Sorry to let you know, but it's only about the boobs and butts.

The marketing director of the WNBA LA Sparks is also in Playboy in what was described as a “topless shot”. If this is part of a marketing program to boost ticket sales, I hope that the Sparks don't get charged with “bait and switch” when folks show up at the games and find all the women clothed.

After the David Ortiz “bat barrage”, we were treated to video of Jeff Kent grabbing hold of an umpire's shirt during an altercation. Umpires are not infallible by any means and umpires need not be treated with the deference shown to the Dalai Lama, but throwing bats at them and grabbing them is not acceptable. Both players need to be suspended for a long time. Pete Rose once got a month's suspension for bumping an umpire; by that standard, Ortiz and Kent should be out until about March of next year.

Memo to Ortiz and Kent: Take your actions up about two more notches and maybe an umpire will think that the soccer ref in South Africa was just being a good boy scout and was coming to the game “prepared”.

When Eddie George was cut/released by the Titans, some people said he was through and others said that he was a good but not great running back even at his best. Here are a couple of stats about George that tell me that he may not be the greatest running back of all time, but that he is one tough dude:

In his 8 years with the Titans, George carried the ball on 70% of the team's running plays. George had 300 or more carries in all eight of those seasons. Only Walter Payton ever had six consecutive years with 300 carries; no other back has more than five seasons in a row.

Jim Brown and Eddie George are the only two RBs ever to gain 10,000 yards without missing a start.

Eddie George has lost only one fumble in the last two seasons.

Finally, now that the Cowboys have cut Chad Hutchinson, he has some career planning to do; pro football and baseball are off the list for professions. The NBA is an unlikely choice; the NHL probably won't be playing next season; getting a PGA Tour card is pretty difficult; MLS is a joke; boxing is corrupt. Maybe he can get into dog fighting or bullfighting…?

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...

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