Baseball fans and the media can’t get enough of Josh Hamilton. There’s no question he’s having one hell of a season. His performance at the Home Run Derby was nothing short of amazing. The story of his battle against drug addiction has been an inspiration to sports columnists everywhere.

There’s another redemption story that could be in the making in Miami. Ricky Williams is in fantastic shape and is looking ready to make a dramatic return to his old form if we’re to believe the reports coming out of Miami. Charley Casserly and Bill Parcells are liking what they see on the practice field and Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald can’t get over his cartoon muscles.

If Ricky has a blowout season and matches or bests his numbers from his first two seasons, will everyone get just as excited over his accomplishments as they are over Hamilton’s? While subbing on PTI, Dan Le Batard claimed that redemption stories about black athletes don’t nearly get the same amount of hype as the stories about white players. Dan Shaughnessy dismissed that out of hand and was obviously nervous about touching the subject. Le Batard had a point and was treading pretty close to the truth.

Black athletes are generally treated like McCain when it comes to overcoming personal demons such as drugs and alcohol while white athletes like Hamilton get the Obama treatment. I’m not saying that anything should be taken away from Hamilton and his accomplishments so far. Let’s just see if Ricky gets the same amount of praise if he has a great season. That probably won’t be the case. If he has a bad season or gets arrested with a Nate Newton-approved amount of weed, it’s open season on his ganja smokin’ ass.

Call Bill Parcells a “homo”, that’s a paddlin’.

Old and busted: Cincinnati Bengals
New hotness: Miami Dolphins

Not many among us are prescient beings. Most of you go through life stumbling from one unfortunate incident to the next hoping that it’s not as bad as the one before it. There are the few who have the ability to see the future. Like Nostradamus and Warren Buffet, Chris Henry is one of the few.

The Miami Dolphins have already had four players in trouble with the law this off-season. Will Allen was just the latest. The former Bengal knows trouble when he sees it and he’s not going to miss his opportunity to be part of Cincinnati South under Bill Parcells.

Talented former Bengals receiver Chris Henry, on house arrest, said by phone he ”would love to play for” the Dolphins, Saints or Cowboys. But it’s hard to fathom Bill Parcells pursuing someone who has had multiple legal problems and faces a potential NFL suspension after a March arrest for misdemeanor assault and criminal damage. ”That situation isn’t what it seems,” Henry said. “I regret a lot that has happened.”

Me thinks the man that tolerated a raging coke fiend like LT should have no problem with Henry. He’s embraced Ricky Williams and ostracized Jason Taylor. We see where his priorities are and so does Chris Henry.

We all remember our graduation day when we tried to pull it together for our parents so they wouldn’t realize what degenerates we became in college. Maybe that’s just me but that’s neither here nor there. If you were like me and thousands of others, you were subjected to a commencement speaker who had plenty of lofty words but little practical advice. I’m sure Amartya Sen dropped some knowledge on us but I had to go back and read about inequality, poverty, development and all that stuff later that summer. The Pitt class of 2008 won’t have to worry about that.

Dan Marino will give the Pitt 2008 commencement address later this month. His speech will most certainly cover success in achieving your goals

as well as dealing with setbacks and failures.

The Cleveland Three-Card Monte isn’t as famous as the Cleveland Steamer yet but give it some time. If Phil Savage pulls a couple more moves like this, the whole world will know the Cleveland Monte. Perhaps not as well as the Donkey Punch but close enough.

Browns GM Phil Savage resigned QB Derek Anderson to a 3year, $26 million extension in part for his play last season but also to spite the Cowboys and Dolphins. Wha?

Savage admitted that he was worried that Dallas would sign Anderson then trade him to the Dolphins and he just couldn’t have that.

Dallas would have signed Anderson to a big contract and included a “poison pill,” which would have made it impossible for the Browns to match the offer.

Dallas would have compensated the Browns with first- and third-round picks. They would be the Cowboys’ original selections, No. 28 overall in both rounds.

Dallas would have traded Anderson and their other first-round pick – No. 22 overall, obtained from the Browns last year – to Miami for the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. The Cowboys then would select Arkansas running back Darren McFadden with that pick.

Savage was suspicious that Bill Parcells wouldn’t return calls before the Feb. 29 tender deadline. He just couldn’t live starting a douchebag at QB and we have to respect that.

There would be nothing to see here if that were the only reason Savage boxed out the Cowboys. However our resident conspiracy theorist “also thought the Cowboys would lend Parcells a hand in the transaction partly to tweak the Browns for looking good in the Brady Quinn trade of a year ago, which resulted in a much lower pick for the Cowboys than anticipated.”

Yeeeeah that’s it. The Cowboys already have their own douchebag who dates never-been singers and chokes under pressure. We’re surprised Romo wasn’t in the hot tub with Leinart and Lachey. It must suck when you don’t get invited to amateur hour. Tom Brady’s probably laughing at these clowns and think, “Dude, I was so never like that.” as he blocks out the fact that he dated the same Tara Reid as Kyle Boller.